Good afternoon, Loved Ones,

One of the psalm passages from the daily lectionary is Psalm 65.

Psalm 65:9-13 (The Message)

^9-13 Oh, visit the earth,
ask her to join the dance!
Deck her out in spring showers,
fill the God-River with living water.
Paint the wheat fields golden.
Creation was made for this!
Drench the plowed fields,
soak the dirt clods
With rainfall as harrow and rake
bring her to blossom and fruit.
Snow-crown the peaks with splendor,
scatter rose petals down your paths,
All through the wild meadows, rose petals.
Set the hills to dancing,
Dress the canyon walls with live sheep,
a drape of flax across the valleys.
Let them shout, and shout, and shout!
Oh, oh, let them sing!

Today I give thanks that the creative work of God continues each day even as we struggle with our personal, family and church challenges.

Today I give thanks for our presbytery, for it's staff and for the careful support and care given to congregations who are hurting.

Today I give thanks for friends who listen and help.

Today I give thanks that God promises that all things work together for good.

Today I give thanks for Grandview Park Church, it's past, present and future.

Gimme cinco.

Blessings,
Pastor Rick

Reckless Love

Good afternoon, Loved Ones,

Today you get a tandem jump on the Gimme Cinco skydive. Let's hope the chute opens!

As Pastor Terry and I work together preparing for a community conversation tomorrow night in Conception, MO we ponder our gratitude with the daily lectionary passage ringing in our ears.

John 12:24-26 (The Message)

^24-25"Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal.

It is wheat planting season. Thanks for those who plant in faith knowing that something has to die in order for something else to be born.

Already in Meade County last week's tragic death of Craig Unruh has given birth to the mystery of hope and new energy.

For support that is all around us in friends and strangers and the reckless way God loves us through them.

I give thanks for the times I have failed, been terminated and been sued. These have taught me life's best lessons.

For the cracks in my heart and armor in which the seed of God's love can find it's way in and out.

I give thanks for mentors who have died and who's seed I have seen multiply: my mother and dad, Morris McCrackin, Otto and Sally Handwerk, Alma West, Bert Cantwell.

I give thanks for mentors who are living who are continually "dead to the world" and alive in Christ: Tom Williams, Phylis Rauh, Bill Mularky, Donna Chavez, Doug Hubbard.

I give thanks for wisdom and mentoring that can come even from our children . . . Sam and Luke, thanks!

I give thanks for the reckless loving of Chip, our newly adopted dog who we accidently locked in the shed for two days without food or water, yet who cam bounding out, playful and giving kisses to Eldonna and me.

I give thanks for all who "listen carefully." Theirs is the Kingdom of God.


Well, I think the chute opened, and now that our feet are back on the ground . . . back to work!

Gimme cinco!

Pastor Rick & Pastor Terry

Mercy Is Infinite

Good evening, Loved Ones,

It is the wee hours of Thursday morning and I am just now preparing for sleep and drumming up thankfulness. My meditation for the night comes from the movie Babette's Feast. In the movie, set in an isolated coastal town in Denmark, a small faith community of puritans is given a gift of an exquisite feast. The feast cost Babette, the servant cook, the entirety of her lottery winnings which would have enabled her to return to Paris and live comfortably. Instead, Babette chooses to lavish an incredible feast upon those who would not even have the least idea of the incredible value of the meal. An army general attends the meal and is able to communicate to puritan brothers and sisters the phenomenal gift of rich food and drink they are sharing. As he revels in the moment he remembers the words of the community's deceased pastor.

"Mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another. Man, in his weakness and shortsightness, believes he must make choices in this life. He trembles at the risks he takes. We do know fear. But no. Our choice is of no importance. There comes a time when your eyes are opened. And we come to realize that mercy is infinite.We need only await it with confidence, and receive it with gratitude. Mercy imposes no conditions. And, lo! Everything we have chosen has been granted to us, and everything we have rejected has also been granted. Yes, we even get back what we rejected. For mercy and truth are met together; and righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another."

In these early morning hours hours I give thanks that, though we lose sleep over the trials of today and the challenges of tomorrow, we can be confident that mercy is infinite.

As I sit here in bed and consider my own limitations and my own failings I give thanks that mercy imposes no conditions.

At the close of the day I give thanks for moments of sharing with my best friend DeDe about our day.

In this infinitesimally small moment of my existence I give thanks that, as St. Julian of Norwich said, "all shall be well and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."

I give thanks that today I have had life, and tomorrow, God willing, I'll have more of it.

Blessings and Mercy,
Pastor Rick

Listen Hard

Good morning, Loved Ones,

Our text for today, though it may initially sound like a lamentation, is in the end a statement of trust.

Psalm 130 (The Message)

A Pilgrim Song

^1-2 Help, God—the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears!
Listen to my cries for mercy.
^3-4 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings,
who would stand a chance?
As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit,
and that's why you're worshiped.
^5-6 I pray to God—my life a prayer—
and wait for what he'll say and do.
My life's on the line before God, my Lord,
waiting and watching till morning,
waiting and watching till morning.
^7-8 O Israel, wait and watch for God—
with God's arrival comes love,
with God's arrival comes generous redemption.
No doubt about it—he'll redeem Israel,
buy back Israel from captivity to sin.


Today I give thanks that God hears the cries of the people.

Today I give thanks that forgiveness is God's habit.

Today I give thanks that God's arrival means the arrival of love.

Today I give thanks that waiting and hope are essentially the same word in Spanish. (Esperar-Esperanza)

Today I give thanks that God is in control.

I ask for two special prayers from you today.
1) Please pray for my son's (Sam) safety as he travels back to school in Ohio on this rainy first day of September.
2) Please keep Grandview Park Church in your prayers as we go though some very significant challenges.

Friends, wait and watch for God . . . and as you wait . . . give thanks.

Peace,
Pastor Rick