Dear Ones,
(I have included links to music and pictures and an order of service so those who were not there (and those of us who were) can get a sense of the feeling of the service.)
Offered by Sr. Paula Clare Clouse, OEF
Opening Prayer
Welcome to the Sabbath: (From the book Common Prayer for Ordinary Radicals)
Lord of Creation,
create in us a new rhythm of life
composed of hours that sustain rather than stress,
of days that deliver rather than destroy,
of time that tickles rather than tackles.
Lord of Liberation,
by the rhythm of your truth, set us free
from the bondage and baggage that break us,
from the Pharaohs and fellows who fail us,
from the plans and pursuits that prey upon us.
Lord of Resurrection,
may we be into the rhythm of your new life,
dead to deceitful calendars,
dead to fleeting friend requests,
dead to the empty peace of our accomplishments.
To our packed-full planners, we bid, “Peace!”
To our over-caffeinated consciences, we say, “Cease!”
To our suffocating selves, Lord, grant release.
Drowning in a sea of deadlines and death chimes,
we rest in You, our lifeline.
By Your ever-restful grace,
allow us to enter Your Sabbath rest
as Your Sabbath rest enters into us.
In the name of our Creator,
our Liberator,
our Resurrection and Life,
we pray,
Amen.
Call to Worship: Sister Magdalena (Worship Team: Sister Mags, Brother Louis Canter, Owusu Slater, John Syvertson)
Worship Songs: Grace Like Rain, Revelation Song, I Stand Before God Alone
In Memorial: Brother Fred Ball, OFR
Laying on of Hands, Anointing with Oil, Prayer for the Sick: Sister Paula Clare, Brother David Fournier, Brother Neal Dunnigan
His Glory Appears: Sister Magdalena (during prayer time)
Communion:
Prayer for Communion/Eucharist (Common Prayer: Ordinary Radicals)
The table of bread is now to be made ready.
It is the table of company with Jesus,
And all who love him.
It’ is the table of sharing with the poor of the world,
with whom Jesus identified himself.
It is the table of communion with the earth,
in which Christ became Incarnate.
So come to this table,
you who have much faith
and you who would like to have more;
you who have been here often
and you who have not been for a long time
you who have tried to follow Jesus,
and you who have failed.
Come.
(Grape juice and wafers served in individual cups and passed to one another row by row)
Prayer After:
Loving God,
Through your goodness
we have this bread and wine/grape juice to offer,
which has come forth from the earth
and human hands have made. May we know your presence in the sharing,
so that we may know your touch
and presence in all things.
We celebrate the life that Jesus has shared
among his community through the centuries
and shares with us now.
Made one in Christ,
and one with each other,
we offer these gifts and with them ourselves,
a single, living act of praise.
Amen.
Sermon:
I intentionally did not put together Sunday’s sermon until I got here. I needed to again be in community with you to know, to discern, what God is saying to me…to US. And so, as I have been processing all the Spirit is doing, in and among and through us, and as I’ve seen and experienced many of us being so real and vulnerable with one another – I hear the Spirit asking me…asking us:
“Where is God calling us to risk?”
You see, I have this crazy idea that the North American Church CAN figure out a way to live out our faith without building walls and drawing lines of division. I am continually boggled that of all the institutions and organizations in and around America, it’s the Church who can’t seem to figure out how to worship across racial lines.
I am white. And therefore privileged. I am in the process of owning and figuring out what that fully means. Hearing from the panel this weekend helped in that process. But I am also a woman…and therefore seen as “less than” in some circles. I have been dealt harsher blows by the Church than by society at large…but still.
There are those in this order who have no place in which they can find safety. Not society. Maybe they are a person of color. Not the Church. Perhaps they are LGBT. Perhaps they are homeless…without a community? Maybe they are poor, without food or water for their children? What if the very ones with whom they are closest are also the ones with whom they have greatest issues? No safe place…Not society. Not the Church. Not the family. Who is to be a safe place for the least of these? Who will dare risk?
As Christ followers, as Franciscans, aren’t we (individually and collectively) to be the safe place for those who have no other safe place? Are we not the ones who best identify with outcasts?
I know I am not the only voice of the oppressed in the world. Far from it. I’m not even the collective voice of this community. But I am part of it. If you would, please allow me, for a moment, to be a voice of the hurting? A voice of those on the outside.
They say you should travel light
But most of our lives we carry it all on our backs
These days it isn’t our arms that stay weighed down
It’s our minds
We wake up in a panic
Its our thoughts that hyperventilate for fear
Of making mistakes.
For fear of failing or succeeding
Or fear that we’ll never move past our past
That we’ll be exactly who they said we’d be
That we’ll never be more than what was done to us
That we will continue to be taken advantage of
That we should accept shame as a companion to carry with us
That we should let the lies befriend us
The lies.
started in a garden…
Spoken slyly by a slithering serpent with his syrupy sweet:
“Did God really say?”
And we’ve be doubting ever since
Allowing an unwelcome guest to make himself at home in our lives, minds, gardens
Keep us bound with slithering fear
that we are damaged goods
Never going to be good enough
Not enough brains, not enough brawn
Not enough guts to take anything on.
But there is no time for being soft or weak
That at all times we have to be tough
That We’ll never be perfect that
We’ll never be worth it
That we’ll never be enough
And sometimes… we feel God calling us, nudging us
Trying to show us
But somehow we stay trapped
Behind walls of unbelief and unforgiveness
Our arms a weary rope caught in a vicious tension
Tug of war between our fear and our calling
Between worry and peace
Comfort and inconvenience
Comparing ourselves to each other
While battling low self esteem
Do we do what’s practical?
Or follow our dreams?
Do we take care of ourselves?
Or meet others people’s needs?
Should we fight?
Should we please?
Should we hide from who we are to put other people at ease?
And then the lies begin to echo and amplify
Loser
Time abuser
Mess producer
Who needs you?
She’s so much better
Just look at HIM
You actually thought that was a good idea?
Open your mouth and they’ll laugh long enough that you’ll shut your mouth
You aren’t smart enough
You aren’t good enough
You aren’t sharp enough
Who do you think you are?
Fear is our chain and it’s rattling us HARD
It’s the poison that deadens our hearts
Fear of failing
Fear of flailing
Fear of the arrows
Fear of The Way named Narrow
Fear of the rock in front of you that begs you sweat and climb
Climb out of that dead comforting pit they call status quo
And break right up through the earth and into the life you were born for
In the NOW of your life while there is still time and hunger in your veins
Turn around and shake off that snake
Because it’s head’s been crushed, no pulverized
So let go of the lie.
Sometimes we imagine that God’s voice is a disappointed hard lined teacher
Who is waiting to whack our knuckles with a ruler for any imperfections
But that isn’t God’s voice at all
That isn’t Gods heart at all
He speaks tenderly
He doesn’t need to raise his voice
He speaks as if He’s right next to us
Because He’s right next to us
Because He goes before us
Because His spirit lives inside us
He starts with love
And not because He is a hopeless romantic
But mostly because
He is ALL LOVE and HOPE and SECOND CHANCES
Let go of the lie and bind the wound with dressings of Truth that will heal your bloodied soul
Take that sharp edge of His Word and hack that snake creeping up the back your neck
The Word:
The only life hack that will hack off the lie of the snake and make your life whole
We fear that the place we think God’s love will run out or dry up
We fear that place where we think God’s love will run out, dry up, fall of the edge
And we’ll be left dangling beyond its reach
We fear that somewhere God’s love ends
But His love never runs out
His steadfast love surpasses suburbia
Canvases from skyscrapers to street corners from porch to stoop
His love is looking for you.
Who would you be?
What would you do?
If you weren’t afraid
Could be that you’ve always wanted to come up through the ground
in some desolate place that needed a tree
To bear some fruit for someone with their tongue stuck to the dry roof of their parched mouth
To be a limb that held some baby abandoned
To be a limb that someone could used to swing over the fence and free
We were made from dust
A bit of earth kissed by heaven
made to be groundbreakers
And peacemakers
And freedom shakers
So you can take your glossy magazine covers and use them for washing windows
Because we’ve always thought the most beautiful people have dirt under their fingernails
And could shake a bit of the earth out of their worn and pioneering shoes
And lets redefine comfort zone because wherever He takes you
You are with the Comforter
Wherever He calls you
You are always in HIS comfort zone
So live all your present moments in His presence
To keep company with Christ
To get in on the best
There’s a brave love generation right here and now and IT IS US.
Who come broken
Who are done being defeated by fear and worry and stress
Because it advertises the unreliability of God
Who want hard and Holy things because we want more than shallow lives
A life more than self focus and cell phones
More than iPhones, iTunes and iLove
Who want a life of loving the least, the lonely, and the lost
There is a brave love generation rising right here and now and IT IS US
Who are done with easy
Who know that being like Christ and caring for the poor in body and soul
Means more than just caring about easing our consciences
It means living real sacrifice
There is a brave love generation rising right here and now and IT IS US
Who say now is the time for the faithful
To sky dive and fly
To remember that we don’t have to strive to be anyone else
To stop taking issue with what God made
To accept that our perfect God makes no mistakes
There’s a brave love generation rising right here and now and IT IS US
To take the weight we carry on our backs
And offer it back to the savior who already carried the weight of the world on his shoulders
Who surrender
Who lay out alabaster hopes and dreams, grateful sinners at the feet of our Savior
There is a brave love generation rising right here and now and IT IS US
Who will no longer look for peace in opinions
But to find our solid ground in the Truth
There are many tomorrows to face
But today, lets open our hearts and our wounds and our stories
To the Great Storyteller
That our lives may be chiseled by HIS pen
That we may BELIEVE
That we may LOVE
That we may PRAY
That we may FIGHT
That we may REST
That we may LIVE!
Benediction: Lord of the Dance (Brother John Syvertson)
(Spoken word poem was written by Ann Voskamp. I have made minor changes.)
