This week, the Christian Church celebrates "Christ the King" or "Reign of Christ" Sunday. It's a hinge week between the liturgical seasons of Ordinary Time and Advent, when we pause to reflect on the meaning of Christ's kingship before we delve into the mysteries of light and darkness, hope and lament, prophecy and Incarnation. Our king is a crucified God, a broken man on a cross who gave up all power and glory to live among us and die an inglorious, undeserved death. A king who brought the reign of the kingdom of God to earth. Forever.
We remember that over every hope, larger than every fear, underneath each true desire is Jesus, the true king of our heart, the true king of the world. May we joyfully surrender to God's rule over us.
A POEM FOR THE FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING
See how this infant boy
lifted himself down
into his humble crèche
and laid his tender glove of skin
against splintered wood—
found refuge in a rack
of straw—home
that chilly dawn,
in sweetest silage,
those shriven stalks.
This outcast king lifted
himself high upon his savage cross,
extended the regal banner
of his bones, draping himself
upon his throne—his battered feet,
his wounded hands not fastened
there by nails but sewn
by the strictest thorn of love.
Pamela Cranston © 2019. Searching for Nova Albion
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what's best --
As above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
You're in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You're ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
(The Message)
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as 'God on the cross.' In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering. John Stott
"All world religions are not 'basically alike.' Only we worship a God with scars of love."--Fulton J. Sheen
Thanks be to God for being this kind of God!
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Today, November 1st is All Saints Day, the day set aside in the church calendar to remember all the faithful followers of Jesus (saints) who have died. In English, the traditional name for All Saints’ Day was All Hallows Day. The vigil or eve of the feast, October 31, is still commonly known as All Hallows Eve, or Halloween
The testimony of the faith of those who are now in heaven is an encouragement to us and spurs us on! The day was established originally to honor the many martyrs who died for their faith but has also come to be an opportunity to call to mind the heroes of Christian history, those whose example has been inspiring, who form our “internal chorus” or “cloud of witnesses” whose lives, or teachings or example has influenced our faith.
Which beloved ones can you give thanks for today? Whose lives told of God’s unfailing love and grace? These saints speak from the past and are whispering at this moment…
"God is faithful."
"The Lord is good. Trust Him."
"His grace was sufficient for me in my trials and is sufficient for you today."
So many beautiful friends of Jesus have formed my faith and influenced my life with God. I say their names to God today in gratitude for their obedience, sincerity and authenticity of faith: Randy, Beth, Phil, Doug, Mike, Julie, Robert, Pete, Steve, Erik, Allene and Elmer, Nancy and Warren, Ellen, Roland…
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
We keep company with Jesus by making space for him through a spiritual discipline. Our part is to offer ourselves lovingly and obediently to God. God then works within us doing what he alone can do. Our desires don't obligate the holy One. God is free to come to us in spiritual disciplines as he wills, not as we demand. But unless we open ourselves to him through spiritual practices, we may miss his coming altogether. —Adele Ahlberg Calhoun
Anyone who wants to go deeper in their life with Jesus, or find renewal, or healing, or fresh insight is encouraged to practice the variety of ways that God grows our lives, from prayer (Lord’s Prayer this sermon series), worship, meditation and Scripture study. We are all on an individual and communal journey to be transformed by Christ!
I came across Calhoun’s Spiritual Disciplines Handbook several years ago and after reading through the disciplines that most interested me--contemplation, meditation, rest, silence, solitude--I began to branch out into some I was not as keen to read on---submission, compassion, humility, surrender, sacrifice. These disciplines/practices take us ‘further up and further in’ to intimacy with God, and as we lean in, we are transformed by the Spirit. There are also many more contemporary disciplines such as mentoring, journaling, unplugging, attentiveness and becoming accountability partners.
There are MANY ways to draw close to God, to know His heart, His mission and participate in His Kingdom. You may have loved the Lord for many years and long to find new ways to pursue Him, alone or with spiritual friends. Perhaps you are ready for a Growth Group that will encourage your faithfulness, or want to learn more about how to pray or just need someone else to listen to your spiritual story of faith. Share your longings with someone in your life, make an appointment with any one of the pastors at PasCov, or invite someone else to join with you in a fresh commitment to offer yourselves lovingly and obediently to God.
And watch to see how He shows up.
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
For you, the Eternal’s Word is your happiness. It is your focus—from dusk to dawn. You are like a tree, planted by flowing, cool streams of water that never run dry. Your fruit ripens in its time; your leaves never fade or curl in the summer sun. No matter what you do, you prosper. - Psalm 1:2-3
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
We are taught to utter this prayer in the same manner that Jesus uttered it to His Father: You are my God and your ways are not my ways. Your Word is my happiness, my focus from dawn to dusk! I root myself deeply in your springs that never run dry. You never fail to nourish and care for me, to bring growth and fruit in its time. It is your Kingdom that I dwell in and you are a gracious and good God who is making Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. (How can I possibly ever grasp the magnificence of this thought!) All that you bring to me is bread, I am completely trusting you to meet my needs this day and every day, to bring bread in whatever manner you choose.
The prayer of abandonment of Charles de Foucauld is one of the most beautiful prayers of faith trust and surrender in the Christian spiritual tradition. Memorize it, pray it often and share it with others:
Father,
I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures.
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hands I commend my soul;
I offer it to you
with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord,
and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands,
without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
. . . you have brought us out to a spacious place.
—Psalm 66:12 RSV
I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul. You have not given me into the hands of the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place.
—Psalm 31:7–8 NIV
God has brought us out to “a spacious place,” the psalmist says in Psalm 66—also translated as “a wealthy place,” “a watered place,” “a wide open place,” or “a place of abundance.” I love that phrase, “a spacious place.” In our English Bibles, it’s used also in Psalm 31 (though the Hebrew words are different).
This word, merchâb—“spacious place” or “large room”—is also found in 2 Samuel 22:20, Psalm 18:19, Psalm 118:5, and Hosea 4:16, where it denotes a place of openness, safety, and freedom.
Whenever I feel like crying out "Enough!", whenever I feel pressed down by circumstances, I picture in my mind a wide-open space and myself standing smack-dab in the middle of it, to remind myself that in Christ, there is freedom, there is freshness, there is an infinitely wide ground to stand on. However constricted we might feel in the moment, we must remember, as our spiritual forebears have testified in scripture, that our huge God leads us out of constriction and into a spacious place. Our circumstances might not change, but our spirits, through the Spirit, can know rest and relief.
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
“Therefore pray in this way: ‘Our Father who are in Heaven, hallowed be your name, let your Kingdom come, let your will be done also in the earth, just as it is in Heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10)
The Lord’s Prayer is well known as the way that Jesus taught his disciples to pray, but what does it mean? Some Christians take Jesus’ teaching of the prayer to be literal and believe it is to be memorized and repeated in a rote manner. Others believe he meant it merely as an example of how to pray, taking into account its structure, flow of subject matter and emphases. Suppose for a minute that there is a deeper meaning within the text that Jesus was trying to get across to his disciples.
One of the customs that was around during Jesus’ time was the recitation of a Jewish prayer called the Kaddish. What is particularly interesting about the Kaddish is that it bears a striking resemblance to the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer. The language between the two prayers is similar with parallels between the reverence of God’s name, the kingdom, and his will being highlighted. It is said that both the Kaddish and the Lord’s Prayer “spring from the same source,” and so the “essence” of both prayers is the same. The similarities are more than linguistic and support the theory that the Lord’s Prayer begins as an adaptation of the Kaddishthat the disciples were familiar with, but has been modified to deal with current issues.
Here is the text of the Half-Kaddish for comparison with the text of the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:9-10) above: “May his great name be magnified and made holy (amen) in the eternity which he created in his will. And may he establish his kingdom in your lifetime and during your days and in the lifetime of all of the House of Israel, swiftly and soon. Now say Amen. And may His great name be blessed for ever and ever. May He be blessed, praised, beautified, exalted, lifted up, adorned, raised up on high, and worshiped, Blessed be He. Over all blessings, songs, and praises and sorrows declared on earth. Now say Amen.”
Why use the Kaddish when teaching the disciples a new way to pray? For hundreds of years the Jews had been petitioning God, in this prayer, to establish the coming kingdom during their lifetime, but it wasn’t until Jesus introduced the Lord’s Prayer that the coming kingdom took on a new meaning.
In teaching the disciples a new way to pray, Jesus revised the Kaddish they were familiar with to show the Jews that the kingdom was indeed coming soon and it was going to happen in their lifetime. He not only gave us an example to follow, but he showed them the answer to the prayer the Jews had been praying for hundreds of years.
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
It’s easy to blow through our day without a word of prayer. Life does not seem to be kind to those just trying to survive, and it may feel like prayer is a luxury. Prayer takes time, sometimes we don’t know what to say, and it can feel like prayer takes more out of us than we get from it. But luxuries are those things that adorn our walls, garages, and closets that have no bearing on our survival. Prayer, on the other hand, is the very lifeline for our existence. Esther’s extraordinary halting of assured genocide began with fasting and prayer. Jesus’ own ministry was directly out of a daily routine of dawn-greeting prayers; to the very end he was in prayer, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit" (Luke 24:36). Prayer— the audacity of bringing our poverty to the extravagance of God— roots us in the reality of God, and keeps us upright in the gale forces of popular opinion, self-preservation, and desperation. Let the Lord’s Prayer guide your questions, concerns, hopes and dreams.
“Our Father in Heaven…”. You’re our dad that loves us; we are in your hands. “Hallowed be your name…” You are set apart in every way. The very best in every way. “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” give us a holy imagination that sees the way things are ordered and flourishing in heaven so we can see it here on earth. “Give us this day our daily bread…” Lord, we need whatever it is that will get us through this moment. “And forgive our debts as we have forgiven our debtors…” Help us look at the other and see what you see—forgiven fixer-uppers that need to be reminded of their dignity and worth. “Lead us not into temptation…” No shortcuts, God; we want to go on the road marked by your footprints. “And deliver us from the Evil One…” Because of you, Satan has no purchase on us, and we will not give a square inch of our attention to his lies; we find rest in your hands. “For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.” This is all for you, from beginning to end; we are all for you. Forever. “Amen.” Amen.
Grace and peace,
Steve Wong
Lead Pastor
Our Father in heaven Everlasting Father of the fatherless, Heaven is Your throne and the earth is Your footstool. The heavens declare Your glory, and the sky above proclaims Your handiwork. O Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be Your Name From the rising of the sun to its setting, may Your Name be praised and be great among the nations! Let Your glory be over all the earth! Let heaven and earth praise You, the seas and everything that moves in them.
Your Kingdom come May all the ends of the earth remember and turn to You, and all the families of the nations worship before You. For kingship belongs to You; You rule over the nations. You are the strength of Your people – the saving refuge of Your anointed! Oh, save Your people and bless Your heritage! Be our Shepherd and carry us forever! You are our King, O God! You are the King of all the earth! Your throne is forever and ever.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven Make us to know Your ways, O Lord. Teach us Your paths. Teach us to do Your will! Let your good Spirit lead us on level ground! Not our will, but Yours be done!
Give us this day our daily bread. You, our God, will supply every need of ours according to Your riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Give us neither poverty nor riches; feed us with the food that is needful for us, lest we be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest we be poor and steal and profane the name of our God. Satisfy us with righteousness.
Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors. We confess our iniquity; we are sorry for our sin. Have mercy on us, O God. Wash us thoroughly from our iniquity, and cleanse us from our sin! For Your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon our guilt for it is great.
Lead us not into temptation…but Deliver us from Evil We do not ask that you take us out of the world, but that you keep us from the evil one. Restore us; let Your face shine, that we may be saved. For the glory of Your name, deliver us and atone for our sins, for Your name’s sake! You are our steadfast love and our fortress, our stronghold and our deliverer!
For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever and ever.
(Scriptures compiled by Trevin Wax © 2007 Kingdom People blog)
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation