Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time January 27, 2018 Michael and Mary Whitehead It is said, and it is true, that just before we are born a cavern angel puts his finger to our lips and says, Hush, don t

1 Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time January 27, 2018 Michael and Mary Whitehead It is said, and it is true, that just before we are born a cavern angel puts his finger to our lips and says, Hush, don t tell what you know. This is why we are born with a cleft on our upper lip and remembering nothing of where we came from. from Prince Ombra Announcements Opening Prayer: For Equilibrium, a Blessing, from To Bless the Space Between Us: A book of Blessings, by John O Donohue Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore, May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul. As the wind loves to call things to dance, May your gravity be lightened by grace. Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth, May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect. As water takes whatever shape it is in, So free may you be about who you become. As silence smiles on the other side of what s said, May your sense of irony bring perspective. As time remains free of all that it frames, May your mind stay clear of all it names. May your prayer of listening deepen enough to hear in the depths the laughter of God. Opening Song: Gather Us In, #302

2 First Reading: The Heart of Christianity by Marcus J. Borg Several years ago I was told a story about a three-year-old girl. She was the firstborn and only child in her family, but now her mother was pregnant again, and the little girl was very excited about having a new brother or sister. Within a few hours of the parents bringing a new baby boy home from the hospital, the girl made a request: she wanted to be alone with her new brother in his room with the door shut. Her insistence about being alone with the baby with the door shut made her parents uneasy, but then they remembered that they had installed an intercom system in anticipation of the baby s arrival, so they realized they could let their daughter do this, and if they heard the slightest indication that anything strange was happening, they could be in the baby s room in an instant. So they let the little girl go into the baby s room, shut the door, and raced to the intercom listening station. They heard their daughter s footsteps moving across the baby s room, imagined her standing over the baby s crib, and then they heard her saying to her threeday-old brother, Tell me about God I ve almost forgotten. The story is both haunting and evocative, for it suggests that we come from God, and that when we are very young, we still remember this, still know this. But the process of growing up, of learning about this world, is a process of increasingly forgetting the one from whom we came and in whom we live. The birth and intensification of selfconsciousness, of self-awareness, involves a separation from God. The birth of self-consciousness, of the separated self, is one of the central meanings of the Garden of Eden story. It is our story.the birth of the separated self what we call the fall is something we go through early in our own lives. We have all experienced this. Moreover, it cannot be avoided; it is utterly necessary. Imagining that Adam and Eve could have avoided it misses the point. We cannot develop into mature human beings without self-consciousness. And yet it is a fall into a world of selfconsciousness and self-centeredness, estrangement and exile.our identity and way of being are more and more shaped by the world, meaning the world as we internalize it in the process of growing up. The world of the child, with its mystery and magic, is left farther and farther behind. Thus we need to be born again. It is the road of return from our exile, the way to recover our true self, the path to beginning to live our lives from the inside out rather than from the outside in, the exodus from our individual and collective selfishness. To be born again involves dying to the false self, to that identity, to that way of being and to be born into an identity centered in the Spirit, in Christ, in God. It is the process of internal redefinition of the self whereby a real person is born within us.

3 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 95 Come, let s shout praises to GOD, raise the roof for the Rock who saved us! If today you hear his voice, open your hearts and listen! Drop everything and listen, listen as [s]he speaks: Don t turn a deaf ear as in the Bitter Uprising, If today you hear his voice, open your hearts and listen! Second Reading: On Turning Ten, by Billy Collins The whole idea of it makes me feel like I m coming down with something, something worse than any stomach ache or the headaches I get from reading in bad light a kind of measles of the spirit, a mumps of the psyche, a disfiguring chickenpox of the soul. You tell me it is too early to be looking back, but that is because you have forgotten the perfect simplicity of being one and the beautiful complexity introduced by two. But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit. At four I was an Arabian wizard. I could make myself invisible by drinking a glass of milk a certain way. At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince. But now I am mostly at the window watching the late afternoon light. Back then it never fell so solemnly against the side of my tree house, and my bicycle never leaned against the garage as it does today, all the dark blue speed drained out of it. This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself, as I walk through the universe in my sneakers. It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends, time to turn the first big number. It seems only yesterday I used to believe there was nothing under my skin but light. If you cut me I would shine. but now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life, I skin my knees. I bleed.

Third Reading: From Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood by William Wordsworth Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life's

4 Third Reading: From Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood by William Wordsworth Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, hath had elsewhere its setting, and cometh from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness, and not in utter nakedness, but trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home: Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Gospel Acclamation Gospel Reading: Mark 1:21-28 Then they came to Capernaum, and on the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are the Holy One of God!" Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come out of him!" The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, "What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him." His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee. Silent Reflection and Discussion Intercessions (Voluntary) Response (sung): O God, hear our prayer.

5 Gathering at the Table Creator of all that has life, be with us who have formed this circle of love. We come hoping for the innocence and wisdom of infancy and childhood, so that we might draw closer to you. We see in this bread a symbol of our faithfulness to you as you offer yourself to each one of us. We remember that to break bread together is to share in each other s joys and struggles. We offer you our thanks in this bread and wine. The bread we share symbolizes all of humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. We accept the gift of Jesus, who came as an infant to us. Through Jesus, who offers himself to us in love, with Jesus in thanksgiving for our personhood, and in Jesus who has blessed us with all of creation. This is the joyful feast of the people of God. The risen Christ shared an evening meal with two friends who did not know him in a home in Emmaus. He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him in the breaking of the bread. Christ is the Bread of Joy, who shares food with sinners. Christ is the Cup of Life, who revives the faint-hearted. Let us become what we receive: the Body of Christ as we pray as Jesus taught us: Our God who is in all of us here on earth: the hungry, the oppressed, the excluded. Holy is your name. May your will be done in our choice to struggle with the complexities of the world and to confront greed and the desire for power in ourselves, in our nation and in the global community. Give us this day our daily bread, bread that we are all called to share, bread that you have given us abundantly and that we must distribute fairly, ensuring security for all. Forgive us our trespasses, the times we have turned away from the struggles of other peoples and countries, times we have thought only of our own security. Lead us not into temptation, the temptation to close our minds, ears and eyes to the unfair global systems that create larger gaps between the rich and the poor, the temptation to think it s too difficult to bring about more just alternatives. Deliver us from evil, the evil of a world where violence happens in your name, where wealth for a few is more important than economic rights for all, where gates and barriers between people are so hard to bring down. May your kindom come, for yours is the kindom, the power and the glory forever. Amen (Adapted from the Center of Concern, Breaking Bread Hymn: We Remember, #456 Silent Meditation

May God center us in truth and steady our spirits. May Christ renew our joy and strengthen our wills. And may the Spirit teach us God s hidden wisdom and fill us with songs of rejoicing.

6 Closing Prayer We go now, to serve Christ and follow him. We let our old life fall like a grain of wheat into the earth so that we may bear much fruit as we allow God to reshape our hearts and live in obedience to the law written within us. May God center us in truth and steady our spirits. May Christ renew our joy and strengthen our wills. And may the Spirit teach us God s hidden wisdom and fill us with songs of rejoicing. Blessing May God, who birthed and nurtures us, give us strength. May we rejoice that She dances before us, leading our way. May She renew us daily for long-haul faithfulness. And may She enfold us in her compassionate Heart. Amen! Closing Hymn: Puff, the Magic Dragon (words attached) Happy Birthday, David! Luke: 18 People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

7 Puff, the Magic Dragon Peter, Paul and Mary (1) Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honahlee Little Jackie paper loved that rascal Puff And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff oh (Chorus) Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honahlee Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honahlee (2) Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail Jackie kept a lookout perched on Puff's gigantic tail Noble kings and princes would bow whene'er they came Pirate ships would lower their flag when Puff roared out his name oh (3) A dragon lives forever but not so little boys Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar (4) His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane Without his life-long friend, Puff could not be brave So Puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave oh Songwriters: LEONARD LIPTON, PETER YARROW

8th Month Queries on Peace

8th Month Queries on Peace London Grove Monthly Meeting ~ Begun 1714 ~ ~ Established 1792 ~ August 2016 Bulletin How does our Meeting act to advance peace, to oppose violence, and to support the constructive