{"id":984,"date":"2010-09-30T21:36:03","date_gmt":"2010-10-01T04:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/?p=984"},"modified":"2010-10-28T14:16:49","modified_gmt":"2010-10-28T21:16:49","slug":"pastors-pen-for-october-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/?p=984","title":{"rendered":"Pastor’s Pen for October 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

And the Lord said\u2026will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?\u00a0 Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to him.\u00a0 And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?<\/em> ~ Luke 18:6-8<\/p>\n

Beloved of God,<\/span><\/address>\n
In a book of his collected prayers, Awed to Heaven, Rooted to Earth<\/span><\/em>, Walter Brueggemann addresses God thus: <\/span>[1]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/address>\n
You are the God who is simple, direct, clear with us and for us.<\/span><\/address>\n
You have committed yourself to us.<\/span><\/address>\n
You have said yes<\/em> to us in creation,<\/span><\/address>\n
yes to us in our birth,<\/span><\/address>\n
yes<\/em> to us in our baptism,<\/span><\/address>\n
yes<\/em> to us in our awakening this day.<\/span><\/address>\n
<\/span><\/address>\n
But we are of another kind,<\/span><\/address>\n
more accustomed to \u201cperhaps, maybe, we\u2019ll see,\u201d<\/span><\/address>\n
left in wonderment and ambiguity.<\/span><\/address>\n
<\/address>\n
<\/address>\n
We live our lives not back to your yes<\/em>,<\/span><\/address>\n
but out of our endless \u201cperhaps.\u201d<\/span><\/address>\n
<\/address>\n
<\/address>\n
<\/address>\n

How hard it is to offer an unequivocal YES! to God\u2019s invitation to entrust our lives completely to him, to being Christ to our neighbor, to being the light on the hill. We like to keep our options open; to have an escape route ready in case things don\u2019t work out.\u00a0 We prefer to wait until all the data is in before we plant our feet and say \u201cHere I stand.\u201d The problem, of course, is that the data is never all in.\u00a0 And so our \u201cmaybe\u201d becomes \u201cnever.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This month, on October 17th<\/span><\/span>, we have an opportunity to say YES! to God and neighbor by becoming participants in Bread for the World\u2019s <\/span>Offering of Letters<\/a><\/span><\/span> campaign.\u00a0 Annually, the <\/span>Bread for the World<\/a><\/span><\/span> organization invites individuals, congregations and organizations to join together as advocates on a particular hunger related issue that impacts people in this country and around the world.\u00a0 Folks are encouraged to exercise their faith and their citizenship by authoring letters to their congressional delegation in support of specific legislative initiatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/address>\n

This year the issue is taxes. (Yes, taxes.)\u00a0 Specifically, changes in tax policies that address the growing poverty in the United States.\u00a0 Nearly one in four children lives in a family that struggles to get enough to eat.\u00a0 Because of rising unemployment, a record number of Americans are receiving help from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly called food stamps).\u00a0 But in spite of this, for most families, food stamps provide only enough food to get through the first three weeks of the month. Too often, parents must choose between paying the rent and providing food for their children.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Bread for the World is urging Congress to protect and strengthen the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit. These tax credits are critical to helping families make ends meet, but they will expire this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the fall in the First Lessons in worship we have heard in the voices of the prophets God\u2019s advocacy on behalf of the poor and vulnerable and God\u2019s dismay over those who neglect them or bring them harm.\u00a0 On October 17th<\/span><\/span>, we will have the opportunity to educate ourselves about a specific issue, and then take action by putting pen to paper in a fundamental exercise of the rights and privileges of citizenship.\u00a0 This is a first of us at Peace; an idea which grew out of the joint Peace\/Calvary women\u2019s retreat of last spring.\u00a0 What a great opportunity to teach the next generations how to find and use their voices for the sake of our neighbors near and far.\u00a0 I hope you\u2019ll join us that day, beginning with an intergenerational gathering at 9:15 am in the fellowship hall.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>Brueggemann\u2019s prayer concludes:<\/p>\n

So we pray for your mercy this day that we may live yes<\/em> back to you,<\/span><\/address>\n
yes<\/em> with our time,<\/span><\/address>\n
yes<\/em> with our money,<\/span><\/address>\n
yes<\/em> with our sexuality,<\/span><\/address>\n
yes<\/em> with our strength and with our weakness,<\/span><\/address>\n
yes<\/em> to our neighbor,<\/span><\/address>\n
yes<\/em> and no longer \u201cperhaps.\u201d<\/span><\/address>\n
<\/address>\n
<\/address>\n
In the name of your enfleshed yes<\/em> to us,<\/span><\/address>\n
even Jesus who is our yes<\/em> into your future.\u00a0 Amen.<\/span><\/address>\n
<\/address>\n
<\/address>\n

Amen indeed!<\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor Erik<\/span><\/address>\n
<\/address>\n

\n<\/span><\/address>\n
\n
\n<\/address>\n
[1]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> Awed to Heaven, Rooted to Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann<\/span><\/em>. Edwin Searcy, editor.\u00a0 (Minneapolis: <\/span><\/span>Fortress Press<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span>, 2003), p. 91.<\/span><\/span><\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And the Lord said\u2026will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?\u00a0 Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to him.\u00a0 And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? ~ Luke 18:6-8 Beloved of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter","category-pastors-pen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=984"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1004,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions\/1004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}