Please join us between 9:30 and 9:55 am via Zoom
Here is the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82512159155
phone-in for (audio only).Phone Number: (646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Welcome to our liturgy, during this beautiful Season of Creation. Today we learn from the scriptures of the book and of the natural world as they teach us about the myth of self-reliance.
Opening Prayer
Holy One, all around us we hear the message that we should rely on ourselves. We should be fiercely independent. We should pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. But when we look carefully at the rich tapestry of creation, we witness just the opposite. We see that nothing stands alone, we see that everything is connected. Help us to learn from the very tapestry that we are a part of that we are not alone. Amen.
Opening Song: Sanctuary, Carrie Newcomer
https://youtu.be/HjOioWTVAl4?si=WEWhcR4ILH-vqQLo
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: From The Serviceberry, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
In a traditional Anishinaabe economy, the land is the source of all goods and services, which are distributed in a kind of gift exchange: one life is given in support of another. The focus is on supporting the good of the people, not only an individual. Receiving a gift from the land is coupled to attached responsibilities of sharing, respect, reciprocity, and gratitude – of which you will be reminded.
This kind of gratitude is so much more than a polite “thank you.” Not an automatic ritual of “manners,” but a recognition of indebtedness that can stop you in your tracks – it brings you the realization that your life is nurtured from the body of Mother Earth. With my fingers sticky with berry juice, I’m reminded that my life is contingent upon the lives of others, without whom, I simply would not exist. Water is life, food is life, soil is life – and they become our lives through the paired miracles of photosynthesis and respiration.
These are the words of writer Robin Wall Kimmerer, and we affirm her words with Amen.
Alleluia (Eightfold) – Jan Phillips
Gospel: Luke 5: 17-20
One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the Divine power was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
These are the words of the gospel writer we know as Luke. We affirm these words with Amen.
Homily Starter:
The first part of our homily starter is accompanied by photos. Let’s begin.
It seems I am surrounded by tendrils. Tendrils are everywhere. They are attaching vines to our milkweed plants. They are attaching the grape vines attempting to overtake our fence. Everywhere I look in my garden I see tendrils.
When I look closely at them I notice that they are always reaching out. When they find something to hang on to they bend around the object, whether it’s a fence post, another plant, or even another tendril.
And once they attach, they strengthen the whole vine, providing the structure the vine needs to climb toward the sun and produce fruit.
But sometimes, a tendril fails to attach. When that happens, it seems to circle around itself.
The circles sometimes continue, spiraling up and up, attaching to nothing.
Sometimes, a lone tendril will even tie itself up in a knot.
Tendrils seem to work best when they find something to attach to, something to work with, to depend on.
We can learn a lot from these tiny teachers as they weave themselves into the tapestry that is meadow, forest, or garden. In the story of the gift economy we hear about in the first reading, the tree on which the berries grow has been gifted by sun and rain. The berries themselves are a gift from the tree. Robin, who is enjoying the berries, is the recipient of all of these gifts combined. And she in turn will gift many of the berries to her neighbors. The birds will also receive the gift of berries, and in return they will distribute their seeds far and wide. Each of them; sun, rain, tree, berry, Robin and her neighbors, and the birds, is a tendril which has entwined with another. Together they share a woven identity. In our gospel, when Jesus addresses the man he has just healed, he doesn’t say that the man’s faith has saved him. He also doesn’t say that he, Jesus, has saved him. Rather, it is the faith of the man’s friends; the ones who have lowered the man through the roof, that has saved him. The man, his faithful friends, and Jesus, are tendrils, woven together in the fabric of healing.
As human beings, many of us have been taught the value of self-reliance. Being able to take care of ourselves without relying on others, without “hand-outs,” without help, is sometimes seen as the great American virtue. So here we are, a society of loose tendrils, meandering about on our own, circling achievements and goals, attaching to nothing, and tying ourselves up in knots. We need only to look at the rest of creation, so perfectly interconnected, to learn that it is interdependence that brings strength. It is relationship that moves us into the Light. It is attachment that allows us to bear fruit.
Please share your thoughts.
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 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 concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table….”
We pray for these and all unspoken concerns. Amen.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
adapted from Diarmuid O’Murchu
With open hands let us pray our Eucharistic Prayer together:
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: Karen Drucker https://youtu.be/kl7vmiZ1YuI
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.
Your Spirit resides within and around us and all of creation, including 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 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, 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.
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.
Please receive communion with the words: The Divine connects me to everyone and everything.
Communion song: By Breath by Sara Thomsen (Video by Denise Hackert-Stoner)
Prayer After Communion:
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, 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.
Lynn Kinlan
BLESSING
Let us raise our hands and bless each other.
May we live our lives as tendrils that connect with the people in our lives and the creatures of this earth. May we work together to bring the Kin-dom to fruition. Amen.
Closing Song: TO MY PEOPLE: An Ode to Humanity | Empty Hands Music
https://youtu.be/sTBFGX54mpE?si=riSKA5h_BAsIpA9m
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