A Blessing for Good Friday

Originally written for Palm Sunday, I think this blessing is just as easily given on Good Friday. The original link is here by Juli Allen.

"may you have hope
as you realize that you too yell hosanna
and crucify.
as you realize that life is about moments...
one moment crying out in adoration
and the next turning your back on love.


may you have hope
as you seek out the tempter.
as you acknowledge that we each deal
with our own humanity...
with hungering of belly and soul,
with belief that we can do it alone-
independent of help and love,
that it is us that can will existence.


may you have hope
as you sit with christ.
as you eat the last meal.
as he washes your calloused feet.
as you fall asleep despite his begging.
as you then abandon him,
and as we all gather together
to hold the hammer and nails.


have hope
for, despite our failures
despite our disappointments
despite our brokenness
he will rise again
bathed in glory.
your hope has not been in vain."

Maundy Thursday Liturgy

I really like this liturgy here.

Daily Prayers for Lent

Based on Jesus' wilderness temptation, these were adapted from The Open Office:

Morning Prayer
God who refused to stone-grind flour, who had the wealth to buy all love,
we thank you for all we have as we break-fast this morning.
We will have power to impress people people today;
may we not inflate beyond what is true.
We will be open to impression today;
may we have a clear mind for this truth—
that true love cannot be bought or sold.
May we neither buy nor sell,
but only generously give and receive.

Midday Prayer
God who refused to jump, who could have called on angels and lightening,
but refused,
solidify our cand-floss faith.
Among the glitz and glamour, the faux-celebrity clamour,
sneak in, come alongside and, though we see only through a glass darkly,
remove our shades, an let us meet the eyes of the other.

Evening Prayer
God who refused to bow, who came on down, but refused the cash prizes,
God of infinite dimensions, inhabit our four—
to love you, to love our neighbors as ourselves.
May we give up on nothing,
save giving up on our lives,
as you gave up yours.
Thank you.

lent

Any thoughts on Lent out there?

What will this time mean for you?

What do you hope to get from it?

What will you sacrifice?

Vision, leadership & Ephesians

Rick Meigs publishes a blog called The Blind Beggar. He recently posted some comments that relate perfectly with some of the things we have been studying in Ephesians. Check it out!

Newest Member

By popular demand, the newest SomethingMore member pic has been added to our blog. The photo is from week 21. Heidi is now at week 30.

Evangelicalism

Per our discussion 2 weeks ago, I thought I would link you to Wikipedia's comments on Evangelicalism. I found this section especially interesting:

Post Evangelicalism
((The following contains argumentative, proselytizing, and non-academic views which should best moved to a discussion board.))
The Post-Evangelical movement is rather new and is a response against the weaknesses of evangelicalism.
Post-evangelicals view the church as fundamentally flawed by human activity, yet still a divine institution. They still hold the same authoritative view of the Bible as do evangelicals, but reject bigoted interpretations which have caused denominationalism. Post-evangelicals view their relationships with God and fellow humans as more important than their relationship to a particular church. They prefer living Christianity throughout the week, rather than what they perceive to be often empty rituals once a week. For instance, post-evangelicals often prefer to share communion in a home environment, and see the communion in a church building as less meaningful, because of its connection to church politics and power struggles.
Post-evangelicals reject what they see as a materialistic health-wealth, miracle-chasing gospel of Pentecostal evangelicalism, and the man-made legalism of "touch not, taste not" of conservative Protestant evangelicalism. Post evangelicals reject both empty, meaningless preaching and overly legalistic preaching. They prefer meaningful biblical content to excessive melodrama and empty content covered up by shouting and stage dramatics.
By and large, Post-evangelicalism rejects the institutionalism, politicized, bigoted, power struggles of the overly-structured church and is an attempt to rediscover the less structured Christianity of the early church. It focuses more on individual responsibility to live Christianity and sees much of what occurs in churches as vain ritual without real meaning.