Food: Eating with Jesus

Aloha friends!

I am still feeling blessed by our last session on Food: Eating with Jesus.  The story and ministry of Sara Miles is powerful.  Check out this video below of her sharing more of her story and theology.
Food and feasts are very prominent throughout scripture.  Food is used as a means of communicating God's faithfulness (e.g. the manna in the wilderness).  Food is used as the ratification of a promise or covenant (e.g. Passover).  Food is used as a means of signifying someone or something as holy (e.g. the food laws in Leviticus 11).  Feasts are common images of Heaven or the Kingdom of God (e.g. Psalm 23, Isaiah 25, Matthew 22, etc).  When we pray, "...give us this day our daily bread..." we are praying for sustenance and so much more.  We are praying for reconciliation, for authentic relationship, for the wonder and beauty of God, for God's faithfulness to be made real in our lives, for the kingdom of heaven to be revealed on earth.

I have a colleague in pastoral ministry who is regularly invited to share a meal with her parishioners.

 When the meal has finished, she says the same thing each time, "Thank you for sharing Holy Communion with me."  For my colleague, the heart of communion is shared whenever we invite someone in and break bread with another.  In this way we live into the story of Christ who ate with people from every background and social status.  In this way the sacred meal on Sunday is woven throughout the rest of our week.  My colleague's practice leads me to the question, "How can we infuse every meal with the holy?"

This week we dive into the topic of Sacraments: A Tapestry of Traditions.  Our guide will be the late professor and author, Phyllis Tickle.  Check out the video below to become acquainted with this amazing woman.

Trying it Out

Aloha friends,

In preparation for this Sunday, I decided to try and use Brian McLaren's structure of the Lord's Prayer (Wake Up - Tune Up - Ask - Re-Enter) in crafting the prayer for worship.  Here's how it looked:

Wake Up
Father of lights, if we could scan the heavens and capture the light of a billion stars, would it compare to you?

When we stand in the path of the sun we feel its warmth upon our face, its glow changes us, it lifts our spirit.  What would we feel, what would we know, what would we see if we were to step into your light?

Your light transcends every event horizon, it redeems shadows, it rekindles the torch of our soul and it illuminates a way.

Tune Up
Father of lights, during this season of lent we acknowledge that we are a people in process.  We are a pilgrim people.  When we pause along the way long enough to reflect we find ourselves surrounded by questions.

Questions about loved ones, questions about the choices before us, questions about life.

What is the goal of the path we’re walking?  Have little derivations taken along the way become drastic distances over time?  How did we arrive here and where’s our next step?

Could we face this questions without fear?  Could we sit with them in faith that through questions such as this you might bring our lives into harmony with you?

Ask
Father of lights, wherever we are on life’s journey, show us how to walk in your light.

Let us not focus so much on what’s next that we miss what’s here, the intrinsic beauty of the inescapable now.

As we go let us not worry so much about what’s missing lest we miss daily joys you’ve given yet again this day.

Re-Enter
Father of Lights, As we step into this week, let not the shadows of shame and fear overtake us.  Let the darkness be as day.

By grace may we be beacons for your name.

Amen.

--
Also, Nate shared with me his take on the four fold structure, which expresses the ideas in 'Olelo Hawai'i.  I love this!

Wake up:  E ala

Tune up:  E ho'olokahi

Ask:  E noi

Re-enter:  E ho'opakele

E ala

E ko mākou Makua i loko o ka lani,

E ho'āno 'ia Kou inoa,

E ho'olokahi

E hiki mai Kou aupuni,

E mālama 'ia Kou makemake ma ka honua nei.

E like me 'ia i mālama'ia ma ka lani lā.

E noi

E hā'awi mai iā mākou i kēia la

I 'ai nā mākou no nēia lā.

E kala mai ho'i iā mākou i kā mākou lawehala 'ana

Me mākou e kala nei i ka po'e i lawehala i kā mākou.

E ho'opakele

Mai ho'oku'u 'oe iā mākou i ka ho'owalewale 'ia mai,

E ho'opakele nō na'e iā mākou i ka 'ino.

No ka mea, Nou ke aupuni, a me ka mana, a me ka ho'onani 'ia, a mau loa aku

Āmene.

Prayer: Oriented Toward God

Aloha friends,

Wow, it was great to see so many on the first night of our Lenten series.  There are a lot of intriguing ideas to chew on in the Animate: Practices video series and a lot of good conversations to be had around the table.

In our first session, Prayer: Oriented Toward God, author and pastor Brian McLaren talked about how the Lord's Prayer is a helpful guide to navigate frustrations, expectations, and confusion about prayer.  He organized the Lord's Prayer into four sections:

1. Wake Up
2. Tune Up
3. Ask
4. Re-Enter

Here is how I understand his fourfold pattern.

Wake Up – The first movement is about awareness.  It is grounding ourselves in the moment and pausing long enough to focus on what we’re doing and who we’re doing it with.  In prayer we are looking to connect with the creator.  We are leaning into a relationship.  We are moving our mind, heart, and body into something much larger than ourselves or the moment we’re in.

“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.”

Tune Up – When we pause long enough to focus on the one who is love, it’s not uncommon to feel a longing to be in tune, or to resonate with that love.  The “tune-up” is the conscious decision to move our desires in the direction of God’s desires.  When we seek to align our heart with God’s heart we are often able to see the way ahead with greater clarity.  This part of the prayer is a way we name the longing to see all of creation in harmony with God’s dream for us and for all.

“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Ask – Throughout the scriptures we are invited to bring our requests to God.  We see this modeled time and again in the Old Testament.  Jesus repeatedly tells us to ask God.  In the epistles we see church leaders encouraging the nascent communities to bring their longings to God.  Bringing our needs to God helps us: acknowledge our limitations; see that we are created to be in communion with God and others; identify what lives at the heart of our needs; reduce anxiety and stress; develop compassion for others and their needs.

“Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

Re-Enter – Prayer is practice that helps us navigate life.  Prayer shapes our heart and reframes our perspective in order that we might live love.  The final movement of Jesus’ prayer acknowledges that fear, greed, and disdain find cracks in our soul and blur the eyes of our heart.  The prayer ends with the hopeful reminder that we are not alone in our effort to embody grace.  The spirit of God moves with us.

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

How might one (or more) of these moves be life-giving for you if you were to incorporate them into your prayer life?

After the video we divided into small groups in order that we might get to know each other better and through relationship with one another, get to know God better.

"I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." - Ephesians 3:18-19

The possible discussion questions included:

• What might you experiment with this week in regards to prayer?  What might change in your daily rhythms of life?
• If you were going to designate a certain part of your house or a particular time of day to prayer, what would it be?
• How does the promise about prayer in Romans 8:26-27 make you feel?

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.  And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

• This coming Sunday, the unison prayer in the 7AM and 9AM worship service is written below.  What (if any) parts of this prayer might connect with your life this week?

“Father of Lights, search us and know us.  Disturb us and rouse us from our sleep.  Awaken us by the dawn of your presence.  Enlighten our courage; enliven our compassion; illuminate our creativity so that by our works the world would see flashes of you.  We pray this in Christ’s name, he who is the light of the world.  Amen.”

One of the small groups also shared another format and guide for prayer, ACTS.
Adoration:  Offering praise to God.  This is similar to the Wake Up above.
Confession:  Naming those ways you have hurt others or yourself and asking for forgiveness.
Thanksgiving:  Giving thanks to God for the forgiveness we receive and for the many manifestations of grace
Supplication:  Presenting our needs, the needs of our loved ones, and the needs of the world to God.

Lent is a journey.  This means that we are a people in process.  We are wrestling with questions, testing new ideas, and figuring it out along the way.  Thankfully, we do not journey alone.  Togther we stumble, we have set backs, and we take steps of faith.  I hope to see you next week as we meet Sara Miles in our session Food: Eating with Jesus.

Check out this short video of Sara Miles to learn a bit more about her journey.