The Organized Church 010613

Church HDR (Photo credit: I_am_Allan)

 

This blog comes to you from the people at Peace Mennonite Church of Columbia, MO

www.peacemennonitechurch.net

 

Today’s Scriptures Click the following links to read today’s scriptures or scroll to the very bottom of this blog post for those scriptures also. Lectionary Scriptures for the day selected by http://www.commontexts.org/

 

Psalm 72 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2072&version=MSG

Jeremiah 31:7-14 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah%2031:7-14&version=MSG

John 1:1-18 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201:1-18&version=MSG

 

The Organized Church 010613

 

It is fairly easy to find internet essays, websites, cartoons, music and other media condemning or discussing the organized church. Of all the reasons people have given me for not attending, or worse, participating in church is that don’t get organized churches, and they don’t get into organized religion. (International reader: Please excuse the american (U.S.) vernacular).

 

Such Mennonite or Anabaptist resources include:

 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marginal-Mennonite-Society/195351727157390

 

 

http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2011/08/13/mcusa-what-keeps-us-together/

 

and

 

 

http://www.radiofreebabylon.com/

 

Here’s a sample:

This isn’t exactly Mennonite or Anabaptist, but it’s close for me, and their daily comic strip called ‘Coffee with Jesus’ is amazing and hilarious.

 

Among the complaints against organized religion is that it always becomes domineering, rigid, lifeless and self-serving. Maybe it is because churches are made of people—we people always tend to make evil use of God’s power, just as we misuse every other source of power—oil, coal, nuclear—you name it, we misuse it.

 

But when I’m honest with myself, brutally, when I get upset by the church, the organized church, the denominational church (and I also get upset by Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish and all other institutional churches) it is not because they are organized—it is because they are horribly disorganized.

 

With all these churches in the world, why are there still hungry people? Why is there not global peace? Why do women, children and the disabled and elderly live in fear and deprivation? My God, why can’t we get organized? Why don’t churches find a way to help God’s people and creatures, instead of only serving themselves?

 

From John 1: 9-13 come these words:

 

^9-13 The Life-Light was the real thing:
Every person entering Life
he brings into Light.
He was in the world,
the world was there through him,
and yet the world didn’t even notice.

 

If we all entering life as part of Jesus’ life-light, why can’t we shine together?

 

Pray for peace,

Bill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prayer List: Peace Mennonite Church keeps a prayer list for those in need. If you need prayer, or want to e-mail our pastor, e-mail billd @ peacemennonitechurch.net (Take out the extra spaces to use this e-mail—the spaces confuse spam generators).

Pray with us!

We are praying as a church, and attempting to follow the centuries’ old tradition of praying with other Christians three times a day. We are following the prayer liturgy at www.commonprayer.net

Copyright 2011. All rights reserved. Peace Mennonite Church of Columbia, MO Permission is granted for one-time non-commercial use with proper attribution.

 

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Psalm 72

Jeremiah 31:7-14

John 1:[1-9] 10-18

 

Psalm 72

The Message (MSG)

A Solomon Psalm

72 ^1-8 Give the gift of wise rule to the king, O God,
the gift of just rule to the crown prince.
May he judge your people rightly,
be honorable to your meek and lowly.
Let the mountains give exuberant witness;
shape the hills with the contours of right living.
Please stand up for the poor,
help the children of the needy,
come down hard on the cruel tyrants.
Outlast the sun, outlive the moon—
age after age after age.
Be rainfall on cut grass,
earth-refreshing rain showers.
Let righteousness burst into blossom
and peace abound until the moon fades to nothing.
Rule from sea to sea,
from the River to the Rim.

^9-14 Foes will fall on their knees before God,
his enemies lick the dust.
Kings remote and legendary will pay homage,
kings rich and resplendent will turn over their wealth.
All kings will fall down and worship,
and godless nations sign up to serve him,
Because he rescues the poor at the first sign of need,
the destitute who have run out of luck.
He opens a place in his heart for the down-and-out,
he restores the wretched of the earth.
He frees them from tyranny and torture—
when they bleed, he bleeds;
when they die, he dies.

^15-17 And live! Oh, let him live!
Deck him out in Sheba gold.
Offer prayers unceasing to him,
bless him from morning to night.
Fields of golden grain in the land,
cresting the mountains in wild exuberance,
Cornucopias of praise, praises
springing from the city like grass from the earth.
May he never be forgotten,
his fame shine on like sunshine.
May all godless people enter his circle of blessing
and bless the One who blessed them.

^18-20 Blessed God, Israel’s God,
the one and only wonder-working God!
Blessed always his blazing glory!
All earth brims with his glory.
Yes and Yes and Yes.

Jeremiah 31:7-14

The Message (MSG)

⁷ Oh yes, God says so:

“Shout for joy at the top of your lungs for Jacob!
Announce the good news to the number-one nation!
Raise cheers! Sing praises. Say,
‘God has saved his people,
saved the core of Israel.’

⁸ “Watch what comes next:

“I’ll bring my people back
from the north country
And gather them up from the ends of the earth,
gather those who’ve gone blind
And those who are lame and limping,
gather pregnant women,
Even the mothers whose birth pangs have started,
bring them all back, a huge crowd!

⁹ “Watch them come! They’ll come weeping for joy
as I take their hands and lead them,
Lead them to fresh flowing brooks,
lead them along smooth, uncluttered paths.
Yes, it’s because I’m Israel’s Father
and Ephraim’s my firstborn son!

^10-14 “Hear this, nations! God’s Message!
Broadcast this all over the world!
Tell them, ‘The One who scattered Israel
will gather them together again.
From now on he’ll keep a careful eye on them,
like a shepherd with his flock.’
I, God, will pay a stiff ransom price for Jacob;
I’ll free him from the grip of the Babylonian bully.
The people will climb up Zion’s slopes shouting with joy,
their faces beaming because of God’s bounty—
Grain and wine and oil,
flocks of sheep, herds of cattle.
Their lives will be like a well-watered garden,
never again left to dry up.
Young women will dance and be happy,
young men and old men will join in.
I’ll convert their weeping into laughter,
lavishing comfort, invading their grief with joy.
I’ll make sure that their priests get three square meals a day
and that my people have more than enough.’” God’s Decree.

John 1:1-18

The Message (MSG)

The Life-Light

1 ^1-2 The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one.

^3-5 Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!—
came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn’t put it out.

^6-8 There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.

^9-13 The Life-Light was the real thing:
Every person entering Life
he brings into Light.
He was in the world,
the world was there through him,
and yet the world didn’t even notice.
He came to his own people,
but they didn’t want him.
But whoever did want him,
who believed he was who he claimed
and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
their child-of-God selves.
These are the God-begotten,
not blood-begotten,
not flesh-begotten,
not sex-begotten.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.

¹⁵ John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.”

^16-18 We all live off his generous bounty,
gift after gift after gift.
We got the basics from Moses,
and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
This endless knowing and understanding—
all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made him plain as day.

 

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