“O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples. Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wonderful works. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually. Remember the wonderful works he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered, O offspring of his servant Abraham, children of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He is mindful of his covenant forever, of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.” (Psalm 105:1-11, New Revised Standard Version) 

I give thanks to the Lord always, for the Lord does not forget the covenant the Lord has made, the word that the Lord commanded, for a thousand generations. I give thanks to the Lord for there is hope for me yet, not of my own doing or deserving but, because the Lord says so. Consider the earth and all there is, consider the lilies of the field and the eagle in the sky, consider the tallest of mountains and the deepest valley under the ocean: is there anything at all that is not God’s own? Sing praises to the Lord for you are numbered among God’s most precious of creations, the empty tomb proclaims this most holy of truths. For you and me, the Lord endured being put to death in the Lord’s own creation, with the tools made of the very earth itself yet, just when we thought we had the Lord overpowered by our cleverness, the Lord remembered the Lord’s covenant and new life was announced in the poverty of an empty grave. God’s creation knows its’ Creator and will not, cannot, hide him away. 

I give thanks to the Lord always, for people who are led by the Lord’s Holy Spirit, who perceive the Body of Christ to be more than the institution. I give thanks to the Lord always, for those who live their baptism as a gift to be shared and understand their experience of the Table to be the moment from which mission and ministry is entered into and not the end reward for their good deeds or wisdom. I give thanks to the Lord always, for those ‘Aha!’ moments when ideologies are laid down and traditions are forgotten, when ‘a Biblical approach’ to scriptural interpretation really means ‘listening for the still, small voice of God’ speaking within the Living Word, rather than limiting the text to what human imagination is able to comprehend. I give thanks to the Lord always, for those rarified leaps of faith when men, women, and children become as one in praising the Holy Name of God as a priority, or essential element, of their own nature. 

I give thanks to the Lord always, for the joy of music that flows beyond the printed notes, for musicians whose souls are laid bare in sharing their gift. I give thanks to the Lord always, for people whose hands and voices are not silent in celebrating the wonder of a children’s symphony, in whose talents we see with the eyes of our Parent God, not perfection, but faith moving towards fulfillment in God’s will. I give thanks to the Lord always, for people who include the poor in their grocery shopping, who remember the threadbare as they clean out their overloaded closets, who include ‘those who have little’ with members of their own families as they spend their abundance on the ‘holy days’ of our faith and our culture. I give thanks to the Lord always, for those who regard moral and spiritual values as essential lessons to be taught the young within their own homes as well as among the members of the church family, and who are as quick to volunteer time and energy to aid the marginalized among us as they are ready to claim personal time to ‘get away from it all’. 

I give thanks to the Lord always, for those whose faith and presence has been the abiding bedrock of existence for maintaining the mission and ministry of this particular faith family throughout the years. I give thanks to the Lord always, for those who are new to the faith and are still finding their way towards understanding and being understood, and for those whose journey has brought them to this particular place and time on a journey that will, knowingly, pass far beyond the bounds of our congregational arms. I give thanks to the Lord always, for those who know no boundaries in imagining the Body of Christ beyond the walls, who see the value in even the weakest among us and nurture with equal regard the one who is different from what conventional culture states is ‘acceptable’. I give thanks to the Lord always, for those who see beyond a plan or a constitution or a value to what the core belief is which must be held firm and not compromised by fear of what might be changed.

I give thanks to the Lord always, for those who view the facilities of St. Paul United Church of Christ as ‘home’, changeable and malleable in the hands of the Lord, who envision all the people who share this faith and experience as ‘family’, who see the past as what roots the future to God’s service and glory and not as chains enslaving the church to what never was. I give thanks to the Lord always, for those who anticipate the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as birthing a remarkable love of faithfulness from which the Church will emerge, again, anew. I give thanks to the Lord always, for you, for you are God’s gift to me as I pray I am God’s gift to you, a mutual celebration of joy that knows no end in who we are becoming in His leading, in His becoming, in the never-ending of His days. I give thanks to the Lord always, and I pray that you do, too, for in that simple act of the heart we move from the cross to the empty tomb and, there, see the wonder of what God intends for all humankind.

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PENTECOST CELEBRATION!!!!!
YOU ARE ALL CORDIALLY INVITED TO A BIRTHING,
A BIRTHING IN WATER AND THE HOLY SPIRIT,
A BIRTHING IN FIRE AND WIND,
AS THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST CELEBRATES NEW LIFE
GRANTED IN THE GRACE OF GOD,
THROUGH JESUS CHRIST
AND IN THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
ON PENTECOST SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2002
A SERVICE OF WORD AND SACRAMENT WILL BE CELEBRATED,
BOTH AT 8:00 & 10:30 A.M.
WITH THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM WITH CONFIRMATION
IN THE LIFE OF STEVEN FARRELL
TO BE CELEBRATED AT THE 10:30 A.M. SERVICE!
DON’T MISS A MOMENT OF THIS MOST WONDERFUL DAY!