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
Theme: Seeing With New Eyes
Welcome and Theme
Welcome to the Upper Room liturgy for the second Sunday of Lent. The transfiguration story that we will hear today can help us become more aware of the importance of viewing God, the world, ourselves and others with awe and reverence. In a sense to see with new eyes.
Opening Song: How Could Anyone Ever Tell You
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: The Besotted Mother
God fell in love with us
before we were born,
gently tracing each cell
in their billions,
and imagining with delight
our becoming
as we burst thro’
the cosmic dance of stars.
God surely is smiling
and delighting in this wondrous
and amazing creativity!
And as we emerged
into consciousness,
beholding all that moved
and danced and played
on and around our planet home,
God wept
in joy and delight –
overcome by our beauty
and dreaming
of our unique possibilities-
like any besotted Mother.
These are the inspired words from Edwina Gateley and the community affirms them by saying: Amen
Responsorial:
Kabbalah says that once we appreciate that the Divine Presence is everywhere, we come to realize that nothing is too small to be excluded from it.
R: I choose awe.
No gesture is inconsequential; everything has meaning - a falling leaf, a bird call, the shape of a cloud.
R: I choose awe.
If this is true, we can barely imagine the implications of the things we do.
R: I choose awe.
This is how we cultivate awe.
R: I choose awe.
(by David Cooper -from God is a Verb)
Second Reading: Being Seen
God loves us when we cannot;
God holds us when we will not;
God sees us when we dare not;
God knows us when we do not.
But, oh, that we might come
to love and hold ourselves,
to see and know ourselves,
that we might glimpse God.
These are the inspired words of Edwina Gateley and the community affirms them by saying: Amen
Response before Gospel
More Light by Christopher Grundy
Gospel: Matthew 17: 1-9
Six days later, Jesus took Peter, James and John up on a high mountain to be alone with them. And before their eyes, Jesus was transfigured-his face becoming as dazzling as the sun and his clothes as radiant as light.
Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said, “Rabbi, how good that we are here! With your permission I will erect three shelters here-one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah!”
Peter was still speaking when suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them. Out of the cloud came a voice which said, “This is my Own, my Beloved, on whom my favor rests. Listen to him!”
When they heard this, the disciples fell forward on the ground, overcome with fear. Jesus came toward them and touched them saying, “Get up! Don’t be afraid.” When they looked up, they did not see anyone but Jesus.
As they were coming down the mountainside, Jesus commanded them, “Don’t tell anyone about this until the Chosen One has risen from the dead.
These are the inspired words of the writer known as Matthew and the community affirms them by saying: Amen
Homily See With New Eyes.
The theme of this liturgy is seeing with new eyes. What this means is that if we can get our prejudices, pre-conceived notions, rigidity, fears unforgiveness and narrowmindedness in check, we can see as God sees. As illustrated in our readings and culminating in our closing song, seeing with new eyes is key to living kindom life now.
Just prior to this week’s gospel passage, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter gives the answer Jesus is looking for when he responds, “You are the Messiah, the firstborn of the Living God.” Jesus thentells his friends that he will soon suffer and die. Peter’s ability to accept this fact is immediately blocked when he could not envision a Messiah that would suffer and die. Jesus says to Peter, “Get yourself behind me, you Satan! You’re setting your mind not on the things of God, but of mortals”.
Jesus’ strange rebuke of Peter challenges him to expand his view of what a Messiah would do since the Messiahhe had waited for his whole life could not be killed by the Romans. The mystical experience in today’s transfiguration story harkens back to Moses’s meeting with God on Mount Sinai. The transfiguration story metaphorically describes how Peter, James and John saw Jesus through the eyes of God. In their spirits, they began to understand that this beloved son would be a messiah who suffers and dies because he is teaching a new way of life. One could imagine that they begin to understand that God sees Jesus and all humans the way a besotted mother sees her child.
Jesus’s life and teachings model and describe a way of being consistently in touch with God’s transformative vision. A judgmental and narrow outlook changes to one of openness and acceptance. This is why Jesus was not satisfied with the status quo of idolizing rigid adherence to law. He demonstrated a Love inspired way of living in the spirit of the Law. The communion song we will hear soon is called When the Best is Seen. By practicing justice rather than revenge or punishment, we learn to see as God sees. Seeing the best in others has a healing impact on our relationships. The song describes an amazing African custom of people encircling a person who has committed a crime. The whole tribe surrounds the person and each one tells the wrongdoer about all the good qualities and contributions he or she has brought to the tribal family. Restoration for the community and the individual is achieved by refusing to define a person by their mistakes but rather the totality of their goodness.
Each of the readings today prompts us to imagine how God as Creator sees all that has been created. It radicallychanges how we experience the natural world, ourselves, other people and God. We like the disciples can also encounter God’s presence.
May we use this season of Lent to become ever more in awe of God’s glorious presence that surrounds us like a cloud. May the inconceivable things of God become conceivable so that we, like the disciples, will see with new eyes.
Shared Reflections
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
Presider 1: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we share our intentions.
Presider 2: 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: Gloria by Christopher Grundy
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.
All lift the plate and pray:
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.
(pause)
All lift the cup and pray:
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.
(pause)
We share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace. We choose to live justly, love tenderly, and walk with integrity.
Please receive communion saying: I am / We are the Face of the Holy One.
Communion Song: When the Best is Seen by Debra Burger
Lyrics:
I am not your canvas. Your lens is made of glass
Don’t paint me with the colors left over from your past
I’m made in holy image. I don’t live in your dream
And I can be the best of me, when the best is seen
I can be the best of me, when the best is seen
In a village deep in Africa, when hateful crimes occur
Offenders are surrounded by the ones they’ve hurt
Then they’re told of all the good they’ve done, the many wondrous things
And the best of them returns to where the best of them is seen
The best of them returns to where the best of them is seen
So let me walk into your fire and see what doesn’t burn
I’ll look beyond the mask you wear and love the truth I learn
For your fragile bud will blossom soon. The browns will turn to green.
And you will be the best of you, when the best is seen
You will be the best of you, when the best is seen
When the best is seen, when the best is seen, when the best is seen…
Prayer after Communion:
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.
Presider 2: 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
Presider 1: Please extend your hands and pray our blessing:
ALL:
May you awaken to the mystery of being here
and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
May you take time to celebrate
the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
May you experience each day
as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.
May you see with new eyes.
AMEN.
(Excerpts of For Presence by John O’Donohue)
Closing Song:
Behold Now the Kingdom
