What people are saying about "Minister's Prayer Book"

As you can see by my excitement at getting an early Editor's edition of Minister's Prayer Book: An Order of Prayers and Readings, I'm kinda excited about thing.

I just thought I'd share with you all the reviews:

"Ministers, like all Christians, need to pray. Yet they often need help to pray as they yearn to do. Generations have found this classic a faithful companion through each week, through the Christian year, and through the dimensions of pastoral vocation--all in conversation with Scripture and the church's wisdom. This affectionate update freshens language and expands sources to reflect ministry in our time, when ministers are more diverse but prayer is as urgent as ever." --Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

"Minister's Prayer Book has supported me and countless others for many years. Its organizing principle of Scripture, prayer, and meditation is fundamentally right. This pastoral guide now reappears in a thoughtfully updated version, its classical structure intact but with the addition of new prayers and contemporary voices. It is a reclaimed treasure. I will be using it again on a daily basis. It belongs in every minister's hands--and heart." --Richard Lischer, Duke Divinity School, author of Open Secrets: A Memoir of Faith and Discovery

"After four decades in ministry, I still find that one simple practice has grounded me on the best days and the most challenging days. Reading a daily devotion, drawn from holy Scripture and a rich array of theological writings and prayers, has been my practice for many years. This revised version of Doberstein's Minister's Prayer Book, enhanced by new selections and fresher language, holds a treasure trove for pastors, deacons, and all Christians. Open it and see." --Patricia J. Lull, bishop of the Saint Paul Area Synod, ELCA

"Here, prayer and preaching are grounded in God's down-to-earth gospel, not in mystical flights of the soul. With Luther and Bonhoeffer, Doberstein guides the minister 'to know the blessings of God's word, heard personally in all its severity and love.' This revised edition is a gift to a new generation." --David L. Tiede, professor and president emeritus, Luther Seminary

"If you find prayer difficult, this book is for you. If you find prayer easy, this book is for you. If you are dry in prayer, you will find this book a font. If your prayer flows, you will find fresh streams. New, old, and ancient prayers have been carefully selected and brilliantly arranged, well-suited for both rookie and veteran ministers as a resource in their service to others and even more so in the enrichment of their own prayer life." --Matthew Riegel, bishop of West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod, ELCA

"As a young pastor, I searched in vain for a faithful and effective devotional book compatible with Lutheran theology, liturgical rhythms, and the fast pace of ministry. This resource fulfills that ministry-long search. Updated with contemporary writers and the introduction of women's voices, this revision of a classic provides adaptable methods and materials that support today's demanding, uncharted ministries in mission. It engages a foundational gift of the Reformation: spirituality solidly grounded in God's word. I heartily recommend it and will use it for pastoral formation with the seminarians I teach." --Mary Sue Dreier, professor of pastoral care and missional leadership, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary of Lenoir-Rhyne University

"This revised edition makes a devotional classic available to a new generation of ministers. Those of us who have found the riches of the Minister's Prayer Book to be helpful in all phases of our vocation will find it now has been coordinated with the Common Lectionary and has brought new voices into its collection of readings. It meets the many challenges specific to ministry with the rich spiritual resources of every age--including our own." --H. George Anderson, presiding bishop emeritus, ELCA 

Sermon: Imagine

Imagine

            The Sermon on the Mount is essential to Matthew’s Gospel
—without it, the many description of the Kingdom of Heaven are incomprehensible, or at least unsettling…

            This speech is Jesus’ Moses Moment…

            Just as Moses went up the Mountain and received the 10 commandments
—the boundaries given by God to regulate relationships in that community of now masterless men and women
—slaves freed, but now asking that fundamental question, “Freed for what?”

            Just so, Jesus spreads out a vision of the beloved community,
of his mission and ministry,
of God’s Kingdom coming near!

            He calls on us all to imagine a better world, imagine a truer and blessed way to be human,
to be God’s people,
to be present to God, who is already present to us…

            Jesus calls us to imagine.

Prayer

            You’ve seen how the kingdoms of this world are ruled
—the proud and powerful push their way through, the inexhaustible engorge themselves on all that we might inherit from God…

            Let it not be so, though there is a danger in embracing spiritual poverty
—revealing our weakness and need,
it makes us so vulnerable…

            …But imagine…

            Imagine the exhausted and empty,
the tired and the humble,
receiving the good God continually offers in abundance
—not on account of their worth, but on account of their inheritance, their worth before God because they are His children, his very image! 

            You’ve seen how the sad and suffering are often avoided
—comfort doled out sparingly because it seems like sorrow is catchy…

            And I suppose, in a way, it is,
when we mourn with those who mourn, we can become downcast, and also can be confronted with our own deeply buried sorrows and those we thought we’d overcome, but are in fact always part of us.

            Imagine

            Imagine though, every heart that hurts held and made whole again,
the comfort of companions, fellow mourners available, grief shared,
every tear wiped away.

            You’ve seen the boastful and greedy grow prosperous because they’ve put themselves first and stripped the earth of her bounty.

            In a world known for being nasty, brutish, and short, gentleness seems anathema

—if, at base, the world is an every person for themselves
limited supply, kind of place
—then of course taking a chance on meekness is self-defeating.

            But imagine…

            Imagine that the goodness of this world also goes to the downcast, seeming unworthy, who prefer a gentle world and a generous heart.

             You’ve seen injustice fill the hearts and minds of so many,
that wickedness is the common currency of corruption
that often a will to power overpowers the rule of law.

            And again, if scarcity is the only lens through which we can understand the world—then yes “I got mine who cares who I bribed or badgered to find sustenance” is a logical way of being…

            But imagine.

            Imagine a world where those hungering for equality find trees bearing just such fruits, and those who thirst for justice, they are met with fountains sparkling clear, clean of corruption
streams of justice,
waves of righteousness lapping upon a warm and inviting shore.

            You’ve seen cruel people crush anyone who would oppose them,
rub salt in wounds and inflame any hurt with hateful poison.

            And my God! What a risk if we don’t do the same…

            Kindness to enemies and those whose motives are hidden to us
—so often it comes back and bites you, it is more trouble than it is worth…

            Imagine though…

            Imagine a world where tit for tat is transformed into mercy for mercy, for Mercy’s sake. Where we can be a little less on guard,
a little more open,
where forgiveness is the norm!

            You’ve seen people of ill will work their wiles on the world,
blinding us all to the image of God in our neighbor and the Heart of God, which is love.

            To be fair, the other option risks naiveté, being gullible...

            But I want you to imagine…

            Imagine the little ones, those who seek after God with an abandon,
imagine they are never abandoned, but instead dwell in the house of the LORD all their days
—sit at the feet and on the lap, of Jesus,
are embraced by the Spirit!

            You’ve seen those who make war and spread rumors of war,
who see force as the first, last, and only option,
who say such clever things as, “It is a joy to die for the fatherland.”
You’ve seen them claiming all kinds of good, using violence to set themselves up to be something, or at least safe.

            And in a world so often violent, who would not stick to self-defense, to peace through superior firepower, to mutually assured destruction.

            Yet Imagine…

            Imagine children of God from all around the globe,
from every neighborhood and nation,
working for peace,
living peacefully together, transforming swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, pistols into spades, and bombs into baby carriages...

             Imagine… imagine… imagine…

            And soon enough, soon enough you will face persecution
—for there is surely push back to the Kingdom of Heaven,
to God’s Reign.

            As your thirst for righteousness is transformed into active pursuit of it
—those who prefer wickedness, injustice, and inequality, will push back…
for following Jesus threaten their idols,
their cherished ways of life
—you, even when you only imagine the Kingdom, challenge the world as it is, with the world as it should be!

            Pushback, because we see with our own eyes the way the world works...
pushback, as well, internally
—our own hearts divided, captured by the world as it is…
we so often betray this vision,
the imaginative possibility put forth by our Savior.

            We betray it internally, in the church, in society…

            And yet…

            And yet, these blessings, this prophetic imagination give to us by Jesus
—his blessings are an imperative,
a calling forth of a reality that is already here,
even when we don’t see it…

            Ultimately, dear church, Jesus’ blessings,
the Kingdom of Heaven,
will come…
we only hope, seek, pray, imagine, that His Blessing and the Kingdom will come about among us.

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