The Great Thanksgiving

As a part of OKC First's weekly Word and Table service, we have the opportunity to pray this prayer (as part of The Great Thanksgiving liturgy) every week before we take communion together:

"It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, almighty God, creator of heaven and earth. You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life.

"When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.

"You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God, and spoke to us through your prophets, who looked for that day when justice shall roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream, when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."

Amen!!  

Shalom will be our reward.

For a Christian, an economic system is a means to an end - a mechanism for exchanging goods and services...nothing more. 

We steer our lives by a higher value - the love ethic of Jesus. Central to our bearing the cross is our acceptance of Jesus' love and our attentiveness to the needs of others...

Compassion will be our guiding light, our rule in life. Justice will lead us to faithful stewardship - to care for an work on behalf of others in the global community. 

Shalom will be our reward.
-Ann Hagmann, Climbing the Sycamore Tree

Eating the Bread of Anxious Toil

The following passage is taken from one of last week's thematic readings from A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God:

"As we grow older, we tend to become control freaks. We need to control everybody and everything, moment by moment, to be happy. If the now has never been full or sufficient, we will always be grasping, even addictive or obsessive.

"If you're pushing yourself and others around, you have not yet found the secret of happiness. It's okay as it is. The moment is as perfect as it can be. The saints called it 'the sacrament of the present moment.'"

-Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs

Christ be in Your Head, and in Your Understanding...

Every week, Rev. Judy Cox dismisses the Word & Table service at OKC First Church of the Nazarene with the following blessing. We've come to love it as we try to get better at living it out!

"Christ be in your head, and in your understanding.
Christ be in your eyes, and in your looking.
Christ be in your mouth, and in your speaking.
Christ be in your heart, and in your thinking.
Christ be at your end, and at your departing.
Amen and amen!" 

United Methodist Book of Worship, #566 (modified)