How Wonderful, O Lord

One of God's great gifts to Calvary has been the prayerful outpourings of singer/songwriter Toddie Stewart. Her daily discipline has been to sit at the piano and pray the psalms as the Spirit gives utterance. Many of these songs have been taught to the congregation so we share in the heartsongs of hope!

Recently Toddie wrote:
This was from my morning session today - so it's pretty fresh. I have been using Ray MacGinnis' book "Writing the Sacred" in my morning sacred time and have been pleased with what comes from it. I use Ray's book as a conscious exercise to help me write my thoughts about and to God - the source of all our creativity. Writing the exercise down on paper honors the gift, the Giver and also enriches the lives of the gifted ones.
God bless you. Shalom.


How Wonderful, O Lord
Toddie Stewart 28Nov2006

How wonderful, O Lord, You have been to me.
You have cradled me and loved me as Your child.
You washed and fed and clothed me,
You prompted me; Your voice was clear,
Healed my heart to open up to You.

How wonderful, O Lord, You have been to me.
You have guided me and pardoned me with Your grace.
You spoke my name; Your call was sure,
You showed the way for me to go,
Trained my feet to follow after You.

How wonderful, O Lord, you have been to me.
You quickened my steps to run after You,
You lifted my eyes to behold you,
You caused my knees to bow before you,
Taught my heart to sing your song.
How wonderful, O Lord, you have been to me.

South African Parliament Permits Gay Marriage

The esteemed and much loved United Methodist Pastor and Civil Rights Leader - Rev. Gil Caldwell - reflects here on the decision of the South African Parliament to Permit Gay Marriage. As always, his prayerful depth of wisdom unites Spirit and society in a clarifying light. God bless this man.




THE DECISION OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN PARLIAMENT

TO PERMIT GAY MARRIAGE

It is past time for all of us to engage in some soul searching and some re-visiting of our attitudes toward same gender loving persons and the desire of many of them to have equal access to marriage or unions. I suggest the following self-questioning.

1. From whence comes the negative emotions often conjured up by the prospect of same gender love and marriage? How do those negative emotions differ from the negative emotions that many have/had vis-a-vis interracial marriage?

2. If we claim the Biblical description of "abomination" for same gender sexual intimacy, do we feel the same about shellfish and their description as an abomination? The comedian
Jon Stewart in an effort to point out the inconsistency of our use of Scripture, had a skit where someone was holding a sign that said; "God hates homosexuals and shellfish." Does he make a point worth considering?

3. Growing up in North Carolina I remember someone pointing out the irrationality of anti-black prejudice by quoting this ditty:

I do not like you, Mr. Fell,
the reason why I cannot tell.
But, this I know and know real well:
I do not like you, Mr. Fell.

There is something irrational about this feeble justification of dislike, prejudice, even hate.

4. Negative stereotyping of persons has a way of becoming negative profiling. We think of "them" in the most negative of terms, because "some of them" have done things that we disagree with. This has a way of trickling across from race to sexual orientation to.... I often wonder if persons understand that I as an African American who has been around for a long time have had to work at not assuming that ALL white folk are like the white folk who have done and who do things that I dislike. Making universal decisions about any group of persons because of the actions of a few is prejudice. I continue to be amazed that persons who have known negative sterotyping because of their race or their gender, see no contradiction in their negative stereotyping of LGBT persons.

5. Finally, we hear persons say, "I hate the sin but not the sinner." The conviction that same gender love is sin, flies in the face of those of us who say that "God is love" and the love we have for each other flows from God. Those who resist same gender persons from making commitments to each other through marriage seem to believe that the foundation stone of marriage is the marriage of a female and a male and no more. What happened to love, commitment, companionship, patience, common struggle, living through the valleys and enjoying the mountaintop experiences of marriage? Denying same gender loving persons the right to experience the struggles and joys that occur in marriage following a public commitment, makes of those who support this denial, accomplices to the minimization of democracy.

The South African Parliament has spoken! How I wish that the American - African American community that has some primary experiential appreciation of civil rights, might have been in the forefront on this issue in the USA. Our silence and/or our complicity with those who have used same gender marriage as a political wedge issue, has provided some retrospective tarnish to the significance of the Civil Rights Movement. We who struggled to gain our civil rights through the courts, legislation and executive order have not understood that the same electorate in Michigan that voted against Affirmative Action is no different from the electorate that excludes persons from marriage because they do not meet their "definition" of marriage.

Sometimes as we who are African American sing:

We have come
over a way that with tears has been watered.
We have come
treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered...

I wonder if we understand the tears our insensitivty is causing others? I wonder if we understand that our "hating the sin of homosexuality" has given brutal people their justification for bloodying those who are same-gender loving?

Thank God that in South Africa, elected leaders who knew the awfulness of racist apartheid would not legally continue the apartheid of persons because of their sexual orientation!

Gil Caldwell

I promise to wake up with God on my mind

The journey became almost unbearable recently for one of our sisters.
But beyond the darkest night came a fresh resolve to seek God,
regardless of her emotional state.

Celebrate this turn toward hope in Kathy Winn's psalm of passionate resolve.



I PROMISE TO WAKE UP WITH GOD ON MY MIND

I promise to wake up with God on my mind
Looking for all of the good things to find.
My Friends and my loved ones are there by my side
And in their great love I will always abide.

I promise to focus on positive thoughts,
Staying away from the should’s, can’ts and ought’s.
I will turn to my good parts and find inner peace,
All of the negatives quickly release.

I will enjoy the season that’s here.
God has not given the spirit of fear.
I will go boldly to Gods loving throne
And there I’ll find comfort, I’m never alone.

I’m a new creature, made new every day.
All through the day I’ll remember to pray
If God be for me, as the Bible states,
I will rejoice as my fear abates.

I will sing of God's mercies and speak of God's love.
I will turn my face upward always looking above.
The God of my mothers, the God of my heart
Will ever be with me, no never depart.


Kathy Winn
October 21, 22, 2006

Consider the Whale

Repetition, the poet Ray McGinnis taught us,
brings deeper layers to life, or creates rhythm,
it rests the mind, or turns the words
like facets of a diamond held to the light.

Sacred Writing Night at Calvary produced some rich spiritual insights to share.

Here is Amilda Horne's venture into Biblical folklore and contemporary self care.
A word of God for us, the people of God...?


CONSIDER THE WHALE

Consider the whale.
Jonah was swallowed into a forced retreat.

Consider the whale.
Job was asked whether one would agree to be his slave.

Consider the whale,
A free strong intelligent creature.

Consider the whale,
No cave needed for protection. She carries her own.

Consider the whale,
No tolerance. No risk of abuse.

Consider the whale,
Cavorting in the sea and sunlight.

Consider the whale,
A great creature, singing tales and truths, composed.

Consider the whale,
Traveling with stability through all currents.

Consider the whale,
What does she fear?

Consider the whale,
Be still my soul.

Consider the whale,
The tide is turning.

~ Amilda K. Horne

The Sea Shall Part Before You

Arthur Herring contributes this poem from our night of spiritual improv with the Canadian poet/workshop leader Ray McGinnis. Our challenge was to think of an issue we'd like to talk with God about, then use poetic tools such as repetition to find nuances or layers of meaning in our Sacred Writing.

Enjoy Arthur's exploration of Moses standing at the side of the Red Sea with his people, desperately wondering "my God, what now?"

THE SEA SHALL PART BEFORE YOU

The Great God, He gave you your strengths.
Why stand here, crying?

Is not this God your Maker?
Why stand here, crying?

Is there anything...that can withstand Him?
Why stand here, crying?

If you know, if you believe these things,
Why stand here, crying?

GO FORWARD!


"Lord, keep Your arm around my shoulder
and Your hand
over my mouth."