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Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Welcome and Theme: Welcome to our liturgy this evening, as we consider what it means to be blessed.
Opening Prayer:
Holy One you call us to the way of blessing every day, and we follow. When we wander from the way you send us prophets who use their voices to call us back, and we return. This is the blessed path of life that stretches across the universe; the blessed interrelatedness that binds all of creation together in holiness. For this we praise and thank you. Amen.
Opening Song: Gather Us In, Marty Haugen https://youtu.be/ZAxeGOmKE4c
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: From “A Christmas Sermon on Peace”
Now, let me suggest first that, if we are to have peace on earth, we must develop a world perspective. No individual can live alone; no nation can live alone, and as long as we try, the more we are going to have war in this world. . .
It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality.
These are the inspired words of Martin Luther King Jr. and we affirm them by saying Amen.
Alleluia https://youtu.be/E9Yo34Irn6Y
Gospel Lk 6:17, 20-26
Jesus came down with the Twelve
and stood on a stretch of level ground
with a great crowd of his disciples
and a large number of the people
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.
And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.
For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are filled now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”
This is the inspired story of the teachings of Jesus as told to us by the writer we know as Luke. And we affirm these words by saying, Amen.
Homily Starter:
I have always had trouble with the beatitudes. The idea of approaching a person in dire straits in terms of food and shelter, looking them in the eye and telling them that they are “blessed,” or “happy,” as I have sometimes seen the passage translated, doesn’t sit right. Worse, I think, is to go on to assure them that they will be rewarded for their present condition in heaven. This to me just doesn’t sound like Jesus. Not the Jesus who reached out and healed people every day, even on the Sabbath. Not the Jesus who made sure every mouth was fed. So how to reconcile these two impressions of Jesus?
For me, it helps if I remember that “the Kin-dom of God” to which Jesus refers is not some heavenly state in the afterlife, but rather a way of living that is possible in the here and now if we but follow him. “Heaven” in Aramaic is “Shamayin.” It means “Abode of God.” Again, to Jesus the abode of God was with the people. It was right there, on the land they stood. So yes, the poor, the oppressed, the shunned, they can all be called “blessed” or “happy,” because there is real change possible in this life. If I keep in mind that the people Jesus addressed in the crowd were by and large oppressed and poor, living in an occupied land, then yes, hope was a blessing. Working together to make a just community where everyone had enough was a goal worth pursuing. If following the way of this healer who lived what he preached would birth a better way, then yes, they were blessed.
And to the sticklers in the crowd? The ones who had plenty? Maybe the ones who collaborated with the occupiers? Maybe the ones who took the tax money they collected for Rome and skimmed some off the top? They were poisoning the ground of this garden of possibility. By refusing to see themselves as part of the larger society, by closing their eyes to the needs of others, they were thwarting the Kin-dom, and making life worse for themselves as well as everyone else.
What does this mean for the blessed among us today? According to Action Against Hunger, there is more than enough food produced today to feed everyone on the globe. And yet 811 million people still suffer with hunger every day. The current reasons for this startling number include conflict, climate change, and the pandemic. War, bad decisions, disease. Have we not had these companions throughout the ages?
And yet Jesus continues to call us back to the way. The voices he uses are many. Martin Luther King was one of his voices calling us to the way that leads to the Kin-dom, reminding us of the “inescapable network of mutuality” we are born into in this life. Let us pray that our ears will be opened at last.
What did you hear in today’s readings? Please share your inspired thoughts.
Statement of Faith
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.
Eucharistic Prayer of Belonging
Denise: 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….”
Denise: We pray for these and all unspoken concerns. Amen.
Denise: 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, Karen Drucker https://youtu.be/kl7vmiZ1YuI
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.
Denise: 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 the 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.
All lift bread
All: 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.
All lift cup
All: 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.
Denise: Please receive communion with the words “I am a person of the Way.”
Communion Meditation: Water is Life, Sara Thomsen
https://youtu.be/5rkDa7-vQvQ
Denise: 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.
As we celebrate and recognize You in this bread and wine we love and recognize you in each other. We are filled with gratitude and joy. Glory and Praise to you both now and forever. Amen
Denise: 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
Denise: 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: Behold Now the Kingdom, Jon Michael Talbot https://youtu.be/TWd0OE5jaoA
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