We remember that his disciples met him on the road. We take wine and drink, as Jesus invited his friends to drink, Im in real danger of losing my ability to follow Jesus on what appears to all the world to be the foolish path of non-violent resistance to empire. You can peruse my notes for the service in the pdf of my missal here. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all:everyone has sinned and is far away from Gods saving presence. If you cannot bear to look upon the face of CHRIST, thats ok. Just stop this video and take a moment or two to pray. Re-create us too, we pray, by your holy Word. Certainly, in the church the Bible is considered to be the supreme authority of the nature of God. Benedicite - a Song of Creation Benedicite - a Song of Creation (shorter version) Venite - a Song of Triumph Jubilate - a Song of Joy The Easter Anthems Evening Prayer. Boys and their toys the put downs come, pardon the pun, a little too easily. He lives, and presides at this Feast! Close with quote from Michael Morwood: In nature we see superb aspects of transformation in supernovas exploding and in their dying giving birth to new possibilities resurrection producing abundant life. Progressive Revival Easter Prayer By Paul Raushenbush Living and Reigning God We give you thanks on this Easter morning for the Resurrection of your son Jesus Christ! Posts tagged "progressive Christian Communion liturgy" . I dont know how to stop this loop from playing. Just like the people in the story, I want to be transformed by the story of Jesus; transformed from someone who cowers in a place of safety, filled with fear and doubts, into a powerful member of a movement to create peace through justice. Come, drink together from the Cup of Gladness! Surely, today, when troops are again amassing in Europe and the world cant seem to sake itself loose from the myth of redemptive violence, surely today, it is time for us to move beyond thinking of DIVINITY as the ultimate purveyor of violence and Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice. You sent Jesus, your Son, to walk in the way of Lifethat we might follow. with the Son, God the Father praising;"Alleluia!" Think for a moment. Heavenly bodies have a beauty of their own, and earthly bodies have a beauty of their own. Holy, gracious, God, These days they are called orcas. How solid? And then, just like that, we were back there, back in the unthinkable darkness our parents spoke about, the darkness of war in Europe. No wonder Jesus took Peter, John, and James up there to pray. In his new book, Unbelievable, our friend, Jack Spong writes: The laws by which the world operates have not changed since the dawn of time, but the way human beings explain and understand those laws has changed dramatically over the centuries of human history. Jack has a way of reminding us of the obvious. People: Your death, O Christ, we proclaim. How dare I posit a GOD who is LOVE? towards ourselves and towards all living beings. ], [The Communion elements are distributed. For he is risen! Remember those first gatherings of the people who followed Jesus teachings met in secret because they feared for their lives. The BASILEIA ton THEON may not yet be the world we live in, but the BASILEIA ton THEON is already here. People: It is right for us to give thanks,It is our joy and peaceat all times and in all placesto give thanks to you, almighty, everlasting God,through Christ, our Lord. Hosanna in the highest. When I read the accounts of those early followers of the way who abandoned the tomb of the upper-room to gather together to build communities of compassion it is clear to me who was raised up by images of resurrection. They were compiled over the years to complement the official resource, the Roman Missal. Nor were they trying to teach us to live as reckless fools. Pauls words were interpreted from the King James version of the bible to read like this: And now I want to remind you, my friends, of the Good News which I preached to you, which you received, and on which your faith stands firm. if ( '' != thisact ) { It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give you our thanks and praise, O God! 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Said the sons of Zebedee, See to it that we sit next to you, one at your right and one at your left, when you come into your glory! Jesus warned them, You do not know what you are asking. You provided wise men and women as judges for your people to show them the path to Life. I dont have any solutions to offer you. Do we have the courage to drink from the cup which Jesus offers to all who profess to follow him? Living as the Vine and Branches in the Era of COVID-19: A Worship Liturgy. If we begin with what is actually happening in these parables, we will have to confess that these parables of the lost and the found are simply outrageous. jQuery(document).ready(function(){ You and I are the wealthiest followers of Jesus who have ever walked the Earth. When you sow, you do not sow the full-blown plant but a kernel of wheat or some other grain. It is not our beliefs about what happened in history that transform us but the extent to which we allow these glimpses into the heart of God to energize our lives. Today, we, ourselves and our neighbours, no longer live captive to the contours of the very tiny universe in which our ancestors confined their thoughts. You might say my countenance betrayed me, because it wasnt long before I took my body and its language out of the apartment to the nearest bar, where among friends, I began to look for a new place to live. So, let us begin with our own lives, our own daily challenges, let us strip ourselves of our own entanglements with violence. So, I will not presume to answer for Jesus hometown congregations murderous intentions. I am using it this Sunday and sharing your credit information! Alleluia! Violence, how long will we put our faith in violence? It can all tend to become a nice "show" or a good academic exercise, but with little impact on us as we seek to follow this Jesus. United States Imagine if you will, trying to understand the life of Martin Luther King, or Mahatma Gandhi simply by focusing upon their death. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. As far back as the sixteenth century, a Polish monk named Nicolaus Copernicus calculated that the Earth is not the center of a three-tiered universe. }); Join thousands of others like you who are contributing their voice to Progressive Christianity and list your church, organization or yourself in our global directory. Advent C. First Sunday of Advent. Peace begins with non-violent resistance. Occasionally, I was able to hear Jesus say, Have you believed because you have seen me? It was a very quiet little voice deep down inside of me, at least I think it was inside of me. But just when Alan was approaching the point of no return, I managed with a feat of superhuman strength to rise up, twist around and swing for all I was worth and connect with what I though must be my brothers chest. Grant that being joined together in him we may attain to the unity of the faith and grow up in all things unto him who is the head, Christ our risen Lord. window.location.replace('https://progressivechristianity.org/paupress/?rel=contact&pau_form=contact_form'); Our friend, Dom Crossan makes the point that, it is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally. I believe that in order to understand the power of this particular story of resurrection we must move beyond simplistic literal explanations and open ourselves to the more-than-literal symbolic dare I say it, spiritual understanding of resurrection. Leader: Let us pray.Lord God, send your Holy Spirit upon us, that the bread which we break may be to us the communion of the body of Christ, and the cup which we bless the communion of his blood. Resurrection is about the wisdom and the courage to proclaim with our lives that Jesus vision of the Reign of LOVE continues to rise in us. I expected that such a thrust would have released my arm from Alans iron grip. Jean and Mike give some personal examples of deaths and resurrections in their lives, both big and small. That left my chamber-maiding at a local lodge where the housekeeper was always kind enough to keep my Sunday mornings free so that I could go to church, while hung-over colleagues struggled to clean up. A SERVICE OF WORD AND TABLE II. But I digress. These parables have an air of foolishness about them, if we see them as simple stories told by Jesus about the way a personified god loves us. After two long years of isolation, I have learned how to block out the world. Another great reference and guide, if available to you, is The Worship Sourcebook, published by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.It's an excellent collection of prayers, texts, and litanies, with worship resources for every church season. For he is risen, and nothing separates us from Gods love! if ( thisact == "contact" ) { World in Prayer, the Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist, Lodi, California. I fumbled for my phone and hopped out into the frigid air desperate to capture a photograph which has always eluded me. I dont know about you but when that giant phallic ship was trusting into the wild blue yonder, I became somewhat indignant. Repent: Metanoia: to think new thoughts. Risen Christ, The world despised and rejected you. Steve carefully explained to me that I was in mortal danger. Rile em up! While the first century story told by the anonymous gospel-storyteller we call Mark, sees the sons of Zebedee, jockeying for coveted seats at the right and left hand of Jesus, our 21st century story portray the contrasting circumstances of wannabe-astronauts blasting far above our planet with scarcely a thought for the 150 million or so who will slip into the depths of poverty before this year ends. My family had travelled to the west coast of Vancouver Island to what was back then, a mostly unknown treasure. Suddenly, the Cosmos reminded me that freedom from ancient ways of knowing does not mean freedom from REALITY. Well, with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek let me blame it on a dog. Today, it only matters that CHRIST rises in us, rises in the people of Ukraine, rises in the people of Russia, rises in people wherever they are, who long for peace. Easter is the eternal moment that supersedes all time; the vision that puts into perspective all visionless living. Frame 13: I would rather have one rose and a kind word from a friend while I am here than a whole truckload when I am gone. Morning Prayer. Salvation is not about saving us for life after death. Click here to listen to a meditative sung liturgy inspired by Julians writings, Crystal was a little breathless from all the crying she had been doing and all she could manage was a whimpered, Mmm hummm. Honey, tell grandma the truth now. I can only hope that each of you, have endured such moments in your life. As a kid, this Canadian epic always sparked my imagination, as I dreamed of those, strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. for The Artic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold;The Northern Lights have seen queer sights and on and on it goes spinning a which always fills me with glee as I warm my soul by the heat of the cremation of Sam McGee, wondering about all the other strange things done in the mid-night sun. jQuery('#submit-action').click(); Do you still have a hold of that candy? Mmm humm. jQuery('#submit-action').click(); Crystals mother called for re-enforcements. As we prepare to eat the meal, let us share together the proclamation of our faith: Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. And all the kings horses and all the kings men, couldnt put Humpty together again. Christianitys morbid preoccupation with Jesus violent death will not usher in the Kin-dom of DIVINITY which Jesus lived for. On this Easter, we pray in Your name. Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the sky. The response is Alithos Aneste! Alas, if only. by Alydia Smith. I first heard it at a retreat on the West Coast a lifetime ago), In this fast paced world of ours, I often find myself in little Crystals predicament. For a mere $450,000 dollars you could join these daring old men in their flying machines. May the Spirit open our souls in order for us to see humanity, God and creation through the eyes of Jesus. 3 0 obj Are we prepared to make sacrifices in order to ransom those who suffer the indignities of the hell we have created here on Earth for the one and a half billion people held in the captivity of poverty? We join our tears to theirs and when we have no more tears to cry, we roll up our sleeves and we do what we can to help them. But because I had been forced to grapple with something I could not at the time reconcile with the person of Jesus whom I loved. Alison Etter. I assumed that it had something to do with counting myself out of their way of worshipping. Included here are just a few calls to worship, prayers, Scripture passages, and songs you can use in your Easter worship. by demonstrating this power of life, love and being. I dont know. Gone are the vestments, the prescribed lectionary readings, and the familiar words. Free from misguided struggles to appease the idol god of our design, we are free to see beyond our blind self-centered desire for a life beyond this life, free to see the face of DIVINITY in our neighbours face, free to see DIVINITY in the majesty of the Cosmos, and in the beauty of the Earth. 1 Corinthians 15. But in my heart of hearts, I know that I must learn to see the face of CHRIST in my enemy. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Once again, I struggled to keep a straight face. Surely, the Americans have an agency for this. For the most part, the Bible points to the Heavens above the firmament as the home of God. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.". In the same way he took the cup, saying: A Prayer at the End of a Quarantined Day. Prayer of Thanksgiving (1 Kings 19:1-12) It is about a prophet named Elijah, who was struggling to understand the will of the they knew as YHWH, the HEBREW name for the MYSTERY we call God, which can be translated as I AM, WHO AM or I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE or the GREAT I AM. Surely, Jesus cant be pointing to the GREAT I AM, the MYSTERY which we call GOD and saying that GOD is a fool. It was so good to be there, where they could see in Jesus the face of CHRIST. 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