Category: Online Devotional

Corona Sabbath 35 Investment Advice


These 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.

The post this week focuses on investment strategies based on a very well known and multi faceted story associated with Jesus. What are we investing in? What is our purpose?

This post includes a scripture reading done by Claire Stiles, a reflection from Rev. Kim Wells and music from Hilton Jones. We hope this post helps to feed your spirit in these difficult times.

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 reading this quote:

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.
–Anaïs Nin, 20th century

When you are ready, start the video/audio below.


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

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

You are invited to offer the following closing –

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you,
exalted for you, or brought low for you;
let me be full, let me be empty,
let me have all things, let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

–Methodist Covenant Prayer

Breathe. Breathe again. Be filled. With purpose. 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.

USEFUL LAKEWOOD LINKS DURING THE CORONA CRISIS:

 

Corona Sabbath 34 CHOOSE THIS DAY


These 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.

The post this week focuses choices – a fitting theme in this season of voting! We remember the challenge from Joshua, “Choose this day.”

This post includes a scripture reading done by Sue Sherwood, a reflection from Rev. Kim Wells and music from Hilton Jones. We hope this post helps to feed your spirit in these difficult times.

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:

As They Love Their Cow

Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love their cow- for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own advantage. Indeed, I tell you the truth, any object you have in your mind, however good, will be a barrier between you and the inmost Truth.

–Meister Eckhart 1260-1327

When you are ready, start the video/audio below.

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

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

You are invited to offer the following closing –

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.

–Dag Hammarskjold, 20th century

Breathe. Breathe again. Be filled. With conviction. 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.

USEFUL LAKEWOOD LINKS DURING THE CORONA CRISIS:

Corona Sabbath 33 ALL SAINTS


These 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.

The post this week focuses on All Saints Sunday. It is a time to think about those we name as saints, people who have shown us something of God, of Divine Love. And it is a time to reflect on our relationship with all those who have gone before us. As Albert Einstein reminds us, “A hundred times a day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other people, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the full measure I have received and am still receiving.”

This post includes a scripture reading done by Jim Andrews, a reflection from Rev. Kim Wells and a music video including pictures of saints submitted by the congregation. We hope this post helps to feed your spirit in these difficult times.

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:

Ye who have gone before,
Ye stillborn baby,
Ye stalwart soldier,
Ye slave who never made it off the ship,
And ye who labored long years in the field.
Ye who have gone before,
Ancestor, ship captain in Norway,
Pioneer in the prairie,
Single mother in the housing project,
Young child in the forest tribe,
All welcome ye on this feast day of the saints,
Where veil becomes thin between
Living and dead, and
Today more than ever we hear
Your voice, echo from the past
Sounding through these times
Generations forward, blood
Coursing through my veins
Just as it did the very same
Through yours.  And together
We become each other’s bones and sinew
Flesh as one body, one earth, one soul
On this day that unites the living with the dead.

–Maia Twedt, chaplain, contemporary

When you are ready, start the video/audio below.

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

As you watch the wonderful music video which follows, you are invited to think about those who have been saints in your life and who live on in you.

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

The saints have no need of honor from us; neither does our devotion add the slightest thing to what is theirs.  Clearly, if we venerate their memory, it serves us, not them.  But I tell you, when I think of them, I feel myself inflamed by tremendous yearning.

–Bernard of Clairvaux  1090-1153

Breathe. Breathe again. Be filled. With God. 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.

USEFUL LAKEWOOD LINKS DURING THE CORONA CRISIS:

Corona Sabbath 32 COMPASSION

These 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.

The post this week focuses on compassion and service. What are our motivations? This post includes a scripture reading and a reflection from Rev. Kim Wells plus a musical offering from Hilton Jones. We hope this post helps to feed your spirit in these difficult times.

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 with this reading:

O Lord, whatever share of this world
You could give to me,
Give it to your enemies:
Whatever share of the next world
You want to give to me –
Give it to your friends.
You are enough for me.

O God, my whole concern and desire in this world,
Is that I should always remember you
Above all the things of this world,
And that in the next
I should meet with you alone.
That is why I always pray:”Your will be done.”

O my Lord,
if I worship you
from fear of hell, burn me in hell.
If I worship you
from hope of Paradise, bar me from its gates.

But if I worship you
for yourself alone, grant me then the beauty of your Face.

–Rābiʿah al-Baṣrī, 713/17-801, Sufi saint

When you are ready, start the video/audio below.

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

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

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

Loving as He loves,
Helping as He helps,
Giving as He gives,
Serving as He serves,
Rescuing as He rescues,
Being with Him twenty-four hours,
Touching Him in his distressing disguise.

–Mother Teresa of Calcutta 1910-1997

Breathe. Breathe again. Be filled. With compassion. 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.

USEFUL LAKEWOOD LINKS DURING THE CORONA CRISIS:

 

Corona Sabbath 31 Loyalty and Devotion

These 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.

The post this week focuses on loyalty. With many relationships and commitments in our lives, how do we sort out our loyalties? Jesus helps us. This post includes a scripture reading done by Barbara Donohue, a reflection from Rev. Kim Wells and a musical offering from Hilton Jones. We hope this post helps to feed your spirit in these difficult times.

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 with this reading which is a based on Psalm 96:

O sing to the Cosmos a new song;
	sing to the Beloved, all the earth!
Sing to the Creator, and bless the Name
		above all names;
	sing praises to the Glorious One
		from day to day.
Declare the splendor of the Radiant One
		to all nations,
	the marvelous works of Love
		to all peoples!
For great is the Beloved, and greatly
		to be praised;
	reverence Love above all else.
For where your thoughts are,
	reveals that which you treasure;
	seek only the true Treasure.
Truth and integrity live with Love;
	strength and beauty dwell
		with the Beloved.

Yield to Love, O families of the earth,
	yield to Love's glory and strength!
Yield to Love and learn of justice;
	make of yourselves an offering
		and be guided by Love!
Bow down in adoration and holiness;
	for worthy is the Beloved to be
		praised in all the earth!

Psalm 96:1-9 from Psalms for Praying by Nan C. Merrill

When you are ready, start the video below.

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

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

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

Apprehend God in all things, for God is in all things. Every single creature is full of God and a book about God. Every creature is a word of God. If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature–even a caterpillar–I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God is every creature.

–Meister Eckhart, 14th century

Breathe. Breathe again. Be filled. With unabashed devotion. 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.

USEFUL LAKEWOOD LINKS DURING THE CORONA CRISIS: