Westminster Presbyterian Church
  • Home
    • Current News >
      • Calendar
  • About
    • Who We Are - Our Present
    • Who We've Been - Our Past >
      • Timeline of Presbyterian History in Auburn NY
    • Staff and Leadership
    • Ministry Teams
    • Tour
    • Weddings, Funerals, & Other Building Use
    • Links
  • Worship
    • 2023 Sermons
    • 2022 Sermons
    • 2021 Sermons
    • 2020 Sermons
    • Sermon Archive
    • Music
    • Children's Worship
  • Education
    • Adults
    • Journey through the Bible
    • Children and Youth
  • Mission
  • Blog
  • Give
    • Ode to Joy Skinner Organ Restoration Campaign
  • New Page

thoughts on "thoughts & prayers"

10/31/2017

0 Comments

 
by Jill Fandrich
           
 “Sending thoughts and prayers to [fill in the blank]”.
            I see these words all the time lately. Following every natural disaster or unnatural tragedy, my Facebook and Twitter feeds are full of posts like these.
            I admit to a certain amount of cynicism about these posts. They remind me of a cartoon which depicts a drowning man yelling “Help!” and a man on the dock calling back “My thoughts and prayers are with you.”
            You’re probably wondering why someone writing a church column would be anti-prayer. I’m not. Prayer is an important part of a life of faith. It is perfectly appropriate to turn to God when one is overwhelmed or in despair or grieving. We pray in times of joy or awe as well. Ann Lamott in her book Help, Thanks, Wowsays that all prayers fall into three categories—supplication (help), gratitude (thanks), and awe (wow). When faced with tragedies like hurricanes, fires, shootings, and hatred, sometimes all one can say is “God, please help.”
            As a kid, I knelt by my bed and prayed every night, starting with the Lord’s Prayer, followed by a long list of asking God to bless family, friends, pets, and others. I learned to pray by bowing my head and closing my eyes. As I matured, my prayers changed, becoming more a sense of awareness of God’s presence as I went about my day. Now I pray with my eyes open and my feet on the ground. I believe that prayer is transformative, but it is more about changing me than it is about changing others or the situation around me.
            “Thoughts and prayers,” then, are how we focus our awareness on a person or a problem or a situation. But it doesn’t stop there. Awareness leads to empathy and compassion. Prayers help us see God’s presence in our lives and in the lives of others.
            From compassion, the next step is action. What does God call us to do in response to our prayers? Are we asking God for action, or asking God for help in knowing how to act ourselves? 
            We are exploring this at my church. Every year, we focus on a theme to help us grow in our faith and to discern where God is calling us as individuals and as a faith community. Last year, we explored “Where your heart is.” We shared those things about which we are most passionate, the things which touch our hearts. We found that as a community, we are concerned  about social justice, God’s good earth (especially our lakes), arts and music, children and youth, education, refugee resettlement, and the full inclusion and embrace of all people.
            This year, we move from caring to doing. How can we actually make a difference for the people and things about which we feel most strongly? After listening to our hearts, how do we put our hands to work?  
          This year’s theme is “You are Christ’s hands.” It is based on a quote from Theresa of Avila: “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.” 
           Some respond in big ways. I have friends who are already planning trips to Texas or Florida to work on recovery efforts. Others might not be able to rebuild a house in another state but they work on Habitat for Humanity homes here in Auburn. We can give money to recovery efforts or donate clothes, furniture or household items to local homeless programs. We can visit the sick, deliver meals, write cards. We can start with small steps, and keep taking them.           
           The quote by Theresa of Avila inspires me to move personally from “thoughts and prayers” to putting my hands to work. Prayer is transformational. It is a start. It starts with caring, and moves to doing.  It changes me, so that I can bring change for others.  
 
0 Comments

finding the strength to fix our democracy

10/3/2017

0 Comments

 
by Patrick David Heery

In the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, we saw the people of this great country set aside their differences to stand together with the victims in Texas and Florida. We saw heroes trudging through muck and water to save the lives of people they had never met. We saw a wave of generosity fight back against the storm, as people gave money they couldn’t afford to give. 

But when Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, leaving the island in shambles, without power, drinkable water, food, or shelter, its 3.4 million people were mostly on their own. Help was far slower, donations much smaller, public concern far less unified, and government assistance much diminished.

Why the difference? There are many reasons, of course: difficult logistics, the island’s infrastructure and bankrupt economy, and just plain compassion fatigue. 

But there is another factor. Nearly half of Americans have no idea that Puerto Ricans are US citizens. A New York Times poll found that more than 8 in 10 Americans who know Puerto Ricans are citizens support giving help to Puerto Rico. Of those who don’t know, only 4 in 10 support giving aid. 

This leaves us with a startling observation: we’re not helping Puerto Ricans because we don’t see them as one of us.

This breach in the bonds of love is symptomatic of a divided and hostile culture, which celebrates power and self-interest. We grow indifferent to suffering, oppression, and death, when beyond the boundaries of our own tribe, be it family, race, class, nationality, or political ideology.

Our democracy stands imperiled. There can be no “rule of the people,” when there are no people—only individuals seeking the dominion of their own interests.

The solution lies in an ancient and simple (but, by no means, easy) rule: “Be of the same mind, having the same love…. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:1-5).

The Apostle Paul describes how Jesus did not regard his power as something to be exploited but chose instead to humble himself, to serve others, to feed the hungry and heal the sick—to give up everything, even his life, for them. 

Only this recovery of humility, compassion, and solidarity will heal the rancor that now dominates our society. We must get better at listening and seeing one another as citizens of the same community, members of the same family.  

Paul says that to find the energy to walk this path we must lean on each other—for God is with us, and in us, whenever two or more are together. 

We are like Antaeus, that ancient giant in Greek mythology, who was invincible as long as he remained in contact with his mother, the earth. To have strength, to have the energy of God, we must stay in contact with the body of Christ, with each other. 

Martin Buber writes, “When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them.”

Our democracy will be fixed when we begin to value the common good over the personal good, when we choose servant leaders over CEO leaders, when we give up our privilege and seek the welfare of the other, when we actually talk about ideas and morals and seek consensus.

I know that sounds difficult, maybe even impossible. So let’s start smaller. Let’s start by taking a cue from Jane Lumb, a dear member of Westminster Presbyterian Church, who at the age of 90 died peacefully on September 28. Jane spoke her mind and had no compunction about disagreeing with you. She was a woman of wit and honesty. But always, in the end, she hugged you. Hugged you with one of those famous Jane hugs, enveloping you in the warmth of her slim, frail body. She hugged you like she loved you. Like she needed you. Like you were the source of her happiness.  

And maybe it begins there. Maybe the beginning of fixing our democracy is to be found in a hug. A hug that puts us in contact with our source of strength, like Antaeus with the earth. 

So, go ahead, and hug a stranger today. It might just save your life.
0 Comments

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    April 2022
    November 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly