Passage: Matthew 6:5-13 & James 5:13-16    

  Description: Are any among you suffering? You should pray. Are any of you cheerful? You should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? You should call others in the church to pray for you, and to anoint you with oil in the name of Jesus. For the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up to their feet, and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. So confess your sins and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayers of the faithful are powerful and effective. So writes a follower of Jesus, named James, to the scattered Christian communities. And I’m all with James on the three questions he asks, “Are any among you suffering? Are any of you cheerful? Are any among you sick? But with his next phrases my own questions start coming fast and furious. James states clearly and emphatically that the prayer of faithful will heal the sick and get them walking again, promising that the prayers of the faithful are powerful and effective. Which leaves us in a bit of a quandary, because we all know times when we have prayed for healing for ourselves or a loved one, and it hasn’t happened. This is the kind of scripture passage that it is sometimes more comfortable to avoid, or to shorten – only reading the parts we easily agree with. But that isn’t fair to scripture. We have to decide if we are reading the Bible literally or taking it seriously, rather than avoiding what we aren’t sure about.

Passage: Psalms 28:1-9 & Psalms 29:1-11    

  Description: You are what you pray. According to our HRUC prayer guide, half our plate should have equal portions of “help” and “thanks” while the other half is a full portion of “wow”. Help, Thanks, Wow! For a healthy prayer diet, these are the portions our prayer guide suggests. And this is how we invite you to imagine your prayer diet through our season of Lent and certainly, beyond. One of the best ways to explore what a healthy prayer diet would look like is to delve into the Psalms. The Psalms really are the prayer book of the Bible. The writers of the Psalms are always what they pray. And as a whole, the collection of Psalms demonstrates the prayer guide beautifully with the right portions of help, thanks and wow. Today we have two Psalms back to back that help us see our prayer guide at work. Psalm 28 has equal portions of help and thanks. Psalm 29 is all about wow. Psalm 28 begins with words of help and supplication. The words are so profoundly human as the Psalmists hands are outstretched and lifted up, open to the healing and comfort of God. The psalmist prays to be spared the pit of silence and separation from the voice of God and to be reunited with God’s assuring presence where God’s loving voice can be heard. We’ve all been in this place. We’ve all prayed our supplications for God’s help within the sound of God’s voice. We’ve all experienced the desperation, the silence, and the pain of suffering. We take all that is inside us and externalize it into prayers of help. This is where most of our prayers begin. We have perhaps, no where else to turn, except to voice a prayer-filled SOS.

Passage: Luke 9:28-36 & 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:1    

  Description: How does one hold Paul’s words of great boldness and hope on the one hand and deal with the way he disses Moses on the other hand? It’s challenging to come alongside such a difficult text. And what is Paul referring to when he mentions Moses’s veil? How could anyone use the name of Moses negatively when comparing examples of the mystery of God at work? Paul’s words in II Corinthians seem to contradict the Gospel of Luke where Elijah, Moses and Jesus appear together in order to convey that profound connection between the message of Jesus and the traditions of the Jewish faith—the story of the transfiguration links the lineage of tradition and faith between the teachings of Jesus and the history Judaism. Huge hope here, great boldness in the gospel message. But Paul seems to struggle as he tries to effectively convey the same hope in his second letter to the Corinthians. Something is stuck for Paul. Let’s clarify Paul’s reference to the veil over Moses’ face. This story originates in Exodus Chapter 34. It’s a curious story. After Moses comes away from his encounter with God, the skin on his face shone because he had been talking with God (Ex.34:29). The people were quite fearful of this. So, after Moses finished speaking with his people, he put a veil over his face until the next time he went to speak with God when he would remove the veil. The veil is as way of mitigating the powerful effects of being in the presence of God. It softens the glow in order to make Moses’ face tolerable in the presence of his people. More generally, the veil also serves a symbolic role as that which mediates and separates the divine realm from the earthly realm. Consider for example the veil that is torn in the temple at the time of Jesus’ death on the cross. Paul however does not speak kindly of the Moses’ veil or perhaps wisely. But I think I understand what he was trying to say.

Passage: Acts 11:19-30    

  Description: Christians. Disciples. Believers. Followers of the Way. Saints. These are all terms that were used by the followers of Jesus in the first century, terms that we still use to this day. But what does it mean to be a Christian, a disciple of Jesus, a follower of the Way or even one of the saints? When you think of your faith, how do you name yourself?... So whether we call ourselves Christians, believers, disciples, followers of the Way or saints, the attributes that people should most notice in us are these two: radical inclusiveness and radical generousity. The sad thing is that Christian has come to be associated with something other than inclusiveness. The term Christian has become linked with judgement, with exclusion of certain groups of people, with moral pronouncements that lack compassion and understanding. I am not sure that non-Christians would look at Christians, in general, today and immediately say, “Those are the people who are radically inclusive and radically generous. They welcome everyone and they are always ready to share what they have with anyone in need.” I’m not sure that that is how others would define those of us who call ourselves Christian today. I tend to hear words such as hypocrites, judgmental, old-fashioned, and irrelevant. Or perhaps worse is that we aren’t seen as any different than anyone else in our society – nothing makes us stand out as Christians. Yes, we are to be humble, and not make a show of being Christian. But how do we, with our words and actions, show radical inclusiveness and radical generousity?

Passage: Luke 10:25-37    

  Description: Rev. David & Rev. Susan have a conversation about the core values of High River United Church - Compassion, Diversity, Respect and Courage, and how all four of those values are seen in the story of the Good Samaritan.