Do it for Christ’s sake. Do it in memory of her! Now is the time! Go for it! Pastor Dawn Hutchings' Homily for ARCWP Retreat Liturgy - Cleveland, OH - July 14, 2019

Gospel Reading: It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him;  for they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.” While Jesus was in Bethany reclining at table in the house of Simon, a woman entered carrying an alabaster jar of perfume made from expensive aromatic nard. After breaking the Jar, she began to pour the perfume on Jesus head. Some sad to themselves indignantly, “What is the point of this extravagant waste of perfume? It could have been sold for over three hundred silver pieces, and the money given to those in need!”  They were infuriated with her.

But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you criticize her? She has done me a kindness. You will always have poor people among you, and you can do them good whenever you want, but you will not always have me.  She has done what she could. She has anointed my body and is preparing it for burial. The truth is, wherever the Good News is proclaimed throughout the world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. (Mark 14:1-9)

Pastor Dawn's Homily

When I was a kid, we could never have imagined a world where people had cameras in their phones. When we wanted to remember something, we had to rely on the power of our memories. I can still remember my father encouraging my brother and I to stop what we were doing look around and “make a memory.” So, let’s stop what we are doing, take a few deep breathes and look around, focus and make a memory. Look around this room, at all these amazing, beautiful women and men because I know that in years to come you are going to remember each and every one of them. For each and every one of you are beautiful, courageous, outrageous, and memorable in your own right.

Now I have only been with you for a short while, but I’ve taken the measure of who you are and I can say without a doubt that you are all – how shall I but this, huuummm, I’m just going to go for it, you are such a beautiful bunch of bad-asses! I am going to take great delight in remembering you. Now let me assure you that were I come from, to call someone a “bad ass” is a complement!  A bad ass is someone who is courageous, insightful, funny, down to earth and more than ready willing and able to commit whatever outrageously extravagant act it takes to accomplish whatever must be accomplished. In all of you I see the same kind of bad-assory that has been handed down to us from women of old. If needs must, I can see each and every one of you bursting into any place where somebody needs to create a stink; the kind of stink that will stick around preciously because you have the audacity to speak the truth, not only in words but in deeds.

The anonymous gospel-storyteller that we call Mark, didn’t exactly do a great job of creating a memory. He may have forgotten the woman at Bethany’s name, but he couldn’t erase the memory of the stink she created.

The woman of Bethany who had the audacity to take on the role of priest and anoint Jesus with nard, walked in the long line of women, named and unnamed who have claimed their right to power. In order to break into the party, to commit the priestly act of anointing, I’m sure that this unnamed woman must have needed to take courage from the memories of her people that had been handed down to her, from mother to daughter for generations. I suspect that this unnamed woman may have had the names of women like Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah running through her mind giving her the courage to break open that jar and create a stink.

In case your memories don’t stretch as far back as remember the names of Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah, let me remind you of these badass foremothers of ours. Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milchah and Tirzah are the audacious courageous daughters of Zelophehad, whose memories should strike fear into any man who dares to deny a woman her due.  The memory of these women’s insistence upon arguing with non-other than Moses himself would no doubt have given the unnamed woman of Bethany courage to claim her right of anointing. Their story is recorded in the Book of Numbers, where you can read it for yourselves should you ever need encouragement in your quest to claim what is rightfully yours. According to the scriptures, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milchah, and Tirzah’s father Zelophad had died without a male heir and according to the law, Zelophad’s daughters were to be denied the right to inherit property. Well these women weren’t going to stand for losing their share of the promised land, so they took it upon themselves to do the unthinkable. They marched right up to the halls of power, which in those days was called the Tent of Meeting and they burst right on in there and proceeded to argue with Moses, Eleazar the Priest, and the entire assembly of men.

They must have put up a great argument because Moses was compelled to take their case to YAHWEH. As the story is told, YAHWEH was so impressed that YAHWEH commanded Moses to ensure that Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah inherit their family’s share of the promised land. Their story inspires me, so I like to imagine that the unnamed woman of Bethany would also have found inspiration in the story of Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah. I can almost see the unnamed woman of Bethany standing outside the house of Simon holding on to her most valuable possession, trying to summon up the courage to entry were tradition insists she does not belong. Yet, there was something in what she had experienced in Jesus that compelled her to act.

This unnamed woman would have known that what she was thinking about doing was an act normally reserved for members of the priesthood. Anointing Jesus head with oil was tantamount to proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah the Christ – the Anointed ONE, the one they had all been waiting for.  Could she do it, should she do it, what would the elders say, what would the powers that be do?

According to this story, the gathering this unknown woman was about to disturb took place in Bethany two days before the Passover and we all know what was about to happen. Even she must have known that Jesus was determined to enter the city of Jerusalem, even she must have known the dangers that lay ahead. If not now when?

I can see her now outside the house, excluded from the party, wondering if she dared, how she dared. I can feel myself willing her on! Go on girl, get in there, claim your priesthood, go on, do it create a stink! Remember you come from a long line of badass women!  Go for it!

Can you see it? It’s happening all over again. It may not be two days before the Passover, but there is danger afoot. There are children in cages, it is 85 degrees in Alaska. If not now when? Get in there and create a stink! Claim your place at the table! Claim your priesthood. Do it in memory of her. You know her. She’s Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah. She’s the unnamed woman of Bethany. She’s all those Mary’s who stuck with Jesus to the bitter end. She’s the First Apostle, she’s Phoebe, she’s all those who provided the means to spread the word. She’s all those women priests who served before the church became the empire and kyriarchy reared its ugly head. She’s ever sister who ever served this church we love. She’s every little girl who ever dared to dream. She’s our daughters and our granddaughters and every little girl that’s yet to be. Do it in memory of her! Get in there and create a stink! Do it for Christ’s sake. Do it in memory of her!  Now is the time!  Go for it!

Evolution is our fundamental reality - by Sister Ilia Delio in Global Sister's Report

July 15, 2019

https://www.globalsistersreport.org/column/spirituality-environment/evolution-our-fundamental-reality-56339?utm_source=PANTHEON_STRIPPED&utm_campaign=PANTHEON_STRIPPED&utm_medium=PANTHEON_STRIPPED

We are living in the midst of several major crises, including the environment and the institutional church. Does academic theology play a role here as well? Well, yes. As co-creators, we can begin to resolve some of the problems by better integrating theology and science.

Teilhard de Chardin is one the most important thinkers of the 20th century because he integrated theology into the wider current of modern science. He rightly stated that religion cannot be done outside or apart from the basic insights of modern science.

How often I have heard statements like "Evolution is not a proven theory" or "There are different theories of evolution" or "Quantum physics is an incomplete theory." If science actually followed these narrow ideas, we would not have electricity, running water, and certainly not computers and cellphones. We would live agrarian lives, travel by horse and buggy, and die at young ages.

Albert Einstein was a young unknown Swiss patent officer who dared to think differently about space and time and challenged Isaac Newton's ideas, eventually overthrowing the Newtonian framework. Did he have all the answers before he published his paper? Absolutely not. His theories opened up new windows and new conflicts.

Scientists continue to battle back and forth about quantum physics and a dynamic expanding universe but as the evidence continues to mount, Einstein's theory of relativity is seen to be correct. There is no such thing as absolute space and time, and matter is a form of energy.

Science has never waited until all the data is in because the data is ongoing; there is no terminus ad quem. However there does come a point when a sufficient amount of new data corresponds to experience and the prevailing paradigm shifts in a new direction, as Thomas Kuhn wrote in his The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

The scientist, like the theologian, must work through the tools and methods at hand to see if the insight is true, that is, if it is consistent with other data and with the larger phenomena of experience. But there is no arriving at a final set of data with 100% approval by scientists. Rather, every insight is a new beginning and every discovery is a new question. If science proceeded like religion, we would still be somewhere in the Dark Ages.

So why do theologians resist or circumvent the insights of modern science? This is a complex question because it reflects the way theology has developed in the church, the philosophical foundations of theology, the appropriation of theology by the church, and the manner of incorporating theology into the teaching of the church.

The institution safeguards the deposit of faith — but what really is being protected if that faith is no longer vital or essential to peoples' lives? Raimon Panikkar said to the effect that a Christology that cannot utter a divine Word falls on deaf ears. Our theology has become too small and narrow and we are not dealing with the most fundamental book of revelation, and that is the book of nature, as science understands nature today.

Teilhard stepped back and saw that religion and evolution belong together. That is, there is a religious dimension to cosmic and biological evolution that appears in the rise of human consciousness, first among pre-axial people religions, then in the axial age and the emergence of world religions. Christianity is a first axial religion marked by the rise of the individual and the rise of the institution.

We are living at the dawn of a new axial age, what Ewert Cousins called "second axial consciousness." This new level of consciousness differs from the first axial period in that it is no longer a consciousness of the individual but of the collective whole. Second axial consciousness is cosmic, collective, communal and ecological and it is the consciousness of younger generations.

Teilhard defined evolution as the rise of consciousness and saw the problem of Christianity in the 20th century (prior to the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council) as one of increasing irrelevance: Christianity "isolates [its followers] instead of merging them with the mass. Instead of harnessing them to the common task, it causes them to lose interest in it." In The Divine Milieu, he lamented that "far too many Christians are insufficiently conscious of the 'divine' responsibilities of their lives ... never experiencing the spur or the intoxication of advancing God's kingdom in every domain of humankind."

Lynn White made a similar claim, that Christianity is ambiguous toward the world; it is anthropocentric, otherworldly and dualistic. Constantly pointing to heaven, we learned to ignore the earth.

This was Teilhard's insight as well. Religion should energize and activate human creative potential in the building of the earth, he said, not isolate us from engaging new ideas and relationships. Religion as a dimension of evolution concerns the development of the human community, an integrated development that respects the earth and our total environment.

Teilhard did not see evolution as a forward movement without resistance. Rather the forces of history acting on humanity must either complexify and evolve humanity, or force humanity to wither. He felt that without a collective commitment to the future, the process of evolution could ultimately collapse in on itself and result in cosmic death.

The only solution he indicated is not "an improvement of living conditions," as desirable as that might be; rather evolution must be toward more being, that is, not only an evolution of consciousness but a new phase of life in the universe toward unification of mind by which the whole cosmic evolution progresses toward greater unity.

This kind of rhetoric is completely outside the theological canon and yet it brilliantly gets to the heart of the problem. We must come to terms with the fact that we are in evolution and this is a difficult point for both the institutional church and the academy.

Evolution is not a theory or an idea; it is our most fundamental reality. Teilhard was aware that a renewed planet of life will not arise if religion does not undergo a radical transformation of ideas, acquire new metaphors, and tell a new story that can harness the spirit of the earth along the lines of evolution. He devoted himself to developing a new theology of evolution in an effort to renew the vital religious dimension of cosmic life and spoke of the vitality of the church in movement, a Christogenesis.

The kind of religion we seek today, he thought, cannot be found in the religious traditions of the past linked to static categories. "God has become too small to nourish in us the desire to go on living and to live on a higher plane," Teilhard lamented. Science now tells us that the cosmos has become a cosmogenesis and this fact alone "must lead to the profound modification of the whole structure not only of our thought but of our beliefs."

What is needed, he thought, is a new religion that can utilize all the "free energy" of the earth to build humankind into greater unity. He suggested that the different religions must come together and find an axis of convergence through respect, dialogue and encounter, meeting on the level of mysticism and action. Without religious convergence, we are left with "unsatisfied theism."

Teilhard did not see Christianity as normative of religion but normative of evolution and the direction of evolution toward cosmic personalization, which is the building up of the body of Christ in the universe. The further evolution of humanity toward greater unity, he said, "will never materialize unless we fully develop within ourselves the exceptionally strong unifying powers exerted by inter-human sympathy and religious forces."

Rather than a religion that focuses only on individuals and heaven, he said, people are looking for a religion of mankind and of the earth that gives meaning to human achievements, a religion that will enkindle cosmic and human evolution and a deep sense of commitment to the earth.

Teilhard felt that any religion that remains detached from the earth and from the movement of evolution leads to "unsatisfied theism" or "a–theism," not a rejection of God but a rejection of religion disconnected from the impulses of cosmic life. Because religion is a vital dimension of evolution, he thought that religion is the necessary energy to vitalize the earth into a new unity, a new planetization that is now taking place on the level of the internet and global community.

Without the vitality of religion at the core of evolution, Teilhard indicated, we have no real direction and thus no real future together. Hence, we need a theology that can speak to a world in evolution and we need a church that can vitalize a world in movement.

If the church truly desires to make a difference in the world through a living Gospel, then it is time to bring theology into dialogue with the sciences. More so, we must accept evolution as our deepest reality and understand God's work in a world of change and complexity. Every theology student and seminarian should enroll in science classes for at least the first year of study, and every trained theologian should do theology with evolution as a starting point. Words like "being" and "nature" belong to the first axial period. Second axial language includes complexity, cybernetics, information and systems.

If we can realize that we live in a very large, dynamic universe, that evolution and the rise of consciousness is what impacts our understanding of God, and that without modern science at the core of our theological thinking, we cannot adequately preach the Gospel, then a new church can emerge.

Despite the mess we are in, God is still the power of the future and this power is truly known when we begin with a science charged with faith. Or as Alfred North Whitehead said, "religion will not regain its power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science"

[Ilia Delio, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Washington, D.C., is the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University. She is the author of 16 books, including Making All Things New: Catholicity, Cosmology, Consciousness (Orbis Books 2015), and the general editor of the series Catholicity in an Evolving Universe.]

Upper Room Inclusive Catholic Community - Liturgy for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Presiders: Margaret Dilgen and Dave Debonis

Liturgy - The Ministry of Jesus - Awareness of our Call

Welcome and Theme - Presider 1(Dave): I would like to welcome everyone to our liturgical gathering.  Today we revisit a well-known passage-the Good Samaritan-- and we consider its meaning from different perspectives and in light of the challenges of today.

Peace Prayer - Presider 2 (Margaret): Longing by Jan Phillips

Longing by Jan Phillips

I am the alms looking for the orphan

I am the blanket searching for the cold

I am the cure looking for the healer

I am the diamond longing fo the coal.

I am an ending seeking the beginning,

I am feeling pining after form,

I am the gallows calling for forgiveness

I am a haven longing for the storm.

I am the inner calling for the outer

I am a jewel crying for the mine

I am kinship searching for a family

I am the light-year hungering for time.

I am midnight chasing after morning,

I am newness aching for the old

I am oneness calling for the many

I am passion looking for a soul.

I am the question longing for the seeker

I am the rainbow yearning for the rain,

I am solace looking for the mourner

I am triumph thirsting after pain.

I am union calling to the lonely

I am voyage looking for the way

I am wind longing for the windmill

I am the yin falling for the yang.

As the spirit sings out for a body,

And the body ones itself to soul

I am ever fused to the Beloved

I am the part bowing to the Whole.

Opening Song: We are Called by David Haas

https://youtu.be/gzyczGMrL9U

Liturgy of the Word

First Reading:  Dt 30:10-14

Moses said to the people:
"If only you would heed the voice of the LORD, your God,
and keep his commandments and statutes
that are written in this book of the law,
when you return to the LORD, your God,
with all your heart and all your soul.

"For this command that I enjoin on you today
is not too mysterious and remote for you.
It is not up in the sky, that you should say,
'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us
and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?'
Nor is it across the sea, that you should say,
'Who will cross the sea to get it for us
and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?'
No, it is something very near to you,
already in your mouths and in your hearts;
you have only to carry it out."

These are the inspired words from the Book of Deuteronomy and the community responds by saying AMEN.

Alleluia

Gospel Lk 10:25-37

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said,
"Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law?
How do you read it?"
He said in reply,
/"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself."/
He replied to him, "You have answered correctly;
do this and you will live."

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus,
"And who is my neighbor?"

Jesus replied,
"A man fell victim to robbers
as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road,
but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal,
took him to an inn, and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,
'Take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you,
I shall repay you on my way back.'
Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers' victim?"
He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy."
Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

These are the inspired words of the gospel of Luke and the community responds by saying, AMEN.

Shared Homily  

Dave’s Homily Reflection:

The gospel reading has traditionally been interpreted in a certain way that on the surface appears to makes sense. Specifically, the priest and the Levite, who have special religious roles and are viewed as members of an elite group, do not help the injured man but the Samaritan, who is viewed as a member of an oppressed and misunderstood group, does help. The lesson often drawn from this parable is that the work of the Gospel is not about being “holy” or participating in church-related things. It is about compassion and caring for our brothers and sisters. The traditional interpretation also sometimes suggests that the lawyer is questioning Jesus not because he sincerely wants to learn, but rather to test Jesus. Remember, the word test was used when the devil tested Jesus in the wilderness.

The question for us today is whether the themes communicated by this traditional interpretation are truly the messages that Jesus intended. As we regularly do here in the Upper Room, we want explore this passage more deeply and we can do this with the help of the writing of Amy-Jill Levine, whose book Short Stories by Jesus, includes a chapter on the Good Samaritan. The author, who is a Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, describes her goal as follows: “This book is an act of listening anew, imagining what the parables would have sounded like to people who have no idea that Jesus will be proclaimed the Son of God by millions, no idea even that he will be crucified by Rome. What would they hear a Jewish storyteller telling them?”

First, the author notes that that there is no reason to believe that the lawyer’s questions are not sincere. For example, the lawyer’s question “Who is my neighbor” makes sense because Jewish law does not require him “to love his enemy who lives outside the boundaries of the community.” Jill-Levine points out that only Jesus requires that we love our enemies and that he may be the “only person in antiquity to have given this instruction.” This is a reminder to us how truly ground-breaking this concept was and is.

Second, the author points out that the priest and Levite were not viewed by the Jewish people as elites. In fact, they often relied on the generosity of the public for their financial survival. So rather than casting the priest and Levite as different from those listening to the parable, it was much more likely that the Jewish audience viewed them as one of their own. And perhaps they could also relate to their decision not to help the injured person. Jill-Levine notes that the best explanation for why they did not stop to help the injured comes from a speech Dr. Martin Luther King gave shortly before his death. He said: “It is possible these men were afraid…And so the first question that the priest and Levite asked was ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But the Good Samaritan came by and he reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’ 

So, the priest and Levite are all of us at times. Driven by our own fears, we often ask: “What is the cost to me of living out the Gospel message?”  And once we see ourselves as one with the priest and the Levite, humans who sometimes miss the mark, we no longer cast them as the “other” and we avoid the anti-Semitic sentiments that unfortunately appear in the gospel writings.

Finally, Jill-Levine reminds us that the Samaritan was not viewed by Jesus’ Jewish audience as oppressed but rather as the oppressor and would even go so far as to resist the thought of being saved by a member of this group. The author suggests that by having the Samaritan demonstrate such compassion would have shocked Jesus’ audience---comparable to saying “the good murderer” or “the good terrorist”--and raises another important question: Are we willing to recognize the human face of our enemy?  Can we acknowledge that all people have the ability to do good?  Do we truly believe what we say often at our liturgies that everyone has a spark of the Divine?

Margaret’s homily reflection:

Thank you all for your wonderful sharing. As always, you give us so much to think about it.

So, the question for me is “Who is my enemy?” The border guards who have been described as racist? The terrorists of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala?  The corrupt government? Where is the divine in them? I know it is in us to show the divine in ourselves by helping and standing up for the people of these countries.

Also, I placed two pictures on the altar today. The pain and the joy of life. Please take a look at these at the end of our liturgy today. 

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

(Written by Jay Murnane)

Presider 1: As we prepare for the sacred meal, we lay our stoles upon the table as a sign 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…”)

Presider 2: Please join in praying the Eucharistic prayer together.  

All:  God beyond our words, we gather to give thanks and open our awareness to the goodness of all of creation. You invite us to co-create with you and we remember our responsibility to serve.

We open this circle to the memory of all of the joyful troubadours and faithful servants who have gone before us. Joined with all that is alive, we lift up our lives and sing:

Blessed be our God! 

Blessed be our God!  

Joy of our hearts, source of all life and love!  

God of Heaven and Earth! 

God of Heaven and Earth! 

Dwelling within, calling us all by name!  

Alleluia, sing! 

Alleluia, sing! 

Gift of love and peace!

Gift of love and peace!

Jesus Christ, Jesus our hope and light!

A flame of faith in our hearts!

A flame of faith in our hearts!

Proclaiming the day, shining throughout the night!

Alleluia, sing!

Alleluia, sing!

(Alleluia Sing by David Haas) 

https://youtu.be/-FvAFEjAnrc

All: We thank you for Jesus, simple servant, lifting up the lowly, revealing you as God-With-Us, and revealing us as one with you and all of creation.

On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for the Seder supper with the people closest to him. Like the least of household servants, he washed their feet, so that they would re-member him.

Presider 1: (lifts bread as community prays the following:)

All: When he returned to his place at the table, he lifted the Passover bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread and offered it to them saying: 

Take and eat of the Bread of Life 

Given to strengthen you  

Whenever you remember me like this  

I am among you. (pause) 

Presider 2: (lifts the cup as community prays the following:)

All: Jesus then raised a cup of blessing, spoke the grace 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.  (pause)

Let us share this bread and cup 

To proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace.

All: We are willing to do everything Jesus did, to re-create the living presence of a love that does justice, of a compassion that heals and liberates, of a joy that generates hope, of a light that illumines people and confronts the darkness of every injustice and inequity.

So, we trust you to continue to share with us your own spirit, the spirit that animated Jesus, for it is through his life and teaching, all honor and glory is yours, O Holy One, forever and ever. Amen.

Presider 1: Let us pray as Jesus taught us:

O Holy One, who is 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 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  

(Miriam Therese Winter) 

Prayer for the Breaking of Bread

Presider 2: Please join in the prayer for the breaking of the bread:

Presiders break the bread

All:   O Holy One, You call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice.  We will live justly.

You call us to be Your presence in the world.  We will love tenderly.
You call us to speak truth to power.  We will walk with integrity in your presence.

(Presiders hold up bread and wine)

Presider 1: "This is the bread of life and the cup of blessing. Through it we are nourished and we nourish each other.

All: 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.

Communion Song:  The Summons by John Bell

https://youtu.be/o469PRLdbHU

Blessing

Presider 2: Let us raise our hands in blessing pray together:

All: May we continue to be the face of God to each other. May we call each other to extravagant generosity! May we walk with an awareness of our Call as companions on the journey, knowing we are not alone. May we, like Jesus, be a shining light and a blessing in our time!

All: Amen.

Closing Song:  Room at the Table by Carrie Newcomer

https://youtu.be/92OM5bdQ4N4