pm prayers

When life is hard, people often pray. Some people pray more than others. Some people pray beter than others. Some people don't pray. But if you do, and you would like to experience a praying community join us on Saturday night at 5:00 pm for prayer, conversation, friendship, and dinner. We meet at Zion Lutheran, 435 Main St. , Akron, PA.(near Ephrata). Prayer is one of the four spiritual practices of the emerging Acts community in the New testament. I think it is because most humans pray. There's something almost natural to it. Almost.
But there is nothinglike praying in a community. We're trying. We're learning. We're not experts. We're not monks or nuns. We're just people who believe that God listens and that if we listen we might hear GOD. (Explain that to your three-year-old, who asks,"How can we hear Jesus' voice, daddy?)
So come and pray with us on Saturday at 5:00 pm.

Dishonesty, wealth, and Jesus

I'm not ready to comment on Luke 16:1-13. I don't know what Jesus is saying, except that maybe GOD doesn't punish people for shrewdly dealing with worldly matters by being more gracious than one is supposed to be. The bad manager decides to cook the books by offering borrowers a reduction in debt payments. He is commended by the boss for being shrewd. By being gracious toward customers, he put himself in good relations with debtors as he will likely become one himself in unemployment. And he kep the boss happy by collecting some of what was owed. Perhaps partial repayment is better than none? So he was gracious to clients and able to secure some liquid funds for the lender. What does that mena for us?
Being gracious is not a practice accepted by our culture. We expect to have to pay full price. One houses, cars, etc...there's no real discount or deal, is there? But Christians are supposed to give omre than they receive. Generosity, howver, doesn't have to mean becoming overly vulnerable. In fact, being generous can lead to a greater communal security. Quite the opposite of what we might think would happen.
Of course, the lender could have been angry with him for having reduced the debts, having expected to be repaid in full. But he wasn't. Perhaps God is that way with us. We don't get the job done. We aren't good trustees of what God has given us. But at least we can be foolishly gracious with what isn't really ours to be gracious with. God seems to like that in an odd twist.
I still don't know how this works into a message for others. Maybe somethig will stir in the next couple of days or in pryer on Saturday.

Lost and found

You know how things sort of get misplaced? Not really lost, but just missing. Somewhere in this house or office or car or closet is that missing...you fill in the blank.
I have so many stories this week about lost things being found. Last weekend we heard the two parables from Luke chapter 15 that Jesus tells about lost things and the obsessive ones who stop at nothing to seek them. Jesus says the Kingdom is like the party that is thrown when lost things are found by obsessive searchers. God is like the shepherd who abandons the rest of the flock for the rest of the day in order to find one lost sheep. Why didnt he chalk it up to dead? 99% alive and present. 1 % missing. he goes for the 1%. Bad math. And the woman who turns the house upside-down looking for a lousy coin. A coin. I gave away a "lost" sacajewiya dollar this weekend. But it wasn;t worth celebrating. Its a dollar.
But here's the real thing: I lost my watch a while ago. My wife had given it to me and I knew it as somewhere in my stuff, but I didn;t know where. She didn;t know I'd lost it, because I was ashamed to tell her. Then, I opened my golf bag to golf in a church event with my father-in-law and found it! Alleluia.
Then, I had lost a few things at the church office. Namely, and importantly, some church checks from another church that I was resonsible for as treasurer of our confirmation camp program. I had a big bill to pay yet from the summer and needed those checks. Well, they appeared today. And not an hour after I told the story of my watch to my secretary and asked my sexton to help me find my missing bag and coffee mug from children's sermon. he found that too.
Here;s the thing: None of these things that were found were a huge deal either. Like a single lost sheep or a single lost coin. Replaceable. Not necessary. BUT, I actually prayed to the LORD last night that I would find what had been lost! I've rarely in my life had such immediate satisfaction from prayer. I connect my spiritual conversation with God and the finding of these objects. Not because they were so precious, but precisely because they weren't.
Isn't that what Jesus meant? people might not care about certain lost creatures. People might abandon each other. People might write others off. people might prefer certain of us remained in the dark, hidden, missing but not missed. But GOD is not like that. God leaps for joy and yells "hurray" when someone is found. When someone repents, recognizes, sees, becomes aware of GOD and of the self that is humbly and truly not GOD, the party begins. It begins in our own hearts. When you are found by GOD, you weep and laugh and dance and sing and play and jump around. I know I;'ve been lost and found more than once.
All I know is that no matter how insignificant you think you are or others claim you are, GOD seeks you because GOD is willing to stake it all on you're being returned to HIM. I'm not exactly sure why GOD is like this, but I'm fairly certain He is. Jesus says so. And, I'm wearing my watch.