phone-in for (audio only) Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
LITURGY for the SEASON OF CREATION
Week 2
Welcome: We have been celebrating the Season of Creation for several years now. We remember and reflect on our amazing world and all the elements. Today let us focus on how you and I are fearfully and wonderfully made to be co-creators with the Holy One.
Opening Prayer. Holy One before we were born you had a plan for us. Every day we are on the journey that you lay out before us. When we stray, you patiently wait, and call us back to you. We experience your presence and know you are our Beloved. Amen.
Opening Song: By What Name Shall I Call Thee by Michael A Singer, performed by Kathy Zavada (4 minute version) (Video by Denise Hackert-Stoner)
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: A reading from the Book of Genesis (1:26-27, 31)
Then God said, “let us make humankind in our image, to be like us. Let them be stewards of the fish in the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, he wild animals and everything that crawls on the ground”. Humankind was created as God’s reflection: in the divine image God created them; female and male, God made them. God looked at all of creation and proclaimed that this was good- very good.
These are the inspired words of the Torah. The community affirms these words with an AMEN!
Second Reading: A reading from Psalm 139 (13-18)
You created my inmost being and stitched me together in my mother’s womb. For all these mysteries I thank you-for the wonder of myself, for the wonders of your works-my soul knows it well. My frame was not hidden from you while I was being made in that secret place, knitted together in the depths of the earth; your eyes saw my body even there. All my days were written in your book, all them planned before even the first of them came to be. How precious are your thoughts are to me, O God! How impossible to number them! I could no more count them than I could count the sand. But suppose I could? You would still be with me!
These are the inspired words of the Book of Psalms. Our community affirms them by saying AMEN!
Jesus would pray this every day. The Shema
Hear O Israel the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. Blessed is the name of God forever and ever.
Third Reading: A reading from a Letter of Paul to the Galatians (3:6-7)
The proof that we are children of God is the fact that God sent forth into our hearts the Spirit of the Child who calls out “ABBA”! There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for we are all one as children of the Holy One.
These are the words of the writer known as Paul and we affirm these words by saying AMEN!
Shared Homily
Some of you may be questioning the choice of today’s readings- there is no “Gospel”. There are readings from Genesis, Paul’s letter to Galatians, and Psalm 139. These readings all talk about the creation of the human being, the responsibilities of the human being, and how the human being is a co-creator with our Creator, the Source of our Being. Genesis says we humans are made in the image of God and we were made male and female. Words matter especially in translation. Certainly, gender-based words, and even small words, like conjunctions or prepositions matter. We all know that God is neither male nor female. And yet, we struggle when writing or speaking, to not say he or she, mother or father. Over the centuries rabbis have discussed, argued and interpreted what does this simple verse mean: he created them male and female. Many interpretations declared that male and female meant something akin to androgyny, male and female are one, one human creation. Perhaps we are all one human creation, male and female. The Rabbis’ have re-enforced their theory noting that the word in Hebrew tzela for rib is also the word for side. The first human had two sides, one female, one male. Or another way of interpreting it is the one human is made of the same ribs. These interpretations gave them insight to the importance of oneness, or no separation from the Holy One. We are part of and therefore co-creators with our Creator. I suppose this might be a stretch for us to get our mind around. But imagine what our world would be like now if we understood male and female as a single human creation. Neither the male nor the female was created first but at the same time. Paul who was a Pharisee and well versed in the Torah backs up this ancient theory in his letter to the Galatians. He wrote “no longer jew or Greek, slave or free, and no longer male and female. Why did Paul not say no longer male or female but male and female? An understanding of a simple conjunction such as or, and, changes meaning and understanding. Reading and studying scripture, paying attention to small details opens our minds and hearts to a deeper understanding. We as creatures and creators are changing and growing, understanding and reinterpreting, birthing and dying. We humans evolve just as all creation evolves. Psalm 139 says for all these mysteries I thank you, we cannot understand the mind of our Creator but we always know what is asked of us. Perhaps there is a gospel here today after all. The good news, or gospel for todays’ liturgy is that we are co-creators and stewards of the world. We live gospel values when we act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with our God. And most important of all is that we are One with 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 for our Community
As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to the table our prayer of intentions:
We pray for these and all unspoken intentions that are in our hearts. Amen.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
With open hearts and hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer in one voice:
O Holy One, you are always with us. In the blessed abundance of creation, we gather to celebrate Your nourishing gift of life. May our hearts be open as You invite us to participate in the wise and wonderful work of co-creation. May we be ever aware of Your Spirit within and among us as our world unfolds amid pain and beauty into the fullness of life.
We are grateful for Your Spirit whose breath inspired the primal waters, calling into being the variety and abundance we see around us. Your Spirit sustains and animates our every endeavor, inviting us to act in wisdom and in truth.
In gratitude and joy we embrace our calling and we lift our voices to proclaim a song of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here in this Place by Christopher Grundy https://youtu.be/sgkWXOSGmOQ
As a community, we gather in the power of your Spirit, refreshing wind, purifying fire and flowing water, for the variety and diversity of Creation. We seek to live as Jesus taught us, wise and holy as Spirit-filled people, courageous and prophetic, ever obedient to your call.
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, 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 with them, he bent down and washed their feet.
Lift the bread
When he returned to his place, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and offered it to them saying take this bread, go and share my love with one another.
Lift the cup
Jesus then raised a cup of blessing, spoke the grace and offered the wine 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 are 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.
As we celebrate You in this bread and wine we love and recognize you in each other. We are filled with gratitude and joy.
Please receive communion with the words: We are creators with the Holy One
Communion song: Every Step of the Way by Christopher Grundy
In union with all peoples living and dead, we unite our thoughts and prayers, asking wisdom to discern more wisely your call to us in the circumstances of our daily lives.
We seek to act justly and courageously in confronting the suffering that desecrates the Earth and its peoples; to take risks in being proactive on behalf of the marginalized who suffer the environmental injustices of fouled air, tainted water, and a poverty of parks and public spaces that bring people together to enjoy nature. We pray for inspiration to act with the harmony and unity and synthesis that is modeled for us by the trees of the forest, and the stars of the evening.
Holy One, your transforming energy is always moving within us and working through us. 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 as Jesus taught us with an eye toward this Season of Creation:
Generous Creator, the intricate and elegant biodiversity of our world is your hallowed autograph on our lives, on our souls and in our hearts.
We yearn for the wholeness of being in harmony with Your will and with all living things.
Each day we draw on your creative, life-giving energy with gratitude and awe as we find nourishment in, seed and field, river and forest.
May we be stewards and co-creators with you in caring for the gifts of Your Creation.
We acknowledge our shortcomings, especially our neglect of the environment. We seek to be reconciled with those we have hurt and we resolve to do better.
With your unfailing wisdom and the wind of Your Spirit, inspire us that we may reach out and love one another and care for the world, our home.
Strengthen us to work for local and global justice so that we may one day reap a harvest of equality and fairness as if they were wildflowers, propagating spontaneously, unerringly and in surprising abundance. Amen.
We are called to live the Gospel of Creation in harmony and gratitude with all our sisters and brothers across the Earth. We will live justly, love tenderly and walk with integrity in Your Presence. Lynn Kinlan
BLESSING
Let us pray together our closing blessing:
Creator most generous and kind, your gift of Earth and sky reveals your omnipotence and glory. May we go forward boldly to live in the life you gave us.
May we treat all of Creation as sacred and discern the best path to an equitable distribution of the resources we share with our sisters and brothers across the globe. Let us live and work as if the future depends on it. Amen.
Closing Song: Dance Then Wherever You May Be by John Ogrodowczyk
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