An Appeal To God

Guide me into an unclenched moment
 
I chose this prayer for our St. PJs staff meeting last week. Sensing anxiety around our status as a church without a priest-in-charge, I related personally to some of the images in Ted Loder’s appeal to God. I long to “let go of heavy expectancies”. Today is our reality, and tomorrow will show up eventually, no matter how hard we think we can control what happens. Remember that we are “surrounded by the light” of our divine Creator, and, please God, may we always be “open to God’s mystery”. As a child waits for her birthday, “fill us with that same joy that is you/God.”   
 
                                               Guide me,
                                               Holy One,
                                               into an unclenched moment,
                                               a deep breath,
                                               a letting go of heavy expectancies,
                                               of shriveling anxieties,
                                               of dead certainties,
                                               that, softened by the silence,
                                               surrounded by the light,
                                               and open to the mystery,
                                               I may be found by wholeness,
                                               upheld by the unfathomable,
                                               entranced by the simple,
                                               and filled with the joy
                                               that is you.

The poem is from the late Ted Loder’s most popular book, Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle. The title is symbolic of Ted Loder’s ministerial life. He graduated from Yale Divinity School and became a Methodist minister who served for almost 38 years at one of Philadelphia’s most unusual churches, known as “The Oddball Church”. Ted’s passion for social justice included marching with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma, Alabama; guiding his church as a Public Sanctuary for Guatemalan refugees denied asylum; supporting the ‘Covenant Against Apartheid’; and, more recently, becoming a ‘reconciling congregation’ who worked for full inclusion of homosexual persons in the Methodist community.
 
The Spirit of our God is at work in our midst, too… “Guide us, Holy One” to keep the faith and continue to rejoice in our God-given gifts today. We give thanks for the ministry of our seasonal supply priest, The Rev. Nathan Empsall. Nathan’s ability to be spontaneous in his ‘welcomes’ and ‘blessings’ is inspiring. Come and share worship tomorrow!
 
Epiphany faith for us all,
Tudy, Minister of Pastoral Care