Words of Welcome

Luke 11:1-13 The theme for this year’s General Assembly emerged from this very passage of Scripture – “Lord, Teach Us to Pray.”  It was a good theme for us to take up as we entered once again into important but often difficult conversations.  It is always good to bathe our conversations in prayer.  After all, we come together as followers of Jesus who seek to be in relationship with the living God.  Sometimes we forget that this is true.  Our prayers become perfunctory rituals.  We offer a quick word to God, assuming God is paying attention, and then we get on with business, often forgetting that we’ve invited God into the conversation.     The Disciples come to Jesus and they ask him to provide them with a distinctive way of praying – just like John did for his disciples.  And Jesus complies.  The result is a prayer that in one form or another we’ve been offering up to God for two millennia.   Luke’s version is a briefer than the one in Matthew, which is closer to w

Luke 10:38-42 We’ve been hearing a lot about distracted drivers lately.  Everyone is talking on their cell phones or texting.  We thought that hands-free devices would make us safer, but apparently, they’re just as bad.  It’s not about the hands, it’s about where we place our attention.     Of course, sometimes we become distracted by worrying about distracted drivers.  The other day I was driving home from the church along Wattles.  I noticed that the young woman in the car next to me was texting.  I got to thinking – that’s illegal. It’s dangerous.  She should stop that immediately!  But when I turned my head and mind back to the road ahead I discovered that the traffic had slowed down, and I nearly hit the car in front of me.  Yes, we can get distracted by worrying about the distracted ones. There are many kinds of distractions in our world, some of which are spiritual in nature. On the opening night of the General Assembly, my friend of many years and a col

Galatians 6:1-16 How can we embrace God’s New Creation?  Or, what does it mean to live in God’s Realm?  And how do we know we’re living in this realm?  What marks or brands us, so that we know we’re part of this realm of God?         Is it circumcision?  Apparently some Christians in Galatia thought so, but Paul disagreed.  We’re not really sure who was making this argument, but Paul didn’t think circumcision was a necessary marker.  He does write about baptism being the  means by which Christians clothe themselves with Christ.  Ultimately, it appears that what matters most, the thing we can boast about, should we need to boast, is the Cross of Christ.  It is the cross that marks the entrance to the New Creation. That is, instead of a physical mark on our bodies, what matters most is our living a life defined by the cross. As we hear this final chapter of Paul’s Galatian letter read, did you hear him take up a number of themes.  Like some of his other letters, the f