A Season of Prayer
The apostle Paul’s devotion to Christ was steadfast. His confidence made his witness bold. It also landed him in prison. That’s where he was when he wrote the letter to the Christian community in Philippi.
Philippians is jail mail. Chained in a Roman cell, Paul is writing to a congregation under its own duress.
In the face of such challenges, we might expect this letter Paul writes to carry a tone of disappointment or even resentment. But none of that is evident. In fact, the message Paul passes through the prison bars, is not unlike that which inspired Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. These are words written to strengthen a community under siege for their proclamation of God’s justice and concern for all people.
In our own time of deep concern, may Paul’s edifying words serve as a touchstone for us. May we find a sense of assurance that those who struggled long before us are with us now. They come to us and invite us to lean on their strength. During this Season of Prayer and beyond, may the encouraging nearness of God they experienced be with us as well
Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice.
Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them, and the God of peace will be with you.
Musical Meditations
During worship on Sunday, September 29, 2024, we blessed the 7,860 letters and postcards the members and friends of our congregation wrote to encourage infrequent voters to participate in the democratic process in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and North Carolina,
Rebecca Flintoft, Anne Martinez, Jeanne Quinn, and Kajsa Teitelbaum sang the song, Seasons of Love by J. Larson, as the letters and postcards were brought forward for dedication. You can hear and it again here:
Seasons of Love
https://tinyurl.com/yzu87u57
Our Call to Prayer is an invitation to Breathe in Peace, and to Breathe out Love. May this music accompany you during these days and weeks.
Breathe In Breath Out
https://tinyurl.com/52kshvn3
Prayer of Dedication
For Our Get Out the Vote Letters and Postcards
By Laura Riihimaki
God of justice and love, Bless this work of the hands of this congregation. May the love and hope that were put into the writing of the letters and postcards find their way into the hearts of those who receive them. Remind them that they are not alone. That they are not forgotten. That their voices matter and their actions count. With the letters and postcards, we offer you our mustard seed of faith that a world where everyone belongs is possible. And we offer it knowing that small actions grow into large plants that bear fruit in their time. That the long arc of history bends towards justice. That while the movement of our world is sometimes two steps forward and one step back, that our responsibility in any time is to be part of the moving forward, and to hold our hands out to our neighbors in an invitation to move forward with us. We plant seeds, but you make them grow. We give the letters and postcards into your hands in the expectation that you care about us and our neighbors, and you are a God who is with us in the everyday struggles and joys that we live through. Please grow the seed of faith into something beautiful. In the name of Jesus who lived out love in the face of empire, we pray. Amen
Blessing in the Chaos
by Jan Richardson
To all that is chaotic in you, let there come silence.
Let there be a calming of the clamoring, a stilling of the voices that have laid their claim on you, that have made their home in you, that go with you even to the holy places but will not let you rest, will not let you hear your life with wholeness or feel the grace that fashioned you. Let what distracts you cease.
Let what divides you cease.
Let there come an end to what diminishes and demeans, and let depart all that keeps you in its cage.
Let there be an opening into the quiet that lies beneath the chaos, where you find the peace you did not think possible and see what shimmers within the storm.
From The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief.
The Peace of Wild Things
By Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Submitted by Deborah Raessler
Photo of Great Blue Heron by Steve Frye
Hope is the thing with feathers
By Emily Dickinson
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. I’ve heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me.
Photo of Chickadee by Steve Frye
Hope
by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Hope has holes in its pockets. It leaves little crumb trails so that we, when anxious, can follow it.
Hope’s secret: it doesn’t know the destination–it knows only that all roads begin with one foot in front of the other.
The Sacred Scene
by Amanda Gorman
We gather at this hallowed place because we believe in the American dream. We face a race that tests if this country we cherish shall perish from the Earth and if our Earth shall perish from this country. It falls to us to ensure that we do not fall, for a people that cannot stand together cannot stand at all. We are one family regardless of religion, class or color. For what defines a patriot is not just our love of liberty but our love of one another. This is loud in our country’s call because while we all love freedom, it is love that frees us all. Empathy emancipates, making us greater than hate or vanity, that is the American promise. Powerful and pure, divided we cannot endure but united, we can endeavor to humanize our democracy and endear democracy to humanity. And make no mistake, coherence is the hardest task history ever wrote. But tomorrow is not written by our odds of hardship but by the audacity of our hope,
by the vitality of our vote. Only now approaching this rare air are we aware that perhaps the American dream is no dream at all but instead a dare to dream together. Like a million roots tethered, branching up humbly, making one tree, this is our country from many, one, from battles, won, our freedoms sung, our kingdom come has just begun. We redeem this sacred scene ready for our journey from it together. We must birth this early republic and achieve an unearthly summit let us not just believe in an American dream, let us be worthy of it.
Submitted by Amy Ostwald
Clouds, pastel by Sarah Raessler
Some Days
By Philip Terman
Some days you have to turn off the news and listen to the bird or truck or the neighbor screaming out her life. You have to close all the books and open all the windows so that whatever swirls inside can leave and whatever flutters against the glass can enter. Some days you have to unplug the phone and step out to the porch and rock all afternoon and allow the sun to tell you what to do. The whole day has to lie ahead of you like railroad tracks that drift off into gravel. Some days you have to walk down the wooden staircase through the evening fog to the river, where the peach roses are closing, sit on the grassy bank and wait for the two geese.
Prayer Walks with Jane Ireland
Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt. 18:20).
Prayer walking is a spiritual tool to bless the land upon which we walk to provide for and benefit its inhabitants and to honor God. Join Jane Ireland and others as you are interested and able for one or more prayer walking loops encompassing town and city centers and across our landscape. Scripture passages, selected by Jane, will accompany you on your journey.
Prayer Walk Loops: Encompass
• Quantity - 8 prayer walks: new beginning (includes one family walk)
• Frequency - Every 5th day: grace, Tuesday, Oct 1 thru Tuesday, Nov 5
• Time - 3:00 pm: a number signifying divine completion
• Distance - 2 walks around the venue
Encircle the venue once, then encircle once the immediate city blocks.
Prayer walking is a spiritual tool to bless the land upon which we walk to provide for and benefit its inhabitants and to honor God. We are praying peace and righteousness over our cities, towns, county, state, and federal government.
For more information visit - https://tinyurl.com/3y6s8rau
Prayer Walk 3 - City of Longmont
Friday, October 11 at 3 pm
Location: Meet at 350 Kimbark St in front of the City of Longmont City Manager, Longmont City Clerk, and Longmont Mayor offices
Prayer Walk 4 - City of Lafayette
Wednesday, October 16 at 3 pm
Location: Meet in front of Lafayette City Hall at 1290 S Public Rd, Lafayette
Prayer Walk 5 - City of Louisville
Monday, October 21 at 3 pm
Location: Meet in front of Louisville City Hall at 749 Main St, Louisville
Prayer Walk 6 - Town of Superior
Saturday, October 26 at 3 pm
Location: Meet in parking lot of Superior Town Hall, 124 E Coal Creek Dr, Superior
Prayer Walk 7 - State of Colorado
Thursday, October 31 at 3 pm
Location: Meet in the Chautauqua parking lot below Chautauqua Auditorium, 12th St, Boulder
Prayer Walk 8 - Washington DC: United States Supreme Court Building, Capitol, and White House
Tuesday, November 5 at3 pm
Location: Meet at Flagstaff Summit, Flagstaff Dr, Boulder
A Song of Ascents.
I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.