Upper Room Inclusive Catholic Community
First Sunday of Lent - February 18, 2024
Presiders: Deb Trees and Suzanne De Froy
Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82512159155
Phone number: 1-646-558-8656 Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
“A Journey into Sacred Wisdom Begins”
Welcome everyone for this First Sunday of Lent. Our theme is ‘A Journey into Sacred Wisdom Begins’. The ministry of Jesus unfolds during a time of oppressive brutality. The reading by the author known as Mark was written for early Christians experiencing persecution or death for their faith. Mark’s message echoes every other gospel writer who wrote for other audiences yet it is timeless, helping us imagine the beginning of a new era.
________Opening Prayer:
Open our hearts, Holy Creator, to the stillness that refreshes; to the Spirit of peace that reassures and compassion that restores. We gather today to begin our Lenten journey, aware of the healing Presence that is the resting place of true serenity. We pray for the way of compassion to enter our world to bring rest for the weary. Amen.
Opening Song: Be Still And Know by Shaina Knoll, video by MT Streckhttps://youtu.be/CCGsExqtYKo
________First Reading: by Miriam Therese Winter
Energy is everywhere. It is the pulse of life, rising, falling, affecting everything, keeping all in motion. Divine energy flowing through us puts us back together again whenever we fall apart, puts in us a new heart when we become dispirited, reanimates us with a breath of fresh air that gets us motivated to keep moving on.
It is another name for Spirit. The Spirit-charged reality of the Hebrew heritage is fully present in Jesus and through him carries over to the apostolic church as a spirit-linking force for global unity.
________Second Reading is from Jesus in Translation:
Jesus leaves his hometown in order to find the baptizer in the Judean wilderness, choosing to spend time in this movement, among people practicing mindfulness of spirit and kindness towards each other. After a ritual that awakens his mystic sensibilities, he spends an extended period of time, including a long stretch of solitude, in nature. This retreat is a time of alternating spiritual struggle and spiritual comfort. And then, when the time is right, Jesus begins his own vocational life; he travels around Galilee doing his own version of what John was doing. John the Baptist’s ministry was a movement that hinged on metanoia (see Mark 1:4), an expanded form of knowing, an awakening of consciousness. And when Jesus moves into his own work, he invites people to action using the verb form of this expanded consciousness: metanoeo.
If Jesus was 100% human, are we surprised that he needed some sort of transitional time after that powerful religious experience to leave home and step into the radically new life he felt called to? Often, as with Jesus’ journey from his hometown to that river ritual, it takes steppingoutside of our routines and seeking unusual experiences to shake us out of our everyday lives and discover who we are, how we want to live, and what we have to offer the world. Often, as with John’s baptism of Jesus, it takes someone else’s encouragement and example for us to have an “aha” moment and feel empowered to take ourselves seriously. And always, as with Jesus’s extended retreat into nature and solitude, we need the time and space to integrate those moments into our lives.
These are the words from Jesus Found in Translation, shared by Lizzie
Berne DeGear, and we affirm them by saying AMEN.
Gospel Acclamation: Spirit of the Living God
https://youtu.be/jrwRS1h-rmY
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me
Meld me, Mold me, Fill me, Use me
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me
________Gospel Reading: From the writer known as Mark: 1:9-15 in Hal Taussig’s A New New Testament
Now about that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the sky split open and the Spirit like a dove descending on him, and from the sky came a voice: “You are my dearly loved child, in whom I delight.”
Immediately afterward the Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness; and he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and among the wild beasts, while the angels served him.
After John was committed to prison, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: “The time has come, and the realm of God is at hand; repent and believe the good news.”
Shared Homily Starter with Suzanne and Deb
Suzanne: In the second reading Lizzie DeGearhas interpreted the writings that are found in all four canonical gospels. Baptism by John the Baptist was a community event in the Jewish ‘mikveh’ cleansing ritual. By entering the living waters, birth is re-enacted and a believer’s journey into ‘who I am meant to be’ begins. Rabbi Evan Moffic traced the Jewish roots of Jesus and acknowledged that for early followers, baptism marked the beginning of his formal ministry.
Leaving the baptismal waters Jesus traveledinto the wilderness, as did John and theirancestors Moses and Elijah. Each one experienced a spiritual transformation. Interestingly, Mark does not identify the earthy temptations Jesus faced over the 40 days. In Sacred Scripture, numbers have a historical symbolic meaning, and the number 40 signifies new energy, new life, new growth, and transformative change.
In the synoptic gospels, Jesus was neveralone in the wilderness for he was accompanied by the Holy Spirit and angels. Perhaps this connection is a representation of a Divine source of inspiration to make wise decisions that transcend destructive human tendencies. As with Moses, Elijah, and John the Baptist, an opening into inner sacred wisdom was created through personal trials and tribulations. Inner and outer realities were woven together, changing their lives forever.
When Jesus returned to the relational reality of community, he was greeted with the terrible news that John was arrested. His response in Hebrew was in terms of action, ‘to turn back toward God and begin a new relationship according to the law’ (Ezra 1). There is not a Hebrew equivalent for the English term ‘repent’and it appears approximately 46 times in scripture. The customary rabbinic understandingwas to say prayers and perform acts of charity so that favour would be regained.
Jesus brought forward a deeper meaningthrough the healing energy of compassion for others. Authentic generosity, without an expectation of reward, unfolds by sharing our unique gifts with one another, a healing way to live into the gospel. This new awareness is an empowering gift from Jesus with the potential to bring about the kin-dom of heaven as a loving spirit-linking force for global unity on earth.
Deb: Lent is a time to Give Up things, repent of “sins”, turn inward to examine our lives and how we can grow and change to be more like Jesus and what the Holy One asks of us. But what if…
What if for This Lent, we give up Jesus as an object of worship, and instead see him as 100% human, with human actions, reactions, and growing consciousness?
What if for This Lent, we see that Jesus was the center of his own life, mystically experiencing Spirit and trying to make sense of it?
What if for This Lent, we see that Jesus’s life was just for him, not to save our souls or the world?
May we follow the example of Jesus, learning to be who we are meant to be, and know that we are loved beyond measure.
And So dear friends, What did you hear in the readings? How will their words of wisdom affect your journey to peace and mercy during Lent?
_______ 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
________: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we share our blessings, cares and concerns beginning with the words, “I bring to the table…”
We bring to the table the unspoken intentions in our hearts and with one voice we say, Amen.
With open hearts and hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer in one voice:
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
________: Guiding Spirit, when the energy of opposing forces tug and pull us and we are caught in the tension of choices, inspire us to make wise decisions toward goodness.
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. We are grateful for this bread and wine which reminds us of our call to be servants like Jesus to 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. When he returned to his place at the table,
All lift the plate and pray:
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.
Please receive communion saying: I am the face of God
Communion Song: Behold the Kingdom – John Michael Talbot – video by Denise Hackert-Stoner https://youtu.be/TWd0OE5jaoA
_________ Prayer after Communion:
Divine Creator, your transforming energy is within us, and we join our hearts with all who are working for a just world. We pray for world-wide peace that begins with each of us. We pray for wise and compassionate leaders in our world communities. May the values of peace and mercy be elevated above the temptation for power, dominance, and control.
We pray for all of us gathered here and like Jesus, we open ourselves up to your Spirit. For it is through living as Jesus lived that we awaken to the sacredness within, 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
________ Please extend your hands and pray our blessing
You who are around us,
You who are one of us,
You who are also within us,
May all see you-in-us,
May we prepare the way for you.
May we thank you for all
that shall fall to our lot,
May we also not forget the needs of others.
Give us pure hearts, that we may see You,
humble hearts, that we may hear You,
hearts of love, that we may serve You,
hearts of faith, that we may abide in You. Amen
(Dag Hammarskjold, former Secretary General of the U.N.)
Closing Song: Choose Life by Colleen Fulmer Video by MT Streck
Resources
DeGear, L. B. (2023). Jesus Found in Translation. Myrrh Sea Press.
Moffic, E. (2016). What every Christian needs to know about the Jewishness of Jesus: A new way of seeing the most influential rabbi in history (pg. 38). Abingdon Press.
Taussig, Hal (2013). A New New Testament: A Bible for the Twenty-first Century Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts. (p. 64). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Winter, M. T. (2009). Paradoxology: Spirituality in a Quantum Universe. Orbit Books.
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