A Prayer for Disciples Who Struggle

September 6, 2010 By

prepared for worship at Montecito Covenant Church
September 6, 2010 by
Diana R.G. Trautwein

That song we’ve just sung together, Lord –
it’s a really great song.
The words are strong and compelling,
and on my best days,
in my better moments –
when I’m feeling well
and hopeful
and grateful –
those words are truly the prayer of my heart:
“Send me out to the world.
I want to be your hands and feet…
I want to give my life away,
all for your kingdom’s sake.”

All of us who love you want that to be the
deepest desire of our hearts,
to pass along to others the great good news of
your love and mercy.
So, I begin this morning by saying
thank you
for that news,
for that love,
for that mercy.
The good news of Jesus is truly
what gives our lives meaning and purpose,
and we are grateful.

But I also have to admit
that there’s another side to me,
and I’m sure to everyone else in this room, too.
There’s the side that gets tired,
that gets distracted,
that gets sideswiped instead of sent,
that gets waylaid instead of led,
that gets lost on the way —
mired in the demands of daily life.

We are your fickle people, Lord
too ready to give up the best
for the good enough,
to substitute busyness
for purpose,
to listen to the desires of our own hearts rather
than to the desires of yours.
Forgive us.
Cleanse us.
Help us to turn around and begin again,
with you in the lead this time,
with you in the lead.

And we know that you will lead us
in two distinctly different,
but equally important directions –
you’ve shown us this in the life of Jesus,
you’ve taught us this in the words of scripture:
you will lead us out,
and you will lead us in –
out to the world in love and service,
but also,
also,
in to the center of ourselves
where, as the prophet Isaiah reminds us
so beautifully, we discover that,
“In repentance and rest is our salvation,
in quietness and trust is our strength…”
Repentance,
rest,
quietness,
trust…
these are what lead to salvation and strength;
these are what prepare us
and position us to
be sent,
to be led,
to be disciples.
So…help us, one and all, right now, right here –
to repent,
to rest,
to be quiet,
to trust.
To take the heaviest thoughts on our hearts
right this minute –
that person we love who is dying,
that child who is straying,
that marriage that is foundering
that divorce that is looming,
that illness that is threatening,
that paycheck that is missing,
that project that is falling apart
that relationship that is churning,
that school assignment that is overwhelming –
whatever it is that is heavy
and worrisome and scary –
help us to hold it before you
with trembling hands
and say…
“thy will be done.”
“Thy will be done.”
And help us to open our hands
and let…it…go!

Fill us with your peace,
free us from our chains,
feed us from your word,
empower us to do your work.
For Jesus’ sake. Amen.






Filed Under: Public Prayers

Independence Day Sermon, 2010

July 5, 2010 By


Inside Out and Upside Down

2 Kings 5:1-17

July 4, 2010 by Diana R.G. Trautwein

Independence Day is traditionally a day for family gatherings and for family story-sharing. Well, have I got a story for you today! Oh my, this is a good one – one of the best-crafted of so many well-told tales in the Old Testament. This one takes place in about the 9th century before the birth of Christ – and it’s found in 2 Kings – chapter 5, to be exact. And today, I want to encourage you to have your Bibles open, but to just listen to this story as we read it for you.

READERS’ THEATER FOR THREE VOICES – 2 KINGS 5:1-17

Reader 1: Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram.

Reader 2: He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded,

Reader 3: because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier,

Reader 1: but… he had leprosy.

Reader 3: Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress,

Reader 1.“If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

Reader 2: Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said.

Reader 3: “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”

Reader 2: So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. The letter that he took to the king of Israel read:

Reader 3:“With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.”

Reader 1: As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said,

Reader 2: “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does his fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”

Reader 1: When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message:

Reader 3:“Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.”

Reader 1:So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him,

Reader 2:“Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”

Reader 1:But Naaman went away angry and said,

Reader 3:“I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?”

Reader 1:So he turned and went off in a rage. Naaman’s servants went to him and said,

Reader 2:“My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”

Reader 1:So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said,

Reader 3:“Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.”

Reader 1:The prophet answered,

Reader 2:“As surely as the LORD lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing.”

Reader 1:And even though Naaman urged him, he refused.

Reader 3:“If you will not,” said Naaman, “please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the LORD.

What’d I tell you? Pretty good story, right? Surprising people in surprising places, doing surprising things with surprising results. A story filled with – the unexpected, the serendipitous, even a bit of the hilarious – curses that become blessings in disguise, important people who act like children, and children and servants who literally save the day. Here in this story, nearly 900 years before Jesus was even born, we have a pretty powerful illustration of the crazy mixed-up nature of the kingdom of God that Jesus taught his disciples about all along the dusty roads of Palestine so many years later. In this story, as in so many of the stories of Jesus, (and in the writings of Paul, as our reading from Galatians reminded us this morning) the outsider is brought in, gentle words are more powerful than anger, the no-named ones make the difference, the high and mighty behave like the wild and wacky, the littlest, least likely one puts the whole thing in motion, and it all comes down to grace – pure and simple, free and fabulous grace.

For that is the center of this story – and any story worthy of telling – it seems to me. Grace is all around us, readily available to us, but …. we must follow Naaman’s lead and step into it. We have to step into the water of grace. What does that look like for you? for me? for us? I think it looks like at least these three important truths:

1. It looks like: Paying attention

2. It looks like: Making space inside

3. It looks like: Following through

Paying attention…to the people and the events and the space around us, and maybe most importantly, the space within us. Paying attention means listening carefully enough to our own hearts to discover the thing we want most in this world – not merely what we think we want (you know, those wishes and dreams that float to the surface pretty fast – like…a new car or a better body or a perfect relationship or admission to just the right school or enough money to have whatever we want whenever we want it.) And not even those things that we think we ought to want (like better habits, or a stronger character, or a more loving personality, or a deeper sense of compassion and a greater desire to help others). No. I’m talking about the thing that’s way the heck down deep in there, the thing that we take great pains to cover up with all kinds of other stuff just to distract us from the deepest yearning of our hearts. And that yearning goes by a lot of different names in our culture – names like…wholeness, fulfillment, completion, connection, even love. These are all fine things, good things – but they are not at the center of our most honest desire. For the very truest thing about us, as human beings, and the truth that is foundational to all those fine things our culture thinks are at the top of the list – the very truest thing about us is that we were made to deeply desire the one true God – the God who made us, who calls us to be our best selves, who loves us even when we’re a long way from those best selves, who sees us and knows us and wants to share life and love and relationship with us. That’s what we want. That’s who we want.

It’s just that we have this bent place in us, a broken bit that pretty consistently calls us away from that deep truth and tells us to just go ahead and fill up that yearning, that space inside, with all kinds of other stuff – like the things I listed out just a couple of minutes ago. We simply move one or more of those perfectly fine things into the space that was created for the one true God. And they do not fit. We work really, really hard to make them fit. We even get addicted to them. We even begin to act as though they are god and we convince ourselves that they can fill up that space just fine, thank you very much. And then we place layer upon layer of almost anything or anyone else we can think of right on top of that God-shaped space until there is no space to be seen. Very soon, our lives have become so filled with distraction that we simply cannot pay attention. We haven’t the time or the energy or finally, even the ability to stop. To slow down. To peel back the layers a bit and look around in there. But…and this is a lovely and grace-filled word for us human creatures. But…we can sometimes find a little help for our distracted busyness, help from people and places that just might surprise us.

Naaman needed help to pay attention, and it came from the most surprising people: a captured little girl with a message of hope and healing in the beginning of the story; and faithful, humble servants whose calming truth brought a little coolness into the heat of his temper tantrum near the end of the story. Sometimes we need a little help, too. Maybe, just maybe, we can help one another to learn more about paying attention. I know several of you have certainly helped me to do that at various times over the last 13 ½ years. You’ve sent a sweet note, or written a provocative poem, or suggested a thoughtful book or website that helps me find my way back to center. Because it’s at the center where paying attention becomes easier, more natural, more revealing.

And that brings us to the second truth for this morning – the importance of making – or perhaps more accurately – re-discovering that center, that space inside, that space that’s just the right size for grace, just the right size for God.

You know, I think Naaman was probably a pretty good guy. We’re told 3 times in the first verse or two that actually, he was a great man, a recognized and famous man. I imagine his life was full, busy, scheduled up the yin-yang. If he wasn’t in the middle of one military campaign, he was probably at the map tables, busily laying out the next one. We know he had servants and a household to run as well as an army. We know he was part of the royal court of Aram. We know he had immediate access to the king. We can surmise that his servants thought pretty highly of him, which tells us that he probably was a pretty good guy, as well as a great military leader. But all of his fame, and all of his great military prowess, and all of his household possessions could not make up for the fact that he was a sick man. He had a serious skin condition – not serious enough to keep him socially isolated – but serious enough for a little slave girl to be aware of it and concerned about her master’s overall well-being. And that little girl brought something new to the table with her wide-eyed comment to the general’s wife – “Hey, I know a guy who could heal your husband.” This caused the busy, great man to stop. To pay attention. To seek the help he needed. But he still had a lot to learn, and discovering that space inside was at the top of the list. Boy, he loaded up those donkeys, didn’t he? He brought lots and lots of really cool stuff to the King of Israel, things that would look impressive, that would buy good favor, that would grease the wheels in the local power system. Sort of a picture of all the stuff that was likely piled up inside the man, too, don’t you think?

Now the king of Israel wasn’t exactly the sharpest pencil in the box – probably a bit of an editorial comment by the writer to let us know this king was a bad, idolatrous king and that the only help for Naaman, who was – let us not forget to notice this very important point – who was NOT an Israelite,but a Gentile, an outsider, in fact most of the time, an actual enemy of the state. (So perhaps the king’s hissy fit is a little more understandable.) The only help for Naaman was not going to be found within the walls of the royal palace, but in the countryside abode of the man of God, the prophet whose name was Elisha.So…Naaman lugs all his piled up stuff over the hill to the prophet’s house and waits to be greeted with the acclaim and admiration due a man of his stature.

Not gonna happen, Naaman, not gonna happen.

The countryside prophet wants to make it abundantly clear that he does not do magic, that he does not do parlor tricks, that he himself does not do anything to bring about the healing that will come.And that healing can only happen if Naaman divests himself of some of those trappings and receives the healing as it is intended – a gift of grace.

Funny thing, though. There doesn’t seem to be space in Naaman for anything except his aggrieved sense of entitlement and his unholy anger. Wow. What is it in us that makes us so prickly sometimes? Why do we take offense if we feel like we’re not being treated ‘right,’ whatever that is? Why do we so often hurl insults at the very things that will bring us hope and help and wholeness? A lot of the time, I do believe, it’s because we don’t have any room inside us to let the grace flow in. We’re so full of ourselves, so full of self-righteousness, our own agendas, our own ideas of the way things should be done, that we have no space left for God to break through with healing love and help.

Once again, help is on the way, however. This time, it is the faithful servants who have accompanied Naaman on his journey. They step into the heat of his anger, offering good and wise advice. What was it Paul said in our Galatians passage? “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.” Ah yes – his servant-friends helped Naaman to make some room for grace.

But ultimately, the decision to follow through had to be made by Naaman himself. With a little help, he was able to pay attention. With a little more help, he was able to open up some space inside. But all on his own, he went down to that riverside. All on his own, he dipped his fevered skin into the Jordan river. All on his own, he emerged from that seventh dip with the cleansed, restored skin of a young child. And see what happens! This is not just a healed man that emerges from the Jordan. This is a changed man, a converted man, a redeemed man. The angry, entitled man of just moments before is transformed into a humble man, a deeply grateful man, a man filled with grace to the point of overflow. One of the first Gentile conversions recorded in scripture. The only healed leper in all of the Elijah/Elisha sagas in the book of Kings. One of the two Gentile believers noted by Jesus in the very first sermon of his ministry life. Naaman, the over-busy, easily-angered military leader becomes Naaman, the humble recipient of grace, eager to worship the one True God. And he replaces some of his own stuff with Israelite dirt to form the base of an altar dedicated to Yahweh, the God of Israel, now the God of Naaman.

That’s what grace can do. It can wind its way into the tiniest available space and bring about wholesale transformation and change. Grace will always seek us out, but it will not control our choices. It is there for us to receive, if we pay just a little bit of attention, if we open up just the smallest of spaces inside of us, and if we follow through on what we find. For it is the gift of grace that can bring healing and hope into the midst of sickness and despair. It is the gift of grace that can bring us into the inside out, upside down center of real life, where God is God, we are God’s loved children and Jesus is our elder brother and our Redeemer. It is grace that can change a small, torn piece of bread and a wee cup of grape juice into life and hope and promise. It is grace that can turn a roomful of strangers into the family of God. Praises be!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Annual Meeting – What a Way to Start!

June 25, 2010 By


Our small denomination is really working hard to be technologically up-to-date and user-friendly. For the past couple of years, we’ve had live video streaming of our Annual Meeting worship services and Bible studies. So, this year, I decided to check it out. Last night’s opening session (though attendance was a bit spotty due to some rather severe storm systems delaying flights from east of Minneapolis/St. Paul – the site for this year’s gathering), was so encouraging. Flags from 39 nations around the globe in which the ECC is working to bring the whole gospel to people and cultures; commissioning of about a dozen short-term and 5 career missionaries for ministry locations on 4 continents; some lovely and intriguing music and dance from students at Alaska Christian College – and a powerful opening sermon from our President, Gary Walter. Here with is my summary of his charge to the church on our 125th Anniversary:

This is the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Covenant church, which began not as a church organization, but rather as a mission society with churches as members. We were formed as a mission society so that together, me might do bigger things for God than we could do alone. We are today still firmly committed to the whole mission of the church. It has been said that, ‘the church has a mission.’ That would be more correctly stated, ‘the mission of God has a church.’

So, what does it mean to be a missional church?

IT MEANS THAT WE ARE TO FOLLOW THE HEART OF GOD INTO THE WORLD.

The Galatians 2 passage from which he preached leads to a ‘mission cubed’ picture – a 3-fold mission:

1. to proclaim God’s unconditional love to a world in need of it

2. to take that unconditional love to ALL the world – across cultures as well as across distances

3. to put hands and feet to that love by living out the good news with truth, justice and mercy, especially to the marginalized and the poor

The world at large – and Gary Walter in particular – is tired of “angry, cranky evangelicals.” So our task, as committed evangelicals who belong to this mission society we call ‘The Covenant,’ is to live out this 3-fold mission. We know that we cannot and do not do this perfectly, in fact we would be the first to declare that we are ‘consciously incompetent’ at a lot of it! BUT we are intentional about our efforts to be faithful to the whole mission and God has blessed us with 18 years of consistent growth, growth both in numbers and in diversity.

Gary’s summary of who we are and what we’re about at this point in our history is this:

The Evangelical Covenant Church of the United States and Canada seeks to build more disciples in more populations in a more caring and just world.

This is a big mission from a big God. But what we must never lose sight of is the powerful truth that doing big things for a big God always, ALWAYS involves little things being done for people. THAT’S how it happens – an endless series of small acts, faithfully done in the name of Jesus.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

A Prayer for Father’s Day, 2010

June 21, 2010 By

In my weekend reading, I was struck by this powerful paragraph written by Ann and Barry Ulanov, in their book, “Primary Speech: a Psychology of Prayer.” Please listen carefully as it is a dense bit of writing, but oh! – it offers us such a rich understanding of what prayer is truly all about:
“Prayer articulates our longing for a fullness of being, our reaching out of the mind for what is beyond it, and [prayer] helps us find and love God and grow with our love. It is like the sun warming a seed into life, like the work of clearing away weeds and bringing water to the interior garden of St. Teresa’s inspired imagery. Prayer enlarges our desire until it receives God’s desire for us. In prayer we grow big enough to house God’s desire for us, which is the Holy Spirit.”

Let us pray together, articulating our longing as we do:
Great God,
Creator of the universe,
Redeemer of our souls,
you are indeed beyond, far beyond what our minds can grasp.
And we do long for you –
as a lost child longs for a parent,
as a lost sailor longs for land and home,
as those who grieve long for those they have lost.
Help us to grasp that all our longings
are really longings for the same thing –
we long for you, O God.
We long to be known,
to be heard,
to be understood,
to be loved.
And something within us knows that what we long for
cannot truly be found anywhere else but with You.
Sift through the weeds of our lives,
the distractions,
the divided loyalties,
the difficult memories,
the demands we place on ourselves that are
unhealthy and unholy and unnecessary.
Water us generously with grace and forgiveness,
refine and expand our desire for you!
Strengthen our resolve,
empower our wills,
transform our minds,
warm us into life,
as the sun warms the seed – warm us into real, true life.
And help us never to settle for anything less than that,
never to give our ultimate allegiance to anything other than that,
never to shirk from offering that kind of life
to those you put in our way.
Many of us today are celebrating – celebrating the wonderful truth
that we have or had fathers
who helped us to see and value real, true life,
whose desire for you was refined and defined and clarified
over a lifetime of devotion,
and who taught us to pay attention to our heart’s desire.
Thank you for loving, believing dads.
Some of us today are missing those dads, those Good Dads,
because they’re no longer here with us.
Help us to celebrate anyhow,
‘to remember them with joy and with gratitude.
Some of us never really experienced that kind of father
in our lives at all,
and we’re still trying to learn how to fill in the blanks
left over from difficult parenting.
Help us to celebrate progress made,
and to recognize the depth of our desire
for you to be our Good Father.
We ask you blessing this day
on all those in our community
who are now dads themselves –
may they feel blessed and valued and affirmed.
May they – and we – seek to
“enlarge our desire for you
until we are able to receive” –
miracle of miracles! –
“your own deep desire for us.”

For that is the amazing truth
that is at the heart of our story
as followers of Jesus,
as believers in the God of Israel,
as people of the Book.
For that Book, the Word written,
and your Son Jesus, the Word living,
tell us again and again
that it is your longing for us
that set creation in motion.
It is your magnificent,
mystifying,
life-giving love for us,
your desire for us –
that holds this universe together,
that holds the church together,
that holds our hearts together,
that holds us.
So, Lord God, help us to be people of prayer,
for it is in that heart-to-heart communication,
that sharing of our dreams and desires,
our wishes and wonderings,
that we can,
“grow big enough to house your desire for us,”
to fully embrace and welcome the Holy Spirit,
whose presence in us is life eternal.
In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Filed Under: Public Prayers

A Prayer for Ordinary Time…

June 7, 2010 By


Wow. Didn’t realize it had been so long since I posted anything. Here is the prayer from this morning’s worship service – a service which I led, in the absence of our Senior Pastor, who is on a much-needed, long-awaited vacation/study leave in the south of France. (A good friend, John Notehelfer, stepped in to preach as there was no time or energy for either preparation or delivery!) Unfortunately, I’m not in tip-top shape even for worship-leading, as it turns out. Still in recovery mode from a scary bout of blood clots in both lungs, which required hospitalization for a couple of days and a continuing – now 11 day – recovery and recuperation. I marshaled my energies for the morning, and then pretty much crashed all afternoon, more tired than I can just about ever remember being. Our bodies are indeed ‘fearfully and wonderfully made,’ and when they get out of whack, one needs to pay attention.

Today is the 2nd Sunday in the season of Pentecost on the church calendar – also called Ordinary Time. And that’s what about 99% of life is, isn’t it? Ordinary time. Here is a prayer for such a time, beginning with a line from our offertory hymn of the morning:
“…his strength shall bear you up, and nerve your heart, and brace your arm.”

There are days, Lord,
when we truly need
to have our ‘hearts nerved’
and our ‘arms braced.’
There are days, Lord,
when it seems as though whatever it is we are carrying
weighs a couple of tons.
There are days, Lord,
when we need to stop on the road a while,
take a deep breath,
and wait;
wait for your sweet,
sometimes subtle,
yet always reliable
strength,
to bear our spirits up.

And for many of us this morning,
today is one of those days.
Some of us have come through
wonderful times of celebration recently –
graduation day,
wedding day,
even a birth-day for beautiful new Isabella Faith.
We’re grateful for milestone celebrations such as these,
because they bring us reminders of your good gifts of
grace and goodness,
faith and faithfulness,
connection and commitment.
But because we are frail creatures of dust,
even parties can wear us out,
can cause rough edges in our relationships,
when schedules have to be set,
tasks have to be done,
deadlines have to be met.
So, will you sit with us,
by the side of the road this morning, Lord?
Help us to breathe deeply of your love,
and to wait for your strength to fill us
for whatever comes next.
For others of us today,
celebration has had to be pushed aside to
make way for more urgent concerns:
failing health,
failing bank accounts,
failing relationships,
exhausted resources.
We are truly in need of a roadside rest,
space to wait,
for our hearts to be nerved,
and our arms to be braced,
and our spirits to be borne up by your strength.

And while we’re sitting here,
on the side of the roadway of life,
it seems important for us to offer to you
some words of apology and contrition.

Because not one of us can manage to get through a single day,
even a single hour,
without revealing the shadows
of sin and brokenness that mar your image in us.
So, please hear our silent words of confession as we offer them to you:

— SILENCE —

Amazingly, dear Lord, we must also declare that there are moments,
here and there, once in a while,
when we know that you’re with us, at work in us,
reaching through us to others in need,
or simply filling us with deeply joyful gratitude –
because we’re alive,
because we’re loved,
because we are.
And for these moments, we want to say, ‘thank you.’
‘Thank you so much.”
–-SILENCE–

We’ve brought gifts of love today, Lord God –
money that can be used to bring the gospel good news
of hope and healing into needy hearts and bodies,
both here and around the world.
We set these gifts aside for holy purposes today,
grateful that we can bring them,
grateful that you will use them.
Prepare our hearts to meet you today,
to hear from your word through your servant, John,
to hear your song of love to us,
even as we sing songs together,
to taste and see that that LORD is good
as we share together in bread and cup.
And then send us out,
arms braced,
hearts nerved,
spirits borne up by your strength,
refreshed from our
stopping
and sitting
and waiting,
ready to hit the road again,
with joy that is contagious,
with grace that is generous,
with thanksgiving that is overflowing,
with Jesus himself, alive and well within us.
For it is in his name,
and for his sake that we pray. Amen.

Filed Under: Public Prayers

Beauty in the Wilderness

March 27, 2010 By

My mom was visiting (as she does about 5 or 6 times a year) and we wanted to take her on a small trip as she seldom gets a chance to do that. So we headed up to Santa Maria, spent one night in a motel and then drove out the Carrizo Plain National Monument, on the way to beautiful downtown Taft, due east from our coastal central valley area. It was just amazing. Enjoy these few photos of a lovely, lazy afternoon’s drive through a little-known part of our great state.



Filed Under: Uncategorized

The Blessing of Family

March 23, 2010 By

I’m not sure that I can even put into words how very deeply blessed I feel in the gift of our children and their children. I try, from time to time, but generally find myself quite inarticulate in their presence. I also find myself spending money to shower them with gifts of various kinds, as if I could communicate my love and pride and thanksgiving through material objects.
I count it a privilege and a joy when they choose to spend time with us and with each other. I rejoice in their growth as loving, giving, faithful human beings and I weep when they struggle or are hurt. But I don’t always make that fact known to them or to others. I always worry about overwhelming these oh-so-dear people and somehow coming across as either needy or intrusive – the capital crimes of parents of adult children!
I found a professional life when my children were raised – and I marveled at God’s call to ministry. I also gave thanks for it because I knew a life outside of my family would help me a.) make the transition from full to empty nest; and b.) keep my hands and nose out of their business – because I now had other places to put said hands and nose!
But there are those times when we’re all in the same space and something remarkable happens. Something holy happens – and I don’t use that word lightly.

It happened on the occasion of my 65th birthday on January 23rd. Gathered for dinner in Malibu at a Hawaiian themed restaurant, a traveling musical trio stopped by our table and taught our two four-year-olds how to do the hula hand motions to, “Pearly Shells.” All of us were laughing and looking on lovingly as these two precious littlest ones (until Lilly arrived on February 25, of course!) delightedly waved their hands in time to the music. It was if a halo of light radiated around our entire family group and it was all joy.

It happened again, in smaller circles of light, when we all gathered at Lisa’s for dinner a week ago. This gathering was to give Joy’s family a chance to see the newest member of our tribe, as traveling all the way north to SB/Carpinteria is tough with a full-on body cast, something 4- year-old Griffin has been enduring for 7 weeks now. Several of the grandkids took a turn holding Lilly and there is somehow nothing sweeter than seeing any-sized boy (from 4-16) cuddling a newborn! We have had a really tough couple of years in our family, with a lot of loss of all different kinds. But we have been richly blessed all through the journey. And the arrival of lovely Lilly has reminded us that life continues, that life is glorious, that family is gift and blessing. Thanks be to God.

Colby with Lilly.

Griffin with Lilly.

Just sweet Lilly, with her as-yet-too-large Easter headband!

Luke with Lilly

Eating dinner, full-body cast style!

Not so sure about his Easter headband!

Well, if Gracie has one, too, then it’s probably not all bad!
Filed Under: Uncategorized

Wildflower Watch – 2010

March 23, 2010 By
We don’t make it out every spring – but we try! This year, we took some time last Friday for a drive over the mountains behind Santa Barbara (actually, we drove around, preferring the coastal route) in search of this year’s crop of wildflowers. There is a narrow, winding, pot-holed road that travels steeply up hill to the Figueroa Mountain campground in the Los Padres National Forest. On the way out of Los Olivos, a delightfully sleepy small town in the Santa Ynez Valley, you take Figueroa Mountain Road out past the horse ranches and small farms – where the pastures this time of year have pretty much given themselves over to the golden wild mustard that is ubiquitous in this section of the California coast and coastal valleys.

The red-winged blackbirds LOVE this mustard, whole flocks of them flitting across the flowered tops of the plants, singing their lovely songs. The mustard grows in and around and under the oaks that line the hillsides of this area – where the hillsides haven’t been completely taken over by vineyards, of course. (They, too, are lovely to look at – but in a very different way to the almost primeval oak scrublands that are natural to this area of the world.)

The bright yellow, almost chartreuse hue of the mustard fields is lovely to see, both at a distance and up close and makes a nice introduction to the climb up to different kinds of wild floral extravagance.

Just when you think there is no hope for the lovely orange and blue of lupine and California poppy, the road takes a bend that brings you to a steep cliffside that is literally covered with blooms. We’ve seen it denser than this year, but the colors of both flowers were exceptionally clear and vibrant in 2010. And maybe in another week or so, the density will rival that of previous years, as the taller bush-lupine has not yet made its contribution to the color display.

As always, it warms the heart and lifts the soul to see these glorious examples of God’s creative genius. A half day drive can bring amazing grace and healing into our sometimes too-busy lives and we are grateful for the gift of color, the ruggedness of hillsides, the warmth of the sun and the chance to be vagabonds for a few hours.

Filed Under: Family/Travel

Prayer for the 5th Sunday of Lent…

March 22, 2010 By

written for worship at Montecito Covenant Church
March 21, 2010, 10:45 a.m. service
by Diana R.G. Trautwein

We begin our prayer time this morning with words from the 43rd chapter of the prophet Isaiah, words that have long been read on this 5th Sunday in Lent:

This is what the Lord says – “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland…I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

O Lord, how we long for you to do a new thing in our midst.
How we long to see the way made in the wilderness,
the stream flowing through the wasteland.
For we are indeed your people,
formed to praise you.
And so we do:
We praise you that you are the God of new things,
that you are the God of wilderness way-making,
that you are the God of life-giving water
in the midst of life’s wastelands,
that you are the God who reminds us
to ‘forget the former things,’
because you are in the business of making all things new.

Start with us, please, Lord.
Start with us.
Make us new, inside and out.
Teach us to live as new creatures –
not because we’re fad-hungry,
or driven to own the latest new device;
not because we’re bored with life and need a new kick,
not because we’re in need of a diversion.
Make us new because we need your transformational energy
at work within us in order to live as whole and holy people.
Make us new because we’ve worn out the old ways,
we’ve tried them repeatedly and learned the hard way
that they just don’t work.
Make us new because we want to be people who radiate
the fruit of the Spirit of Jesus – that amazing multi-faceted,
lovely fruit-of-nine-sides that we’ve been looking at
all through this Lenten journey:
Love,
Joy,
Peace,
Patience,
Kindness,
Goodness,
Faithfulness,
Gentleness,
Self-control.

So…start with us in this making-new business.
Because if we’re truly open to the newness
your Spirit can bring,
and if we truly live out of the fruit your Spirit grows in us,
then we can carry that newness into every situation
and relationship we find ourselves in –
whether that’s our family home,
our dorm suite,
our place of business,
our classroom,
the grocery line,
the traffic jam,
the blog comments,
the political debate,
the kitchen at Transition House,
the table at Los Arroyos,
the well-worn beach path or hiking trail –
wherever our lives lead us –
we can bleed newness,
your newness,
into our world.

So…we ask that your church worldwide might be
a sign of newness,
a whisper of beauty,
a word of kindness,
a presence of hospitality,
a ray of civility in an increasingly uncivil world.
Convict us when we fall short of this worthy goal;
convince us that we,
with you at work within us,
have the inside scoop on the hope this world needs;
consider that we are but dust – but then
continue the work of new creation even in our dustiness.

And please,
bless our very dusty political leaders who are, this very day,
engaged in such important decision-making.
Grant us peace in our civic discourse,
wisdom in our national decisions,
and grace with one another when the day is done.

Thank you, Great God of all things new,
for your everyday goodness and grace,
for your mercies which are new every morning
and which sustain us our whole life long.
In the name and for the sake of Jesus,
your son, who makes it possible for us
to be made new each and every day.
Amen.


Filed Under: Uncategorized

Table Prayer, 2nd Sunday in Lent 2010

March 7, 2010 By


written by Diana R.G. Trautwein
for worship at Montecito Covenant Church
March 7, 2010

“Faithfulness, faithfulness is what I long for
Faithfulness is what I need
Faithfulness, faithfulness is what You want from me

(So) Take my heart and form it
Take my mind, transform it
Take my will, conform it
To Yours, to Yours, Oh Lord.”


We’ve sung that sweet song a lot around here, Lord.
I’d even go so far as to say it’s a favorite of ours,
one that we like to sing,
to create harmony to,
to wail with a bit.
It’s a really good song for that –
for lettin’ it all hang out there a little.

But I wonder,
speaking for myself at least,
if we really think about what is we’re lettin’ all hang out there.
“Take my heart?
My mind?
My will?”
Wow – that feels like a whole lot of stuff to let go of
when I say those words
and don’t sing them.
Because when you think about it,
I mean when you really think about it,
those hearts,
those minds,
those wills –
well, that’s pretty much all of us, don’t you think?

And, then,
there are all those rhyming verbs in that song –
form,
transform,
conform.
Now those are really strong words, Lord.
Really strong.
Kind of like the words that show up in places like
fitness centers,
or artist’s studios,
or science labs.
Places where you make something entirely new and different
from just regular old stuff like
out-of-shape human bodies,
or paint or ink or clay,
or elemental chemicals,
your basic liquids or solids.

Yet they are – each and every one of them –
words that also come right out of your holy scriptures.
And I do believe that you mean every single one of them.

So I thank you this morning for the words of that song,
and the words of the sermon we’ve just heard,
and the words we say together around this table today, Lord God.
Because all those words are about taking ordinary, everyday stuff
and making something wonderfully and powerfully new out of them.
And as scary and overwhelming as that can sometimes be,
especially when we are that ordinary, everyday stuff,
they are words for our good,
for our very best, in fact.
Because these words speak to us of hope,
and of promise,
and of restoration,
and of transformation.

So let us celebrate your promise of newness
by setting ourselves straight with you this morning.
In the week just past, we have thought and said and done
some things that work against your good will to change us
into our best selves.
In this moment of quiet, we’re going to –
remember those things,
tell you how sorry we are for them,
and then release them into the waves of
your grace and forgiveness which are waiting
to wash us clean.
Hear our prayer, O Lord:

Thank you for grace,
thank you for the power of forgiveness.
Thank you for Jesus.

We also need to say, Lord, that we are oh-so-aware
of people and situations,
here at home,
and all around our world,
where your transforming power is desperately needed.
So as part of our table celebration today,
we want to remind you of these things,
just by saying first names or
very simple descriptions out loud,
all around the room.
And for each person or problem mentioned,
we’re all going to agree by saying, “Yes, Lord!”

Thank you for inviting our prayers,
thank you for listening,
thank you for answering.
Give us eyes to see and ears to hear
as you work your winsome way in our
messed-up world.

So we’ve gotten ourselves straight with you,
and we’ve reminded you of those people and places
we care about the most,
and we’ve said thank you for your great gifts to us
of grace
and forgiveness
and presence.

Now, Lord, we want to eat together as you’ve asked us to do.
Take – once again – these ordinary, everyday things –
this bread and this juice –
and transform them into
bread of life
and cup of salvation,
for Jesus’ sake,
until he comes.
Amen.






Filed Under: Uncategorized
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