Roberts’ Reflections – Prayer for President Obama

Prayer for President Obama Lord God, we pray for President Barack Obama. We praise you for the gifts you have nurtured in him: to think clearly, to speak eloquently, to interact effectively. Guide him, God, to use these skills both wisely and well as he leads our nation and serves our world. Thank you for his bright summons to audacious hope. May we citizens bracket that vision with faith … [Read more...]

Roberts’ Reflections – Loving God

12. 11 “Loving God with the Mind”                                    November  2008 In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus’ scribal interrogator quibbled about how to fulfill the Law in loving one’s neighbor. Like Pilate, people also hedge about truth—about loving God with one’s mind. “Test me, LORD. . .examine my heart and my mind” is … [Read more...]

Roberts’ Reflections – Godly Care for Children

12.10  “Godly Care for Children”                                                October 2008 Our Faith and Practice calls churches to a regular practice of reading prayerfully, and pondering thoughtfully, the Queries.  As adopted in 1987 there are twenty of them, grouped under the headings, “Personal Faith”, “The Individual and the … [Read more...]

Roberts’ Reflections – Reverence and Awe

12.9 “Reverence and Awe”                                                            September 2008 I find the book of Hebrews instructive for delineating how the Old Covenant finds enhanced fulfillment in the New. Christ is a better creation rest than a ritual day. His blood speaks a better word than that of Abel—which a warring … [Read more...]

Roberts’ Reflections – Cleaning out files

“Cleaning out files” August 2008 I’ve been cleaning out files recently, discarding duplicate, irrelevant, or obsolete stuff—like philosophy tests from forty years ago. In doing so, however, I find some things that strike me as worthy of sharing. Think of them not as garbage but as gleanings, okay? Discard or appropriate. Sometimes one … [Read more...]

Roberts’ Reflections – Reading the Bible in Public Worship

July 2008 Some valuable worship practices have become so time-laden they are in danger of becoming commonplace. The public reading of Scripture is one such practice. Paul commended it to Timothy: “devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture” (I Tim. 4: 13). On occasion I’ve been asked to help persons prepare for such ministry. Here’s what I shared with them. Maybe it will be … [Read more...]

Roberts’ Reflections – The Talking Stick

Last year Peggy Hanson, who works in employee relations at Friendsview Retirement Community, asked if I could fashion for her a "talking stick." As part Cherokee and a tribal member, she knew of this Native American practice, and that I fashioned assorted wooden things, like talking sticks, clocks, mottoes and stumps. Along with other native peoples, during a powwow, traditionally, a Cherokee … [Read more...]

Roberts’ Reflections – White unto Harvest

May 2008 Last fall Reedwood Friends (Portland) held a class on “How can Friends recover successful outreach?” I led a session based on this Scripture text: “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit … [Read more...]

Roberts’ Reflections – Faith Framed by Hope

April 2008 Some nights I worry. Not often, but occasionally. Maybe I'm hyper from too much activity, food, or ego stroking. I should drift off to sleep, but I don't. Did I lock the car? Do I hear a faucet dripping or is it rain pattering the windowpane? Will the war ever stop? Why don't they return my call? This pain in my back, is it angina, arthritis, or acid reflux? … [Read more...]

Roberts’ Reflections – Coping with Scoffers

March 2008 Scoffing at believers has become a spectator sport in some circles. The press gleefully gibes at evangelical foibles-- like multi-dyed hairdos on televangelists or churchy glitz, and, more hurtfully, heaps scorn upon Christianity whenever well-known leaders get snared in sexual or financial sins. In contrast, media often eulogize pop stars whose heralded infidelities they cloak in … [Read more...]