Shepherd's House - 5th Sunday after Pentecost

It's been quite a week with the terror attack in Orlando, the gator killing a toddler at Disney World, and the member of parliament being attacked and killed in England. This is just the headline news. We haven't started talking about the distresses of our own localized personal lives. It's hard to find words to respond in such a world.  He spent most of his years working at L'Arch, a community for developmentally disabled adults in France and Canada, as well as teaching stints at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard.

Nouwen is most well-known for his writings. He died 20 years ago, and a retreat center in Toronto carries on his work. 

​Here are his words in the form of a prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus from a short devotional book entitled Heart Speaks to Heart: Three Prayers to Jesus published in 1989:

"I look at you, Lord, and I see your pierced side, the place where your heart is broken. And as I look, my eyes begin to recognize the anguish and agony of all the people for whom you gave yourself. Your broken heart becomes the heart of all humanity, the heart of all the world. What an anguish! What an agony!

​ "You carry them all: abandoned children, rejected wives and husbands, broken families, the homeless, refugees, prisoners, the maimed and tortured, and the thousands, yes millions, who are unloved, forgotten and left alone to die. I see their emaciated bodies, their despairing faces, their anguished looks.  I see them all there, where your body is pierced and your heart is ripped apart. O compassionate Lord, your heart is broken because of all the love that is not given or received. All the people of the past, the present and those yet to be born can look up at you and see their anguish and their agony on your cross . . ..

Notes from Sunday
Last Sunday
Sunday Word & Table in Apple Valley
Attendance: 22
Giving: $1683

This Sunday at Church
Worship at 10am in Apple Valley
​
Readings for the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost
Call to Worship: Psalm 42 and 43
Old Testament Reading: 1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a
Epistle Reading: Galatians 3:23-29
Gospel Reading: Luke 9:51-62

​Coming Up
This Sunday -- Missionary Speakers
Bernie and Rhonda Slingerland are Global missionaries for the Church of the Nazarene serving in the Mesoamerica Region overseeing the work in 31 countries in Mexico, Central America, Panama and the Caribbean. The MAR Regional Office is in Panama City, Panama. They have served in missionary assignments in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Venezuela. They have served as missionaries since 1995.
Their daughters Hannah and Abigail are students at MVNU.

" Thank you, Jesus, for the mystery of your broken heart, a heart broken by us and for us, that has become now the source of forgiveness and new life. The blood and water flowing from your side show me the new life that is given to me through your death. It is a life of intimate communion with you and your Father. But it is also a life that calls me to give all that I am in the service of your love for the world. It is a life of joy, but also of sacrifice. It is a glorious life, but also one of suffering. It is a life of peace, but also of struggle. Yes, Lord, it is a life in water and blood, but no long water and blood that destroy, but water and blood that come from your heart and so bring reconciliation and peace. 

"I adore you, Jesus, as I look up at you whom they have pierced. Let the blood and water that flow from your heart give me a new heart to live a new life. I know that in this world water and blood will never be separated. There will be peace and anguish, joy and tears, love and agony. They will be there always -- together -- leading me daily closer to you who give your heart to my heart.

"O, Lord Jesus, I thank you. I praise you. I love you. May our hearts be one so that the world may recognize that it is you who sent me, not to condemn, but to offer your heart to all who search for love." (pages 36-37, 43.44)