Please join us between 4:30 and 4:55 pm via Zoom
Here is the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82512159155
phone-in for (audio only).Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Welcome: Our theme today is two very important elements of life: living the experience of belonging and being grateful in all circumstances.
Let Us Pray: O Holy One, our greatest desire is to know we belong. To know we are never alone in our anxiety and fear, to know we are never alone in our joy and peace. We experience belonging and connectedness in your Love. Amen and Thank you.
Opening Song: LOVE LIKE THIS – Lauren Daigle
https://youtu.be/Br1q_i1RHPU
When I am a wasteland
You are the water
When I am the winter
You are the fire that burns
When I am a long night
You are the sunrise
When I am a desert
You are the river that turns
To find me
What have I done to deserve love like this?
What have I done to deserve love like this?
Your voice like a whisper
Breaking the silence
You say there's a treasure
You'll look 'til You find it
You search to find me
What have I done to deserve love like this?
What have I done to deserve love like this?
I cannot earn what You so freely give
What have I done to deserve love like this?
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
What have I done to deserve love like this?
What have I done to deserve love like this?
I cannot earn what You so freely give
What have I done to deserve love like this?
Songwriters: Jason Ingram / Lauren Daigle / Paul Brendon Mabury
Love Like This lyrics © Centricsongs, See You At The Pub
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: A Reading from a letter to Jesus, author unknown.
Dearest Jesus,
There was a time, lost to us now, of reciting rote prayers, compromising with doctrine and trying our best to fit in. We hadn’t seen ourselves as persons willing to step beyond the pale. We didn’t realize the need to recover long buried truths. We were yet to be inspired to live the glory and the challenge of faithfulness to our Indwelling Spirit. But a vision of a new church is coming to light, coming to life. While it baffles us at times, we know that women and men of vision own the future.
And so this is where dear Jesus, You have brought us; loving people in a large community of equals, taking to heart the words of Paul to Timothy: “we have been trusted to look after something precious and we are to guard it with the help of the Spirit who lives in us”. We strive to be worthy of the trust. We are thankful for the conversion of faith that has brought us to this moment. We pray that Your example and the inspiration of the Holy Divine will prompt us to right action, with integrity as bright as the noon day sun that bakes the glinting sand at water’s edge. Amen
The community affirms these words with AMEN
Celtic Alleluia
https://youtu.be/o1rc7ojQtJU
Gospel: A Reading from the Gospel of Mark
Jesus went out along the sea.
All the crowd came to him and he taught them.
As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus,
sitting at the customs post.
Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”
And he got up and followed Jesus.
While he was at table in his house,
many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples;
for there were many who followed him.
Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with sinners
and tax collectors and said to his disciples,
“Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus heard this and said to them,
“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
These are the inspired words of Mark, a disciple of Jesus and we affirm them by saying AMEN.
Shared Homily
The readings today are about our call. Yours and my call. What does it really mean when Jesus says come follow me? Each of us answers that call differently. Sometimes we ask ourselves why am I called. Sometimes we ask what am I called to.
When I was much younger and first aware of the idea of being called I was excited. I imagined being called by Jesus to come follow him. In my mind if Jesus called me I would stop whatever I was doing and walk and talk with him. I would sit in a circle with other like-minded followers, we would eat together, share our food, share our thoughts and stories.
We would have a love fest with Jesus. No tension or stress, just joy. In my imagination I experienced a deep sense of belonging and I was very happy. But as we mature we know that following Jesus is much more than listening to stories and having cum bah yah moments.
We also know as time wore on the circle of followers of Jesus evolved into a hierarchy who created creeds, doctrines and rituals. For years you and I recited those creeds and participated in those rituals. Those creeds, doctrines and rituals were our way to belong. That’s how we learned to follow Jesus.
And yet just under the surface of our being, in our core, in our soul we knew there was more. Jesus was calling us and continues to call us, not to creeds and doctrines, but to a way of life that says love one another. Love one another in loss and separation, pain and suffering, in our fears and doubts and in all those every day tiny annoyances.
We each hear and live our call differently but we do our best every day to put our call into practice. We are a community of like-minded followers of Jesus and we belong.
Statement of Faith
Presider 2: As we read our Statement of Faith together do we believe what we read, do we live what we believe?
All: We believe in one God, 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 God's Word,
bringer of God's healing, heart of God's compassion,
bright star in the firmament of God's
prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that We are called to follow Jesus
as a vehicle of God's love,
a source of God's wisdom and truth,
and an instrument of God's peace in the world.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
The life of God that is our innermost life,
the breath of God moving in our being.
The depth of God living in each of us.
We believe that God's 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
Eucharistic Prayer of Belonging
Presider 1: As we prepare for the sacred meal we bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns. Please feel free to voice your concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table….”
We pray for these and all unspoken concerns. Amen.
Presider 2: We are a priestly people. We are anointed. With open hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer as one voice:
All: O Nurturing, Mothering one, You are always with us. We are grateful for Your constant loving and unconditional presence. At times we forget that You are holding us, attending to us. We fall and You pick us up. You send strangers, friends and family to our aid. We are never without Your Light and Spirit.
We experience great joy and we experience great pain and suffering. You are with us in the joy and the pain and suffering. When we experience Your presence we long to sing our hymn of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here in This Place by Christopher Grundy
All: Creator and Lover of all beings, we cannot grow in the darkness of this world without Your Light. Our desire to be in Your light is a gift from You. Help us keep our hearts and minds open to You through our love and care for each other and all creation.
Presider 2: Please extend your hands in blessing
All: This bread and wine is a sign of Your nourishment and a sign of Your great love. Your Spirit is upon us and we belong to You and one another.
We thank you for Jesus, simple servant, lifting up the lowly, revealing you as God-With-Us, revealing us as one with you, and all creation.
On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for supper with the people closest to him. Like the least of household servants, he washed their feet. Once again he showed us how to love one another.
Please lift the bread and pray:
Back at the table, he took the Passover Bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread and offered it to them saying, Take and eat, this is my very self.
Please lift the cup and pray:
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.
Bread and wine is transformed by Your Spirit and we are transformed when we open ourselves to Your Spirit. Every time we share this bread and wine we choose to be transformed. We choose to love as You love us.
Please receive the bread and wine with the words: I belong to the Holy One.
Communion Song: Surrender by Heather Houston – video by MT Streck
Communion Prayer: Loving Source of our being, You call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice. We live justly, we love tenderly, we walk with integrity in Your Presence.
Presider 1: Let us pray together the prayer of Jesus:
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 that 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.
The Prayer of Jesus as interpreted by Miriam Therese Winter
BLESSING
Presider 2: Please extend your hands and pray our blessing together
May we continue to be the Face of God to each other. May the certainty of our connectedness to one another and all creation ignite us to love more fully. May we, like Jesus be a shining light and a blessing for all.
All: Amen.
Closing Song: One Spirit of Love by Andra Moran
Many are the wonders of God many doors open wide, many roads that are still untraveled. Many are the gifts that we share many burdens we bear many mysteries still unraveled.
Many gifts, one spirit of love, one spirit of love. Many gifts, one spirit of love, one spirit of love.
Some will be the teachers of life, some the preachers of love some the fathers and some the mothers. Some will be the ones who will care. Some will listen and share, serving God as they serve each other.
Many gifts, one spirit of love, one spirit of love.
Living as the body of Christ and the heart of the earth and the hands that will break new ground, Celebrate the gifts from within, now it’s time to begin. God’s people turn this world around now.
Many gifts, one spirit of love, one spirit of love.
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