International Conscientious Objection Day

 

Anti-draft demonstration 1971 in Washington, D.C. Photo: Religion News Service

May 15 is International Conscientious Objection Day.

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

Rock Mass - 05-04-2025

Rock Mass

Rock Mass - May 2025

I waited patiently for the Lord;

    he turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,

    out of the mud and mire;

He set my feet on a rock

    and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth,

    a hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear the Lord

    and put their trust in him.

Blessed is the one

    who trusts in the Lord,

who does not look to the proud,

    to those who turn aside to false gods.

Many, Lord my God,

    are the wonders you have done,

    the things you planned for us.

None can compare with you;

    were I to speak and tell of your deeds,

    they would be too many to declare.

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—

    but my ears you have opened—

    burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.

Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—

    it is written about me in the scroll.

 I desire to do your will, my God;

    your law is within my heart.”

I proclaim your saving acts in the great assembly;

    I do not seal my lips, Lord,

    as you know.

I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;

    I speak of your faithfulness and your saving help.

I do not conceal your love and your faithfulness

    from the great assembly.

Do not withhold your mercy from me, Lord;

    may your love and faithfulness always protect me.

(Psalm 40:1-11)

Peace, Love, and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

The inspiration for creating "Rock Mass" came from the Rock Mass at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena California back in the early 1970’s. On the first Friday night of each month All Saints held a Rock Mass which was a mix of traditional Episcopalian Mass and rock concert. A live band would play popular rock music which couldn’t necessarily be called “Christian” but contained spiritual phrases and references to God or Jesus. During the 1960’s and early 1970’s there was an explosion of these songs coming out of the "secular" music industry way before there was “Contemporary Christian Music”, in a way, it could be called "The Gospel According To Billboard's Top 10".

(Stained glass guitar angel found at www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber)

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Rock Mass - Easter Sunday 04-20-2025

Rock Mass

Rock Mass - Easter Edition 2025

While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” (Luke 24:4-7)

Peace, Love, and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

The inspiration for creating "Rock Mass" came from the Rock Mass at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena California back in the early 1970’s. On the first Friday night of each month All Saints held a Rock Mass which was a mix of traditional Episcopalian Mass and rock concert. A live band would play popular rock music which couldn’t necessarily be called “Christian” but contained spiritual phrases and references to God or Jesus. During the 1960’s and early 1970’s there was an explosion of these songs coming out of the "secular" music industry way before there was “Contemporary Christian Music”, in a way, it could be called "The Gospel According To Billboard's Top 10".

(Stained glass guitar angel found at www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber)

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This Is How We Know What Love Is

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

(1 John 3:16-18)

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

(Commissioned illustration by L. Patterson)  

Rock Mass 04-06-2025 Earth Day

 

Rock Mass on the first Sunday of the month.

Rock Mass for Sunday April 6, 2025 - Earth Day Edition

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, 

the world, and all who live in it (Psalms 24:1) 

Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities,

both his eternal power and his divine nature,

have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made.

So those people have no excuse at all! (Romans 1:20) 

And Jehovah God took the man,

and caused him to rest in the garden of Eden,

to serve it, and to keep it. (Genesis 2:15)

We have been entrusted by the Father to be custodians of his Creation, it is our responsibility to care for and protect the Earth. The Earth is God's primary revelation of himself, his ever present means of revealing his great creative power and his loving provision of the life giving miracle that we call home - Earth. What a powerful witness it would be if those who claim to love God and who want to evangelize the world would actually protect and care for God's Creation.

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

The inspiration for creating "Rock Mass" came from the Rock Mass at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena California back in the early 1970’s. On the first Friday night of each month All Saints held a Rock Mass which was a mix of traditional Episcopalian Mass and rock concert. A live band would play popular rock music which couldn’t necessarily be called “Christian” but contained spiritual phrases and references to God or Jesus. During the 1960’s and early 1970’s there was an explosion of these songs coming out of the "secular" music industry way before there was “Contemporary Christian Music”, in a way, it could be called "The Gospel According To Billboard's Top 10".

(Stained glass guitar angel found at www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber)

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Rock Mass 03/02/2025

Rock Mass

Rock Mass - March 2, 2025

Some Irish musicians in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

"Christ beside me,

Christ before me,

Christ behind me,

Christ within me,

Christ beneath me,

Christ above me."

~Saint Patrick

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

 

The inspiration for creating "Rock Mass" came from the Rock Mass at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena California back in the early 1970’s. On the first Friday night of each month All Saints held a Rock Mass which was a mix of traditional Episcopalian Mass and rock concert. A live band would play popular rock music which couldn’t necessarily be called “Christian” but contained spiritual phrases and references to God or Jesus. During the 1960’s and early 1970’s there was an explosion of these songs coming out of the "secular" music industry way before there was “Contemporary Christian Music”, in a way, it could be called "The Gospel According To Billboard's Top 10".

(Stained glass guitar angel found at www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber)

 

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Not a New Year's Resolution

I like to start each new year, and actually each new day, thinking about focus. I ask myself what will I spend my time focused on this day? Will it be something important or a total time drain? Will I expend my energy doing something meaningful and worthwhile?

 

Time and energy are very much in short supply lately. I find myself distracted and pulled in so many different directions by the day-to-day demands of life, not to mention the distractions of multiple streams of media promoting the latest cause célèbre.

I recently saw an internet meme via The Clergy Coaching Network that I think will serve me well as opposing voices demand allegiance in this highly polarized world that we find ourselves in today.

"The work will remain the work.

To love your neighbor.

To be generous with a stranger.

To protect the water, the air, the soil.

To heal old wounds.

To not make new ones.

The work remains the work.

In fact it has all become,

suddenly, even more important."

So, the work will remain the work! It's not so much a New Year's resolution, I'm not one to make or for that matter keep New Year's resolutions. It comes as more of a resolve to stay on track, to keep on keeping on as we used to say.

Keep the faith and keep on truck'n

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

Rock Mass 02/02/2025

 

Rock Mass

 

Rock Mass - February 2, 2025

Black History Month

In this new life one’s nationality or race or education or social position is unimportant; such things mean nothing. Whether a person has Christ is what matters, and he is equally available to all.

(Colossians 3:11)

"Liberty is equally as precious to a Black man as it is to a white one, and bondage equally as intolerable to the one as it is to the other."

Lemuel Haynes

(July 18, 1753 – September 28, 1833)

American clergyman, veteran of the American Revolution, and he was the first black man in the United States to be ordained as a minister.

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

 

The inspiration for creating "Rock Mass" came from the Rock Mass at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena California back in the early 1970’s. On the first Friday night of each month All Saints held a Rock Mass which was a mix of traditional Episcopalian Mass and rock concert. A live band would play popular rock music which couldn’t necessarily be called “Christian” but contained spiritual phrases and references to God or Jesus. During the 1960’s and early 1970’s there was an explosion of these songs coming out of the "secular" music industry way before there was “Contemporary Christian Music”, in a way, it could be called "The Gospel According To Billboard's Top 10".

(Stained glass guitar angel found at www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber)

 

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Rock Mass New Year's 2025

 

Rock Mass

Rock Mass - New Year's 2025 Edition

For I am not ashamed of the Gospel. I see it as the very power of God working for the salvation of everyone who believes it, both Jew and Greek. I see in it God’s plan for imparting righteousness to men, a process begun and continued by their faith. For, as the scripture says: ‘The just shall live by faith’. (Romans 1:16-17 - Phillips Translation)

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

The inspiration for creating "Rock Mass" came from the Rock Mass at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena California back in the early 1970’s. On the first Friday night of each month All Saints held a Rock Mass which was a mix of traditional Episcopalian Mass and rock concert. A live band would play popular rock music which couldn’t necessarily be called “Christian” but contained spiritual phrases and references to God or Jesus. During the 1960’s and early 1970’s there was an explosion of these songs coming out of the "secular" music industry way before there was “Contemporary Christian Music”, in a way, it could be called "The Gospel According To Billboard's Top 10".

(Stained glass guitar angel found at www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber)

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No Exclusions or Exceptions

Read the fine print, there are no exclusions or exceptions to "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Jesus was quite clear, as were the writers of the New Testament, that we are called to love - even in the face of hate. We are told that if we don't love those around us how can we say that we love God.

Love is the higher law!

 “The most important commandment,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

Rock Mass - Christmas 2024

 

Rock Mass

Rock Mass - Christmas 2024 Edition

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

The inspiration for creating "Rock Mass" came from the Rock Mass at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena California back in the early 1970’s. On the first Friday night of each month All Saints held a Rock Mass which was a mix of traditional Episcopalian Mass and rock concert. A live band would play popular rock music which couldn’t necessarily be called “Christian” but contained spiritual phrases and references to God or Jesus. During the 1960’s and early 1970’s there was an explosion of these songs coming out of the "secular" music industry way before there was “Contemporary Christian Music”, in a way, it could be called "The Gospel According To Billboard's Top 10".

(Stained glass guitar angel found at www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber)

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Jonestown Remembered

On November 18, 1978, over 900 people died in the jungles of Guyana at the People's Temple Agricultural Project, more famously known as Jonestown.

This tragic event disturbs me today as much as it did 46 years ago. At the time I was a young Hippie Jesus Freak leading a small group of Christians and seeing that horrible abuse of power changed my view of church leadership forever.

Jim Jones' "throne" in the Jonestown pavilion, scene of mass murder/suicide November 18, 1978

So Jesus called them all together and said, “You know that the rulers of the heathen have power over them, and the leaders have complete authority. This, however, is not the way it shall be among you. If one of you wants to be great, you must be the servant of the rest; and if one of you wants to be first, you must be the slave of the others - like the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life to redeem many people.” (Matthew 20:25-28)

The Apostle Paul wrote... "Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand." (2 Corinthians 1:24)

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1Peter 2:9)

Jonestown - Wikipedia

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)