Day 5: May 9Scripture: Isaiah 55:1-5 I am one who celebrates our worship and its liturgy as against those who disdain it as an anachronistic holdover that dampens the spontaneity of the spirit. I particularly appreciate it for its catechetical function, the church reaching out over the millennia, teaching us what it is to worship God. While these rituals and creeds might root us in history, we together must continue to learn to live with the chronological tension of “yet’ and “not yet.” One phrase excites my attention as we come to the Table of the Lord. During our prayer of confession we entreat God to, “…free us for joyful obedience…” This prayer, along with our reading today is brings us an example of how we might live in that tension. The poet / prophet is inviting a people who have lived in exile and have now learned how to live in it. In the words of scholar Walter Brueggemann, they are, “invest(ing) so much in forms of life that cannot work – why work so hard and so long in ways that give no satisfaction; why give life over to the demands and rewards of the empire that yield nothing of value in return.” As we endeavor to embrace a vision of planting new faith communities over the next several years, we will be challenged in several significant ways. New forms of community and different ways of being church will be surfaced. We will be tempted at several turns to return to the safe and familiar, or, in times of stress and difficulty, to abandon the quest altogether as impossible or too costly. At those times I hope that we will remember our communal and ritual covenant prayer for God to “…free us for joyful obedience…” to the task of making disciples in whatever ways God leads us. Prayer: Lord of the past, present and future, we seek the leading of your Spirit as we attempt to remain faithful to the tasks that you have committed to our hands. Help us to discern your leading into places of spiritual renewal and to bask in the joy of your Kingdom being realized day by day. Free us for joyful obedience from all things that would restrain us in the name of the one who came to grant us newness of life. Amen. Clarence Brown Superintendent |