Category: Prayers

Sunday Service 3.14.2021

GATHERING MUSIC     Basse et Dessus de Trompette   Clérambault

WELCOME and ANNOUNCEMENTS

LIGHTING THE PEACE CANDLE                   

A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires—that enter like rivers into the ocean which is ever being filled but is always still—can alone achieve peace, and not the person who strives to satisfy such desires.

Bhagavad-Gita, Hindu Scripture

PRELUDE                        Feuilles Volantes #1                      Duparc

OPENING DEVOTION                              Simone Weil,1909-1943

God rewards the soul that thinks of God with attention and love, and God rewards it by exercising a compulsion upon it. . . . We have to abandon ourselves to the pressure, to run to the exact spot whither it impels us and not go one step further, even in the direction of what is good.

MUSIC                        Il Pleut Bergère                 French folk song

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Let us prepare ourselves for the word of God as it comes to us in the reading of Holy Scripture. Our hearts and minds are open.  

               Luke 9:23-25 and John 12:24

For the word of God in scripture, for the word of God among us, for the word of God within us. Thanks be to God.

MYSTIC READING                                                   Simone Weil

REFLECTION                       Simone Weil

Simone Weil remembers a story that her mother told to her when she was 4 as she was recovering from an operation for appendicitis. The story is called Marie in gold and Marie in tar. A little girl was sent by her stepmother into the forest. She reached a house where she was asked: Do you want to enter by the door in gold or by the door in tar? “For me,” the little girl replied, “tar is quite good enough.” This was the right answer and a shower of gold fell on her when she went through the tar door. When she got home with all of her gold, the stepmother sent her own daughter into the forest for gold. The girl found the same house and was asked the same question: Do you want to enter by the door in gold or by the door in tar? She chose the golden door and was deluged with tar. [Simone Weil: A Life, Simone Petrement, p.9]. Weil later commented that this fairy tale had had an important influence on the rest of her life.

And that is clearly evident. Weil always had sympathies for the least and the lowest in society. As a child, 9 or 10 years old, in 1918 and 1919, she declared her sympathies for the Bolsheviks. She had sympathies for those who were humiliated in the Treaty of Versailles after World War 1. On a family vacation to the Alps in 1925, Weil befriended the chambermaids, the porter, the desk clerk, the bellhop and other hotel workers. She told them that they worked too hard and that they should organize and form a union. Her sentiments offended other guests at the hotel.

Throughout her life, she always had empathy for the victims.[Petrement, p. 23-24]

Weil was from a well-educated, cultured family. Her father was a doctor. She and her brother were extremely intellectual from a young age. Weil became a philosophy professor at a young age and embraced her vocation as an intellectual and a teacher. But she did not sequester herself in an ivory tower. In addition to teaching young people in school, she taught classes for laborers at night and on the weekends. She devoted herself to the labor movement and to helping any cause that was about honoring the humanity of the lower classes. She wrote countless articles, participated in demonstrations, took in refugees, and was constantly helping people. She was committed to changing the systems – financial, political, and social – that led to the abuse and degradation of people.

Throughout her life, Weil continued to actively form relationships with people of the lower socio-economic classes. And she devoted herself to the labor movement. She took a year off from teaching to pursue factory work so that she could personally experience that life. And at another time she took time off from teaching to work in the agricultural sector to personally experience that kind of life and work. She also went to Spain to participate in the Spanish Civil War. Weil put great store in personal experience. And throughout her life, though her ideas, her views on labor, her political inclinations, and her thoughts about pacifism emerged and changed, she did not change in her commitment to those who were victims, who were treated in any

way as less than. She gave her time, her intellect, her energies, and her money constantly to uplift others.

This commitment can also be seen in how she chose to live: Always in meager circumstances, unheated rooming quarters, sleeping on the floor, eating the food of someone poor, or a refugee. She could never feel comfortable indulging herself or
even taking care of herself when she knew that others were suffering or without. In fact, this aspect of her authenticity and integrity may have contributed to her death. She died with
tuberculosis in London in 1943, just 34 years old. She was there working with the French Resistance during World War 2. While she was being treated, she refused to eat any more than she thought a person in France would have to eat. It was minimal. And so starvation was a contributing factor in her death. Some thought that she intentionally starved herself to death to call attention to the suffering of others. This has not been fully resolved. But in any case, she was true to her principles.

In the preface to her biography of Weil, her dear friend, Simone Petrement, tells us, “To write of her life means to deal with her work, for the bond between her life and her thought was inconceivably close. Nobody has more heroically endeavored to bring her actions into accord with her ideas.” [Petrement, p. viii]

And here we turn to religion. As Christians, we might say that of Jesus: That he heroically endeavored to bring his actions into accord with his ideas. That is how we think of Jesus. His life and his values, his ideals, completely aligned. That is how we, as

Christians, define healing and wholeness. The alignment of our beliefs and our actions. Our journey in this life is to bring together our behavior, our choices, our lives and our moral values, our ethical commitments, and our beliefs. The closer our values and our actions align, the more we feel whole, healthy, at peace. The greater the gap between our moral commitments and our behavior, the more we feel dis-ease, the more troubled our spirits.

Weil sought to close that gap in her life. From an early age, Simone Weil was seen as someone whose values and behavior were aligned and they embodied her concern and her commitment to the less advantaged sectors of society.

When she was a child, a nurse who had been employed by her father, observed, “Simone is a saint.” Indeed this was said about her repeatedly throughout her life. [Petrement, p. 16]

A saint. And yet, what were Weil’s religious commitments, her spiritual sensibilities? Weil was raised in a family that was agnostic, non religious, with an ancestral heritage in Judaism. According to the dictates of Naziism and the anti-semitism of the World War 2 era, Weil was Jewish. But as she points out when she is denied a teaching post because of her supposed religion, she has never been in a synagogue. So, can she be considered Jewish?

As an adult, Weil studied many religions. She read their sacred texts, often in the original language. She finally read the Old Testament and was dismayed at what she found. The God of violence and vengeance. Weil read the New Testament and found that much more aligned with her sensibilities of concern for the downtrodden and the universal family of humanity. She studied cultures and philosophers, ancient, modern, and everything in between. She found beauty and truth in all of them.

But in her later years, she found herself drawn to the Catholic church, a core component of French culture. She liked to visit churches. She adored Gregorian chant and made the effort to hear this haunting music especially on holy days like Easter. Weil had three intense mystical experiences that solidified her commitment to Catholicism. She experienced the presence of Christ. She was moved by the crucifixion and the passion of Christ and was envious that Christ was given the opportunity to suffer for others in that way. She recited the Savior’s Prayer, in Greek, each day and found her spirit transformed. She engaged in spiritual direction with a Catholic priest who became a dear friend.

And yet. Weil was never officially baptized. She never joined the Catholic church. And thus was never welcome to partake in the sacrament of holy communion though she longed to do so, to unite herself with the body and blood of Christ, to be with him in his suffering and death.

So, we must ask, why someone so Christlike herself, did not feel she could in good conscience, align herself completely with the church? There are several reasons for this and she explains them.

Weil was concerned about the power and influence of the church as a social structure. She tells us:

“What frightens me is the Church as a social structure. . . I am afraid of the Church patriotism that exists in Catholic circles. . . There are some saints who approved of the Crusades or the Inquisition. I cannot help thinking that they were in the wrong. I cannot go against the light of conscience. If I think that on this point I see more clearly than they did, I who am so beneath them, then I must admit that in this matter they were blinded by
something powerful. This something was the Church seen as a social structure.” [Petrement, p. 452]

Weil did not want to associate herself with the Church as a social structure that may be involved politically or patriotically, in ways that were in conflict with her morals and values. And this certainly happened during the World War 2 era.

Weil was also concerned that by officially committing to the church, she would be compromising her intellectual integrity and circumscribing her intellectual freedom. She tells us:

“. . . my vocation imposes upon me the necessity of remaining outside the Church, without so much as committing myself in any way, even implicitly, to her or to the dogmas of Christianity, in any case for as long as I am not quite incapable of intellectual work. And that is in order that I may serve God and the Christian faith in the realm of the intelligence. The degree of intellectual honesty

that is obligatory for me, by reason of my particular vocation, demands that my thought should be indifferent to all ideas without exception. . . ;it must be equally welcoming and equally reserved with regard to all of them.” [Petrement, p. 471]

So, in order to maintain her intellectual integrity and to use her intellect in service to the greater good as she felt called to do, she felt that she needed to remain outside of the church.

Weil also felt constrained against joining the church through baptism because she felt there were many things outside the Christian tradition and before the Christian tradition that were of God, and that she loved, and she did not want to devalue them by making that which is Christian pre-eminent. She tells us:

“So many things are outside it, so many things that I love and do not want to give up, so many things that God loves, otherwise they would not be in existence. All the immense stretches of past centuries, except the last twenty, are among them; all the countries inhabited by colored races; all secular life in the white peoples’ countries; in the history of these countries, all the traditions banned as heretical. . . ; all those things resulting from
the Renaissance, too often degraded but not quite without value.” [Waiting for God, Simone Weil, p. 32]

Weil felt that aligning herself with the Catholic church would require her to devalue or discard things of other cultures and eras that she loved and felt had value to humanity.

Finally, it was her conception of the universal love of God that kept her out of the church. She felt that all of humanity was equally loved by God. All created in the image of God. And yet the Catholic church, supposedly universal, defined people as in or out of the church, two groups, at least, and necessarily one of different value than the other. So, she tells us:

“The children of God should not have any other country here below but the universe itself, with the totality of all the reasoning creatures it ever has contained, contains, or ever will contain. . . . Our love should stretch as widely across all space.” [Petrement, p. 470]

She also tells us:

“. . . nothing gives me more pain than the idea of separating myself from the immense and unfortunate multitude of unbelievers. . . .” [Petrement, p. 45]

So, Weil is devoted to the spirituality and ritual of Catholicism, she embraces the values and morals and teachings of Jesus, she experiences the presence of Christ, she is passionate about the universal unconditional love of God, she honors the image of God in very person and the sacredness of all life, she accepts the forgiveness and potential for growth and transformation of Christianity, she values history and the intellect, and she cannot join the actual church. She felt that she had given her life to Christ, or that Christ had taken her life, but she could not join Christ’s church.

This should give us pause. There is obviously a gap between Jesus, the teachings of Christianity, and the actual human institution of the church. That will always be. And we should always be paying attention to that.

The concerns that Weil expresses also concern many of us. The alignment of certain expressions of the church with patriotism that betrays the teachings of Jesus. The cooperation of the church with systems of abuse and degradation. An anti-intellectualism associated with the church. The exclusivism in the church.

The principles upheld by Weil are things that many of us also value. And I think that many of us are here in this church because we are looking for an expression of Christianity that Weil
could embrace. And we are looking for a community in which to celebrate those values. A community in which to nurture and grow in those commitments. We are looking for support and solidarity on our journey as we seek to integrate our values and beliefs with our actions and choices. We, too, are seeking integrity, authenticity, and wholeness. We are seeking healing from the fragmentation, the hypocrisy, and the lies that surround us. We are committed to creating new systems and power arrangements that end oppression and abuse and degradation of people as well as the earth itself.

And we also want to offer all that we have been given toward creating a world of peace and dignity for all.

We are part of a different expression of Christianity. A way of following Jesus that leaves the exclusivity and patriarchy and cultural superiority behind. We are part of an expression of Christianity that celebrates the intellect as a divine gift. We are part of an expression of Christianity that is not limited by parochialism but celebrates the universal unconditional nature of Divine Love. It is an expression of Christianity needed today, for us and for our future. And maybe it is the kind of Christianity that could have been embraced by Weil.

Simone Weil was very much shaped by her time and her experience. She lived through two world wars. She participated in the Spanish Civil War. She lived through the advent of
communism in Russia. And she was shaped by her life circumstances, born to a French doctor’s family, plagued by health problems including debilitating headaches and perhaps
anorexia. She was dedicated to sharing the suffering of others, all the while taking risks and making choices that caused suffering for those that loved her, her friends and family, especially her parents. And through it all, she sought to live with authenticity and integrity. She sought to align her core commitments and her choices. She sought to live her life. Fully and freely.

In an article about her reviewing her life and work, scholar Stephen Plant tells us: “Those who write about Simone Weil (1909–43) use strikingly similar vocabulary, describing her as ascetic, brilliant, enigmatic, a genius, heretical, mad, mercurial, an outsider, passionate, prophetic, revolutionary, spiritual and

troubled.” [History of Western Philosophy of Religion, Simone Weil, by Stephen Plant, University of Durham, pp 199-210, accessed at
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/history-of-western-philosophy-of-religion/simone-weil/43059285EC8C47075E8F75ECD78E9B8C ]

These same things have also been said of Jesus. May we, too, live our lives fully and freely. And may we seek to create a faith community that supports us on our journey to wholeness. Amen.

UNISON READING                                                     Simone Weil

Except the seed die. . . It has to die in order to liberate the energy it bears within it so that with this energy new forms may be developed.  So we have to die in order to liberate a tied up energy, in order to possess an energy which is free and capable of understanding the true relationship of things.

MUSIC                                 je ne cuit pas                    Machaut

MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of Lakewood United Church of Christ, as part of the Church Universal is to:

  • Celebrate the presence and power of God in our lives & in our world
  • Offer the hospitality and inclusive love of Christ to all people.
  • Work for God’s peace and justice throughout creation.

MORNING OFFERING

Morning offerings may be brought forward and placed in the plates on the altar.

       Offertory         May We See Your Radiant Face              HKJ

USF Chamber Singers, Dr. John Richmond, dir.

Prayer of Dedication                                   Simone Weil

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.  It is given to very few minds to notice that things and beings exist.  Since my childhood, I have not wanted anything else but to receive the complete revelation of this before dying.”  May we dedicate ourselves to paying attention.  Amen.

MUSICAL CALL TO PRAYER         Je T’appartiens                    Bécaud

https://youtu.be/9_yUkEMKxZ0

COMMUNITY PRAYERS – SAVIOR’S PRAYER

Our Father who is throughout the universe, Let your name be set apart. Come your counsel. Let your desire be, as in the universe, also on earth. Give us bread for our necessities this day And free us from our offenses, As also we have freed our offenders. And do not let us enter our worldliness, But set us free from error. For belongs to you the kingdom, power, And song, from ages to ages. Sealed in faithfulness.   Amen. 

Aramaic version

*BENEDICTION (unison)                                       Simone Weil

We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but for the grace to transform them.                                                             

*POSTLUDE      Prière des Orgues (from “Mass for the Poor”)   Satie

Sunday Service 3.7.2021

This post includes the bulletin and music from last Sunday’s service.

GATHERING MUSIC        Kyrie from “Missa de Angelis”                           HKJ

WELCOME and ANNOUNCEMENTS

LIGHTING THE PEACE CANDLE                         Earl Waters, liturgist

When I walk through thy woods, may my right foot and my left foot be harmless to the little creatures that move in its grasses; as it is said by the mouth of thy prophet, They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.                                 

Rabbi Moshe Hakotun

PRELUDE                 Attende Domine from “Roma”                      HKJ

OPENING PRAYER           St. Francis of Assisi, 1181 or 1182-1226

Most powerful, most high, most holy, most supreme Lord, you alone are good, and all goodness comes from you.  May we give you all praise, all glory, all blessings and all honour.  And may we offer back to you all the good things which you have granted to us.  Amen.

MUSIC                       Salve Regina from “Roma”                           HKJ

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Let us prepare ourselves for the word of God as it comes to us in the reading of Holy Scripture. Our hearts and minds are open.  

               Luke 9:1-6 (selected verses) John 17:13-23 (selected verses)

For the word of God in scripture, for the word of God among us, for the word of God within us. Thanks be to God.

MYSTIC READING                                                   Francis of Assisi

REFLECTION                 St. Francis of Assisi     Rev. Mardie Chapman

This week we do not have a text copy of the sermon.

UNISON READING                                                     Francis of Assisi

You are holy, Lord, the only God, You do wonders. You are good, all good, the highest good, Lord, God, living and true. You are love, charity. You are wisdom, You are humility, You are patience, You are beauty, You are inner peace, You are joy. You are our hope and gladness. You are justice, You are moderation. You are all our riches; You are enough for us. You are beauty, You are meekness. You are the protector, You are our guardian and defender; You are strength, You are refreshment. You are our hope, You are our faith, You are our charity; You are our delight. You are our eternal life: The great and wonderful Lord, God Almighty, Merciful Saviour.

MUSIC                       Pange Lingua from “Roma”                                    HKJ

MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of Lakewood United Church of Christ, as part of the Church Universal is to:

  • Celebrate the presence and power of God in our lives & in our world
  • Offer the hospitality and inclusive love of Christ to all people.
  • Work for God’s peace and justice throughout creation.

MORNING OFFERING and COMMUNION OFFERING

Morning offerings may be brought forward and placed in the plates on the altar.

       Offertory         Sanctus from “Missa de Angelis”              HKJ

        Prayer of Dedication                                   Francis of Assisi

Almighty, eternal, just and merciful God, grant us the desire to do only what pleases you, and the strength to do only what you command.  Cleanse our souls, enlighten our minds, and inflame our hearts with your Holy Spirit, that we may follow in the footsteps of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

MUSICAL CALL TO PRAYER      Happy Are the Lowly Poor                  HKJ

(USF Chamber Singers recording) 

COMMUNITY PRAYERS – SAVIOR’S PRAYER

Our Creator, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever.  Amen.

*BENEDICTION (unison)              Clare of Assisi, 1194-1253, adapted

What we hold, may we always hold.  What we do, may we always do and never abandon.  But with swift pace, light step, and unswerving feet, may we go forward securely, joyfully, and lightly, on wisdom’s path.  Believing nothing, agreeing with nothing, which would dissuade us from our resolution.  Or which would place a stumbling block for us on the way.  So that we may offer our promises to the Most High God, in the pursuit of the sacred goals to which the Spirit has summoned us.  Amen.

*POSTLUDE          Lauda Sion Salvetorem from “Roma”              HKJ

Sunday Service 2.28.2021

GATHERING MUSIC                   Nimrod                              Elgar

WELCOME and ANNOUNCEMENTS

LIGHTING THE PEACE CANDLE            Barbara Donahue, liturgist

Hate It has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet

Maya Angelou, poet, 1928-2014

PRELUDE             All Things Bright and Beautiful         Shaw & Monk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHF-M1ioRyI

OPENING PRAYER                 Julian of Norwich, 1343 – after 1416

This is the reason why we do not feel complete ease in our hearts and souls: we look here for satisfaction in things which are so trivial, where there is no rest to be found, and do not know our God who is almighty, all wise, all good, God is rest itself. 

MUSIC                             I’ll Fly Away                              trad/HKJ

https://youtu.be/lDbeWwLknkQ

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Let us prepare ourselves for the word of God as it comes to us in the reading of Holy Scripture. Our hearts and minds are open.  

Deuteronomy 30: 11-14 and Matthew 22: 34-40

For the word of God in scripture, for the word of God among us, for the word of God within us. Thanks be to God.

MYSTIC READING                                              Julian of Norwich

From Revelations of Divine Love, also known as Showings

REFLECTION                  Julian of Norwich     Rev. Dr. Sally B. Purvis

Julian of Norwich. Reading Julian, thinking about Julian is like visiting a foreign country, a very foreign country where everything is different, sights, smells, tastes, customs, assumptions. In many ways you’re in a different world. And like foreign travel, the only way remotely to understand even a bit of Julian is to let go of expectations based on our experiences and culture. We’re going to a different place.

Who was Julian? We know very little about her. Unlike the very public figure of Teresa of Avila whom Kim talked about last week, Julian’s biographical details are very sparse. We’re not even sure her name was Julian! Here’s what we do know.

In 1373, a 30 year old woman lay on what she thought was her death bed. A priest was called to give her the last rites. As part of that sacrament, he held a crucifix so she could see it, and the crucifix came to life with blood pouring down Jesus’ face from the crown of thorns, and he spoke to her. That was the first of 16 revelations, or showings, as she called them, that she experienced lying on that bed.

Julian probably wasn’t a nun, but after she recovered her health she became an anchorite at the Church of St. Julian in Norwich, England. That means that a room was built onto the church, with a window into the sanctuary so that she could see the services and another to the outside so that her physical needs could be attended to by servants and others who helped her, but there was no door. No door. She entered the room and was enclosed, and she stayed in that room for the rest of her life. I invite you to spend some time imagining that later this week-maybe while you’re outside.

Shortly after she was enclosed, she wrote down her revelations and some commentary on them, and she called them “Revelations of Divine Love” in sixteen showings. We now refer to that account as the short text. Then twenty years later, she wrote another account of the revelations and added interpretations and insights that she’d gained over those twenty years of contemplation and prayer, and that became the long text.

She referred to herself as a “simple, uneducated creature,” and perhaps she didn’t have the classical education in Latin and Greek that was the standard at the time, but she was clearly an amazing thinker. And, she was the first person ever to publish in the English language. She wanted her experiences and her reflections to be available to everyone. She says at one point that she doesn’t want attention drawn to herself but to the revelations from God that she was given but that were given for everyone.

As the years went by, Julian wasn’t entirely a recluse. She had interactions with church officials and other contemplatives, and as her reputation for wisdom grew, she had many people come to her for spiritual guidance. But most of her time was spent in prayer and contemplation.

So what did God show her and tell her? LOVE and more love. Endless, all encompassing, intimate love of God for God’s creatures. Jesus was happy to die for us, but not in order to pay a debt to God that humanity couldn’t pay, which is the classical doctrine of atonement. No, Christ’s suffering was an expression of his love, to join us in our suffering, so that there is no distance between us. God is ALL love. Unlike the God of the 14th century church, and unlike the God some of us were raised with, there is no wrath in God, no anger. In the longer text, she even claims that God doesn’t offer forgiveness because there is no anger in God, so nothing to forgive. Humans need to forgive themselves and one another, but God doesn’t forgive. LOVE. Everywhere. All the way down.

Julian likens our relationship to God to clothing we put on. Touching our bodies, our most private selves. Intimate. Elsewhere she writes, “At one moment my consciousness was taken down on to the sea bed, and there I saw green hills and valleys, looking as though they were covered in moss, with seaweed and sand. Then I understood this: that if a man or a woman were under the wide waters, if he could see God (and God is constantly with us) she would be safe, body and soul, and be unharmed, and furthermore, he would have more joy and comfort than words can say.” Even at the bottom of the sea, we are held by, safe with God.

I hope you aren’t starting to imagine that the world of 14th century England must have been a wonderful place, peaceful, calm for Julian to receive such visions. On the contrary – the 100 Years’ War was raging, and the Black Plague killed 3/4 of the population of England at its height in the 1340’s when Julian was a child. 3/4 of the population. And the plague didn’t end then though it receded. With those numbers, everyone lost someone or someones, so grief filled every heart. The church was was very powerful, and like all powerful institutions, it was also corrupt. Poverty was extensive with power and wealth in the hands of a few. Like now. Very much like now. Maybe not entirely foreign. And yet out of this turmoil and injustice came revelations of love so profound, so encompassing, so universal that they seem, well, otherworldly.

Let’s try to move a little closer to the visions. God manifests as every loving relationship we know, sister, brother, friend, spouse as well as parent. Julian has a long exposition about God as mother, feeding us with her very self, holding us close, comforting us, protecting us. And God is our father, love through and through. Imagine that everywhere we turn, in every circumstance and situation, we are entirely surrounded by love, clothed in love, called by love. There would be no need for fear. All would be well.

As intimate as many of Julian’s interactions with God were, she was always mindful that it was GOD speaking to her, revealing truths to her. In one vision, God showed her a small round thing, the size of a hazelnut, resting in the palm of her hand. She realized that that nut, that small round object, was “all that is made.” God was all the rest. And the nut continued to exist because God loved it. It was held in being by God’s love, vast, unimaginable. Perhaps you’ve had a glimpse of that vision at the sea shore or in the mountains or the desert, the small scale of human existence. Julian was clearly aware of it.

With the powerful messages of her revelations, Julian wrestled during those 20 years of contemplation over the question of sin. She wasn’t delusional – she knew that there were very bad things happening. She ends up telling a parable about a lord and a servant. It goes like this: A lord is seated and a servant is standing nearby. The lord looks at the servant with love and the servant shows reverence to the lord. The lord sends the servant on an errand and the servant, and I quote, “leaps forward and runs in great haste, in loving anxiety to do his lord’s will.” But the servant falls into a hole he didn’t see and is badly hurt. He groans, and moans and tries to find a way out, not noticing that the lord is very near and could help if he but asked.

In this parable, sin is an accident that happens in the exuberance of doing something good and not noticing where we’re going. And then we forget that what we need to be healed is near us if we’d but look. All we need to do is notice that help is at hand. Julian even claims that there’s a part of every soul that’s impervious to sin, a part of every one of us that sin can’t reach.

God is also our source of prayer. AND, according to Julian, our prayers bring God pleasure. She says to pray even when you don’t feel like it, even if you think prayer won’t come, because you’re bringing God pleasure. Our prayers bring God pleasure. Wow. The loving relationship is always there, always holding us, always delighting in us, even when we’re totally unaware of it.

In Julian’s revelations, it’s as though we are always and everywhere swimming in a sea of love, walking in a cloud of love, We are immersed, embedded, soaked by God’s love. It’s the truest thing about us.

The revelations are amazing. Pure love, all the way down. Can we claim her revelations as a truth we can access, even believe? Maybe not, but there are some clues for us along the way.

First, we need to remember that Julian thought she was on her death bed when the revelations occurred. Her insights were born in suffering. I would never suggest that anyone seek out suffering or that we wouldn’t alleviate suffering whenever we can. But there’s a sense in which our culture sometimes almost seems embarrassed by suffering, as though it ’s somehow unseemly. I’m so glad that our president is acknowledging the loss and grief that Covid-19 has caused and is causing us as a nation and doing so in such a personal way. Rather than turning away from suffering, we can honor it, even as we work to diminish it. And suffering can be , often is, an occasion for reflection, not shameful at all but a part of life. For Julian, God is always with us there.

Second, it’s not an accident that after she recovered physically she chose to lock herself away. She needed to be alone with these revelations, with the God who had offered her such intimacy, to give herself every chance to be present to God. Like St. Augustine, Julian talked about how much trouble we cause ourselves by trying to fill the God-shaped hole within us with other things. Power, money, too much food, too much alcohol or drugs, even being busy with too many good deeds – you can add to the list. My teacher, Henri Nouwen, talked, wrote, preached about the toxicity of distractions, and that was back in the early 1980’s before there were smart phones and tablets. But distractions have always been with us. We humans are masters at creating them and just terrible of getting rid of them. Yes?

It’s as though we are afraid of what we’ll find if we focus too hard, if we truly do nothing for too long, if we become still. What will we do with the tattered remnants of our dreams that appear in the silence, or the regrets that buffet us like a strong wind? What will we make of the broken relationships with the sharp edges that still threaten to wound us? What about the ghosts of guilt that dance around us and through us?

Listen to Mary Oliver’s poem “A Visitor”:

“My father, for example, who was young once and blue-eyed, returns on the darkest of nights to the porch and knocks wildly at the door, and if I answer I must be prepared for his waxy face, for his lower lip swollen with bitterness. And so, for a long time, I did not answer but slept fitfully between his hours of rapping. But finally there came the night when I rose out of my sheets and stumbled down the hall. The door fell open and I knew I was saved and could bear him, pathetic and hollow, with even the least of his dreams frozen inside him, and the meanness gone. And I greeted him and asked him into the house, and lit the lamp, and looked into his blank eyes in which at last I saw what a child must love, I saw what love might have done, had we loved in time.”

Isn’t this part of what we’re afraid of? Some version of this poem? Too little love, too late, or not at all? That the love we really need will never find us? Love that we can’t quite reach or that can’t quite reach us?

What if, instead of staring at each other, looking for something that can’t be there, what if Mary and her father had turned and together looked for God. Perhaps even that would have been too late, but perhaps not. And in that turning, even the past might be reinterpreted, and love, love that may have been there all along, would emerge.

Sin is an accident, not the core of who we are, not our guiding motivation. And help is nearby. Love is nearby. All we need to do is notice and reach out. Wherever you go, Love is there. Whatever you do, Love is right beside you, clothing you, holding you.

As when we visit a foreign country, Julian’s revelations offer us another vision, another way to see the world and others and ourselves. They tell us not to be afraid. Not to be afraid of God. Not to be afraid of ourselves. Not to be afraid of the silence that is a destination filled with beauty and hope. Not to be afraid of life or suffering or the depths of the sea because God is always with us, in us, around us.

If we can’t manage all that, then at least we can speak to ourselves and one another, gently and with conviction, the words that Jesus spoke to Julian: “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

AMEN

UNISON READING                                                Julian of Norwich

At the same time, our Lord showed me a spiritual vision of his familiar love.  I saw that for us he is everything that we find good and comforting.  He is our clothing, wrapping us for love, embracing and enclosing us for tender love, so that he can never leave us, being himself everything that is good for us, as I understand it.

MUSIC                     I Will Give My Love an Apple               trad/HKJ

MISSION STATEMENT The mission of Lakewood United Church of Christ, as part of the Church Universal is to:

  • Celebrate the presence and power of God in our lives & in our world
  • Offer the hospitality and inclusive love of Christ to all people.
  • Work for God’s peace and justice throughout creation.

MORNING OFFERING Morning offerings may be brought forward and placed in the plates on the altar.

       Offertory                    As a Doe Longs                             HKJ

    USF Chamber Singers, Dr. John Richmond, dir. recorded 1980s

        Prayer of Dedication                                Julian of Norwich

And thanksgiving is also part of prayer.  Thanksgiving is a new inward awareness, accompanied by great reverence and loving fear, when we apply ourselves with all our might to whatever action our good Lord inspires, rejoicing and giving inward thanks.  And sometimes thanksgiving is so abundant that it breaks out into words and says, “Good Lord, thank you, blessed may you be.” Amen.

MUSICAL CALL TO PRAYER      The Turtle Dove             trad/HKJ

COMMUNITY PRAYERS – SAVIOR’S PRAYER

Our Creator in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.  Give us today our daily bread.  Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.  Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.  For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever.  Amen.

*BENEDICTION (unison)                                

Jesus said to her, “Sin is befitting, but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”  May you embrace and express the love that you are, that created you, that you are created to be and do, trusting in that love, that all shall be well. Amen.

*POSTLUDE                       Sine Nomine     Vaughan Williams/ (descants)HKJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7o-YsCJ2tU

*All Julian of Norwich quotes are from Mary C. Earle, Julian of Norwich: Selections from Revelations of Divine Love – Annotated and Explained

Advent Candle Lighting Liturgy and Daily Devotions for Week 4

This Advent season of 2020 the focus is on rekindling the gift of God. We certainly need our spiritual grounding and the gifts of faith to sustain us during these difficult times.

There is a ritual for lighting the Advent wreath each Sunday. Then there is a reading for each day of the week based on the theme of the week’s candle.

May we rekindle the gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love this Advent season!

Rekindle the Gift of Love

Lighting the Fourth Advent Candle – LOVE

In our homes we gather around wreaths to pray our lost hopes, broken peace, limited joys, and love so hard to find and share in this season of coronavirus.   We affirm that our candles mean we claim the power to call this season Advent, when God’s light comes into the world and nothing can overcome it.

Light three candles.

We light the candles of hope, peace, and joy.

Light the fourth candle.

We now light the candle of love even when many things dim our flame of love.

name places, issues, concerns, and people that need the healing power of unconditional love

God’s love illuminates hatred with a compassionate heart and lights the wick of love in our lives so that we may shine on the world with the flame of unconditional love.  Amen

Monday Dec. 21  LOVE

‘Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.’ 

                                                                                         1 John 4:8

This is a fundamental understanding of the Christian faith.  God is love.  We see that love in Jesus.  And he reminds us that we, too, are created to love. 

While this season may involve giving lots of gifts, and this year, that might involve sending lots of packages, here we pause.   And we ask, How am I sharing love in the world?  We are here to love, to be love, to give love.  So how are we embodying that love to others?  It may very well be in a wrapped gift, sent through the mail.  But there is so much more than that.

And while we are thinking of the love we have to give and share, we need to think about how we are loving ourselves.  How are we tending the flame of love within us? 

Prayer

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the birth of love, may we feel the love within us rekindled.  And may we, too, birth love into the world.  Amen.

Tuesday Dec. 22   LOVE

‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.’

Genesis 22:2

The verse above is the first time in the Bible that the word ‘love’ is used.  And what a story!  Abraham is told to take his only child, Isaac, into the wilderness as a sacrifice.  Once at the site, a ram appears caught in the thicket and Abraham is told to sacrifice the ram and not his son.  This brutal story is echoed in the story of God giving up Jesus as a sacrifice.  Love is not all hearts and rainbows.  Real love is messy.  It involves sacrifice.  It causes pain.  To live a life of love does not mean a life that is pain-free.  So while we celebrate love this season, we are aware that love involves pain and grief. 

This year we especially remember families who have lost loved ones to covid and as well as other causes.  We remember those who cannot be with loved ones.  Much love.  Much sadness.

Prayer

Love is our primary purpose as human beings.  We pray that we might give ourselves over to love, receive the gift, give the gift, even knowing it will involve pain and grief.  To avoid pain we may deny our deepest humanity and the humanity of others. And that causes a different kind of suffering.  May we remember that there is also healing and meaning and purpose and joy in love.  Amen.

Wednesday Dec. 23   LOVE

‘This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.’

John 15:12

In Jesus, we see a love that crosses boundaries, builds bridges, and overcomes divisions and labels assigned by society.  How we need that kind of love in our world and in our country now! 

As we await the celebration of Christmas, these last few days of anticipation, may we remember that Christmas really is for everyone.  Love is for everyone or it isn’t really love. 

Prayer

May we open ourselves to the love that is being given to the world at Christmas.  May we remember that love is for everyone.  No one is left out or forgotten.  Amen. 

Thursday Dec. 24   LOVE

‘And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.’

                                                                        1 Corinthians 13:13

It’s Christmas Eve.  Maybe a happy time for you.  Maybe a sad time.  Maybe a festive time.  Maybe more subdued.  Maybe there is disappointment.  Maybe gratitude.  Maybe your feelings are mixed.  Whatever you are feeling this Christmas Eve, look for the love.  Maybe you have to dig a little.  Maybe it’s covered or hidden.  Maybe it’s not where you expected to find it.  But search it out.  Love is the heart of Christmas and it is most certainly present!

Prayer

Whatever may please or disappoint this Christmas, may we look for the love.  It is there.  Everywhere.  And it is the only thing that really matters.  Amen.

Friday Dec. 25  CHRISTMAS DAY!

Celebrate the gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love that you are being given this Christmas!

List all the ways you are receiving these gifts today!

Advent Candle Lighting Liturgy and Daily Devotions for Week 3

This Advent season of 2020 the focus is on rekindling the gift of God. We certainly need our spiritual grounding and the gifts of faith to sustain us during these difficult times.

There is a ritual for lighting the Advent wreath each Sunday. Then there is a reading for each day of the week based on the theme of the week’s candle.

May we rekindle the gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love this Advent season!

Rekindle the Gift of Joy

Lighting the Third Advent Candle – JOY

In our homes we gather around wreaths to pray our lost hopes, broken peace, limited joys, and love so hard to find and share in this season of coronavirus.   We affirm that our candles mean we claim the power to call this season Advent, when God’s light comes into the world and nothing can overcome it.

Light two candles.

We light the candles of hope and peace.

Light a third candle.

We now light the candle of joy in spite of missing so many things we thought were essential to a merry Christmas

name the traditions, people, and activities that you are missing this year

God’s joy ignites embers under loss and sorrow and lights the wick of joy in our lives so that we may shine on the world – a simple smile and unexpected laughter – and brighten the path toward joy.   Amen.

Monday Dec. 14   JOY

‘Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.  He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.’ 

Luke 17:15-16

In the story of Jesus healing the 10 people who have leprosy, one of those healed comes back to Jesus rejoicing and praising God.  A joyous scene is portrayed. 

Jesus comes to heal and make us whole.  He comes to heal our wounds of hurt feelings and desperation.  He comes to heal the past which can control us to our detriment.  He comes to heal relationships and bring reconciliation.  He comes to make us whole when we have been battered and bruised by people in our lives who were to care for us.  He come to make us whole when we have been beaten down by attitudes and systems in society that seek to suppress us. 

Jesus comes to heal us and lift us up so that we are filled with joy.

This invites us to consider where we need healing in our lives.  What hurt and pain do we bear?  Maybe you want to jot down where you may need healing in your life.  How would you like to experience the healing power of Jesus that leads to joy? 

Prayer

Healing involves change.  Embracing a new reality.  Sometimes we fear change.  We become used to our aches and pains, our grudges and biases.  May we open ourselves to healing so that we may know joy!  Amen. 

Tuesday Dec. 15   JOY

‘Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;             break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;             the world and those who live in it. Let the floods clap their hands;            let the hills sing together for joy. . .’

                                                                                   Psalm 98:4,7

‘Joy to the world, the Lord is come!’

It’s a Christmas favorite and in our church we usually sing it at Easter, too! 

In this rousing hymn heaven, nature, Earth, fields, floods, rocks, hills, and plains along with humanity join in praise and joy for the wonder of God’s love in Jesus Christ. 

This carol celebrates that Jesus brings joy not only to humanity but to all of Creation.  It is a sentiment that prods us out of our anthropocentrism.  All of nature is rejoicing.  Jesus comes not just for people but for the whole world. 

While there are days that we may not feel much joy, nature continues to resound with joy – trees growing, animals building homes and nests, mycelium breaking down vegetable matter, creating soil, and sending messages to trees.  Yes, there are days when we don’t want to get out of bed, but nature continues to offer praise and joy. 

We can let nature lift us up.  We are part of nature, so our joy is to go on reveling in life no matter what the circumstances. 

Heaven and nature sing.  Repeat the sounding joy.  Of the wonders of God’s love.  May we join nature in joy and praise!

You are invited to note where you see joy in nature today. 

Prayer

All of nature resounds with joy.  Jesus brings abundant life and joy.  May we join nature in celebrating the wonders of God’s love.  Amen. 

Wednesday Dec. 16  JOY

‘Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.’

                                                                                    Matthew 2:11

This is the season of gift giving.  We especially think about giving gifts to children – toys, books, games.  I can remember when our children were young, one Christmas there were so many gifts we could not open them all on Christmas Day and had to continue the gift opening orgy the day after Christmas. 

That Christmas led to some soul searching.  What were we doing with all of those gifts?  What message was this sending?  It was certainly perpetuating consumerism and materialism – completely at odds with the teachings of Jesus and the message of the Gospel.  All those presents?  This is not what Jesus would want.

The next year, we got one ‘big’ gift for each child.  We spent much of the day at the local park, in the fenced in tennis courts, with the dog running loose, one child riding a new scooter and  one with new roller blades.  We had a wonderful time.

So, what are we looking for when we think about joy?  What brings us joy?  Are we thinking about something humongous and stupendous?  Are we thinking about material wealth and security?  Are we thinking about a miracle?  Or are we thinking about something simple. 

Survey your life.  Examine your expectations.  Jesus brings joy.  Are you open to receiving it or are you missing it, preoccupied and distracted by other things and missing the joy that you are being given?

Maybe you can make a list of where you are finding joy in the living of your days – even with the restrictions of covid.  Maybe even because of the restrictions of covid!

Prayer

Jesus comes to bring us joy.  Maybe sometimes we miss the gift we are being given.  May we open our eyes and our hearts to the joy that is being given to us.  Amen.

Thursday Dec. 17  JOY

‘David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their kindred as the singers to play on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise loud sounds of joy.’

I Chronicles 15:16

The Christmas season is known for its music.  What are some of your favorite Christmas songs?  Sleigh Ride?  We Three Kings?  Feliz Navidad?  Music expresses the joy of Christmas.  Maybe some years we put on Christmas music to reflect our joy at this season.  Maybe this year we need to play more Christmas music to help us feel the joy.  Remember the joy.  Rekindle the joy.  So, what is on your Christmas play list?  Are you making sure to listen to some Christmas music each day?

Think about how you are feeling right now.  Put on some Christmas music.  How do you feel after listening to it?  Hopefully, it gave you a lift! 

Prayer

Music is a divine gift of expression.  We give thanks for artists and musicians who lift our spirits through their creativity.  This season, we especially give thanks for Christmas music which connects us to the past and lifts our spirits in this moment.  Amen. 

Friday Dec. 18  JOY

‘Today salvation has come to this house. . .’ 

Luke 19:9

The story of the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus is a favorite.  The story exudes joy.  Zacchaeus is a rich outcast.   He climbs a tree to see Jesus.  Jesus treats him with dignity and respect.  His humanity is affirmed.  Over a shared meal.  That’s it.  No hocus pocus.  Or sacrificial penance.  Or groveling.  Jesus simply treats Zacchaeus as a person created in the image of God.  And Zaccheaus is overjoyed.  He is so grateful, he responds with lavish generosity for the poor and restitution to anyone he has defrauded.  This story shows us joy that is simple, powerful, and profound.

Over the holidays, even during covid, we want to try to keep things simple.  We can bring joy to others simply through respecting and affirming their humanity.  Is there someone in your life that you can uplift with joy in this simple way?

Prayer

Jesus comes to bring us joy by affirming who we are; each a unique child of God.  May we receive this gift and share it with others.  Amen. 

Saturday Dec. 19   JOY

‘I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.’

                                                                                    John 15:11

Many people think of religion as something hard, difficult, burdensome, constraining, and judgmental.  Go to church?  That’s like asking to be pinched. 

But Jesus came to bring joy.  He came to lift people up not slap them down.  He came to bear witness to the abundance and goodness of the realm of God.  It’s not surprising that he was known for his eating and drinking and partying!

If following Jesus makes you feel bitter and cheated, if it makes you feel privileged and entitled, well, maybe you are missing something. 

Following Jesus should lead us to be filled with humble joy. 

Give some thought to how your walk with Jesus brings more joy into your life.

Prayer

Jesus shows a life filled with joyful abandon.  He shows us how to celebrate the presence of Divine Love in our lives and in our world.  May our faith reflect the joy of Jesus.  Amen.