Saturday, October 21, 2023: Meeting information for Tomorrow & Tomorrow's liturgy by Marcie & John
Saturday, October 21, 2023: Meeting information for Tomorrow & Tomorrow's liturgy by Marcie & John
Community Meeting Announcement
Please join us for an Emmaus Community Meeting this Sunday at Knox Presbyterian or join us on ZOOM:
Sunday, October 22nd: We start at 2:30pm
In Person
1650 West Third Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
On ZOOM
Join Zoom Meeting using this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5193158573
Passcode: 1234
Or join the ZOOM Meeting by using the Meeting ID:
Start ZOOM, Select Join, and then Enter the Meeting ID at the prompt:
519 315 8573
Passcode: 1234
Whether you join in person or on ZOOM let your voice be heard. This is our community and we need the ideas and creativity of each person!
Introduction (Marcie)
Our theme this evening focuses on Power, more specifically, the power we have to heal Mother Earth. For the 3rd consecutive liturgy, we continue our focus on the environment and our power to help. What power is greater than the power of love? Some might say it’s the power of money or influence. We are living at a time when we see world powers demonstrate the misuse of power in their quest to dominate, manipulate, and win at all cost. Inside each of us is the power to do good or evil.
Opening Song - from Native American Music Awards 4/19/16
First Reading (Mary Ellen)
An older Cherokee man is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too. ”The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
Second Reading (Jim Keck)
Margaret Swedish, an advocate for ecological wholeness, believes our time of planetary crisis invites us to a deeper, more expansive faith:
We are coming to the end of the world, or at least to the end of a world. How it ends will be very much up to us. We have many choices in front of us, but not this one—that the world we know is ending. What has been familiar to us as a framework in which we have lived our lives for a very long time is ending…..
It is incumbent upon us to expand our experience of faith to embrace the full reality of our predicament and to inform the decisions we make from here on out. This is what Jesus did—face his world fully and honestly, not shying away from the suffering or the disquieting demands that it would make on him. We need a faith now that can help us face this world that we have made….and help us find a way through and beyond it….
Asking Forgiveness (Joe)
-For the times when we’ve bought things we didn’t need, or sometimes even want that much, we ask forgiveness….
Response (All) : Lord, hear our prayer.
-For the times we’ve wasted food or water, we ask forgiveness..
Response (All) : Lord, hear our prayer.
-For the times we’ve given up on government by not paying attention to how our tax dollars are spent and voicing our opinion, we ask forgiveness…
Response (All) : Lord, hear our prayer.
Great Mother Earth Gospel (John)
From Thich Nhat Hanh’s statement on climate change for the United Nations in 2014
The Earth is our mother, nourishing and protecting us in every moment–giving us air to breathe, fresh water to drink, food to eat and healing herbs to cure us when we are sick. Every breath we inhale contains our planet’s nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor and trace elements. When we breathe with mindfulness, we can experience our interbeing with the Earth’s delicate atmosphere, with all the plants, and even with the sun, whose light makes possible the miracle of photosynthesis. With every breath we can experience communion. With every breath we can savor the wonders of life.
We need to change our way of thinking and seeing things. We need to realize that the Earth is not just our environment. The Earth is not something outside of us. Breathing with mindfulness and contemplating your body, you realize that you are the Earth. You realize that your consciousness is also the consciousness of the Earth. Look around you–what you see is not your environment, it is you. The Earth is a loving mother, nurturing and protecting all peoples and all species without discrimination.
When you realize the Earth is so much more than simply your environment, you’ll be moved to protect her in the same way as you would yourself. This is the kind of awareness, the kind of awakening that we need, and the future of the planet depends on whether we’re able to cultivate this insight or not. The Earth and all species on Earth are in real danger. Yet if we can develop a deep relationship with the Earth, we’ll have enough love, strength and awakening in order to change our way of life.
Song: “Power” —John Hall
Shared Homily Introduction (Marcie)
"Relationship with God and relationship with the Earth are very prevalent in the Bible, but we focus primarily on our relationship with God and not the Earth. It's more than recycling and Styrofoam. It's about relationships with God, each other, and God's creation. It's about how we live with each other. It is a covenant.” Methodist pastor, Rev Pat Watkins
Questions for Reflection
-How do you see your relationship with God and the earth? -All relationships require care. What are you willing to do to improve your relationship with the earth and God?
Prayers of the Faithful
(John) What do you bring to the table?
Eucharistic Prayer
(Marcie) We gather at this table as disciples of Christ with loving hearts. We feel anointed by God to care for all of creation. We pray for wisdom to understand what we each can do, and the determination to carry out our plans.
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.”
(John) 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.”
(Marcie) Now, gathered at your table, we offer to you our gifts of bread and wine, and ourselves, a living sacrifice. Pour out your Spirit upon all these gifts that they, and we, may be the Body and Blood of Christ. Breathe your Spirit over the whole earth and make us 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.
(Holding up the bread and wine)
(All): For it is through him, with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, O Gracious God, now and forever. Amen.
(John): Now together, as one community, we offer to you O God, our prayer, in the name of your son and our brother, Jesus:
(All): Our Mother, Our Father, 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.
Sign of Peace
(Marcie) Let us now offer a sign of peace to those around us.
Communion
(Marcie) Everyone is welcome to this table. Our God, whom the universe cannot contain is present to us in this bread. Our God, who redeems us and calls us by name, now meets us in this cup. So come, beloved friends, and take this bread, drink this wine. In them, God comes to us, so that we may come to God.
We invite everyone now to partake of this communion we share.
Song: Be Still and Know that I am God
Closing Blessing (John)
As the killing continues in the Holy Land, it is good to be reminded that holiness is not the absence of evil. Holiness consists in the persistent hope that God can always bring good out of evil, even when
we humans can’t. -Michael Sean Winters 10/10/2023
May the God of every creature on the earth, large and small, bless us, keep us safe, and give us the will to care for the earth, the home you gave us.
And the good people of this beloved Emmaus Community say: Amen!