Liturgies

GATHERING

ENTRANCE

REFLECTION

That day I saw beneath dark clouds
the passing light over the water
and I heard the voice of the world speak out,
I knew then, as I had before
life is no passing memory of what has been
nor the remaining pages in a great book
waiting to be read.

It is the opening of eyes long closed.
It is the vision of far off things
seen for the silence they hold.
It is the heart after years
of secret conversing
speaking out loud in the clear air.

It is Moses in the desert
fallen to his knees before the lit bush.
It is the man throwing away his shoes
as if to enter heaven
and finding himself astonished,
opened at last,
fallen in love with solid ground.

David Whyte, “The Opening of Eyes,” River Flow, p.31

GATHERING

ENTRANCE

REFLECTION

The empires of the world depend on force. They have come and gone; and the ones that now exist will follow in their turn. … Jesus, at his ascension, was given by the creator God an empire built on love. As we ourselves open our lives to the warmth of that love, we begin to lose our fear; and as we begin to lose our fear, we begin to become people through whom the power of that love can flow out into the world around that so badly needs it. And as the power of that love replaces the love of power, so in a measure, anticipating the last great day, God’s kingdom comes, and God’s will is done, on earth as it is in heaven. N.T. Wright, Following Jesus, p. 111

GATHERING

ENTRANCE

REFLECTION
But we have this treasure in clay pots so that the awesome power belongs to God and doesn’t come from us. We are experiencing all kinds of trouble, but we aren’t crushed. We are confused, but we aren’t depressed. We are harassed, but we aren’t abandoned. We are knocked down, but we aren’t knocked out. We always carry Jesus’ death around in our bodies so that Jesus’ life can also be seen in our bodies.  We who are alive are always being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that Jesus’ life can also be seen in our bodies that are dying.

2 Corinthians 4:7-11, Common English Bible

GATHERING

ENTRANCE

REFLECTION

Mary and Mary Magdalen loved with such a perfect love that they shed their fear. Certainly they grieved and experienced their hope flagging during the dark moments surrounding Jesus’ death. But they never lost their faith. It remained a small, steady flame that was fanned to brilliant, bold new life in the light of that Easter dawn. They challenge us to love and believe.

Joyce Hollyday, “An Invitation” in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter, p. 384, Plough Publishing House, 2003

GATHERING

ENTRANCE

REFLECTION           

The body of Christ by its nature exists to be a healer of the very kinds of wounds inflicted by white supremacy. The Christian church in America bears an extraordinary responsibility to address white supremacy’s thefts of truth, wealth, and power. The church’s complicated history, which tells of both its faithfulness and its failure in the face of white supremacy, demands an honest reckoning. The church must take seriously the work of repair because, in the most profound way, love is simply who we are.

Adapted from/inspired by Reparations, by Gregory Thompson and Duke L. Kwon