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Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Fifth Sunday in the Season of Creation
Presider 1: Welcome to each of you as we celebrate the Fifth Sunday in the Season of Creation. We gather to celebrate Creation, reminding ourselves that we are a part of creation and have been provided the opportunity to care for this planet we call home. We reflect today on our role as co-creators and care-givers of the Earth, and the call to bring harmony to all that we touch with the love and beauty with which the Holy One graces creation. And so we pray:
Presider 2: Source of all that we are, we honor your creation as an integrated and holy system of plant, animal and human life placed lovingly side by side with water, air, wind, and earth. We pray for the imagination and resolve to establish a supportive ecology so that all of Creation may not just survive but thrive as a continuing sign of your wondrous love. Amen.
Opening Song: What on Earth by Joyce Johnson Rouse (Earth Mama)
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: A reading from The Great Search by John Philip Newell
What is the spiritual vision at the heart of our religious inheritance that we have forgotten or neglected? The Spirit is urging us to remember that we are to do to others, including Earth and every species, what we would most want done to us. This is the teaching of Jesus at the heart of our Christian inheritance, with its equivalent in the ‘Golden Rule’ of nearly every great spiritual tradition in the world. It is the teaching that can lead us into new beginnings.
In our Great Search of today, we are searching for what will bring healing, not only for ourselves, whether as individuals or nations or races, but for all people and for every species. And it is for all things that we are seeking a new sense of home address, not only physically but spiritually. We are longing for a deeper sense of shared origin and spiritual kinship, including a sense of family responsibility for everything that has being.
We are being invited to remember what our souls, at some level, have always known which is that our true spiritual center is not Rome or Jerusalem or Mecca or any of the other places that religion has claimed to hold special authority over us. Our true spiritual center is Earth and the human soul. Rome, Jerusalem and Mecca have occupied a significant place in our faith traditions over the centuries but, essentially, they exist to serve Earth and the human soul, not the other way round.
We are longing for an expanded vision of the Universe, a reawakened love affair with Earth, and a deepened sense of spiritual presence in every moment and encounter of life. We are yearning to grow in awareness, to find wellness, and to delight in love. And we are longing for the recovery of wisdom, for meaning in both the joy and pain of life, and for a reimagined faith in the immortal light that shines in all things.
These are the yearnings of the Great Search today.
These are the inspired words of mystic, John Philip Newell, and we affirm them with, Amen.
Second Reading: Galapagos, written by and read by Denise Hackert Stoner
https://youtu.be/gZ2Th3hmHV8?si=_YNJQp29LuIIarup
These are the inspired words of our Denise, and we affirm them with, Amen.
Alleluia Celtic Alleluia by Christopher Walker
https://youtu.be/o1rc7ojQtJU
Gospel: A Reading from the Gospel of Matthew
Matthew 6, 25-26, adapted from The Message Bible
“If you decide for the Holy One, living a life of reverence, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of the Holy One. And you are as precious.
“If the Holy One gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think the Holy One will attend to you, take pride in you, do the best for you? Relax, do not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to what has been given to you.
These words are adapted from the Gospel of Matthew and we affirm them with, Amen.
Shared Homily - Connie
Welcome to our fifth and final Sunday in the Season of Creation. When I revisit the Upper Room liturgies of all five Sundays, I marvel at our spiritual journey. We have traveled from appreciation and wonder of the many divine creations on our planet to the power of questions in restoring relationships and community.
In today’s readings, we are reminded of the powerful “Golden Rule” and its equivalent global presence in all spiritual traditions. John Philp Newell and our own, Denise Hackert Stoner, illustrate the many ways that the Earth and our souls share a deep connection of origin, love, and a responsibility for everything that has being. The Gospel of Mathew reminds us to attend to; and appreciate the beautiful gifts of Earth. He also instructs us to relax, and let go of our preoccupation with possessions.
When we really see these gifts and accept our role as co-creators and caregivers of Earth, we enter a new search-a new beginning and this means the Season of Creation will remain with us as we move forward in our growth in Spiritual kinship and our Faith. In the Upper Room, we are taking many actions to restore hope and co-create a loving, responsive kinship locally and globally.
What are your thoughts as we continue our journey today for tomorrow?
Presider 1: Let us pray together our 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.
Presider 2: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we are aware that just as Jesus is anointed, so is each of us. 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 2: We pray for these and all unspoken prayers. Amen.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
Presider 1: With open hands and open hearts, let us pray our Eucharistic Prayer:
All: 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 in a song of praise:
Holy, Holy: Here in This Place by Christopher Grundy
https://youtu.be/uXyu57tR2gk?si=DW76N-rNE9cCQXsh
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.
Presider 2: Please extend your hands in blessing.
All: Your Spirit resides within and around us and within all of creation, and in the bread and wine on this table. You have gifted us with wisdom, light and truth, which remind us of our call to be the body of Christ in 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, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and offered it to them saying:
Take and eat;
This is my very self.
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.
Presiders lift the plate and cup:
All: 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 become communion, both Love’s nourishment and Love’s challenge.
Presider 2: Please receive communion with the words: I am/You are a living sign of the Holy One.
Communion song: So Will I by Hillsong United
Presider 1: Please join in praying our prayer after communion.
All: Holy One, your transforming energy is always moving within us and working through us. May the power of Your Divine Love rain down upon us and bring healing to our lives so we may protect our world. We are thankful for the pulse of life that fills us each day. May we be encouraged and strengthened as we work for justice, love and peace in the world.
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 at this time and all ways.
Amen.
Presider 2: Let us pray as Jesus taught us:
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, joy, 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.
BLESSING
Presider 1: Let us raise our hands and pray together our blessing:
Creator most generous and kind, your gift of earth and sky reveals your glory. May we go forward boldly to live in the glory.
May we treat all of Creation as sacred. May we listen to its sounds and to the voices of one another as we discern the best path to an equitable distribution of the resources we share with our sisters and brothers across the globe. Let us live as if the future depends on it. Amen
Closing Song: Brother Sun (Giving Glory)-Liz Vice from The Porter’s Gate, Climate Vigil Songs
https://youtu.be/vbLI_8kTyPY?si=VqYPIW4V0JrNF2cB
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