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Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Welcome: Welcome!
I’m so glad you’ve joined us today as we come together to share our abundance
with each other.
Opening Song: Your Peace
Will Make Us One by Audrey Assad
https://youtu.be/hCZk20ayFwI
Opening Prayer: Holy One, you shower us
with your abundant love. May we in turn shower each other in abundant love so
that everyone may have what they need to live peacefully and joyously. AMEN
LITURGY
OF THE WORD
Gospel
acclamation: Bernadett’s Alleluia by Joseph Moorman
https://youtu.be/TgzsYa6A2wY?si=dXdZP4SEuJxHnRo4
Gospel
A
reading from the Good News attributed to Luke 9:10-17
After
the disciples returned from their mission, they told Jesus stories of all they
had done. Jesus withdrew quietly with them to a town called Bethsaida, where
they could be alone. The crowds, meanwhile, learned about it and followed him.
Jesus welcomed them. He spoke to them about the kin-dom of God and healed those
who needed healing.
The
day was drawing to a close. The disciples came to Jesus and said, “Send the
crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and farms to find lodging
and food. This is a deserted place.”
But
Jesus said to them, “You give them something to eat.”
They
said, “We only have five loaves and two fish - unless you want us to go and buy
food for all these people?” There were about 5,000 families.
But
Jesus said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty
each.” The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. Taking the five loaves and
the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke
them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. All ate and were
satisfied. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.
These
are the inspired words of the anonymous storyteller we call Luke, and the
affirms them by saying AMEN!
Second
Reading
A reading adapted
from Jesus’ Alternative Plan: The Sermon on the Mount by Richard Rohr.
The tradition of table fellowship shows
up in many places in the Christian Scriptures—for example, the several loaves
and fishes accounts in the Gospels. Scholars say now that even while Jesus was
still alive, there seemed to be two traditions of open table fellowship: one of
bread and wine, the other of bread and fish. The bread and wine finally won
out—that meal is what we call the Mass today in the Roman Catholic
church.
But the bread and fish stories also point
to an open table fellowship tradition. The exciting thing about these stories
is that they emphasize surplus and outside guests. At the end of each event,
there are seven or twelve baskets left over. That surplus seems to be a point
of this form of table fellowship. It’s a type of meal we’d call a potluck
supper today. Apparently, Jesus invited everybody to bring their food together
and there was plenty for all the poor and then some.
It’s unfortunate that we lost the bread
and fish ritual meal, because the bread and wine ritual meal didn’t emphasize
this idea of surplus: real food that actually fed the poor. The bread and wine
tradition lent itself more to purity codes, insider/outsider dynamics, and
ritualization. The bread and fish tradition, if retained, might have
contributed to issues of justice, community, and social reordering. We see this
after the resurrection. In John 21:1–14, the apostles are out on the lake. They
see Jesus on the shore, cooking fish at a charcoal fire. He invites them to
come share bread and fish.
If we remember what happened after Jesus’
arrest, we see the significance of this charcoal fire. The only other charcoal
fire in the Gospels is where Peter stood when he betrayed Jesus (John 18:18).
Jesus invites him now to another charcoal fire, where they share the bread and
the fish. He says, in effect, “Peter, it’s okay. Forget it.” At this second
charcoal fire the risen Jesus initiates table fellowship with Peter, who just a
few days before rejected, betrayed, and abandoned him in his hour of need. It seems
the bread and fish meal also had a healing, reconciling significance. What a
shame we have lost this.
These are the inspired words of Richard
Rohr, and the community affirms them by saying AMEN!
Homily Starter I recently read this quote from Mother
Teresa, “I used to believe that God would feed the hungry, or do this or that,
but now I pray that God will guide me to do whatever I’m supposed to do, what I
can do.” I can understand where she started from, about believing that God
would do this or that. It’s what we were taught that today’s gospel was all
about. Jesus did some hocus pocus, I mean a miracle, and there was enough food
for everyone with 12 baskets leftover. That’s a fantastic story! But as Richard
Rohr points out in our second reading, Jesus could have also invited everyone
to share, and the miracle of potluck fed everyone with 12 baskets leftover.
Is one
miracle better than the other? Personally, I think getting all those people to
share with strangers was the bigger miracle! Not just because it requires them
all to believe that they have extra food but also because it involves sharing
with outsiders, with strangers. Sharing with our family and friends is a little
easier in terms of human nature, I think. But sharing with someone you don’t
know? That can be a little tougher for us.
And that’s
where the end of the Mother Teresa quote comes in, “God will guide me to do
whatever I’m supposed to do, what I can do.” That doesn’t say that any one of
us needs to do all of it. We’re just supposed to do what we can. And that is
more than enough! That is the source of our surplus. That is the source of our
abundance.
My friends, what did you hear today? What will you do?
What, if anything, will it cost 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 of the Community
As we prepare for the
sacred meal, we bring to the table our prayers and intentions, starting with
the words I bring to the table.
We
pray for these and all the unspoken intentions held in the silence of our
hearts. AMEN.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
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, Holy: Here In This Place – Christopher Grundy
ht
tps://youtu.be/uXyu57tR2gk
Guiding
Spirit, when opposing forces in us tug and pull and we are caught in the
tension of choices, inspire us to make wise decisions toward what is good.
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 and we are grateful for
this bread and wine which reminds 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.
(Lift plate)
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, go, share my
love with one another.
(Lift cup)
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.
We share this bread and
cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace. Please receive communion with the words: I
love abundantly!
Communion song: At This Table by Idina Menzel video by Denise
ttps://youtu.be/n9Xf4cHOcwQ
Holy One, your transforming
energy is within us and we join our hearts with all who are working for a just
world. We pray for wise leaders in our
religious communities. We pray for courageous and compassionate leaders in our
world communities.
We pray for all of us
gathered here and like Jesus, we open ourselves up to your Spirit, for it is
through living as he lived that we awaken to your Spirit within,
moving us to glorify you, 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
Loving source of our being,
you call us to live the gospel of peace and justice. We choose to live justly, love
tenderly, and walk with integrity in your presence.
BLESSING
Please extend your hands as
we bless each other.
ALL: May we trust the Holy
One’s abundance every moment of our lives. And may we love extravagantly, our
cups overflowing. AMEN.
Closing Song: Room at the Table
tps://youtu.be/92OM5bdQ4N4?si=dPimwxVfnzqqJkit
