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  • Today

    TODAY

    by Dr. Timothy Seelig

    Today, I woke with renewed anticipation of a new day. “Away to the window I flew like a flash, tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. And what to my wondering eye did appear?”

    A huge mess, that’s what.

    A quick look around revealed pain and suffering of Biblical proportions — surely harbingers of the end times. The temptation was to return to the fluffy down comforter that had moments ago offered me sanctuary from all the woes of the world. It was even still warm.

    But no, that was not my calling for this day. I was called to more. To do better. But where could I find the strength to fight? By looking inside. OK, here we go.

    Sit quietly. Close your eyes (which you can’t actually do because you have to keep reading. Just pretend.) Take in a deep cleansing breath. Then another. At the top of that second breath, gather all the thoughts you have of fear and dread and anger. Hold it as long as it takes to think of every last one of them. Some may even have faces! It may take a while. You may turn blue. Not to worry, you can’t die from holding your breath. Then let that breath go and as you do, send those nasty particles as far away as you can (more than 6 feet). Make sure it is a complete emptying of the clutter. Hold the empty for a moment thinking of only joy and peace and those who bring it. Then with a slow inhalation, bring in only beauty. (You may have to rinse and repeat throughout the day!)

    This day will be a great day. It will be great because you heeded the call!

    A joy-filled day to all and to all a goodnight. – Tim Seelig

    Tim Seelig is an American conductor, singer, educator, author, and very proud grandfather. He is the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. In addition, he guest-conducts and presents workshops in the US and around the world.

  • A Prayer for Public Officers

    A PRAYER FOR PUBLIC OFFICERS

    by Walter Rauschenbush, and read by Thomas Poole

    “O God, Thou great governor of all the world, we pray thee for all who hold public office and power, for the life, the welfare, and the virtue of the people are in their hands to make or to mar. We remember with shame that in the past the mighty have preyed on the labors of the poor; that they have laid nations in the dust by their oppression, and have thwarted the love and prayers of thy servants. We bless thee that the new spirit of democracy has touched even the kings of the earth. We rejoice that by the free institutions of our country the tyrannous instincts of the strong may be curbed and turned to the patient service of the commonwealth.

    “Strengthen the sense of duty in our political life. Grant that the servants of the state may feel ever more deeply that any diversion of their public powers for private ends is a betrayal of their country. Purge our cities and states and nation of the deep causes of corruption which have so often made sin profitable and uprightness hard. Bring to an end the stale days of party cunning. Breathe a new spirit into our nation. Lift us from the dust and mire of the past that we may gird ourselves for a new day’s work. Give our leaders a new vision of the possible future of our country and set their hearts on fire with large resolves. Raise up a new generation of public [servants], who will have the faith and daring of the Kingdom of God in their hearts, and who will enlist for life in a holy warfare for the freedom and rights of the people.” —from Prayer of the Social Awakening, by Walter Rauschenbusch, c. 1910

    Please watch the video below to access a reading of this prayer by its contributor, Tom Poole, of Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Dr. Poole, a musicologist and theologian by training, is a church musician by profession. He takes seriously the study of culture, music and the arts for expressions of the presence of the Divine.

    Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) was a clergyman and theology professor in the United States. As an ordained Baptist minister in New York City, his eyes were opened, and he agonized over the myriad of social problems and suffering he encountered in a poverty-stricken neighborhood. He was one to speak out and take action, eventually becoming acknowledged as the leader of the Social Gospel movement in the United States.
    (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Walter-Rauschenbusch, accessed 9/25/2020)

  • A Music Meditation: Truth is God’s Gift

    A MUSICAL MEDITATION: TRUTH IS GOD’S GIFT

    by The Turtle Creek Chorale, Tim Seelig, Conductor / Interpretive text by Mel White

    – Interpretive text by Mel White –
    Performed by the Turtle Creek Chorale of Dallas, Texas. Mel White was commissioned for this album, “Psalms,” to provide the lyrics to the opening track. For a sound track to hear this beautifully-rendered anthem composed by Danny Ray, please see the attached recording. We are grateful to the Rev. Dr. Mel White, Dr. Tim Seelig (the TCC’s former conductor), and Sean Baugh, current Artistic Director of the Turtle Creek Chorale, for providing us with permission to use this recording on our website.

    Freedom comes to those who love the truth –
    Not to those who follow after half-truth, distortion, and lies.
    Truth is god’s gift.
    Somewhere in your heart, you know what is right and good and true.
    Seek it. Find it. Act upon it.
    Let it set you free.

    And you will be like a tree planted in good, rich soil by the river of life.
    The hungry will be fed by your fruit.
    The weak will sit in your shade and grow strong again.
    No storm will bend your trunk.
    No gale will break your branches.

    But if you follow after untruth, if you live your life on lies,
    You will be like sand in a desert storm.
    You will be like leaves in an autumn wind.

    And when that moment comes when you see yourself through the loving eyes of god,
    You will not stand proudly, but fall gasping to your knees, ashamed.

    Your creator will walk beside you on your journey after truth.
    But if you follow untruth, you will walk alone.

    Freedom comes to those who love the truth.
    Truth is god’s gift.
    Somewhere in your heart, you know what is right and good and true.
    Seek it. Find it. Act upon it.
    Let it set you free.
    – Mel White

    For 30 years, the Rev. Dr. Mel White had served the evangelical Christian community as a pastor, seminary professor, best-selling author, prize-winning filmmaker, communication consultant and ghost writer to its most famous and powerful leaders. He was hired by national publishers to write books — primarily “autobiographies” — for his ghost-writing clients including Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, D. James Kennedy, and Pat Robertson. In April, 1994, Mel came out of the closet to give hope and healing to other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians, to confront the misleading anti-gay rhetoric of the radical right, and to launch his own fight for justice and understanding for LGBT people. He and his husband, Gary Nixon, have traveled across the country, speaking on university campuses, teaching the “soul force” principles of Gandhi and King, organizing people of faith to do justice.

  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Call to “Action”

    DIETRICH BONHOEFFER’S CALL TO “ACTION”

    by Connie Kissinger

    Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian. As Nazi influence in Germany intensified, he came to America to study theology. While attending a Baptist church in Harlem, he became deeply interested in the issue of racial injustice.

    When Hitler came to power, Dietrich returned to his country…..to “share the trials of this time with my people.” He took a bold stand when other church leaders failed to do so.

    Dietrich’s active involvement in the resistance movement led to his capture. He was sent to a concentration camp and executed. Here is a section of his final writings shortly before his death:

    ACTION: Dare to do what is just, not what fancy may call for; Lose no time with what may be, but boldly grasp what is real. The world of thought is escape; freedom comes only through action. Step out beyond anxious waiting and into the storm of events, carried only by God’s command and by your own faith; then will freedom exultantly cry out to welcome your spirit.

    We take a form of action as we gather in prayer and meditation, our collective positive energy holding a space for the intervention of Grace……for Truth, Justice and Peace in these tumultuous times in our country.
    – Connie Kissinger

    Connie Kissinger is an Hawai‘i-born, retired entertainer, currently residing in Houston, TX. She shares that she is thrilled to join with kindred souls of Shine Your Light. She reads her meditation in the attached video.

  • How Long, O God, Shall I Be A Bystander?

    HOW LONG, O GOD, SHALL I BE A BYSTANDER?

    by Rev. Dr. H. Stephen Shoemaker

    In face of the denigration of many Americans from the highest office in the land—people of color, women, immigrants—God, give us courage to resist the policies and language of all in public office who demean the dignity of human persons made in the image of God.

    On November 9, 1938 in Germany, the mostly hidden and unofficial violence against the Jewish people turned open and official. Throughout Germany Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses were ransacked, holy books burned, sacred objects destroyed. It is called Krystallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass.

    That night, the young theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who would later be executed for his defense of the Jews and opposition to Hitler, read these words from Psalm 74, verses 1–10:

    1. O God, why have You rejected us forever?
      Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?
    2. Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old,
      Which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance;
      And this Mount Zion, where You have dwelt.
    3. Turn Your footsteps toward the perpetual ruins;
      The enemy has damaged everything within the sanctuary.
    4. Your adversaries have roared in the midst of Your meeting place;
      They have set up their own standards for signs.
    5. It seems as if one had lifted up His axe in a forest of trees.
    6. And now all its carved work
      They smash with hatchet and hammers.
    7. They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground;
      They have defiled the dwelling place of Your name.
    8. They said in their heart, “Let us completely subdue them.”
      They have burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
    9. We do not see our signs;
      There is no longer any prophet,
      Nor is there any among us who knows how long.
    10. How long, O God, will the adversary revile,
      And the enemy spurn Your name forever? (NRSV)

    Echoing the question in verse 10, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in the margin of his Bible:
    “How long, O God, shall I be a bystander?”

    Here is one of the deepest meanings of the cross we take up as we follow Jesus: we will no longer be bystanders.

    – H. Stephen Shoemaker

    H. Stephen Shoemaker is pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Statesville, North Carolina. He has served churches in Louisville, Kentucky; Ft. Worth, Texas; and Charlotte, North Carolina. Dr. Shoemaker has taught preaching and religion on the university and seminary levels, most recently at Johnson C. Smith University, an historically black university in Charlotte. He is also the author of eight books.

    New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  • My Soul’s Song

    MY SOUL’S SONG

    by Taka Harada

    “In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the power of God was moving over the water. Then God commanded, ‘Let there be light,’ and light appeared.”
    (GNT*)

    I grew up in the Lumaha‘i Valley located on the North Shore of Kaua‘i. We were one of two families that lived in the valley during my growing years. The valley is owned by the Bishop Estate and was leased by the Robinson Family to raise cattle.

    During stormy, moonless nights, the valley is shrouded by pitch black darkness. I remember as a child, how frightful it was to venture out of the warmth of our home. There was no electricity or any kind of light pollution to soften the darkness.

    Our nation seems to be experiencing a very similar fall into darkness and I feel that same kind of fear. I remember studying the Constitution as a little child at our tiny, little, one-room school in Ha‘ena. We had worked hard to become a shining leader of democracy. It seems we have forgotten what our nation has gone through to become a world leader, squandering our goodwill and reputation with our friends and allies.

    I contemplated the role of faith in these confusing and dark times. The first three verses of Genesis kept coming to mind. So I have shared these verses above, and now my own thoughts in poetry. May God’s Light shine brightly in all of the dark and corrupt places that have taken root, and bring us home to his Love.

    MY SOUL’S SONG
    The darkness of the night
    Surrounds our being
    The passing dark clouds
    Obscure star-lit skies.
    Deep within our being
    A soulful song forms
    A voice’s deep longing
    For a peaceful sunlit morn.
    As the storm surges
    Waves form and disrupt
    The peaceful shores
    Where we meditate.
    But there is a meditative moment
    Between each cresting wave
    That lifts our soul’s song
    To its God and Creator.
    God hears our soulful song
    Rising within the darkness
    The light shines – a rainbow forms
    Reminding us of God’s promise to all.
    – Taka Harada

    Takayuki “Taka” Harada was born in the Lumaha‘i Valley on the island of Kaua‘i. He is the author of “Kalaupapa in Poetry,” and is an active member of Ka ‘Ohana ‘O Kalaupapa, an advocacy group for Hansen’s disease patients in Kalaupapa, on the island of Moloka‘i. His poetry has been shared in numerous venues across Hawai‘i as well as in Japan and Taiwan. He has also served as a lay minister at Keawala‘i Congregational Church in Makena, on the island of Maui. You may hear him reading his meditation on the attached video.

    Good News Translation – Second Edition © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

  • Choose Love

    CHOOSE LOVE

    by Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer

    I have six siblings. We are very close. We have each other on a text thread, and we are in touch with each other every day.

    We share news about our children and grandchildren.

    We share news about our health. Two of my siblings give almost daily reports on their battles with cancer.

    We talk about our favorite baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals.

    You know what we don’t do – well, not anymore.
    We used to. We don’t talk about politics.

    For the first time in our lives, we are unable to discuss politics without fast reaching a point where we are very angry with each other.

    This may be the most important election any of us have ever participated in. It is certainly among the most divisive. Families, co-workers, church members are struggling to maintain good relationships in the presence of divisions that get sharper and sharper each day.

    My family decided our relationships with one another are more important than our political opinions. We didn’t decide our opinions don’t matter or that they are not important at all. We just decided they weren’t worth losing people we love because of the differences.

    I know how every one of my siblings is going to vote. And at least three of them will choose a different president that I would. Nothing they say will change my mind about that. Nothing I say will change their mind about that.

    We chose love for each other over anger at each other.

    I pray that during this election cycle, you are able to choose love.

    I pray that the love you know and the love you share clarifies for you whom you should support in the important races on your ballot.

    I also pray that love remains the hallmark of the relationships in your life that matter.

    Please vote.

    Please love.

    And may love win – in both the election and your life. – Rev. John Dorhauer

    The Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer is an American Protestant clergy member, author, and theologian. He currently serves as the General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ, and is Chair of the National Council of Churches.

  • The Prayer of St. Francis

    THE PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS

    Today’s meditation is a prayer with which you are probably already familiar. It is known as the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, and it certainly is a good season for us to reflect on its message. Perhaps there will be ONE SPECIFIC LINE which speaks directly to your spirit during your time of meditation. Take a few moments to hold it in your heart. Speak it out loud. Carry it with you for the remainder of your day. And thank you for your time, focus, and the generosity of your spirit during these days of meditation and prayer.

    Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
    Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
    where there is injury, pardon;
    where there is doubt, faith;
    where there is despair, hope;
    where there is darkness, light;
    where there is sadness, joy.
    O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
    to be consoled as to console;
    to be understood as to understand;
    to be loved as to love.
    For it is in giving that we receive;
    it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
    and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
    Amen.

    St. Francis of Assisi (1181–1226), who abandoned a life of great wealth and privilege to pursue a life of poverty and care for the poor, is “one of the most venerated religious figures in Roman Catholic history.” The Franciscan orders were established under his example and leadership, and he was recognized in 1979 by Pope John Paul II as the patron saint of ecology.

    Source: Ignatius Charles Brady and Lawrence Cunningham. “St. Francis of Assisi.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 29 Sept 2020, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Francis-of-Assisi. Accessed 4 October 2020.

  • Lean In Toward the Light

    LEAN IN TOWARD THE LIGHT

    by Rev. Dr. Susan Shaw, with video by Carrie Newcomer

    In this moment of chaos, uncertainty, and division the words of singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer invite us to “lean in toward the light”:

    Carry nothing but what you must.
    Lean in toward the Light.
    Let it go, shake off the dust.
    Lean in toward the Light.
    Today is now, tomorrow beckons.
    Lean in toward the Light.
    Keep practicing resurrection.

    In our deepest despair, the Light offers hope. If we choose to lean in toward the Light, then the darkness cannot overcome us, and every day we are being resurrected as we choose love, justice, and peace over hate and destruction. We lean in toward the Light when we love our neighbors, welcome the stranger, care for the earth, and work for justice. Leaning in toward the Light is an act of resistance, hope, and faith that we can create a better world for all of us.
    – Susan Shaw

    Susan M. Shaw is professor of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Oregon State University where she is also affiliate faculty in Religious Studies. She is an ordained Southern Baptist minister who has made her church home in the United Church of Christ for the past 25 years. She has authored several books, most recently co-authoring with Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Intersectional Theology: An Introductory Guide. She is also editor of the forthcoming reference book, Women and Religion around the World. She is a regular contributor to Ms. Magazine online and Baptist News Global. She teaches courses on feminist theologies, feminism and the Bible, and gender, race, and pop culture. She also facilitates workshops around the country for curriculum and institutional transformation around issues of difference, power, and social justice.

    The award-winning American singer, songwriter and author, Carrie Newcomer has produced 16 solo CDs. In 2009 and 2011 she traveled to India as a cultural ambassador, including musical performances organized by the US State Department. In 2012 she made a similar trip to Kenya on behalf of the Interfaith Hunger Initiative. With her kind permission, we are grateful to be able to include a video of her song, “Lean in Toward the Light,”

  • Facing Our Communal Brokenness

    FACING OUR COMMUNAL BROKENNESS

    by Bishop Karen Oliveto

    “And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.” – Isaiah 32:17 (ESV)*

    God of Grace and God of Glory,
    In a season of division and disease, vitriol and violence,
    we feel most acutely our communal brokenness.
    May we not avert our eyes from this brokenness.
    May we not make excuses for injustice.
    May we not be complicit with evil.
    We ask you to search our hearts:
    replace our hatred with love,
    replace our frustration with compassion,
    replace our inaction with engagement,
    and replace our rigidity with curiosity.
    Equip us with all we need to be agents of your love and justice
    in a nation and world that hungers and hurts for healing and hope.
    May we boldly live out this love and justice in everything we do and say.
    Grant us courage, grant us wisdom for the living of these days.
    Amen.

    – Karen Oliveto

    The Rev. Karen Oliveto is the Bishop of the Mountain Sky Conference of The United Methodist Church. She is the author of several books, including “Together at the Table: Diversity without Division in The United Methodist Church”.