Author Archive: Craig

Prayer of the People, 12 February 2021

February 16, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

In every prayer in which we invoke your love of justice, we know we need your mercy. You are right in all your judgements. Unless you forgave us who could stand with you? The ransom for a life is too much! But thanks be to Jesus Christ your Son, who has paid our debt and has ushered us into your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Though we may at times be convinced of the rightness of our cause, Oh Lord, do not let us abide in foolishness. We raise our hands to you and each beseech you, “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.” May your goodness infiltrate our whole lives.

Come Lord Jesus come. We are in desperate need. Renew our wills in the power of your Holy Spirit that we might obey you. May our lives resonate with a “Yes” and a “No” in response to your Word. 

Renew our minds Lord. We struggle to imagine life in community with others where your justice rolls in like a mighty river.  But you know. You know how our lives as neighbours can be different socially and economically because of the good news of Jesus and His Kingdom.


And of your Church, your Bride, we ask you to empower us to raise a lament for the historic and painful truths of adultery with the world. The lust for power is so toxic! Forgive us Lord. Raise up a new generation committed to genuine kinship through Christ.

We must pray as another brother has prayed, “Lord make me an instrument of your peace.”
We seek your shallom in South Sudan, in Syria, in Myanmar, in India, in Mexico, and in Canada.  Fortify our brothers and sisters with Jesus’ love even through their weaknesses. Restrain us from violence against those who regard us as enemies and help us to bless and to do good. Protect us from idolatry, especially the idolatry wrapped up in greed. 

Lord we need you and so we pray as Jesus teaches us: Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

This prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 12 February 2021.

Prayer

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Covid Blues

February 10, 2021 0 Comments

Some go out

and some stay in.

The only connection 

between us are

sun-bleached 

sidewalks with 

occasional

puddles.

What slender 

grasp we had

on culture is

fading as

quickly as

snow in

Van

cou

ver.

Poetry

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Riding the Highs & Lows with Joseph

February 8, 2021 0 Comments

Last week in staff meeting I was reminded of a Bible Study I facilitated for the Origin Retreat last February 2020. For any who are sorting through the date — that’s before our Covid “lockdown” here in BC a few weeks later.

Several times over the last ten years I have lead students through long reads of Scripture. This one was particularly fun and deeply meaningful.

I’ve laid it out for you. In small groups someone would read the Scripture and then I would write out the questions. While they were answering the questions I would add to Joseph’s timeline. (Expand the picture.) I provided a bit of commentary between each reading and discussion assignment as well as some teaching that referenced, Dr. J. Robert Clinton’s work, The Making of a Leader. Specifically I as interested in Clinton’s idea of an integrity check. He writes,

“The God-given capacity to lead has two parts: giftedness and character. Integrity is the heart of character.

An emerging leader becomes aware of the importance of integrity through through integrity checks. An integrity check is a test that God uses to evaluate intententions in order to shape character. There are three parts to an integrity check: the challenge to consistency with inner convictions, the response to the challenge, and the resulting expansion of ministry.”

Dr. J. Robert Clinton,The Making of a Leader: Recognizing the Lessons and Stages of Leadership Development, 1988. p. 58-59.

I was also interested in helping our group expand their sense of time across their reading of the pages of Scripture as well as their lives. We are in such a hurry! Life happens (and that can be traumatic!) and we can loose sight of the fact that God is working. One of the pivotal questions and the great “aha moment” came when we figured out the years covered in Joseph’s life and added in the questions, “What do you hope will be true about you in 13 years?”

Read: Genesis 37:1-11
Q: What is it like to be the favourite? or to not be the favourite?
Q: What is it like to have ambitions or great dreams as a teenager?

Read: Genesis 37:12-36
Q: What kinds of violence or trauma can make a dream disappear?

Read: Genesis 39:1-23
Q: What kind of integrity tests/events are common between the ages of 18 and 24?
Q: How do you respond when people take advantage of you, your vulnerability, or your integrity?

Read Genesis 40:1-23
Q: Why is it important that Joseph gave credit to God for the interpretation?
Q: If you were a prisoner with Joseph would believe his story of innocence?
Q: What is it like to be forgotten?

Read Genesis 41:1-57
Q: What did God do for Pharaoh?
Q: What did God do for Joseph?
Q: What do you hope will be true about you in 13 years?

Read Genesis 42-43
Q: How is a moment of possible “revenge” an integrity test?
Q: Is this a high moment or a low moment for Joseph?
Q: How is Joseph still an “outsider?”

Now I hope you are not just riding the highs and lows with Joseph, but you are also living the highs and lows with God.

Discipleship, Leadership

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Prayer of the People, 5 February 2021

February 8, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

We delight in you because the blood of Your Son Jesus Christ has covered our sin and marked us as forgiven. Your perfect love has cast out our fear. You have cleansed us and set us apart for your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thank you!

Now in this grace we see Jesus, close to us — sharing in our humanity, serving us, and humbly laying down His life at the Cross. Now in this grace we see Jesus high and lifted up, exalted to your right hand and interceding for us. We bow the knee and we joyfully confess Him as Lord.

We have been united with Jesus in your communion. Send your Spirit, Lord, among us, that we might move toward each other with tenderness and compassion, and in the power of your love.

We confess Lord, our minds are occupied too often with selfish ambitions and trivial pursuits. Show us how to repent of our desire for applause and to take off our pretentious robes of self righteousness, so we might value others and take an interest in their concerns, unleashing gifts of creativity and the hope of the resurrection through service.

Lord we lift up people being run over by selfish ambition, by rage, and sometimes hate. Fortify the people of Myanmar, of Northwest China, and of Yemen with hope. Reveal yourself and call out people for yourself as peacemakers and good neighbours.

Lord we lift up families being ravaged by the covid-19 pandemic. Comfort them and provide for them in communities that care. Renew our hearts through generosity and the power of your Word.

Lord we lift up students here in Vancouver. Call out to them again Lord with your gracious invitation for life, for redeemed purpose, and for true freedom.

Lord we need you and so we pray as Jesus teaches us: Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.

Oh Lord we need you and so we pray…
(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

This prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 5 February 2021

Prayer

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Noah’s Trauma

February 5, 2021 1 Comment

I’m praying for health care workers, nurses, doctors today. The Covid-19 Pandemic is taking a toll. And its not over. When it is “over,” it will likely not be over for many of them even if it is over for us.

If you are not sure that our health care teams are under a rising and constant stress from the pandemic just a run a search for it. The articles and the stories of tragedies among health care providers are there in many countries.

Recently a parent in our congregation sent me an email with their child’s inquiry. “Why did Noah curse his child?” I had an answer but I framed it within my belief informed by exposure to trauma based care.

I think Noah was wrong; he made a mistake. Even though God called him and God preserved his life, Noah may have carried in his body the mysterious weight of surviving and of leading through the flood. Noah a man of the soil (Genesis 9:20) knew what he was doing when he planted the vineyard, waited a few years to harvest the grapes, and then made wine.

This builder of the ark had become a man of the sea. Where he may have once felt in control on life on land, he experienced an utter lack of control on the seas of judgment. The experience was likely traumatic. Yes, I wonder, what grace from God was available to him. But Noah, even a few years after the flood, after running a ship made for survival, “became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.”

Ham discovered his father, and told his bothers Shem and Japheth. They covered their father with a blanket, but only after walking in backwards, so they would not see their father naked. When Noah “awoke from his wine” he heard what the “youngest had done to him” and cursed him.

I think Noah’s response is actually a reaction to shame and he brought God into it. Ham stumbled into the moment that Noah had created. I think surely Noah was still working out what he had lived through.

The write of Hebrews reminds us that by faith, “in holy fear” Noah “built an ark to save his family.” (Hebrews 11:7) But what was he doing by faith now?

I’m not sure of all the motivations for health care providers. But perhaps most entered in order to save us. The pandemic has complicated and frustrated that desire. They would like to keep us out of the hospital so they affirm and calls us to the preventative actions we can take. Frustration rises when we don’t act like the pandemic flood is real. And then there is the actual care. The doors of their ship, the hospital, are still open for the sick and dying. So we go and some of us are restored to health.

This pandemic will draw to the close. I’m concerned for the health care providers who have carried the weight of our survival. What safe places of refuge will be created for their soul care?

Dear Health Care Providers, My neighbourhood doesn’t do the 7 O’Clock Health Care Provider Salute anymore. But I haven’t forgotten you. I’m praying for you today.

Relationships, Society, Work

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