Please join us between 9:30 and 9:55 am via Zoom
Here is the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82512159155
phone-in for (audio only).Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Suzanne: Welcome and Theme:
Mary Ann and I are so happy that you are with us this morning. Today is a special day - we are celebrating both Pentecost and also the 9th Birthday of the Upper Room. We invite you to stay for a few minutes after liturgy to join in a special presentation of celebration.
Suzanne:
Today’s Theme is adapted from a beautiful Pentecost Ritual by Dianne L Neu (co-founder Water: Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics & Ritual)
Pentecost, fifty days after Easter, celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon her people. It is the birthday of the Christian church. The Holy Spirit’s Greek name is Sophia. Wisdom is her English name; Chokmah is her Hebrew name; Sapientia is her Latin name.
Divine Wisdom, Sophia-Spirit, calls for the liberation of all from patriarchy and kyriarchy. This is what we celebrate today as we bless bread and wine.
Opening Prayer:
Suzanne:
Blessed are you, Womb of All Creation, Spirit-Sophia. With joy we give you thanks and praise for creating a diverse world, and for creating women in your image.
All: Come, Sophia-Spirit, come.
Mary Ann:
Blessed are you, God of our Mothers, Spirit-Sophia.You call diverse women to participate in salvation history: Eve, Lilith, Sarah, Hagar, Miriam, Naomi and Ruth,
Mary, Mary Magdalene, Tecla, Phoebe, Hildegard of Bingen, Sor Juana, Sojourner Truth, Mother Theodore Guerin, all WATER women, and countless others.
All: Come, Sophia-Spirit, come.
Suzanne:
Blessed are you, Womb of All Creation, Spirit-Sophia. With joy we give you thanks and praise for creating a diverse world, and for creating women in your image.
All: Come, Sophia-Spirit, come.
Mary Ann:
Blessed are you, God of our Mothers, Spirit-Sophia.You call diverse women to participate in salvation history: Eve, Lilith, Sarah, Hagar, Miriam, Naomi and Ruth,
Mary, Mary Magdalene, Tecla, Phoebe, Hildegard of Bingen, Sor Juana, Sojourner Truth, Mother Theodore Guerin, all WATER women, and countless others.
All: Come, Sophia-Spirit, come
Opening Song: Pentecost by Mitch Wong
LITURGY OF THE WORD
1st Reading: Holy Spirit, Burn Within Us by Steve Garnaas Holmes
Holy Spirit, Sun of Heaven, source of light and warmth and power,
fill us and transform us like a seed that turns into a flower.
Kindle in your willing people joy’s bright spark, compassion’s flame.
Set us all afire to bear your loving light in Jesus’ name.
Holy Spirit, burn within us, radiant with your healing grace.
Give us brand new ways to meet and love the stranger face to face.
Help us find new ways of caring. Help us set new, daring goals.
Give us brand new languages to speak your love to seeking souls.
Holy Spirit, let your fire consume us, changing us at last.
Let us rise like light emerging from the embers of the past.
May the star of pure compassion shine within and set us free.
Holy Spirit, make us all your flame that burns eternally.
These are the inspired words of musician and poet Stephen Garnes Holmes and the community affirms them by saying Amen.
Second Reading: A reading from Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon
"Each of us is blessed with moments of grace, moments when our soul becomes clear and quiet.. Our worrying stops. Our yearning and planning and waiting for fulfillment stops. There is nothing to be done since everything is already happening. Grace uncovers the mysterious essence that unites us with all beings. Through its gift, the place, the time, the sky, and ourselves are revealed in right relation. What is inside of us and what is outside of us comes together, if only for a moment.
In this moment and place we sense the indwelling essence of spirit and stand humbled before its mystery. We know and are known by something larger than ourselves. Grace awakens in us a natural compassion, allowing us to be kinder with ourselves and with other living beings, We open our hearts to knowing the Earth to be holy.
Who can say what ignites these moments of illumination? Stop, they say, be wholly attentive, there is no haste. Empty yourself, bring with you 'a heart that watches and receives.' Yet these instructions offer no guarantee that, if followed, an experience of grace will result. They offer no foolproof guarantee. That is what makes grace amazing - it is beyond our control. It comes when we free ourselves of the illusion that we are in charge."
These are the inspired words of Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon, and the community affirms them by saying, Amen.
Gospel: A reading from the anonymous writer known as John
If you love me and obey the command I give you, I will ask the One who sent me
to give you the Spirit, another Helper to be with you always—
“Those who love me will be true to my word, and Abba God will love them;
and we will come to them and make our dwelling place with them.
Those who don’t love me don’t keep my words.
Yet the message you hear is not mine; it comes from Abba God who sent me.
This much have I said to you while still with you;
but Sophia Spirit whom Abba God will send in my name,
will instruct you in everything and she will remind you of all that I told you.
These are the words of the anonymous storyteller known as John, and we affirm them by saying, Amen.
Starter Homily and Shared Insights
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.
Suzanne: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to the friendship table our blessings, cares and concerns. Please feel free to voice your concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table….”
Mary Ann: We pray for these and the community prayers written in our book of intentions as well as the unspoken concerns in our hearts. Amen.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
Suzanne: Please join in the praying of our Eucharistic Prayer with raised hands:
Blessed are you, Creator of all seasons and all peoples, Spirit-Sophia. You call us to be prophets, teachers, house church leaders, ministers, saints, and to image your loving and challenging presence.
Come, Sophia-Spirit, come.
Blessed are you, Companion on the Journey, Spirit-Sophia. In your abundant love you welcome all to come and dine. You proclaim from the rooftops, “Come and eat my bread, drink the wine which I have drawn.”
Come, Sophia-Spirit, come.
Come, Holy Sister, Spirit-Sophia, upon this bread, wine, juice, and food. Come as breath and breathe your life anew into our aching bones. Come as wind and refresh our weary souls. Come as fire and purge us and our communities of sexism, racism, classism, heterosexism, ageism, and all evils.
Come, Sophia-Spirit, come.
We lift up our hearts to you and with thanks and praise we sing:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here in this Place by Christopher Grundy
Suzanne: Please raise your hands in blessing:
ALL: Ever gentle God, as co-creators, we offer up bread, grown from seed and harvested from soil gifted to us through your Creation. We offer wine, grown from grapes blessed in the sunlight of your radiant Creation. We offer up our lives in loving gratitude and covenant. We celebrate our oneness with all creatures and living things, great and small in your precious family.
We thank you for our brother, Jesus, who showed us so simply, so tenderly, how the world is in our hands. His faith in us, his ability to connect with our best selves remains a shining gift. He had nothing in this world but your love, companions on the journey, and his very self. Together, that was more than enough, and that remains our clarity in the midst of confusion: the miracle of healing, new hope, nurturance, nourishment, liberation and life.
Mary Ann: On the night before he died, Jesus gathered with friends, followers and those closest to him to celebrate the Seder supper. Afterwards, he showed how to humbly love and serve one another by washing the feet of his followers.
All lift 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
Suzanne: 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.”
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 communion saying, I rise with Christ to new hope
Communion Song: Morning Prayer I Will Surrender by Karen Drucker
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.
-Interpreted by Miriam Therese Winter
Blessing
Suzanne: Please extend your hands in blessing and pray together:
ALL:
May Sophia-Spirit rise within us like a rushing wind. May Sophia-Spirit spark the churches like a revolutionary fire. May Sophia-Spirit flow through the world like a life-giving breath.
Amen. Blessed be. May it be so.
Closing Song: Heal the World by Michael Jackson performed by World-wide Child Prodigies
Upper Room Video
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