Monday, August 17, 2009

Quote of the Day
It took me a long time to learn that God is not the enemy of my enemies. God is not even the enemy of his enemies.

Opening Words
I want to make poems while thinking of
the bread of heaven and the
cup of astonishment; let them be
songs in which nothing is neglected,
not a hope, not a promise. I want to make poems
that look into the earth and the heavens
and see the unseeable.
Mary Oliver

A Reading from Another Voice
The place to begin to understand the politics of God is with the prophets, the ancient moral articulators in the Scriptures who claimed to speak in "the name of the Lord." What were their subjects? Quite secular topics really -- land, labor, capital, wages, taxes, economic divisions, equity, fairness, courts, prisons, immigrants, other races and peoples, social justice, war and peace -- the stuff of politics. And whom were the prophets usually speaking for? Most often the dispossessed, widows and orphans, the hungry, the homeless, the helpless, the least, last and lost. Jim Wallis

A Reading from Acts 6:1-7
Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Silence
Be still and aware of God's presence within and all around.

Prayer
O God, we labor in the heat of the day,
and so often the labor feels hopeless, unproductive, useless . . . .

And yet you hear our silent cries.
You give us one another
to speak that which we in our pain cannot speak.
You give us your Word
that utters those things we cannot find the words to say.

And you have promised,
even in the silence,
to give us the sweet sound of peace.
John McCullough Bade

Blessing
May God make safe to us each step,
May God open to us each door,
May God make clear to us each road.
May God enfold us in loving arms.