We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.
Acts 12:7
Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, ‘Get up quickly.’ And the chains fell off his wrists.
Words of Grace For Today
When Jesus forgives us it is amazing.
Perhaps, for us Christians who have lived in the promise of forgiveness it is not so spectacular, since it is an every day kind of thing.
For people, though, who have never realized this promise is for them, well how can we describe it?
If you have ever been in chains. If you’ve ever had your freedom taken from you. If you have, through no fault of your own, been thrown into jail … and someone came to release you, without notice … then perhaps you could understand this.
Or if you had a debt so great, there was no way you could pay it off in this lifetime, and you struggled to just meet the interest payments …
and someone unexpectedly paid off your debt, and put that much again in your account.
Or if you realized that your guilt load was so great that you simply could not make right with the many many people you’d left hurt and struggling in your wake …
and someone came and took that guilt, and gave you the ability to make things right for all the people you had hurt along the way…
Perhaps we can imagine what
freedom, being set free, actually means.
It is astounding, confusing, fear-making, exhilarating, anxiety ridden, and weightlessness in full gravity.
It is what Jesus does when he forgive us. He comes and says ‘do not be afraid,’ and we need not be afraid, such authority and calming compassion as he carries in his voice.
Then he sends us out into the harvest, to forgive others
so that they may live free.
Free to choose to allow God’s love to pour over their heart and mind, and transform their actions into moves of Grace, like an elegant swan, a confident dancer, a child filled with expectation and still calmly waiting …
The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
Mark 6:41-42
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled;
Words of Grace For Today
We don’t see miracles of meal multiplying beyond the capacity of the jar containing it, or fish and loaves multiplying in the hands of a crowd fed by Jesus.
We do see miracles.
We usually dismiss them
We want a sign or something that knocks us off our comfortable chairs compel us to see God at work in the world today.
God may work that way.
I think that Jesus multiplied the loaves (the text supports this as much as the traditional interpretation) by
calling the people to sit down,
who had come to hear him preach in an area far from a town that could service or feed the gathering of so many,
who were not dumb,
who packed a lunch, and rightfully carried with them, under their garments, so pick pockets could not steal it from them.
A boy pulls his out to eat.
Jesus uses their hunger, the disciples calling attention to crowd’s need to eat, and his trustworthy presence to ask people to sit and eat. No one brings out their food, not until the basket comes their way and they have plenty, so they add to the basket and you have something of a potluck.
The miracle is not Jesus working outside the laws of physics as we know them.
The miracle is Jesus working within our hearts, despite how we known them
as selfish, greedy, suspicious, and fearful.
Jesus transforms that crowd from what could become a frenzy of stealing food from each other, to a crowd of 5000 and many more who generously share what they have with each other.
What they have, Jesus shows them again, is more than plenty to feed everyone abundantly.
Do not seek your own advantage, but that of others.
Words of Grace For Today
This is simple.
Do Not Do What Is Wrong.
Do not steal from others.
Do not seek your own advantage but that of others.
.
..
…
except the world certainly does not work that way.
Lesson upon lesson teaches us that we need to take every advantage for ourselves and even then there will not be enough for us to enjoy life.
We must work hard, even if that means at cheating, lying, stealing, but …
but we just cannot get caught.
.
Really!?
Well, that is the world’s way, and the way our children are taught … by all those who lie, cheat, are rich, and still they do not enjoy life!
.
The basic of Jesus’ story is that the world rejects generosity, and God builds God’s Kingdom on it. God is generous with forgiveness.
So can we.
God is generous in giving new chances to sinners who deserve condemnation.
So can we.
God wondrously offers life that is abundant and overflowing,
with challenges, rewards, and purpose.
Most of all God freely gives us (at great cost, God’s Son’s own life) the ability to fully enjoy life, and the freedom to live in God’s generosity that is not dependent on material things, so that we can seek other’s advantages, and trust we will have enough to enjoy life, no matter our circumstances.
Do not steal only starts with not taking other’s property.
It is also not taking one’s reputation by lying about them. (Further, Martin Luther referred to bearing false witness as worse than just stealing one’s reputation, it is to actually murder that person because they are left with such a reduced possibility of living well. – so to not steal one’s reputation is to not murder.)
It is also not taking other’s opportunities.
…
Most of all it is to create opportunities for others, even if it costs us greatly.
The opportunities we strive to create for others is for them to learn that life is not dependent on things, but on trusting God’s Love and Grace.
To do that we need to trust that what truly has value for us in life is always free.
It comes down to the mysteries that God provides for us to live in awe of: beauty, truth, hope beyond hope, genuine love, grace, and forgiveness.
Look to see those beauties all around us each day and we will learn to enjoy life, one minute at a time.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
Romans 8:21
Also the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Words of Grace For Today
With Climate change, the population density, encroachment on wild habitat, close proximity with other animals, and our ability to move around the globe … we humans have put a huge stress on the earth … and
there are few people who could not well imagine that today creation itself needs to be set free from its bondage to decay, the rate of which we’ve increased.
More than wallow in dismay, we count our blessings:
With Covid 19 the earth has received a reprieve. Now if we can just continue to provide a reprieve as we re-launch back to …
well whatever it is that we will get to, I’m not so sure it is ‘back to’ what it used to be, not anymore. Therein lies a small window for something to change for the better.
We also have been into the wildernesses, the National Parks and remote areas where few if any other humans have tread, and we have drunk in the splendour and wonders God provides in creation.
Our sins … They may well say that our sins are catching up with us and that we will serve a sentence many times what our sins deserve.
I’ve never believed terrible things happened to us to punish us for our sins. There is plenty of pain and misery that we bring on ourselves directly caused by us doing evil things. God, though, does not met out punishment. If that were the case then God would not be judging with equity and with righteousness, for some terribly evil people, who have done more evil than millions of people put together, seem to reap rewards instead of punishment for their sins.
So Israel was in exile, and one common way to explain that was to say that God was punishing her for her sins.
And what can we say we suffer today because of our sins? Shall we say Covid 19 is punishment for our sins? The people dying, the people paying the greatest cost, are not the ones benefiting most from the things that destroy the earth and other people in order to make life more comfortable for the few.
Rather it is the other way around. The rich feel the pinch of Covid 19 restrictions the least, while the poor are pushed to and over the brink of death.
That said: sin and there are costly consequences, whether it shows or not in this lifetime. Sin eats at one’s soul until one is forgiven, and one embarks on a renewed life guided by the Holy Spirit.
As Covid 19 restrictions are eased in many places, as here, we may well sing softly (humming is allowed) of the greatness of God’s blessings, and cry at the release from what may have seemed to be prisons of isolation. Indeed we look forward to the possibility that God may bless us in the days ahead, that we may be a blessing to other people.
In the snow, in the wind, in the rain, under these skies …
Is God Coming
Down this Road
For me,
For us,
For all the young men
who die senseless deaths
at the hands of police?
Psalm 98:9
The Lord is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.
Matthew 24:14
And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come.
Words of Grace For Today
Protests and Police using tear gas killed one of my son’s long time friends.
It helps to read that the Lord is coming …
to judge the earth, to judge with righteousness (finally)
and equity.
George Floyd
did nothing to deserve to have a policeman kneel on his neck for 9 minutes while he struggled to breathe and stay alive, a struggle he lost.
.
This explodes into protest at this time because Covid 19 restrictions are not fair, not equitable. The poor are hit the hardest, many struggling anyway to find enough food each day, and now, if they go out for food, they face curfews, police harassment and arrest, incarceration and almost sure infection. Rich people are often not even inconvenienced, or bother to change the pattern of their lives.
This is not equitable.
Being poor is rarely the person’s fault. Being rich is rarely due to honest hard work.
Being black … being a young man …
none of this is a fault. Yet this brings fear that minority mothers teach their sons to be aware of, and to fear this irrational hatred, lest hatred of them would cost them their lives. Even then, too often, just breathing and being (themselves) alive, unjustly costs them their lives because someone with a police uniform and a heart full of hate takes it from them.
Where is equity in all this?
This is racism, misandry, and out of control hatred.
.
Protesting is the least one can do, to support those who live in fear everyday, for the hope that one day they might not have reason to live in daily fear for their lives.
I have a dream!
Do you!?!
What are we to say when protesting peacefully is responded to with police tear gassing the protesters, even when they claim they have not used tear gas. They use pepper bomblets, which even they designate as tear gas!
Tear gas.
And it kills, sometimes.
Yet the police still use it!
Then they refuse to allow those affected by their tear gas to retrieve a handbag to get their asthma puffer …
And another innocent protester dies at the hands of the police ….
.
Thank God, that God will come!
God will come to judge with equity!
Helps us.
Help us be as God created us to be, bearers and witnesses to the Peace that surpasses all understanding
From a Lutheran to Lutherans, other Christians and people of other faiths:
Here are some documents and posters I’ve collected that may be helpful.
Note: no guarantees are offered or implied: Inform yourself. Fact Check everything. The process proposed may help, or not. The Checklist surely is not complete, especially not for your situation and event.
While some . pdf documents are place here for convenience, it is better you get them from the sources, listed in my documents (the .odt documents, open text documents, created in LibreOffice, which Word should be able to open – you may need to be on-line, but the pagination may jump around in the translation.)
I will attempt to update the files as more corrections and ideas from Lutherans are returned to me, maybe from others, though I presume others will have a way and place to offer their own versions.
If you use this material, please give me attribution with this webpage as the source, as well as that I started with information from the Synod of Alberta and the Territories of the ELCIC.
How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his sovereignty is from generation to generation.
Hebrews 12:28
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe;
Words of Grace For Today
What shakes in your life?
When the wind blows and catches the solar panels on the roof this whole place rocks. The first time the 50 km winds did that, with 90 km winds in the forecast, I climbed out into the blowing snow and ice cold biting wind. I looked at what was shaking me in my boots.
It didn’t take long to figure out what was happening. Solid anyway I thought. Then I retraced the steps I had taken to face the solar panels into the winter sun that barely peeked above the treetops for a few minutes. I remembered how I had anchored everything solidly … and I remembered how the cold and the onset of dark had rushed me. While the front side was anchored solidly to the frame that held all the solar panels to the rooftop, and that was only probably solid enough to stand up to a 100 km wind, I had just left the back side resting on that frame of piping.
So was! The panels all together stood nearly vertically six feet above the roof and five feet wide. That’s a lot of sail force on that frame holding the panels.
It had inherent limits being on the roof anchored to the piping that held everything in place, AND the back side (in the direction the most powerful winds could hit – since there were trees disrupting the wind in the other direction) was just sitting there!
I was lucky it had not just up’ed and walked off the roof top smashing, twisting and ruining everything in its path!
So was!
I had found an abandoned 1″ thick rope a few months earlier. Not friendly to hands, it seemed tough enough, at least it looked tough. I grabbed it and let go of it right away. Then I put on my gloves first and grabbed it, ran out into sharp cold, and ran that rope from the top of the solar panel frame to the one tree that stood close on the side where the wind was blowing from. The next day I anchored it around both sides of the top of the panel and back to the tree. Done.
.
It still shook when the winds kicked up. I no longer was alarmed. Maybe I should have been? The whole set up is different now, but the rope is back in place, and when it shakes, I go right back to what I am doing.
Trust.
in an old rope.
in a tree, which is still alive, unlike it’s neighbours.
in my ingenuity … well not really. I’m just too tired to think how to make it better and then get out and make it so. Soon, one of these days. Maybe when the rain stops.
.
God’s Kingdom is not shaken. It does the shaking throughout the whole universe. Wisdom begins with fear of the Lord, and needs love of the Lord (based on the Lord’s love of us) to grow.
All around, even as Covid 19 shakes us, or it should, God’s wonders are worth being awestruck by. The rope may last another day or so, or a year. But God’s unshakability lasts forever. From generation to generation God rules the universe.
For this we can stand in awe and give God praise and thanks.
There is no wind, or virus, or evil that comes against us that God is not more powerful than.
Covid 19 has shown we can meet the emissions targets set by the U.N. Maybe, just maybe, we will learn to keep it up even as the economies restart, and hopefully grow.
Then the winds may not continue to become more and more ferocious. And we can stand in thankful awe of God’s power, instead of in awful fear of what we’ve brought the environment to do to try to be rid of our destructive ways.
We can
trust
.
God
..
above all else
…
and count our blessings … they never stop. God is not shaken as more and more blessings pour over us, for us to share with others.
These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
2 Corinthians 12:9
He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Words of Grace For Today
Weaknesses abound aplenty. We only fool ourselves if we try to say we have no weaknesses or that they do not compromise us severely, everyday.
We can join all great celebrations and festivals, shouting for joy and giving thanks. The real challenge though is when we think we need all the power of God to be with us to deal with threatening circumstances, and all we have to rely on is our own weaknesses and the Grace of God that gives us renewed life.
We think we have to bring the greatest defences available in all creation.
What we have is our weaknesses and God’s Grace. Seemingly that is not power at all.
Yet there is no power like the power of Grace.
It turns our world’s back as they were all along, as God created them to be.
Grace changes everything.
Grace is everything for us in God’s creation, and our weaknesses make God’s Grace obvious for all to see. It is how we share the news that God asks us to share, that Jesus came to exercise God’s Grace for us, by forgiving all of us all our sins.
Who would have thought that exactly what we find repulsive and weak, is how God makes us so useful.
We certainly cannot know how, yet God certainly uses Covid 19 to make us more aware of God’s grace and God’s will for us all.
It may be that somehow the disastrous care in senior facilities needed to be made known in a manner so that no one could ignore it any longer. It needed to be fixed.
It may be that working without a commute is what creation needs from us. It may be that creation needs less vehicles and more bicycles.
It may be that the stress level needed to be raise far enough that at the ‘routine’ death of a young black man, the nation to the south, and supporters around the world would rise up in protest! It is a tragedy that yet another black man died senselessly. It is a tragedy that violence erupts out of peaceful demonstrations. It is a tragedy that the responses are more violence from the police and national guard and hate language by the elected president.
The police in too many places are far beyond their rights and duties, abusing people at will. The courts have stood behind them or blind to them for so long, on the streets evil has no bounds.
This is not only the case for black men, or for vulnerable women, or for people of minority orientations, colours, creeds, it is full out already the case for good, honest white men, gaslit by misandrous women as if all men were misogynists and perpetrators of ill towards women, when they certainly are not.
Some have put it succinctly: Raaj Shetti: Misandry is growing like a wild fire in this world. support feminism, but not misandry.and M.F. Moonzajer: Misogyny or misandry is not a status or a belief; it is just a sickness.
If you still think that misandry is not a hidden, covered up, destructive force, also behind Geroge Floyd’s death and the countless deaths of young First Nations men (more numerous than female deaths) by both police and others, the see these two articles: Misandry: The Invisible Hatred of Men and Why Some People Have Issues With Men: Misandry.
How come we as a people always need to make scapegoats of real good, honest and innocent people … as if that would or could fix anything. Our misguided, hate-filled attempts to fix hate just makes things like racism, misogyny, misandry, bigotry, or simple hatred that much worse.
How come more police could not, as in one city in Michigan, take off their riot helmets and join in with the protesters? How come political leaders are not out in the protest lines, ensuring they are not hijacked by violence by ‘participants’ or police? How come more of us could not join in and ensure that the demonstrations were not pushed by unseen organizers of both extremes to fulfill Trump’s stupid prediction quoted from a tragic history?
This we do not know.
Still we pray: save the people from the temptations to Evil. Save all the people, including those in uniforms holding state authorized weapons with a task to hold back evil with more evil force. God, we pray, save us all!
Regardless, God will work with our weaknesses to bring blessings to all creation.
We Leave Small Tracks
Small, Lonely Tracks
March on!
We may seem small, But God makes us Live eternally
But David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
Ephesians 6:14-15
Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.
Words of Grace For Today
It’s war:
The Philistines with Israel.
Goliath versus David.
The Devil and all his powers to destroy versus the Disciples of Jesus proclaiming peace.
Covid 19 versus us, the whole population of earth.
The whole human population of earth versus all life for the survival of planet earth.
The Devil and all his deceiving followers versus the people of God who rely on truth, forgiveness and love, which is a battle with ourselves sinner-saints that we are.
… and all the other battles and wars we are caught up in.
The battles we enter in the wars we are a part of, whether we choose to be or not, are never among equal parties.
It appears that our enemies, like Israel’s and David’s (the Philistine giant Goliath), are much more powerful than we are. It seems futile to engage in what seems to be a battle to them with assured victory, when we insist it will be peace.
Like David (we hope) we are equipped with nothing great, perhaps just a slingshot and a few pebbles, or more likely just a heart filled with gratitude, joy, and hope.
Our enemies have great arsenals:
The Devil has hoards of followers and a long track record of winning and destroying those he conquers. He has the record of setting the world standards in such a way as to make life impossible unless one cheats, lies and destroys others by taking from them what one wants.
Goliath has already scared the entire Israeli army into retreating from fighting with him.
Covid 19 works in stealth mode, catching us when we are unaware, and recruiting us to spread it to others even before we know we are ill. It attacks in many and various ways, depending on the health and genes of the person invaded. We cannot see the enemy until it may be too late.
Maybe we have water and soap, sometimes hand sanitizer, and orders to stay away from others, and to stay the blazes home, but we have no idea if all that actually works, or if we can do that long enough before the virus destroys our economies so far that there is not much left of us.
Doch.
We stand in God’s presence everyday. God stands with us. We need not fight at all. We humbly submit to God’s will, confess our sins and receive forgiveness, new and abundant life, and a calling to spread the news of God’s love in Jesus, which saves us all.
Whether we prevail as David did with just a pebble, God ensures that our efforts as part of God’s Kingdom bring peace to earth, in God’s time and in God’s manner.
God ensures, despite our efforts, our successes, or our failures, that there is peace for us and for all others who call on God’s name.
That outcome is why it is possible for us to engage, against all odds, to bring truth and Christ’s light to bear on all evil.
Covid 19 may not be easy to battle, yet we are on the winning side, even if it ends our lives or the lives of our loved ones here and now.
God has overcome death with Jesus’ resurrection. This we can trust.
tip of the hat to St. Patrick and his Breastplate Prayer (see below)
Mist and Mysteries
Caught in the Mists
of Mystery, Doubt, and Threats,
We Invoke
The Trinity, 3in1
As I arise from the healing mists of rest, to face the mountains, mysteries and doubts in the morning light and the Devil’s wiles, I pray:
by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Spirit,
Lord, protect me from all dangers that would be my undoing.
As the saints before me faced these same battles, help me persevere giving God the Glory, even under threat of death.
Help me remember all that God has given us: the Goodness of Creation, the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, the Gospels, the Epistles, and more to revive my weary spirit and sagging strength.
Jesus came to tell God’s story most plainly: God is always for us, claiming us, forgiving us at great cost, sending us out to share the story of Jesus’ Grace, God’s Love and the power of the Holy Spirit, bringing together people of all kinds.
Seeing the wonders of creation that the last centuries of progress have laid to waste, I still affirm: God wants this all to be GOOD again, including all that I do.
Yet, the Devil would have me filled with fear.
Name the fears of this day:
Fear of a virus called Covid 19.
Fear of being alone and forgotten.
Fear of deadly and destructive riots hijacked from peaceful protests against police abuses (as if God does not treasure young black and young First Nations’ men as much as us!)
Fear of police power and martial law abused.
Doch!
God, you have promised again and again I do not need to be afraid!
Christ sent the Holy Spirit, the mysterious, powerful fire of God, to envelop, motivate, and protect me:
up, down,
to the left, to the right,
in front of me, and behind me
(making sure I am not lazy in the calling Christ sends me to!)
As I arise from the healing mists of rest, to face the mountains, mysteries and doubts in the morning light and the Devil’s wiles, I pray:
by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Spirit,
Lord, protect me from all dangers that would be my undoing.
Now as I raise my hands from the bed, make them work for Christ.
As I put my feet to the floor, make them move for Christ.
As I warm up my voice to speak, use my voice to proclaim the power of the Trinity: Creator, Redeemer, Holy Maker and Guide.
Amen
…
..
.
St Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer Information
These words came to us as part of a collection, published in 1903, of hymns found in two old manuscripts. With this hymn/prayer were these words: Saint Patrick sang this when an ambush was laid against his coming by Loegaire, that he might not go to Tara to sow the faith. And then it appeared before those lying in ambush that [Saint Patrick and his monks] were wild deer with a fawn following them. [‘Wild deer’ can also mean they were hidden in a thick mist, something well-known in Ireland.] see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick’s_Breastplate
St Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity.
Through the belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.
.
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ’s birth with his baptism.
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.
.
I arise today
Through the strength of the love Cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In hope of resurrection met with reward,
In prayers of patriarchs,
In predictions of prophets,
In preaching of apostles,
In faith of confessors,
In innocence of holy virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.
.
I arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendour of fire,
Speed of lightening,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.
.
I arise today
Through God’s strength to pilot me:
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in multitude.
.
I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul.
Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me abundance of reward.
.
Christ with me,
Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
.
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
