We are unique

Sermon given at Grace UMC 8/9/15

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Scripture

^NRS  Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, ² which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, ³ the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh ⁴ and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, ⁵ through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, ⁶ including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, ⁷ To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸ First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. ⁹ For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers, ¹⁰ asking that by God's will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you.

There are five things that make us uniquely United Methodist. While we share individually some of these things with other denominations, all five of them together make us uniquely who we are. It does not make us better than someone in another denomination; it just makes us unique in the way that we do these five things and all of the together makes us uniquely United Methodist. I often have this discussion with other United Methodist ministers as we explore Wesleyan concepts. This is to say, we explore what John Wesley wrote about being a Methodist or more importantly, what it means to be a Christian. There is no particular order in priority. There is a sixth thing of course we seldom talk about. It is the desire to move to the back of the church and fill the last pews first as we enter into the worship space.

The first is Baptism. We believe that baptism is a sacrament. In other words, God is the principle actor and what happens is a mystery to us. In baptism we are cleansed of the taint of original sin, welcomed into the Kingdom of God and participate as community in the sacrament. Since God is the principle actor, when it happens and how it happens is not as important as that it happens. We simply show up and God does what only God can do. Whether we are baptized as an infant, a young adult or an older adult, baptism is an act of God. Since what God does is always good, when it happens and how it happens does not require it to happen again. Whether you were sprinkled, poured or immersed, God was at work in your baptism.

The second is that we believe communion to be a sacrament. There is a theme here. God is the principal actor and we acknowledge the mystery of Holy Communion. We believe Christ to be present in the communion with us, the bread is still bread and the juice is still juice but through the mystery of God there is a presence. We acknowledge the connection to Passover, the Upper Room, the cross and resurrection and the Feast on the Mountain of God. We are not Catholic and so we don’t believe that the bread and wine are actually the body and blood of Christ. We also do not believe that this is simply a celebration of the act that happened in the Upper Room that night. Communion can be a converting experience where someone experiences the Holy Spirit maybe for the first time. I love little children who come asking for Jesus. We also believe that this is a gift of God which is why we give the bread and offer the juice to you rather than letting you take it from us.

The third is that we are a connected church. We are connected to other UMC churches on the Eastern Shore through the District Conference, to other UMC churches in Virginia through the Virginia Annual Conference and to UMC churches throughout the world through the General Conference. We are all brothers and sisters in the Christian faith but we are also uniquely United Methodist brothers and sisters in connection. The Methodist church came into being right after the American Revolution and so we are modeled on the government that was formed. We have a legislative branch called conference. Our denomination determines the business of church through conferencing where members of laity and clergy come together in a democratic type process. Pastors are members of the Annual Conference, not the local church and serve at the appointment of the Bishop. The local church is governed by the Charge Conference and operated day by day through the Council with all other Committee’s holding allegiance to the Charge Conference through Council. We have a judicial branch that meets and decides issues of church law, i.e. whether decisions have followed the Discipline in its language and intent. And finally we have an executive branch in that we have District Superintendents and the Bishop who appoint pastors and perform administrative function within the church. They have somewhat limited power in that they cannot tell a Pastor what to preach or dictate a certain worship style.

One of the foundational tenants of our faith is that we believe that God gives us free will. We believe that we have free will, that God gives us choice to decide whether to return God’s love or not. Our lives are not predetermined but God sees all possibilities of every choice. Free Will is the greatest expression of true love. If we were to take this moment and look at all the possible choices in life and all the consequences and choices from now until the end of our lives, God can see them all. That is not to say that God doesn’t nudge us from time to time, but God does not set the path for us. We believe that when you give your life to Christ free will still prevails and some may choose to turn their backs on God before they die.

Finally, the one element that sets us apart from many other understandings is our belief in God’s grace. The biggest element of the five is that we believe that we are saved by Grace alone. We understand that we have Free Will to accept that grace of God and without the grace of God we would all be condemned. God looked upon the world and saw that inherent to every human being was this desire to be in control, to have what we want when we want it. And God realized that it was an inherent part of creation so human beings were unable to fix it. So God set about fixing it by bringing God into the world through Jesus Christ. His death on the cross atoned for that inherent nature, not taking away free will mind you, but giving us the ability to have a relationship with God.

 

We believe that there are three points in life’s journey when we experience Grace. Prevenient Grace is the offer of God from the moment we are conceived until the day we die. God constantly desires a loving relationship with us. Justifying Grace is that moment when we finally accept the offer of God’s love. Sanctifying Grace is that path to perfection that all Christians are on – a desire to live into a life completely submitting oneself to the will of God. Sanctification does not mean that we are sinless; rather, it means that when we sin we immediately recognize it and ask for forgiveness.

There is the Quadrilateral that we use as a tool to determine the Christian response to life’s challenges with Scripture, Tradition, Experience and Reason. We believe that scripture is the sole source of information concerning salvation. But on other issues, scripture might be ambiguous or difficult to determine the answer. Take slavery, war and cloning for example. In the Bible slavery appears to be acceptable, as does war and cloning is nowhere to be found. So the next step for us is to look at the tradition of the church throughout its history. How did the church respond? When we look at those three things we see that the church allowed and condoned slavery in some cases, argued against it in others, that the church has also condoned or argued against war and so we can be confused about the proper response. As far as cloning, there is no response in the tradition of the church. So we arrive at the experience of the Holy Spirit in the Body of Christ through the church. How does the Body respond to those situations so that we might glean the answer? In our examples, the Body has been all over the place when it comes to slavery and war. So we come to reason. At the end of the day when we observe the biblical story concerning slavery we realize that slaves in the Biblical story are human beings, entitled to be treated with respect and have the opportunity to win their freedom. Our own countries history of slavery saw us treat slaves like property, not human beings and because of that we understand that the Christian response is to stand against slavery in any form. War is another example of the ambiguity of scripture, tradition and experience. With reason we can all agree that though we may disagree about the war itself or reasons for war, we can support our young men and women who go to war. Cloning is new. Our biblical story tells us that we are to do good for humanity in all that we do, love our neighbors. So if cloning is to be used to eradicate illness then the response is to accept cloning. If however it is to be used to bring about genocide, then we are against such offensives uses of technology.

We are United Methodist. We are unique but we are all brothers and sisters in Christ.

  

We've only just begun

Sermon given at Grace UMC 7/5/15

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Scripture Reading:

^NRS  Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. ⁴ In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵ And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children-- "My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; ⁶ for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts." ⁷ Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline?

Paul Williams wrote the song, “We’ve only Just Begun” which was a huge hit for the Carpenters. It is a song about beginnings, about young love which has the whole future of life ahead of it. The second verse reminds us of this:
Before the risin' sun, we fly
So many roads to choose
We'll start out walkin' and learn to run
And yes, we've just begun
We arrive at this point today with the future in front of us. There are many roads to choose as we move from this point forward. Roads paved with good intentions, roads paved with successful conversions and roads that lead to decline and closure. Our momentum at the moment is good but it needs to be reignited by the passion of the spirit that was in your confession’s to Jesus Christ so many years before. We must relinquish the forces that hold us apart and pull us away from this place. This week I had the pleasure of working with young people at Camp Occohannock. Young people who were there to spend some days exploring and learning. But in the midst of that they were open to the touch of the Holy Spirit. I remember one incident where they attempt to climb a wall with small rock like things used as foot hand holds. This particular day a young woman who was scared of heights was attempting the wall. Her fellow campers were gathered round encouraging her. As you watched them suggest hand holds or foot placements, you could see their bodies moving as if they were on the wall with her. That focus is what we understand in the Body of Christ. When we become one people and we begin to work together as one people to do the task at hand. She made it to the top and rang the Bell. We make rules and policies for the church so that we can become the Body of Christ. Pulling, sharing and working together for one goal, one people and one God.

We have just begun to journey to the place where God reigns supreme. We are part of the Kingdom of God and we share in the love of God that permeates the Kingdom. In the last few weeks I have talked about Grace, about God’s unwavering love, about following Christ, my vision for the future and what God wants from us. Today we begin a new year and a new opportunity to transform not only the church we love but the community we live in. Abraham began a journey on faith to a place he did not know but God had called him to new realities and so he went. So too we are Abraham being called by God to new places and new realities. Some of them may be difficult and others complicated, but with God behind us, there is absolutely nothing that is impossible.

What will it take for us to survive? What are we doing well or what are we doing wrong? What is to become of us? And the number of similar questions worded different ways. There is a problem here. The problem is that those asking the question are hoping that I have a simple answer. The challenge is always how one answers a closed ended question when the answer is complicated and open ended. I am going to attempt to answer this complicated question by starting if you will at the beginning of our churches. The answer in simplest terms is that when we truly become Disciples of Christ; God will direct us to become the instruments of his glory. That seems so simple. I liken it to a story I heard once of a child who came home from Sunday school to tell his father about Moses at the Red Sea. The young man described how the Israelites had put down pontoon bridges for their jeeps to cross on. Then, as Pharaoh approached and his army came over the bridges, they were dynamited and the whole Egyptian army sank in one fell swoop. The father calmly asked the excited son if that was really the way it happened. The child's response was, "No, but if I told you what they really said at church, you sure wouldn't believe it." Paul is trying to focus us on two important truths in this scripture which has as its goal to lead us to becoming more focused on our own lives. And this story reminds us that sometimes complicated questions have simple answers that people will either not believe or chose not to follow.  

We gather today Independence Day. It is a day that celebrates those who laid down their lives so that we can live here in this country with freedom. We are reminded of the heroes, young men and women who fought for that freedom, who gave all they had. Their names now stand in stark contrast on plaques and monuments across the country. But for the families they stand as reminders of lives cut short, futures that went on without them and families that grew up without brothers, sisters, and fathers. We need to celebrate their sacrifice today as we gather in this place. But we also need to realize those who went before us in the church also made sacrifices. Many of the early Christians gave their lives that we might worship freely here in this space and know the truth of Jesus.

We began as a church interestingly enough with a movement that never intended to become a church. William Morgan and a group of students began intentional faith development. So much so that other students began to make fun of them and called them “methodical” as a joke. John Wesley was part of that group and upon Morgan’s untimely death, became the leader. John Wesley and this small group of Methodists begin to expand across England, Wesley travels on mission to Georgia, fails at evangelizing to the Indians and returns home depressed and questioning his call. Then on May 24^th, 1738 while listening to a sermon in Romans, his heart is “strangely warmed” and at that moment he claims his understanding of what God is calling him to do. From there the movement extends across the ocean to America where the flame of a relationship with God burns fiercely among the peoples of America. And then the revolutionary war happens and all things England are despised.

In 1771 Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke are sent over to provide leadership to this growing movement within our country. By 1773 the cries for sacramental authority have grown so fierce that Wesley appoints Coke and Asbury as ministers with the authority to ordain new ministers. By 1784 this movement becomes a church. There were some important and significant things about this early church that set it apart from other churches in the world. Women were included in worship from the start centered on the understanding of Paul’s ministry and the role of Mary Magdalene and Mother Mary in the early church. And African American’s were a part of our weekly worship, with the church ordaining a female African American in 1790. This early movement was focused on two important foundational blocks. One, that inclusion means something. Each week classes would gather and hold each other accountable to discipleship. They would share with one another the answers to three questions:

How is it with my soul?

Where have I stumbled this week?

Where have the fruits of my faith been evident?

Continued inclusion in the group meant that over the long journey members had stories to tell each other about the status if you will of their relationship with God, how that relationship had shown itself in their daily lives and when they stumbled, that they shared that, expected accountability of it and received forgiveness.

And the second thing was that the group had a responsibility to witness and share their faith with others with the goal of growing their community. These two things were not optional for early Methodist and should not be optional for us today.  Maybe that is part of the answer to the question we ask. We need to return to a time when our discipleship of evident, active and accountable. The other interesting part of this is that the weekly meetings were not the central part of their lives, discipleship was.

The foundation of early Methodism was a focused on biblical truths. The first truth is that original sin is our disobedience to God. Nothing more, nothing less! The second is that Grace is given by God because God knows that we fail at being obedient because of our natures. That is not an acceptable reason or excuse, but Grace allows us forgiveness in spite of ourselves. Third that we have "free will" to accept or reject God’s gift of Grace. And finally, these things, original sin, Grace and free will become self-evident to us when we strive to become disciples of Jesus Christ. In that journey we will build our relationship with God. We build that relationship with God through our daily disciplines of bible reading, prayer, being involved and active in our community of believers and reaching out to the world to share this love of God. And it is that journey that each of us must be on or we are wasting our time being here this morning. Early Methodism permeated this area of Virginia. And this brings us to the history of Grace.

Grace began as Parksley Methodist Church in 1892 and Dr. J.E.T. Ewell was its first pastor. On October 30^th, 1908 the frame church burned but the spirit of the church remained and so a new church was built, the cornerstone laid on October 13, 1910 and completed in 1912. By the way, Andrew Carnegie donated one half the money for the organ, $1250, which was installed in the church in 1912. And the church thrived and grew as the center of its community, sharing the love of God with all that would come. In 1974 the church discovered that its beloved sanctuary was literally falling apart. Did that stop them or slow them down, no. With God’s assistance they built the current sanctuary and dedicated it on December 12^th of 1976. Some say to me that to get back to the church they remember we need to go to one service. Really? Did you know that the Chapel service began in 1993 under the direction of Rev. O.H. Burton? It is as much a part of our tradition now 22 years later. All along this path we have been moving on the journey to share the Kingdom of God with the communities we live in and serve.

We have to decide what course we are going to take. Are we going to stand united in the manner of early Methodist, working towards perfection individually and collectively, holding each other accountable to become true Disciples of Christ? Are we as individuals in a focused intentional relationship with God? Are we working together to bring the “good news” of the Gospel to the community around us as our ancestors did before us. For the last one hundred and twenty three years this church has stood here at the crossroads of Bennett Street and Wilson Avenue. Where it goes from here rests on our shoulders. Where will we go? What miracles of faith will be performed here for the next one hundred and twenty three years? How many lives will be changed? The answer is up to you and me? What path will we choose? 

A Vision from the Mountaintop

Sermon given at Grace UMC 6/28/15

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Scripture Reading

^NRS  Deuteronomy 34:1 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the LORD showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan, ² all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, ³ the Negeb, and the Plain-- that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees-- as far as Zoar. ⁴ The LORD said to him, "This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants'; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there." ⁵ Then Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, at the LORD's command. ⁶ He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day. ⁷ Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated. ⁸ The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the period of mourning for Moses was ended.

I read a story recently about a little league coach who reminisced about his childhood years playing baseball in little league. He remember back how during his first year, his coach had called together the entire baseball team for a picnic, and he asked the team, "Who here wants to eventually play major league baseball." Every single hand went up, as every child there dreamed about playing in a major league stadium and hitting the game winning hit. That boy grew up to become a little league coach himself, and the week before opening day his first year of coaching he did the same thing. He had a team picnic, and he asked the team, "Who here wants to grow up and play in the major leagues?" Not one hand went up on a team of twelve kids. He said he could see in their eyes that not one kid on his team believed that he had what it took to become a major league baseball player.

Bonnie and I have returned from Annual Conference this year ready to begin a new year here at Grace. Today we start our fifth year and there is much to tell and much to look forward to. We are standing on the mountaintop looking out into the Promised Land. But we cannot do it alone. We need to be a family of folks with a shared vision of what the future holds. Our focus this year will be to continue the vision I have had for this church the last four years, making members disciples. What is interesting to me and affirming is that it is also the conference vision for this year. What does it mean to be a disciple? It means following Jesus in His teaching, His example and His love. I also learned at Annual Conference that my gift is the gift of irritation. My purpose is to provoke you into being better, being more intentional and being faithful to following Christ and Changing Lives for Christ.

David Welch tells the story of Walt Disney. Walt Disney was a dreamer. His crowning vision was EPCOT; Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. He envisioned the perfect city of 20,000 using all of the most modern advances technology. One problem, Walt Disney died before his dream was ever realized. His dream was so big and complex and outside the box that no one else in the Disney Company ever caught the dream and had no idea what to do after Walt was gone. What Walt Disney intended as a living breathing perfect city turned out only to be an entertainment center. Disney’s world would only become a place to visit rather than the community he envisioned to live in.

Jesus also left a blueprint for His church that is just as vast, as marvelous, and as innovative. His vision was to have an expanding community organism that would permeate and transform the whole world. The problem is that as time went on His followers lost His vision. They could not wrap their minds around such a magnificent plan. Rather than a community of loving, passionate follower of Christ dedicated to demonstrating the power of the Christ-transformed life in a dark world, they began to do what they knew best, build buildings and run organizations and develop entertainment centers that would hopefully draw the crowds to hear the story but miss the transforming power of Christ. We are the descendants of that vision and though the vision still exists in our lifetime, we also are more apt to focus on the building, the structures and the organization. We want certain kinds of music or certain kinds of worship or to join the many services into one service; those are the answers you tell me every single day. I read the other day that Christianity is still growing, especially among those who are oppressed and struggling. It is growing not because of worship style or music or even buildings. It is growing because people have begun to embrace a sense of community.

We have spent this week teaching our young people about being a good neighbor. That the message of the Good Samaritan is not a nice story about a nice man, rather it is a proclamation of how we are to act in the world around us. We are to be Good neighbors to all the people of the world, not just those who look like, sound like and act like us. The children get this maybe even better than the adults do. We are to be the vision of Christ, loving each other in a transforming way to change the world.

But the real question is how do we move beyond the barriers? We have barriers whether we realize them or not. Barriers we have erected because of culture, language, prejudice, and our own human existence. Barriers that Jesus wanted us to remove so that we could fully embrace the loving relationship that God. But how do we get there? How do we do what we have been unable to do in over two thousand years? How can we accomplish what our own human existence fights against, leaving our desire to be first and becoming a place of equality? There is only one way to do what we should all desire to do. We desire to become disciples of Jesus learning what He desires for us to learn and doing what He desires us to do. The truth is that we have an almost insurmountable mountain to climb. The biggest obstacle in the way is not society, the courts or even a disagreement on what a particular flag really means. It is our inherent desire to be first, to do what we want when we want and how we want. It is our desire to achieve the things of materialism even if it means climbing over the bodies of those around us.

We can only achieve this great change in our world through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do it alone and when we finally realize that we are on the way to achieving the kind of world that Jesus wants us to enjoy and embrace. It is a world where love is the central element of human relationship. Where we find ways to overcome our diversity as difference and use that diversity as gain. We become a family making life together, facing the future together and living in a harmony together that can only come when we place Jesus first, others second and ourselves last. We cannot achieve this success when we have determined that rules for the common good don’t apply to us because we perceive ourselves as special, more important than other members of our family. This only works when we work hard at focusing on the common goal of one people under God, indivisible with liberty for all. That is the mantra of our country and yet we somehow find ourselves too often divided into ideas about what liberty really means. Jesus tells us that liberty is the right to live without fear, without hunger, without discomfort and to share in the abundance that God has given us. Not everyone will share our dream; some of you may even leave here to find a place where you can enjoy your own ego centered focus. But mind what you hear this morning. That is not the dream of Jesus.

We are climbing a mountain. Some days the sky is clear and we can see the peak, the goal and the climbing is easy. There is excitement and energy to achieve the goal. But some days the clouds come and obscure the peak. Those are the days when our journey gets difficult as depression and fatigue set in. But the goal is unchanged. So those days are the days when we need to support each other with greater care and compassion. The ropes we tie around one another are not ropes of bondage but are the safety line of strength that comes when people surround each other with love to lift each up in the tough times. We are climbing that mountain and so far the road has been easy. But the tough times are ahead of us. The reward is a church that is the center of its community, focused on being the source of strength for the community that it serves. The reward is a life filled with joy and love that is shared with those who also share this vision of Jesus.    

So where are we going and how do we get there? Let me answer the last question first. We only can get there through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to be a church fully embracing individual and corporate prayer. Don and I felt your prayers this last week at Annual Conference. But when we begin to prayer together as a church asking God in we can become the church God intended. Bishop Cho has a prayer that I suggest we all incorporate. It is a simple prayer. It is, "Your will be done, nothing less, nothing more, nothing else." Let us do it together. Your will be done, nothing less, nothing more, nothing else. If we pray this with the intention of not only asking God for direction but opening ourselves to hearing, God will do great things with us. If we invite the Holy Spirit in we can become Disciples in the image of the original Disciples, performing miracles, bringing others to God and changing the world. Without the Holy Spirit we are nothing. Which probably explains the mess we are currently in in the world around us.

In the current newsletter I tell a story of a ship’s captain who was floundering because the wind that moves him had stopped. Nothing is more serious to a sailor than the loss of wind. Without it we cannot move, we are caught in a place of inaction and despair can set in because we have no control over the moment. Knowing that a man of God was below deck, the captain went down and talked with him. He asked the preacher to pray for wind. Sometime later the preacher came up on deck and was surprised. He sought out the captain and told him, you ask for God’s help and yet the sails are not unfurled, open to the wind that will come. You pray and yet you don’t believe that God can provide defeating the very power you seek. We are a church with the sails that are not yet unfurled open to the wind that will come. 

We must become the church where people can find the answers to the struggles of their lives. We must become the church where people can feel welcomed with no regard to their culture, their language, their lifestyle or their journey. We must become the church that finds ways to make poverty less, make hunger less, make oppression less and make community more. We must become the church that spends as much time outside its doors as inside, maybe even more time out than in. We must become the church that finds ways to teach people new skills, assisting people to find financial security not through entitlements but through reliance on proven financial tools. We must become the church that people come to not out of a sense of loyalty but out of desire to be a part of a family making a difference in the world. We must become a church that focuses on being Disciples individually and corporately through the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit. We cannot feel the wind of the Spirit if we keep the sails furled against the mast. We must become a church that focuses on the common good for all, compromising to bring out the best God has to offer through the gifts and talents God has given us.

Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness for forty years. His role was to bring them to place where they could find relationship with God, learn to be obedient to God and to become the instruments of God to change the world. Moses did what he had to do always listening to the will of God, nothing less, nothing more, nothing else. God allowed Moses to see the land of promise from the mountain, but Moses would not lead them there. His work was done. Martin Luther King in his famous speech brought a prophetic message telling us that his dream would be realized even though he would not get to the mountaintop with us. Like Moses, King never saw his dream realized. But God is fruitful.   

Sir Frances Drake: "Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim. Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love."