What does it mean to be free?  Can one be bound, even when one is by all external measures unbound? What are the aspects of our times and cultures that keep us imprisoned and attached to the material and circumstantial limits within which we live our days?  What is the “currency” of our lives and whose face is on it?  Are we worshipping technology?…efficiency?…autonomy?  How do we free ourselves from its grasp?  To whom do our lives belong?  These are questions that are evoked by this week’s readings.  How might they speak to your community?

Recalling last week’s story of the golden calf, are there ways in which your congregation is celebrating a renewed relationship with God after a time of trial or distance?  How might you help one another identify the ways God is healing and restoring trust with us all?

Readings for 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Exodus 33:12-23                                            Psalms 99
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10                                  Matthew 22:15-22

Ecumenical Prayer Calendar
The peoples of India, Pakistan & Sri Lanka

Prayer for the week
Lover of justice, you set us on a path to freedom marked by the signposts of your goodness and mercy.  Even when we fall short, you remain faithful, inviting us into right relationship.  Help us to live as your people that we may be the witness to justice and freedom you would have us be.  Amen.

This week’s texts invite reflection on moments that make us falter in our faith, the moments when our fear, however small, prevails over our instinct to do good.

A crisis of memory is at work in the story form Exodus.  It raises the call to remember what it means to be God’s people.  Faithful remembrance does not simply mean a recalling to mind.  It leads to action -action that results, among other things, in putting that which is broken back together: re-membering.  Say that word aloud, with the emphasis on the first syllable.  For this action of putting and keeping the pieces, the relationships, together is what it means to keep covenant: with God, with one another.

What “re-members” you from individual believers into the one Body of Christ? How might the Body of Christ then move into the community and demonstrate love that advocates on behalf of God?

Readings for 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Exodus 32:1-14                                              Psalms 106:1-6, 19-23
Philippians 4:1-9                                            Matthew 22:1-14

Ecumenical Prayer Calendar
The peoples of  Bangladesh, Bhutan, & Nepal

Prayer for the week
God of freedom, your invitation to a life of liberation never ceases.  You call us to give faithful witness to your love, justice, and freedom.  May we be steadfast in faith, and our lives and community marked by our thanksgiving and joy.  Amen.

Depending on where you live, the sense of the urgency of a healthy river or water system will vary.

In many places, essential river systems are being damaged, affected by dams, weirs, and irrigation systems.  Pollution from industry and extraction can poison waters that might otherwise be used for drinking or recreation.  The bottled water industry has commodified a resource necessary to life.  Hydroelectric dams are a renewable source of energy but have significant impacts on communities and ecosystems.  Climate change exacerbates our most extreme experiences of water: drought, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes and typhoons.

The scripture readings for River Sunday paint a picture of justice and redemption for all people and all of God’s creation.  The image of water provides a powerful metaphor for life, death, chaos, and transformation.  There is a beautiful picture of a healthy life-giving river that is at the center of God’s whole and healthy realm.

Readings for 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Genesis 8:20-22, 9:12-17                               Psalms 104:27-33
Revelation 22:1-5                                            Matthew 28:1-10

Ecumenical Prayer Calendar
The peoples of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia

Prayer for the week
Water of Life, you are our source of renewal and strength.  Help us to become vessels carrying your life-giving water to restore all of creation.  Grant us the courage to challenge forces that harm, and joyfully spread your message of new life.  Amen.

One of the challenges of this week’s readings is that we live in a time when the concept of wilderness is something we understand as removed from human life.  There is such a gulf between the wilderness and the human, at least in how we think of it.  How can this week collapse that boundary?  We hear whispers of how the wilderness transformed Jesus.  We see how the wilderness inspires Joel and the psalmist.  How can we make the wilderness something that transforms the center of our lives as well?  How might that benefit the world today, and bring us into closer communion with God’s creation? 

The wilderness is also an inward experience –it is physically “out there,” but perhaps it is also at the center of our lives.

Readings for 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Joel 1:8-10, 17-20                                          Psalms 18:6-19
Romans 8:18-27                                             Matthew 3:13-4:2

Ecumenical Prayer Calendar
The peoples of Belarus, Moldova, Russia & Ukraine

Prayer for the week
Loving God, we thank you for the wild, beautiful, eternally changing world that is always beyond our understanding. In the wilderness, help us to find wonder and awe, to mourn when the land calls us to mourn, and to rejoice when it calls us to rejoice.  Amen

We pause to listen to what land might have to say about God’s abiding presence and consider the tension of healing and harm found in our wide-ranging relationships with the land.

What has been the experience of land for individuals in your congregation?  Karri Whipple reminds us that nature can symbolize traumatic, life-changing experiences, coloring our relationship with it.  She writes: “trauma and creation affect generations of communities, particularly marginalized, economically depressed, and oppressed groups.”

Please take time to read and reflect on the article “Trauma in our Roots and Bones”.

Some of us live in the midst of open country and green spaces.  Others are surrounded by asphalt and concrete.  Others are connected to land with vocations such as farming, landscaping, forestry, or logging – many delight in the “playground” of land.

On land Sunday , we are reminded that violence to land also impacts God.  Hearing from land creates possibility for mutual healing.  How might you honor the diverse relationship that congregant have with the land?  How might you offer space to celebrate creation with a sense of awe and trepidation, and honor trauma while always seeking justice?

Readings for 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Genesis 3:14-19, 4:8-16                                 Psalms 139:7-12
Romans 5:12-17                                             Matthew 12:38-40

Ecumenical Prayer Calendar
The peoples of Bulgaria, Hungary & Romania

Prayer for the week
Creator God, we come before you today as creatures of the land you created.  Earth, our home, cares for us and witnesses our actions, as you do.  We pray to be grounded and guided as people who are earthly and joyful, practicing our oneness with the earth.