“Have a blest day?” What in this world does that mean? Better luck or good karma, instead of bad? In the ancient world, denoting someone as “blest” was a way of expressing a deity’s special favor towards that person. If that sounds quaint, there are still plenty of people today who believe they can curry favor or improve the odds of achieving more blessings than curses; while politicians routinely conclude their speeches by invoking the Almighty to bless the good ‘ol USA. There’s just one problem. It doesn’t work.
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Reinhold Niebuhr’s brother, H. Richard, argued for faithfulness to the example of Jesus’s nonviolence, while Reinhold believed this was naive and unrealistic in an imperfect world. H. Richard was the purist to the Christian faith, believing that following the Golden Rule, no matter the consequences, is what Jesus and God called us to do — the success of the mission being in God’s hands rather than our own. Reinhold, however, looked at the more practical side of things, substituting his or the world’s idea of what was possible and changing his ethics accordingly. H. Richard thus trusted more in the providential moral arc of history as M.L. King, Jr. , would call it rather than a realist’s version of what humans believe is attainable given their corrupt nature. In essence, H. Richard focused on the power of God’s grace to transform our spirits and the world for the better, while Reinhold accepted a more cynical view of our ability to be radically changed as a specie.
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On Jesus’ fifth birthday, living in Egypt, his parents announced that they were going on an outing. “We’ve got something to show you,” said Mary to Jesus.
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Resources for the thanksgiving for the birth of a child or for the sacrament of the baptism of infants.
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Pastor: Following the tradition of Jesus, who welcomed children into his community, we celebrate the presence of children within this community of faith and offer them the sacrament of baptism.
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When someone places a newborn human in your arms, it opens you to MORE. Humans have a strange relationship to MORE. Most of us spend our entire lives longing for more, looking for more, hungering for more, desiring more, striving for more, waiting for more, searching for more.
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The film tells the story about Mayflower United Church of Christ’s work to become carbon neutral by 2030. It offers powerful insights into what it takes to move a community into a more harmonious relationship with the natural world.
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The care and nurture of a child is a task too great for one or two parents. In reality, a child is always in need of many adults to protect, teach, love, and shepherd into adulthood. Godparents represent all of us who are not the birth parents of a child but who covenant to also love, sacrifice for, be attentive to the needs of, and to care for a child.
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God’s Love Priest: Dear friends, God is love. We love because God first loved us and in baptism we respond to that love.
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THEME: Awareness of Divinity –
Access to our Inner Well.
Immersion in water –
Immersion in the Earth’s life.
In the name of the Father,
in the name of the Mother,
source of life,
from whom water flows,
to whom water returns,
We live not for ourselves alone, but toward God and for each other. Our lives are bound in a covenant of love.
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As we gather today to welcome……….(name of the child) into the world, we recognise our responsibilities towards……….(name of the child), towards each other and the world in which we live.
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We are here to praise and enjoy God with body and soul, mind and heart, with song and word, with hands and feet.
We are here to give because of the abundance God has given us, to share with each other, and to receive, because God has created us to depend on each other.
We are here to celebrate the differences that otherwise might divide us: differences of age, of body, of culture, of opinion, of ability, of religious conviction.
We are here to put things in perspective: to celebrate what matters, to laugh about things we take too seriously, to cry about things that truly touch our hearts.
So may it be this morning: Amen!
Wash me in the river
Dry me on the shore
Do this for me, cousin
As you did for those before
Dear Family and Friends, let us gather around for this celebration of Baptism.
Parents and God-Parents, who are you presenting for baptism?
Parents and Godparents: We present _________________ to be baptized.
Baptism is a symbol, reminding us that God has given us all the gift of life, and through the grace of Jesus Christ, all are united as one family. We are assured that we are a part of the eternal love of God. Those who participate in this symbol are marked for Christian discipleship, and are initiated into the fellowship of the Church. Jesus made it abundantly clear that children are important in the scheme of God’s creation. Remember how he said, “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God”.
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The Year of Luke is the first in a series of commentaries on biblical scripture found in the three-year cycle of Christian liturgical readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Instead of interpreting these readings as a precursor …
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