Elizabeth Waller... The story of Tommy, the atheist theology student who was found by God-Truth! Elizabeth and Norm :The Lord"s prayer Skit, Yvonne Langlois : "I am the Resurrection"

Opening Prayer

From deep within us we know of a loving presence. 
All around us we see glory, beauty, life and light. 
We have no words for what we experience so we cry out, "God!". 
In this moment of worship may that loving presence grow deeper, 
may our awareness of the divine presence around us grow more intense. 
May we, gathered in this place, learn to pay more attention to God, 
who loves us at all times and in all places.

God, of love and life, in this moment of prayer 
be more and more in us 
that we might live more and more in you. Amen.


Prayer for the Offering

Gracious God,

You call us to let go of the things we cling to

and step out in faith,

trusting in Your love and provision.

Give us courage to step out boldly,

to plant our small seeds generously, and without fear.

Use our gifts to accomplish more than we could possibly imagine,

so that, through us, Your kingdom might come

and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen
 

Pastoral Prayer

(inspired by John 11: 1-45)

O Lord, we hear you calling,

but we are bound in the grave-cloths of earthly expectations.

We believe in you,

but we listen to the world’s call and think we cannot follow.

We must study for the right degree,

apply for the right job,

buy the right house and furnish it just so;

we must, we must, we must.

All that seems true until the day something terrible happens.

All that seems true until we lose someone we love.

All that seems true until we love someone we can’t be with.

All that seems true

until the body we relied on

to carry us from one place to another,

fulfilling the expectations,

falls ill or stops working the way we think it always will.

Hear our prayers, O Lord, for we are in pain.

We are ill.

We are dying.

Unbind us from expectations.

Give us strength to live through disappointments.

Grant us courage to overcome obstacles.

Fill us with your presence

and make us living carriers of your love to others who need it.

Hear our prayers, O Lord, for those we have named.

(We speak those names.)

Hear our prayers, O Lord,

for those we have not named,

the stories we cannot tell and the woes we do not even know.

(We pray in silence.)

Hear our prayers, O Lord, for the wider world,

for the people who hunger,

for the people who have live with war and violence on a daily basis,

in ways unthinkable to us in this quiet town.

Hear our prayers, O Lord, for ourselves.

(We pray again in silence.)

Unbind us.

Call us out of the caves in which we dwell.

Help us to roll away the stones for each other.

Bring us to new life,

we pray in the name of Jesus, the Ever Living. Amen.
 

Benediction

God will be with us wherever we go.

At work or play, at home or on vacation, we know

God will be with us wherever we go.

Whether we’re happy or sad,

on our own, or with our friends, we know

God will be with us wherever we go.

So let’s go with joy,

because God goes with us!


 

SPECIAL MUSIC: “I am the Resurrection” 
Yvonne Langlois

The story of Tommy, the atheist theology student who was found by God-Truth!

ref :http://www.truthorfiction.com/johnpowell/

John Powell a professor at Loyola University in Chicago writes about a student in his Theology of Faith class named Tommy:

Some twelve years ago, I stood watching my university students file into the classroom for our first session in the Theology of Faith. That was the first day I first saw Tommy. My eyes and my mind both blinked. He was combing his long flaxen hair, which hung six inches below his shoulders.

It was the first time I had ever seen a boy with hair that long. I guess it was just coming into fashion then. I know in my mind that it isn’t what’s on your head but what’s in it that counts; but on that day I was unprepared and my emotions flipped.

I immediately filed Tommy under “S” for strange … very strange. Tommy turned out to be the “atheist in residence” in my Theology of Faith course. He constantly objected to, smirked at, or whined about the possibility of an unconditionally loving Father-God. We lived with each other in relative peace for one semester, although I admit he was for me at times a serious pain in the back pew.

When he came up at the end of the course to turn in his final exam, he asked in a slightly cynical tone: “Do you think I’ll ever find God?”

I decided instantly on a little shock therapy. “No!” I said very emphatically.

“Oh,” he responded, “I thought that was the product you were pushing.”

I let him get five steps from the classroom door and then called out: “Tommy! I don’t think you’ll ever find him, but I am absolutely certain that He will find you!” He shrugged a little and left my class and my life.

I felt slightly disappointed at the thought that he had missed my clever line: “He will find you!” At least I thought it was clever. Later I heard that Tommy had graduated and I was duly grateful.

Then a sad report, I heard that Tommy had terminal cancer. Before I could search him out, he came to see me. When he walked into my office, his body was very badly wasted, and the long hair had all fallen out as a result of chemotherapy. But his eyes were bright and his voice was firm, for the first time, I believe. “Tommy, I’ve thought about you so often. I hear you are sick!” I blurted out.

“Oh, yes, very sick. I have cancer in both lungs. It’s a matter of weeks.”

“Can you talk about it, Tom?”

“Sure, what would you like to know?”

“What’s it like to be only twenty-four and dying?”

“Well, it could be worse.”

“Like what?”

“Well, like being fifty and having no values or ideals, like being fifty and thinking that booze, seducing women, and making money are the real ‘biggies’ in life.”

I began to look through my mental file cabinet under “S” where I had filed Tommy as strange. (It seems as though everybody I try to reject by classification God sends back into my life to educate me.)

But what I really came to see you about,” Tom said, ” is something you said to me on the last day of class.” (He remembered!) He continued, “I asked you if you thought I would ever find God and you said, ‘No!’ which surprised me. Then you said, ‘But he will find you.’ I thought about that a lot, even though my search for God was hardly intense at that time. (My “clever” line. He thought about that a lot!) But when the doctors removed a lump from my groin and told me that it was malignant, then I got serious about locating God. And when the malignancy spread into my vital organs, I really began banging bloody fists against the bronze doors of heaven.

But God did not come out. In fact, nothing happened. Did you ever try anything for a long time with great effort and with no success? You get psychologically glutted, fed up with trying. And then you quit.

Well, one day I woke up, and instead of throwing a few more futile appeals over that high brick wall to a God who may be or may not be there, I just quit. I decided that I didn’t really care … about God, about an afterlife, or anything like that. “I decided to spend what time I had left doing something more profitable. I thought about you and your class and I remembered something else you had said: ‘The essential sadness is to go through life without loving. But it would be almost equally sad to go through life and leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you had loved them.’ “So I began with the hardest one: my Dad. He was reading the newspaper when I approached him.”

“Dad”. . .

“Yes, what?” he asked without lowering the newspaper.

“Dad, I would like to talk with you.”

“Well, talk.”

“I mean. .. It’s really important.”

The newspaper came down three slow inches. “What is it?”

“Dad, I love you. I just wanted you to know that.” Tom smiled at me and said with obvious satisfaction, as though he felt a warm and secret joy flowing inside of him: “The newspaper fluttered to the floor. Then my father did two things I could never remember him ever doing before. He cried and he hugged me.

And we talked all night, even though he had to go to work the next morning. It felt so good to be close to my father, to see his tears, to feel his hug, to hear him say that he loved me. “It was easier with my mother and little brother. They cried with me, too, and we hugged each other, and started saying real nice things to each other. We shared the things we had been keeping secret for so many years. I was only sorry about one thing: that I had waited so long. Here I was just beginning to open up to all the people I had actually been close to.

“Then, one day I turned around and God was there. He didn’t come to me when I pleaded with him. I guess I was like an animal trainer holding out a hoop, ‘C’mon, jump through.’ ‘C’mon, I’ll give you three days .. .three weeks.’ Apparently God does things in his own way and at his own hour. “But the important thing is that he was there. He found me.

You were right. He found me even after I stopped looking for him.”

“Tommy,” I practically gasped, “I think you are saying something very important and much more universal than you realize. To me, at least, you are saying that the surest way to find God is not to make him a private possession, a problem solver, or an instant consolation in time of need, but rather by opening to love. You know, the Apostle John said that. He said God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living in him.’ Tom, could I ask you a favor? You know, when I had you in class you were a real pain. But (laughingly) you can make it all up to me now. Would you come into my present Theology of Faith course and tell them what you have just told me? If I told them the same thing it wouldn’t be half as effective as if you were to tell them.”

“Oooh . . . I was ready for you, but I don’t know if I’m ready for your class.”

“Tom, think about it. If and when you are ready, give me a call.” In a few days Tommy called, said he was ready for the class, that he wanted to do that for God and for me. So we scheduled a date. However, he never made it.

He had another appointment, far more important than the one with me and my class. Of course, his life was not really ended by his death, only changed.

He made the great step from faith into vision. He found a life far more beautiful than the eye of man has ever seen or the ear of man has ever heard or the mind of man has ever imagined.

Before he died, we talked one last time. “I’m not going to make it to your class,” he said.

“I know, Tom.”

“Will you tell them for me? Will you . . . tell the whole world for me?”

“I will, Tom. I’ll tell them. I’ll do my best.”

So, to all of you who have been kind enough to hear this simple statement about love, thank you for listening. And to you, Tommy, somewhere in the sunlit, verdant hills of heaven: “I told them, Tommy . … …as best I could.”

The Lord's Prayer skit

The Lord's Prayer Skit
ref : http://witnessdragon.tripod.com/lordprayerskit.htm


Prayer: Our Father which art in heaven,

God: Yes?

Prayer: Don't interrupt me. I'm praying

God: But you called me

Prayer: Called you? I didn't call you. I'm praying. Our Father which art in heaven,

God: There you did it again

Prayer: Did what?"

God: Called me. You said, "Our Father which art in heaven." Here I am. What's on your mind?

Prayer: But I didn't mean anything by it. I was, you know, just saying my prayers for the day. I always say the Lord's Prayer. It makes me feel good, kind of like getting a duty done."

God: All right. Go on.

Prayer: Hallowed be Thy name.

God: Hold it. What do you mean by that?

Prayer: "By what?"

God: By "Hallowed be Thy name?"

Prayer: It means. It means.... Good grief, I don't know what it means. How should I know? It's just a part of the prayer. By the way, what does it mean?"

God: It means honored, holy, wonderful.

Prayer: Hey that makes sense. I never thought about what hallowed' meant before. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

God: Do you really mean that?

Prayer: Sure, why not?

God: What are you doing about it?

Prayer: Doing? Nothing, I guess. I just think it would be kind of neat if you got control of everything down here like you have up there."

God: Have I got control of you?

Prayer: Well, I go to church.

God: That isn't what I asked you. What about your temper? You've really got a problem there, you know. And then there's the way you spend your money - all on yourself. And what about the kinds of books you read and what you watch on TV?

Prayer: Stop picking on me! I'm just as good as the rest of those people at church."

God: Excuse me. I thought you were praying for my will to be done. If that is to happen, it will have to start with the ones who are praying for it. Like you, for example.

Prayer: Oh, all right. I guess I do have some hang-ups. Now that you mention it, I could probably name some others."

God: So could I.

Prayer: I haven't thought about it very much until now, but I'd really like to cut out some of those things. I would like to, you know, be really free."

God: Good. Now we're getting somewhere. We'll work together, you and I. Some victories can be truly won. I'm proud of you.

Prayer: Look, Lord, I need to finish this up here. This is taking a lot longer than it usually does ... Give us this day our daily bread."

God: You could cut out the bread. It would help you lose weight.

Prayer: "Hey, wait a minute! What is this, 'Criticize, ME day?' Here I was doing my religious duty, and all of a sudden you break in and remind me of all my hang-ups. Praying is a dangerous thing. You could wind up changed, you know.

God: That's what I'm trying to get across to you. Keep praying. I'm interested in the next part of your prayer.(Pause) Well, go on.

Prayer: I'm scared to."

God: Scared? Of what?

Prayer: I know what you'll say.

God: Try me and see.

Prayer: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

God: What about Ann?

Prayer: "See? I knew it! I knew you would bring her up! Why Lord she's told lies about me, spread stories about my family. She never paid back the money she owes me. I've sworn to get even with her!"

God: But your prayer? What about your prayer?

Prayer: "I didn't mean it."

God: Well, at least you're honest. But it's not much fun carrying that load of bitterness inside of you, is it?

Prayer: No. But, I'll feel better as soon as I get even. Boy, have I got some plans for that neighbor. She'll wish she had never moved into this neighborhood."

God: You won't feel any better. You'll feel worse. Revenge isn't sweet. Think of how unhappy you already are. But, I can change all that.

Prayer: You can? How?

God: Forgive Ann. Then I'll forgive you. Then the hate and sin will be Ann's problem and not yours. You will have settled your heart.

Prayer: Oh, you're right. You always are. And, more than I want to get revenge against Ann, I want to be right with you. But ... (Pause) ... (Sigh) ... All right. I forgive her. Help her to find the right road in life, Lord. She's bound to be awfully miserable now that I think about it. Anybody who goes around doing the things she does to others has to be out of it. Someway, somehow, show her the right way.

God: There now! Wonderful! How do you feel?

Prayer: "Hmmm. Well, not bad. Not bad at all. I feel pretty great. You know, I don't think I'll have to go to bed uptight tonight for the first time since I can remember. Maybe I won't be so tired from now on because I'm not getting enough rest."

God: You're not through with your prayers. Go on.

Prayer: "Oh, all right. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

God: Good! Good! I'll do that. Just don't put yourself in a place where you can be tempted.

Prayer: "What do you mean by that?"

God: Don't turn the TV on when you know the laundry needs to be done and the house needs to be picked up. Also about the time you spend with your friends, if you can't influence the conversation to positive things, perhaps you should rethink the value of those friendships. Another thing, your neighbors and friends shouldn't be your standard for "keeping up." And please don't use me as an escape hatch.

Prayer: "I don't understand that last part."

God: Sure you do. You've done it a lot of times. You get caught in a bad situation. You get in trouble and then you come running to me: "Lord, help me out of this mess, and I promise you I'll never do it again." You remember some of those bargains you tried to make with me?

Prayer: Yes, and I'm ashamed, Lord, I really am.

God: Which bargain are you remembering?

Prayer: Well, there was the night that my husband was gone and the children and I were home alone. The wind was blowing so hard I thought the roof would go any minute and tornado warnings were out. I remember saying, 'Oh God, if you spare us, I'll never skip my devotions again."

God: I protected you, but you didn't keep your promise, did you?

Prayer: "I'm sorry, Lord I really am. Up until now I thought that if I just prayed the Lord's Prayer every day, then I could do what I liked. I didn't expect anything to happen like this."

God: Go ahead and finish your prayer.

Prayer: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen

God: Do you know what would bring me glory? What would really make me happy?

Prayer: "No, but I'd like to know. I want to please you. I can see what a mess I've made of my life. And I can see how great it would be to really be one of your followers."

God: You just answered the question.

Prayer: I did?"

God: Yes. The thing that would bring me glory is to have people like you truly love me. And I see that happening between us. Now that some of these old sins are exposed and out of the way, there is no telling what we can do together.

Prayer: Lord, let's see what we can make of me, OK?"

God: Yes, let's see.

Prayer: The moral of this skit is when you say the Lords prayer, DON'T REPEAT it, pray it!