Category: Online Devotional

Corona Sabbath 15 COMPASSION

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThese weeks when we cannot gather in person for Sunday worship, Lakewood United Church of Christ is providing brief weekly sabbath programs for you to listen to on your own or with others in your social isolation group. They will be posted on Friday so that you can schedule your sabbath time to suit your schedule and your spiritual inclinations. We hope these programs are of spiritual support to you in these difficult times.

There is a scripture reading and a brief meditation by Pastor Kim Wells as well as music offered by Music Director Hilton Kean Jones.

During these summer weeks, the theme being used in “Grounded.” Some of us feel that shelter-in-place feels like being grounded. Some would normally have travel plans and feel grounded. With the many challenges facing our society, it is important to feel grounded. So these Summer Sundays will focus on key concepts in Christianity that provide grounding. So, welcome to “Grounded.” This post focuses on grace.

You are invited to find a quiet space, inside or outside. Light a candle. Take a look around you. Breathe. Life-giving breath. Be present.

You may begin by offering this reading:

Compassion is a thread that binds together the deepest centers of life beyond the borders of race, gender, religion, tribe, or creature.

–Ilia Delio, Compassion

When you are ready, start the video below.

(For written text of the above video click HERE.)

As you listen to the music from Hilton which follows, you are invited to notice the thoughts and feelings and that arise for you.

After listening to the music, you are invited to offer the following closing:

As my heart breaks open, there will be room for the world to heal.

–Joanna Macy, World as Lover, World as Self, adapted

Breathe. Breathe again. Be filled. With compassion. For the world. For yourself. Extinguish your candle and engage whatever may come with a sense of peace and a desire to serve.

LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

The mission of Lakewood United Church of Christ, as part of the Church Universal, is to:

  • Celebrate the presence and power of God in our lives and in our world;
  • Offer the hospitality and inclusive love of Christ to all people;
  • Work for God’s peace and justice throughout creation.

 

QUICK LINKS TO OUR RECENT POSTS DURING THE CORONA CRISIS:
Online Devotionals: https://lakewooducc.org/category/online-devotional/
Sermon Texts: https://lakewooducc.org/category/posts/sermon-texts/
For above links, please note “Older Posts” button near bottom of page.
Music: https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/sets/music-at-lakewood

Corona Sabbath 14 Father’s Day

father's dayThese weeks when we cannot gather in person for Sunday worship, Lakewood United Church of Christ is providing brief weekly sabbath programs for you to listen to on your own or with others in your social isolation group. They will be posted on Friday so that you can schedule your sabbath time to suit your schedule and your spiritual inclinations. We hope these programs are of spiritual support to you in these difficult times.

There is a scripture reading and a brief meditation by Pastor Kim Wells as well as music offered by Music Director Hilton Kean Jones. This week for Father’s Day, there is a special music video featuring the pictures of father figures contributed by the church family and music by a father and son and daughter-in-law from the congregation.

During these summer weeks, the theme being used in “Grounded.” Some of us feel that shelter-in-place feels like being grounded. Some would normally have travel plans and feel grounded. With the many challenges facing our society, it is important to feel grounded. So these Summer Sundays will focus on key concepts in Christianity that provide grounding. So, welcome to “Grounded.” This post focuses on grace.

You are invited to find a quiet space, inside or outside. Light a candle. Take a look around you. Breathe. Life-giving breath. Be present.

You may begin by offering this reading:

Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!
Let this goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee!

–From the hymn, Come, O Fount of Every Blessing, words by Robert Robinson based on Psalm 36:7-9

When you are ready, start the video below.

(For written text of the above video click HERE.)

On this Father’s Day, we give thanks for those who have had a fathering role in our lives. We give thanks for those who are fathers and have been fathers, offering themselves to the care and nurture of others.

You are invited to watch the video which follows featuring pictures of fathers contributed by the church family and accompanied by music from a father, son, and spouse trio.

Let us pray:

We give thanks for those who have shown us fathering love. We are grateful for those who have nurtured and provided for us. Those who have comforted us and helped us to grow. Those who have taken joy and delight in watching the circle of life continue!

We are mindful that so many who want to be fathers and share their fathering love are not able to do so. We think of those who are separated from their children, those who are in prison, and we remember the many fatherless children in our land and in our world.

We pray for those children who have had their father’s taken from them through violence or death.

We give thanks for neighbors, teachers, uncles, pastors, friends, who share their fathering love with children.

May we help to nurture into being a society that values all fathers and father figures and their importance in the lives of the others. May all children and young people know the support and nurture of fathering love. Amen.

As you listen to the music from Hilton which follows, you are invited to notice the thoughts and feelings and that arise for you.

After viewing the video, you are invited to offer the following closing:

Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come.
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

–John Newton, Amazing Grace. Newton was a slave trader who became a Christian and joined the abolitionist movement.

LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

The mission of Lakewood United Church of Christ, as part of the Church Universal, is to:

  • Celebrate the presence and power of God in our lives and in our world;
  • Offer the hospitality and inclusive love of Christ to all people;
  • Work for God’s peace and justice throughout creation.

QUICK LINKS TO OUR RECENT POSTS DURING THE CORONA CRISIS:
Online Devotionals: https://lakewooducc.org/category/online-devotional/
Sermon Texts: https://lakewooducc.org/category/posts/sermon-texts/
For above links, please note “Older Posts” button near bottom of page.
Music: https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/sets/music-at-lakewood

Corona Sabbath 13

IMAG0015These weeks when we cannot gather in person for Sunday worship, Lakewood United Church of Christ is providing brief weekly sabbath programs for you to listen to on your own or with those you live with. They will be posted on Friday so that you can schedule your sabbath time to suit your schedule and your spiritual inclinations. We hope these programs are of spiritual support to you in these difficult times.

There is a scripture reading and a brief meditation by Pastor Kim Wells followed by music offered by Music Director Hilton Kean Jones. We appreciate your suggestions and feedback.

Next week is Father’s Day and as a special tribute to father’s Hilton is preparing a music video using pictures of fathers, grandfathers, and such contributed by the church family. Please email pictures to Hilton through the website contact page (https://lakewooducc.org/contact/) by Sunday June 14. Thank you!

During these summer weeks, the theme being used in “Grounded.” Some of us feel that shelter-in-place feels like being grounded. Some would normally have travel plans and feel grounded. With the many challenges facing our society, it is important to feel grounded. So these Summer Sundays will focus on key concepts in Christianity that provide grounding. So, welcome to “Grounded.”

Find a quiet place, inside or outside. Light a candle. Take a look around you. If you are inside, pay attention to the room you are in. Breathe. Life-giving breath. Be present.

You may begin by offering this reading:

The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw and knew I saw all things in God and God in all things.
–Mechthild of Magdeburg, 1207-1282

When you are ready, start the video below.

(For written text of the above video click HERE.)

As you listen to the music from Hilton which follows, you are invited to notice the thoughts and feelings and that arise for you.

After viewing the video, you are invited to offer the following closing:

I have sought how to make souls love God better. How to bring them to God, persuade them that God is above any good, how to illuminate for them this sweetness, this wondrous peace, this mystery, this all which reveals itself to the soul without the soul being able to say how; how to obey the Holy Spirit, this fire that I feel in my soul and which wishes to give of itself, to extend itself. How to communicate this to all those souls that touch my soul; and I have found no other means more powerful than kindness.

–Mathilde Boutle (“Lucie Christine”),1844-1908, adapted

Breathe. Breathe again. Feel the Spirit at your center. Extinguish your candle and engage whatever may come with a sense of peace and a desire to serve.

LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

The mission of Lakewood United Church of Christ, as part of the Church Universal, is to:

  • Celebrate the presence and power of God in our lives and in our world;
  • Offer the hospitality and inclusive love of Christ to all people;
  • Work for God’s peace and justice throughout creation.

QUICK LINKS TO OUR RECENT POSTS DURING THE CORONA CRISIS:
Online Devotionals: https://lakewooducc.org/category/online-devotional/
Sermon Texts: https://lakewooducc.org/category/posts/sermon-texts/
For above links, please note “Older Posts” button near bottom of page.
Music: https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/sets/music-at-lakewood

Corona Sabbath 12

EzekialThese weeks when we cannot gather in person for Sunday worship, Lakewood United Church of Christ is providing brief weekly sabbath programs for you to listen to on your own or with those you live with. They will be posted on Friday so that you can schedule your sabbath time to suit your schedule and your spiritual inclinations. We hope these programs are of spiritual support to you in these difficult times.

There is a scripture reading and a brief meditation by Pastor Kim Wells followed by music offered by Music Director Hilton Kean Jones. We appreciate your suggestions and feedback.

Find a quiet place, inside or outside. Light a candle. Take a look around you. If you are inside, pay attention to the room you are in. Breathe. Life-giving breath. Be present.

Make me

a still place of light
a still place of love
of you
your light radiating
your love vibrating
your touch and your healing
far flung and near
to the myriads caught
in darkness, in sickness
in lostness, in fear

make a heart-center here,
Light of the World

–From Malling Abbey, Denmark

When you are ready, start the video below.

(For written text of the above video click HERE.)

As you listen to the music from Hilton which follows, you are invited to notice the thoughts and feelings and that arise for you.

Have This Love: https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/have-this-love (Note: The above is a recording by the Tampa, Florida, Bayshore Baptist Choir, Dr. John Richmond, conducting; Candace MacDougal, piano; 1993.)

After listening to the music, you are invited to offer the following closing:

God our Mother and Father, we come to you as children. Be with us as we learn to see on another with new eyes, hear on another with new hearts, and treat one another in a new way.

–Corrymeela Community, Northern Ireland

Breathe. Breathe again. Feel the Spirit enlivening you. Extinguish your candle and engage whatever may come with a sense of peace and a desire to serve.

LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

The mission of Lakewood United Church of Christ, as part of the Church Universal, is to:

  • Celebrate the presence and power of God in our lives and in our world;
  • Offer the hospitality and inclusive love of Christ to all people;
  • Work for God’s peace and justice throughout creation.

QUICK LINKS TO OUR RECENT POSTS DURING THE CORONA CRISIS:
Online Devotionals: https://lakewooducc.org/category/online-devotional/
Sermon Texts: https://lakewooducc.org/category/posts/sermon-texts/
For above links, please note “Older Posts” button near bottom of page.
Music: https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/sets/music-at-lakewood

Corona Sabbath 11 Pentecost

CS11These weeks when we cannot gather in person for Sunday worship, Lakewood United Church of Christ is providing brief weekly sabbath programs for you to listen to on your own or with those you live with. They will be posted on Friday so that you can schedule your sabbath time to suit your schedule and your spiritual inclinations. We hope these programs are of spiritual support to you in these difficult times.

There is a scripture reading and a brief meditation by Pastor Kim Wells followed by music offered by Music Director Hilton Kean Jones. We appreciate your suggestions and feedback.

This Sunday we are commemorating Pentecost. This celebration comes from a story in the book of Acts about the Holy Spirit being experienced by the dispirited followers of Jesus after his crucifixion. This story explains how the disciples were enlivened and infused and energized and galvanized to continue the ministry of Jesus. This marks what has come to be known as the birthday of the church. In the Acts story, the Spirit is experienced as wind and flame. So, as you begin, perhaps by lighting a candle and breathing, you may keep in mind that this is how the disciples describe experiencing the Holy Spirit.

Find a quiet place, inside or outside. Light a candle. Take a look around you. If you are inside, pay attention to the room you are in. Breathe. Be present.

You may begin by offering this reading:

“This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do with it.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th century

When you are ready, start the video below.

(For written text of the above video click HERE.)

As you listen to the music from Hilton which follows, you are invited to notice the thoughts and feelings and that arise for you.

After listening to the music, you are invited to offer the following closing

He needs you
That’s all there is to it
Without you he’s left hanging
Goes up in dachau’s smoke
Is sugar and spice in the baker’s hands
gets revalued in the next stock market crash
he’s consumed and blown away
used up
without you

Help him
that’s what faith is
he can’t bring it about
his kingdom
couldn’t then couldn’t later can’t now
not at any rate without you
and that is his irresistible appeal

-Dorothee Soelle 1929-2003

Breathe. Extinguish your candle and engage whatever may come with a sense of peace and a desire to serve.

LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

The mission of Lakewood United Church of Christ, as part of the Church Universal, is to:

  • Celebrate the presence and power of God in our lives and in our world;
  • Offer the hospitality and inclusive love of Christ to all people;
  • Work for God’s peace and justice throughout creation.

QUICK LINKS TO OUR RECENT POSTS DURING THE CORONA CRISIS:
Online Devotionals: https://lakewooducc.org/category/online-devotional/
Sermon Texts: https://lakewooducc.org/category/posts/sermon-texts/
Posts containing music: https://lakewooducc.org/category/posts/music/
For all links, please note “Older Posts” button near bottom of page.
For a free streaming of just the music go to https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/sets/music-at-lakewood