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Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
All of You Is Welcome
Welcome and Theme: Susan and I warmly welcome you to today’s Liturgy. Our theme is ALL of you is welcome. Yes, are all welcome, but can we welcome our whole selves? Jesus called, challenged and loved us into being. He is inviting us to recognize that Divine Love. No self-improvement needed.
Opening Prayer: Beloved, open our eyes to the Love that is in us and around us. Let us live what we pray weekly in our Statement of Faith; 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. May it be so.
Opening Song: Come, Come Whoever You Are Christopher Watkins Lamb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pcEmscUqhc
LITURGY OF THE WORD
1st Reading: Think of Yourself by Jan Phillips
Think of yourself as a thought of the Infinite One made flesh by your sheer desire to see and be seen
think of yourself as nature looking upon nature in awe at its grandeur, in tears for its wounds nature loving itself, healing itself, speaking out for itself
think of yourself as a vessel of stardust and clay, a child of the cosmos evolving and transforming every minute of the day matter into energy, particle into wave, mortal into Immortal–one to the other and back again
think of yourself as a soul who took on a body to be of use, to radiate love and receive it in return—
think of yourself as a shaman whose hands heal whatever they touch as a storyteller whose words fall like rain on a drought stricken land whose stories are medicine—miracles—that heal the sick and raise the dead.
think of yourself as a circle holding yin and yang, as unity cradling the dualities in your arms
think of yourself as a conscious thought leaning toward radiance an early dawn rising into daylight
think of yourself as necessary—purposeful, here for a reason remember that you came here to light the world,
deep inside you the fire of creation burns day and night, atoms from the Big Bang spin and swirl in your blood and bones, your lungs and your legs
the One you cry out to is in your breath, in every cell and every thought.
like salt in the tear, joy in the laughter, the Holy One is in you, being scattered like seeds across the land as you speak and write and reach out to touch
you are the hands and feet, the eyes and ears of the Great Beloved
you are the one we are waiting for we hunger for the stories you have yet to tell.
it is a requirement of this hour that each of us speaks, each of us say what happened and what we learned to reveal ourselves is to heal ourselves—and to heal ourselves is to heal each other and the world entire.
From our revelations of intimacy and truthfulness, vulnerability and generosity, the future takes shape and enters into us—OUR words made flesh, OUR thoughts made real.
yes, think of yourself as a creator…the peace you desire, the justice you cry for —these will come as we speak them into being.
Together we are creating the life we experience—it is happening not TO us, but THROUGH us
as the cosmos is being created by the Mind of the Infinite One, this world is being created by the minds of the finite ones, by us
Let us be mindful and full of care for the words we speak, the thoughts we think, the stories we tell…for these are the tools with which we build tomorrow.
With open hearts, we affirm these words by saying, Amen.
2nd Reading: Woman at the Well by Sister Donna Butler
Jesus, I am coming to the well.
I didn’t invite you to my home because
I’d be busy like Martha tidying up
thinking everything had to be just so
and I just want to be Mary,
taking in the fullness of your presence.
Unlike the Samaritan woman
I already know you are there
at the well waiting for me
hoping today will be the day
I come.
I’m glad you already know
everything about my life
because I’m feeling like the woman
looking for the lost coin
that is my life.
The I of my life feels
like it’s been drowning, lost
in the ravaging flood waters
hurricane, tornado,
tsunami, if you will
of fear, doubt and worry.
Like the sky this morning
my mind is full of clouds.
The first responder in me
is tired, soul-weary from
being in the eye of the storm,
the trauma center
day in and day out
performing triage.
I’m coming to the well
with eager longing,
deep, yearning intensity,
so absolutely thirsty
to be filled with
your living water
to reach the depths again
of who I am.
I don’t even want to recount
what has happened
in my life this year.
I just want to be with the One
who already knows.
who knows me through and through
better than I know myself.
And I know you ARE the well.
YOU are the Divine Well
of compassion, extravagant love
and understanding
that I desperately need.
You are the healing water
overflowing, unlimited
to shore up my weakness.
You are the calm I need
in the storms of my life.
You are the patience
the courage to risk
the faithfulness
the wholeness
the gracious presence
to others
I so deeply desire.
Heal me; heal especially the people
suffering in Ukraine.
Give us the grace to
be your healing presence
healing the hatred, racism,
hurt and grief, injustice,
violence in this world.
Give us the grace to
heal your beloved planet, Earth,
to restore the beauty
of your creation.
May it be so.
With open hearts, we affirm these words by saying, Amen.
Alleluia (Dennis)
Gospel: A reading from the Gospel writer known as John
When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard he was attracting and baptizing more disciples than John —though it was really not Jesus baptizing, but his disciples— he left Judea and returned to Galilee. This meant that he had to pass through Samaria. He stopped at Sychar, a town in Samaria, near the tract of land Jacob had given to his son Joseph, and Jacob’s Well was there. Jesus, weary from the journey, came and sat by the well.
It was around noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” The disciples had gone off to the town to buy provisions.
The Samaritan woman replied, “You’re a Jew. How can you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?”—since Jews had nothing to do with Samaritans.
Jesus answered, “If only you recognized God’s gift, and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him for a drink instead, and he would have given you living water.”
“If you please,” she challenged Jesus, “you don’t have a bucket and this well is deep. Where do you expect to get this ‘living water’? Surely you don’t pretend to be greater than our ancestors Leah and Rachel and Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it with their descendants and flocks?”
Jesus replied, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give them will never be thirsty; no, the water I give will become fountains within them, springing up to provide eternal life.”
The woman said to Jesus, “Give me this water, so that I won’t grow thirsty and have to keep coming all the way here to draw water.”
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband and then come back here.”
“I don’t have a husband,” replied the woman.
“You’re right—you don’t have a husband!” Jesus exclaimed. “The fact is, you’ve had five, and the man you’re living with now is not your husband. So what you’ve said is quite true.”
“I can see you’re a prophet,” answered the woman. “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you people claim that Jerusalem is the place where God ought to be worshiped.”
Jesus told her, “Believe me, the hour is coming when you’ll worship Abba God neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you don’t understand; we worship what we do understand—after all, salvation is from the Jewish people. Yet the hour is coming—and is already here—when real worshipers will worship Abba God in Spirit and truth. Indeed, it is just such worshipers whom Abba God seeks. God is Spirit, and those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth.”
The woman said to Jesus, “I know that the Messiah—the Anointed One—is coming and will tell us everything.”
Jesus replied, “I who speak to you am the Messiah.”
The disciples, returning at this point, were shocked to find Jesus having a private conversation with a woman. But no one dared to ask, “What do you want of him?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
The woman then left her water jar and went off into the town. She said to the people, “Come and see someone who told me everything I have ever done! Could this be the Messiah?” At that, everyone set out from town to meet Jesus.
Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.”
But Jesus told them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
At this, the disciples said to one another, “Do you think someone has brought him something to eat?”
Jesus explained to them, “Doing the will of the One who sent me and bringing this work to completion is my food.
Don’t you have a saying, ‘Four months more and it will be harvest time’?
I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields—they’re ripe and ready for harvest!
Reapers are already collecting their wages; they’re gathering fruit for eternal life, and sower and reaper will rejoice together.
So the saying is true: ‘One person sows; another reaps.’
I have sent you to reap what you haven’t worked for.
Others have done the work, and you’ve come upon the fruits of their labor.”
Many Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus on the strength of the woman’s testimony—that “he told me everything I ever did.” The result was that, when these Samaritans came to Jesus, they begged him to stay with them awhile. So Jesus stayed there two days, and through his own spoken word many more came to faith. They told the woman, “No longer does our faith depend on your story. We’ve heard for ourselves, and we know that this really is the savior of the world.”
These are the words of the Gospel writer known as John, and we affirm them by saying, Amen.
(pause)
Homily and Shared Reflections
Today’s readings remind us that we all belong in the Divine kin-dom, and all of you is welcome.
Jesus affirms this message of radical compassion and acceptance when he tells the woman at the well – a woman who had been shunned by her community – that she is the one God is looking
for, exactly as she is.
The great Sufi mystic and poet Rumi tells us, “What you seek is seeking you.” It doesn’t matter if you’ve broken your vows a thousand times. In fact, it’s our nature as humans to break our vows again and again; to stumble and make mistakes, to succumb to doubt and fear, and to judge ourselves harshly for it.
Yet it is also our nature to thirst for a drink of living water and to be healed into wholeness. Our longing for communion with Spirit is more powerful than our human weakness because it is Spirit itself longing for us. It is the current that pulls us into the ocean of Unity – or what
Franciscan Priest Richard Rohr calls the Ground of Being – where there is no separation, and there are no “others”… only Holy Mystery, known by many names and fluent in all languages of the soul.
Thomas Merton wrote about this longing to know God while embracing the human condition in The Merton Prayer, excerpted here:
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
Radical Acceptance
Jesus taught us to open to Spirit and Truth to save us from ourselves and our shadow impulses.
He invited all to the table and offered compassion, mercy, and an inclusive love that calls forth the wholeness and humanity of everyone.
The story of the woman at the well demonstrates this inclusive ministry of radical compassion and acceptance, especially for those people at the margins of society – and those parts of ourselves that we seek to exile. For the first time outside his circle of disciples, Jesus reveals
himself as Spirit and Truth to a woman of a ‘rejected people’ who is in turn rejected by her own
people. He offers her mercy and forgiveness, love and acceptance, respect and belonging. In so
doing, he reveals that unconditional love is available to all of us
Last week, Pope Francis travelled to the heart of Rome, to the Gesù, the mother church of the
Jesuit order. His homily for the Feast of the Transfiguration reflected Jesus’ message of radical
acceptance. He said:
“Let us not allow ourselves to be sucked into a clericalism that leads to rigidity, or into an
ideology that leads to divisiveness. We have been called to be together.
We are called to go to the borders between heaven and earth, where men and women confront
God with their difficulties, so that we can accompany them in their restless seeking and their
religious doubt. The enemy of human nature would persuade us to keep the path of empty but
comfortable routines – but the Spirit impels us to openness.”
He added:
“To pray is to bring the beating heart of current affairs into God’s presence, so that God’s gaze
will shine out upon history...”
What can we do to bring the beating heart of current affairs into God’s presence?
On this third Sunday of Lent, we are called to offer compassion and mercy
to families fighting for their lives in Ukraine,
to transgender children denied healthcare in Florida,
to unhoused people being murdered on the streets of New York City,
to Asian Americans and people of color across the country targeted with hate crimes,
and to all who suffer at the hands of others.
We are also called to love those hurt people who hurt people.
And perhaps most challenging of all, we are called to love the fear, doubt, impatience,
judgement, malice, harshness, and aggression within ourselves that we most want to push away.
Ours is not a caravan of despair. It doesn’t matter if you’ve broken your vows a thousand times,
still come! We all belong, and all of you is welcome.
The Divine in me bows to the Divine in each of you.
What did you hear in today’s readings?
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 1: 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 1: We bring these and all deeply held blessings, cares, and concerns to the table of friendship and peace.
Presider 2: Let us pray our Eucharistic prayer with open hearts and hands:
We are grateful for our brother Jesus teaching us the way of compassion through entering into the suffering of others. May we care for ourselves as Jesus cared for us, seeing humanity through the eyes of “Love”. Through his loving eyes we are healed and we open our hearts to the pain and suffering of others.
Because of your empowering unconditional loving Presence Beloved, we are aware of your presence in and among us. Your love radiates from our hearts, minds, and bodies. The nurturance of ourselves and one another empowers your embodied presence. “We are not the survival of the fittest but the survival of the nurtured.” (Cozolino)
With joy and gratefulness today and always, we sing:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here in This Place by Christopher Grundy
Holy One, you speak to our hearts and say “I don’t need anything from you for me to love you - I don’t need you to evolve for me to love you - I don’t need you to grow for me to love you - I don’t need you to succeed for me to love you - I will stay with you in any circumstance. I was here at the beginning, I am here in the middle, I will be here in the end. There is nothing you can do to lose me.” “Just your being is love to me”.
We thank you for Jesus who heard the Divine voice of deep love for him as “this is my beloved son”. Jesus showed us a path to comforting ourselves as the Divine Beloved would comfort us and as we would nurture our own children, family and friends. May we hear God’s voice as Jesus did to love and forgive ourselves so that we may more fully love and forgive each other.
Presider 1: Please extend your hands in blessing.
All: We call upon your Spirit that is present in us at this Eucharistic table. We are grateful for the bread and wine that remind us of our call to be the light of Christ to the world.
All: On the night before he faced betrayal and death, Jesus shared supper with his friends. He reminded them of all that he taught them, and to fix that memory clearly with them, he bent down and washed their feet.
Presider 1 lifts plate as the community prays 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.
(pause)
Presider 2 lifts the cup as community prays the following:
Then he took 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.
(pause)
Let us share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace.
All: 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.
Presider 2: Please receive the bread and the cup with the words: I am radically loved.
Communion Song/Meditation: Beauty in You – Karen Drucker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5Jz6gLDOhg&t=18s
Post-Communion Prayer: Holy One, your love transforms us so we love and heal each other. We resolve to love as Jesus loved. Jesus loved the marginalized, the poor, the homeless, the mentally ill, the immigrants, and the stranger. Amen.
Presider 2: Let us pray as Jesus taught us:
Holy One, you are 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. Adapted by Miriam Therese Winter
BLESSING
Presider 1: Please extend your hands in blessing.
ALL: May the infinite beauty and joy of Creation continue to astound us
May the Presence of the Divine always comfort and inspire us
May we be the face of the Holy One in all we say and do, and
May we be a blessing in our time.
AMEN.
Closing Song: I am Light. India.Areie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ism8dBjxKvc
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