Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82512159155
phone-in for (audio only) Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Julie: Good afternoon! I’m so happy to be here with you all today as we are reminded how to follow The Way home.
Opening Prayer - Julie: Let us pray. Holy One, you sent us Jesus to show us The Way home. Let us help each other along the way and let us be the hand of the hopeful stranger for each other. AMEN.
Opening Song: Quiet Place by the Many
https://youtu.be/hcq385i1kHE
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading
“The Guest House” by Rumi
Translated by Coleman Barks
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
These are the inspired words of the Sufi poet Rumi and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Alleluia (Eightfold) – Jan Phillips
Gospel
A reading from the gospel of John (14:1-12)
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Don't let your hearts be troubled.
You have faith in God; have faith also in me.
In God's house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back again and take you with me,
so that where I am you also may be.
Where I am going you know the way."
Thomas said to him,
"But we do not know where you are going;
how can we know the way?"
Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to Abba God except through me.
If you know me, then you will also know Abba God.
From now on you do know Abba God and have seen God."
Philip said to him,
"Rabbi, show us Abba God, and that will be enough for us."
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen Abba God
How can you say, 'Show us your Abba'?
Do you not believe that I am in Abba God and God is in me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.
Abba God who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in Abba God and God is in me,
or else, believe because of the works I do.
The truth of the matter is, anyone who has faith in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones besides.
Why? Because I go to Abba God."
These are the inspired words of the anonymous storyteller we call John and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Homily Starter - Julie: Imagine that you run a bed and breakfast. It’s a lovely place, cozy and inviting with absolutely scrumptious breakfasts. You have a steady flow of paying guests who support you financially. You love your guests but it’s still a business. You still need to support yourself. So would you reject guests who made you a little uncomfortable? Would you have a “No Sad Guests” policy? Maybe a “Happy Guests Only” policy? Probably not if you wanted to stay in business. Especially since your guests are only temporary. No one stays at a bed and breakfast forever. You can put up with a cranky guest for a weekend, right?
Rumi is asking us to take that same approach with our own emotions. Feeling down? That’s ok, it won’t last. Neither will feeling joyful, as much as we might wish otherwise. And that “crowd of sorrows?” (For some reason, I always remember it as “pack of sorrows,” like a pack of wild dogs.) It could be clearing the way for a whole new life for you, one with joys you could never imagine. I wish I read this poem before I got divorced and lost my job and had to move. I wish I had known the joy that waited for me on the other side--the most satisfying work of my life and people who really care about me and the goodest dog in the world.
And then in the gospel Jesus talks about another sort of home, that of Abba God, with room for each of us. Not a literal room with an attached bath and maid service, as heavenly as that might sound. The place that Jesus is preparing for us is bigger than that, better than that. Thomas and Philip might have gotten hung up on the logistics, “Can’t you just introduce us to your father, maybe give us his address?” they seem to be asking. This idea of Jesus being The Way seemed to defy their understanding.
I don’t read this gospel as exclusionary although I can see how some do, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to Abba God except through me. If you know me, then you will also know Abba God.” I’m focused on that last sentence, “If you know me, then you will also know Abba God.” Some big God in the sky can seem impersonal, unknowable. But Jesus walked the same earth we do. He’s more approachable to us. And he can help us know Abba God. Jesus can prepare a place for us. If we follow Jesus and his teachings, if we can only just follow The Way, we can know Abba God ourselves. And as we follow The Way, we will know love and peace now, right here on earth. And that my friends is a miracle in my book.
What about you? What did you hear? What will you do? What, if anything, will it cost you?
Shared Homily
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….”
We pray for these and all the unspoken concerns held in the silence of our hearts. AMEN.
Julie: Please join in praying the Eucharistic prayer together:
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:
Here in this Place – Holy Holy Holy by Christopher Grundy
https://youtu.be/cVWY9ourooI
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.
Julie: Please extend your hands in blessing.
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:
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.
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. Please receive communion with the words: I am love.
Communion Meditation: At This Table by Idina Menzel video by Denise
https://youtu.be/n9Xf4cHOcwQ
Prayer after communion: 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.
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
Julie: Let us pray our blessing together: May we carry the joy and hope of Easter in our hearts each and every day. May we follow The Way home. May our name be a blessing in our time. AMEN.
Closing Song: A Safe Place to Land, by Sara Bareilles
https://youtu.be/NNdwco3yDHM
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