A Prayer for Children

I saw this on the blog of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation. It is a moving prayer.

[from A Prayer for Children by Ina Hughs. Wm. Morrow and Company, NY., 1995. Pgs XIV-XV.]

We pray for children
who sneak popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in math workbooks,
who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those
who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
who never "counted potatoes,"
who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead,
who never go to the circus,
who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children
who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.

And we pray for those
who never get dessert,
who have no safe blankets to drag behind them,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who can't find any bread to steal,
who don't have any rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
whose monsters are real.

We pray for children
who spend all their allowances before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
who like ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed and never rinse out the tub,
who get visits from the tooth fairy,
who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those
whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who have never seen a dentist,
who aren't spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be carried
and for those who must,
for those we never give up on and for those
who don't get a second chance.
For those we smother…and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

[The poem was written following the Oklahoma City bombing by Ina Hughes, columnist for the Knoxville News-Sentinel.]

At Camp Washington last week...

A couple of photos:







at Eucharist








No one warned me about the ducks...




It was a great week!

Church Attendance Boosts Student GPAs

Interesting article...

If you want to boost your teenager's grade point average, take the kid to church. Or, a new study suggests, find some similar social activity to involve them in. Researchers found that church attendance has as much effect on a teen's GPA as whether the parents earned a college degree. Students in grades 7 to 12 who went to church weekly also had lower dropout rates and felt more a part of their schools.

On average, students whose parents received a four-year college degree average a GPA .12 higher than those whose parents completed high school only. Students who attend religious services weekly average a GPA .144 higher than those who never attend services, said Jennifer Glanville, a sociologist at the University of Iowa. The study does not suggest God is smiling on the students, per se. Rather, it identifies several reasons the students do better:

• They have regular contact with adults from various generations who serve as role models.
• Their parents are more likely to communicate with their friends' parents.
• They develop friendships with peers who have similar norms and values.
• They're more likely to participate in extracurricular activities.

Those factors account for only half the predicted effect, Glanville and colleagues say...

Read the whole article here.

Platforms Against Poverty

2008 can be the year that both political parties make the struggle to end global poverty a policy priority. Senators Tom Daschle and Bill Frist will deliver your petition to the party platform committees when they meet with them, so don't miss the chance to make your voice heard.

Here's the petition text:

As a proud American, I urge you to make ending extreme poverty and global disease in the developing world a core part of your 2008 platform by including commitments to:

• Fight AIDS, TB and malaria and improve basic health services, particularly for mothers and young children
• Ensure access to clean water, basic sanitation and sufficient food supplies
• Spur economic growth through equitable trade and investment policies
• Modernize and increase development assistance, focusing on partnership, transparency and accountability
• Achieve universal primary education

Click this link and we’ll add your name to the petition

Offering of Letters

Some did this during our worship service, others wanted the information posted regarding Bread for the World's offering of letters (see here).

Here is the information from their site:

An effective letter to Congress needs three things:

1. Put your name and address at the end of your letter AND on the envelope, so your members of Congress know that you are one of the people they represent.
   
   
2. Ask for specific action, using the sentence below or your own words:
   
   Please work to increase poverty-focused development assistance by at least $5 billion. In addition, pass the Global Poverty Act so that our assistance will have the maximum impact for those with the greatest need. [ADD THIS SENTENCE WHEN WRITING TO SENATORS: Please cosponsor S. 2433.]
   
   
3. Give reasons why. Examples are:

• Rising global food prices are having a devastating impact on poor and hungry people. As many as 100 million people could be worse off because of this crisis. We cannot afford to let this happen!

• While there are immediate actions our nation must take, we also need better-funded U.S. aid programs to help improve agriculture, nutrition, and education. These programs can build long-term solutions for communities worldwide and help small scale farmers improve their yields so they can feed their families and communities.

When finished, please place your letter(s) in the offering plate at St. Peter's Church. I will send them out after I return from Camp Washington.

Sample Letter

Date

Dear Rep. ________ or Dear Sen. ______,

Rising global food prices are having a devastating impact on poor and hungry people. As many as 100 million people could be worse off because of this crisis. We cannot afford to let this happen!

While there are immediate actions our nation must take, we also need better-funded U.S. aid programs to help improve agriculture, nutrition, and education. These programs can build long-term solutions for communities worldwide and help small scale farmers improve their yields so they can feed their families and communities.

Please work to increase poverty-focused development assistance by at least $5 billion. In addition, pass the Global Poverty Act so that our assistance will have the maximum impact for those with the greatest need. [ADD THIS SENTENCE WHEN WRITING TO SENATORS: Please cosponsor S. 2433.]

Sincerely,
Your Name
Your Address

(There will be sample letters available for you at church...)

A Love Supreme (the liner notes)

Dear Listener:

All Praise Be To God To Whom All Praise Is Due.

Let us pursue Him in the righteous path. Yes it is true; “seek and ye shall find.” Only through Him can we know the most wondrous bequeathal.

During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music. I feel this has been granted through His grace. ALL PRAISE TO GOD.

As time and events moved on, a period of irresolution did prevail. I entered into a phase which was contradictory to the pledge and away from the esteemed path; but thankfully, now and again through the unerring and merciful hand of God, I do perceive and have been duly re-informed of His OMNIPOTENCE, and of our need for, and dependence on Him. At this time I would like to tell you that NO MATTER WHAT…IT IS WITH GOD. HE IS GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL. HIS WAY IS IN LOVE, THROUGH WHICH WE ALL ARE . IT IS TRULY—A LOVE SUPREME--.

This album is a humble offering to Him. An attempt to say “THANK YOU GOD” through our work, even as we do in our hearts and with our tongues. May He help and strengthen all men in every good endeavor…

May we never forget that in the sunshine of our lives, through the storm and after the rain—it is all with God—in all ways forever.

ALL PRAISE TO GOD.

With love to all, I thank you,

John Coltrane

Sermon - A Love Supreme (Aug. 3)

“This album is a humble offering to Him. An attempt to say “THANK YOU GOD” through our work, even as we do in our hearts and with our tongues. May He help and strengthen all men in every good endeavor.” – John Coltrane

These words from John Coltrane written in the liner notes for his album, make clear that he saw his album as an offering to God, a work of thanksgiving.

“I would like to tell you that no matter what…it is with god. He is gracious and merciful. His way is in love, through which we all are. It is truly— a love supreme.”

Coltrane understood God as that love supreme that guided his life and no matter how he failed, that God’s mercy and love would be with him. His words are for us to hear today! That love supreme he talks about, is what I see in the actions of Jesus. And there is no better representation of the love that Jesus has for humanity, than in his feeding of 5 thousand people.

Jesus looks around the countryside and has compassion for all the people gathered there. Many healings took place. It became late. The disciples want to send the people back to the towns to find food and lodging. To let others offer hospitality. But Jesus tells the disciples that the people need not go, you are to offer that hospitality, you give them something to eat.

The disciples only saw their puny rations: 5 loaves and two fish. Barely enough for themselves, how was it going to feed so many?

And Jesus takes what they have, he blesses it, brakes the loaves and gives it to the disciples who in turn share them with the crowd. It is a scene reminiscent of Moses and the tribes with manna raining down from heaven, and everyone had their fill. Or when Elisha has a disciple of his feed 100 with 20 loaves of barley. And Elisha tells him, “Thus says the Lord, they shall eat and have some left.”

The point is all were fed, God’s mercy and abundant love helped feed the people. With Jesus, all were fed and had their fill and 12 baskets (like the 12 tribes of Israel or 12 disciples) remained. This act of love towards the people is like the love supreme with the bread and wine we share at the meal of the Eucharist, as Jesus had done with his disciples.

It is what we are doing this morning, with the music of John Coltrane helping us feel in worship that Love Supreme which we will taste in bread and wine in just a moment. And I think of this poem:

Bread of heaven, on thee we feed,
for thy Flesh is meat indeed;
ever may our souls be fed
with this true and living Bread;
day by day with strength supplied
through the life of him who died.
~Josiah Conder

Our souls are indeed fed with that bread and wine, but I think of Jesus words to his disciples in the midst of the feeding, you give them something to eat, and I hear those words directed at me. How do I help feed others today?

Often I get information from various Christian relief agencies. I actively support Episcopal Relief and Development, and help as I can the Karen Emergency Relief Fund, but most others get deposited in the circular file. Just too many!

But as I looked at the Bread for the World materials, I was struck by how they invited us not only to send in financial offering to aid the world’s poor but to use my voice and contact my representatives in Congress through an Offering of Letters.

"Bread for the World's 2008 Offering of Letters is pushing for more and better poverty-focused development assistance—funding for programs in the U.S. budget that give people in poor countries the skills and opportunities to break the cycle of poverty permanently. These include long-term investments in things like education, agriculture, nutrition, health and clean water. More and better poverty-focused development assistance is a critical component of the effort to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)."

It can be an act of love to raise our voice for those who have no voice and convince those in power, to help the less fortunate in our world, to give them the aid they need to live the fullest of lives. I invite you today or this week, to write a letter to your congressman or senators and let them know you are asking their support to help fund more and better poverty-focused development assistance. (see the post above this one)

You give them something to eat, Jesus says to us. As we celebrate the Eucharist today and give thanks to God and eat that bread wine given to us by Jesus, may we in turn remember the poor and hungry in this world and offer our love and letters in support of them so they may indeed have something to eat.

Let us pray.

Jesus, you blessed, broke and gave five loaves and two fish and a multitude was fed. Give us the conviction, to answer your call to serve and to speak out for hungry people. We believe that you are moving in our time to end hunger, and we are grateful that you include us as a part of this great liberation. We pray for the leaders of our nation—the decision makers who can change policies and redirect funding to create help and opportunity with the stroke of pen. Open all of our hearts, our eyes and ears, our hands, gracious and holy God. Let the multitude be fed once again. Let your Spirit move in our midst, O God, our love supreme. Amen.

(prayer adapted from a litany by Bread for the World)