Rwanda Team Request
In a few short weeks, Redeemer is sending it’s first official missions trip to Rwanda to connect with our sister church, the Runda Parish. Below is a short video from our team making a request for help in getting to Rwanda. You won’t regret spending a few minutes watching this one. Enjoy.
On Sunday, June 19th, we will be collecting a special offering for the Rwanda Team. If you are able/willing to help support the team, please make checks payable to Redeemer Anglican Church and write Rwanda Team in the subject line. Checks can be given at the offering on Sunday or can be mailed to the church (Redeemer Anglican Church, PO Box 28105, Raleigh NC 27611).
Thank you for your prayers and support for this partnership.
Redeemer Anglican Church
PO Box 28105
Raleigh, NC 27611
(919) 358-6375
The Search for Jesus
Most people reading this post can tell the Biblical story of Easter. “Jesus died for our sins on the cross. He rose again three days later, so that if we believe in Him, we will live forever.” Even our kids can recant the story with endearing Sunday school splendor. Indeed, the glorious Good News has been received loud and clear by the church and beyond. Yet, still, I have this unsettled feeling, that I (and my people) may be missing something. The words of the story roll off our tongues so effortlessly that I wonder if we mistakenly assume that knowing the story - and even believing it to be true – makes our faith complete.
Believe the story of Easter – check. Christian – check. Heaven – check.
The truth is that we have the story of Easter recorded in the Bible not simply for us to know what happened, important as that is. But point of the Easter story – and all of scripture - is to introduce us to God, and to offer an invitation to live life with His Son. Every… single…word… has the power to woo us into radical intimacy with God. Did you hear that? Radical…intimacy…with… GOD. So, if we have stopped short of true relationship with Jesus, His Son – the kind of relationship that talks and listens and trusts and obeys and waits and wrestles and loves and cries and rejoices and hopes – then no matter how well we know the story, we have simply missed Easter.
It turns out that we are not the first to miss Easter and the presence of Jesus in its aftermath. After the first Easter, there were many who had knew the story by having seen it first hand, but were nevertheless left somewhat baffled about how their life would work with Jesus going forward. When I look back at them I am touched by the way they stayed with their longing, their sadness, their confusion. They didn’t just return to business as usual. It was like they couldn’t quite move on until they got to Jesus. They had doubts, questions, fears, and heartache; but they could not let go of looking for Jesus, making the story personal. And the great news is that Jesus came to them. To all who sought, to all who wondered, to all who wrestled with what Easter really meant – Jesus appeared. After He died on the cross, after He rose from the dead, Jesus went and appeared to His friends who were searching for Him.
To Mary Magdalene who ached with sadness at the loss of her Lord and who wanted to see and touch His body, to the disciples who were afraid of what would happen to them as believers and who needed the peace of Christ’s presence, to the men walking along the road who needed understanding about what had really happened that first Easter, to Thomas who could not believe His God lived until He could touch the holes in His hands, to Peter whose shame must have made him feel like half a man – to all of these people seeking Jesus for proof, for love, for intimacy, for purpose, for peace, for redemption – Jesus appeared. He met them in their search for Him and He gave them what they needed.
The story of Jesus’ time on this earth ends with a great commission and the eternal promise that only Easter can offer. Before Jesus returns to Heaven, He speaks life and purpose and relationship into His disciples. He commissions them to share the marvelous invitation of Easter with the world. It is an invitation not to hear a story, but to live a story in great love and intimacy with its Hero. He promises them that they are not alone, that Easter, in fact, is about never being alone again. And before He departs into the clouds He promises, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Ladies, this story is to be your story. Its Hero is to be your Hero. The Jesus who appeared to all those who searched for Him desires to come to you. Are you searching? Are you seeking? Are you expecting Him to come? He is with you now, as He will be tomorrow. What would it look like in your life today, in this moment, if you simply turned to Him?
Pray for Raleigh
Church -
Please be in prayer for our city. The news is reporting that police were involved in a shooting in SE Raleigh this afternoon. Crowds of protestors are beginning to gather. Please pray for God’s protection and covering over the entire situation and for everyone involved.
Below is a prayer from our Prayer Book for God’s help in the midst of conflict. It may be helpful to guide our prayers for our city during this time.
Prayer In Times of Conflict
O God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us, in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Live Like You Believe
It is beyond bizarre that I am writing about the prophets. They have always seemed too- heavy-to-grasp. It has been easier to pull out the power verses from these chapters than actually pay attention to what they are saying. But God. He is a real funny One. So, here I am writing about those radical, strange-to-their-culture, weeping-for-their-lost-peeps men and women with awe and reverence. I do not claim to understand any more than a smidgeon of what these visionaries teach, but I will say without hesitation that I believe their words are deeply important for us to hear as women in 2016.
As a backdrop, after God had faithfully delivered His beloved people out of captivity and established them as a nation and after He had shown up in miraculous ways revealing His power, provision, mercy and grace, His people were pretty much ignoring Him. It was not that they did not believe He existed. They simply did not pay any attention to the words of God. So, God sent the prophets to urge His people to turn back to Him, to obey His word. Essentially, God sent the prophets to tell His people to live lives that look like you believe. And the message is the same for us. If we believe in God, our lives should look like we believe. Do they?
I have heard so much of God’s instruction for my life. I have heard His stories, and I know His promises. I can say confidently that I believe in God; but I confess that the actions of my life often look like I do not believe. I have heard the message of ‘love your neighbor as yourself’, but I dismiss the unpopular and drive past the poor. I know the command of having no other gods before Me, but the idols of our culture are so entrenched in my daily rhythms that am often unaware of what I worship. The shape of our bodies, healthy eating, social media, looking the part, acting the part, raising impressive kids, doing church well– all these things greedily vie for our attention. Within seconds of closing my Bible, my God slips to the background my eyes hone in on the worries of the world.
The Israelites were condemned for not keeping the Lord’s commands and offering sacrifices for show. Their behavior was compared to infidelity, prostitution. Are we that different? If you could print out a transcript of your thoughts or if you had a tracker for your footsteps, what would those reveal about who and what you worship? By the things I think about, by where I spend my money, my time, my energy, what does this say about who or what is my god? I sit with God in the morning and then I dance to the beat of the world all day long. The words of the prophets ring so true they make me shudder.
These prophets were wildly unpopular, because their message, if looked at squarely, stings. Like my mom used to say, “The alcohol stings when it hits the hurt because there is an infection that must be cleansed.” So, I have sat with the words of these prophets and asked God to speak their cleansing truth deeply into my wayward heart. This idea of where we have relegated God is deeply important if we want to lives as women of faith. He is not to be King of a closed Bible, King of Sunday church, He is to be King over all our lives. King in our parenting, King of our marriage, King of our friendships, King of our calendars, King of our bank accounts. King of our words. Even King of our thoughts. And if He is King over all that we say and do, our lives will look radically different. We will live lives that look like we believe in a God who is Good. The glorious promise on the flip side of the prophets’ solemn cries was this: there is a wonderful Counselor, an everlasting Father, a Prince of Peace, a Comforter, a Healer, a lover of our souls waiting with arms outstretched to receive us, when we turn to Him and live like we believe. I think it’s worth a shot.
Eugene Peterson:
“These sixteen writing prophets provide the help we so badly need if we are to stay alert and knowledgeable regarding the conditions in which we cultivate faithful and obedient lives before God. For the ways of the world – its assumptions, its values, its methods of going about its work are never on the side of God. Never. One of the bad habits that we pick up early in our lives is separating things into secular and sacred. We assume that the secular is what we are in charge of: our jobs, our time, our entertainment, our government, our social relations. The sacred is what God is in charge of: the bible, worship, heaven and hell, church and prayers. We then contrive to set aside a sacred place for God, designed, we say, to honor God but really intended to keep God in his place, leaving us free to have the final say about everything else that goes on. Prophets will have none of this. They contend that everything takes place on sacred ground. God has something to say about every aspect of our lives.”
Sitting with Jesus - Prayer for the 2nd week of Epiphany
Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A Posture of Listening
There is a story in I Samuel, chapter 3 about a boy hearing the voice of God for the first time. The boy’s name is Samuel. Samuel would go on to become a prophet for all of Israel, and God would speak mighty truths through him. However, before that, Samuel had to learn to hear God’s voice.
This story is encouraging to me in so many ways. First, the fact that the God - who knows me, made me, loves me, sees me, has a purpose for me, and is - at present - preparing a place for me to spend forever and ever – that God is not too busy to talk to me. Enormously exciting. The second reason this gets me all fired up is that if He is speaking to me personally, then this faith/church/religion stuff gets very real. No longer the black and white mandate of got to/should do/need to, the God at the center of my faith is now only a conversation away. Faith starts to feel less like duty and more like a road trip with a wise and loving bestie. And thirdly, when Someone wants to spend a lifetime traveling with you, talking with you, listening to your heart’s groanings that you can’t even articulate – well - to me, that sounds like the intimacy I always wanted but never knew I was missing.
So, how do I hear this voice? Interesting how it worked for Samuel. He was asleep on the floor beside the arc of the Lord. His mentor, Eli, was sleeping in the room just adjacent. The Lord calls to Samuel three times, “Samuel!” Every time Samuel wakes up and runs to Eli saying, “Here I am.” And each time, Eli essentially says, I didn’t call you. Go back to bed. After the third time, Eli realizes that this may be the Lord speaking to Samuel, “So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” And that is what Samuel did. The Lord called on him again, and Samuel responded just as Eli had said. “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” And the Lord spoke, and Samuel listened, a pattern that would continue for the rest of Samuel’s life.
So, what was the difference between the times Samuel didn’t recognize God’s voice and the time that he did? What I see in this passage is that Samuel got into a posture of listening, and in doing so, he went from simply hearing to truly listening.
He was quiet and still. No matter how hard we try, it is very hard to truly listen when the world around us is loud and busy. We may hear things, but that doesn’t mean we are always listening. He was expectant. He went from not even considering that God would speak to him to becoming expectant of hearing God’s voice. He was open. Maybe it was because he was a boy without the encumbrances of a great political, social or personal agenda, but Samuel seemed so open to hear anything. I confess that I listen out primarily for things I want to hear - like that I am “right” in pretty much all circumstances. The reality is that sometimes when we listen only for certain things we miss the message all together. He was believing. Samuel was able to listen, because he believed God would speak to a little fella like him.
Ladies, this is immensely important, this listening business. In verse 7 of this chapter it says, “Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord” before he listened to God’s voice. Samuel grew up in the temple, a student of the great prophet Eli, he slept on the floor beside the arc of the Lord which was considered the very presence of God. Still, with all that ‘church’ all around him, he did not know the Lord until he listened to His voice.
So, here is our MANNA: God is speaking to you now. He is a God who calls out to the people He loves. And, this I know for sure. He loves you. He wants to ‘tell you great and unsearchable things that you do not know’. Will you listen? What if you gave Him 3 minutes of your day today in a quiet, open, expectant and believing posture? What if you said, “Speak, Lord, for I am listening”? What if …
Sitting with Jesus - Prayer for the 2nd week of Christmas
‘And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. ‘ – Philippians 1:6
Attached is the picture that I referenced yesterday. I wanted to send it as a reminder to us all that we are works in progress. Give yourself (and others) grace in this life as God works on us to form us into the image of Christ. He is coming back, and on that day we will all be complete!
Below is a prayer for the 2nd week of Christmas. Allow it to draw you into a time of Sitting with Jesus.
Prayer for the 2nd Sunday after Christmas Day
O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Merry Christmas,
Ford
Sitting with Jesus - Prayer for the 1st Week of Christmas
Church –
Below is a prayer for the 1st week of Christmas. As you Sit with Jesus this week, I pray that it will help to remind you of the impact that Jesus, the incarnate Word, can make in our lives.
Prayer for the 1st Sunday after Christmas Day
Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Mary: Casting Call
In all of the Christmas pageants of my youth, I never got to play the part of Mary. It was a significant disappointment, and it has taken me years to accept this oversight. So, you will join in my rejoicing as I share with you the good news of my recent nod from the Director. It seems there is still a chance for us all.
Luke 1 tells of the angel Gabriel approaching Mary with news of her being chosen to give birth to the Son of God. “The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you… Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.”
When Mary was cast in this role it had something to do with her favor with God. I wonder what that means… favor. Throughout the Old Testament, men and women found favor with God as they listened to Him, trusted Him, obeyed Him and walked with Him. He was in their thoughts, their plans, their hearts. He was ahead of them, behind them, with them. He was I AM to them. For me in 2015, that sounds like belief in its deepest and yet simplest form. Belief that He is all I need. Belief that He is so big, so close, so good, so deliberate in His every awareness of my life that He becomes an extension of me, as I become an extension of Him. Inseparable. Entwined.
John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask … and it shall be done for you.”
I have thought about Mary and this abiding and this favor a lot this Christmas, because I want all of it. But how? I don’t really know for sure, but I think it has to do with planting His words into my soul’s depths with the belief they will grow and become something bigger than me. Just as we believe a seed properly planted will become something else, His words inside of me - Him in me - will yield something new. Him in me changes me, grows me, stretches me, refines me from the inside out. And something else happens along the way. It’s as if I am being prepared for a place I long for but have never seen.
Here we sit at Christmas. And I hear an offering for each of us to play a most sacred role in THE story of our time… You see, I think He is asking all of us to be Mary. It may sounds something like this:
Daughter, will you take My word, My Self into your heart and become pregnant with all the potential of a new life? I am asking only that you abide in me, as My word abides in you. Like a pregnant woman watches new life grow inside of her – something she can only partially see and feel but not fully understand - will you allow Me to grow inside of you? By saying yes, you will begin to see the splendor of Eternity dripping into your everyday life. I ask only that you love this new Life with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. The life inside of you is called Jesus. He is love itself, and He is your Emmanuel. Follow Him wherever He goes. He will comfort you, heal you, bring you peace and joy as you have never known. Trust Him, because He is good. He will show you the way to Me. And with Me, you will understand; for it is with Me that you have always belonged. I have given all that I loved most to give you this opportunity, this gift. I desire you to say yes, because I love you so. This is My Hand reaching down to you. Will you receive this new Life you were born to love?
And just like that, this story is our story. The part is ours for the taking. So, what if we played the part of Mary this Christmas by saying, “Let it be”?