Jacques Ellul on Christian Living

I’m reading from All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time by Robert Ellsberg.

The saint for January 6th is Jacques Ellul, the French theologian and sociologist.
He believed that the task of Christian living was “to create a new style of life,” in opposition to secular criteria. Robert Ellsberg puts it this way:

…this involved preserving a consciousness of the Transcendent. At the same time, the Christian should desacralize the idols of modern society–whether politics, the state, or the marketplace–and create alternative zones of ‘free life.’ In other words, Christians should be ‘troublemakers, creators of uncertainty, agents of a dimension incompatible with society.”

In these times of economic uncertainty, a little “desacralizing” of modern day idols may be just what we need. Rather than offering false proclamations of certainty, we can go about stirring up a little trouble by being “creators of uncertainty.”

Invocation for Pentecost

Come, Holy Spirit,
the one who sang a new melody as God’s Creation rose from Chaos,
who wept at the dark shadow of a cross,
and who danced early in the morning, at the opening of an empty tomb,

Come, Holy Spirit,
the one who could not be contained by wind, or flame, or breath,
the one who blesses the Church with courage, peace, and love.

Come, Holy Spirit, to us, who gather this day with trembling hands and uncertain hearts. Teach us to sing a new song and to dance with reckless abandon.

Here in this gathering of believers, as you did with those so long ago,
breathe on us now.

Breathe on us,
blowing away our fears and our hesitations.

Breathe on us,
transforming our hard-heartedness into passion-filled lives.

Breathe on us,
for we need peace, peace that only you can give.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

call to worship, lent 5a

call to worship
Lift up your voice and call out to God.
We cry out, believing that God hears us.
Come together and wait for God.
We come together, trusting that God is still speaking.
Surely God’s presence is here with us now.
We wait in hope, for God’s steadfast love lifts our hearts.
Come, worship the Lord.
We celebrate the power of God that restores us.
–based on Psalm 130

opening prayer
Holy God, Creator of Life,
you call us out of our dark places, offering us the grace of new life.
When we see nothing but hopelessness, you surprise us with the breath of your spirit.
Call us out of our complacency and routines,
set us free from our self-imposed bonds,
and fill us with your spirit of life, compassion, and peace,
In the name of Jesus, your anointed one, we pray. Amen.

prayer of confession, Transfiguration

Prayer of Confession:
The presence of God surrounds us, and yet too often we go about our daily lives oblivious to the power of Holy Spirit moving in our midst. Let us together confess the ways in which we are blind to God’s everpresent care.

God of rainbows and puddles,
Lover of snowshowers and clear blue skies,
we confess to you and to one another the many ways we fail to live the lives you want for us.
We make ourselves busy with many things,
and neglect to listen to your voice.
All too often we see the worst in the world around us,
and look past your signs of hope.
We are quick to voice our dissent with one another,
and refuse to see your face in the persons with whom we disagree.
We focus on our own hurts, anger, and disappointments,
and close our hearts to your transforming grace.
O Holy Light of the world, forgive us.
Open our eyes to your endless possibilities,
Give us courage to listen for your call to us,
Take our hearts of stone, and make them new again with your holy love.
Amen.
Assurance of Pardon:
Do not be afraid. God’s light has come into the world and has scattered the darkness; the morning star rises in our hearts. Rejoice! For God does not hold our sins against us, but embraces us as God’s own beloved.

lenten ponderings

Oh, my holiday decorations are not even put away; the Christmas tree still sparkles in our living room. Even so, the church calendar speeds along quickly this year, and Ash Wednesday is just over a month away.

I’m trying to find some focus for our Lenten season by reflecting on experiences of solitude, meditation, and prayer. Today I’ve been living with the poetry of T.S. Eliot, particularly Burnt Norton from his collection Four Quartets. Eliot writes of the elusive nature of time and meaning.

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered.
Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
The inner freedom from the practical desire,
The release from action and suffering, release from the inner
And the outer compulsion, yet surrounded
By a grace of sense, a white light still and moving,
Erhebung without motion, concentration
Without elimination, both a new world
And the old made explicit, understood
In the completion of its partial ecstasy
The resolution of its partial horror.
Woven in the weakness of the changing body,
Protects mankind from heaven and damnation
Which flesh cannot endure.

Is Lent a time in which we walk in the garden along with Eliot? We move from stories of the ancient past and our own pasts, dwelling in the present, and all the while wondering about the future. Do we find moments that are still points? Places in which we encounter the transcendent in the midst of the hurriedness of life? Those fleeting moments, “neither from nor towards,” may be the space in which our hearts are free to dance.

prayer of confession, Epiphany

Prayer of Confession:
The prophet speaks of the coming light of God which calls all the people of the earth to come together in God’s realm of shalom.  Let us confess the ways in which we have rejected God’s vision of wholeness:
God of light and darkness, We have seen the glimmer of your star-light beckoning to us, but we have turned away and followed other paths.  We confess that we have not loved you with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.  Forgive us, Holy One.  Strengthen our faltering steps and guide us in your holy way of peace.  Amen.
Assurance of Pardon:
Lift up your eyes and see the grace of God poured out into your lives.
The light of God shines through the darkness.  Our hearts rejoice for Christ is in our midst.

prayer of confession, Christmas 1

Prayer of Confession:
On this the sixth day of Christmas, as another year draws to a close, we come together before God and with one another, confessing,
the ways in which we have been caught up in the frenzied spirit of the holidays,and turned away from Your Spirit of Peace;
the times we have focused so much on our own lives and desires,
that we have neglected the voices of your children who cry out for Justice;
in our focus on making the season perfect,
we have turned away from the hurting people and broken places in our world in need of Healing;
in the times we have dismissed Christmas as a time only for children,
and we have stubbornly closed our hearts to your amazing gift of Love.
O Holy Child of Bethlehem, Word Become Flesh, our Savior and King, hear us as we humbly pray,
Cast out our sin and enter in; be born in us today. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon:
Hear the good news of Christmas.Today God reveals to us the wonders of divine love.
For unto us a Child is born; unto us a Son is given.His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.