Opening Prayer:Holy One we are grateful for everyone and everything we have in our lives. May we live our gratitude by recognizing the Divine in everyone we meet. Amen.
“For all Beings” May all beings be cared for and loved, Be listened to, understood, and acknowledged despite different views, Be accepted for who they are in this moment, Be afforded patience, Be allowed to live without fear of having their lives taken away or their bodies violated. May all beings, Be well in its broadest sense, Be fed, Be clothed, Be treated as if their life is precious, Be held in the eyes of each other as family. May all beings, Be appreciated, Feel welcomed anywhere on the planet, Be freed from acts of hatred and desperation including war, poverty, slavery, and street crimes, Live on the planet, housed and protected from harm, Be given what is needed to live fully, without scarcity, Enjoy life, living without fear of one another, Be able to speak freely in a voice and mind of undeniable love. May all beings, Receive and share the gifts of life, Be given time to rest, be still, and experience silence. May all beings, Be awake.
These are the inspired words of Zenju Earthlyn Manual and we affirm them by saying, Amen.
Intentions:
For our intentions tonight let us sit in silence for one full minute and recall all those we have been asked to pray for and all those in need of prayer. In the silence of our hearts we hold in prayer……
The Holy One hears us and knows our needs. Amen Let it be so.
Psalm of Love
Love is my light and my salvation, who shall I fear.
Love is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid.
When fears assail me, rising to accuse me, each one in turn shall be seen in Love’s light.
Though a multitude of demons rise up within me, my heart shall not fear.
Thought doubts and guilt do battle, yet shall I remain confident.
One thing have I asked of Love, that I shall ever seek: that I might dwell in the Heart of Love all the days of my life.
To behold the Beauty of my Beloved, and to know Love’s Plan
Closing Blessing:
May we offer the Holy One’s love to every one we meet.
May we be aware of presence in all creation and in each other.
And may we know deep in our hearts we are loved.
Amen.
Closing Song: Being Kind by Empty Hands Music (Nimo)
phone-in for (audio only).Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Pride Sunday June 26, 2022
Celebration of Belonging
Welcome and Theme (Donna)
Welcome to the Upper Room community. As we celebrate Pride Sunday our theme is the metaphor of the bent over woman. The experience of LGBTQ people can teach us about healing any bent over part of ourselves with love, acceptance and belonging.
Opening Prayer (Katie)
Divine One, bless our Pride. Bless our celebration. Bless our laughter, our joy, our exuberance. Bless the memories of those who came before us. Those who lived, worked, experienced persecution, suffered, were tortured and died for us so that some of us may have a measure of freedom. Bless those, Divine One, who oppose us in the hope that one day your blessing will help bring about peace. Bless our differences and may we learn to celebrate that which is the unique spark of Grace in each one. Bless those for whom it takes great courage to be out. Bless those who have lost family, friends, jobs and homes because they found the courage to be proud. Bless our calls for equity and freedom. May we honor you in our pursuit of justice.
Unfortunately, my parents didn’t get the same memo [that some churches had an accepting view of gay people]. They held strong with their church’s view that my “lifestyle” was wrong and sinful. Thus ensued a multi-year battle of my mom and I desperately trying to prove to and convince the other that each of us was right. Books, letters, and Bible verses were sent back and forth. My name was given to “prayer warriors” and pinned on prayer walls in hopes that a diligent group of prayerful servants could save me. We were in a fight for my soul, and neither of us was willing to give up.
The truth, I could have the acceptance of everyone in the world – the town of Austin, my professors, my friends, my friends’ parents, my extended family, the more progressive churches and pastors – but the one person’s acceptance I wanted more than any in the world was my mom’s. It wasn’t my soul I was actually fighting for; it was her approval.
I wanted her to tell me I was okay and lovable exactly as I am. That she loved me just as I am, regardless of what her church said. That she understood me and saw my true beauty. That she trusted the depth and truth of my relationship with God. That she would fight for me against her church’s mistrust of me. I hated this reality because this seemed to be the one person’s approval I couldn’t get no matter how hard I tried.
This longing for my mother’s approval mixed with all of those messages that religion implanted in me led to a string of serially monogamous relationships that I cycled through about as often as my serially monogamous careers. I longed for approval, praise, and understanding. I kept tight control on the situation with all of my people-pleasing tools to ensure I got exactly that, and I only revealed the parts of me that I was sure would be accepted.
The reality was that my sensitive heart couldn’t bear another significant disapproval from someone I cared about. I sought out relationships with people who were a little wounded and disempowered because they were safe to be with: they were unlikely to reject me. And if I could “fix” them, what an even better way to earn lasting approval. All the while, I found myself tending to everyone else’s hearts rather than my own. I could manipulate myself into a pretzel to be exactly what they wanted, both in relationships and at work. But in doing so, each time I led my heart further down the path of abandonment and disappointment.
These are the inspired words from the book:
Gay the Pray Away: Healing Your Life, Love, and Relationships from the Harms of LGBT Conversion Therapy, and the Community affirms them by saying “Amen”
Second Reading: (Dave D.)
1 Corinthians 13:1-8
If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
These are the inspired words from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, we affirm them by saying, Amen.
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured and not on the Sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it to water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame, and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things being done by him.
Shared Homily (Katie & Donna)
In the 1960s Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer film, there is an island for misfit toys that are different from the norm or different from the mass-produced toys. The train with square wheels, a bird that swims instead of flies, a cowboy that rides an ostrich and lots of other unique characters are banished to this island because of their differences.
Our scriptures today show a similar story. In Jesus’s day, anyone who was different (whether physically, mentally, emotionally, etc) was treated like the toys on the Island of Misfit Toys. The people with differences were banished from mainstream society and some were even destroyed. The bent over woman in today’s gospel was a misfit, and Reverend Erika, from our first reading today, was deemed a misfit by her own mother.
At the end of the Rudolph movie, Santa rescues the misfit toys and brings them home. When I read the healing stories of Jesus, I like to think that maybe Jesus wasn’t a magician who walked around performing magic tricks of healing on people. I like to think that Jesus was actually more like Santa in the Rudolph movie. Jesus consistently crosses over into the land of the outcasts and shows them complete love and acceptance. By these actions, Jesus was essentially telling people, “You are not outcasts or misfits. You are not broken and in need of fixing. You are already perfect.” When a marginalized human being is loved and accepted for who they are, to me, that is a far greater miracle than conforming them to look like everyone else.
Like the bent over woman, all of us are susceptible to bending over or conforming to systems, cultures, or even to our own families. When we conform, we stop sharing our unique perspectives, talents, and convictions with the world. Over time, our worth and dignity feels lost, diminished or like a candle being extinguished. Even though conforming should help us feel like we belong with the group, it actually does the opposite, because we’re essentially hiding or destroying who God created us to be. We let the world see a false self.
The Corinthians reading tells us how to help people heal from being bent over and is likely how Jesus brought healing to the people he met and ministered to. His love “did not delight in evil but rejoiced with the truth.” Jesus modeled love that “did not dishonor others.” Being in the presence of someone who loves the way Paul describes can be a healing experience and can help us be true to ourselves. We stand up and become authentic even when we are following the status quo. When you are gay and try to live as heterosexual, your soul becomes more and more diminished or bent over. Healing that helps us and our soul stand up or become free comes from acceptance and belongingness.
Statement of Faith (Suzanne O.)
Let us pray our 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 (Donna)
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.
We pray for these and all unspoken concerns. Amen.
We are a priestly people. We are anointed.
With open hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer as one voice:
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:
Katie: 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.
Please extend your hands in blessing:
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.
Donna: On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for the Seder 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 their plates and pray the following)
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 their cups and pray the following)
Katie: 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.
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.
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
The Rainbow Prayer: (Donna)
Rainbow Christ, you embody all the colors of the world. Rainbows serve as bridges between different realms: heaven and earth, east and west, queer and non-queer. Inspire us to remember the values expressed in the rainbow flag of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community
Red gives us life. Self-Loving Christ, you are our Root.
Orange stirs our passion. Erotic Christ, you are our Fire.
Yellow awakens our courage. Out Christ, you are our Core.
Green moves us to love. Transgressive Christ, you are our Heart.
Blue frees us to speak. Liberator Christ, you are our Voice.
Violet clears our vision. Interconnected Christ, you are our Wisdom.
The colors of the rainbow are distinct, but they all shine together to make one light. Hybrid Christ, you are our Crown.
Rainbow Christ, you are the light of the world. May the rainbow lead us to experience the whole spectrum of life! Amen.
BLESSING (Katie)
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.
Welcome:Our first reading is a beautiful reminder of how to live our lives.If weonly remember to bless each other with all good things our world would be at peace.
Let us pray:Holy One, you empowered Jesus to show us how to live. Jesus loved you and showed us how you love us.We lose our way and forget our purpose.May our time together tonight be a time of remembering and knowing we are loved and are a blessing to each other.
Opening Song:
You Shall Be Known by the Company You Keep – MaMuse
A Reading from Zenju Earthlyn Manual, a Buddhist priest.
“For all Beings” May all beings be cared for and loved, Be listened to, understood and acknowledged despite different views, Be accepted for who they are in this moment, Be afforded patience, Be allowed to live without fear of having their lives taken away or their bodies violated. May all beings, Be well in its broadest sense, Be fed, Be clothed, Be treated as if their life is precious, Be held in the eyes of each other as family. May all beings, Be appreciated, Feel welcomed anywhere on the planet, Be freed from acts of hatred and desperation including war, poverty, slavery, and street crimes, Live on the planet, housed and protected from harm, Be given what is needed to live fully, without scarcity, Enjoy life, living without fear of one another, Be able to speak freely in a voice and mind of undeniable love. May all beings, Receive and share the gifts of life, Be given time to rest, be still, and experience silence. May all beings, Be awake.
These are the inspired words of Zenju Earthlyn Manual, a disciple of the Holy One and we affirm them by saying, Amen.
A Reading from the gospel of the anonymous writer named John
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; but the kind of peace I give to you is not like the world’s peace. Don’t let your hearts be distressed; don’t be fearful.
You have heard me say, I am going away but I will return. If you really loved me, you would rejoice because I am going to Abba God, for Abba is greater than I.
I tell you this now, before it happens, so that when it happens you will believe.I won’t speak much more with you, because the ruler of this world, who has no hold over me, is at hand; but I do this so that the world may know that I love Abba God and do as my Abba commanded.
These are the inspired words of John, a disciple of Jesus and the community affirms them with AMEN
Shared Homily
When I first started wrapping my mind around progressive theology I especially struggled trying to figure out who was Jesus for me. The Church taught us and still teaches that Jesus was this God-man who was like us in all things but sin. That phrase “like us in all things but sin” comes from Paul’s writings and it always struck me as odd, or downright ridiculous.Can you imagine who you and I would be if we had no sin? What would our world be without sin?A world where no one ever “misses the mark”- maybe it would be heaven.
Early in my seminary process I was told that anything Jesus did I could do. Knowing Jesus himself did not have our Christian Scriptures I started studying the Hebrew Scriptures in depth to learn more of what Jesus was taught and how he came to know the Holy One. After all Jesus was raised in the Jewish Faith. I have come to know Jesus as the one who is always showing us and teaching us about our Creator, our Abba God. The One who loves us unconditionally In the Gospel reading tonight Jesus says: “I am going to Abba God, for Abba is greater than I.”Jesus never claimed Godhood, but always pointed to his Abba - our Abba.
Perhaps we were never meant to have faith in Jesus but rather we were always meant to have the faith of Jesus.
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
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 prayers and blessings. Amen.
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: 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.
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 the bread)
All: Back at the table, he took the bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread and offered it to them saying,
Take and eat, this is my very self.
(All lift the 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.
Bread and wine are 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.
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 receive the bread and cup with the words: I am a child of the Holy One.
Communion Song: God Beyond All Names – Bernadette Farrell
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 Amen.
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
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 stand together in the suffering and like Jesus be a shining light and a blessing for all.
