Author: SusannahDB

Ashes to Go

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My church is having pancakes and ashes on Tuesday night. We will enjoy a time of fellowship over tasty pancakes made by the youth and then everyone will leave with a baggie of ashes and a piece of paper with the following words.

Ash Wednesday is tomorrow. This special day is the beginning of the
season of Lent. For the next 40 days, we will focus on the life of
Jesus preparing ourselves to follow him as witnesses of his death and
resurrection. Lent is a time to focus on following Jesus through
prayer, Bible reading, sharing what we have with each other, and
asking for forgiveness when we are wrong. As you place these ashes on
your head, consider how you will follow Jesus this Lenten season.

Bible Reading from Joel 2: 12-16a

“Even now,” declares the Lord,
   “return to me with all your heart,
   with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

13 Rend your heart and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
   and he relents from sending calamity.
14 Who knows? He may turn and relent
   and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast,
   call a sacred assembly. 16 Gather the people, consecrate the
assembly; bring together the elders,    gather the children.

Blessing of Us as We Receive the Ashes

Holy God, you created humans from the dust of this earth. You created
us in your own image. We are grateful to be your beloved children. As we receive these ashes, help us to remember your love and your call
for us to return to you. We admit we have sinned and we know that
these ashes are a sign of your forgiveness and your love for us.
Through Jesus Christ, our Savior, who we are following today and each
day, we pray, Amen.

Imposition of Ashes-

You can place the ashes on your own head or have someone else place
them for you. As the ashes are placed say-

Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.

Or

Remember God’s amazing love for you and that you belong to God today
and everyday.

Closing Prayer and Blessing (Psalm 51:10)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Amen.

Five Years without My Mom (Thoughts on Grief)

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Today marks five years since the death of my Mom. I miss her. I spent time today wondering through Barnes and Noble (which she loved to do), looking at pictures of her, and remembering.

And I spent time thinking about what grief looks like for me. It is now much different from that initial grief when I could cry so easily and the missing her was an intense ache. Today, there were tears and sadness and a longing for her to have not been absent the past five years. The feelings change even as they linger.

I want to normalize grief and death in our society. We all grieve, and we will all die. It is not something we must think about all of the time until we are preoccupied with it. Also, we do not need to fear it or ignore it or pretend it will never happen to us.

For me, rituals have been helpful in coping with the deaths of people I love. I find ways that are meaningful to me to mark important days. I honor my Mom’s birthday and the day of her death. My whole family honors cheeseburger day which is the day she and my sister completed chemo (same day different years).

Honoring these big days in my Mom’s life is one way I hold on to her memory while also living my life as part of her legacy.

In honor of my Mom, I invite you to read a book, wear comfy pants, put your feet up and cover up with a blanket, eat a food you enjoy, hug your family, laugh out loud or silently, watch a movie you have seen countless times, go buy a book you may never read, visit your local library, build something with Legos, or just smile and be thankful for your life.

Hot Cinnamon Sunset Tea

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On a cold morning, this is a great tea to warm me up!

The side of the tin describes the tea so well. “Assertive, yet smooth with sweetness and spice.” This tea makes a great morning pick me up or is perfect for warming yourself up by the fire after being outside on a wintry day.

This tea was an awesome Christmas gift from a dear friend. I will be enjoying it all winter long!

Advent Candle Lighting-Hope

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Reader-As Advent begins again; we light the candle of hope.

We look to the book of Psalms to see what words of hope are offered there.

All-“Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.” 

Reader-In this season of Advent, we are reminded to wait for the promises of God to come again into our lives.

All-“And now, O Lord, what do I wait for?  My hope is in you.” 

Reader-“Hope in God.” 

All-“For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.” 

Reader-“But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.”

All- “But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.” 

 

(The words in quotes are from the NRSV edition of the Bible from Psalm 33:22, Psalm 39:7, Psalm 42:5a, Psalm 71:5, and Psalm 71:14).

Working on a Difficult Task with Prayer and Post-its!

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I know I am not the only one who has not-favorite tasks to do. I have found that putting them off does not solve any problems. Somehow no one else is picking them up and magically doing them for me.

One task that has been challenging for me lately is reading for a class I am taking. I have tried reading in chunks with breaks for something fun. I have tried reading in different spots in my house and outside. I have tried and tried. And then in a moment of total desperation, I turned to one of my favorite things…post its (off brand-don’t worry I am not a wasting the good stuff). Here is what is working for me. I write down the page numbers I need to read-each one on a different page. When I finish a page in my textbook, I rip off the numbered page on the notepad! The physical act of tearing off a page and seeing my done pile stack up is helping me get through the reading!

While this method may not work for you, I hope you will keep trying to find your way of working through the difficult tasks in your life. Reward yourself when you do well. Be kind to yourself as you search for your methods toward success. You can do it!

Loving God, Some tasks slow us down more than others. Inspire our creativity to work through the challenging tasks in life. Give us a spirit of perseverance. And help us to feel a sense of joy and accomplishment when our task is done. Thank you, Amazing God, for cheering us on each and every day. Amen.

A Prayer for Disappointment

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Faithful God, I know I pray thy will be done, and I just wish my will and your will lined up more closely sometimes. You know I love making plans. Why didn’t my plan and your plan match this time? God, I am so disappointed. I really wanted it to all work out like I hoped. And so far it hasn’t! Ugh! I will continue to trust in you. I will continue to believe you are working all things together for good. I will continue to have hope. First though, I am going to be disappointed and sad and wallow in this for a bit. I will let my feelings out knowing that you understand disappointment. I will wonder why it didn’t go like I planned. I might even shake my fist in frustration. And then, Holy One, I will breathe deeply letting your spirit of peace flow through me. I will remember that you love me more than I can even comprehend. And I will work with you to create a new plan in the hopes this one works out. Amen.

I found this prayer in my drafts waiting to be shared on my blog. I have no idea why I didn’t share it or what was causing my disappointment when I wrote it. As disappointments keep happening in life, I thought it was good to share today.

A Prayer While at the Emergency Department!

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Please know everything is fine. Just spent some time recently at the emergency department with someone lovely. All is well! No worries.

This prayer was written during the hours of sitting and waiting. If you find yourself in a similar situation, I hope you can pray this prayer as a comfort to yourself and those you love!

Patient and Loving God, While I am thankful for the skilled people rushing around to care for everyone, I would rather be just about anywhere else today. As I listen to conversations around me by people I do not know, I ask you to be with them. Grant patience to everyone here. Grant your wisdom to those providing care. Grant your peace to those waiting for results or medication or support. Be with the loved ones sitting on chairs that were comfortable three hours ago and now pacing rooms and hallways.

God of All Wisdom, thank you for everyone who is working today to keep people healthy, to mend what has been broken, and to ease pain. Thank you for kind words and listening ears. For everyone who spends their days and nights in the Emergency Departments around the world, we give thanks. Amen.

Fruits of the Spirit Interactive Sermon

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I wanted to do a different sermon when I preached earlier this summer, so I decided to have the congregation take an active role in a sermon focusing on the Fruits of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23.

First, I gathered some actual fruit and a Sharpie. I used bananas, lemons, and oranges. On each fruit, write one of the fruits-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control.

And my friend designed these awesome question sheets on Canva.

And then I wrote an introduction and a wrap up for the sermon.

Just before these verses in Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia are a list of do not dos. We will not be reading those verses today because we are focusing on the to do! The fruits of the Spirit are actions that pour out of us as a response to God’s love.

The fruits of the Spirit-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control-are not things we do to be saved. Jesus already took care of that . The fruits of the Spirit are our response to God’s love living inside of us. Because we are filled with God’s love, we can be fruit trees bearing lots of fruit. And this text isn’t just talking about us as individuals-it is talking about the church. So because Buckingham Presbyterian Church is filled with God’s love, our grateful response is being a church that shares all of these fruits.

It is easy to say these fruits so fast that we don’t even think about them. Instead today we are going to dive deep into this fruit salad. We are going to divide into groups and answer the questions on our sheet about our fruit. Then we will come back together and share what we said.

After each group has shared, it is time for the wrap up!

I want you to be on the lookout for these fruits in the coming days. I am giving everyone a Fruit of the Spirit Bingo Card. When you see a fruit or you put one of these fruits in action, cross it off your card. When your card is full, bring it back to church and give it to me. I will have a special prize for you (spoiler alert-it is fruit snacks). We are going to work together as a community of faith to be people who respond to God’s love by sharing love, joy, peace, kindness, faithfulness, self-control, generosity, gentleness, and patience. Amen.

Thanks to my creative friend for making these question and Bingo cards.

Giving Thanks and Turning Off the To Do List

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My wonderful sister sent me this gift recently.

It is a jar filled with 120 Scriptures. They are color coded and one is invited to select one when feeling-happy, anxious, lonely, thankful, sad, or angry.

I was so excited that I dove right into the jar and started pulling out Scriptures and reading them. And then my brain kept going (like it often does). I was thinking this is such a great idea. I could create something like this for my families at church. How wonderful would that be. And yes, it would be wonderful. And yes, it might still happen in the future. Not today. Today, I am going to enjoy this gift. I am going to avoid adding another thing to my to do list. I am going to smile when I pull a Scripture from the jar. I am going to give thanks for the gift and for the giver of this gift. And that will be enough for today.

Giver of All Good Gifts, Remind us that it is okay to say thank you and enjoy a gift. Every great idea does not need to be acted upon immediately. You remind us to be still and know that you are God. So today, help us to be still. Slow down our ideas that make us more work. Let us be still and rest in you. Amen.

A Prayer for the Garden

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I was raised by parents who had a garden. I spent my summer helping the grandparents in their gardens. Somehow the growing and gardening gene just didn’t make it to me. My church has a garden, and I enlisted support of people who have a green thumb to get the plants in the ground and help them grow! Last night was the first night of planting. Now it is time for that which I feel is more in my skill set-praying for the garden! Join me in a garden prayer.

God of All that Grows, Thank you for the gift of gardens filled with plants and hopefully someday filled with tasty foods. In our speedy society, it can be hard to wait for our garden to be ready. Give us patience as we watch it grow. Give us perseverance as we pull so many weeds. Give us steadfastness as we water when the rains don’t fall as we would prefer. Above all, give us a spirit of thankfulness as we tend and care for the land you created and share what we grow with your children. Amen!