phone-in for (audio only) Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
The Baptism of Jesus: Metanoia
Donna: Welcome and Theme: Good morning and welcome to the Upper Room. We are so happy to be with you. We gather today to meet Jesus at his baptism. Most of us were likely baptized as babies and probably remember little or nothing from it. Jesus is baptized as an adult and is profoundly and forever changed by it. If we choose to be changed, we like Jesus can have a deeply personal and transformative encounter with God as we understand God in our hearts.
Kim: Opening Prayer: We join together in this time of prayer to open ourselves to listen, hear and see the call in our own lives. We know that we, like Jesus are at our best when we seek union with all that is holy. We choose to go to the water to be transformed.
Opening Song: Come To the Water
https://youtu.be/_FMuokL8tZc?si=WZM5fAwQkTI7NB_m
Liturgy of the Word
First Reading: Excerpts from Jesus Found in Translation
In the gospel of Mark, the reader is invited into Jesus’s experience of his own baptism. “He saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.” These two words make all the difference. Matthew and Luke decide to tell the story of the heavens opening and the dove descending as if these are things that anyone could have noted if they were there. But for Mark, the event only happens through Jesus’s vision.
“…He saw the heavens torn apart…” The baptism unleashes an expansion of consciousness that makes the whole world bigger and more loving in Jesus’s own eyes! For Jesus, the sky, which had seemed like the ultimate horizon of possibility only moments before, is broken open to allow for more. His notion of “heavens” has to rip to make room for what this experience in the river offers. In other words - that baptism blew Jesus’s mind
Jesus is alive with sensation as he experiences direct connection with his creator - it changes the way he sees the world, it touches him, and it speaks to him in the voice of love. He saw. He felt. He heard. This threefold awakening of mind, spirit, and heart is familiar to those who have had or studied mystical experience. And many people, even if we’re not mystics, have known similar moments of expansion.
These are the inspired words of Lizzie Berne DeGear and the community affirms them by saying: Amen
Second Reading:
(God’s glory) is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely… I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere.
In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness… This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud… I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
These are the inspired words of Thomas Merton and the community affirms them by saying; Amen
Alleluia: Eightfold Alleluia by Jan Phillips
https://youtu.be/IC4nbwmQDVw?si=UDxiGV_IOFfluSg1
Gospel: Mark 1:1-11
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.”
These are the inspired words from the gospel writer known as Mark and the community affirms them by saying: Amen
Shared Homily (Kim)
Many of us have had the experience of going on a retreat because one of our favorite writers or spiritual teachers would be the presenter. People in this community have been spiritual students of wisdom figures such as Thich Nhat Hanh, Pema Chodron, Richard Rohr, Edwina Gateley, Matthew Fox, John Shelby Spong and Diarmuid O’Murchu to name only a few. It is part of the “seekers journey” to be willing to go, sit, listen, learn and ponder at the feet of Wisdom. Last week on Epiphany Sunday, we learned about 3 such seekers. The non-Jewish Magi have come to represent the introduction of the Christ into the Gentile world. Their journey across the desert and across religious boundaries is the kind of thing spiritual seekers often do.
Our reading from Lizzie DeGear helps illuminate the story of Jesus’ baptism as told by the gospel writer known as Mark. In Mark, there is no birth or infancy story. Jesus is introduced as a man heading out to go on retreat. He traveled many miles to get there and he certainly would have spent time building community with the other retreat participants as they hung out around the fire and ate. Like many of us, he knew he wanted to deepen his spirituality and find his true purpose. He was an apocalyptic Jew who was deeply engaged in what God was doing for His people. He decided to go into the desert with other similar seekers and spend time hearing the teachings of a charismatic apocalyptic leader. John The Baptizer already had a large following and Jesus was essentially nothing more than a student seeker. During the desert retreat, John held a ritual just as we typically do on our retreats. The ritual he conducted was a Jewish ritual baptism in the River Jordan. Unlike the later Christian baptismal rite that would theoretically cleanse one of Original Sin, Jewish baptism was a purification rite. It was to get the unclean body into alignment with the always clean soul of the person.
When Jesus comes up out of the water, he has a personal vision of the sky being torn open and God speaking to him. God calls Jesus His son. This was not a spectacular event for all the people to see. No, it was a personal metanoia, a change in his life as a result of a spiritual conversion. This is the moment, in Mark, where Jesus begins to know who he is and what he must do as a son of God. The tearing open of the sky mirrors what will happen at the moment of his death in Mark’s account. The tearing of the sky gives Jesus access to God, whose son he is. The tearing of the curtain in the temple at his death gives us all access to God through Jesus’ death on the cross. This marks the moment where Jesus begins to be the student who will surpass the teacher. At this point and forever, all Jesus had, as our liturgy written by Jay Murnane indicates, was God, himself and his companions on the journey. And for him and for us, that is more than enough.
Thomas Merton’s metanoia experience illustrates the entrance of God into our everyday lives. He could never be the same after that one experience. These moments, whether on retreat, in the grocery store, during meditation or when watching TV, create insights into ourselves and our purpose in a way which can and should change us. As seekers, we look to cooperate with grace to deepen our understanding of our connection to God and how that connection is to be lived in and through us. It requires tremendous openness, discipline, humility, and courage to follow where God leads. People sometimes refer to trying to “hold on to the retreat feeling” when a touching retreat has ended. The truth is that for many of us, the slow crawl of daily life can cause the profound insights and convictions gained during such retreat to diminish and fade. When Jesus and Merton had their moment of profound insight, they seized it and it changed them. If we are willing, metanoia are available at many times in many situations if we would only have the courage to seek them.
We each have a call to answer. That is why we are at the Upper Room today. What do these readings and the theme mean to you?
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 for the community
Kim: As we prepare for this sacred meal we are aware of our call to serve, and just as Jesus is anointed, so is each of us. We bring to this table our prayers for the community.
We pray for these and all unspoken intentions. Amen.
Liturgy of the Eucharist
(Written by Jay Murnane)
Donna: Please join in praying the Eucharistic prayer together.
Blessed are you, Holy One, source of all creation. Through your goodness you made this world and called us to be Your co-creators. We give thanks for the diversity and beauty of life around us and within us.
We open our awareness to the goodness of all of creation and we remember our responsibility to serve. You invite us to build the earth into a community of love rooted in justice. You placed confidence in us, for you made us and you know that we are good.
In joy and in thanksgiving we join with all the faithful servants who have gone before us and we sing:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here in this place by Christopher Grundy
https://youtu.be/uXyu57tR2gk?si=HiNc_06ED1o1sxHR
Kim: We thank you for Jesus, simple servant, lifting up the lowly, revealing you as God-With-Us, and revealing us as one with you and all of creation.
He lived among us to show us who we are and challenged us to know you. He taught us the strength of compassionate love.
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 body of Christ in the world.
Donna: On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for supper with the people closest to him. Like the least of household servants, he washed their feet, so that they would re-member him.
All lift their plates and pray the following:
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 their cups and pray the following:
Kim: 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)
What we have heard with our ears, we will live with our lives. As we share communion, we become Communion both love’s nourishment and love’s challenge.
You are called, consecrated and chosen to serve.
Please receive Communion with the words “You are God’s own.”
Communion Meditation/Song: Become What We Love by Carmel Boyle
https://youtu.be/98erkb5g88c?si=DE3wi24rToyFn1oS
Prayer after communion:
Donna: Holy One, we are willing to do everything Jesus did, to re-create the living presence of a love that does justice, of a compassion that heals and liberates, of a joy that generates hope, of a light that illumines people and confronts the darkness of every injustice and inequity.
We trust you to continue to share with us your own spirit, the spirit that animated Jesus, for it is through his life and teaching, all honor and glory is yours, O Holy One, forever and ever. Amen.
All: 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
Kim: Let us raise our hands in blessing pray together:
We are blessed and we bless one another. We support each other to seek the face of God and to find purpose. May we work together to build bridges rooted in love. May we remember our call to be holy not only for ourselves but for one another and the world. May all be happy, may all be healthy, may all live with ease.
Amen.
Closing Song: Love Can Build a Bridge sung by Westlife
https://youtu.be/laI791ZTrWE?si=jmN6Scg1vRhhbCEw
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