923: Sunday, September 25, 2022 Let's celebrate Today with Mary and Ed!

Join our celebration at 4:45 TODAY

Sunday, September 25, 2022

Join us in Person at Knox Presbyterian and Thanksgiving Lutheran

Address: 1650 W 3rd St, Santa Rosa 95401

Or on ZOOM with this link

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5193158573

Passcode: 1234

Meeting ID: 519 315 8573

One tap mobile +16699006833,,5193158573# US (San Jose)

Files for downloading in WORD and PDF Formats:

Opening:

After everyone has found a seat and said their hellos, we reconvene in the entryway. As Jim plays “Gather Us In” on the piano we process in while singing.

Opening Song: Gather Us In

Here in this place, new light is streaming,

now is the darkness, vanished away,

see, in this space, our fears and our dreamings,

brought here to you in the light of this day.

We are the young, our lives are a mystery;

we are the old, who yearn for your face,

we have been sung throughout all of history,

called to be light to the whole human race.

Gather us in, and hold us forever;

gather us in, and make us your own;

gather us in, all peoples together,

fire of love in our flesh and our bones.

Ed: Blessing our new home

Shine Your Light upon us, O God.

Gather us together, from east and west, north and south,

that we may come into your Loving Presence in this new space.

Open our ears, that we may listen,

and our hearts, that we may be readied

to meet you and see you here with us.

Bless us with generous hearts,

open minds, greater unity, renewed vision, always

as we begin again in this chapel for celebration and worship.

May it be a home where all are

welcomed, nourished, and empowered

to be Christ for others.

ALL: AMEN.

Mary:

And so we begin again. This year’s theme for our liturgies is listening. Two weeks ago we listened to each other speak of our sister Beth and the beautiful gifts she brought to each of us. I didn’t really know Beth, but by the end of the group’s sharing I felt like I did. And how wonderful it was to be together in person for that celebration!

This Sunday we thought we would take a look back at our last two and a half years of relative isolation and then talk about what we hope to bring forth from that time into our present day here at Knox, our new home, our new beginning. And so, “always we begin again.”

Readings:

Reader 1:

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

- Isaiah 43: 18-19

Reader 2:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here.”

- 2 Corinthians 5:17

Reader 1:

“We want only to show you something we have seen and to tell you something we have heard…that here and there in the world and now and then in ourselves is a New Creation.”

- Paul Tillich - The New Being

Reader 2:

“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.”

- T.S. Eliot - “Little Gidding”

ALL:

We are always starting anew; every moment is a second chance; we are continually presented with opportunities for new beginnings.

Mary: Homily Starter

Ed and I have a little saying that has meant a lot to us since our early days together in college. My high school teacher at the Academy of the Sacred Heart gave me a bookmark she had calligraphied with Dag Hammarskjold’s saying, “For all that has been – Thanks. For all that will be – YES.” For our tenth anniversary in 1984 I cross stitched this saying and it still hangs in our home today.

When I was thinking about today’s theme, it occurred to me that this quote is fitting for where we are today in our Emmaus journey as a community. We are grateful for our past, for our years at St. Patrick’s we say – THANKS! And to all that will be, to our future to come here at Knox, we say – YES!

Our most recent past, both as our Emmaus community and as a society, has been one of quarantine and isolation. It has been a hard time, for many of us a desert time of fear, anxiety, and loss.

In our shared homily today we ask you to reflect on what your life has been like since March of 2020. Share the hardships and challenges if you like, but try to focus on how this time has changed you.

● What have you learned about yourself?

● How have you been changed or cleansed by going through the desert time of the pandemic?

● How does your past experience of isolation influence your present?

● How do you hope it will influence your future?

● What have you learned about the value of community?

As the poetry of T.S. Eliot says, as we return from the two and a half years of our “exploring” and rejoin together in person in community, at the “place where we started”, how do we see the place as if for the first time?

Two minutes of music to reflect on what you want to share (Paths of Heart)

Homily Sharing

Mary: Prayers of the Faithful

What do we bring to the table this evening? What do you want to pray for?

Eucharistic Prayer

Ed: Spirit of the universe, You have filled us, and all creation,

with your blessing, and fed us with your constant love;

you have redeemed us in Christ Jesus, and knit us into one body.

Through your Spirit you replenish us, and call us to the fullness of life.

Mary: On the night before he died, Jesus was at table with his friends.

He took bread, gave thanks to you, broke it, and gave it to his friends saying,

ALL: “This is my body, broken for you.”

Ed: As supper was ending, Jesus took the cup of wine.

Again he gave thanks to you, gave it to his friends and said,

ALL: “This cup is the new covenant of my lifeblood shed for you and for all. And as often as you do this, You do this in memory of me.”

Mary: Now gathered at your table, we offer to you our gifts of bread and wine, and ourselves,

as living offerings of your love. Pour out your Spirit upon all these gifts and all of us that

we may be Your Living Body, Your Lifeblood.

Breathe your Spirit over the whole earth and make us all your new creation.

In the fullness of time bring us with all your saints from every tribe and language,

from every people and nation to feast at the banquet prepared from the foundation of the world.

Ed: Let us pray the gift Jesus gave us.

All: Heavenly Father, heavenly Mother,

Holy and blessed is your true name.

We pray for your reign of peace to come,

We pray that your good will be done,

Let heaven and earth become one.

Give us this day the bread we need,

Give it to those who have none.

Let forgiveness flow like a river between us

From each one to each one.

Lead us to holy innocence

Beyond the evil of our days

Come swiftly Mother, Father, come.

For yours is the power and the glory and the mercy:

Forever your name is All in One

Mary: Sign of Peace

May the love of Christ be in our hearts as we offer each other peace.

Ed: Communion Prayer

Everyone is welcome to this table.

Our God, whom the universe cannot contain

is present to us in this bread.

The God who redeems us and calls us by name

now meets us in this cup.

So, come, take this bread,

Drink this wine,

In them, God comes to us,

so that we may come to God.

Mary: Blessing

To receive this blessing, all you have to do is let your heart break.

Let it crack open.

Let it fall apart so that you can see its secret chambers,

the hidden spaces where you have hesitated to go.

Your entire life is here, inscribed whole upon your heart’s walls:

every path taken or left behind,

every face you turned toward or turned away,

every word spoken in love or in rage,

every line of your life you would prefer to leave in shadow,

every story that shimmers with treasures known and those you have yet to find.

And so let this be a season for beginnings

for trusting the breaking, for tracing the tear that will return you to the One who waits

who watches, who works within

the rending, to make your heart whole.

- Jan Richardson

“Always, we begin again”

And this beloved Emmaus Community says:

ALL: AMEN!

Closing Song (a surprise!)