Archive for the 'church' CategoryPage 2 of 23
On Sunday, we brought our son Josiah forward to be blessed by our church family. It was a joyful event, as those sort of things always are, I think. In our church, we come forward and lay hands on people, and the whole church prays together for that person. It’s a beautiful moment. It was made all the more beautiful by our precocious 2 1/2 year-old Sophia reaching her hand over and placing it on Josiah’s back to pray for him.
It’s been causing me to think, over the last few days, about what that blessing means. I have a bit of a mystical and contemplative nature, and am prone to think about everyday events as small reenactments of grand themes. In this case, though, the act of placing on hands and blessing a child doesn’t feel like some great supernatural transaction, some new angel hovering near, or fortune being enticed into a child’s life by some new supernatural gravitational field. The blessing of the church felt human, earthbound, and it was that humanness that brought me to tears in the service. Yes, I cry a lot these days. It’s how I leak out all this excess testosterone.
The church didn’t pray down a blessing that didn’t already exist. They stood up, laid their hands on my son, and confirmed their commitment to the blessing he already shares.
He will live and grow in a community of faith, and will learn to see the hand of God in the mundane transactions of life.
He will learn in the company of loving teachers, in silly songs and motions, in shared toys and snack time, he will learn how to be gracious and patient. As he grows, he will learn to love The Book, and learn how to let it implicate his life. He will learn to take up models and heroes, and to let them inform his choices. He will learn to serve, to give, to set his hand to the task of building the Kingdom of God in acts of justice, compassion, and grace.
He will learn to be a man in the company of godly men. In their strengths, and in their failings, he will learn about honor, and self-discipline, and humility, commitment, the special obligation of the strong to the weak, about virtue and integrity. He will learn about sexuality and identity, about the particular weaknesses of men, and he will learn about them in the company of those who love Yahweh.
He will be the recipient of grace, of instruction, of companionship, of diligent correction, of hospitality, of all the good things that come from life lived together.
When our church comes together to bless someone, it is a very human thing we do - we pledge to be blessing to that person. To see a hundred people stand, and lay their hands on his head, and on his back, and on us in support, and to hear them say, “He is ours, to care for, to love, to encourage, to teach, he is ours, and we are his. We are the cloud of witnesses, the strong right arm, the body, the co-laborers, the gathered followers of The Way, the forgiven-thus-forgiving Family of God in this place. We are his brothers. We are his sisters. We obligate ourselves to him. This is our particular blessing to him.”
Nothing could make me love this church more than the beauty of that moment.
First Covenant Church of Visalia has a new missions statement:
First Covenant Church exists for the passion and purpose of inspiring, discipling, equipping and sending out Christ followers with the destiny of transforming the world to the glory of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and fostering a graceful yet convicting church environment in which people of all faith experiences and backgrounds are molded into the image and reflection of Christ, together creating a God-honoring community of authentic worshipers deliberately focused on reaching their community, the nation, the next generation of believers and the world through missions works, innovative programs and prayer.
from Lark News.
Kyrie Yeshua
Grant us these 40 days
of emptying out
of exhale
of white knuckles unclenching
Grant us this 40 day reprieve
from indulgence
from frantic urgency
from self-obsession
from sensuality
from every mundane thing that
binds us too closely to this earth and
obscures our view of your kingdom com(ing) and
shouts down the songs of heaven whispered in our hearts
Grant us these days
in the shadow of death
to prepare for the coming feast
When we will be dead to sin,
And made fully alive in you.
How hot is that guy on the B3, eh?
A few thoughts:
- The camera guy doesn’t know the difference between a bass and an electric guitar.
- Over the past few years, Rosy’s left hand has become the thunderstick of justice on the snare drum.
- Nothing beats a real B3. Nothing else even comes close.
- That dress is 3 inches away from being NC-17.
- This is video evidence of Katharine McPhee asking us to be her house band. This was probably more exciting last week than this week.
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