Day 936: Let's get ready to celebrate tomorrow:

Sunday October 9, 2022

time 4:45 greeting each other. Everyone is welcome

In Person:

Knox Presbyterian and Thanksgiving Lutheran

1650 W 3rd St

Santa Rosa,CA95401

with Potluck following the Celebration

On Zoom

Here's the link to our Zoom meeting:

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

Passcode: 1234

Meeting ID: 519 315 8573

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Our Liturgy:

“Breathe with me for a moment…In Out…In Out…In Out… …. this is what Mary Oliver says: Breath is our own personal tie with all the rhythms of the natural world, of which we are a part, and from which, we can never break apart while we live.

Breath is our first language. A cardinal attribute of breath (or breathing) is, of course, its repetition. The galloping foot beats of the heart, that spell fear. Or the slow and relaxed stretch of breath of the sleeping child. In either case, by repetition, they make a pattern.

Truly this pattern is as good as a language.* It reveals a great deal: the depth of sleep, the stress or ease of the breather. If the pattern changes, we know it reflects something important—mood has plunged, or health has been touched by crisis, or the inner life, without being seen externally, has pressed upon the heart, has lightened or loosened the lungs. It is as good as a language. We sigh. We pant. We reveal ourselves.” (* Think of the EKG or EEG wave patterns, which offer such personal and accurate information about our bodies, and which physicians “read.”)

Tonight, the liturgy team will present their long time favorite poems and relay a few words as to what their particular poem has meant in their lives, and then, during our dialogue homily, we all will have an opportunity to comment on all the poems we have heard, and share if and how this poetry has nourished, enlivened or affected us.

Victoria rings the singing bowl X 3 to begin our liturgy with our Opening Song

Opening Song: I’ve Got A River (Spring Up O Well) (fade at 3:15)

Switch to Mary FitzGerald: who offers: Opening Blessing: (by Jan Richardson)

To your table you bid us come.

You have set the places, you have poured the wine,

and there is always room you say, for one more.

And so we come.

From the streets and from the alleys we come.

From the deserts and the hills we come.

From the ravages of poverty and from the palaces of privilege we come.

Running, Limping, carried, we come.

We are bloodied with our wars, we are wearied with our wounds,

we carry our dead with us, and we reckon with their ghosts.

We hold the seeds of healing, we dream of a new creation,

we know the things that make for peace, and we struggle to give them wings.

And yet, to your table we come.

Hungering for your bread we come;

thirstIng for your wine, we come;

singing your song in every language,

speaking your name in every tongue,

in conflict and communion, in discord and in desire,

we come, O God of Wisdom, Welcome us in!

Switch to Reader 1: Dan Vrooman: who offers:

EACH MOMENT A WHITE BULL STEPS SHINING INTO THE WORLD (by Jane Hirshfield)

If the gods bring to you

a strange and frightening creature,

accept the gift

as if it were one you had chosen.

Say the accustomed prayers,

oil the hooves well,

caress the small ears with praise.

Have the new halter of woven silver

embedded with jewels.

Spare no expense, pay what is asked,

when a gift arrives from the sea.

Treat it as you yourself

would be treated, brought speechless and naked

into the court of a king.

And when the request finally comes,

do not hesitate even an instant –

stroke the white throat,

the heavy, trembling dewlaps

you’d come to believe were yours,

and plunge in the knife.

Not once

did you enter the pasture

without pause,

without yourself trembling,

that you came to love it, that was the gift.

Let the envious gods take back what they can.

Switch to Reader 2: Ed FitzGerald : who offers: Self Portrait (by David Whyte)

It doesn't interest me if there is one God

or many gods.

I want to know if you belong or feel

abandoned.

If you know despair or can see it in others.

I want to know

if you are prepared to live in the world

with its harsh need

to change you. If you can look back

with firm eyes

saying this is where I stand. I want to know

if you know

how to melt into that fierce heat of living

falling toward

the center of your longing. I want to know

if you are willing

to live, day by day, with the consequence of love

and the bitter

unwanted passion of your sure defeat.

I have heard, in that fierce embrace, even

the gods speak of God.

Switch to Reader 3: Nancy McFarland : who offers: The Living Wisdom of Howard Thurman

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs.

Ask yourself what makes you come alive

and go do that.

Because what the world needs is people

who have come alive.

Switch to Reader 4: Victoria MacDonald: who offers: (A Rainer Maria Rilke poem)

As once the winged energy of delight

carried you over childhood's dark abysses,

now beyond your own life build the great

arch of unimagined bridges.

Wonders happen if we can succeed

in passing through the harshest danger;

but only in a bright and purely granted

achievement can we realize the wonder.

To work with Things in the indescribable

relationship is not too hard for us;

the pattern grows more intricate and subtle,

and being swept along is not enough.

Take your practiced powers and stretch them out

until they span the chasm between two

contradictions...For the god

wants to know himself in you.

Switch to reader 5: Steve Lyman: who offers: (Another poem by Rainer Maria Rilke)

It is possible I am pushing through solid rock as the ore lies alone.

It is possible I am pushing through solid rock as the ore lies alone.

I am such a long way in, I can see no way through, no space.

Everything is close to my face and everything close to my face is stone.

I do not yet know much about grief, this darkness makes me feel small.

You be the master, make yourself fierce, break-in,

You be the master, make yourself fierce, break-in,

And your great transforming will happen to me,

And my great grief cry will happen to you.

Switch to Reader 6: Mary FitzGerald : who offers:

The Journey (by Mary Oliver)

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice–

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

“Mend my life!”

each voice cried.

But you didn’t stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little

as you let their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do the only thing you could do

determined to save

the only life you could save.

Switch to: Pat O’Connor: who offers: (And another from Howard Thurman)

There is in you something

That waits and listens for the sound

Of the genuine in yourself.

It is the only true guide

You will ever need.

Switch to: Victoria (who will begin our Dialogue Homily):

Shared Homily for those on Zoom: Camera switches to: those with hands raised to speak; Victoria will stay unmuted to welcome persons who will speak and thank them when they finish speaking.

Switch to: Dan who will offer, “What intentions do we bring to our table tonight?”

Switch to Co-Presiders: Offering at our Eucharistic table

( Victoria )

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.

( Dan )

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.”

( Victoria )

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.”

( Dan )

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 the Your Living Body, Your Lifeblood.

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

( Victoria )

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.

(Co-Presiders hold up the bread and wine as we all say together:)

All: For it is... Through Him With Him And in Him

In the unity of the Holy Spirit

All glory and honor is yours, Almighty God, Now and forever

Amen

Amen

Switch to: ( Dan ): “Let us offer our communal prayer, Heavenly Father, Mother..”

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

-PJP

Switch to: ( Dan ): who Leads All to Offer Kiss of Peace:

“Let’s offer each other a sign of peace!”

Switch to ( Victoria ): who offers Welcoming Communion Prayer:

This is the table, not of the church, but of Jesus.

It is a table made for those who love God.

And for those who want to love God more.

So, come, you who have much faith, and come you who have little.

Come, you who have been here often, and you who have not been here long.

Come, you who have tried to follow, and you who have had a hard time even TRYING to follow.

Come, you who are thirsty and you who are hungry, and you who do not know whether you are hungry or not. Come, you who feel burdened and exhausted, and you who feel lost.

Come to the table.

Come, because it is Jesus who invites us.

Everyone Partakes of Communion at this time

Communion Song: Song: Tebe poem Chesnokov-Tenebrae (conducted by Nigel Short)

Switch to ( Victoria ): who offers Final Blessing: (by Rabbi Terri Harris)

Creator of the Universe

Bless us this night

Preserve us from our own presumption.

Do not let us close ourselves into ourselves

But open us contInually into You.

Let us be more in love with You

Than we are with our notions of You.

Let us stop claiming to know everything

So that we may understand something.

Increase in us kindness.

Make us people who care

And who take care,

Who venerate the truth

And recognize each other.

Draw us in with an irresistible beauty!

And the good people of our Emmaus Community say...Amen!

Amen!

Switch to Closing Song:

Announcements: Camera switches to: Victoria