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phone-in for (audio only) Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
The Season of Advent is beginning. Hold on to your hat, as you offer your heart.
Opening Prayer: Holy One, you are forever reminding us that you are with us. We are grateful for Jesus who comes to show us how much we are loved. May we be fearless in sharing your love with one another. Amen.
Opening Song: May Peace Be With You by Annie Garretson
LITURGY OF THE WORD
A reading adapted from Adam Bucko, episcopal priest, and community activist.
The season of Advent is upon us. Let us start with my commitment to a practice of prayer. Advent begins with adopting a way of life that can help us grow and nourish our spiritual life, including building community, so that we may become God’s hands and feet and microphone for healing and justice.
As we move toward a life of personal and political holiness, may our journey be blessed and may our life and presence remind those around us of God’s presence. Deepening our connection to God, in and around us.
Do not be afraid to feel the love, the joy, and also the pain that are present. Don’t be afraid to have a heart and to risk breaking your heart. Feel into it all and know that every time you are touching the pain, you are touching the sacred wound of God. God who is always accompanying us and guiding us. God who is suffering with us. . . . God whose life-giving love and justice will one day be “all in all” [1 Corinthians 15:28].
These are the inspired words of Adam Bucko, a disciple and brother of Jesus. We affirm them by saying AMEN!
Alleluia by Fr. J. Nez F. Marcelo
(Pause)
Gospel: A reading from the Gospel of Mark. ( MK 13:33-37)
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Be watchful! Be alert!
You do not know when the time will come.
It is like a man traveling abroad.
He leaves home and places his servants in charge,
each with his own work,
and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.
Watch, therefore;
you do not know when the lord of the house is coming,
whether in the evening, or at midnight,
or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”
These are the words of a writer known as Mark. The community affirms them by saying Amen!
Shared Homily
This gospel is so easy to hear and take in. I love the idea of “watching.” It reminds me of sitting on the beach watching the waves or watching the sunset. So peaceful and it feels so good. But since when are the messages in gospels easy. This gospel implies watch because something not so good may happen. The phrases be prepared and stay awake are frequently mentioned in the gospel readings. Advent means coming and we say we are preparing for the coming of Jesus…or the birth of Jesus, or Christmas. But those ideas are from our youth, we know now that Jesus has come and gone and yet still here. What are we watching for, what are we awake for, why do we need advent to remind us to prepare?
Over the next few weeks, we will hear the gospels about the angels appearing to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, Mary and Joseph, and the shepherds. Each time the angels appear they begin with the words “do not be afraid.” Our first reading is asking us to focus on prayer, healing, and justice so that we build community and become God’s hands and feet. Becoming God’s hands and feet sounds pretty challenging, full of risk taking, and often frightening.
The season of advent is a time of joy, mixed with lots of anxieties and fear. Jesus was born and lived so we would know, and experience God is with us. Do not be afraid, be fearless, watch for and know Presence and we will be the hands and feet of the Holy One.
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.
Prayers of the Community
As we prepare for this sacred meal we are aware that just as Jesus is anointed, so is each of us. As bearers of LIGHT and HOPE, we bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns. Please feel free to voice your intentions beginning with the words, “I bring to the table…..”
Presider 1: We pray for these and all unspoken intentions. Amen.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
With open hearts and hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer as one voice:
(written by Jay Murname)
Source of All That Is, we seek you in this season, when the earth is resting and preparing for new life. Like the earth, we long for new life and hopeful beginnings. This is the time of the pregnant woman, filled with life and hope powerful enough to topple structures of oppression. This is the time of her song of fidelity and celebration.
During this gentle season of Advent, we recognize that you have made us capable of bringing forth justice, like a rising sun. One with all who have gone before us, we sing a song of praise.
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here in this Place by Chris Grundy
We thank you for those in times past who believed the good news and lived what they believed.
Blessed is Isaiah and every visionary who insisted on a better future that would break through the deception, disaster, and broken promises of the age in which they lived.
Blessed is John, in the stark desert of careful focus, inviting the people to be born again in your love.
Blessed is Miriam, who believed the words of Isaiah and opened herself up to the unbelievable.
And blessed is her child Jesus, who felt the sorrows of humankind in his soul, and responded with deep and tender compassion.
Please extend your hands in blessing.
We are grateful for your Spirit at our Eucharistic Table and for this bread and wine which reminds us of our call to be the hands and feet of God in the world.
On the night before he faced his own death, Jesus sat at the 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.
Lift bread
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, go, share and love one another.
(pause)
Lift cup
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)
"This is the bread of life and the cup of blessing. Through it we are nourished, and we nourish each other.
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.
Our Eucharistic celebration is all-inclusive, and nothing can separate us from God’s love. Please take the bread and the cup with the words: “I am a bearer of Light and Hope.”
Communion Song: Oh My Children by Sara Thomsen, Video by Denise
We give thanks for our tradition, which is a living history of your love for all creation. We join ourselves with that tradition, as the visionaries and healers and peacemakers of our own time in history.
We celebrate the many creative traditions which guide and form us and we are grateful that there are many paths to wisdom and life.
Each Advent we make a place in our prayer for all those who are oppressed and marginalized in so many places throughout this earth, and right here among us.
We are grateful for the gift of your Spirit, always drawing beauty and balance out of chaos. And like Jesus…
Standing where he stood,
and for what he stood,
and with whom he stood,
we are united in your Spirit,
and love you with our lives, 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
Please extend your hands and pray our blessing together.
May we be the hands and feet of the Holy One. May we call each other to extravagant generosity and live fearlessly! May our light shine for all to see, and may we know we are blessed and loved by our presence in this community.
AMEN
Closing Song May the Christ Light Shine in You by Kathy Sherman
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