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Love’s Challenge
Welcome: Welcome to you all! I’m so happy to be here with you all today as we celebrate our liturgy together.
Opening Prayer: Let us pray. Holy One, You invite us to be transformed by your love and justice even when it’s uncomfortable. May we step forward to accept your invitation. AMEN.
Opening Song: Quiet Place by the Many – video by MT Streck
https://youtu.be/hcq385i1kHE
LITURGY OF THE WORD
FIRST READING: A Reading from the Book of Malachi 3:1, 2, 3b, 5, 8, 16- 17(edited),19a, 20
“I am sending My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then, the One you seek will come suddenly to the temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, is coming!”, says the God of the Cosmos.
But who can endure the day of this coming? Who can stand when God appears? God will be a refiner’s fire and fuller's soap, refining the Levites, the priests, like silver and gold.
I, your God, will draw near to you for judgment. I will be swift to bear witness against evildoers and those who – without fear – deprive a laborer of wages, oppress a widow or an orphan, or turn aside a resident alien.
“Can a mere human rob God?, you ask. Yes! You are robbing me!”
“But”, you say, “How are we robbing You?”
“You are robbing Me of tithes and offerings. You store them up in your storehouses!”
Those who honored God consulted with each other. God listened. They wrote names on a scroll of remembrance, written in God’s presence.
“On that day,” says God, “they shall be mine! As a mother treasures her child, I will treasure these. As a father has compassion for his beloved, I will have compassion for these. As a parent loves, so I will love these.
“A day of reckoning will come; but for all who bear my Name, the sun of justice will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out leaping like calves from a stall.”
These are the inspired words of a Judean prophet, and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Gospel Acclamation: Celtic Alleluia by Christopher Walker – MT Video
https://youtu.be/4cs8NDVM3Vk
GOSPEL
A Reading from the Gospel attributed to Luke 21:1-19
As Jesus looked up, he saw rich people putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. Jesus said to the disciples, “This poor widow has put in more than all the others. All the others gave out of their wealth. She, however, gave out of her poverty. She put in all she had to live on.”
As Jesus was saying this, some people were remarking how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with great gifts dedicated to God. Wearily, Jesus said, “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another. Every one of them will be thrown down.”
“Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? What will be the sign that they are about to take place?”
Jesus replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the one,’ and ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them. When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be afraid. These things must happen first, but they do not mean the end is near.
Jesus continued: “Nations will rise against nation, kingdoms and empires will rise against each other.
“There will be great earthquakes, great famines and plagues in various places. Terrifying sights and great signs will come from the sky, from the cosmos itself.
“But before the end comes, you will be seized and persecuted. You will be handed over to synagogues and put in prison. You will be brought to trial before rulers and governors, and all on account of my name. In these very actions, you will bear testimony to me. So, do not fret in your hearts beforehand how you will defend yourselves. I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. But you will be betrayed even by your parents, by brothers and sisters, all siblings, relatives and friends. They will put some of you to death. You will be hated because of me. But not a hair of your head will be lost. Stand firm, endure, persevere, and you will gain Life.
These are the inspired words of the anonymous storyteller we call Luke, and the community affirms them by saying AMEN.
Homily Starter—Julie: As you know, we of the Upper Room incorporate readings from many sources and traditions to supplement traditional scripture readings. My personal practice is to pull almost exclusively from the Women’s Ordination Conference’s Comprehensive Catholic Lectionary. That’s where today’s readings are from. While reviewing them in preparation for today’s liturgy, I thought to myself, oh yes, the first reading addresses care for the most vulnerable among us, welcoming foreigners, and, my goodness, even wage theft. So applicable to today’s world! But the rest of the reading? All that stuff about stealing from God? Er, I don’t know.
Ditto the gospel. The widow’s mite? Iconic! But all that apocalyptic stuff about false prophets and the destruction of the Temple? Did Jesus even say that? So off I went to the Jesus Seminar for their opinion. While flipping through their book The Five Gospels, a line of red type leapt off the page, “Beware of finding a Jesus entirely congenial to you.” which is to say, beware of creating the Jesus we want, a Jesus in our own image, a Jesus who hates all the same people we hate.
In today’s world of algorithms and targeted ads, it’s easy to slide into an echo chamber of voices just like our own. This in turn makes it even harder to have civil disagreements with dissenting voices. It’s the trap of if everyone else agrees with me, what’s wrong with you that you don’t? We see it around us all the time. We fall into it ourselves. And the polarization grows.
Which is how we got here today, with two challenging readings. Because I squirmed at the thought that I was tempted to only use readings that I could unequivocally and enthusiastically talk about in their entirety. Because scripture just isn’t that tidy.
(And if you’re wondering, no, Jesus probably didn’t say any of that gospel, although the story of the widow’s mite, the disparaging stuff about the Temple, and the line about not losing a hair on your head are consistent with the way Jesus taught.)
What did you hear? What will you do? What will it cost you? Which is my way of asking—what would you like to share about today’s readings?
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
Julie: As we prepare for the sacred meal, 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 the unspoken concerns held in the silence of our hearts. AMEN
O Holy One, you have birthed us in goodness, gifted us with life and cherished us in love. In the heart of our being, your Spirit dwells; a Spirit of courage and vision, a Spirit of wisdom and truth.
In the power of that same Spirit, we lift our hearts in prayer, invoking anew the gift of wisdom and enlightenment, that we may continue to praise and thank you, in union with all who sing the ancient hymn of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here In This Place – Christopher Grundy, video by MTStreck
https://youtu.be/uXyu57tR2gk
Holy One, we see around us the work of your hands, the fruit of your wisdom and love. The unfolding story of creation witnesses unceasingly to your creative power. We, your creatures, often deviate from that wisdom, thus hindering your creative presence in our midst.
Sending among us Jesus, our brother, you birth afresh in our world the power of Sophia-Wisdom, and in the gift of Your Spirit, your creative goodness blooms anew, amid the variety and wonder of life.
(Extend 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 and for the sake of living fully, Jesus sat at supper with his companions and friends. He reminded them of all that he taught them, and to fix that memory clearly within them, he bent down and washed their feet.
(Lift the bread)
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 and love one another.
(Lift the cup)
He then raised high 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.
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.
In faith and hope we are sustained; in grace and dignity reclaimed. In praise, we thank you.
Please receive communion with the words: I live in light.
Communion Meditation: The Justice Song
https://youtu.be/IASdERt3-m0
Prayer after communion: Let us pray. 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:
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 raise your hands as we bless each other:
May we feel the love of the Holy One every day. May we be grateful for all that is good in our lives. And may we share the divine light each and every day. AMEN
Closing Song: Blessings by Hollow Coves (video, Denise Hackert-Stoner)
https://youtu.be/5M3JL9sHS5Q
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