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Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Welcome to the Saturday evening (Sunday) liturgy of The Upper Room. Tonight (Today) we will consider the way life is, the way life isn’t, and the way life can be.
Opening Prayer:
Holy One, we pray at every liturgy that “you give us all that we need.” And yet we know from our experience that there are those among us who do not have what they need. Help us to meet this world with all its needs, just as it is, with gratitude, compassion, and action, just as our brother Jesus did. Amen.
Opening Song: Love Can Build a Bridge https://youtu.be/laI791ZTrWE
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: From “Leavings” by Wendell Berry
After the bitter nights
and the gray, cold days
comes a bright afternoon.
I go into the creek valley
and there are the horses, the black
and the white, lying in the warm
shine on a bed of dry hay.
They lie side by side,
identically posed as a painter
might imagine them:
heads up, ears and eyes
alert. They are beautiful in the light
and in the warmth happy. Such
harmonies are rare. This is
not the way the world
is. It is a possibility
nonetheless deeply seeded
within the world. It is
the way the world is sometimes.
This is a poem of Wendell Berry, writer and farmer. We affirm his words by saying, Amen.
Alleluia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC4nbwmQDVw
Gospel: Mark 8:1-10
And now once again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat. So he called his disciples to him and said to them,
'I feel sorry for all these people; they have been with me for three days now and have nothing to eat.
If I send them off home hungry they will collapse on the way; some have come a great distance.'
His disciples replied, 'Where could anyone get these people enough bread to eat in a deserted place?'
He asked them, 'How many loaves have you?' And they said to him, 'Seven.'
Then he instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and began handing them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them among the crowd.
They had a few small fishes as well, and over these he said a blessing and ordered them to be distributed too.
They ate as much as they wanted, and they collected seven basketfuls of the scraps left over.
Now there had been about four thousand people. He sent them away
and at once, getting into the boat with his disciples, went to the region of Dalmanutha.
These are the words of the Gospel writer known as Mark. We affirm these words by saying, Amen.
Homily Starter:
“The way the world is sometimes.” I love those words. We have all seen the world that way; when everyone in the room is at peace, when everyone at the table has enough. Of course, Wendell Berry is correct also when he reminds us that "this is not the way the world is.” So many at the table of humanity do not have enough. So many are at war.
In today’s Gospel we hear a story about how the world can be. It is an important story. It is the only miracle story (aside from the resurrection) that appears in all four gospels. Why, I wonder? How does this marvelous story of many being fed with little, capture both ancient and modern imaginations? And what does the story really mean? Is it a simple miracle story written to convince people of the marvels Jesus could accomplish? Is it a different simple story about how if we share there will be enough for everyone?
A hungry crowd, a few loaves and a few pieces of fish, a prayer of thanks, and the hands of Jesus. From these elements there comes a feast. Enough for everyone. Why? How?
For me, it helps to take the advice of bible scholar John Dominic Crossan, and imagine this story as a parable. Jesus told a lot of them, and the tradition was surely passed on to his followers. A parable conveys a universal truth. It is far more than story, far more than fable, far more than history even. If we look at a story through the lens of parable it becomes universal. We don’t have to try to explain it. We can simply allow it to teach us.
So what can we learn from this parable about Jesus? The crowd is hungry. There is little food. The disciples are flummoxed about what to do. But Jesus simply takes what’s there, thanks God for it, blesses it, and distributes it. And in doing so there is enough, and left-overs too!
I suggest that this is more than a parable about food. It’s a parable about life. A parable about how life can be. A parable about meeting life, whether life presents us with scarcity or plenty, with gratitude, blessing, compassion, and action. Exactly as Jesus did. If we meet life this way, if we pass it through grateful hands and distribute it far and wide, even in the messiness of the way the world is, we might work miracles too.
What did you hear in today’s readings? Please share your thoughts.
Statement of Faith
All: 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.
Eucharistic Prayer
Denise: 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….”
Denise: We pray for these and all unspoken concerns. Amen.
Denise: We are a priestly people. We are anointed. With open hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer as one voice:
Mary Theresa and 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, Holy by Karen Drucker https://youtu.be/kl7vmiZ1YuI
Mary Theresa and 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.
Mary Theresa and All: Please extend your hands in blessing
Mary Theresa and 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.
Mary Theresa and All: 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.
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.
Mary Theresa and 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.
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. Glory and Praise to you both now and forever.
Through Jesus, we have learned how to live.
Through Jesus, we have learned how to love.
Through Jesus, we have learned how to serve.
AMEN.
Please receive communion with the words “The way the world can be.”
Communion Meditation: May the Christ Light, Kathy Sherman https://youtu.be/tY0Rj9Yd2lk
Mary Theresa and All: 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.
Mary Theresa and All: 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
Mary Theresa: Please extend your hands and pray our blessing together
Mary Theresa and All: 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. May our lives, lived in gratitude, compassion, and action, be life the way it can be.
All: Amen.
Closing Song: Somewhere to Begin, Sara Thomsen
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