Welcome to the Upper Room. We are so happy to be together today to consider the gift of healing. May this time together remind us of our deep connection to Holy Presence and each other as we celebrate healing and wholeness.
Opening meditation: (Kim)
Opening Song: I Will Not Leave You Comfortless
https://youtu.be/qZ1FgIaohIU
LITURGY OF THE WORD
Readings
First Reading: Job 7:1-4;6-7
Isn’t a person’s life in this world nothing but drudgery? Aren’t our days here like those of a hired hand? Like a laborer vainly longing for shade or a hired hand waiting for meager wages, so I am assigned months of futility; my only possessions are nights of misery. When I go to bed, I wonder, “How long before I get up?” -but the night drags on, as I toss and turn. My days pass as swiftly as a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope. O God, remember that my life is just a breath, and I will never experience joy again.
These are the inspired words from the book of Job and the community affirms them by saying: Amen
Second Reading: Mark 1:29-39 (Deven)
Upon leaving the synagogue, Jesus entered Simon’s and Andrew’s house with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told Jesus about her. Jesus went over to her, took her by the hand and helped her up, and the fever left her.
Then she went about her work. After sunset, as evening drew on, they brought to Jesus all who were ill and possessed by demons. Everyone in the town crowded around the door. Jesus healed many who were sick with different diseases, and cast out many demons. But Jesus would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew who he was.
Rising early the next morning, Jesus went off to a lonely place and prayed there. Simon and some companions managed to find Jesus and said to him, "Everybody is looking for you!” Jesus said to them, “Let us move on to the neighboring villages so that I may proclaim the Good News there also. That is what I have come to do.” So Jesus went into their synagogues proclaiming the Good News and expelling demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
These are the inspired words from the Gospel of Mark and the community affirms them by saying: Amen
Third Reading: Excerpts from: How to deal with Pain: First and Second Darts by Patrick Edbald (Mary Theresa)
Physical and psychological pain are inevitable parts of life. It’s just the way we humans are designed. To survive physically, we need our body to let us know when it’s ill or injured. To work psychologically and socially, we need minds that send different signals of distress such as loneliness, anger, fear, rejection, threat and grief.
Losing these physical and psychological signals of pain is in fact very dangerous. We need to know that we’ve accidentally put our hand on the stove to do something about it. Or feel guilty when we’ve mistreated someone else. Pain is what lets us know.
In Buddhism, these unavoidable pains in life are known as ‘first darts.’ These are the darts life throws at us that we can’t do anything about.But what we can do, is avoid throwing ‘second darts‘ at ourselves. These second darts are our judgments and reactions to the first darts.
“Pain is Inevitable. Suffering is Optional.”This Buddhist proverb simply and brilliantly sums up how this works. Pain is the first dart. Suffering is the second dart. You’re always going to have to deal with pain because that’s how humans function in the world.
For example, let’s say you get a sudden headache. This is the first dart. The second darts come in the form of your thoughts about the situation: ‘Why does this always happen to me?!’, ‘This headache is driving me crazy!!’, ‘I hate this pain!’ and so on.
Each time you buy into these thoughts you make the experience of the headache even worse. You’re putting logs on the fire. Now, it’s not just the pain from the first dart you’re experiencing; you’re also hitting yourself with a bunch of second darts that are causing you to suffer.
These are the inspired words of Patrick Edbald and the community affirms them by saying: Amen
Gospel Acclamation: Dennis
Shared Homily: Donna
As we come close to experiencing a full year in a pandemic, with job losses, with friends and family members who have passed away, and so many people battling cancer, it is possible that the weight of the world is heavy on our shoulders. The last line in the reading from Job “I will never experience joy again,” could be among our thoughts. Like Job, we need shelter, relief and healing. If only we could take the hand of Jesus and be healed the way Peter’s mother-n-law was. If only our pain would leave us the way the fever left her.
Our readings today suggest that by encountering the Holy One in times of pain we can avoid the tendency to create suffering for ourselves. Mark’s gospel was written to persecuted Christians and portrays Jesus as a teacher, healer and one who also encountered great pain. The word “immediately” is used many times in this gospel and is applied to the healing stories when people were instantaneously healed when they encountered Jesus.
All people experience pain and Mark’s gospel teaches us that people are healed through an encounter of the divine. It is useful to understand healing as a different relationship with pain so as to eliminate unnecessary additional suffering. Healing is not escaping illness, pain and adversity rather it is a healthy relationship to the inevitable struggles we all encounter. If our relationship to pain is healed we are free to live in the way Jesus modeled, with courage, love and endurance in the good times as well as the difficult times.
Jesus may be pictured in the gospels as a healer because he understood how to live well when facing adversity, illness and injustice. This allowed him to act justly, do mercy and walk humbly with God. Jesus’ healed relationship with pain could be why he had such an appeal to all those he met. Jesus was a healing presence. As our third reading teaches, when we do not inflict the second dart of negativity, judgement, and resistance upon ourselves, we are freer to navigate any situation with courage, love and grace.
Statement of Faith
We believe in the Holy One, a divine mystery
beyond all definition and rational understanding,
the heart of all that has ever existed,
that exists now, or that ever will exist.
We believe in Jesus, messenger of the Divine Word,
bringer of healing, heart of Divine compassion,
bright star in the firmament of the Holy One's
prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that We are called to follow Jesus
as a vehicle of divine love,
a source of wisdom and truth,
and an instrument of peace in the world.
We believe in the Spirit of the Holy One,
the life that is our innermost life,
the breath moving in our being,
the depth living in each of us.
We believe that the Divine kin-dom is here and now,
stretched out all around us for those
with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it,
and hands to make it happen.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
Dennis: These are the prayer intentions received from the community:
Dennis: We pray for these and all unspoken concerns of our hearts. Amen.
Donna: Let us join with open hands to pray our Eucharistic prayer together:
Donna: Source of Love and Light, we join in unity of Spirit, love and purpose with Your people everywhere, living and crossed over. With all of creation across billions of galaxies, we open our hearts and souls to become One.
In your loving embrace we are liberated from division, fear, conflict, pride and injustice. We are transformed into wholeness which we resolve to bring to all whose lives we touch. With gratitude, we meld ourselves Your Divine Presence which knows all, shelters all and transforms all into love, abundant and eternal.
In one voice, we praise Your loving, healing ways and the glory of all You have Created:
https://youtu.be/sgkWXOSGmOQ
We thank you, Holy One, for Jesus, a man of courage whose exquisite balance of human and Divine points our way and who strives with us in our time of need. We yearn with passion to live as Jesus, one with you and your Spirit, in peace and justice.
May our desire to be one with You join us to all living things. We seek to heal the differences that isolate us so that we may live in healthful unity with all people, of every ethnicity, skin color, gender orientation or class. May we have the imaginative sympathy and love of Your Spirit to move with courage beyond the confines of bias, miscommunication, ignorance and hurt and into the healing place where Divine light and love abide.
Suzanne: Please extend your hands in blessing of bread and wine.
Together, we call on Your Spirit, present in these gifts - bread that satisfies our hunger and wine that quenches our thirst – to make us more deeply One, living in the fullness of holy compassion and Sophia wisdom.
Anticipating the likelihood of betrayal, arrest and pain, Jesus wanted more than anything to be with his friends, to share a meal, exchange stories and create fond memories. To strengthen the bonds of friendship that evening, Jesus washed the feet of his friends in an act of love and humility.
All lift the bread.
Suzanne: Back at the table, he took the bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread and offered it to them saying, Take and eat, this is my very self.
All lift their cups.
Then he took the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying:
Take and drink of the covenant
Made new again through my life in you.
Whenever you remember me like this,
I am among you. (pause)
All consume their bread and cup
As we celebrate and recognize you in this bread and wine, we recognize you in each other. Sharing the bread of life and wine transforms us and opens us to your Spirit. Knowing that Jesus spent his time with the lowly and hurting, the needy and shunned, we seek to remain open to how we can bring love, healing and unity to whomever is in need. We ask for the grace to see with the eyes of Jesus, touch with the hands of Jesus and heal with the heart of Jesus. Amen.
Donna: Let us join with disciples of all ages to pray together:
O Holy One, who is within, around and among us,
We celebrate your many names.
Your Wisdom come.
Your will be done, unfolding from the depths within us,
Each day you give us all we need;
You remind us of our limits, and we let go.
You support us in our power, and we act with courage.
For you are the dwelling place within us,
the empowerment around us,
and the celebration among us, now and forever. Amen (Miriam Therese Winter)
Donna: Our Communion Meditation is Requiem by Eliza Gilkeyson
Closing Blessing: Suzanne: Please raise your hands in blessing and join together in our closing prayer:
We pray for harmony in the midst of divisiveness and for hope in the middle of hurt. We bless our civic leaders and ourselves and all peoples with a call for harmony and deep peace: May Deep peace be a blessing onto you. May we know the deep peace of the running wave. May we know the deep peace of the flowing air. May we know the deep peace of the quiet earth. May the moon and stars pour their healing light upon us all. Amen.
Closing Song: Don’t Worry Be Happy
https://youtu.be/uWXUWepSak4
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