Liturgy, Saturday and Sunday, October 26 and 27, 2024 - Presiders, Suzanne DeFroy, Sharon Beneteau, and Phillis Shepperd, Zoom Presider

 

Jesus the Panhandler – Sculpture at Toronto’s Church of St Stephen in the Fields

 

Healing the Blindness

 Welcome: Our readings today explore the ancient wisdom of healing and new revelations of sacred paradox with thoughts and ideas for sharing. As we listen, let us be ready to hear and respond to the Holy One’s loving invitation.

 Let us pray:  Holy One, every day we live in your Reality, believing it is our reality. Your Reality is often unknown, hidden, or obscured from us as we plan and hurry through our lives living our small realities. May we pause into the fleeting moment of awe and slow our senses to contemplate your invitation.  May we be able to trust and be pulled into the light of your Reality and abundant grace.

 Opening Song: I Am the One Within You by Karen Drucker

https://youtu.be/2xpa1U_Pa-E 

 

LITURGY OF THE WORD

 First reading from Richard Rohr: Holding the Tension

 All the great religions at the more mature levels learn and teach a different consciousness, which we call the contemplative mind, the nondual mind, or the mind of Christ.  Levels of spiritual development have been progressing from dualistic, exclusionary, either/or thinking to become increasingly non-dual, allowing for a deeper, broader, wiser, more inclusive, and loving way of seeing.

 If we are to live peacefully on this Earth, we cannot bypass the necessary tension of holding contraries and inconsistencies together. Daily ordinary experiences teach us non-duality, obvious in everything and everybody, every idea, and every event, almost hidden in plain sight.  Everything created is mortal and limited and, if we look long enough, paradoxical. By paradox, I mean something that initially looks contradictory or impossible, but in a different frame or at a different level is in fact deeply true.  Opening oneself into a contemplative holding pattern is the very name and description of faith.  Unfortunately, in Christianity, faith largely became believing things to be true or false (intellectual assent) instead of giving people concrete practices so they could themselves know how to open up (faith), hold on (hope), and allow an infilling from another Source (love). 

 The practice of contemplative prayer loosens our attachment to certainty to retrain our minds to understand the wisdom of paradox.  It is largely just being present … a willingness to say, “I don’t know.” We must not push the river, we must just trust that we are already in the river, and God is the certain flow and current.

These are the inspired words of Richard Rohr, and the community affirms them by saying, AMEN. 

Second reading from Miriam Therese Winter:  Paradoxology:  Spirituality in a Quantum Universe

Deep within creation there abides a quantum Spirit emanating from the Divine.  Spirit was there in the beginning of the evolution of the cosmos, breathing life into every facet of everything that came after, as ubiquitous as air. 

Faith, hope, and love are sacraments in a quantum society.  They provide us with the ways and means of celebrating the liturgy of life, not through rites of privilege but through rituals of promise that arise out of our ordinary everyday routine and the surprises inherent within it.

Faith grounds us firmly in the matrix of the divine milieu, so that we can continue steadfastly when buffeted by self-doubt, or when we are accused of losing our faith when we are finding ways of living our faith more fully.

Hope is what we turn to when all other means of survival have been exhausted, the stepping-stone to deliverance that tomorrow will build upon.

Love is all that really matters.  Love is patient.  Love is kind.  Love is the pathway to compassion and how justice is defined.  Every act of kindness, every gesture of compassion, the tiniest touch of tenderness is a fractal of the one Great Love from whom all love spills over and to whom all love returns.

The physical world is our primary source of Spirit and where our spirituality is manifested visibly and concretely through who we are and how we behave.  There is no longer a definitive separation between physical and metaphysical, the embodied and the ephemera, the visible and the invisible.  In the quantum paradox, natural and supernatural, once thought to be mutually exclusive, can now be seen as trading places, meeting, and even merging.

These are the inspired words of Miriam Therese Winter, and the community affirms them by saying, AMEN. 

 Alleluia: Celtic Alleluia by Christopher Walker 

https://youtu.be/4cs8NDVM3Vk 

 A Reading from the Gospel of Mark 10:46-52

They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 

Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” Throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 

Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher,^[a] let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

These are the inspired words of the disciple known as Mark. The community affirms them by saying AMEN.

Footnote a. 10:51 Aramaic Rabbouni

Homily and Shared Reflections

In today’s gospel, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus is doing what he does every day while sitting at the side of the road.  We can imagine how the entire region was abuzz with healing miracles being performed by Jesus of Nazareth.  This scene is the last miracle before the crucifixion and is found in each synoptic writing.  In Luke 18:35-43 the man is not named and in Matthew 20:29-34 there are two unnamed blind men speaking in unison, asking Jesus to be healed. 

Biblical scholars have identified 87 passages about blindness in both the Old and New Testaments.  During Jesus’ day, the blind along with those who had other disabilities were despised and reduced to a hard life of begging.  It was believed that sin put them in darkness under God’s judgment (Zephaniah 1:17; Deuteronomy 28:20-29).  Bartimaeus called out for mercy to the ‘son of David’ because in his mind he was being punished by God as a sinner and he believed the Messiah had the power to forgive and make him whole.

The perspective that physical ailments were brought about by generational or personal sin was turned upside down by Jesus. Despite admonishment from the crowd to stop crying out Bartimaeus persevered, steadfast in his hopeful longing for wholeness to live a fulfilling life.  We can imagine Jesus standing in loving contemplative stillness, touched by Bartimaeus’ spiritual energy of faith and hope.  A moment was seized after Jesus told his companions to bring Bartimaeus forward.  He immediately threw off his cloak leaving a valued possession behind.  This symbolic act also represents a detachment from old beliefs, and it was from Bartimaeus’ own faith that healing flowed. 

Healing from blindness is portrayed in a dynamic form of interaction, becoming much more than a physical change.  Witnessing a profound transformation through empowering compassionate love, everyone in this scene were drawn into a much different reality – one of inner sacredness.  Out of darkness Bartimaeus was restored to wholeness leaving us to imagine how full his life would become as he went on his way to follow Jesus.

Richard Rohr describes faith as an opening into consciousness that exists beyond the limited confines of the brain and things in the world.  By calming human fear filled tendencies, we are drawn to closer to God.  Bartimaeus’ life had value despite his blindness and the ancient sinful beliefs of the crowd.  The sacredness of his life was revealed as the certainty of ordinary rules of thinking, managing, and explaining unravelled.  There is a tension of contradictions and inconsistencies that need to be held together, so that a deeper understanding of the physical and spiritual realities can unfold into empowering action. 

Miriam Winter provides a provocative insight into the nature of energy that permeates the entire universe helping us to understand that physical healing and spiritual healing are connected.  Quantum physics has discovered that everything is made of quantum particles, the building blocks of matter.  The Spirit is the channel of Divine Energy that is always present, flowing in chaos, in day-to-day living, and in the contemplative stillness of consciousness.  Miriam explains that conscious spirituality opens a natural way of being, connecting us with everyone and everything in the universe.

Jesus brought about a transformative way of thinking about the Divine mystery of life and the healing power of love over oppressive blindness.  Miracles performed by Jesus are pathways out of the darkness for everyone.  The Divine energy of faith, hope, and love hold a promise for healing and everlasting life.  In John 14: 12-13, Jesus has given another promise, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father … You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” This is an incredible revelation, that a cosmic consciousness exists requiring trust in both the unfolding cycle of life and a unified spiritual reality that is timeless, extending into eternity.

Theologian Dr. Norman King summed up the message of today’s readings by saying, “The deepest longing of our heart, so readily obscured, is to struggle beyond any form of blindness, to see truthfully, to love deeply, and to do so with an underlying trust that flows into a concern for one another, especially the most vulnerable; and to recognize that our sacredness is deeper than any woundedness.”

What did you hear? Please share your thoughts and ideas.

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 bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table…” 

We pray for these and all unspoken intentions. Amen. 

Let us pray our Eucharistic prayer with open hearts and hands:

All: We are grateful for our brother Jesus teaching us the way of compassion through entering into the suffering of others.  May we care for ourselves as Jesus cared for us, seeing humanity through the eyes of “Love”. Through his loving eyes we are healed, and we open our hearts to the pain and suffering of others.

Because of your empowering unconditional love, we are aware of your presence in and among us. Your love radiates from our hearts, minds, and bodies.  Nurturing ourselves and one another empowers your embodied presence.  With joy and gratefulness today and always, we sing: 

Holy, Holy, Holy: Here in this Place – by Christopher Grundy 

https://youtu.be/cVWY9ourooI 

Holy One, you speak to our inner sacredness and the gift of being alive and I hear you saying, “I don’t need anything from you for me to love you - I don’t need you to evolve for me to love you - I don’t need you to grow for me to love you - I don’t need you to succeed for me to love you - I will stay with you in any circumstance. I was here at the beginning, I am here in the middle, I will be here for all eternity.  There is nothing you can do to lose me.”

We thank you for Jesus who heard the Divine voice of deep love for his human nature as a beloved son.  Jesus showed us a pathway to comfort ourselves as the Divine Beloved would comfort us and we nurture our own children, family, and friends. May we hear God’s voice as Jesus did to love compassionately so that we may more fully love each other.

Please extend your hands in blessing.

All: We call upon your Spirit that is present in us at this Eucharistic table. We are grateful for the bread and wine that remind us of our call to be the light of Christ to the world.  

Presiders stand at the table

 

 On the night before he faced betrayal and death, Jesus shared supper with his 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 plate as the community prays 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.                      

Lift the cup as community prays the following:

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.

All: Holy One, your love transforms us, so we love and heal each other.  We resolve to love as Jesus unconditionally loved the marginalized, the poor, the homeless, the mentally ill, the immigrants, and the stranger.  Amen.

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.

Let us share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace. Please receive the bread and cup with the words: I am loved today, tomorrow, and for all eternity.

Communion Song:  Be Still And Know - Song by Shaina Knoll

https://youtu.be/CCGsExqtYKo

Communion prayer:

Loving Source of our being, You call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice. We live justly, we love tenderly, we walk with integrity in Your Presence 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 in blessing.

ALL:  May the infinite beauty and joy of Creation continue to astound us  

May the Presence of the Divine always comfort and inspire us 

May we be the face of the compassionate Holy One in all we say and do

May we be a blessing in our time. AMEN. 

Closing Song: Learn to Sit Without Knowing by Carrie Newcomer

https://youtu.be/I_t8WqgKL3I