Bring your Hopes, Bring your Doubts, Feed your Soul

Pause Worship Video is posted below.

Order

Welcome-Travis

Meditation

O Lord Hear Our Prayer

Service

The Northern Vicar (pastoral notes from the intersection of Northern Exposure and The Vicar of Dibley)

This Sunday will be our “second” restart of in-person worship services during the pandemic. This time feels different, not as daunting. The worship gathering will include the Judson Choir, centering prayer and prayers of the people, singing, a sermon, communion, and a new element: the three-minute bible study. The service will be live-streamed via Facebook (link will be in the Friday email; you do not need to join Facebook to watch the Livestream).

Now for some different news: did you know that Judson Church was mentioned on Forbes.com last week? This is about a hotdog eating champion being featured in Vegetarian Times. Nevertheless, it is the truth. Last week the MinnPost story on my bike reports was combined with a podcast interview about my book and featured in Forbes.com.

Lastly, for the sermon this Sunday I am centering on blessing and curses (text is Luke 6:17-26 where Jesus delivers both blessings and woes). Blessings we have somewhat a hold of, but curses… Have you ever felt cursed? Or have you ever cursed someone? Or have you ever prayed like these Franciscan monks did when someone stole their Bible that went back to St. Francis? The space between blessings and curses is a difficult land, yet it is the space where we learn to be human beings in relation to one another, Creation and God.

Peace,

Travis

Poem for the Day “Welcome Home” by Parker J. Palmer

Here is the context Parker Palmer gave for his poem on the program On Being.

“Welcome” is one of the best words we can say to each other. If a person is

feeling lost — as so many are — what could be better than to hear someone or something say, “Welcome home!”

I spent much of last fall and the first part of this winter feeling a bit lost — lost in the whirlwind of my work, lost on the terrain called aging, lost in the sadness and madness of the world.

I came nowhere near the pits of despair, but I know that feeling lost tamps me down. When I can’t find my way, I can’t say “Welcome home!” to others.

Alone in the alien, snow-blown woods,

moving hard to stay warm in zero weather,

I stop on a rise to catch my breath as the

setting sun—streaming through bare-boned

trees—falls upon my face, fierce and full of life.

Breathing easier now, in and out with the earth,

I suddenly feel accepted—feel myself stand

easy, strong, deep-rooted as the trees,

while time and all these troubles disappear.

And when (who knows how long?) I trudge

on down the trail and find my ancient burdens

returning, I stop once more to say No to them—

not here, not now, not ever again—reclaiming

the welcome home the woods have given me.

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The February Messenger, Tree of Life, and Calendar can be found by clicking here

This week’s Pause Worship Video is posted below. Order  March on Washington Video Welcome-Travis Medley – Church Anew Prayer-Travis Precious Lord – Church Anew Mini-lecture on the Letter from a Birmingham Jail – Travis  Closing Words Closing Song if you haven’t watched our reading of Letter from a Birmingham Jail, please do.   As a reminder, this coming Sunday, January 23rd, worship will be online only.

Service

Bring your Hopes, Bring your Doubts, Feed your Soul.

Over the past few months, I have started and stopped and started again Kim Stanley Robinson’s book The Ministry for the Future. It is a cli-fi book (climate fiction) set in the near future as the world reacts to a heatwave that kills hundreds of thousands in India. I stopped the book because it was so depressing, then I started again because I read an interview with Robinson where he stated how optimistic he was about a climate future.   The more I read the more hopeful the book does get, but it’s is difficult to absorb. But every now and then a thought or a vision emerges from the book and I think, “we can change, we can do this.” In a similar way, this is how the past few weeks have been for me.   This latest experience with the omicron variant has been difficult to take. Probably not the best time for this variant to peak in Minnesota when it’s bitterly cold, grey, and isolating. But as I rode my bike around Lake Harriet the other day and looked at the art shanties I thought, “We should build a ‘chapel’ for next year.” This morning while scrolling through Twitter I saw a thread about Madonna del Ghisallo, the saint of bicyclists, and thought, “We should have a small portrait of her on the 41st side” the closest one is in a church in Portland, OR. Out of nowhere, in a gloomy moment a seed sprouts. I’m holding onto these seeds, they are getting me through this month.   -How are you doing? -Where are you finding hope? -What seeds are you clutching in your hands?   Peace,   Travis   Prayer for the Day “Disturb us, O Lord” by Archbishop Desmond Tutu   Disturb us, O Lord when we are too well-pleased with ourselves when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little because we sailed too close to the shore.   Disturb us, O Lord when with the abundance of things we possess,  we have lost our thirst for the water of life when having fallen in love with time,  we have ceased to dream of eternity and in our efforts to build a new earth,  we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim.   Stir us, O Lord to dare more boldly, to venture into wider seas where storms show Thy mastery,  where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes and invited the brave to follow. Amen, Find Judson on the internet through our link tree, linktr.ee/JudsonChurch

Service for 1-5-22

Bring your Hopes, Bring your Doubts, Feed your Soul.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who called, texted, emailed, and prayed for Lori and I during this past week. Tomorrow is our last day of isolation, following COVID protocols. We are feeling better, we get tired easily and we still have no sense of smell.   Last night the Judson Church Council met and approved the Judson COVID-19 Taskforce’s recommendation to suspend in-person worship and gatherings for the month of January.   There will be more information in the Friday email.   Peace be with you,   Travis   Prayer for the Day (today is the 12th Day of Christmas, to celebrate it here is John Shea’s poem).   “Sharon’s Christmas Prayer”   She was five, sure of the facts, and recited them with slow solemnity convinced every word was revelation. She said: “They were so poor they had only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to eat and they went a long way from home without getting lost. The lady rode a donkey, the man walked, and the baby was inside the lady. They had to stay in a stable with an ox and an ass (hee-hee) but the Three Rich Men found them because a star lighted the roof. Shepherds came and you could pet the sheep but not feed them. Then the baby was borned. And do you know who he was?” Her quarter eyes inflated to silver dollars, “The baby was God.” And she jumped in the air, whirled round, dove into the sofa, and buried her head under the cushion which is the only proper response to the Good News of the Incarnation.   (John is a Chicago native theologian, storyteller, author, and poet. He has written over 20 books of theology and spirituality, 3 works of fiction, and 3 books of poetry. He lectures nationally and internationally on storytelling, contemporary spirituality, and faith-based health care. I highly recommend his most recent poetry collection, “Seeing Haloes” and his gem of a book “Starlight.” www.johnshea.com.)         Find Judson on the internet through our link tree, linktr.ee/JudsonChurch   As a reminder, this coming Sunday, January 9nd, will also be online on our YouTube channel.

Service – It is a 30-minute service with elements from the Sunday service and specific online components:

Bring your Hopes, Bring your Doubts, Feed your Soul.

Notes for Christmas Eve.   Organ and Violin prelude will start at 8:45 pm A Service of Lessons and Carols will start at 9:00 pm I understand some of you may be uncomfortable attending in person. Know that the service will be live-streamed on Facebook beginning at 8:45 pm. If there are any technical difficulties please know that we are also taping the service (it will be uploaded on Saturday).   The Friday email will include the bulletin for the service.   Peace be with you,   Travis   Prayer for the Day (from Howard Thurman)   When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the kings and princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flock, The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner, To rebuild the nations, To bring peace among others, To make music in the heart.     Find Judson on the internet through our link tree, linktr.ee/JudsonChurch

Midweek Service 12-8-21

Bring your Hopes, Bring your Doubts, Feed your Soul. This Sunday (Joy Sunday) John the Baptist or (the Dipper) will invite all of us on a journey to joy: share your resources for the common good, be honest, and live lives of integrity. As we contemplate how to be a “new kind of Christian and a new kind of church” how do we work this invitation to joy into our message? How do you receive this invitation? Recall, the literal meaning of the word gospel is “good news.” Or recall that beautiful line from John’s gospel (good news), “your joy may be complete.” At the core of the Christian message is not judgement, phobias, and toxic attitudes, but JOY. So why do you reckon we don’t receive it as such? Peace be with you, Travis Prayer for the Day (from Brother David Steindl-Rast) May you grow still enough to hear the small noises earth makes in preparing for the long sleep of winter, so that you yourself may grow calm and grounded deep within. May you grow still enough to hear the trickling of water seeping into the ground, so that your soul may be softened and healed, and guided in its flow. May you grow still enough to hear the splintering of starlight in the winter sky and the roar at earth’s fiery core. May you grow still enough to hear the stir of a single snowflake in the air, so that your inner silence may turn into hushed expectation. Find Judson on the internet through our link tree, linktr.ee/JudsonChurch Here is our midweek online worship service: “Pause”. It is a 30 minute service with elements from the Sunday service and specific online components: