Author: revpaulcalkin

From Divine Reverberations: 

God cannot be known by human reason, effort, achievement, spiritual mountain-climbing, or morality. God is not a sacred Object to be grasped if only we know which chalice to drink from. God is not an idea to be intellectually perceived or mastered with sufficient education. God cannot be attained, bought, coerced by rain dances (even Christian rain dances), or bargained with.

Rather, this God-Who-is-Not-an-Object is a radically other Subject. A Person. 

As such, God cannot be attained, but must be attended to. God cannot be achieved, but must be received. God cannot be grasped, but one must be grasped by God. 

I do not know God so much as I am known by God. The primary effort, work, labor, duty is not mine. God can only be known through revelation. There is no knowing God that begins with human effort. There is no commune with God that is primarily about human labor. It all derives from and is energized by the self-revealing God. 

Augustine notes this 1,800 years ago:

You were within, but I was without. You were with me, but I was not with you. So you called, you shouted, you broke through my deafness, you flared, blazed, and banished my blindness, you lavished your fragrance, and I gasped.

St. Augustine 

And herein lies the good news of Divine Reverberations: Because I cannot know God, grasp God, or attain God, then God is not waiting for me to climb the mountains of spiritual maturity before interacting with me. God does not need me to be a perfect, holy monk. 

For God has already decided to reveal God’s self to us in our imperfections (as our Communion liturgy at church says, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”). To reveal God’s self not as an object we can grasp, but as a Person who knows us and invites our responsive-knowing.

The call of the Christian life is not to know God so much as to be known by God and, then, respond to God’s prior knowing. More, it is a call not to, first, love God, but to be loved by God and then to respond to God’s prior loving with our own imperfect love. 

Divine Reverberations are first.

My response is always…well…a response

Peace Be With You. – Paul

Below are the Prayers Of The People 

from Mayfair Heights UMC Worship 

March 9, 2025

Prayers Of The People

Gracious God, 

you invite us deeper into your world, 

To be closer to all your people.

May we seek you in those we often ignore. 

God of love, Hear our prayer. 

During this Lenten season, let us focus on freedom and generosity, 

Let our hearts desire to serve you

And to serve those who need what we have to give.

God of love, Hear our prayer. 

This day, may we learn the holiness of

Food for the hungry,

Rest for the weary in soul and in body,

A place to be safe and warm.

God of love, Hear our prayer. 

Let us tune our hearts to sing your grace,

Our lives to express your love, 

And our actions to reflect your mercy,

God of love, Hear our prayer.

For all currently dwelling in pain and in hurt,

Let your love and our love be in their midst.

May we always be present in body or mind 

So that others are strengthened.

God of love, Hear our prayer. 

In the presence of beloved community, may your mercy be our way of life,

Your forgiveness the guide for our living with others,

Today, this week, this Lent, let us serve you.

God of love, Hear our prayer. 

Speak to us in times of turmoil and in times of peace,

Help us to be peace in times of upheaval,

Let us serve you in all we do and say,

God of love, Hear our prayer.  Amen. 

Peace Be With You. – Paul

From Iona (used in the Space For Grace – Mosaic)

From where we are

to where you need us

Jesus, now lead on.

From the security of what we know

to the adventure of what you will reveal,

Jesus, now lead on.

To refashion the fabric of this world

until it resembles the shape of your kindom,

Jesus, now lead on.

Because good things have been prepared

for those who love God,

Jesus, now lead on.

Adapted from A Wee Worship Book, Fourth Incarnation, Wild Goose Worship Group  copyright 1999 used by permission 

OneLicense #A-731189

Peace Be With You. – Paul

From our Ash Wednesday Service 

A Lenten Call: Let Us Feast And Fast

A Prayer by Jim Burklo

Let us feast on simple pleasures, 

and fast from all that gets our bodies and souls out of balance. 

Let us feast on kindness, and fast from sarcasm.

Let us feast on compassion, and fast from holding grudges.

Let us feast on patience, and fast from anxiety. 

Let us feast on peace, and fast from stirring up needless conflict. 

Let us feast on acceptance, and fast from judgment.

Let us feast on joy, and fast from jealousy.

Let us feast on faith, and fast from fear. 

Let us feast on creativity, and fast from all that deadens our souls. 

Let us feast on social justice,

and let us fast from negligence of the most vulnerable.

Let us feast on service to others, and fast from selfishness. 

Let us feast on delight, and fast from despair.

Let us feast on bread and wine in spiritual communion, and fast from all that keeps us from communing deeply with each other and with God.

So that our lives might be sufficient, fulfilled, complete, whole, enough. Amen! 

Peace Be With You. – Paul

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.  If you are interested in some Lenten resources, you are welcome to browse this page:  https://mayfairheightsumc.org/resources-for-the-lenten-season/

There are, of course, countless other pages which are helpful in navigating this season.  Please take time for some reflection, some renewal, some resistance, and some service to others.  

This is from a writer named Laura Kelly Fanucci. @thismessygrace. 

She has a website: https://motheringspirit.com.  

It is becoming clearer and clearer

to me what I am called to do 

in such a time as this.

I am a parent.  I am called to care

for my children

and other people’s children.

I am a writer.  I am called to bear

beauty and truth and hope 

into the broken world.

I am a person of faith.

I am called to 

seek justice,

love mercy, and 

walk humbly with God.

I will stumble at this every day.

But I will not stop.

And I will not stay silent.

And I am so glad you are here with me.

Peace Be With You. – Paul

An “Almost Lent” Prayer by Rev. Lori Walke

Pastor – Mayflower Congregational UCC

We have a few days, Holy One, before it starts. Lent, that is. The liturgical calendar, the bulletin, the announcements, and the preacher all tell us to get our ashes here on Wednesday that we might get the party started, so to speak. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

But we haven’t really decided if Lent is for us or not. 

For starters, some of us have high anxiety about deciding what it is that we’re supposed to do or not do during the forty days of Lent. It feels like the church version of New Year’s Resolutions, and given that we aren’t doing super great with those, why pile on?

We are also not jazzed about hearing, again, how this is a season of wandering in the wilderness. Bless our hearts, we are so over that metaphor. 

But we also know that we need something to anchor us these days. We need ritual and and discipline and quiet to ground us. We need to be reminded that we don’t have to be perfect to get it right.

So be with us on Wednesday afternoon, Holy One, when we try to talk ourselves out of it because we’re tired from work and deciding what’s for dinner and errands and caregiving and a thousand other things. Remind us that mercy and grace await, but the choice is ours. The invitation is open.

We pray in the name of our teacher Jesus, who went first. Amen.

Peace Be With You. – Paul

This is my friend, the Rev. Dr. George E. Young Sr.  I met George in 1988 when we were both in the chaplaincy program at OU/Presbyterian Hospital/VA/Children’s Hospital.  George was then, as he is now, a gregarious, warm, funny person.  

He is currently Senior Pastor of the Greater Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. George has also served both in the Oklahoma House of Representatives (99th District) and in the Oklahoma State Senate (48th District).  He has an extensive education, with a masters in Business Administration, a Master of Divinity degree from Phillips Theological Seminary, and a Doctor in Ministry from Phillips as well.  

I highlight George today because he exemplifies for me the epitome of Black History in the State of Oklahoma.  As one who knows him, I wish everyone had the opportunity to know him very well.  I cannot imagine how many difficulties he has had to overcome to be taken seriously by other politicians.  But George has stood firm, insisting that commissions and boards in our state politics be representative of the population of our state, with emphasis on black, Hispanic, and women representation.  

As the book of Deuteronomy begins, God is speaking to all Israel in the wilderness beyond the Jordan River.  The Israelites, according to the words God is to have said through Moses, have spent long enough at Mt. Horeb.  Now they are being instructed to go on into the land promised to them.  

Moses and the tribes are to “choose individuals who are wise, discerning, and reputable” to be their leaders (Deuteronomy 1:13).  

These leaders, or judges, were given this charge:  to give the members of the community fair hearings, to make just judgments whether kin or resident alien, to not be intimidated by anyone, to hear the small and the great alike (Deuteronomy 1:15-16).  

Persons such as George exemplify this fairness, this justice, for all.  May we listen to his example, and to God’s wisdom for this world. 

Peace Be With You. – Paul

From @andrewethink (Andrew Lutgen)

I don’t want America to be “Great”. 

I want it to be kind.

I don’t want America to be “Rich”. 

I want it to be equitable.

I don’t want America to be “Powerful”. 

I want it to be empathetic.

I don’t want America to be strictly “White and Christian”. 

I want it to be diverse and free.

Peace Be With You. – Paul

From between.church:

Faith has answers for the big questions facing us in this frightening moment.

Instead of arguing about how my version of faith is the one we should all be following, I’m just going to keep gathering people who believe their faith teaches them to…

– Love with wild abandon. 

– Protect and empower the vulnerable. 

– Find truth in nuance and complexity. 

– Get up close to people. 

– Heal our lonely, isolated world one sacred conversation at a time.

We will gather and we will get to work.

Peace Be With You. – Paul

From The General Commission of Religion and Race of The United Methodist Church:  

Equity says . . . 

1. Everyone does not begin from the same starting place.  There are historic, systemic, and on-going inequities in our political, economic, educational, health, religious, and other systems, where discrimination “lives” within the structures themselves. 
2. Even if the rules of the game are the same, the game itself gives privilege to some at the expense of others.
3. Oppressions (racism, classism, ageism, etc.) will end when we address and dismantle the assumptions, values, and systems of oppression which actively resist treating all persons with dignity and respect.
4. Everyone’s right to vote is protected and their access to voting is promoted. For example, no one has to travel an unreasonable distance to reach a voting station, workers are given paid time-off in order to vote, everyone has a ballot in their language, etc.
5. We can eradicate racism by both “doing no harm” and by “doing good”; i.e. racism will end when we actively work to stop the actions that lead to racial injustice and when we engage in the work of dismantling its root causes.

For more information on the work of the General Commission on Religion and Race for The United Methodist Church, here is a link to their website.

Peace Be With You. – Paul