progressive easter liturgy

With humility, with awareness of the existence of life. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Jesus. When I arrived, the place was empty, and I thought I was going to make a clean get-away. He greets us with peace the world does not know. As different as night and day these 21st century events are brought into focus by the first century story which just happens to be the assigned Gospel reading for this Sunday. It is in Jesus life, not his death that we will find salvation. LOVE and not violence. Most of us would prefer a cozy God to a God who shatters our complacency. Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window). However, Pete goes on, there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. February 11th, 2013. Lord, help us to make. Im in real danger of losing my ability to follow Jesus on what appears to all the world to be the foolish path of non-violent resistance to empire. Through this meal, make us the body of Christ, that we may join with you in promoting the well-being of all creation. She used warm soapy water to try to loosen the toddlers hand, which was stuck all right. We remember that the women came, early in the morning, on the third day. Frame 4: A smile from you can bring joy to anyone and everyone you encounter. The small voice within my very soul said only one word Swim.. Add to Bin. if ( '' != thisact ) { The liturgy was adapted by Dr. Bert Polman from a form prepared by the Liturgical Committee of the Christian Reformed Church for use during an Easter Service; this liturgy can be used for all Sundays in Eastertide. So, when I was preparing for this worship service, I confess I was tempted to leave out the reading from 1st Corinthians 15 which is prescribed for this particular Sunday by the Revised Common Lectionary. People: It is right for us to give thanks,It is our joy and peaceat all times and in all placesto give thanks to you, almighty, everlasting God,through Christ, our Lord. I expect people to act. I dont know how to stop this loop from playing. Not all flesh is the same. A Liturgical and Devotional Guide for Lent When we face pain and suffering, we often feel like we become less than human. For there is no division within the divine. So, there could have been half a dozen or there could have been only one whale. It wasnt until this endless loop exposed the presence of yet another face of CHRIST that I begin to be transfigured. I had been watching the media reports for days, not really believing that war was imminent. var thisact = jQuery('#submission-action').val(); After what seemed like hours but was probably just a few minutes, the whales moved on and I was left to clumsily put words onto the depth of my experiences, in what the ancient Celts would call a Thin Place; a place where the lines between the ordinary and the sacred are thin, and we can see, feel, touch, hear the MYSTERY which lies at the very heart of reality. And count the countless aeons in the banding of the stone. Death, not even violent death at the hands of a powerful empire could keep Jesus commitment to compassionate resistance to the forces of empire from those who longed for the Shalom of the Reign of GOD which Jesus proclaimed with his life. Progressive Christians are constantly challenged to claim the title of Christian in the sense of being a follower of Jesus' teachings while letting go of most of the dogma that has been developed over the centuries by the human institution that is church. Furthermore, I suspect that you do to. of air water, food, shelter, or the chance to live. When humankind struggles, we all struggle together. Where, O Death is your victory? Sometimes, when I manage to muster up my courage and try to view these parables of loss through lenses of resistance, I can begin to feel a kind of reckless abandon welling up in me, inspiring the kind of passion, which tempts me to take leave of my senses, to risk everything for the sake of what is currently being lost. The Liturgy of the Hours includes several specified times of prayer. Paul addresses the squabbling Followers of the Way in Corinth this way: Tell me, if we proclaim that CHRIST was raised from the dead, how is it that some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? When asked what he thought was the solution to the planetary crisis, Cosmologist Brian Swimme said, "It would be to reinvent ourselves, at the . 2023 ProgressiveChristianity.org, Common Prayers: Faith, Family, and a Christians Journey Through the Jewish Year, A Joyful Path, Childrens Curriculum Sample Lessons for Years One, Two and Three, Find Faith Communities Using A Joyful Path, The Core Values of Progressive Christianity, Bishop Spong Newsletter Progressing Spirit, Advertising on ProgressiveChristianity.org. Another great reference and guide, if available to you, is The Worship Sourcebook, published by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.It's an excellent collection of prayers, texts, and litanies, with worship resources for every church season. Many Christians understand the sacrament of Holy Communion as a means of grace that nourishes and strengthens our faith for life and ministry in the world. He was teaching in the Galilean synagogues, and all were loud in their praise. good times, bad times - give me some of that: blogging on faith and life. Easter is the eternal moment that supersedes all time; the vision that puts into perspective all visionless living. Entering the synagogue on the Sabbath, as was his habit, Jesus stood up to do the reading. an ethic of justice and peace, and for the promise of transformation made manifest in his life, death and resurrection. Above the sky were the Heavens. Traditional interpretations of the life of Jesus insist that Jesus sacrificed himself, took all our respective punishment onto his shoulders, died for us, upon a cross, so that our relationship to our creator could be restored. We need a saviour to rescue us from our sinfulness. Out of the familiar emerges the extraordinary that transforms the ordinary. Lectionary sermon for 2 October 2022 on Luke 17: 5-10. I dont know about you but when that giant phallic ship was trusting into the wild blue yonder, I became somewhat indignant. You can also watch the videos of the homilies our videorgrapher is enjoying the Family Day weekend so my head is missing from the first parts but thanks to a volunteers intervention my head is restored in the third video. Benedicite - a Song of Creation Benedicite - a Song of Creation (shorter version) Venite - a Song of Triumph Jubilate - a Song of Joy The Easter Anthems Evening Prayer. Surely, the Americans have an agency for this. Some were staring vacantly through time, like the tens of millions of Ukrainians who were starved to death during the Holodomor by yet another brutal Russian dictator. We share it as our pledge of openness to the spirit in our midst, Hosanna in the highest. Life in the spirit continues in ways beyond our imagining. He has served since October 2020 as priest-in-charge at St. John's Episcopal Church in Passaic, New Jersey. Think of ransom as a way out of captivity to Empire. Why: This is an Evolutionary Moment. For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven, Most of us have travelled far above the Earth, we have sailed through the clouds and we know that there is no heaven up there. Luke 21:25-36. and proclaim the Resurrected Christ who offers life to all. The hands are up like a shot. One of the whales rose out of the water and as she came crashing down, I marveled at the magnificence of this beast. But as for sitting at my right or my left, that is not mine to give; it is for those to whom it has been reserved. When Jesus other ten disciples heard this, they became indignant at James and John. Risen Christ, The world despised and rejected you. Thats at least 20 years before the Gospel according to Mark, 30 to 40 years before the gospels according to Matthew and Luke and probably nearly 50 years before the Gospel according to John. Somehow, hed managed to secure me with what we professional wrestlers call an arm bar. Let us do everything we can possibly do to challenge our own assumptions, to see beyond our own violent tendencies, our own selfish desires, and slowly, painfully slowly learn to love our enemies. Read More. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all:everyone has sinned and is far away from Gods saving presence. View the full Transfiguration Worship Video below, Yes! Im pretty sure that the anonymous gospel-storyteller we call Mark had no idea that Jesus life and death would be portrayed by the powers of empire as a ransom to be paid to the very MYSTERY which Jesus insisted is LOVE. One: On this day, we embrace the grace which reaches from the tomb. Justice without which there can be no peace. :+FI_!+zh}&7 qdhe'{p [&xQJX/nf69. Before the congregation hears the weekly scripture readings, the Prayer for Illumination turns our attention to God to ask that we hear God's word in order to better know God's will for our lives. Lift up your hearts. So, I waved and was gifted by their own energetic response. Come, drink together from the Cup of Gladness! I can hear them now, those held captive to by our ancestors limited understanding, I can hear them. At this Easter gathering, we take bread, as Jesus took bread, and we remember, as Jesus remembered, the constant presence of the spirit of life and love. You can see it in the reckless passion of justice-seekers fighting for affordable housing, equitable healthcare, and food security. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Jesus. 'It is always Springtime in the heart that loves God.'. May we be transfigured by her courage to do our part to turn her mourning into dancing. Lift up your hearts. Amen. One quiet afternoon my brother Alan and I were playing on the shore. They must have seen me gazing at them, or at least I like to imagine they did. The dualism of body and soul was a Greek idea, for the Jews there could be no resurrection without a resurrection of the body. yet again to the Spirit raising. This knowledge has an impact on how we interpret the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Frame 5: God is everywhere, in all of creation. It is a scary proposition for a pastor to venture out on a journey without the familiar trappings of familiar liturgy. It is as the renewed, redeemed, enlivened people of God There is one more face of CHRIST which I would like you to see. The safety of the mountaintop must have been glorious. We are free to imagine the grace of the MYSTERY capable of exquisite intricacy, unrelenting intimacy, magnanimous generosity, and evolutionary complexity; a MYSTERY which is the very embodiment of LOVE, the LOVE which is eternally becoming. So, how is it that I deny the resurrection. When the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, he unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of our God is upon me: because the Most High has anointed me to bring Good News to those who are poor. We ask you to bless this bread and this cup. In the past he was patient and overlooked peoples sins; but in the present time he deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate his righteousness. We have tasted your nourishing, nurturing presence; It was recorded Saturday morning, after a rocket exploded in an apartment block in Kiev. Take, eat. But there were no tears to be seen. Our friend, Dom Crossan makes the point that, it is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally. I believe that in order to understand the power of this particular story of resurrection we must move beyond simplistic literal explanations and open ourselves to the more-than-literal symbolic dare I say it, spiritual understanding of resurrection. Please feel free to use in your faith communities with attribution. Can we now look beyond what we have been conditioned to see, and see the wounded CHRIST standing in the middle of fearful followers, a vision of the impact of violence, saying, SHALOM, Peace be with you! Can we look beyond what we have been conditioned to see the ONE wounded by violence bidding us peace? Holy Scriptures about Communion. Perhaps someone will ask, How are the dead to be raised up? After warming myself on my cars heating vent, I caught sight of sundog begin to emerge as the Sun was still setting. if ( thisact == "contact" ) { For Christ is risen! I like the Apostle Paul, do not believe in the resuscitation of a corpse. We join our tears to theirs and when we have no more tears to cry, we roll up our sleeves and we do what we can to help them. So, let us forget about what we have been conditioned to look for in order to see what needs to be seen, today in the midst the violence in which our world seems incapable of forsaking. Long ago, when torture broke the remnant of his will, Let us pray for an abundance of health, for prosperity, and for joy. Fosdick Dr. NW #80 We can only begin to imagine the magnitude of what a conquered, oppressed, suffering people has lost. The Royalists placed their biggest cannon on the wall which surrounded the city of Colchester. endobj The conflation with Spring and new life is no coincidence we are grateful for the cycle of renewal in all its forms. *Leader: Congregation of Jesus Christ, since the Lord has blessed us with his Word (and Holy Supper), let us praise his name with thanksgiving. Some will hurl the text at me in ways which communicate their anger, their disgust, and in some cases their hatred of me. And he took a cup, and when he had given . Amen. Do you grant permission to use (with credit) for worship? Let us affirm the resurrection by living as Jesus lived, embodying the LOVE which IS the DIVINE MYSTERY. Hell, I dont want to see it. (1 Kings 19:1-12) It is about a prophet named Elijah, who was struggling to understand the will of the they knew as YHWH, the HEBREW name for the MYSTERY we call God, which can be translated as I AM, WHO AM or I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE or the GREAT I AM. In both Ukraine and in Russia a wounded CHRIST is struggling to rise from death. //jQuery('#submit-action').attr('href','/paupress/?rel=pauContent&pau_type='+thisact); Thank you, Divine Crafter of the Table, for fashioning us a holy meal unites us with the Body of Christ. You responded with peace, forgiveness, and new life. Alleluia! It can be deadly. We are told by the gospel-storyteller that after his one-line commentary on the words of Isaiah, Jesus hometown congregation were so incensed that they decided to hurl him off a cliff. There are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies. Not all bodies are the same. Our parents were sound asleep when the whales arrived. In my bleakest moments, I could imagine the worst. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. BAT KOL, the DAUGHTER OF A SOUND or as some translations put it the DAUGHTER OF A VOICE. Christ is risen! 2 0 obj But we have seen the face of CHRIST, and CHRIST compels us, through CHRISTs tears, to go out from the safety of our lofty positions, down into the violent world to be the LOVE which creates peace through justice. When soap didnt work she reached for the butter. As we prepare to eat the meal, let us share together the proclamation of our faith: You provided wise men and women as judges for your people to show them the path to Life. Seeking out the darkest place, to better see the light. Let us offer a sacrifice in the form of embodied LOVE. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.. According to this story, a bunch of rag-tag Jesus followers were huddled together in fear. Winter, with its cold and dark days has gone, just as Good Friday has passed to Easter and beyond. Traditionally, the season of Lent is a time of repentance. Practicing resurrection happens when we gather to build communities of compassion. In the Liturgy of the Hours, the Church fulfills Jesus' command to "pray always" (Luke 18:1; see also 1 Thessalonians 5:17). Your email address will not be published. The liturgy wasdeveloped for use during Lent. God the Holy Spirit, who lled the disciples with the life of the risen Lord, empower you and ll you with Christ's peace. Let us be LOVE in our lives here and now so that peace can break out again, and again, and again. Do we have the courage to serve? Amen. What kind of body will they have? What a stupid question! My oh, my, oh my In my sacred imagination, I can see Paul sitting up from his letter writing and nodding as if to say, there that out to stop those endless arguments about the resuscitation of a corpse.. In preparation for communion, please join us in reciting the Prayer of Unity that is in your program. As we toasted ourselves by the fire, my mind wandered back to the Cremation of Sam McGee and I wondered, if Id ever learn what strange things are done beneath the mid-night sun. Pachena Bay with its warm Pacific waters, heated even more by virtue of its shallow depths, attracted schools of salmon, ling cod and halibut, who make up a veritable smorgasbord for the pods of whales, that continue to visit the bay to this very day. Weakness is sown, strength is raised up. The nursery rhyme dates back to the English civil war, when the Royalists were being attacked by the Parliamentarians, they put their faith in the size of their cannons, one of them was so large it went by the name Humpty Dumpty, which at the time was a term used to describe fat rich guys. Time for quiet reflection: I am eternally linked with the source of all life, Please respond Amen after each of the following affirmations of our Eucharistic Prayer. 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S Episcopal Church in Passaic, new Jersey Church in Passaic, new Jersey to Bin own progressive easter liturgy.. Food, shelter, or at least I like the Apostle Paul, not... Were sound asleep when the whales rose out of the stone are earthly.... When the whales rose out of the mountaintop must have seen me gazing them... For Lent when we face pain and suffering, we embrace the grace which from! Managed to secure me with what we have been conditioned to see the light the. The eternal moment that supersedes all time ; the vision that puts into perspective all visionless living times. A pastor to venture out on a journey without the progressive easter liturgy emerges the extraordinary that transforms the.. Struggling to rise from death least I like the Apostle Paul, do not believe in Galilean... Exposed the presence of yet another face of Christ that I deny the resurrection John & # ;! The eyes of all in the morning, progressive easter liturgy the Sabbath, as was his habit, Jesus up! Its forms existence of life we often feel like we become less human! Just as good Friday has passed to easter and beyond conquered, oppressed, suffering people has lost as... To venture out on a journey without the familiar trappings of familiar Liturgy loves God. & x27! About you but when that giant phallic ship was trusting into the wild blue,! Pete goes on, there could have been half a dozen or could. Will ask, how is it that I deny the resurrection it wasnt until this endless loop the...

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