Theme: Be pure in heart and willing in spirit
Welcome and Centering Prayer
Presider: We gather at the table to share the
compassionate presence of God, aware that “we are called to act with justice,
to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with God”.
All: The love
of God loves through us as we comfort the troubled and confront injustices in
the most practical and immediate ways.
Being in Spirit with Jesus, we walk in his footsteps with pure and clean
hearts and a willing Spirit. Let it be
so. Amen.
Gathering Hymn: In The Name of All That Is - by Jan Novotka
(words on last page)
Presider: Compassionate God, to you all hearts are
open, no desires unknown, and no secrets hidden. Our desire is to be continually conscious of
this in our own lives and recognize this in all we do with others.
All (with an outstretched arm):
May we reach deep within ourselves to
hear Wisdom’s many messages, to faithfully understand them, and to respond to
them with compassionate actions to our brothers and sisters. May we emulate the virtues of pardon and
peace that Jesus taught us so that we may- in turn-be more forgiving in our care
for ourselves, for one another and for our planet Earth.
May we gather strength through the Divine
Presence within us, to extend your merciful and forgiving presence that is your
gift – through us – to everyone, everywhere - with whom you share your unending
love.
We ask this in the name of all that is. Amen.
Gloria
Presider: Let us give glory to our loving Holy One.
All (Sung): Glory to God, glory, O praise God,
Alleluia. Glory to God, glory.
O praise the name of our God. (3X)
Liturgy of the Word
First
Reading: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8 All: Thanks be to God.
Psalm 51. Responsorial:
Create in me, create in me, a pure
heart, Oh God, a willing spirit. #777
Second Reading: James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27 All: Thanks be to God.
Acclamation:
Celtic Alleluia
Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-16, 21-23 All:
Glory to you, O God.
el:
Mark 7:1-8, 14-16, 21-23
All:
Glory to you, O God.
Shared Homily and
Community Reflections
Homily Starter: Kathryn Shea ARCWP
This has been emotional week for me, as I am sure for
many of you. We lost Aretha Franklin and
Sen. John McCain, both heroes in their own unique ways. We also remembered and celebrated the
anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech on August
28th. So, I wondered what these
three people had in common? The answer
for me: They all lived life with a
“clean heart and willing Spirit” and exemplified the human spirit.
Dr. King, like Jesus, was willing to die for what he
believed in, and wanted all of us to share the same dream. He fought for racial equality, for justice
and liberty for all, and he too paid the ultimate price. But, we know his legacy lives forever and his
soul is eternal. We are all better
people because of his life and his death and the vision of his dream.
Aretha Franklin was born in 1942 in Memphis,
Tennessee, the fourth of five children. Her parents separated by the time she was
six, and four years later her mother succumbed to a heart attack. Her father was a Baptist preacher, and
eventually landed at the New Bethel Baptist church in Detroit, where he gained
national renown as a preacher.
Aretha’s musical gifts became apparent at an early
age. Largely self-taught, she was
regarded as a child prodigy. She was a
gifted pianist with a powerful voice and began singing gospel songs in front of
her father’s congregation. By the age of
14, she had recorded some of her earliest tracks, and while on tour, she
befriended gospel greats such as Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke.
But life on the road exposed her to adult behavior
and she was pregnant at the age of 14. A
second child followed two years later. This
could not have been easy. She continued
with her gospel music and singing and began to be recognized and eventually was
dubbed the “Queen of Soul”. In 1968
Franklin was enlisted to perform at the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
where she sang her heartfelt rendition of “Precious Lord”. My two favorite quotes by Aretha are, “We all
require and want respect, man or woman, black or white. It’s our basic human right,” and “The milk of
kindness flows through my body, I shall follow Jesus to the Taco Bell and give
thanks.” Rest in peace our beloved
Aretha Franklin.
And today, we bury our beloved Sen. John McCain. How many of you watched his funeral this
morning? What a hero among us, and we
are all blessed to have been sharing the Earth with him while he dwelt among
us. I did not always agree with his
political beliefs, but I believe he spoke his truth, in spite of some awful
criticism. He was dedicated to bring
forth the great possibilities of our Nation. There have been so many eloquent
eulogies given that I cannot possibly begin to site them all, but I especially
loved President Obama’s eulogy this morning.
He said, “John, called out the best in all of us. He was a warrior, a statesman, with an
enormous spirit to see the common ground.
His principles and values transcend parties. He believed that our membership in America is
based on adherence to a common creed; that all of us are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
So you might be thinking, how does this homily
starter tie into today’s Readings? I’m
not exactly sure, but these are the words that my White Owl Sophia gave to
me. So, if there’s a problem with it,
you can take it up with Her. What I see
is that in all the Readings, we are called to listen and welcome the word that
has been planted in us. But, we must act
on this word –because “if all you do is listen to it, you are deceiving
yourselves.” And then, in the Gospel
Reading, Jesus tells us that nothing that enters us from the outside makes us
impure. It is from within, from our own
hearts, that evil intentions emerge. All
of these evils come from within and make us impure.”
I think that Aretha Franklin, Sen. John McCain, and
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., are
examples of living with a pure heart and a willing spirit, and I am so
grateful to them; for their courage, their speaking truth to power, and their
actions. They were not perfect. None of us are. Jesus was not perfect. But, he was perfectly human. These dear ones we remember today were
perfectly human and their “best selves” are what we remember and honor. We are a better America because they were
here. We are a better world because they
lived.
I will close with Sen. John McCain’s favorite quote
from Hemingway, “Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that
ever come can depend on what you do today.”
Shared Homily and
Community Reflections
Profession of Faith
All:
We believe in the Divine Mystery, beyond all definition and
understanding, the heart of all that has ever existed, that exists now, or that
ever will exist in the expanding universe.
We believe in Jesus of Nazareth, the
human Jesus, an enlightened soul who carried the message of God’s Word, who showed
us how to heal ourselves and others, and the heart of God’s compassion. He is the bright star in the firmament of
God’s prophets, mystics, and saints. And it is through him that we become a new
people with a different story of salvation.
We are here to share his stories of the new message, that we are all
holy, we were born holy, and we shall be holy forevermore.
We believe in the Spirit, the one
that inspires our innermost life. She
keeps the Anointed One present to all those who are searching for meaning and
wholeness in their lives.
She strengthens our call to follow Jesus
as a vehicle of God’s love, and is the one who helps us reach within ourselves
to heal and energize us when our spirits may grow weary in our lives.
And we believe that God’s 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
Presider: With heads
and hearts mindful of God’s unconditional love embedded in each one of us, let
us bring our needs and those of our community forward. After each intercession, we respond: Holy
One, we offer these prayers. (Intentions are mentioned here.)
Presider: That those who suffer abuse, may be healed
and empowered, we pray.
All:
Holy One, we offer these prayers.
Presider: That those bound by hatred, hostility, and
violence will be set free, we pray. R.
Presider: That the sick may be healed, especially (mention names), we pray. R.
Presider: That those who have gone ahead of us --
especially, Sen. Joe McCain and Aretha Franklin, who dwell forever in our
heavenly home, we pray. R.
Presider: And for whom else do we pray at this
time? Other Intentions followed by R.
Presider: We
hold these and all our unspoken intentions in our hearts and take them with us when
we will gather around the Banquet Table.
Preparation of the Gifts
Offertory Song: We Come to Your Feast – Kate Cuddy &
Michael Joncas
(words on last page)
Presider: Blessed are you, Jesus of Nazareth, through
your goodness we have this bread and this wine and our own lives to offer. Through this sacred meal may we remember how
to live the new story.
All:
Blessed be God forever.
Presider: Divine Presence, we believe that you are
always with us, loving in each of us and healing others through us.
All: Namaste (with a nod…3x)
Presider: Lift up your hearts.
All: We lift them up in tender love, open to
serve.
Presider: Let us give thanks for all that we have.
All:
It is our joy to be grateful for our many blessings as we gather at our family
table.
(so… let us “gather
at our family table”…)
Eucharistic Prayer
Voice 1: Gracious Wisdom, you embrace us with your extravagant
affection in both our blessedness and times of weakness. You are always with us and live in us, and we
in you. In this festive meal, your
Spirit is poured out to each of us gathered in this circle of your disciples to
share your gift of shalom, our peace. And we break out in joy as we sing our “family
camp song.”
All: We are holy, holy, holy (3x), we are
whole. You are…I am… We are (Karen Drucker)
Voice 2:
Gracious God, you
have set the banquet table and have invited all of us to the feast of unending
delight. Here we celebrate your divine love beyond what all words can describe. Your divine compassion connects us to the
young and the old, the least and the last, to everyone, everywhere, on our
journey into the heart of your mercy.
Voice 3:
We thank you, Holy Mystery, for the gift of Jesus of Nazareth in history
–and the gift of Jesus in faith. You brought him from among your people to
baptize us in your Spirit. His life was
moved by his vision of your presence in himself and in his mission, and he
recognized you in everyone he met. He
showed us, through his example, not only how we should live, but also what was
worth dying for.
Voice 4:
And when his time on earth had come, to a close, Jesus – aware of and
accepting his destiny – gave up his life for the values that he deeply
believed, lived and taught…his conviction that love is stronger than
death. And then, in providing an example
of this wisdom for all people in the ages to come, he opened wide his arms…and
died. And the Spirit that lived in Jesus
is resurrected in all of us who live the new story. Jesus is with us today as he will be through
the end of time.
All:
We remember the gift that Jesus gave us on the night before he died. He
gathered with his friends to share a final Passover meal. And it was at that
supper that Jesus took bread, said the blessing and shared it with them
saying: take this all of you and eat
it. This bread is you; this bread is
me. We are one body, the presence of God
in the world. When you do this, remember
me and all I have taught you. (pause a moment, then continue….)
All: In the same way, Jesus took a cup of
wine, said the blessing and gave it to his friend saying: take this all of you
and drink it. This wine is you; this
wine is me. We are one blood, the
presence of God in the world. When you
do this, remember me all I have taught you.
Presider: Jesus, who was with God “in the beginning of
the creation of the heavens and the earth,” is with us now in this
bread. The Spirit, of whom the prophets
spoke in history, is with us now in this cup. Let us proclaim this mystery of our faith.
All:
The Anointed One lives in us and through us in the world today.
Voice 5:
God, we know that you bless your church throughout the world. We, your people, desire to grow in our love
and caring for Francis, our Pope, Bridget Mary, our Bishop, and with everyone we
come in contact, especially those who live on the margins of church and
society. They are all our brothers and
sisters, and reflections of your presence in them. We remember also all those, living and dead,
who touched our lives and left their foot prints on our hearts. We remember especially….(mention names, if you would like to…)
All:
We believe that the Spirit of God is at work in and among us and can do
more than we can ask or imagine.
Amen. (sung, x times)
The Prayer of Jesus
All (sing): Our Father and Mother, who are in
heaven, blessed is your name…...
The Sign of Peace
Presider: God, we know that you give us peace and unity
beyond what any words can express. You
are here with us as we join hands in a circle of love and sing our prayer: “Let there be peace on earth.” (#532)
Litany at the Breaking
of the Bread
Presider: Loving God…All: you call us to Spirit-filled service and to live the Gospel of
non-violence for peace and justice. We
will live justly.
Presider: Loving God….All: you call us to be your presence in the world and to be bearers of
forgiveness and understanding, healing and compassion everywhere in your
name. We will love tenderly.
Presider: Loving God….All: you call us to speak truth to power. We will walk humbly with you.
Presider: This is Jesus, who calls us to open doors
that are closed and share our bread and wine on the altar of the world. All are
invited to eat and drink at this sacred banquet of love.
All:
When we share in this meal, we who have always been worthy, commit to
live your teachings, dear Jesus, and to tell your stories that allow Spirit to
rise up within us and empowers us to bring the kin-dom of God to this world. This is the good news of salvation.
Presider: Let us share and spread this good news! ALL: Amen. (As we share this sacred meal, we
say to one another with the passing of the bread, “You are the love of God in
the world.” When we share the wine we
say, “You are the peace of God in the world.”
Communion Music: Instrumental
Post Communion Meditation
Hymn: Get Ready My Soul - Daniel Nahmood
Chorus – (2 times)
“Get ready my soul I’m divin in.
Get ready my soul I’m divin in,
To the deepest kind of love.
To the sweetest kind of life.
Get ready get ready my soul “
Prayer of Thanksgiving
after Communion
Presider: Holy One, may this
Eucharist in which we share Jesus’s healing love, deepen our oneness with you
and with one another. May we reflect like
Mary, your mothering love for all your people everywhere. And may wonder and thanksgiving fill us with
knowledge and understanding as we experience the infusion of your love and
compassion in us, your sacred people. We
join in unity in this prayer with Mary, and her son, Jesus.
All:
Amen
Graditudes/Introductions/Announcements
Closing Prayer
All:
May our hearts be glad on our journeys as we dream new dreams and see
new visions.
May we live and work for mercy, peace and
justice, in our hearts for ourselves and our brothers and sisters…whoever they
are and wherever they are.
May we learn to bless, honor and hold in
reverence one another and the planet Earth.
May we continually remain clean of heart
and willing in Spirit. And may we be the
face of God to the world, reflecting a compassionate and caring presence in us
to everyone we meet.
Closing Community Blessing (extend a hand in mutual blessing.)
All (extend an arm in mutual blessing): May our gracious God, bless us all gathered
here, in the name of God our Creator, in the name of Jesus our Liberator, and in
the name of the Holy Spirit, our Sanctifier as we minister in love to one
another and to all those we meet on our journey. Be with us as we continue on our path and
follow in the footsteps of Jesus -- for we are the face of God to the world. Amen.
Closing Song: Oh Happy Day
– Aretha Franklin
Chorus
Oh happy day, (oh happy day)
Oh happy day, (oh happy day)
When Jesus washed, (when Jesus washed)
When Jesus washed, (when Jesus washed)
When Jesus washed, (when Jesus washed)
When my Jesus washed, (when Jesus
washed)
Washed my sins away
Commissioning
Presiders: May we all go
in the peace of Christ and our caring love for one another. Let our service continue!
All: Thanks be to God; let it be so.