phone-in for (audio only).Phone Number: (646) 558-865
Season of Creation
Peace Prayer
Welcome: Welcome to our liturgy as we celebrate this beautiful Season of Creation. Today we will wrestle with ancient words, marvel at the world around us, and wonder at both.
Opening Prayer
Holy One, open our minds and our hearts as we listen to words of wonder, both ancient and new. Amen.
Opening Song: Invocation by Christopher Grundy https://youtu.be/A95UbOPVQKc
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: From: All’ve It by Matt Moberg
We keep finding reasons
to stay soft.
We plant tomatoes
even though grief is real.
We bake bread
even though the news is on fire.
We send photos of the sky
to people we love
with captions like,
“LOOK,”
as if beauty is an emergency
and we are all volunteer firefighters.
We keep saying,
“You have to see this,”
because wonder
is the oldest form
of resurrection.
So here’s to the believers
and the atheists
and the agnostics
and the people whose entire theology
is just trying not to cry
in the DMV line.
Here’s to the people clinging to faith.
These are the words of poet Matt Moberg, and we affirm his words with Amen.
Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia (Eightfold) – Jan Phillips
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:16-18
The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ?
The bread that we break,
is it not a participation in the Body of Christ?
Because the loaf of bread is one,
we, though many, are one Body,
for we all partake of the one loaf.
These words are from the Apostle Paul. We affirm them with Amen.
Homily Starter
What is the cup of blessing that we bless? What is the bread that we break? These questions are fraught with uncertainty, and have been the source of argument among many people, all of whom are trying to follow the way of Jesus. I want to approach the question tonight with the same sense of wonder suggested in our beautiful first reading.
What if our cup is blessed not because it holds one man’s blood spilled because of fear and hate, but the blood of every man, woman and child in human history spilled the same way and for the same reason? What if that same cup contains not just blood, but tears? What if every tear of pain and sadness, every tear of joy and surprise are right here, in the cup sitting before each of us right now? What if our partaking of all the blood and tears of humanity is our participation in the blood of the Universal Christ?
And the bread? What if the bread is everybody and everything that ever came into being on our evolving planet? What if the holy body of Jesus is joined in eternal celebration with the holy bodies of egrets and emus, ants and antelopes, humans and hamsters, the believers, the atheists, and the agnostics? What if by eating the loaf before us we are affirming that we, though many on this Earth, are one body?
I wonder.
What did you hear in the readings? Please share your thoughts.
Statement of Faith (for Season of Creation)
We believe in God, who creates all things,
who embraces all things, who celebrates all things,
who is present in every part of the fabric of creation.
We believe in God as the source of all life,
who baptizes this planet with living water.
We believe in Jesus Christ, seen in the suffering one,
the poor one, the malnourished one,
the climate refugee - who loves and cares for this world
and suffers with it.
And we believe in Jesus Christ, the seed of life,
who came to reconcile and renew this world
and everything in it.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the breath of God,
who moves with God
and who moves among and with us today.
We believe in everlasting life in God.
And we believe in the hope that one day God will put an end to
death and all destructive forces.
(Lutheran Theological College, South India,adapted)
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
Prayers of the Community
As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns. Please feel free to voice your own blessings and concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table….”
We pray for these and all unspoken concerns. Amen.
Eucharistic Prayer (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 the 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: Here In This Place by Christopher Grundy
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 bread is our very selves, lived as one.
(Pause)
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 with you in this world of joy and sorrow.
Whenever you remember me like this,
I am among you.
(Pause)
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: We are one in body and blood.
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.
Prayer of Jesus
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.
BLESSING
Let us raise our hands and bless each other.
May we live our lives knowing that in our beautiful and varied differences we are united in the one bread that is holy creation. May we find joy in the Great Love in whom we live, move, and have our being. Amen.
Closing Song: Holy, Holy, Holy, Peter Mayer
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.