beginnings

Bring us to Bethlehem, House of Bread

/ Eric Mathews / 3 Comments
Manger, by ​Greyson Joralemon via Unsplash
 
Thank you,
Scandalous God,
For giving yourself to the world,
Not in the powerful and extraordinary,
But in weakness and the familiar:
In a baby; in bread and wine.

Thank you
For offering, at journey’s end, a new beginning;
For setting, in the poverty of a stable,
The richest jewel of your love;
For revealing, in a particular place,
Your light for all nations.

Thank you
For bringing us to Bethlehem, House of Bread,
Where the empty are filled,
And the filled are emptied;
Where the poor find riches,
And the rich recognize their poverty;
Where all who kneel and hold out their hands
Are unstintingly fed.

Kate Compston, English author
 
_______________________________

John 7:42

Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants
    and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?
_______________________________

Why do you think God chose the insignificant town of Bethlehem to be the birthplace of his only begotten son?
How does the humble beginning of the Son of God relate to your own story?

Continue reading →

God of good ideas

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image, Bureau of Land Management, CC0 via flickr
 
 
God of good ideas,
    who began the world
    with light and word,
    who began again
    with flood and rainbow;
we acknowledge our frustrations with your church:
    its committees and structures,
    its method and systems.
These things have made us angry and sapped our energy.
 
God of new beginnings
    who began a new way
    of living with resurrection,
    who began a new community
    with tongues of fire;
    begin again here
    that structures may bend
    like dancing saplings;
    the past, present and future
    may be woven into 
    a fresh path of commitment.
 
May our ideas for your world and this community
    resonate in your presence,
    so that tested, tried, and challenged
    they may blossom in us
    as do dry places
    when longed-for rain falls.
 
Janet Lees
 
________________________
 
 
Sing to the Lord a new song,
    his praise from the end of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it,
    the coastlands and their inhabitants.
Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice,
    the villages that Kedar inhabits;
let the habitants of Sela sing for joy,
    let them shout from the top of the mountains.
Let them give glory to the Lord,
    and declare his praise in the coastlands.

Continue reading →

a new beginning

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image by geralt via pixabay
 
 
Lord God, the saying,
    “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”
  reveals a deep Christian insight.
At the beginning of a new year, 
    many have nothing better to do than make a list of bad deeds
    and resolve from then on to begin with better intentions,
    believing that a good intention already means a new beginning.
Sometimes we believe that on our own we can make a new start
    whenever we want.
But that is an evil illusion: 
    only You can make a new beginning with us whenever You please, 
    but we cannot make a new beginning with You.
Therefore, we cannot make a new beginning at all;
    we can only pray for one.
When we are on our own and live by our own devices,
    there is only the old, the past.
Only where You are can there be a new beginning.
We cannot command You to grant it:
    we can only pray asking You for it.
And we can pray only when we realize that we cannot do anything,
    that we have reached our limit,
    that someone else must make that new beginning.
 
after Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906 – 1945, German  theologian and martyr
 
__________________________
 
 
Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.
 

Continue reading →