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phone-in for (audio only).Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Welcome and Theme
Debra Trees: Welcome Dear Upper Room Community. Each of us is blessed to be here with each other and with ourselves! As we continue to wander on our Lenten Journey, we re-discover today the parable of the Prodigal Child. During Lent, we may be exploring the unknown, stepping out of our comfort zone, and following our calling to seek more. We listen, decide, act, and risk the familiar. What does it mean for us as a model of a contemporary way of being? Can we open our very selves to the possibility of grace and abundance for all?
Deb: Opening Prayer: Source of All, We know that you are with us in all things, and in all the phases of our being. We feel your unending compassion and patience with our growth, change and becoming. Thank you for being our intimate companion, and for letting your love be known to us through the everyday miracles all around us. Help us to continue to witness and to be grateful for your transformation and creative working through our souls. Amen.
Opening Song: Deep Peace By Sara Thompson.
https://youtu.be/5dIAcqaUUz4
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading, from the poet, Amanda Gordon.
...But that doesn't mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge a union with purpose,
to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man.
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us,
but what stands before us.
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside.
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another.
We seek harm to none and harmony for all.
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true,
that even as we grieved, we grew,
that even as we hurt, we hoped,
that even as we tired, we tried,
that we'll forever be tied together, victorious.
Not because we will never again know defeat,
but because we will never again sow division.
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
and no one shall make them afraid.
If we're to live up to our own time,
then victory won't lie in the blade.
But in all the bridges we've made,
that is the promise to glade,
the hill we climb.
If only we dare...
These are the words from "The Hill We Climb," by National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gordon, and we affirm them by saying, AMEN.
Alleluia
Gospel
The tax collectors and the outcasts were all drawing near to Jesus to listen to him; but the Pharisees and the scholars found fault. “This man always welcomes outcasts and takes meals with them!” they complained.
So, Jesus told them this parable: “A man had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the inheritance.’ So the father divided the property between them.
A few days later the younger son got together all that he had, and went away into a distant land; and there he squandered his inheritance by leading a life of debauchery. After he had spent all that he had, there was a severe famine through all that country, and he began to be in actual want.
So he went and engaged himself to one of the people of that country, who sent him into his fields to tend pigs. He even longed to satisfy his hunger with the bean pods on which the pigs were feeding; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more bread than they can eat, while here am I starving to death! I will get up and go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I sinned against heaven and against you; I am no longer fit to be called your son; make me one of your hired servants.”’ And he got up and went to his father.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was deeply moved; he ran and threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. ‘Father,’ the son said, ‘I sinned against heaven and against you; I am no longer fit to be called your son; make me one of your hired servants.’ But the father turned to his servants and said, ‘Be quick and fetch a robe—the very best—and put it on him; give him a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet; and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for here is my son who was dead, and is alive again, was lost, and is found.’
So they began making merry. Meanwhile the elder son was out in the fields; but on coming home, when he got near the house, he heard music and dancing, and he called one of the servants and asked what it all meant. ‘Your brother has come back,’ the servant told him, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has him back safe and sound.’ This made him angry, and he would not go in. But his father came out and begged him to do so. ‘No,’ he said to his father, ‘look at all the years I have been serving you, without ever once disobeying you, and yet you have never given me even a young goat, so that I might have a party with my friends. But no sooner has this son of yours come, who has eaten up your property in the company of prostitutes, than you have killed the fattened calf for him.’
‘Child,’ the father answered, ‘you are always with me, and everything that I have is yours. We could but make merry and rejoice, for here is your brother who was dead, and is alive; who was lost, and is found.’”
These are the words attributed to the writer, Luke, and the community affirms them by saying, AMEN.
(From: Taussig, Hal. A New New Testament: A Bible for the Twenty-first Century Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts)
Shared Homily
Tim Perry-Coon: In today’s Gospel reading, we have the familiar Prodigal Son story. It is a story whose main character is the young son who spends his inheritance lavishly, wastefully extravagant. There are two other characters: the father and older son. It is easy to read this as an observer, like watching “It’s A Wonderful Life” every December, a story we already know the ending. Yet, we are not called to observe, but to participate. This is our story. Which character do you represent?
Are you the young son? Of course, I do not expect any of us have had the money this son had. Yet, have you not, at some time, determined it was time to move on, to consider there may be a better path to follow, you were a bit unhappy where you were? Consider, I grew up in the Catholic Church, priest at the altar, attended Mass every weekend, confession once a month. Yet, my faith compelled me to look beyond my familiar pews, and over many years I found my way to this Upper Room community.
Are you the parent in this story? This story is so similar to many Thanksgiving Days, where one goes out to buy, not the fattened calf, but the fattened turkey, and sons and daughters and family and friends are welcomed home to a great feast. You once were gone and now you are here, we are so happy.
Are you the older son, the one who stayed behind, who worked hard for a living? And yet, you were forgotten, mistakenly uninformed about a celebratory homecoming. You have sacrificed, was it worth it?
Stepping back, we can begin to see that this story is a living story. It can change, every time we reflect on it. It changes because you and I have changed. The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus wrote, “No one steps in the same river twice, because it’s not the same river and we’re not the same person.”
Our poet in the 1st reading says, “We are striving to forge a union with purpose, to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions...” So now the question becomes, can we return to where we once left. We in the Catholic Church are in the midst of 40 days of reflecting on the story of Jesus. We have read the Gospels about his teachings, and how crowds of people flocked to hear him, to touch him. Yet, we know in a couple of weeks what ultimately occurred: Jesus welcomed into Jerusalem, celebrated Passover with his friends, arrested, killed, only to be resurrected among us. Our experience of this Easter will be different from last years’, because we are different. What we have heard and seen in the last 365 days, we cannot ignore. This resurrection will be more profound, more joyous, more hopeful, one that will propel us into the new year ready to spread peace, love and hope.
Who are you in this story? Are you ready to accept what is to come? Please share your thoughts. Unmute yourself to share and mute again when you are done.
Shared Homily.
Deb: Thank you to all for your insights and sharing. May we continue to grow in richness when we are together in community and support our Lenten journey with all that we have to offer. Amen.
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.
Deb: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we voice our intentions beginning with the words, “We bring to the table…..”
Tim: We pray for these and all unspoken intentions. Amen.
Tim: Please join in praying the Eucharistic prayer together:
All: O Holy One, you have birthed us in goodness, gifted us with life and cherished us in love. In the heart of our being, your Spirit dwells; a Spirit of courage and vision, a Spirit of wisdom and truth.
In the power of that same Spirit, we lift our hearts in prayer, invoking anew the gift of wisdom and enlightenment, that we may continue to praise and thank you, in union with all who sing the ancient hymn of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here in This Place by Christopher Grundy
https://youtu.be/cVWY9ourooI
Deb: Holy One, we see around us the work of your hands, the fruit of your wisdom and love. The unfolding story of creation witnesses unceasingly to your creative power. We, your creatures, often deviate from that wisdom, thus hindering your creative presence in our midst.
Sending among us Jesus, our brother, you birth afresh in our world the power of Sophia-Wisdom, and in the gift of Your Spirit, your creative goodness blooms anew, amid the variety and wonder of life.
Tim: 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 the Seder 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 Passover 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:
Deb: 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 share in the bread and wine with these words: We are the Face of God to Each Other.
Shepherd Me O God, sung by Rose Wright
Deb: In faith and hope we are sustained; in grace and dignity reclaimed. In praise, we thank you.
In union with all peoples living and dead, we unite our thoughts and prayers, asking wisdom and courage:
- to discern more wisely your call to us in the circumstances of our daily lives;
- to act justly and courageously in confronting the pain and suffering that desecrates the Earth and its peoples;
- to take risks in being creative and proactive on behalf of the poor and marginalized;
- and to love all people with generosity of heart, beyond the labels of race, creed and color.
And may we ever be aware and alert to the new things Your Spirit makes possible in us, as our world unfolds amid pain and beauty, into the fullness of life to which all are called, participating in the wise and wonderful work of co-creation.
Like Jesus, we will open up wide all that has been closed about us, and we will live compassionate lives, for it is through living as Jesus lived, that we awaken to your Spirit within, moving us to glorify you, O Holy One, at this time and all ways.
Amen.
Tim: 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)
BLESSING
Deb: Please raise your hands in blessing:
May we continue in extravagant giving and receiving through every opportunity we witness. May we be a partner with the Divine in patient love and acceptance of each other. May we realize that we live the desires of the Divine in our lives. And may we be a blessing in our time. Amen.
Closing Song: Lean In Towards the Light, Carrie Newcomer
https://youtu.be/fxAUmNjWaIs
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