Photo by Rachel Cook on Unsplash.
Wild Love
Welcome and Theme Julie: Good afternoon and welcome! We’re so happy you could join us as we celebrate this Season of Creation and the glory of the wild love that we feel for creation and for each other.
Opening Prayer: Holy One, help us to let go of the busy and the worry and the crazy that so often blocks us from feeling your love surrounding and filling us. Help us reconnect to the quiet, still place in the center of each of us and to recognize it in others. AMEN
Opening Song: In This Quiet Place by The Many
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcq385i1kHE&feature=youtu.be
LITURGY OF THE WORD
FIRST READING
A reading from the First Letter to Timothy (6:7-11, 17-19)
We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap. They fall into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Instead, you who love God, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.
These are the inspired words of an Early Church Pastor and we affirm them by saying AMEN.
SECOND READING
A reading of the poem The Sun by Mary Oliver
Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon
and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone--
and how it slides again
out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower
streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance--
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love--
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure
that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you
as you stand there,
empty-handed--
or have you too
turned from this world--
or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?
These are the inspired words of the poet Mary Oliver and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Alleluia
GOSPEL
A reading from the Gospel attributed to Luke 16:10-13
Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So, if you have not been trustworthy in handling unrighteous wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you a place to live of your own?
No servant can serve two leaders. You will hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Wealth.”
These are the inspired words of the anonymous storyteller we call Luke and we affirm them by saying AMEN.
Homily Starter
A year ago tomorrow, Denise and I were ordained priests. It was such a miracle that I still have trouble believing it. A priest. I’m a priest. It wasn’t a path I ever expected to be on. As I prepared for ordination and began my training as a chaplain, there was a moment when I realized what a departure this path was for me. It was when my little sister was applying for the position of CEO of her company. Spoiler alert: I’m proud to say that she got the job, broke the glass ceiling! In our commercial society, promotions and money are what we’re supposed to aspire to. But business isn’t for all of us humans and over the centuries, it’s wreaked havoc on the natural world. In the words of our first reading, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” The destruction of the Holy One’s beautiful world in the pursuit of profit is one kind of evil.
Prophets and poets like Mary Oliver remind us of that sort of thing, remind of us of the wild love we feel in the midst of the beauty of the Holy One’s creation, of the billowing pleasure we feel when we’re warmed by the sun. And then in the gospel, Jesus asks the very pointed question “who will trust you with true riches?” I don’t think he’s talking about money. There are so many things of greater value than money: love, faith, other people, this beautiful world we live in.
Don’t get me wrong. I have a paying job. I have dog food to buy and bills to pay. And I’m doing my best to walk on this earth without destroying it. I’m doing my best to see the beauty, to preserve the beauty, in this Season of Creation and the rest of the year too.
What about you? What did you hear? What will you do? What, if anything, will it cost you? We would love to hear your insights. Please remember to unmute before you share and then remute afterwards.
Shared Reflections
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
Julie: 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….”
Julie: We pray for these and all unspoken concerns. Amen.
Julie: With open hearts and hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer in one voice:
ALL: O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us as we set our hearts on belonging to you. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all creation.
You know our limitations and our essential goodness and you love us as we are. You beckon us to your compassionate heart and inspire us to see the good in others and forgive their limitations. Acknowledging your presence in each other and in all of creation, we sing:
Holy, Holy: Here in This Place by Christopher Grundy
ALL: Guiding Spirit, when opposing forces in us tug and pull and we are caught in the tension of choices, inspire us to make wise decisions toward what is good.
We thank you for our brother, Jesus, and for all our sisters and brothers who have modeled for us a way to live and love in challenging times. Inspired by them, we choose life over death, we choose to be light in dark times.
Please extend your hands in blessing.
We are ever aware of your Spirit in us and among us at this Eucharistic table and we are grateful for this bread and wine which reminds us of our call to be the body of Christ in the world.
On the night before he faced his own death, Jesus sat at supper with his companions and 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.
All lift the plate and pray:
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)
All lift the cup and pray:
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)
We share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace. We choose to live justly, love tenderly, and walk with integrity.
Julie: Please receive communion saying: I am standing on Holy Ground.
Communion Song:
Holy Ground, Earth Mama Video by Denise Hackert-Stoner
Prayer after Communion:
Julie: Holy One, your transforming energy is within us and we join our hearts with all who are working for a just world. We pray for wise leaders in our religious communities. We pray for courageous and compassionate leaders as we stand on the holy ground of our world communities.
We pray for all of us gathered here and like Jesus, we open ourselves up to your Spirit, for it is through living as he lived that we awaken to your Spirit within,
moving us to glorify you, at this time and all ways.
AMEN.
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
Julie: Please extend your hands and pray our blessing:
ALL: May the Fire of Love ignite our hearts and radiate through us.
May the Spirit truth and justice burn within us.
May we continue to be the face of the Holy One, and
May we be a blessing in our time.
AMEN.
Closing Song: What a Wonderful World by Playing for Change
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