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phone-in for (audio only).Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Love’s Nourishment and Love’s Challenge
Welcome and Theme: Welcome. We are so very glad to have you with us as we celebrate our liturgy this evening. Our theme tonight is Love’s nourishment and Love’s challenge.
Opening Prayer: Holy One, let us feel your love surrounding us, supporting us, as we learn to live together in peace, live together in love. Please guide our hearts and minds and hands as we embrace your compassion and let go of judging to build a community of love. AMEN.
Opening Song: Come Ye (from a distance) by Sweet Honey in the Rock
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading
A reading from “Building a Community of Love: bell hooks and Thich Nhat Hanh”
Thich Nhat Hanh: You want to be human. Be angry, it’s okay. But not to practice is not okay. To be angry, that is very human. And to learn how to smile at your anger and make peace with your anger is very nice. That is the whole thing—the meaning of the practice, of the learning. By taking a look at your anger it can be transformed into the kind of energy that you need—understanding and compassion. It is with negative energy that you can make the positive energy. A flower, although beautiful, will become compost someday, but if you know how to transform the compost back into the flower, then you don’t have to worry. You don’t have to worry about your anger because you know how to handle it—to embrace, to recognize, and to transform it. So this is what is possible.
bell hooks: I think this is what people misunderstand about Martin Luther King saying to love your enemies. They think he was just using this silly little phrase, but what he meant was that as Black Americans we need to let our anger go, because holding on to it we hold ourselves down. We oppress ourselves by holding on to anger. My students tell me, we don’t want to love! We’re tired of being loving! And I say to them, if you’re tired of being loving, then you haven’t really been loving, because when you are loving you have more strength. As you were telling us yesterday, we grow stronger in the act of loving. This has been, I think, a very hurting thing for Black Americans—to feel that we can’t love our enemies. People forget what a great tradition we have as African-Americans in the practice of forgiveness and compassion. And if we neglect that tradition, we suffer.
Thich Nhat Hanh: When we have anger in us, we suffer. When we have discrimination in us, we suffer. When we have the complex of superiority, we suffer. When we have the complex of inferiority, we suffer also. So when we are capable of transforming these negative things in us, we are free and happiness is possible.
…
bell hooks: And lastly, what about fear? Because I think that many white people approach black people or Asian people not with hatred or anger but with fear. What can love do for that fear?
Thich Nhat Hanh: Fear is born from ignorance. We think that the other person is trying to take away something from us. But if we look deeply, we see that the desire of the other person is exactly our own desire—to have peace, to be able to have a chance to live. … The only answer to fear is more understanding. And there is no understanding if there is no effort to look more deeply to see what is there in our heart and in the heart of the other person. The Buddha always reminds us that our afflictions, including our fear and our desiring, are born from our ignorance.
These are the inspired words of bell hooks and Thich Nhat Hanh and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Alleluia
Gospel
A reading from the gospel of Luke 6:27-38
“To you who hear me, I say: love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you. When someone slaps you on one cheek, turn and give them the other. When someone takes your coat, let them have your shirt as well. Give to all who beg from you; and, when someone takes what is yours, don’t demand it back.
“Do to others what you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what merit lies in that? Even evildoers love those who love them. If you do good only to those who do good to you, what merit lies in that? Even evildoers do as much. If you lend to someone and expect repayment, what real credit is that to you? Evildoers lend to other evildoers, expecting to be repaid in full. Love your enemies. Do good to them. Lend without expecting repayment, and your reward will be great. You’ll rightly be called children of the Holy One, since God is good even to the ungrateful and the wicked.
“Be compassionate, as your loving God is compassionate.
Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Pardon, and you’ll be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you: a full measure—packed down, shaken together and spilling over—will be poured into your lap. The amount you measure out is the amount you’ll receive.”
These are the inspired words of the anonymous storyteller we call Luke and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Shared Homily
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
Presider: As we prepare for this sacred meal, we are aware of our call to serve, and just as Jesus is anointed, so is each of us. We bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns.
Intentions read
Presider: We bring these and all deeply held blessings, cares, and concerns to the table of friendship and peace.
Presider: With open hands let us pray our Eucharistic Prayer together:
All: O Holy One you have sent prophets and messengers to show us the way-Abraham, Sarah and Hagar, Moses and Jesus, Buddha and Mohammad, Hildegard and Teresa, Oscar and Dorothy, and all of us here and now who celebrate this liturgy today.
Everything we do, we do together with You. We cannot be without You. We cannot be without each other. You are made visible in this world with our acts of love and kindness. With grateful hearts we raise our voices and sing:
Holy Holy Holy – Karen Drucker
All: Holy One, slowly this world is moving toward oneness. Your pattern of love is in everything and there are messages of love in every pattern. Help us to stand with each other in love and suffering. The pain of one, is the pain of all. May we co-create with You and restore balance and harmony in our world.
Presider: Please extend your hands in blessing.
All: We invoke Your Spirit upon the gifts of this Eucharistic table, bread of the grain and wine of the grape, that they may become gifts of wisdom, light and truth which remind us of our call to be the body of Christ to the world.
On the night before he faced his own death and for the sake of living fully, Jesus sat at supper with his companions and friends. He reminded them of all that he taught them, and to fix that memory clearly within them, he bent down and washed their feet.
All lift their plate and pray the following:
When he returned to his place at the table, he lifted the bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread and offered it to them saying:
Take and eat; this is my very self.
All lift their cup and pray the following:
Presider: He then raised high the cup of the covenant, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying:
Take and drink.
Whenever you remember me like this, I am among you.
What we have heard with our ears, we will live with our lives,
As we share communion, we will become communion
Both Love’s nourishment and Love’s challenge.
Please consume the bread and drink the cup with the words: We are one with our God.
Communion Meditation: Find Our Way to Love by The Many
Written as a response to the horror of Orlando, of Paris, of Charleston, the insanity of a world where hatred and violence seem to be winning, this song is a lament and a search for a different way. Perhaps there are no easy answers, but maybe it begins with us seeing that we are "us" - that we're all in this together on this tender, trembling earth. When I hurt you, I hurt me. Inspired by these powerful words by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from his letter from a Birmingham jail: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects on directly, affects all indirectly.” Lyrics by Lenora Rand. Music by Gary Rand with thanks to Hannah Rand for her help on the song as well as lending her beautiful voice to it. And thanks to the author Rob Bell for this quote: “With every action, comment, conversation, we have the choice to invite Heaven or Hell to Earth.” Amen to that.
Presider: Holy One we know you as the voice of kindness within us and the constant hope that lives in our hearts. We are grateful for the gift of your Spirit, always drawing beauty and balance out of chaos. And like Jesus,
Standing where he stood,
and for what he stood,
and with whom he stood,
we are united in your Spirit
now and forever. Amen.
Let us pray the prayer 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 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)
Prayer after Communion
Presider: We are one human family. We each light a flame in the darkness of this world. Love one another. Amen.
Presider: Please extend your hands and pray our blessing together.
May you know you are one with all creation. Love, intentionally, love extravagantly, love unconditionally. Our world waits in the darkness for the light that is you. Amen.
Closing Song: You Get What You Give by the New Radicals
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