Pastor's Messages from Prints of Peace
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Humility is a good thing
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Fridays are my errand days. Sometime ago, on the way back from the recycling run, our van died in a left hand turn lane at the entrance to an intersection. Not a good place. I turned on the hazard lights. I called the tow truck. I got out of the van to avoid whiplash just in case someone rear-ended me. Then I noticed how people still lined up behind my van that wasn’t going anywhere. I decided to approach motorists, gesture from a few metres away, and tell that they needed to pass the van if they didn’t want to get stuck. 95% of the motorists rolled up their window and looked the other way. I was unable to tell them. Perhaps they thought I wanted to ask for spare change, or they were afraid. I did not want to scare anyone. I only wanted to make sure they didn’t get stuck.
It was sad. We are a fearful and suspicious society.

Let me tell you another story. It is a story about the challenge to accept each other. My parents were not happy together. When I was a young man my father told me that when he and my mother were first married he would bring his burdens home and share his day with my mother. But every time he shared a disappointment, my mother would say, ‘How could you have done that! What were you thinking!’ Thus, he said, he stopped sharing his burdens because every time he did they only got heavier.

We Christians don’t always have a good reputation. Sometimes people perceive us to be judgmental, and they may be right. We don’t mean to be, but sometimes we are. Sometimes we forget that we speak of sin to remember who we are and to seek forgiveness from God and each other. It is humbling in the best possible way as it levels the playing field. We don’t speak of someone else’s sin. Someone else’s sin is God’s business, not ours. We can only recognize that all of us are both: sinners and created in God’s image. We know that all of us are infinitely loved by God, no matter how in this world we stack up against each other.
One of the best gifts we can give another person is to accept them without judgement. In fact, you cannot love someone if you judge them, for any time we judge a person we place ourselves above them, making a mutual relationship impossible. This is not to say that we would approve of every choice someone has made, or that all choices were equal, it simply means not putting ourselves in a position that declares that if we had to walk in their shoes we would have done better. To judge each other is hubris. I am not better than anyone. Instead, all of every person’s worth comes from being precious in God’s sight. “Here by the grace of God go I,” is another way of saying the same thing.

The Bible calls the absence of judgement humility. That is a virtue. It is a virtue greater than all others, because it makes love, relationship and community possible. May God gift all of us with such humility.


Yours,

Pastor Christoph


Published on May 29, 2008 on the Religion page of the Abbotsford News.
Posted by J. Christoph Reiners on Monday, June 02, 2008 at 13:14

Jubilee Park for the Canada Lutheran
We were asked to do a write up for the BC Synod section of the Canada Lutheran . Here is what we submitted:


It all started at the executive meeting of the local ministerial. We have always felt part of the larger church. It was at a meeting of this body some time last summer that I heard that a couple of people on staff at a Christian drop-in centre for street youth were providing breakfasts for the homeless at Jubilee Park. Someone said: Wouldn’t it be great if we had seven churches, each taking a day, so that there’d be breakfast each morning. I took this idea to our social ministry committee, which took it to council. At our annual meeting our breakfast at Jubilee Park was blessed by the congregation and received a budget line. Global Hunger and Development Appeal helped with a grant for the purchase of foldable table, canopy for rain, thermal coffee dispensers, etc. We already had a group of 12 volunteers signed up in order for there to always be a Thursday breakfast even when people were sick or on holiday. We wanted continuity.
We started at the beginning of April. We learned that we are guests at the park and we come not only to bring breakfast but to bring love, respect, and the affirmation we all receive from being created in God’s image. We normally have about 20-25 people come for breakfast. They are at the park because they are homeless, because they suffer from mental illness, because they have addictions, because that is where their friends are, and because their presence here is tolerated more than it would be at the local shopping mall. After all, a park is a common area.
We are getting to know the people at the park, and we are getting to know their stories. We learn that they are people just like us and that it is by the grace of God that we have homes and support systems. We hope and pray that over time we may be able to support them to make a step toward a new life. But we are here just for the love of God in Jesus.
This is really where the story should end. We are not doing anything extraordinary. It’s a simple breakfast, a simple gesture.
Our modest outreach became the focus of national media attention because three local city councillors had made themselves spokespersons for the local downtown business association and a seniors’ centre located next to the park. These groups do, of course, have very legitimate concerns. However, basic understanding of the issues and causes of homelessness appeared lacking among councillors and business association president. The park has been a place for the homeless population in Abbotsford for about two decades. The homeless are not there because Peace Lutheran brings them cheerios, muffins, and coffee once a week. They will continue to be there unless we as a society recognize the causes of their homelessness and begin addressing them. We see homelessness, addiction, and mental illness as the problem, not the people who suffer from it. We find it problematic when people speak of a broken park instead of broken lives. So, we’re not doing anything extraordinary or even newsworthy. What the media found newsworthy was that anyone could object to a benign act such as this. What we find newsworthy is the plight of the homeless and the outpouring of support we have received from our synod family, across the church (locally and nationally, including Faith Communities Called to Solidarity with the Poor), and from many others. We as a society do not have a grip on homelessness but there are many people who deeply care about God’s children living in our streets. We pray that this will lead us all to do more than breakfast. In the meantime we continue our breakfast in the park.

Yours,

Pastor Christoph
Posted by J. Christoph Reiners on Monday, June 02, 2008 at 13:10

You never know where God will lead you
Dear Friends,

Thank you for your prayers, your support, and your e-mails!
How such a small thing as a bowl of Cheerios could create such a big fuss! (perhaps there is a connection to the cup of cold water in Mark 9)

We have received phone calls and e-mails of support from all over the province and across the country.
The issue has struck a nerve and through it people have connected with the plight of the homeless. The other issue it has brought out is society’s attempt to limit the ministry of the Church to expressions of personal and corporate piety within the confines of a building.
I would like to highlight the e-mail Bill Chu of Faith Communities Called to Solidarity with the Poor sent to us: I just want to bear witness to you that with God on our side resistance is not futile. To share with you part of our journey, I am attaching herewith … a call we issued to the general church last July…. I hope this info will encourage you that with God you are not alone.

In a marvellous way this issue is bringing together many people of many backgrounds and convictions. What makes our hearts particularly glad is that it also brings together the Church of Christ.

We continue our path in confidence, encouraged by your prayers, open to God’s leading.

And yes, you do see your GHDA dollars at work here.

Below are links to some of the coverage this has received. Remember, that this is not about us, not even about Lutherans, but about all God’s children.

Vancouver Sun: Pastor refuses to stop feeding homeless

The Province: Don’t feed the hungry, Abbotsford church pastor told

Meera Bains on CBC’s Early Edition with Rick Cluff

CBC: Stop feeding homeless in city park, Abbotsford councillors tell pastor

CTV TV British Columbia: Stop feeding the homeless, city tells church

The Globe and Mail: City tells church to stop feeding the homeless

SomethingCool News

Christoph Reiners on YouTube, interview with Fred Johns

National Post: Please don’t feed the homeless

Local news coverage: Abbotsford News: Coffee, Cheerios spark food fight
and Abbotsford Times: Park is a market for dealers - City plans to focus on Jubilee

Abbotsford News June 5: Light shone on homeless issue

I sincerely hope that the interest in the plight of the homeless will remain and that this will be a catalyst for change. Change for all of us.

Faithfully,

Pastor Christoph
Posted by J. Christoph Reiners on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 12:54

Prayer and Service


I have had a spiritual director for a little while, i.e. a pastor I meet with once a month to speak about my life and my faith. These are helpful sessions, they help me reframe things and give me better orientation in the life of faith.
One of the reasons I decided to seek a spiritual director is that I feel that it makes me more accountable in the practice of my faith. But the best part may simply be to have a time designated to speak about how God is present in my life, and to be asked questions that open new perspectives.

I remember how a little while ago my spiritual director asked me about how I experience my time in prayer, whether I perceive God’s presence. The emphasis here is on ‘perceive’, not on ‘presence’, for God is always present, even when we don’t notice. During most of the time I intentionally spend with God I am aware of God’s presence. That is a blessing that I am aware of.
The more difficult task is to pray when it seems no one is listening, to make time for God when we feel we are only talking to ourselves. And perhaps that is the more devout prayer.

We are into our fourth week at Jubilee Park. I had my turn and I have been there one or two other times. The people are kind, polite, and grateful. There is a little visiting going on, among them, and with us as we become acquainted. When at the beginning Les and Joyce from the Cyrus Centre coached us, they emphasized that we are in these people’s space. The streets of downtown Abbotsford may not seem like much to us, but they are these folks’ home. It all goes to respect, and respecting people who are judged and belittled by most is a big part of our calling. And so, when we have breakfast at Jubilee Park, it is not out of sympathy or pity but because we see the image of God in all people.
It has only been a short while, and there will be bumps in the road, and there will be frustrations, no doubt. But so far, I am deeply grateful to be able to serve, and grateful that so many of us have joined together in this, including your prayers, as well as socks, toiletries, and money you have donated.

I just returned from our synod convention where we had wonderful worship, and communed (in the widest possible sense) with people from across our church. We had passionate debates and passed a few resolutions. All these things are necessary and important (especially communication and worship). But the life of the church as the life of the Spirit is found in prayer and service. Prayer and service are the poles from where we are nourished as we nourish others. If we wonder how the church will fare in these strange times, we know that the church has survived stranger times by loving her Lord and loving her neighbour. It is through prayer and serving that renewal comes to the church and to us.

Yours,

Pastor Christoph
Posted by J. Christoph Reiners on Thursday, May 01, 2008 at 09:52

Christian Formation in and through Community


It was in 1996 or 1997 that Jean Vanier came to speak in Winnipeg. I don’t remember the occasion for his visit, I only remember that for Lutheran clergy this was a joint study day with Roman Catholics and Ukrainian Catholics.
Jean Vanier has dedicated his life to working with physically and developmentally disabled adults. He believes that the weak and the disabled – indeed, all who are lonely and excluded from society – have much to teach us. (You can listen to Mary Hynes' interview with Jean Vanier on CBC Tapestry by clicking here)

I don’t know whether I had run across Jean Vanier and the L’Arche communities much before our joint study day (I knew that the spiritual writer Henri Nouwen had joined a L’Arche community in Toronto). I now find my limited exposure hard to conceive given the profound witness of these communities.

In the time leading up to Good Friday I was pondering the request of the good criminal who was crucified with Jesus, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ (Luke 23:42) In my devotional I had read a most remarkable paragraph by Simone Weil. She contemplates how wonderful it would have been to have been at the side of Christ and in the same state during the crucifixion, something she says would be ‘a more enviable privilege than to be at the right hand of his glory.’ (from: Waiting for God) How little did the mother of James and John know when she made her request! (Matthew 20:20ff)
Weil’s thought has a strange attraction for me. It is not a sentiment I would experience, and yet I somehow know the inherent truth of it. Doesn’t Christ’s glory consist precisely of his willingness to empty himself and to die for us while we were still sinners? This is the most glorious of possibilities. It is so because the sentiment is pure and is the untainted expression of love. It is no wonder that St. John can say that God is love. (1 John 4:7ff)

As I was still contemplating this I happened upon an article entitled “The Body of Christ has Down Syndrome – Theological Reflections on Vulnerability, Disability, and Communities” (John Swinton, Journal of Pastoral Theology). Swinton emphasizes that a person’s relationships constitute who they are as persons. He points out how different this view is from the idea of our capitalist societies where we see ourselves as free individuals who form societies in order to obtain the greatest benefits for the greatest number of people. Yet in the relationship oriented view the individual is the product of the community. This suggests that we will be profoundly impacted by who we are in relationship with. This idea is not only contrary to the notion of forming a society for the greatest benefit as if we could always only take the good and leave the bad, but it sees becoming as more important than transactions.

Most of us interact primarily with people who are not very different from ourselves. We seek out people with whom we have things in common. (The great thing about the community in which we lived in Winnipeg was that we were all at similar stages in life, all of a similar socio-economic group, all had chosen to live in this neighborhood and that was why it had become a community.) But how would we and our world change if we chose to have relationships with people who are quite different from us? I believe that such genuine relationships make us grateful not only for what we have (‘better off, healthier than someone else’) but make us genuinely grateful for others and the image of Christ we can see in them.
Swinton asks what it would be like if individuals and communities were to intentionally choose to be in relationship with people with profound mental disabilities and to allow these people’s perspective of the world become part of our inner space.

Why would one choose to do this? Because we know that “God is weak and powerless in the world and that is exactly the way in which he can be with us and help us.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Letters and Papers from Prison) We would seek these relationships because we find the image of God in all people, including people with profound mental disabilities. Our love becomes more genuine when we do things without expecting things in return. Paradoxically, it is often just then that we are most blessed.

I thought, how different this from the general view that we only invest where we expect a return of our investment and how we have decided where such return is not possible and how we often confuse what is earthly with what is divine.
None of this is to suggest that God wills suffering.

All this points us to a life that is more fulfilled and more meaningful. But how can we communicate this life amidst a culture that appears to only value youth, beauty, success, strength, and pleasure? Does this not sound too strange and too alien for anyone outside of Christian circles (or even within) to understand?

I do wonder about how the church can communicate the Gospel effectively in an age in which many people don’t know much about Jesus let alone know Jesus. It may be that the only answer is to persistently strive to live our faith, and to strive to see the image of God in those different from us and in those we consider weak. Naturally, our speech is part of who we are but it may not be the most important part.
Simone Weil’s wish to have been crucified next to Jesus strikes us as strange and yet when she sees the cross she sees the love of God. May the love of God guide all our seeing, all our relationships, and all our living.

Yours,

Pastor Christoph
Posted by J. Christoph Reiners on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 09:11

Transcending Limitations

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. (John 15:13)

Very recently one of my sons and I talked about career options of what to be and what not to be when you grow up. It reminded me of the practicum I did in a daycare centre for children with disabilities when I was in grade nine. This was a long time before children would be mainstreamed. It was a church run day care and most of the children suffered from either Spastic Paraplegia or Spina Bifida. It’s a long time ago, so my memories aren’t too specific. But my practicum was absolutely wonderful. The staff was great, but it was the children who made my practicum.
What was special about it? Nothing, really. They were just kids. They were like all other kids I have ever known. Yes, they had some disabilities of which some of them were aware and others not. But the wonderful thing was that their disabilities did not determine their life. At least not when you look at it from the point of view that most of us would take: that disabilities are limiting. Not that these children’s lives weren’t difficult but the gift was that they transcended the difficulties. They lived like ordinary children, they imagined like ordinary children, the fought like ordinary children, and they loved like ordinary children. Their young lives transcended their disabilities. It was a bonus that they accepted me. There wasn’t much I could have done wrong. In a profession so staffed by women they craved male role models. I just hoped I did ok.
Even though I had been wanting to be a pastor since I was in grade one, it was here that this desire was seriously challenged. I loved every day of my practicum. Among other things, I sat in on the sessions of the occupational therapist and I thought ‘maybe I should become an occupational therapist.’
In the end I didn’t, as you well know. I suppose the calling to the ordained ministry was stronger. My rationale was that not only the ‘horizontal’, i.e. the relationship between people was important, but that the relationship between people gained deeper meaning through the ‘vertical’, i.e. our relationship with God. I felt drawn to both and so I became a pastor. (It is needless to say that this is an insufficient description of why I am a pastor). But visualize the shape of the cross. One beam is horizontal, one is vertical.
What I didn’t understand back then (and it doesn’t question my vocation) was that the horizontal included the vertical already. These children were blessed. Some of them knew it and could have articulated it like that and some didn’t know it. After all, what fascinated me was their ability to transcend their limitations. The only time we were ‘reminded’ of their disabilities was when we went on an outing and saw a public that did not know how to respond.
A movie review on the Academy Award nominated “There Will Be Blood” I read starts with these words: Why is it that the great characters of fiction and drama always, finally, elude us? Hamlet, Phaedra, Charles Foster Kane, the bums waiting for Godot, Anna Karenina, Huck Finn: they lure us on and lure us on and then they turn into Mona Lisas. (Richard Alleva in Commonweal CXXXV, #3).
Their eluding us also draws us in and they display characteristics we both have and wish we had. These children drew me in. They showed me how to live. They pointed to God without even knowing it while at the same time struggling with conflict and materialism and self-centredness just like the rest of us.
Lent and Easter are the most holy time of the Christian year. It is because God’s love for this word transcends all our limitations. God invites us along. St. John reminds us that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. It is this love that finds itself in giving itself away that transcends our limitations. This love does much more than forgive, it invites us along, it fills us with this same boundless love.
May God reveal himself to you anew this Lent and Easter. May we all enter deeper into the mystery of Christ, and transcend our humanity while at the same time enter into it more deeply.

Yours,

Pastor Christoph
Posted by J. Christoph Reiners on Sunday, March 02, 2008 at 19:20

Living Together

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity challenged me at least a couple of times. I cannot tell you where or in which way, because I am not telling you about it in order to vent, and not because something terrible happened. I am telling you about it because I was reminded that Christian Unity is hard work, it does not always come easy or even naturally.
We had a wonderful turnout at the service we hosted (thank you to all who helped!). I thought it was a great service, yet I am convinced that there were others who were as challenged on Monday as I was challenged on those other two days.
It’s like in a family. We love each other but sometimes it takes patience to live together. Jackie and I have been married almost 18 years but there are some habits I haven’t been able to change. As I have grown older I may even have become more entrenched. And our children are now old enough to have discovered that their parents aren’t perfect. The point is: We stay together because we love each other. We don’t love each other because any of us were perfect.
It takes work to live together. That is the challenge of this week (of prayer for Christian unity). If we go home from a service and make a list of what we didn’t like we get it all wrong. Without patient and loving commitment you cannot learn to live together or learn to appreciate each other. Some things grow on us over time. Our family of Christ belongs to that group. So if anything, we need more than a week of this, maybe a few weeks to learn to appreciate and love each other. And what a wonderful thing this would be for others to see.
All of this is also true for us as congregation. That is one of the great benefits of sharing our life and faith. I thank you for your patience with me and with each other.
God is patient with us. That is what the Scriptures tell us over and over when they proclaim: “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (e.g. Psalms 103:8) God loves us simply because. St. Paul reminds us that love is patient (1 Corinthians 13:4). And so part of our following of Jesus is the daily practice to learn to live together; and instead of finding fault: to work at learning to appreciate each other.

Yours,

Pastor Christoph
Posted by J. Christoph Reiners on Monday, February 04, 2008 at 11:27

A House Where Love Can Dwell
My Roman Catholic mother-in-law is a story teller. She also likes jokes. A few years ago she told me this old standard: St. Peter gives a tour of heaven to the new arrivals. In one section, outside one area, he cautions everyone to only whisper and be as quiet as they possibly can. One person asks in a whisper voice why this is necessary. St. Peter whispers back, ‘This is where the Catholics are and they think they are here by themselves.’
In some shape or form you can tell this joke by inserting any denomination. It is best to do it with your own.

I grew up in an area where Protestants were the majority by far, in part because for the 100 years following the Reformation there were no Roman Catholics, and it wasn’t until 1807 that the Catholic church was granted the same legal status as the Lutheran and Reformed Churches. There were some Catholics when I was growing up, but not many, and contact – at least for me – was minimal. When it happened, it was mostly on family holidays while visiting old churches and monasteries. Often simply through experiencing Roman Catholic worship. While there were no theological discussions, my experience of Catholic worship never let me doubt that we worshipped the same God.
Other protestant denominations were generally considered sects: that is sectarian, splitters, fringe groups.
I remember few ecumenical experiences with them. Not all of them were positive. I remember being told that I couldn’t possibly be a Christian because I ‘didn’t know the day I had given my life to Jesus’. I knew this was absurd and it didn’t intimidate me. I remember a few similar experiences. In this I learnt that for many the exterior shape of our faith determines whether we can have fellowship.
But there were positive experiences too. Those were in discussing our faith, sharing what we believed was most important, how we thought our faith should impact our life. And there were the times that our prayer together was deeply meaningful and when we prayed together our unity in Christ seemed accomplished.
I have few experiences with Orthodox Christians. Once a year my home congregation hosted the exile Russian Orthodox Church conducting a service for other exiles. I remember attending and being moved by liturgy and ritual.

All those experiences are experiences of my youth. Since then, our understanding and perception of the world has changed. We experience the world as more secular and as a result have begun to move closer toward each other, allowing history and theological differences to keep us apart only so far. We work together in ministries and jointly address societal issues (e.g. homelessness, addictions, poverty). Then there is inter-marriage. For many people the most common experience of other Christians is when a family member marries a Christian from another denomination. That brings opportunities and challenges. Opportunities when we understand our own tradition, challenges when we don’t.

I have always experienced divisions between Christians as tragic, because division is not part of God’s design. I have always experienced meaningful communion (i.e. fellowship) as a blessing and as sign of God’s presence in our midst. The One who has reconciled us to him, longs to reconcile us to each other.

The word ecumenism has Greek and Latin roots and refers to the inhabited world, and, like the word economy has its roots in the Greek word ‘oikos’ for house. Therefore, the assumption of the ecumenical movement is that all Christian live in the same house, the house that the Lord has built. A prayer from St. John Chrysostom employs this image for how we live together as church:

Let us build a house where all are named,
their songs and visions heard
and loved and treasured, taught and claimed
as words within the Word.
Built of tears and cries and laughter,
prayers of faith and songs of grace.
Let this house proclaim from floor to rafter:
all are welcome in this place.(1)

Ecumenism is mandated to us because Christ prays for our unity, the unity of the church. (Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. John 17:11) It is also mandated through our experience of an increasingly secular and materialistic world. Further, it is required for our service in the world where our cooperation not only makes for better witness but also for more effective service. We need each other.

Of course, not all of that is easy, not all is possible. Too often do we speak for others instead of allowing them to speak for themselves. This risk is greater for denominations constituting majorities and is an obstacle for meaningful unity. There is also an apathy about sharing our faith with those of other denominations. I can only guess the origin of such apathy: Perhaps we simply take the church as we know it to be normative and view all other expressions as aberration. That may be our real challenge.

We may also misunderstand what ecumenism is about. It is not about becoming the same, it is not about giving up our identity but as we learn to understand the traditions of others we learn to understand better our own tradition. Ecumenism is about understanding that Christ’s body has many members, and that all those members contribute important functions, that the blessings of the many parts multiply the blessings of the whole. That takes some deliberate effort.

2008 is the 100th anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. While its origin is the prayer of Jesus that his disciples may be one, the week’s beginning is traced to the Anglican Paul Wattson in 1908. The week is oriented around the festivals of St. Peter and of St. Paul at the end of January.

It is a gift to be able to pray together and it is a gift that the Church has been praying together for the last 100 years! I hope that many of you will participate in as many services as you can, especially when we host the service on January 21!

Yours,

Pastor Christoph




Ecumenical Numbers:

Locally, the Christian family consists of Anabaptist (Mennonite, Baptist, etc.), Charismatic (Pentecostal, Vineyard, etc), Reformed (Reformed, Calvinist, Presbyterian), Roman Catholics, United Church, Anglicans, Lutherans, and Orthodox Christians, in about that order.

Worldwide, there are 1.2 billion Catholics; 340 million Orthodox; 230 million Calvinists, Reformed, and Presbyterian; 129 million Pentecostals; 85 million Lutherans; 85 million Methodists, 77 million Anglicans; 4.5 million Mennonites; and another 375 million Christians of other Protestant denominations.


WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY
THE CENTENNIAL YEAR CELEBRATION in Abbotsford, BC
January 20/08 to January 27/08

“PRAY WITHOUT CEASING” (Thessalonians 5:17)

Days, Times, Locations:

Jan. 20/08 * St. Matthew’s Anglican * 2010 Guilford Dr.* 7:00 p.m.

Jan. 21/08 * Peace Lutheran * 2029 Ware St. * 12:15 p.m.

Jan.22/08 * Calvin Presbyterian * 2597 Bourquin Cr. East *12:15 p.m.

Jan.23/08 * Trinity Memorial United *33737 George Ferguson Way *12:15 p.m.

Jan.24/08 * St. Ann’s Catholic * 33333 Mayfair Ave.* 12:15 p.m.

Jan.25/08 * Trinity Christian Reformed *3215 Trethewey St.*12:15 p.m.

Jan.26/08 * Immanuel Fellowship Baptist * 2950 Blue Jay St.* 8:30 a.m.
**Breakfast provided (by donation), served by Psalm 23 Society. Registration requested.

Jan.27/08 * Highland Community Church *3130 McMillan Rd. * 8:00 p.m. *Taize service





(1) Let us build a house where love can dwell
and all can safely live.
A place where saints and children tell
how hearts learn to forgive.
Built of hopes and dreams and visions,
rock of faith and vault of grace;
here the love of Christ shall end divisions:
all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where prophets speak,
and words are strong and true.
Where all God’s children dare to seek
to dream God’s reign anew.
Here the cross shall stand as witness
and as symbol of God’s grace;
here as one we claim the faith of Jesus;
all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where love is found
in water, wine and wheat;
a banquet hall on holy ground,
where peace and justice meet.
Here the love of God, through Jesus,
is revealed in time and space,
as we share in Christ the feast that frees us;
all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where hands will reach
beyond the wood and stone,
to heal and strengthen, serve and teach,
and live the Word they’ve known.
Here the outcast and the stranger
bears the image of God’s face;
let us bring and end to fear and danger:
all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where all are named,
their songs and visions heard
and loved and treasured, taught and claimed
as words within the Word.
Built of tears and cries and laughter,
prayers of faith and songs of grace.
Let this house proclaim from floor to rafter:
all are welcome in this place.

Homilies on First Corinthians, St. John Chrysostom, 4th century, paraphrased by Marty Haugen (1994 by GIA Publications, Inc.)



Posted by Christoph Reiners on Wednesday, January 02, 2008 at 20:25

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