Unproofed. Ways to use SeasonsFUSION

Transcription

1 Ways to use SeasonsFUSION By Donald Schmidt A church in Hanapepe, Hawaii, had to combine worship and Church school when their church building was destroyed by a hurricane. When the new building was built, they found they had enjoyed the fusion so much they kept doing it. SeasonsFUSION seeks to capture a similar sense, and provide resources that support congregational life as we worship, live, learn and grow as disciples. These resources can stretch some of our understandings of worship, learning and serving, and seek quite literally to fuse them together. The resources are designed for time together, as well as apart, that is holistic, designed for all ages, and invites us into creativity. They are also designed to be used along with your own ideas; SeasonsFUSION will work best when a planning team is able to look at the materials and decide (and adapt) what will work best in your situation. Who is FUSION designed for? Congregations who are looking for resources that integrate or fuse worship, learning, and service, and support the many ways they practice Christianity. Smaller congregations where age range and numbers make age-level faith formation programs difficult to maintain and sustain. Small but vital congregations committed to faith formation and living their lives together in ways that embody and nourish faith. Congregations that look to lay worship/preaching teams and need some study helps. Congregations who want to experiment with reshaping their lives together as a worshipping and learning community. Congregations who are looking for support for growing faith and discipleship at home. Congregations that well, you fill in the blank! So, where to begin? The page About this Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 (p. 3) provides an introduction to the themes, mood and movement of the season. Consider copying/reproducing this page and distributing it to congregational members through the bulletin, church paper, or list. In addition, articles on pp. 4-5 introduce the Seasons art posters, and provide information to enrich the theme/direction of the season. Other articles, which enhance the weekly resources include: Celebrating the Season of Creation by Norm Habel...page 6 Forest by Theodore Hiebert...page 7 Land by Lee Levitt-Olsen...page 8 Wilderness/Outback by Norm Habel...page 9 River by Sue Brittion...page 10 Scripture from My Heart to Yours by Sarah Agnew...page 11 Here are the resources you will find included for each week: A Planning Page this weekly calendar page notes liturgical and ecumenical observances for the week, as well as including the lectionary readings at a glance. Biblical Background a brief commentary on the readings for the day, and the theme direction Reflecting on the Word reflective and thoughtprovoking questions. You may find this useful for adult studies, youth discussion, lay worship teams, young adults preparing alternative worship, sermon seeds for clergy, and so on. Focus for Worship, Learning, and Serving that considers what is going on in the lives of those who will gather on this day, and how the theme might intersect and connect with their lives. Worship Outline 3 pages of worship resources designed with all ages in mind, providing a wide variety of different experiences each week. Poetry and Prose Articles, stories, poetry, as well as saints and interfaith days. Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

2 Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Bible Story used in church, growing faith and discipleship at home. This story works across all ages, and is also available in MP3 on the Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Data CD. Faith Stations These can be used in a variety of ways. You might choose one, two or more to set up in or around the worship space, so people remain within the worship space, which is especially suitable for congregations where there are fewer children and young people. Some will want to offer them for children, youth, and others who leave worship for 20 minutes, usually during the sermon time. They can also be used in mid-week settings, or in the worship service itself. These activities are designed to affirm and foster the way we live, learn and grow as disciples. Resource sheet designed for use at one of the Stations. Activity sheet to be used by the very young in church time, posted to the church website for downloading, mailed or taken to families when visiting. One way to use SeasonsFUSION might look like this: a planning team (probably looking at several weeks at a time) decides which resources to use. As you explore the weekly scriptures you will note themes that apply to your church, and then plan to use or adapt some of the worship resources to suit your needs. Recruiting a wide variety of laity to help lead each week s worship is key to making this resource feel like it belongs to the whole congregation. Next, decide which faith stations you wish to have. This will depend on your interests as well as the ages and numbers of people likely to participate. Those who have left worship in the middle will be invited to rejoin the congregation for the end of worship time; this helps tie the events together and provide a cohesive sense of worshiping and learning together. Some additional resources that help support these materials: Music Booklet with sheet music and pages with lyrics only for copying. Data CD with: images for projection media presentation (PowerPoint ) Bible stories in MP3 format Station directions formatted for printing and display Extra Resources folder that will include extra resource sheets, patterns, and so on text files: worship outlines, articles, song lyrics for copying into bulletins and newsletters Living the Seasons At Home. This 8-page booklet provides a weekly engagement of the focus passage from the lectionary you will probably hear at church on Sunday. Each week provides an opening conversation that connects the theme with your life including a brief introduction to the focus passage and a summary of the reading. Finally, suggestions are offered to help you practice the Christian character lifted up by the theme and focus passage. You can also access these things at Spirit Sightings weekly stories and questions for connecting SeasonsFUSION with events in the world. Lectionary bookmarks. Go to Library and click on Overview Looking ahead a guide to the upcoming seasons. Go to Library and click on Overview Resources for Reformation and All Saints Days A virtual resource booklet with craft ideas, recipes, patterns, and more. Lastly, an evaluation form provides an excellent opportunity to let us know what is working, what you would like more of, and what is not helpful. In a new resource such as this hearing your thoughts and ideas is crucial, so please take a moment to fill out the form each season. So, are you feeling a little overwhelmed by the wealth of material before you? Don t be. While SeasonsFUSION may seem like a lot to digest at first you will soon find ways to tailor the resources to fit the needs, hopes, and dreams of your congregation. Like any church resource this material will work best when you work as a church to make it truly your own. May God be with you in this exciting journey! An editor of church resources for almost 20 years, Donald Schmidt was served on the Seasons editorial team for several years. He currently works as a writer and pastor in Seattle, Washington. 2 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

3 About this Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Let the Energy Flow (Laissez circuler L Energie) by Isabelle Mougeot. Copyright Isabelle Mougeot/SODRAC Used by permission. The energy of God s awesome, creative love flows through the two seasons of this unit of material. During the four weeks of September, we celebrate the Season of Creation. New to Seasons of the Spirit, this season has been observed by many for the past eleven years. While Season of Creation has its own set of lectionary readings, the readings are designed to provide a three-year cycle that broadly corresponds to the pattern or plan of the Revised Common Lectionary, with each year centred on one of the synoptic gospels: Matthew (Year A), Mark (Year B), and Luke (Year C). The readings for the Season of Creation invite us to join with all members of Earth s community to Celebrate Earth as a sacred planet filled with God s vibrant presence (from Season of Creation charter). The Sundays of the first year in the Season of Creation focus on the Forests, Land, Wilderness/ Outback, and Rivers. The colour of the season is aqua. Aqua, the blue-green colour of the planet Earth, gives way to the green of the Season after Pentecost, which began on June 19, This is a season of discovery and growth in relationship with the Creator and each other. In this second half of the Season after Pentecost we will accompany the Hebrew people in their long journey through the wilderness toward a new land and new life. The season ends with a focus on readings from the gospel of Matthew, and the encouragement of Jesus to live in such a way as to reflect God s vision and reign where all members of Earth s community live in harmonious relationship with God and in right relationship with one another. The season and church year concludes with Reign of Christ Sunday/Christ the King Sunday. May the energy of God s creative love flow in and through us. Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

4 Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Celebrating the Season of Creation, By Norm Habel The Season of Creation is an exciting new season of the church year, a season that is now being celebrated in a number of countries around the world. Around the year 2000, the Season of Creation was being developed in Australia, especially through the Uniting Church. At the very same time, a parallel season called the Time of Creation was being developed in Europe by the ECEN (European Christian Environmental Network). Without knowledge of each other s work, both groups chose September as the appropriate time for celebrating with creation, following a Greek Orthodox tradition of declaring September 1 the Day of Creation and St. Francis of Assisi Day, October 4, as a fitting closure. Why a Season of Creation? There is a growing concern in Christian communities about the ecological crisis and the way we have been treating Earth. One of the most effective ways to focus this concern, we believe, is through worship. By concentrating our worship on God s creation and worshipping with creation, we are more like to find ways to heal rather than exploit our planet. Our aim in The Season of Creation is a joint celebration in which we not only give thanks for creation but also celebrate with creation. Our goal is a mutual ministry in which we are not only called to serve and sustain life, but recognize how creation serves and sustains life. Our vision is to celebrate Christ as personal redeemer and also as the cosmic power at work renewing and healing a suffering creation. Our aim in The Season of Creation is a joint celebration in which we not only give thanks for creation but also celebrate with creation. Our goal is a mutual ministry in which we are not only called to serve and sustain life, but recognize how creation serves and sustains life. So it was decided to name the Sundays in terms that immediately evoked a connection with creation. We chose titles such as Forest Sunday, River Sunday, Ocean Sunday, and Cosmos Sunday. Worshippers around the world are free to modify or expand the Sundays with names that fit their creation contexts. It is great to invite artists to transform the place of worship into a forest, a river, or the ocean. A set of readings for the Season of Creation has been prepared for the proposed three-year lectionary cycle, corresponding to the liturgical sequence of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Each set of readings has a focus not only on the domain of creation given in the title of that Sunday but also on the spiritual agent or impulse involved in the continuing process of creation, namely, the Spirit in creation, the Word in creation, and Wisdom in creation. Especially important for any Bible study, reflection, or preaching from the readings for a given Sunday is a willingness to read texts from the perspective of Earth, whether that be a domain or living creatures of Earth. We have in the past, only read from the perspective of humans or God. But as Earth beings we are invited to read with a sensitivity to Earth or our Earth kin and seek to hear their voices in the text. The Season of Creation is an opportunity to grow in faith, not only as servants of Christ but also as children of Earth. Through worship in this season we can also reorient our faith so that we unite with Earth and our kin on Earth in praising the Creator, discerning the presence of the cosmic Christ, and being genuine partners of the Spirit who groans with creation and renews all life on our planet. How best might we celebrate the Season of Creation? Traditional ways of naming the Sundays of a season did not seem appropriate in the face of our ecological crisis. Norman Habel is Professorial Fellow at Flinders University, actively involved in social justice and ecojustice issues, initiator of The Earth Bible Series and Season of Creation ( editor of Exploring Ecological Hermeneutics and author of An Inconvenient Text. 6 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

5 Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Forest By Theodore Hiebert Old-growth forests the ancient, primary forests that have suffered few if any intrusions by humans cover over a fourth of the world s land area. Half of these forests are found in just four countries Russia, Brazil, Canada, and the United States while much of the rest of the world s forests are in developing countries. These oldgrowth forests are part of a much larger forest cover composed of the rural and urban forests that we have planted and that we encounter every day, the ones that populate our fields and yards and line our streets. While Earth s primary forests are half a world away from many of us, we experience their effects on our lives intimately. They provide crucial services to ensure the health of the environment in which we live: they harbor most of the world s biodiversity, sheltering more than half of the world s known plant and animal species; they protect and enrich soils and sustain water quality and quantity; and by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen, they give us healthy air to breath and reduce global warming. Forests also contribute to our economies: we use timber more than any other material for construction worldwide; we can t do without paper even in today s electronic age for communication and education; and for nearly three billion of us in the developing world, wood provides the main energy source for heating and cooking. Forests also affect our spiritual health. While walking beneath the giant redwoods in the Muir Woods National Monument in northern California, it is impossible for me to escape a deep sense of awe and of the presence and nature of God in this world. Biblical authors must have felt something of this same awe when they describe the religious experiences of their ancestors under the great oaks of the Canaanite highlands (Gen 12:6-7, 13:18, 21:23). When great trees fall, we grieve. In Homewood, Illinois, my hometown, arborists are cutting down 2,582 mature ash trees in the parkways along our streets, 241 in our neighbourhood alone, because of damage done by the invasive emerald ash borer. Over 15,000 ash trees are coming down in Homewood as a whole. We and our neighbors have experienced the fall of this urban forest not just as a physical fact but as an emotional and psychic loss that impoverishes the entire neighbourhood. The problem we all face is that we re losing our forests worldwide, and with them, all of the essential benefits they provide for our planet and for ourselves. More forest has been cleared from 1850 to the present than in all previous history. Due to population growth and to deforestation, the amount of forest cover available to each person has declined globally by 50% since And the results are serious. Losing forests means losing all of the services they provide: good soils, clean water, healthy air, and the incredible diversity of plant and animal life they shelter. According to present trends, a quarter of the earth s species of plants and animals will be lost in the next forty years, a loss that it will take nature 10 million years to replicate. Deforestation is also a major contributor to global warming, the most serious environmental threat we face. Tropical deforestation produces more global warming pollution than the total emissions of every car, truck, plane, ship, and train on earth. The reading from Hebrew Scriptures for this Sunday contains the Bible s oldest ideas about the role of forests in the world. In the story of Eden because of their magnificence, their beauty, and their bountiful food; because, that is, of their physical and spiritual character trees stand for all the world s plants and their essential place in our lives. The reading from Christian Scriptures, while not mentioning forests, contain a deep sense of Christian life as grounded in creation and the conviction that redemption means the renewal of creation. How can we recover the biblical sense of the participation of creation in God s activity to redeem the world? How can we see the world and the world s forests as God s and as the source of our wholeness and health once again? Theodore Hiebert is Francis A. McGaw Professor of Old Testament at McCormick Theological Seminary. Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

6 Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Land By Lee Levitt-Olsen Past sacredness Creation as we know it begins with land. Land emerges from primordial waters (Genesis 1), living creatures emerge from land to serve its needs (Genesis 2), and return to the land in death. We are of the land, share its very being in an intimate relationship within the loving creativity of God. Present realities Land Sunday in the Season of Creation reminds us of our kinship with land because we so easily forget. Present land use is disastrous. Humans will starve without expanding cropland, but we already overuse most land suitable for agriculture, and cropland degrades many times faster than replenishment. Deforestation accelerates erosion and renders soil barren or even toxic from chemical use. Topsoil losses are catastrophic and pollutants in the runoff poison oceans, rivers, aquifers. Climate change worsens these effects. Natural topsoil is alive, an interactive community of organisms sustaining the minerals needed for growing plants. The rich shallow loams of tropics and the stark red sands of deserts support living relationships: but our abuse of soil replaces that life, which the winds blow away, with poisonous waste. Scripture is blunt: humans do not own the land; its rights outweigh ours (Leviticus 25 26). We are strangers and guests (Hebrew gerim wa toshavim) with responsibilities to the land and all its creatures. The land is alive and loved by God. It cries out at misuse, and God listens. Our drive for possession violates God s creation. It also dispossesses those who understand kinship with the land. Indigenous people honour interrelationship with country and with creatures. George Rosendale, a Rainbow Spirit elder states: Inside me is spirit and land, both given to me by the Creator Spirit. There is a piece of land in me, and it keeps driving me back like a magnet to the land from which I came. Because the land too is spiritual. The world s most ancient laws, still taught in Aboriginal Australia, protect the land and its inhabitants (not only humans). Indigenous relationships with land balance obligations and blessings. Displace the people, and identity and land are lost together. The United Nations calls that genocide. Future possibilities Land Sunday can help Christians re-connect, re-member what has been dis-membered: our kinship with the living soil, with the creatures who share it, and with the wisdom of Elders in caring for it. Like other prophets, Jesus identified with am ha aretz, the people of the land. Many who heard Jesus were dispossessed by Rome and Jewish collaborators. Their identity was stolen like the soil their ancestors tended. Jesus gave them a grounded hope: these meek shall inherit the earth because the meek understand earth as their true lineage. Do our actions demonstrate common cause with the people of the land, or are we complicit in its theft and degradation? Are we on the side of Jesus, or of Rome? Whatever our past choices, we can reclaim our identity as Earth creatures, as people of the land. We can hear earth s cries again and respond in loving kinship. We can honour those who care for land, and nurture their wisdom. We can confess to abusing the land from which God shaped us. We can hear earth s voice in scripture and begin to ache in answer. We can stand alongside Indigenous people and oppose their dispossession. We can find ways to use soil that preserve its health and ours. And we can praise: sing out like land opening to rain and greening in due season; sing out to God s creativity, binding us with earth in everlasting kinship; sing out in hope that we are more than the wrong we have done. We can praise, with all living creatures, the God who still walks the land in the cool of evening and calls us all by name to come along. Lee Levett-Olsen is principal of Nugalinya College, Darwin. His most recent recent work in the area of ecotheology includes a presentation at the International Society for Biblical Literature in Auckland, July 2008 and a short piece in Colloguium on related themes. 8 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

7 Planning SAT 10 FRI 9 THUR 8 WED 7 TUES 6 MON 5 SUN 4 12th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 18 [23] Season of Creation 1: Forest Sunday Sunday, September 4 Saturday, September Things to keep in mind this week Planning ahead September 2011 S M T W T F S August 2011 S M T W T F S October 2011 S M T W T F S / / Revised Common Lectionary (Yr A) Genesis 2:4b 22 Psalm 139:13 16 Acts 17:22 28 John 3:1 16 Liturgical colour: aqua If you have Internet access, visit to access Spirit Sightings for connections between current events and the focus passage. Ecumenical Prayer Calendar Albania, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, Yugoslavia Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

8 Season of Creation 2011 Focus scripture Acts 17:22 28 Additional scriptures Genesis 2:4b 22 Psalm 139:13 16 John 3:1 16 Forest Sunday September Forest Sunday is the first of four Sundays in the Season of Creation, a celebration of our interconnectedness with God and all creation. Land, Wilderness/Outback, and River Sundays will follow. In addition to opening the sacred text of our tradition the Bible we are invited to open ourselves to the sacred text of creation, trusting that God may be known to us as much in one small leaf as in one dotted i in the text. Focus scripture: Acts 17:22 28 In Acts the story begun in the gospel of Luke continues, recounting how the first disciples moved out from Jerusalem to proclaim the good news of Jesus. Paul is a Jew and a Pharisee, who at one time persecuted Jesus followers, but now is transformed by the Spirit to carry the message of Jesus to many places in the Mediterranean world. In this reading, Paul is in the city of Athens, having recently travelled the Roman road from Philippi to Thessalonica. We might imagine him paying attention to creation as he travelled those roads. Intimately immersed in creation every step of the way, was there one moment when in a flash of insight he got it: God is in all this beauty? As Paul waits in Athens for Silas and Timothy (Acts 17:15 17), he speaks in the synagogue and marketplace about a new vision that is grounded in the living reality of Jesus the Christ. The Epicurean and Stoic philosophers of Athens want to know more about Paul s new teaching that sounds rather strange (v. 20). And so Paul stands before the Areopagus the council of leaders in Athens and first speaks of an altar with the inscription to an unknown God (v. 23), which he noticed as he walked through the city. It was the custom to build such altars to avoid offending any god the Athenians did not know about. Using the altar as a point of reference, Paul respectfully invites the listeners to consider two things. First, this unknown God can be known intimately as the One in whom we live and move Biblical Background September 4, 2011 Soil of life, our roots sink into you. Water of life, our bodies thirst for you. Light of life, our branches reach to you. Breath of life, our fullness opens to you. Mystery of life, our spirits rise in you. Amen. and have our being. Second, God is not contained in shrines made by human hands. The God of whom Paul speaks is the creative force that shapes the time, space, and boundary of all things. Note how Paul acknowledges that there are two kinds of nations: one human with cultural, political, and historical boundaries; the other, the more-than-human, with its seasons and cycles. It is not only human order that exists within the intimacy of God. All creation lives and moves within that sacred reality and gives expression to it. For the poet of Psalm 139:13 16, the earth is more than landscape: it is another womb in which our lives are intricately woven. The gospel writer John, another mystical poet, makes similar connections. In John 3:1 16, Jesus speaks of an interweaving of the earthly and the divine, concluding with a declaration that is at the heart of this season of creation: For God so loved the world... (v. 16). Nicodemus s response to Jesus is not recorded by John, but we could well imagine the verses of the Psalm as his response after their meeting: a new and more inclusive vision of God s presence is forming. Come to Genesis 2:4b 22 last and hear it as a powerful summary of the intimate blending of human life with all creation. Here is the human one, a being formed from the wet soil in which the forests have their being, too! And why are humans here? Verse 15 is clear: to till and keep the garden. Till is better translated as serve. That s it: we re here to serve and to preserve. God is the one in whom all creation lives and moves and has its being. When have you had a sense of sacred presence in the forests of creation? When have you experienced an understanding of yourself as intricately woven in the depths of the earth (Psalm 139:15)? What practices help your faith community to remain connected to the community of creation that God so loves? 16 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

9 Reflection and Focus September 4, 2011 Reflecting on the Word Connecting with life The way that we think about this holy and awesome creation affects how we live within it. This sensitivity is leading many congregations to observe four weeks in the church year as the Season of Creation. This year, the lectionary readings for these Sundays focus on four different expressions of life on planet Earth: forest, land, wilderness/outback, and river. Recall a time you felt a close connection with some aspect of creation. n What has this sense of connection with creation contributed to your life and well-being? There is a growing concern in Christian communities about the ecological crisis and the way we have been treating Earth. One of the most effective ways to focus this concern is through worship. By concentrating our worship on God s creation and worshipping with creation, we are more likely to find ways to heal rather than exploit our planet. (From Celebrating the Season of Creation, p. 6.) On a scale of 1 10 with 1 being absolutely agree and 10 being absolutely disagree : n To what extent does this quote reflect your personal beliefs? To what extent does it reflect your congregation s beliefs? Scripture Acts 17:22 28 Paul offers a vision of all creation being included in God. Hierarchies and boundaries created by humans fall away within such a vision. n What might individuals and church do differently if they truly respected the flora and fauna of the forest Season of Creation 2011 as creatures that live and move and have their being within God? n How might Acts 17:24 serve as motivation for engagement in ecological concerns for you and the church? John 3:8 and Psalm 139:15 To be human is to wonder about the mysteries of life. Read John 3:8 and Psalm 139:15. Perhaps these writers were members of a community that lived in kinship with God s creation differently than many do today. n What might be learned about the mysteries of life by entering into a relationship of respectful seeking with all God s creation? What wisdom do elements such as wind and forest have to offer in this search? n What would you like to do differently in the way you live in kinship with all creation? What would be the gift for you in doing so? What would be the challenge? Which verses from today s readings offer encouragement for you to do so? Connecting scripture and life Reflect on Acts 17:23-25, considering the ways your city, town, or village reflects the mysteries of living with God. Go on an imaginary walk, identifying places in your community as you go. n Which places show that yours is a community that lives in awe and wonder of the mysteries of life in creation? Which places suggest otherwise? n What initiatives might your congregation take to enhance your community as a place that delights to live with God in the company of all creation? Focus for Worship, Learning, and Serving This and the remaining Sundays in September are part of the alternative lectionary cycle known as the Season of Creation. The readings are, however, designed to correspond broadly to the years of Matthew, Mark, and Luke in the Revised Common Lectionary. Each week in the season will focus upon a particular aspect of creation (forest, land, wilderness/outback, river). See the article Celebrating the Season of Creation (p. 6) for more background on this season. Today is Forest Sunday. Consider ways in which forests and trees are experienced by your community. You may live in a locale filled with trees, or you may have to journey far to see one. Your wider community may have direct ties to industries that harvest or make by-products of trees. Consider how you might set the space for these weeks in order to welcome more of creation into your spaces. For example, attach branches to the ends of pews, create a wilderness/outback corner with sand and rocks, or play nature sounds as people gather. Look at the poster Let the Energy Flow. This image will be used throughout the Season of Creation and may provide inspiration. How might celebrating the Season of Creation deepen your community s relationship with the surrounding environment? What possibilities exist for greater environmentalism in your life together and for individuals? Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

10 Forest Sunday Prepare Worship Outline September 4, 2011 NOTE: All of these suggestions are mere starting points; adapt, delete and add according to your local needs. q q q q q q Recruit volunteers needed for worship: several for the processional, two for the psalm reading. Choose an option for hearing Acts 17: For the Bible story, arrange for a storyteller to present the story Awesome, Amazing God on p. 22. For scriptures in dialogue, arrange for two readers Bring items for setting the worship space as described under gather: aqua fabric, poster Let the Energy Flow (fixed to aqua-coloured poster board and mounted on foam board), and seedling trees, one for each family unit. Prepare the worship space to represent a forest (optional). Prepare to project image Let the Energy Flow (on Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Data CD), during the words of affirmation and opening the Word (optional). Decide which stations you will set, and set stations as described on p Process the seedling trees and mounted poster of Let the Energy Flow and display all on and around the worship table. Call to worship Explain that during the call to worship people will be invited to call out the names of elements specific to your local context. List the categories in the order of worship and provide a few moments for people to contemplate their responses before beginning the call to worship. For land and soil: birthing crops, grounding our steps, anchoring our homes and hopes (name landscapes, landforms, and parks that are part of the local environment) We rejoice with God in the land. For outback and wilderness: harbouring wildness, restoring awe, bearing mystery (name wilderness/outback areas and places where people might seek solitude in creation) We rejoice with God in the wilderness and outback. Gather Music Suggestions In God We Live and Move Bruce Harding; Music Booklet, p. 1 Each Blade of Grass Keri Wehlander; Music Booklet, p. 6 We Thank You God Mandy Dyson; Music Booklet, p. 8 Cosmic Hymn of Praise Michael Managan; Music Booklet, p. 5 And God Said Yes! Norm Habel, Richard Koehneke; Seasons Songbook, vol. 1 Called by Earth and Sky Pat Mayberry; Seasons Songbook, vol. 6 For rivers and lakes and all manner of waters: quenching thirsts, cutting canyons, bestowing life (name rivers, lakes, and water sources for your community) We rejoice with God in the rivers and waters. We praise with the forests: trees soaring tall or spreading wide, bearing fruit and colouring autumn, making sacred space for creatures large and small (name trees and forest creatures and nearby forests) We rejoice with God in the forests. Opening prayer In holy presence we gather: We come with forest creatures and trees, flora and floor as those who draw life from God. We lift our voice with the voice of the forest, in praise that rises up from grace-bound roots. We listen with the forest, and all creation, for wind that stirs movements of God s renewing of creation. We find God s presence everywhere. Amen. 18 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

11 Worship Outline September 4, 2011 Prayer of confession You are the One who made us all who made us whole so why do we live as though we are self-made, and in doing so, move to brokenness: within ourselves, with others, and with the world around us? You are the One who made us wonderfully and in mystery so why do we settle for something less than awe for ourselves and others? Restore in us your Spirit, that we may share life and breath with all creation. This we pray in the name of Christ, who spoke of such wonder, in the birth of Spirit s new life. Amen. Opening the Word Psalm 139:13 16 Words of affirmation Lift the mounted poster of Let the Energy Flow or project the image from the Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Data CD. Like the tree whose roots go beneath the surface, beyond our sight; like that tree through which water flows in and then out; so is the assurance of God s love that holds us. It is love that goes deep, anchoring us securely. It is love that flows freely, bearing life to and from us. Thanks be to God. Have two people interpret the psalm through liturgical movement such as the ones suggested. Verse 13: Turn toward each other and shape hands into one ball, opening up so thumbs touch thumbs and little fingers touch little fingers. Verse 14: Turn back to back and raise hands upwards and bring down again. Verse 15: Turn to face each other and huddle together covering clenched hands with bodies. Verse 16: Bring hands slowly out to the side. Moving into the focus scripture Project the image Let the Energy Flow from the Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Data CD or draw attention to the poster. Focus attention on the large tree in the middle of the image. Ask: n What do you think of, or imagine, when you hear the word forest? n What does a forest look, smell, sound, and feel like? Engage Acts 17:22 28 Choose one of the following for hearing the focus scripture. Bible story Have a storyteller present the story Awesome, Amazing God on page 22. Scriptures in dialogue weave Acts 17:22 28 and Genesis 2: 4 9 together by reading them in the following order (one will read the Genesis passage, the other will read the Acts passage): One: read Acts 17:22 23 Two: read Genesis 2:4 9 One: read Acts 17:24 27 Two: read Genesis 2:18 22 One: read Acts 17:28 After the focus scripture Invite children, young people, and all who wish to move to the stations. Others will remain seated for Proclaiming the Word. n What kinds of things might be found under a large rock or the stump of a tree? Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

12 After Proclaiming the Word, you might invite those who have not already done so to move to and around the stations, taking ten minutes or so with a chosen practice. Sing or listen to the song In God We Live and Move (p. 1 in Music Booklet, #21 on the Seasons Music CD, vol. 9, and available as an MP3 download) as people gather in the worship space once again. Prayers of the people Sing In God We Live and Move (p. 1 in Music Booklet, # 21 on the Seasons Music CD, vol 9, and available as an MP3 download) after each line of prayer. Creator, and ever-creating, God, all creation draws life and breath from your Spirit Sing In God We Live and Move We remember those whose breath is drawn with difficulty, Offer this blessing that comes from Psalm 139 then invite people to offer the blessing to those near them. Invite each family unit to take a seedling tree from the worship space and plant them in honour of Forest Sunday. Sing Each Blade of Grass as people collect a seedling and leave the worship space. Respond Worship Outline September 4, 2011 Bless and those who mourn breath s ceasing. For the sake of healing, for the gift of comforting, for companionship in all of our days, we pray: Sing In God We Live and Move We pray for youth and elders, for bodies still stretching with growth, for minds still seeking wisdom. For the sake of roots that stand firm, and love that branches out and returns again, we pray: Sing In God We Live and Move We listen for your voice: in wind that rustles leaves and new ideas; in birthings bearing grace and midwifing hope. For the sake of holy mystery encountered in community and creation, we pray: Sing In God We Live and Move You are wonderfully made, one of God s wonderful works! Invite people to greet those near them with: (Name), you are one of God s wonderful works! 20 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

13 Poetry and Prose September 4, 2011 Communion Prayer for Season of Creation Invitation Open hearts and spirits to the Holy One who invites us to this meal. Taste the earth-borne gifts that bare the communion of Christ s presence. Grains drawn from soil, milled and mixed, kneaded and baked, form the loaf of our common life. Grapes plucked and pressed, strained and aged, fill the cup of our common hope. All these, all of us, fearfully and wonderfully made by God: All these, all of us, gathered to celebrate the mystery of presence in this communion and in all of life. Prayer Gracious God, ever-creating, with all of creation we look to you. We look to you as the One from whom all things have sparked: from sub-atomic particles to forested slopes, from strands of DNA to the deepest ocean trenches. We look to you as the One in whom all life holds together: from the delicate balancing of soil and water and oxygen and light, to the delicate balancing of personalities and faith and values. We look to you as the One who fashions this table in multiple places but with singular purpose: to offer invite and gather all, to offer unlimited forgiveness, to offer vocation with Christ. May all creation be blessed in this meal a reminder of life shared with and for others, and of community fashioned, not on the basis of our differences, but by the truth that all are one in you. Amen. Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

14 Bible Story September 4, 2011 Awesome, Amazing God (based on Acts 17:2 28) Bring the song In God We Live and Move (p. 1 in the Music Booklet, #21 on Seasons Music CD, vol. 9, and available as an MP3 download) and be prepared to play it where indicated. Paul was a wise teacher who travelled far and wide to many countries to teach people about God s love and to share the story of Jesus with anyone who would listen. One day, Paul was travelling to the city of Athens. The road to Athens wound through some very beautiful countryside. Paul saw huge groves of olive trees and fields of wildflowers that hummed with the buzz of insects. Brightly coloured butterflies fluttered from flower to flower, while overhead birds flew and swooped in large circles as they sang to one another. When Paul got to the city he walked around looking at all the interesting things. Paul could see that the people living in Athens were very religious. There were many places around the city where the people would go to worship. There were lots of statues with the names of different gods on them. In some places there were statues with signs on them that read, To the god with no name. I know who that god is, thought Paul excitedly. Paul went to a meeting place and began to teach about God and God s love. Paul told the people that the god they said had no name was actually very close. That it was the same God who had made the whole universe and everything in it. This God is far too big to be contained in a tiny statue, proclaimed Paul. When we look at the beauty of God s creation we can see God s awesome power. When we look inside ourselves, we can see God s love, which is deep inside and all around. Paul s words flew away on the wind. They twisted and twirled on the breezes that circle our beautiful Earth, until they reached the wise old trees of the forests. They spoke Paul s message in words that the creatures and plants of the forests could understand. God has made the whole of creation, explained the wise old trees. From the oldest trees in the forest, to the tiny creatures that live in the soil. God made us all. When we look at the colours of butterfly s wings, or see the newborn trees push through the soil, we see God s awesome power. The toadstools on the fallen tree and the flash of colour in the parrot s wings tell us about God who made everything. Then the wisest of trees began to sing, Play or sing In God We Live and Move The whole of the forest took up the chant as they thought about God. God is all around and deep inside, they hummed. God is with us. God is in us. God surrounds us. We live in God s love. The trees waved their branches and sang the words; all the animals that lived in the forest heard the song and whispered it to one another. The birds caught the song and flew away singing the words to the whole forest. Play or sing In God We Live and Move The song got louder and louder as every living thing in the forest took up the song and praised God who had made them and the whole of creation. A recording of this story is available in MP3 format in the Audio Stories folder on the Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Data CD. 22 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

15 Stations September 4, 2011 Living, Learning, Growing as Disciples The following stations might be set up around your worship space or in other places around the church. Choose practices according to your space and numbers. If leaders will not be facilitating at these different stations, provide copies of the directions, or display the directions where the participants can see them. For your convenience these directions are formatted for printing and available in the Stations folder on the Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Data CD, and in the Stations folder in the disk and web versions of SeasonsFUSION. Digging deeper Materials: Bibles, pencils, copies of today s resource sheet Paul and the Athenians, p. 25 Setting the space: Provide a table and chairs. Make a copy of the directions and place where all can see. Bible story Materials: recording of today s story Awesome, Amazing God, (available in MP3 format in the Audio Stories folder on the Seasons of Creation, Pentecost 2 Data CD, player or players, soft cushions, drawing pads, coloured pencils, earth tone coloured scarves Setting the space: Spread a blanket on the floor and scatter several soft cushions on it. Place the scarves close by. Make a copy of the directions and place where all can see. The practice of study and reflection Directions Today s Bible story is about a leader in the early church named Paul. n Use today s resource sheet Paul and the Athenians to discover more about Paul and the Athenians. n Review the section Religion in Ancient Greece. What do you know about these Greek gods? The practice of storytelling Directions 1. Listen to a story about our awesome, amazing God. Paul s words twisted and twirled on the breezes that circle our beautiful Earth, until they reached the wise old trees of the forests, and the wise old trees spoke in ways that the creatures and plants of the forest could understand. 2. Wonder about how the wise old tree might move as it hears Paul s message? How might a forest creature move as the wise old tree tells Paul s message? How might a whole forest of trees move when celebrating and praising God? 3. Use the scarves and pretend you are parts of the forest. Mak ing music Materials: rhythm instruments Setting the space: Provide a space where people can gather in a circle. Have a leader to guide the group. The practice of maintaining connections with God, others, and nature Directions Ecology is the study of nature and the connections within it. Use rhythm instruments to explore the connections in nature, and wonder about human impact on the environment. Have people to choose rhythm instruments and sit in a circle. Use a drum to begin beating a simple rhythm and have the group join until they are playing as a unified whole. After a moment, signal all to stop. Note how all the rhythms joined together to make a wonderfully rich sound. Repeat the experience. This time, signal for particular instruments to stop for a brief time such as the bells or the shakers. Note the change in sounds when certain instruments disappear. Ask: n Where do you see the elements of creation contributing to one another s well-being, such as leaves creating oxygen for animals? n What are some things we can do to maintain and sustain for the rhythm of life in nature around us Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

16 Wind spirals Materials: plastic lids, permanent markers, scissors, small nails, yarn, variety of small natural items (seed pods, acorns, pine cones, feathers) Setting the space: Provide a table and chairs. Display natural items in the middle of the table. Make a copy of the directions and place where all can see. Option: pre-cut the spirals. The practice of creativity Stations September 4, 2011 Directions God breathes life into our interconnected communities. 1. Use a nail to make a hole in the middle of a plastic lid. 2. With a permanent marker, draw a spiral that starts a little way from the hole and extends out to the rim. Cut along the line. 3. Thread a piece of yarn through the hole in the middle. Secure with a knot. 4. Punch holes at the end of the spirals. 5. Attach small forest objects to the bottom of spirals with yarn. 6. Hang spirals where they will catch the breeze and spin gently as reminders that the whole of creation has its being in God. Learning about forests Materials: computers with Internet capabilities Setting the space: Provide a table, chairs, computers, and access to the Internet. Make copy of directions and place where all can see. Audit your church Materials: paper or poster board, markers, pencils Setting the space: Provide a table and chairs. Make a copy of the directions and place where all can see. The practice of sharing God s story with others Directions We can celebrate our life together by getting to know more about forests and the ways we might maintain our connections to all creation. 1. Go to click on Links; Season of Creation, Pentecost 2, 2011; September 4, 2011; FUSION 1. From the information there, what would you like to tell others about forests and the ways we are connected to the forests? How and where might you share this information? For example, prepare a PowerPoint, design a poster on the computer for printing and displaying, ing or including in the church bulletin, or on the church website. The practice of living simply and sustainably Directions What do you notice about the paper use of your community? 1. Create a chart that lists each paper product on one column, with space to record how much of each product is used weekly in another column. 2. Determine, with the people at this station, who will count and record the products used. For example, members of the group could take responsibility for different weeks. 3. Make plans to report the findings to the church council or board at the end of the month, also offering your suggestions of ways to curb the use of paper products? Tree markers Materials: wide craft sticks, adhesive, permanent markers, pipe cleaners Setting the space: Provide a table and chairs. The practice of nurture Directions God s love is all around and, wherever love is, it is meant to be shared. 1. Make tree markers by gluing craft sticks into a T shape (see illustration). 2. Decorate the markers. 3. Adopt a special tree near the church or your home and place a marker by the tree. 4. Think about ways you might they get to know your special tree and care for it? 24 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

17 Resource Sheet September 4 10, 2011 PAUL AND THE ATHENIANS The Bible passage today is part of a larger story. To understand what was happening (and why) we need to do some detective work. Good detectives always do background research. First, let s go to the book of Acts and see what clues it offers. Paul was waiting for his co-workers Timothy and Silas to join him in Athens. What did Paul do while he was waiting? See Acts 17:17. Who else wanted to talk with Paul? See Acts 17:18 Where did they bring Paul, and why? See Acts 17: Why were they interested in what Paul had to say? See Acts 17:21. The Stoic philosophers thought that the whole universe was a divine being and that the gods were different names of the one cosmic or overall God. They encouraged people to live in harmony with the forces of nature. The main goal of life for Epicurean philosophers was to find true happiness. They believed that finding inner peace and avoiding pain was the pathway to true happiness. The Areopagus was a council of leaders, who met in the open air on the Hill of Mars in Athens Religion in Ancient Greece The religion in Ancient Greece was polytheistic, which means they worshipped many gods and goddesses. These gods and goddesses included: Zeus, the god of thunder; Poseidon, god of the sea and earthquakes; Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty; Ares, the god of war and bloodlust; and Dionysus the god of wine and madness. The ancient Greeks worshipped these gods at altars throughout the city. Usually each altar was devoted to one particular god. As there were many gods, there were many altars. It was also customary to build an altar to an unknown god to avoid offending any god not known to them. Note: Some Bibles say that Paul argued with the people. However, the conversation would have been more of a formal discussion, a kind of debate. after 17:17 in the first dot point (the dot is actually a pencil) Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

18 Activity September 4 10, 2011 God s Love Here, There, and Everywhere Use the space above to draw a picture of the forest. What shapes, textures, and shades do you find in the forest? What plants and animals? God s love is in all of these places. Listen to the forest the whispering of the trees clapping hands and windy voice speaks to you and me: Love is here! Love is there! Love is everywhere! 26 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

19 Planning SAT 17 FRI 16 THUR 15 WED 14 TUES 13 MON 12 SUN 11 13th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 19 [24] Season of Creation 2: Land Sunday Holy Cross Day Sunday, September 11 Saturday, September Things to keep in mind this week Planning ahead September 2011 S M T W T F S August 2011 S M T W T F S October 2011 S M T W T F S / / Revised Common Lectionary (Yr A) Genesis 3:14 19; 4:8 16 Psalm 139:7 12 Romans 5:12 17 Matthew 12:38 40 Liturgical colour: aqua If you have Internet access, visit to access Spirit Sightings for connections between current events and the focus passage. Ecumenical Prayer Calendar Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

20 Season of Creation 2011 Biblical Background September 11, 2011 Focus scripture Psalm 139:7 12 Additional scriptures Genesis 3:14 19; 4:8 16 Romans 5:12 17 Matthew 12:38 40 Land Sunday In soil bringing seeds to life, in rocks holding the mysteries of time, in prairies alive with wind-blown grain, in mountains holding hearts on high: You, Holy One, are present. You are the life of all life, and all creation is blessed. Amen. Look at this amazing Earth! It s not just God s sacred garden; it s our daily immersion into the truth that God is with us in all things, including the land on which we live. When we listen to the land with deep respect, we know more of God s wisdom and ways. God s good land, with all its sacredness and scars, still loves and cares for us. Focus scripture: Psalm 139:7 12 The psalmist, in keeping with the worldview of the time, thought of the cosmos as being in the shape of a huge domed stadium. The flat land was held up by pillars and beneath the land was an underworld known as Sheol. The dome separated the sky from heaven, the dwelling place of God. This ancient understanding of geography is reflected in the psalm: If I ascend to heaven...if I descend to Sheol...if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea. Human understanding of reality is constantly evolving. We might think that we have the ultimate understanding of the universe, but we are connected to the psalmist in our limited understanding of all that is. We are also joined by our appreciation of the mysterious, all-pervasive presence of the divine in creation. The questions of this psalmist might also be questions of today: Where can I flee from your presence? Where can I go from your spirit? Notice how the psalmist s attention to geography draws our modern attention to the vast silent partner in this drama: the land. Would it be possible for us to hear from the silent voice in the biblical text, the land? If we allow the voice of land to speak through this psalm, what might we hear? The logic of the psalmist is clear; there is no place we can flee, not even into the depth of soil itself, where the creative love of God will not find us. Hearing from land can open the possibility of a relationship between humankind and land that is mutually healing and holy. What does it look like when that relationship is fractured? The writer of Genesis 3:14 19; 4:8 16 touches that question. God confronts Cain after he has killed his brother Abel in a jealous rage: Listen, your brother s blood is crying out to me from the ground...the ground has opened its mouth to receive your brother s blood from your hand (v. 10). Our choices have consequences for the land. Sacred ground can become scarred ground, whether by shedding blood or by poisoning the soil. Will we hear the voice of the land or will we keep pouring the blood of human violence into its mouth, so that we do not have to hear land s wisdom? Matthew 12:38 40 is a response to scarred land and struggling humanity. The gospel writer s images of Jonah going into the belly of the whale and Jesus going into the heart of the earth call up ancient wisdom that says the way through our troubles is to go into them. The way to a resurrected relationship with the suffering land is to go into a more intimate relationship with it. We may think that there is nothing there but a void, but the psalmist reminds us even the darkness is not dark (139:11) to God. When we give ourselves to intimacy with creation, we also open ourselves to the experience of God s transforming love. In Romans 5:12 17, Paul speaks of God s abundant saving grace a free gift for all, including the land. How will we share grace with the land? Perhaps the land is waiting with bated breath for our response. The psalmist stood on the land, looked up to the heavens, and saw a great dome covering the land. We stand on the land, look up, and see a dot of light where the Hubble Telescope is searching into deep space. We stand on the land with the psalmist across several thousand years of human story and affirm a divine reality from which there is no hiding. When we truly listen in the presence of God s Spirit, might we also hear the land crying out for justice? 28 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

21 Reflection and Focus September 11, 2011 Reflecting on the Word Connecting with life It could be said that place is space with a story. Consider a particular place or piece of land that is prominent in your life. n What stories do you know of this place? n To what extent do those stories connect you to that ground? In what ways do you keep these ties to that land and place alive? Poster View the poster Moses. Assume Moses pose as depicted by the sculptor. Pretend to be Moses and say: I look at the land and I think about the burdens that it bears. I wonder about my connection with this land n What kind of relationship do your and your community have with the land? Scripture Psalm 139:7 12 The psalmist lived and wrote in a time when scholars thought of the visible cosmos as a domed roof over the earth, as did all ancient Israelites. In this view of the cosmos, the domed roof is referred to as the firmament. This vault is a solid structure that sits on pillars. Above the firmament is the water that God separated from the seas at the time of the creation (see Genesis 1). This water becomes rain which falls to the earth through floodgates that have doors which open whenever God wants to send rain or snow. Beneath the earth is the underworld, or Sheol, the place of the dead. As you read Psalm 139:7 12, reflect on these questions: n What suggests that the psalmist was writing from an ancient understanding of the cosmos? Season of Creation 2011 life experience, what might you add to the psalmist s words? n What makes this a psalm for all times? Poet Wendell Berry s writes, Creation is thus God s presence in creatures. our destruction of nature is not just bad stewardship, or stupid economics, or a betrayal of family responsibility; it is the most horrid blasphemy. (By Wendell Berry from Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community, 1994 Wendell Berry, Pantheon Press.) n How does the psalmist s assertion of God s presence everywhere connect to Berry s view of destruction of nature as blasphemy? n In what ways might the scarring of land be a flight from God (Psalm 139) or even denial of God (Berry)? Connecting scripture and life During the Season of Creation, we are invited to reflect on how whatever happens to the creation, including the land, also happens to us. In the readings for today, we catch glimpses of what it means to be assured of God s presence with us in the land. n How can we as individuals and as church stay grounded in the assurance of God s presence as we grow with earth s community through rhythms of pain and healing? n What price is humankind paying today for violation of the land? n What does the psalmist say about God s presence in creation? To what extent does your life experience affirm the psalmist s viewpoint? Considering your n How might you make God s presence known to a piece of scarred land? Focus for Worship, Learning, and Serving We celebrate Land Sunday and pause to listen to what the land might have to say about God s abiding presence. As surely as the land is always present in many forms, so God wants to be with us. How do the individuals in your congregation experience land in their daily lives? Some live in the midst of open country and green spaces. Others are surrounded by asphalt and concrete. Still others are connected to the land with vocations such as farming, landscaping, forestry, or logging or delight in the land by jumping in puddles, making mud pies, and rolling down grassy banks. For churches that are somewhat removed from first hand experiences of land, you may want to consider ways beyond those suggested to help people connect with the land. Welcome land into each space setting with photographs of landscapes, soil samples, rocks, and other gifts from the land. On Land Sunday, we are reminded that what impacts land also impacts God. Hearing from the land creates the possibility for mutual healing. In what ways does your church actively encourage and participate in affirmations and partnering with God s redeeming purposes when it comes to the use and reclamation of land, particularly that which has been scarred? Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

22 Land Sunday Prepare Worship Outline September 11, 2011 NOTE: All of these suggestions are mere starting points; adapt, delete and add according to your local needs. q q q q q q Recruit volunteers needed for worship: children and others for the processional, three for the prayer of confession, words of affirmation, and three for the scripture readings. Choose an option for hearing Psalm 139:7 12. For the Bible story, Arrange for a storyteller to present the story You Are There on p. 34. For the PowerPoint presentation, prepare to project < Title > on the Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Data CD. Bring items for setting the worship space as described under opening prayer: aqua fabric, poster Let the Energy Flow fixed to aqua-coloured poster board and mounted on foam board, and containers of soil. Display photographs of land and landscapes as described under gather. Alternatively prepare a slide show of photographs. Bring small rocks or stones. Decide which stations you will set, and set stations as described on p Gather photographs of land and landscapes from your region, and others from more distant locations that would be recognizable to most or some in your community. Include a mix of land that is sacred and scarred. Display near an entrance of the worship space where a majority of people will be able to see it easily as they gather. Gather Music Suggestions In God We Live and Move Bruce Harding; Music Booklet, p. 1 The Peace of the Earth Traditional; Music Booklet, p. 9 Cosmic Hymn of Praise Michael Mangan; Music Booklet, p. 5 Spirit Blowing through Creation Marty Haugen; Seasons Songbook, vol. 8 O God, You Search Me Bernadette Farrell; Seasons Songbook, vol. 7 Lo, I Am with You Iona Community; Seasons Songbook, vol. 6 to break open the gift of God s presence. (name places where sacred presence is experienced) Come into worship, trusting and anticipating those places where God may yet bring you. (name landscapes you hope to see one day) Or you might prepare a slide show of these photographs and project it as people prepare for worship. Call to worship Explain that during the call to worship, people will be invited to call out the names for elements specific to your local context. Come into worship, remembering the land and the place where you drew your first breath. (name places of birth and family origin) Come into worship, acknowledging the lands and places which have and continue Come into worship, companioned by these lands of origin and revelation and hope. Opening prayer Play In God We Live and Move (p. 1 in the Music Booklet, #21 on the Seasons Music CD, vol. 9, and available as an MP3 download) as the mounted poster, Let the Energy Flow, is processed. Display the poster on the table. Have children and others bring in the containers of soil. Lift up one or more container with each line of the prayer as indicated and display them on the table. Begin with an acknowledgement the traditional custodians who first inhabited the land where your community is located. Then proceed with the spoken prayer. 30 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

23 Worship Outline September 11, 2011 In holy presence we gather: We come with the land pebbles strewn, (lift container of soil) sweeping fields, (lift container of soil) craggy mountains, (lift container of soil) time-worn valleys (lift container of soil) as those who draw life from God. We lift our voice with the voice of the land: seeking from God what makes for life, crying out for the violence that has been done, longing and working for creation s redemption. We listen with the land for vibrations of God s presence, grounding all in the deep assurance that God is and will be in this place. Prayer of confession Provide silence at the end of this prayer for people to answer the final question either aloud or silently. Encourage them to begin with the phrase, I am land, crying out One: What does God hear when listening to the land? Two: I am land, crying out, soiled by pollution. Opening the Word Genesis 3:14 19; 4:8 16; Psalm 139:7 12; Romans 5:12 17 Have three readers offer the passages in dialogue with one another. One: Read Psalm 139:7 Two: Read Genesis 3:14 19 Three: Read Romans 5:12 14 Two: Read Genesis 4:8 14 One: Read Psalm 139:8 10 Two: Read Genesis 4:15 16 Three: Read Romans 5:15 17 One: Read Psalm 139:11 12 Engage Three: I am land, crying out, stained by the shedding of blood. All: What have we done to the land, O God, what have we done to you? Two: I am land, crying out, torn apart by hatreds. Three: I am land, crying out, used up and discarded without thought for the future. All: What have we done to the land, O God, what have we done to you? One: What do we hear when listening to the land? All: I am land, crying out (people are invited to be the voice of the scarred land crying out.) Words of affirmation One: God hears the cry of land and God hears the cries we raise. Two: Let us cry out for an end to the violence done to the earth, done to one another. Three: Let us cry out and let us work for a renewed commitment to Earth s healing. All: God forgive us God empower us God help us for the sake of the land. Moving into the focus scripture Invite people to choose a stone or rock and hold it gently. Ask: n If your rock could speak, what stories would it tell? Psalm 139:7 12 Choose from the following for hearing the focus story. Bible story Have a storyteller present the story You Are There on page 34. PowerPoint presentation Project the Power Point presentation of <<title>> on the Season of Creation, Pentecost 2, Data CD. After the focus scripture Invite children, young people, and all who wish to move to the stations. Others will remain seated for proclaiming the Word After Proclaiming the Word, you might invite those who have not already done so to move to and around the stations, taking ten minutes or so with chosen practice. Respond Sing or listen to the song In God We Live and Move (p. 1 in Music Booklet, #21 on Seasons Music CD, vol. 9, and available as an MP3 download) as people gather in the worship space once again. Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

24 Prayers of the people Introduction We come to this time of prayer as those who live in memory and hope of the story of creation, where God draws us up from the soil into life. With that memory in mind, we come now to pray to the God who works re-creation and redemption from the ground up. Worship Outline September 11, 2011 Hear our prayers, O God, for all who work to protect Earth against the ravages of natural disaster, or greed-driven indifference, or acts of violence in warfare without regard for what becomes of Earth beneath the weapons and the destruction and the chemicals. Stir in us a willingness to speak and act beyond the safety of study groups for the sake of your good creation. Prayer Hear our prayers, O God, for all grieved by death whether a loved one held dear, or strangers we have never met who have perished in conflicts or natural disasters. We pray for comfort and strength as remains are returned to the Earth in hopes that life will be drawn up from the Earth as you have in Christ. Hear our prayers, O God, for all who wander across many lands in search of home. For refugees fleeing war or famine; for the homeless, cast off by loss of job, or struggles with mental illness. May our prayers for such ones be joined in commitment to minister to and with them. Draw attention to the containers of soil on the worship table. Imagine together a loving, caring place for each kind of soil to find a home. Invite volunteers to find a home for the soil this week. Have the volunteers hold the containers as this blessing for the land, and all creation, is shared. Bless Hear our prayers, O God, for the faithfulness of the church. For the church, too, is caretaker of the land we hold even as we are called to be harbingers of the land and realm you promise. May our practices of and relationships with land, as individuals and congregations, be in keeping with the values of your commonwealth. Hear our prayer, O God, for eyes and spirits open to your presence especially in the places where we may feel you distant or removed, even in the places where we might try to flee from you. Even in those shadowed lands, you accompany us upon the way. You bring healing. You wait upon us. You love us with a love that will not let us go. May we walk gently and be close enough to hear you when you speak. May you drink in the rain and be nurtured by the critters within you. May the sun and wind befriend you and may you be held forever in God. September 14 Holy Cross Day Several traditions are connected with this observance. One focuses on St. Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine. While Helena was overseeing some evacuations in Jerusalem she found what was believed to be Jesus cross. On September 14, 335, a basilica was dedicated on the site of Jesus tomb, the Shrine of the Holy Sepulchre. Other traditions claim that Constantine himself found the cross. Special Day Commentary 32 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

25 Poetry and Prose September 11, 2011 Connecting with Creation: Feeling at Home A spiritual reflection Earth is our planet home, the place chosen for us to live with God, our sacred site in all creation. The task is to find rites or forms of meditation that help us to connect with Earth and experience it as a true home rather than just a stopover en route to heaven. One spiritual exercise that proves meaningful to some people involves taking a trip into the country and finding a hill that has a view of the countryside. Select a space on the hill that can become sacred for this occasion and perhaps other occasions. Alternatively, a circle of rocks, soil or sand, plants may be formed to represent a sacred centre on the hill. Participants may also wish to take a sprig of rosemary or some other symbol to help stir memories of past connections with Earth as close and special. From this site participants name all they can see that belongs to their home: various kinds of trees, plants, wildflowers, birds, hills, rocks, clouds, animals and so on. Memories associated with any of these may be shared to strengthen the feeling of being at home. We each ask ourselves, How am I connected with the land at my feet or the living creatures I see around me? A closing rite may involve participants running their hands through the soil or sand in the circle to make the connection tangible. As they do this they may wish to repeat the words of Psalm 139: I was made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of Earth. Be Still and Feel the Presence 1. Be still and feel the presence of God, The presence pulsing, pulsing through Earth, Be still and feel the pulse of God. 2. Be still and hear the Spirit of God, The Spirit breathing, breathing through Earth, Be still and hear the breath of God. 3. Be still, behold the glory of God, The glory filling, filling this Earth. Be still, behold the face of God. Words: C Norman Habel 2004, Used by permission. Melody: Be Still and Know that I am God (composer unknown). Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

26 Bible Story September 11, 2011 You Are There (based on Psalm 139:7 12) I am land. In the very beginning Creator took some stardust and formed me. I was shaped into beautiful high mountains and dry deserts; magnificent beaches and rocky canyons; fertile farmlands and soggy wetlands. I was made with care and love and, when I was formed, Creator smiled and said, This land is beautiful, this land is good! (Encourage people to repeat the phrase, This land is beautiful, this land is good! ) Creator brought us (indicate others and then yourself) together to care for one another. God intended for us to live in peace and harmony. You would care for me and in return I would care for you. But humankind forgot. They took from me and forgot to give back. They destroyed and forgot to heal. They forgot to care. Today I am hurting badly. (Pause momentarily and invite people to think about the hurt the land feels.) But even though I am sad and hurting I know that Creator is still with me. If you are very quiet and still and listen very carefully, you can hear me sing a song to Creator (put your finger to your lips and make a shushing sound). Can you hear the words? (Pause) Listen to the song. Creator God you are always with me. Your love holds me tight. When my forests are ripped away, you are there; When my beauty is covered with rubbish, you are there. If my earth is dug up, with no thought to my earth friends who live there. I cry, but even there your love will find me. If I say, Surely smoke from the factories shall cover me and stop the sun from shining through, even the choking smoke is not too dark for you; You find me underneath the buildings, and the roads, and the factories and your love gives me hope. And there is hope, for Creator moves through me and whispers words of encouragement. Slowly, slowly things are changing. All over the world people are working with Creator to bring healing. Gradually you are remembering to live in peace with me. You are remembering to care. Children plant trees and teach the grown ups about recycling. Teenagers pick up rubbish and raise money to save forests. Brave grown ups work to stop factories from covering me with choking smoke. Scientists are learning how to clean up the chemicals that have poisoned my earth. Whenever this happens Creator moves to bring healing. And then I am glad. A recording of this story is available in MP3 format in the Audio Stories folder on the Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Data CD. 34 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

27 Stations September 11, 2011 Living, Learning, Growing as Disciples The following stations might be set up around your worship space or in other places around the church. Choose practices according to your space and numbers. If leaders will not be facilitating at these different stations, provide copies of the directions, or display the directions where the participants can see them. For your convenience these directions are formatted for printing and available in the Stations folder on the Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Data CD, and in the Stations folder on the disk and web versions of SeasonsFUSION. Digging deeper Materials: Bibles, pencils, illustration of the how the biblical writers viewed the universe in the Extra Resources folder on Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Data CD, and in the Extra Resources folder on the disk and web versions of SeasonsFUSION) Setting the space: Provide a table and chairs. Make copies of the directions and place where all can see. Bible story Materials: recording of today s story You Are There (available in MP3 format in the Audio Stories folder on the Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Data CD), recording of I Feel God Around Me (# 20 on Seasons Music CD, Vo. 9, also available as an MP3 download, player or players, soft cushions, and blankets. Setting the space: Spread blankets on the floor and scatter several soft cushions on them. Make a copy of the directions and place where all can see. The practice of study and reflection Directions Today s Bible reading comes from the book of Psalms. At the time the psalms were written, the Hebrew people had a very different idea of the world and the universe. They did not have telescopes or venture into space. Rather their perspective was primarily based on experience and imagination. 1. Look at the illustration of how the biblical writers viewed the universe. What do you notice? Where in the diagram did the psalmist live? For the psalmist, the heavens, the farthest limits of the sea, and the dwelling place of the dead were all places really far from where the psalmist lived. 2. Think, or talk about the following: n What do you think it would be like in these places? n Who does the psalmist say would be in all these far-away places? n How does the psalmist try to show how big is God s creation? 1. Write a summary of Psalm 139:7 12 in a short text message. You might work with a partner. 2. You might share your messages with the full congregation during worship, in the worship bulletin, or church newsletter. The practice of storytelling Directions As the land is always around us, so God s presence is always and everywhere. 1. Listen to the story You Are There. 2. Listen to the song I Feel God Around Me. 3. Think about the song of the land in today s story. In what places did the land show God s presence? 4. What new verses might the land sing? Look ing at soil Materials: varieties of soil, copies of The Lowdown on Dirt on p. 37, glass jar with lid, spoons, water, paper towels, magnifying glasses, strainers, newsprint Setting the space: Provide a table and chairs. Make a copy of the directions and place where all can see. The practice of enquiry Directions We can be surprised by the wonders of God, and signs of God s presence that is always and everywhere when we are attentive to and focus on elements of the land that was made in love and care. 1. Take a closer look at the different soils and discover just what s in that dirt. 2. Try some of the soil explorations on the resource sheet. Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

28 Engaging art Materials: poster Canyon Walls, moulding clay, soapy water and towels for clean-up Setting the space: Provide a table and chairs. Make a copy of the directions and place where all can see. Stations September 11, 2011 The practice of kindness, care, and healing Directions The psalmist reminds us that God s sacred presence is always with us. 1. Look at the poster Canyon Walls. What do you think about when you look at this picture? As the sculptor shaped this piece for beauty, Earth exists in great beauty. But sometimes the land is harmed through or by human actions. Imagine how the land might feel when harm comes to it. 1. Think about the following: n What words would you use to describe those feelings? n What might the land in our community want to say to us? Land can be harmed by our actions or we can work with the land to bring healing. 1. Take a lump of clay and work with it as you think about the shape of Earth when touched by hands of healing rather than destruction, and imagine what restored land might look like. Poetry writing Materials: pencils, paper Setting the space: Provide a table and chairs. Make a copy of the directions and place where all can see. The practice of testimony Directions The psalmist used poetry or song to announce that God s presence is everywhere we go. 1. Write your own poem or song of affirmation by using by copying the poem structure below and completing the statements to create your own poems of affirmation. How can I get away from you? Or where can I run away from you? If I (complete the statement) you are there. If I (complete the statement) you are there. If I (complete the statement) you are even there. There is no place I can run where you are not. Game Materials: Earth ball, CD or MP3 player, CD or MP3 recording, such as Each Blade of Grass (p. 6 of Music Booklet, #16 on Seasons Music CD, vol. 9, and available as an MP3 download Setting the space: Space so all can sit in a circle and throw a ball. Make a copy of the directions and place where all can see. Have someone lead the group by starting and stopping the music. The practice of living in harmony Directions Unity is living in together in harmony. How might we live in harmony with the land? 1. Sit in a circle with someone holding the Earth ball. This ball is a reminder of the beautiful planet Earth with all its different landscapes. 1. Pass the ball around the circle. 1. When the music stops, the person who has the ball will hold it carefully as the group thinks of one way we can care for the land. 1. After an idea is named, the person holding the ball lifts it in the air and says, That s a great way to live in harmony with the land! 1. Turn the music on and continue passing the ball around the circle. After several rounds, review the ideas suggested during the activity. Something to think about, or discuss with a partner. n How might our church work with land to bring healing? n How might each one of us work with land to bring healing? 36 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

29 Resource Sheet September 11 17, 2011 Dirt discovery Materials: Waterproof table covering, glass jar with lid, spoon, soil, water, paper towels, and magnifying glass. Directions: Place the waterproof table covering on the table. Half fill a jar with dirt. Add water nearly to the top of the jar. Put the lid on tightly. Shake the jar hard as you count to 50 and then set it down. Let the jar stand until the dirt and water settle. The soil will settle into layers. You might do the next experiment while you are waiting. Look carefully at the layers in the jar. How many layers are there? Look closely at the different layers and see what is in them. Use a spoon to skim off the objects floating in the water. Place them on a paper towel. Use a magnifying glass to look at them. What can you see? Ask an adult to help you carefully pour off the water on the top and scoop out the grains of the next level onto another paper towel. Do the same if there is another level. After each layer has been placed onto towels, look at them with the magnifying glass. What can you see? Take a Closer Look Materials: Strainers, magnifying glasses, spoons, newsprint, and soil. Directions: Look at the soil through a magnifying glass. What can you see? Use the strainer to sift the soil onto the newsprint and examine what is left in the strainer. You may find all kinds of things such as small stones, berries, twigs, moss, seeds, and pieces of bird feathers. List all the things you discover. Look at the sifted soil through a magnifying glass. How does it look different? Touch the soil and rub it between your fingers, listen to the sound as it moves on the newsprint, and smell it. What happens when you press some soil between your fingers? Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

30 Loving the Land Activity September 11 17, 2011 God s love is always with us and we can show this love to the land. Follow the path from the top of the page to the bottom. How are the people along the way sharing God s love with the land? Start God s love is always with us and we can show this love to the land. Follow the path from the top of the page to the bottom. How are the people along the way sharing God s love with the land? Finish 38 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

31 Planning SAT 8 FRI 7 THUR 6 WED 5 TUES 4 MON 3 SUN 2 16 th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 22 [27], World(wide) Communion Sunday St. Francis of Assisi Yom Kippur (Judaism) Sunday, October 2 Saturday, October 8, 2011 Things to keep in mind this week Revised Common Lectionary (Yr A) Planning ahead October 2011 S M T W T F S / / September 2011 S M T W T F S November 2011 S M T W T F S Exodus 20:1 4, 7 9, Psalm 19 Philippians 3:4b 14 Matthew 21:33 46 Seasons of the Spirit is based on semicontinuous readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Liturgical colour: green If you have Internet access, visit to access Spirit Sightings for connections between current events and the focus passage. Ecumenical Prayer Calendar Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

32 Season Pentecost after 2 Pentecost 2011 Biblical Background October 2, 2011 Focus scripture Exodus 20:1 4, 7 9, Additional scriptures Psalm 19 Philippians 3:4b 14 Matthew 21:33 46 Holy God, immerse us in the river of your word and ways, and carry us on a journey of growth as a community of your people. Increase our resolve to heed your loving wisdom and to rejoice in your promise of new life as we do. Amen. God s Loving Wisdom God s word in the ten commandments reveals the dynamics of living life abundantly and shapes the community of God s beloved people. Such wise laws expand our understanding of God s intent for community. Such wise laws invite us to delight in one another as we are formed by God s loving wisdom. Focus scripture: Exodus 20:1 4, 7 9, Today s reading picks up the story of the Hebrews escape from Egypt, where they had been held as slaves. Moses, the leader appointed by God, is leading them through the wilderness of the Sinai region to God s land of promise. As we enter the focus verses, we find Moses and the Hebrew people at Mount Sinai, where Moses is affirmed as God s spokesperson. Exodus 19 sets the stage for God s delivery of the ten commandments. The original form and Hebrew language in Exodus 20 suggest that the commandments first may have been simply a list of ten words murder, idolatry, adultery, and so on. These words were shorthand for a rule of life to guide the people of Israel along their journey to becoming the nation that was promised to Abraham. The ten commandments summarize God s rule for life. In the first commandment we are told to acknowledge God as God alone, and are called to honour our relationship with God. In the commandment regarding Sabbath, we are told to match the rhythm of our lives with God s own rhythm. In the remaining commandments, God s loving wisdom lays out how to live so that our relationships with other people reflect God s relationship with us. Protestant theologian Martin Luther ( ) taught that every negative in this list implies a positive. For example, do not kill implies support the living. The commandments offer a vision of the world that God promises to bring to fulfillment. The ten commandments are sometimes referred to in scripture as God s law or the Law of Moses. They form the cornerstone of Israelite society. All were called to obey these concrete expressions of God s wisdom and will, regardless of occupation or social class. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the law also refers to all of the cultural knowledge that one generation passes on to another. Later, the term torah is used to refer to the Law encompassing the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures combined with the Talmud, commentaries on God s law. Verses tell how the Hebrew people tremble in fear at creation s witness to God s holy power thunder and lightning, sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. They plead with Moses to be their mediator, to relay the words of God to them and to carry their words to God. Moses accepts this role. The poet of Psalm 19 extols the Creator s ordinances as more to be desired are they than gold...sweeter also than honey. God s loving wisdom sustains the community of creation and brings joy and purpose to all who live within it. In Philippians 3:4b 14, Paul claims the wisdom and joy of being grounded in Christ. When Paul speaks of confidence in the flesh, he refers to those things that give people credit in the world s eyes. In his accounting metaphor, Paul counts these as loss. There can be only one item on the credit side: Christ. Jesus parable in Matthew 21:33 46 seems a word of sobering wisdom. Rather than accepting the challenge of such wisdom, the leaders turn on Jesus. They find no joy in God s wisdom, embodied in Jesus the Christ. Today s readings offer a glimpse of a world where all patterns of human living are grounded in God s loving wisdom. As we continue to flourish as a community of God s people, such wisdom shapes our life together. As you journey toward fuller participation in God s purpose as an individual and as a church what is the role of the ten commandments in your life? 64 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

33 Reflection and Focus October 2, 2011 Reflecting on the Word Connecting with life Expect people to have a variety of opinions about the ten commandments, depending on their early experiences with these verses. Some may feel that they are negative words from a judgmental God. Others will celebrate them as gifts of God s wisdom to help their lives work better. n Who taught you about the ten commandments? How were they presented? n To what degree has your appreciation of the commandments changed over the years? n In what ways has your understanding of the meaning of the Commandments changed? Scripture Exodus 20:1 4, 7 9, The ten commandments are the heart of what is referred to as the Law of Moses in scripture. n What do these commandments say to you about what God considers as important for human beings as they live in community with God and one another? n To what extent do you agree with what the psalmist says about God s law in Psalm 19:7 10? n Of what are the Israelites afraid in verses 18 20? How do you understand Moses response? What in Moses words is comforting? What is challenging? n To what extent do you agree with those who say that God s wisdom in the ten commandments is judgmental? The Hebrew verb translated as shall not in the ten commandments also might mean you must not or you will not. This ambiguity opens a window to consider the ten commandments as a description of God s vision for our lives, as well as a description of how to live. n If you think of the ten commandments as God s vision, which commandment seems most important to you? Why? Focus for Worship, Learning, and Serving During a casual, Sunday evening meal, two families engaged in a lively discussion about laws. For example, should children be required to wear bicycle helmets? Do you need to come to a complete stop at a stop sign when no other traffic is on the road? Should people be allowed to smoke cigarettes around their own children? The differences in how each person, young or old, experienced rules became more obvious as the conversation continued. What might appear at first glance as necessary structure for an ordered society can be perceived as legalism at best and oppressive totalitarianism at worst by some. Season Pentecost after Pentecost Connecting scripture and life God s people in every age strive to understand how God s word shapes the ways we live in relationship with God and with our neighbour. The original form and Hebrew language in Exodus 20 suggest that the commandments first may have been simply a list of ten words, sort of a summary of rules for living. Create a list of ten words that are life-giving for you that summarize your own personal rule of life. n What do you notice about these words? What might be missing from your list? n Would a similar list for your community be much the same or quite different? Why? n What enables you to embody that which is life-giving in the midst of challenges and resistance? Poster Take a quiet moment to view the poster Midsummer Night in Harlem. Look for details in the image that suggest a strong and healthy community. Mark each with a picture frame cut from a sticky note. Wonder how the placement of these frames might change or remain the same if you were looking for details that suggest how to live out God s wisdom in the ten commandments. As we move from the Season of Creation into the Season after Pentecost, we begin a five week series from the exodus narrative. Psalm 19 invites us to use the ordered workings of creation as a helpful bridge from one season into the other as the psalmist reveals how creation reveals God s wise ways. These loving ways of wisdom set down in the ten commandments will give shape to human community and enable all creation to flourish. How can you use spirited liturgy, music, and movement to enliven what has potential to be a rigid list of rules? Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

34 God s Loving Wisdom Prepare Worship Outline October 2, 2011 NOTE: All of these suggestions are mere starting points; adapt, delete and add according to your local needs. q Recruit volunteers needed for worship: one or two to unfurl the fabric during the opening prayer, four for the prayer of confession and words of assurance, several for the psalm reading, one or two to help with the prayers of the people. q Choose an option for hearing Exodus 20:1 4, 7 9, For the Bible story, arrange for a storyteller present the story God s Loving Way on p. 70. and bring prepared paper hearts. For the choral reading, invite 10 people of different ages. Make copies of the choral reading on p. 69. q Set the worship table with green fabric, poster Midsummer Night in Harlem mounted on foam board, blue fabric from September 25 service. q Bring coloured construction paper (approximately half a sheet for each person) for the prayers of the people. q Decide which stations you will set, and set stations as described on p Place green fabric on the communion table or another table in the front of the worship space. Display the mounted poster on the table. Place the blue fabric on the table and partially unroll it. This will be unfurled during the opening prayer. Gather Music Suggestions As Long As We Follow/Na Nzelea Na Lola Joseph Kabemba; Music Booklet, p. 4 Cosmic Hymn of Praise Michael Mangan; Music Booklet, p. 5 Each Blade of Grass Keri Wehlander; Music Booklet, p. 6 Sing Out Marty Haugen; Seasons Songbook, vol. 8 Glory to God John Murray, Cecily Sheehy; Seasons Songbook, vol. 5 we are faithful at times and frail at others. May life-giving ways be opened for us and within us. (Unfurl the blue fabric.) Call to worship Sing Cosmic Hymn of Praise (p. 5 in the Music Booklet, #1 on the Seasons Music CD, vol. 9, and available as an MP3 download) after the spoken call to worship. The sun rises without fail bringing a new day to Earth and we rise to embrace this time of worship. Flowers, trees, grasses, and plants flourish and give praise with unfolding leaves, waving blades, and fragrant offerings. May we join them and praise the Creator with our being. Opening prayer Unfurl the blue fabric in stages after each stanza so it stretches down the centre aisle by the end of the prayer. We gather as those who wonder and wander; we participate and pull back; Some know what it is to struggle, to be broken but not crushed, to despair yet be held by unseen love. May life-giving ways be opened for us and within us. (Unfurl the blue fabric.) As a river carries life within its flowing currents, may we encounter, this day, the Spirit of the One in whom is life and love for all. May life-giving ways be opened for us and within us. (Unfurl the blue fabric.) Prayer of confession Before they became the ten commandments, the Israelites probably knew them as ten words that served as a rule of life. This prayer option reflects the power of words to create heartfelt responses that give shape to community. 66 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

35 Worship Outline October 2, 2011 Arrange to have four people stand in the four corners of the worship space. The readers will take turns saying one of the words from each of the lists of words of contemplation below. Follow each word with ample silence. Explain that rather than speaking a prayer with prescribed sentences and thoughts, we will hear single words. Invite those gathered to be attentive to the thoughts and feelings that arise with each word and allow these responses to guide a silent prayer of confession. Words for contemplation distance, separation, division, brokenhearted; (give ample pause between each word) harm, neglect, pollution, extinction; (give ample pause between each word) disregard, ignore, injustice, impoverish. (give ample pause between each word) Opening the word Psalm 19 Invite a small group of people to perform an interpretive movement such as the suggested movements below while the verses from Psalm 19 are read. The heavens are telling the glory of God; (swing arms from one side to the other) and the firmament proclaims God s handiwork. (lift arms up and wiggle fingers) Language is not spoken and words are not heard (cover mouth with hands) but their voice of praise is heard in creation. (raise the right hand up followed by the left) The sun comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding bed running its circuit from the East to the West. (form a circle with the arms, swoop in an arch) The law of God is perfect, reviving the soul (place hands on chest and sweep out one at a time) more to be desired than gold or silver. (raise hands in the air and turn body in a circle) Engage Words of affirmation Have the four people who read the words for the prayer of confession continue reading the words below slowly, but without the extended space for silent prayer. Hear now these life-giving words: receive, welcome, reconcile, enfold; restore, conserve, beautify, care; attend, share, compassion, love; forgiven, forgiven, forgiven, forgiven. May these words take root within us and become the living reality among and through us. Moving into the focus scripture Talk about rules we are asked to follow at home, church, school, or in our neighbourhoods such as no sweets before meals, brushing teeth before bed, or looking both ways before we cross the street. After each rule, ask: n How many others have a similar rule? n Who or what taught them this rule? n What might happen if no one followed this rule? Exodus 20:1 4, 7 9, Choose one of the following for hearing the focus story. Bible story Have a storyteller present the story God s Loving Way on p. 70. Choral reading Recruit ten people of differing ages to stand from where they are seated in the worship space and speak a line from the choral reading found on p. 69. After the focus scripture Invite children, young people, and all who wish to move to the stations. Others will remain seated for Proclaiming the Word. After Proclaiming the Word, you might invite those who have not already done so to move to and around the stations, taking ten minutes or so with a chosen practice. Respond Sing or listen to the song As Long As We Follow/Na Nzela No Lola (p. 4 in Music Booklet, #17 on the Seasons Music CD, vol. 9, also available as an MP3 download) as people gather in the worship space once again. Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

36 Prayers of the people Provide coloured construction paper (approximately half a sheet) for each person. Use the words below to invite those gathered to use their fingers to rip, fold, and give shape to a vision of what it might look like for the world to flourish in God s love. Place the completed shapes on the blue fabric or on the worship table so they are not an obstruction. Have people available to help collect the shapes of those who would like to participate from their seats. Offer the prayer in conclusion. Play meditative music throughout. Invitation The Exodus commandments provide loving wisdom that gives shape to communities of the faithful. When our relationships reflect God s relationship with us, all creation flourishes in love. Go with ways of wisdom for the Holy One: faithfulness, loyalty, reverence, stillness, respect. Bless Go with ways of wisdom for community: mutuality, honour, generosity, truthfulness, contentment. Worship Outline October 2, 2011 What is the shape of this flourishing? What vision comes to your mind when you imagine all creation living in the loving wisdom of God? Use the paper provided to create a reflection of this vision. Rip the paper, fold it, give shape to it. (Give directions for where they are to place their shapes when they are ready.) Prayer May the vision of a world flourishing in love spark our imaginations. May this vision become the whisper of the Spirit within us, giving shape to greater faithfulness, compassion, and justice. Go in the wisdom of Christ that enables all creation to flourish in the ways of love: forgiving, healing, restoring, creating, life. Special Days Commentary October 2 World(wide) Communion Sunday This day is observed in many parts of the world, although not by all churches. Some denominations produce special worship and learning resources for this day, and some ecumenical agencies encourage churches to acknowledge the fact that on this day perhaps more than any other, Christians around the world are symbolically gathered at a common table. October 4 St. Francis of Assisi Generally known as a lover of birds, animals, and creation in general statues of St. Francis frequently appear in gardens Francis of Assisi was also a strong champion of the poor and outcast of his time and society. The son of a wealthy Italian fabric merchant, Francis underwent a deep spiritual transformation and lived a humble, peaceful life, rebuilding the ruins of church buildings as places of worship and refuge. October 8 Yom Kippur Yom Kippur (literally Day of Atonement ) is the most holy and sombre day of the year, and is first mentioned in the Bible in Leviticus 23: On this day Jews abstain from eating, drinking, wearing leather (a sign of comfort) and even sexual relations in order to focus not on physical needs, but on spiritual ones. The holiday begins with everyone being absolved of all of the ambitious vows made in the past year which people were unable to fulfill on account of human frailties. On Yom Kippur everyone has the opportunity for teshuvah or returning to the divine way of living. We are obligated to seek forgiveness from God and from those we have hurt. This last is often the more difficult of the two, because God is obligated to forgive us, but people are not. We recite litanies of sins we have committed, always saying we have sinned rather than I, perhaps to remind us that we are always part of the community and responsible for communal transgressions, no matter how we pursue the benefits individually. Rabbi Adam Morris lives in Denver, Colorado, USA, and serves as a consultant to the Seasons of the Spirit editorial team. He also answers questions posed to Ask the Rabbi at 68 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

37 Poetry and Prose October 2, 2011 Choral Reading Exodus 20:1 4, 7 9, Recruit ten people of differing ages to stand from where they are seated in the worship space and speak a line from the choral reading. Read: Exodus 20:1 3 One: Jesus said, Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Read: Exodus 20:4 Two: Jesus said, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Read: Exodus 20:7 Three: Jesus said, Do not swear but let your yes be yes and your no be no. Anything more than that comes from the evil one. Read: Exodus 20:8 9 Four: Jesus said: (Read Matthew 5:3 9) Read: Exodus 20:12 Five: Jesus said, In everything do to others as you would have them do to you. Read: Exodus 20:13 Six: Jesus said, If you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment. So when you come to worship, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave and first be reconciled. Read: Exodus 20:14 Seven: Jesus said, Everyone who looks at another with lust and disrespect has already committed adultery in their heart. Read: Exodus 20:15 Eight: Jesus said, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. Read: Exodus 20:16 Nine: Jesus said, With the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbour s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Read: Exodus 20:17 Ten: Jesus said, Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. But strive first for the kingdom of God. Read: Exodus 20:18 20 Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

38 God s Loving Way (based on Exodus 20:1 4, 7 9, 12 20) Bible Story October 2, 2011 Bring 10 paper hearts. In each heart write one number, one through to ten For many years, the people of Israel lived as slaves of the Egyptian people. The Egyptian leader, Pharaoh, made them work for long hours every day, building roads and temples and statues. The People of Israel wanted to rest, but Pharaoh said, No! Day, after day, the people became more and more unhappy. Moses was a loving leader and wanted to help the people. What could Moses do? (pause) Moses decided to climb a mountain and pray to God, Please help us, God. The people have forgotten how to live in loving ways. The people wanted to be free, but Pharaoh said, No! The people prayed to God for freedom, and God said, Yes! God sent someone named Moses to lead the people out of Egypt toward their new home in freedom. The people were travelling across a big, hot desert. Mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts and uncles, girls and boys. The sun hurt their eyes. (Everyone rub eyes.) The sand hurt their feet. (Rub feet.) They were thirsty. (Hang out tongue.) They were tired. (Close eyes.) After a long while, the people forgot how to live in loving ways. Sometimes they pushed and shouted. Sometimes they took food that belonged to others. Sometimes the children didn t listen to their parents and the parents didn t listen to their children. Sometimes they did not stop to take time to be with God. God was with Moses in a special way in the quietness of the mountain. When Moses returned to the camp below, he had ten loving ideas for how the Hebrews could live as free people. Now the people were curious. What were these loving ways? And then Moses told the people of how God imagined this world to be. (Spread the numbered hearts and have someone pick a heart from the pile. Read the corresponding rule.) 1. Remember God is love. 2. There is only one loving God. 3. Say God s name with love. 4. Take time to rest and pray to God. 5. Parents and children, love and care for one another. 6. Respect all living things. 7. Keep your promises to one another. 8. Respect what belongs to one another. 9. Tell the truth about others. 10. Be content with the good things of your own life. The people looked at each other and smiled. And then they prayed, Thank you, God, for keeping your promise and bringing us back together again. Your way is full of love. A recording of this story is available in MP3 format in the Audio Stories folder on the Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Data CD. 70 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

39 Stations October 2, 2011 Living, Learning, Growing as Disciples The following stations might be set up around your worship space or in other places in the church building. Choose practices according to your space and numbers. If leaders will not be facilitating at these different practices, provide copies of the directions, or display the directions where the participants can see them. For your convenience these directions are formatted for printing and available in the Stations folder on the Season of Creation, Pentecost 2 Data CD. Also in the Stations folder on the disk and web versions of SeasonsFUSION Bible Story Materials: recording of the story God s Loving Way, (available in MP3 format in the Audio Stories folder on the Season of Creation, Pentecost 2, Data CD, player or players, soft cushions, blankets, and at least twenty paper hearts, ten with numbers one through ten written on them, pencils Setting the space: Spread blankets on the floor and scatter cushions on them. Make a copy of the directions and place where all can see. Puzzle Materials: Bibles, pencils, copies of Ten Ways to Love Earth on p.73, newsprint, markers Setting the space: Provide a table and chairs. Make a copy of the directions and place where all can see. The practice of storytelling Directions God shows us many loving ways to live in love and peace. q Listen to the story God s Loving Way. 1. Collect a heart shape 2. Think of ways we show God s love. 3. Write or draw one way we show God s love? 4. Tell a partner about it. 5. Display your heart shapes where all can see. The practice of Earth care Directions The book of Exodus contains many stories about the people of Israel who made the long journey from slavery in Egypt to freedom. Today s story tells about when the people learned more about living in God s loving ways. The church often calls these ways the ten commandments. 1. Read Exodus 20:1 4, 7 9, and the ten loving ways revealed to Moses. 2. Take a copy of the resource sheet, Ten Ways to Love Earth and complete the puzzle. 3. Work with a partner to imagine other loving ideas such as ten ways to be a good friend, ten ways to be a good sport, or ten ways to live together as a family. 4. Choose one loving idea, make a heading on a sheet of newsprint and write down ten ideas. 5. Display newsprint sheets. Loving Ways Banner Materials: copy of the ten loving ways from resource sheet God s Loving Way on p. 70, newsprint, large piece of bright fabric, dowel, rod, squares of bright fabric (20 cm/8 in), fabric markers, fabric glue or glue gun (Fold the top of the banner fabric under about 3 cm/ 1 in, stitch it so it forms a casing, and insert a dowel or rod to hang it. Setting the space: Provide a table and chairs. Make a copy of the directions and place where all can see. The practice sharing God s story with others Directions God gave Moses the ten commandments to help the people live in loving ways with one another. 1. Read the ten loving ways from today s story God s Loving Way. 2. Try to summarize each commandment into a few words such as, remember God; keep promises; share? 3. Write the suggestions on newsprint. 4. Choose a fabric square and a word or phrase from the list. 5. Decorate the square with a symbol that represents your chosen word or phrase. 6. Glue each square to the banner. 7. Label the banner Our Loving Ways and display for all to see. Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

40 Community mural Materials: poster Midsummer Night in Harlem, large sheet of paper, pencils, crayons, markers Setting the space: Provide a table and chairs. Make a copy of the directions and place where all can see. Stations October The practice of sacred imagination Directions God gave Moses the ten commandments to help people imagine living more fairly with each other, but sometimes it helps to be reminded of loving ways. 1. Look together at the poster Midsummer Night in Harlem. n In this painting, where do you imagine that people are treating each other fairly? 2. Lay a large sheet of paper on a table. 3. Use pencils, crayons, and markers to create a mural that is filled with scenes of what you imagine your community might be like when people live in God s way and treat each other fairly. They can be individual scenes or a connected picture as in Midsummer Night in Harlem. 4. Before you begin to draw, think of what might happen in your community to show this way of living. For example, children of all ethnic backgrounds and abilities would play happily on the playground. Tableau Materials: copy of the ten loving ways from today s story God s Loving Way p. 70, written on newsprint Setting the space: Provide space for movement. Make a copy of the directions and place where all can see. 1. Together decide on a title for your imagined community. 2. Reflect on this quote. Your imagination is your preview of life s coming attraction. (Albert Einstein) The practice of sharing God s story with others Directions The commandments helped shape the people of Israel grow as a community who loved God. 1. Read the ten loving ways from the Exodus story one at a time. 2. In pairs, or in small groups, make a shape or statue of what each loving way might look like. 3. Hold the pose so all can see, or prepare to show the full congregation. Music mak ing Materials: recording of As Long as We Follow/Na Nzela No Lola (p. 4 in the Music Booklet, #17 on the Seasons Music CD vol. 9, also available as an MP3 download), player, prepared path, slips of paper with a situation such as at home, at school, at work, with friends, or on the sport field, written on them (you will need to repeat situations), basket, newsprint, marker Setting the space: Lay pieces of recycled paper on the floor in a curvy, circular path around the space. Draw a large X on one of the pieces of paper. Make a copy of the directions and place where all can see. Arrange to have someone lead by stopping and starting the music. The practice of singing our lives Directions When we live in God s ways, we shape the world with love. 1. Move around the path as the music plays As Long as We Follow/Na Nzela No Lola. Sing as you go. 2. Stop when the music stops. 3. Whoever is standing on the X will draw a slip of paper from the basket and share an idea of a loving way for the situation named on the paper. 4. Write each loving way on the newsprint. Continue until the slips of paper are gone. 72 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011

41 Resource Sheet October 2 8, 2011 Ten Ways to Love Earth Use the code below to match the numbers below the lines to a letter from the alphabet. Write the matching letter on the line above the number to make a word. Read the ten ways to love Earth. When have you loved Earth in one of these ways? What else would you add to this list? Code: 1 A 2 B 3 C 4 D 5 E 6 F 7 G 8 H 9 I 10 J 11 K 12 L 13 M 14 N 15 O 16 P 17 Q 18 R 19 S 20 T 21 U 22 V 23 W 24 X 25 Y 26 Z 1. Plant as gifts to loved ones Turn off the when not in use Get to know around you Use carefully or ride your bike when possible Reduce the amount of stuff you Prayer: Write the letters from the circles in the sentences on the lines below to complete the prayer below. 7. what you can Reuse things in new ways May we live of. 9. outgrown toys and clothes away Play when you can Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost

42 Activity October 2 8, 2011 God s Loving Ways God gave Moses many loving ways to help the people. What are these children doing that show loving ways? Think about what you could do. Draw yourself here. 74 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Season of Creation Pentecost Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2011