Monday, March 27

Peter DuBois
Director of Music/Organist

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.
Isaac Watts, 1719

This is perhaps the most well known of Isaac Watts’ paraphrases of the psalms. In this hymn, he paraphrased Psalm 90, which both affirms God’s help and shelter for uncounted years before us, but also the hope of God’s presence with us in the future and for eternity. An interesting variation on the first phrase appeared some years after it was first written when John Wesley, in 1738, changed the first phrase in his Psalms and Hymns to “O God, our help in ages past,” which changes the hymn into more of a prayer or a petition for God’s help – and it has appeared in numerous modern hymnals in this way. Of course, in either form, it is a strong statement of faith that has sustained countless generations since it was first penned in the 18th century.

O God, our God, thank you for the sustaining gifts of faith passed on to us from generations past, and strengthen us to fulfill our role in passing on the faith to generations to come. Amen.

Monday, March 21

Martha Langford
Associate Pastor for Congregational Care

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult….
     “‘Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.’ The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” PSALM 46:1-4, 10, 11

In the wake of earthquakes in Japan and tsunami waves along many Pacific coastlines, the words of Psalm 46 resonate with me: “we will not fear… though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam…”
     It presents a word picture that has in past days played large on television screens all over the world. What does it mean to say—in the face of death and destruction and devastation, “we will not fear”?
     Certainly, there is much to be afraid about, but the voice of the psalmist, that poet laureate of the ancient Israelites, calls the people to steadfast trust in God; a God who is in the midst of the city, who will not be moved, who is our refuge, who is WITH US, even while the tumult threatens to sweep us away.
     At last, the psalmist calls us to still ourselves, even in the midst of the chaos, and know—deep in our souls—that God is there. God is there, in the chaos of natural disaster and of runaway nuclear reactors. God is there, in the chaos of war and uprising. God is there, in the chaos of our lives.
     In this Lenten Season, perhaps those final verses could become our spiritual discipline, our calling to “be still and know” the God who is with us always.

Gracious God, you are an ever-present God, eternally with all those whose lives are tumbled and tossed by chaos and change. Strengthen us by your Spirit to still ourselves even as turmoil swirls around us, to know that you are a steadfast and loving God, to find ourselves in your presence, and to discover in you our refuge. AMEN.

Monday, March 14

Roderic P. Frohman
Associate Pastor for Church in Society

This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

When our traveling team was in Kenya in February the Presbyterian Church of East Africa sang this Psalm to the YouTube tune embeded above. The Kenyans sang this Psalm with this tune in a variety of settings such as worship services, before committee meetings, before meals. We five travelers all came home singing it. It is not in our hymnbook, but other settings of it are there. The Sunday after we returned we were chatting in coffee hour and this Psalm tune came up as one of the wonderful things (among many others) that we missed about Kenya.

So, if this Monday Morning Connection is to connect with you I invite to you, listen to it now, if you haven’t done so already.

Holy God, especially when days are melancholy to tragic we find it hard to affirm that you have made each day. May the affirmation of the psalmist be our affirmation today. This IS the day which you have made. Amen.

Crying Out in the Wilderness

Luke 3:1-6
1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"


John, son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, has come into the fullness of his ministry as God’s herald messenger. His is the voice “crying out in the wilderness” and calling us to prepare for the advent of salvation. This is a clear reference to the prophecy found in Isaiah 40, which foretells the restoration of the exiled people of Israel.
Isaiah’s message proclaims, “In the wilderness prepare the highway of the Lord” (Isaiah 40:3). In our four gospels, John is the figure in the wilderness laying down the pavement. John called the people to repent, to turn hearts and minds and souls toward the God who attends to the salvation of the world.
For Isaiah, the barren wilderness was the obstacle between exile and home; the highway a symbol of restoration. For John, human sin was the obstacle between exile and home, and he called people to pave God’s way in their innermost being.
Our landscape isn’t the dry and barren wilderness of Judea, but John still cries out to us during this season of Advent. Repent. Prepare the way; for the time is here when we too will see the salvation of God. Calling out into our modern wilderness of bright lights and holiday shoppers, he brings us to a manger and then to a cross.
The voice crying out in the wilderness calls us to the true hope of restoration found in Jesus Christ; to the one who is the incredible gift of this incredible season.

Prayer:
Faithful God, you sent your messengers to call me back from exile. You sent your Son to restore me to life. Send your Spirit to work in my innermost being so that I may receive this gift with gratitude and live for your sake. Amen.

Martha Langford, Associate Pastor for Congregational Care

“Comfort, O comfort my people.” Isaiah 40:1

What we call “creature comfort” is not what Isaiah had in mind. Rather, Isaiah is writing to a people who had been exiled, who had lived in fear, whose future was not secure. God’s voice, articulated through the prophet, that Israel’s wilderness journey and season of suffering is over.

What would that look like? What would comfort look like in a weary, war-torn world. What would it look like in an anxious nation? What would it look like to each one of us – the promise of our collective and individual burdens being lifted?

Today, and this week, imagine the kind of deep and abiding comfort that Isaiah imagines, and then pray for it and work into that promise.

Loving God, give us a vision of true comfort, and allow us to share it with a world in need. We pray in the name of the one whose coming we await. Amen.

John Wilkinson, Pastor

Monday, December 1, 2008

A voice cries out:‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3

These are familiar words of Advent. Whether they start me thinking of Handel’s “Messiah” or all of the Christmas preparations I need to make, this verse of Isaiah always brings my thoughts to Advent. Though the words are almost too familiar, take a moment to pick a word or phrase from this scripture that speaks to you this Advent season.
Voice
Cries
Wilderness
Prepare
Way
Lord
Straight
Desert
Highway
God
Where are you being led this Advent? Share the word of scripture from above that speaks to you, in the comments portion of the blog.

Loving God, Help us to listen for a voice to us in Advent. Be with us—in the wilderness, the desert, or wherever we are, as we prepare to celebrate your Son’s birth. Amen.

Becky D’Angelo-Veitch
Coordinator of Children’s Ministry and Congregational Life