Revitalizing God

March 29, 2020    (Readings: Isaiah 43:1-2, 16-21 and John 11:1-44)

Revitalizing God, the pains of the world are stark right now. The corona virus is touching each and every one of us and worldwide pain is laying claim on our hearts and minds and on the soul of the world. We gather to worship, all the while doubting that new life is springing forth. 

This week when I was walking with Dorrie in Shelburne Falls I was praying on the story of the death of Lazarus, beloved brother of Mary and Martha and beloved friend of Jesus. On our walk, Dorrie and I saw and called out to a couple of neighbors who were sitting on a bench, taking in fresh air and trying to find hope and purpose in this new way of life. 

The woman said she could handle this “down time,” if you can call it that, much better —maybe even think of it as a vacation of sorts — if she could trust that it will get better, that this time will change and that something good will emerge. Because she cannot make this leap of imagination right now, she is suffering mightily.  As Mary and Martha suffered. As Jesus wept. 

I was glad that this neighbor was able to share her desire to trust, to have faith, that a better world could be waiting for us on the other side of this pandemic. 

It made me think about the Prophet Isaiah meeting his people in his time so long ago and speaking of a word hope and consolation. 

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name, you are mine.

Because we as neighbors know each other, we could call each other by name, as Jesus called Lazarus by name. When Jesus called, Lazarus emerged from the tomb with a kerchief over his face. Does that remind you of all the first responders and world citizens wearing face masks? 

Friends, Isaiah says do not fear. You are not alone with your fears and sorrow. You are not alone in your desire that a better, more loving, more connected, more healthy planet will be waiting for us on the other side when this pandemic passes. You are not alone in seeing holy acts of love even now. 

As Dorrie and I walked back home, we saw another neighbor sitting on her porch. She called out and told us how grateful she is that she is alive at this time and place. She said that as we are all experiencing social distancing, she is seeing that as distance increases, so does our inclination to act socially. 

What she sees from her front porch is that social connections are increasing as we reach to one another. We our increasing our care for our planet; increasing in creativity and love, which sometimes looks like weeping and sometimes looks like laughing. 

Finally, I want to share with you a vision I had in meditation about this story of Lazarus. Let’s be real. We are not Jesus. We cannot bring the dead back to life in the way that Jesus does. Right now we cannot even travel and meet our beloved friends the way that Jesus did when he responded to Mary’s and Martha’s call. 

Still, we look to Jesus for hope and a Way to be in the world. Jesus did respond to Mary’s and Margaret’s  grief, but not first off. For some reason, he hesitated. When he did arrive, he stood at a distance from the household. He spoke to them face-to-face – maybe even 6 feet apart — from him.  When he came to find where Lazarus was buried, he again stood at a distance and called the dead man by name. 

“Lazarus, come out.” 

Today my message is that all the ways we are calling out to each other by name and to God by all God’s many names, are essential and holy work. They are manifestations of the resurrection of the spirit of this world. 

We don’t have to wait for the end of time or the end of this pandemic. Jesus, God, we, are here, right now, calling, “I know you by name, you are mine.” 

Nothing is able to separate us from God in Christ — not a virus, not despair, not the pains of the world. God, who is Love Incarnate, has the final claim on us. 

Amen. 

Be Calm. Be Kind. Build Community 

March 15, 2020

This morning we heard two readings, one quite long and one rather short. Both of them, in their own ways, are spilling over with encouragement to keep preaching the good news and keep staying in relationship with God, our neighbors, and even our enemies. And don’t forget to stay in touch with our own deep selves who are so often exhausted as Jesus was tired in his long walk and as Paul, too, must have been at times. 

This is our third Sunday in Lent. For these 40 days we are contemplating what we can give over to God, put at the foot of the cross, and what we can hold on to tightly,  recommitting ourselves for the sake of the planet and the sake of our souls. We are encountering people in the stories – last week Nikodemus who came in the dark of night and today the un-named (why are the women so often un-named?) Samaritan woman. Both seekers of the truth. Like all of us. 

The setting for today’s story is outside, by the well of Jacob, the religious ancestor of both Jesus and the woman, which to me means that in some way the two of them, Jesus and the woman, were related – distant cousins who had never met in person. Both were tired and thirsty. Both needed each other. Both, in the words of Paul, were suffering and enduring and, by the end of the story, both were filled by the Holy Spirit. 

All week I have been praying on these readings, largely because I have also been being bombarded with other voices calling for my attention. Our national elections. Our economy sliding. And all the information, anxiety, and not-knowing about the Corona virus and how that is impacting the world and us in one way or another. I have felt like my brain and my soul are an open circuit on overload. Too much coming in at the same time – as if 40 or more channels of the television were broadcasting simultaneously, all clamoring for my attention. I am thinking that you, too, might be at least a little, if  not a lot, over the top this week. 

Into the mix of scripture and news came two small bits of wisdom. Enough to take in and to begin to quietly and deliberately slow my brainwaves so I can hear and see God in our midst – sitting with us, talking with us, answering our questions, and giving us living water. 

The first bit of wisdom came, as it often comes, in an off-hand way, tossed out to me by a friend who, like us, is living in this troubled world. She said, “Marguerite, all I can say and do is this: Be calm. Be kind. Build Community.” 

The second bit of wisdom came in my search for a picture for our bulletin cover. First I found a lovely picture of a lake, which is how I often picture living water. Then I found picture of a child turning his little head up under a faucet to get a drink. Finally, I found the picture that is on our bulletin. It is called “Christ and Lady.” It shows me, as words sometimes do not, what Christ has done and does for us, now and always. Christ responds to our anxious human state and takes us by the hand. Christ takes us, like Jesus took the Samaritan woman, as we are and literally grounds us.

This morning I want to invite you to take a quiet and personal moment. To open your eyes and fix them on a centering point. It might be the picture on the cover. It might be our Lenten cross. It might be the stained-glass windows behind me. Give it a try. Put your concerns down for a while and fix your gaze and listen to the first message.

“Be calm. Be kind. Build Community.” 

Take time to breathe into these words and receive them not as advice in chaotic times, but as a testimony of faith and as a blessing to our community. 

“Be calm. Be kind. Build Community.” 

It is in calmness and kindness and care that we go on. 

Fix your gaze and now listen to Paul: “We know that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”  

When so much does disappoint us, it is a powerful reminder that God’s love does not. 

Fix your gaze again and listen to Jesus without all the commentary and the buzz and channel overload that must have been happening with the disciples and the people in his region. Listen to him as if is speaking to you: “Everyone who drinks of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I give them will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 

And the woman responded: “I know the Messiah is coming, when he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”

 And Jesus said, “I am he. The one who is speaking to you.”

This is what we have. The Word calling us to ground ourselves in what and who matters. There is no question that we are in troubled times. Maybe more troubled than some of us have ever experienced. What stays, through hard times and more generous times, is our faith that God abides, reaches to us, accepts us, and strengthens us. 

Next week we are going to be hearing the 23rd Psalm. Maybe we can end today with a preview of that beautiful prayer, written so long ago, for a people like us, who were troubled in heart and soul and who needed to hear a good word. 

Join me if you know this psalm, or listen and take it in. Soak up those still waters. 

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 

Amen. 

For God So Loves the World
March 8, 2020

There is much that we do not understand. How the wind blows, for one thing. How our lives can change on a dime, for another. How God moves in and around and between us, for a third. We are living in a constant state of ignorance, knowing only the tip of the iceberg. Yet here we are, trusting that for some reason we have been called to be together this morning. We trust that we can ask the Holy Spirit that we may desire to bring new order, new possibility, and new hope into this land. We don’t understand much of what God and all of creation are showing us, but we can ask to be opened to the possibility of change for the better. 
    This Lent I am listening with an ear tuned to what one person called “the stations of the Earth.” The places in my daily life where I see God present here on Earth and the places in scripture where I hear a word of hope for our planet. Today, for instance, we heard God direct Abraham to not stay home with his head in his lap, crying about his disappointments, but to “go to the land that I will show you. . .so that you shall be a blessing.” 
    We also hear Jesus in the dark of night, maybe out in a field lying on his back, looking up to the multitude of stars, telling Nicodemus to listen to the wind and watch how little control Nicodemus has — you don’t even know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with faith. Listen, watch, welcome, and cultivate. 
    Dorrie and I have a little book of prayers that we are praying together. This week I have been so taken by the wind and the sun and the melting snow and the change in the bird calls that I turned to a prayer about the slow coming of spring. I want to share it with you today because it says something important about faith. Jesus’s teaching to Nicodemus is a bit hard to grasp but this prayer speaks simply. Here is it. The writer’s name is Leunig. 
    Dear God, We celebrate spring’s returning and the rejuvenation of the natural world. Let us be moved by this vast and gentle insistence that goodness shall return, that warmth and life shall succeed. Help us to understand our place within this miracle. Let us see that as a bird now builds its nest bravely with bits and pieces, so we must build human faith. It is our simple duty; it is the highest art; it is our natural and vital role within the miracle of spring; the creation of faith. Amen 
    Can it be that our place within the miracle of life — all that we do not understand and cannot control— is to build human faith? Faith leading to action, like going out to the land and seeing what is actually happening on the planet and then finding our place in it. Like sitting with another human being as Nicodemus sat with Jesus and courageously asking questions and listening to another person’s point of view about climate and creation and faith. Like acting like a “sailboat church” leaning into the wind with the Spirit in control. 
    Building faith – in God and in each other’s best selves — is the highest art because faith pushes us to constantly strive to see and manifest beauty on the Earth in stark contrast to the ways in which we also see the “world”  (in Greek, “kosmos”) suffering from human activity. 
    Faith is about risking being in relationship. That is what we do when we face God and each other. We come desiring to be opened to being what John the Evangelist calls re-born and I call “made new.”
     Last week we talked about how shame tries to creep in and stop us in our tracks. I bet shame crept up to Abraham and Sarah when God invited them to leave home and go on this grand adventure. I bet shame said, “Don’t trust.  Don’t leave what you know. Stay home.” 
    But they did not, and that is why they are called pioneers of faith. 
    Last week we saw that the antidote to shame is vulnerability. Today we see that while vulnerability helps us open to God and one another and our places here on Earth, what really sends shame packing and helps us embrace the miracle of life is that God so loves the world.     “For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved [made new] through him.” 
    It is not just that God so loved the world, in the past tense, but that God so loves the world, in the present tense, that holds us steady. We make choices about being good stewards on the Earth, because we have faith, believing that “goodness shall return, that warmth and life shall succeed.” One of the prayers from our 8:30 communion service says it in another way. “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.”
    I hope you are taking advantage this Lent of reading our devotional For The Beauty of the Earth. Each day begins with a line or two from scripture and a reflection and prayer. The author says, “If Creation is [this] important to Jesus and the Gospel writers, shouldn’t we regard Creation with equal importance? If Jesus heeded Earth’s teachings and learned the lessons of God’s way from his time spent in nature, shouldn’t we afford Earth and Creation the same status as sacred teacher? Especially as followers of Christ, we must include the voice of Earth in our decisions about how we live, work, build, consume and minister to others.” 
    That is a statement of faith. Abraham and Sarah said “yes” to going out to a new land so they would be a blessing. Nicodemus said “yes” to staying with his difficult questions. Jesus said “yes” to being lifted on the cross so that life eternal would triumph. We say “yes” to spending these 40 days and, hopefully, our lives, building our faith here on Earth, leaning into the wind. It is our simple duty and our highest art. 
    For God so loves the world, we do, too. 

And He Persisted
March 1, 2020

This week in our Listening to the Gospel group one of us talked about a health practice that she has been doing recently and how it is also a spiritual practice. It is called intermittent fasting. Not the 40-day fasting that Jesus did when he was sent by the Spirit to go out to the wilderness. Our friend is fasting two or three times a week. She has breakfast and then fasts until dinner. No lunch. No snacking. Yes to water. No to soda. 
When this friend sat in the silence and listened to today’s Gospel, she admitted that instead of imagining Jesus in the wilderness she was thinking about what she was going to have for dinner! Her thoughts brought her back to Jesus. She said, “He must have been famished! I can’t even fast for a few hours a couple of days a week without thinking about dinner. How hard it must have been for him.” 
Which brings me right back to wondering what about as happening to Jesus before he went to the wilderness. What helped him, not just on an intermittent basis, but for the long haul? 
I looked back into the story and this is what I found. 
Jesus, just before being sent out to the harsh, dry wilderness, was standing deep in the River Jordan. He had come there with people from every region to be baptized. Not, at least for Jesus, to be wiped clean of sins, but in his own words, “to fulfill all righteousness,” which to me means that Jesus was called by God to fulfill God’s intention to bring all of Creation back into right relationship – harmony- with God. 
John the Baptist protested, but Jesus persisted. He stayed the course — as he would for the next three years — standing up for what he knew to be true, reaching out to people on the margins of society, eating with sinners, strangers and friends alike, and walkin step by step into the world, starting, it appears, with the wilderness. 
Something else happened to Jesus as part of his baptism. He went under the waters of the Jordan and as he came up from the water, “suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on  him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’”
Only then was Jesus led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Then he fasted 40 days and 40 nights. Then he encountered the tempter and started talking back. 
Jesus faced the temptation to take more than his share and to use his power to do what he should not do. The temptation to ask God to intervene in order for God to prove their special relationship. Jesus was finally faced with the temptation to bow down (just a little bow down, how could that hurt?) in exchange for receiving the whole world. 
How did Jesus keep persisting? How did he, not intermittently but continually, keep refusing the invitations to abuse power?
Jesus was able to persist by remembering the Word of God as he had learned in the Scriptures and what he had heard so clearly in God’s own word to him, “This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” 
The devil knew that this title “My Son” was something to razz him with. “If you are the Son of God” do this.” What could not be shaken, what could not, in the words of that lovely hymn, what could “not be moved,” was the rest of the phrase, “the Beloved with whom I am well pleased.” 
Today is the first Sunday in the season of Lent. We are walking with Jesus from his baptism to the cross. We are doing this because we need to know Jesus and know each other and what tempts us from falling off the Jesus Way and choosing the crafty one over God. Choosing hate, or even worse, choosing indifference, over Love. 
Today we receive a gift. The first gift of Lent is the truth that no matter how flawed and broken, unfaithful, or faithful we are, we are God’s Beloved. 
When during this 40 days you are tempted to forget this whole adventure of following Jesus, all you need to do is call to mind this phrase: “You are Beloved by God and by us.” 
Add, “Worship the Lord your God and serve only him,” and you will be able to persist in walking one more step toward the cross and, because we know what comes next, on to new life. 
Thank you for studying with me what it means to be a Christian community that lives in the wilderness while striving to fulfill all righteousness – to care for the Earth and each other and to do so, not because it is the timely thing to do, but because God so loves the world. 

What Is Your Story?   

Feb. 23, 2020

I often wonder how people who were born and bred in cityscapes relate to the stories in the Bible. Both the Jewish and the Christian texts are so firmly set on the dusty earth that it must be hard for city dwellers to find their footing in the Word. Today we have Moses and Joshua huffing and puffing up “the mountain of God” and years later Jesus and disciples following suit. 

I am thinking a lot this week, after my week in Tucson, about deserts and mountains and the effort that it takes to get to the top, never mind the knee twisting climbing down. And the clouds! The clouds in Arizona speed across a huge sky. They transform rapidly with sunshine one moment and torrential rains the next. I wonder now about Moses and Joshua and Jesus and Peter and James and his brother John. Was the cloud cover as awesome and worrisome as the bright light? 

When I was in Arizona we were traveling at a rapid pace. We wanted to see the desert, the birds, the mountains, the caves, and the friends and the family, so we were on the go most of the time. Because of early starts and exhausted nights I did not start or end my days with reading a novel never mind reading the Bible.  A couple of times I heard myself thinking out loud “I miss my stories.” 

My stories include my prayers and novels, poetry, scripture and the teachings that I was raised up on. Stories like these help me interpret what I am seeing and hearing. If I am going too fast, I miss the most important story line which is “Where is God in all of this grit and glory?” 

In both of our texts today you can see that everyone was living into their story. The Hebrews knew about Elijah being lifted up to the clouds. They must have wondered if Moses would come back out of the clouds or if he would never come down. Jesus’ disciples, descendants of those ancient Hebrews, also recognized the prophets and what it meant when they showed up on the scene, so they were not totally surprised to see Elijah and Moses chatting it up with Jesus. 

Our Christian story is imbedded in our relationship with the God of Love who invites us to climb up and out of our habitual ways of being so that we can be transformed if not transfigured. This story is embodied in Jesus who takes us as we are; like Peter was always talking off the top of his head and James and John fell on their faces in fear of the voice of God. And all of them stayed bewildered. 

In our collective story, we might have epiphanies of our own, but we are not surprised when the next minute we are back in the dark. And yet, because this is our shared story, we trust that in the heights or the valley, we are not alone. 

To me, the best thing is that our story is threaded with comfort and challenge– do not be afraid, listen to him, this is my Beloved, let me touch you and change you. 

These stories are not just “stories” – made up or passed down just to amuse or even teach us. These stories are our reference points – our North Star. 

Our story is clear that we are not living in a world where all things are relative, and anything goes with no point to the whole adventure. We are living in a life-giving story in which God is right here next to us, within us, and all around us, and is bent on freeing us from slavery to our fears and our sins, the Pharaohs of our time, our addictions and our despair. Our Christian storyline is this. “This is my son, The Beloved; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”  Listen to him. 

I had a wonderful trip to Arizona. I greatly enjoyed being in another part of the world – with huge cactus and animals I had never heard of never mind seen before. I delighted in the big landscapes and in the beauty of hummingbirds and the soar of raptors. But I missed you. 

Even for a week. I missed praying with you on Friday night and Wednesday morning and in Sunday worship. In my eagerness to climb the mountains I missed out on the slower pace that helps me to look and listen and know, deep in my heart, that even when I am away from home, God is with me and guiding me, and above all, is calling the whole world of creatures, great and small, Beloved. 

Our stories matter. They say a lot about who we think we are and how we respond to the world. What is your story? Does it keep you honest and daring? To use the words of Jesus, what vision are you holding close to your heart? 

Today is what we might call a “hinge” Sunday. A Sunday message and story that transitions from Jesus’ birth and early days, his appearance as a teacher and friend, to his destiny as the risen Savior. 

On Wednesday we are invited to join Jesus in the next part of the story. Instead of shying as Peter shied, from the idea that Jesus is fully mortal as well as fully divine, we can, on Ash Wednesday, mark ourselves as mortal beings. Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust. And not only mortal, but loved so deeply, that we too are a part of something everlasting, something glorious, something worth enough to be saved. 

Jesus asked  his first disciples to not rush to telling people about the vision they had seen. Maybe we should not either. Maybe we should do as he asked. To leave each other today and prepare for the next chapter in our common story. The season of repentance and letting go. The lengthening of light that begins in ashes.

 I am glad to be in your company today. We may or may not be seeing Jesus shining in the light, but we are all seeing each other. I agree with Peter today. It is good for us to be here.  

We are blessed

Feb. 2, 2020  

Rev. Marguerite Sheehan 

We are still in the church season of Epiphany, the season that is often called the time of awakening or enlightenment about who Jesus is and who we are as created beings. During this season I have been experiencing some of that awakening. 

It started a week ago on Wednesday evening when I went to Temple Israel in Greenfield for a program on the spiritual dimensions of climate care. The program was enlightening and I thought I could wait to share what touched my soul with you later this winter and spring. I thought I could put it to rest for a while.  

Then came this past Thursday morning, the day that I settle myself in my office space in the back of the parsonage to pray on and compose my Sunday messages. Before sitting to write I took up my spot in the bay window and sat with my morning coffee, soaking up the sunshine, watching the goldfinches gather at the bird feeder and marveling at the bluest of skies. Then, out of the blue, so to speak, in came a pair of bluebirds. They sat on the bird house — the one that every year gets taken over by sparrows — and they looked directly at me as if asking, “Will the house be available this spring?” Then I said out loud, “Bluebirds! Wow, they are so beautiful. Well, I better get to my desk to write.” 

I better walk away from all this glory. Go into a room where I purposely close the curtains to keep focused. Leave this beautiful God-given scene and get to work. 

I put my coffee cup in the sink and looked out the kitchen window and I saw the bluebirds fly over the parsonage to the top of the church, preening themselves on the cross. I could not stop laughing. I thought, “Whoever said God does not have a sense of humor? Whoever said Jesus got his sermon inspiration while sitting at a desk with the curtains closed?” 

Jesus got his inspiration smack-dab in the world of scripture and humans and bluebirds and seeds and bread and local and global suffering. 

 “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains; the demonic, the people with epilepsy, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. And when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” 

I have never had the privilege to travel to Jerusalem. What I know from my friend Linda, who has been there, is that there really is a mountain where Jesus is to have climbed up to teach. It is called the Mount of Beatitude. Mount of Blessing. 

Linda says that when you walk, as Jesus walked, up this mountain (that is more of a tall hill than a steep mountain) you can get tired. You might then sit on the grass and look out to contemplate the Sea of Galilee stretching out before you. 

If you know anything about the past and present midEast, or anything about the broken-hearted crowds and our climate crises, or anything about your own poor-in-spirit-soul, you just might weep with joy when you imagine Jesus sitting down on the grass to teach a message of peace and justice and consolation to the sick, the sad people in the broken and often paralyzed Creation. 

Here is my confession. 

I used to think, even just a couple of days ago, that when bluebirds flock to my house it was okay to close the curtains and turn my back against the beauty of the earth and the sky. 

I used to act like the suffering of Creation and the suffering of humans are two different realms without a ladder of hope going between them even when I knew that Jesus came to this very Earth to remind us otherwise. 

I used to imagine the crowds that gathered on the mountain and the crowds that gather in our own congregations and communities were a world apart.  

I am just now really waking up to the heart of Jesus, who goes up an ordinary mountain and sits down and looks with compassion on the people and the sea; the broken and the hungry, the ravaged and the hopeful. When he looks and names us – because that really is what a blessing is, to look and to name with love – he is teaching what we need to hear. All of Creation is suffering and blessed. 

The bluebirds do fly up to the cross. We are all, humans and non-humans, broken and blessed with a love we cannot grasp and yet grasps us fully. 

Here is a blessing for you. It comes from one of my favorite pastors, Methodist minister Rev. Stephen Garness- Holmes. You have a copy in your bulletins, if you want to read along, or maybe you want to close your eyes. Maybe you will hear yourself and the whole of Creation being addressed. I hope so. Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you.
         
“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the realm of God.” — Matthew 5.3

God, may I be an empty vessel for you.
Bless my willingness to have nothing to offer
except your presence in me,
and my trust in your grace in this world.

Bless my willingness to mourn for my losses,
to weep with those who suffer,
to lament the brokenness of the world.
I trust and await your consolation.

Give me courage to be powerless, to be inadequate,
to be weak, to depend on you,
and trust that in my emptiness
your grace is infinite and miraculous.

Give me faith to work for justice,
to be a peacemaker amidst hate and anger,
to bear your spirit into fearful places,
for I am your child, your Beloved.

Trusting that the kingdom and the power and the glory
are yours and not mine, I yield everything to you.
Surrendering all and seeking the lowest place,
I will be an empty vessel for your grace.

I am willing to die and be raised.  Amen.

Soon we will gather to communion and then for our annual meeting. After all that we will all walk out the door and greet the world that is waiting for us to look and bless and act for the beauty of the Earth. Now, let us be together.