Home Church, 6th Sunday after Epiphany, February 13, 2022 Rev. Karen Hollis

Home Church

6th Sunday after Epiphany

February 13, 2022

Rev. Karen Hollis

We acknowledge these lands upon which we worship are the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.

Whoever you are and wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here!

Preparing the Space Around Us

Welcome if you are gathering on zoom or if you are worshipping at home with the bulletin. We are one community and all part of the body of Christ. I invite you to prepare the space around you so that for the next hour you can be fully in this worship experience, not to keep out the realities of the world, rather to focus us in the midst of it all on God. If you need to go and get something or shift something around you, feel free. 

Preparing the Space within Us

Let us prepare now the space within us for a time of worship. I invite you to sit quietly, perhaps with feet on the floor, taking a couple of deep breaths and bring yourself into this moment. Open yourself to the presence of God who is with us and within us . . . as you intentionally open yourself to God, open yourself also to what you need from this time of worship.

Greeting
One:  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, 

          and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

All:    And also with you       

Call to Worship                                                                              Enfleshed

One:  Let us call ourselves to worship . . . 

All:    As dawn illuminates the day set before us,

One:  As weather, mild and fierce, moves across the lands we call home,

All:    As birdcall chimes the setting of the sun,

One:  So the Holy Spirit wakes, moves, and sings with us.

All:    Let us Worship the Creating and Abiding God.

Opening Prayer                                                                             Enfleshed

Kindred God, we long to feel connection with our bodies, the land, and each other. Dominant forces make it difficult to move slow enough to do so. We are deterred from lingering with breath, bumble bee, birch tree, and beloveds. Enable our resistance to systems and norms that profit from numbing-out and rushing past. We hope to learn to practice the pace of connection. Amen

Hymn: As The Deer                                                                     VU #766

1 As the deer pants for the water, 

so my soul longs after you;

you alone are my hearts desire 

and I long to worship you

Refrain:

You alone are my strength, my shield, 

to You alone may my spirit yield; 

you alone are my hearts desire 

and I long to worship you.

2 I want you more than gold or silver,

only you can satisfy;

you alone are the real joy-giver

and the apple of my eye. R

3 You're my friend and you are my brother,

even though you are a king;

I love you more than any other,

so much more than anything! R

Prayer of Confession                                                       Enfleshed, adapted

One:  God of Justice,

          God of Compassion,

          God of Sacred and Scandalous ways,

          We have so much still to learn.

One:  By your grace, we have come to know love more deeply than 

          once before –

All:    its mess, its complexity, its stubborn and tender truths transform us more each day.

One:  Through fires that refine and valleys of death, you have guided us.

          You draw us into the heart of Wisdom,

All:    Saving us from the lies of destruction.

One:  Turning us towards hope that liberates.

All:    But still, O God, we struggle to trust in you.

One:  And so, when we are afraid. Or hurt. Or weary…

          We betray the very One who brought us thus far.

All:    Search our hearts, O God, and see if there is any fear within us. Meet us there with your good news that sets the captives free. Forgive us from the harm we have done as we seek to harm no more.

Silent Prayer of Confession

Assurance of Grace

God’s grace comes like a refreshing drink, like the warmth of the sun, like sweetness carried on the breeze, like the generous smile of a friend. May you receive the grace today in the language you share with God.

Peace of Christ 

One:  From our individual lives we come to this grace-filled place where we are called beloved.

All:    The peace Christ brings us back to the truth that we belong to one another.

A-M:  The Peace of Christ be with you!

N-Z:   And also with you!

First Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-10                            Reader: Charlie Blackburn

Thus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse-- who can understand it? I the LORD test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.

Second Reading: Psalm 1 (Voices United)                    Reader: Charlie Blackburn

Blessed are those who do not follow the counsel of the wicked, 

or linger in the way of sinners, or sit down among those who mock.

But their delight is in the law of God, 

and on that law they meditate day and night.

They are like trees planted beside streams of water, 

yielding their fruit in due season.

       Their leaves do not wither, 

       and whatever they produce shall prosper.

As for the wicked, it is not so with them,

       but they are like the chaff, 

       driven away by the wind.

Therefore the wicked shall not be able to stand 

when judgement comes, 

not sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

       For God watches over the way of the righteous, 

       but the way of the wicked will perish.

Gospel Reading                                                                 Reader: Don Moser

One:  God be with you.            

All:    And also with you.

One:  The Good News of Jesus Christ according to Luke;

All:    Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Luke 6:20-26 (Neil Douglas Klotz, Blessings of the Cosmos) 

Blessed are you who hold onto very little, 

       yours is the wealth and rule of your original divine image.

Ripe are you who feel an empty, gnawing space inside, 

       you shall be surrounded by what’s needed to fill it.

In the right time and place are you who face the grief inside, 

       you will be embraced within by the arms of the One.

You may not think so, but it can be blessedly ripe, 

       just the right thing to discover your true purpose, 

       when people see you in a bad light; 

       when people single you out for abuse, 

       because of the wounds they have felt inside. 

All this happens because people see in you 

       someone who is trying to fulfill the divine image, 

       who lives according to their real purpose.

Yet in the distorted, fun-house mirror of a heart they currently carry within, 

       they see you backwards, 

       which is the way they see themselves.

So feel life’s sharp point, 

       the jab of circumstance at this one moment in time’s harsh spotlight. Whatever is extremely bad,

        take the extreme part and use it to feel abundant, 

       to be transported by the free energy it provides. 

These are your wages on the level of divine vibration, 

the world in which light, sound, and name mingle in the heart of the Holy One before it gave birth to everything we see. 

The prophets before you, those who also listened to the voice always

coming from within, 

       received the same [wages] from their ancestors, 

who often confused their own confused reflection of the divine knowing with what they think they see in you. 

Out of life’s flow are you who have heaped up life’s things, 

       when their time is over, you will be left with emptiness.

You are caught out of tune with the One if you think yourself complete,

       with that way comes an insatiable emptiness.

Out of tune with the One are you if a forced, outer hilarity 

       prevents you from feeling the weeping and mourning inside.

Cut off from divine time are you when people say light, bright, and beautiful things about you, 

when they look only at the outside of the glass and reflect back its surface,

 when there is no one who has the first inkling of how to say a true word around you. 

This is the same state experienced by those who lied to themselves all the way through, 

who mistook their own inner dishonesty for the divine voice trying to be heard within, 

       and let others do likewise, 

       who were heaping up the outer reflections and projections 

       like a veneer over the soul until the mirror of the heart 

       no longer revealed their true Self.

One: This is the Gospel of Christ; 

All:   Praise be to Jesus Christ

Reflection             

Silent Reflection

Blessed Assurance - Offering, Marilyn Smith

New Zealand Creed

Let us affirm our faith . . . 

You, O God, are supreme and holy.

You create our world and give us life.

Your purpose overarches everything we do.

You have always been with us.

You are God.

          You, O God, are infinitely generous,

          good beyond all measure.

          You came to us before we came to you.

You have revealed and proved

your love for us in Jesus Christ,

who lived and died and rose again.

You are with us now.

You are God.

          You, O God, are Holy Spirit.

          You empower us to be your gospel in the world.

          You reconcile and heal; you overcome death.

          You are our God. We worship you.

Prayers of the People                                                                             Mona Smart       

One:  God of Healing and Compassion,

All:    Hear Our Prayer

Lord’s Prayer                                                 

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial

and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours

now and for ever. Amen.

Offering                                                                             Enfleshed, adapted 

Esteemed poet and member of the Creek Nation, Joy Harjo, writes that humans who say trees are not sentient beings must not notice “the singing of trees when they are fed by wind . . . or do not attune to their cries of anguish when they are broken and bereft.” Come, let us take a few breaths together and acknowledge our offerings in this sacred space that our kin -- plant, animal, land, and human -- might be honored, for our thriving depends on one another.     

Offering Prayer                                                                             Enfleshed

Sacred Energy, we remember we are part of nature. We give thanks for the wisdom of nature, teaching us that it is not through hoarding, but through sharing, we, too, receive life. May our offerings reach like roots toward every need, providing sustenance in this ecosystem of care we call the beloved community. Amen. 

Hymn: Long Before the Night                                                     VU #282

1 Long before the night was born from darkness

Long before the dawn rolled unsteady from fire

Long before she wrapped her scarlet arms around the hills

there was a love this ancient love was born

2 Long before the grass spotted green the bare hillside

Long before a wing unfolded to wind

Long before she wrapped her long blue arm around the sea

there was a love this aching love rolls on

3 Long before a chain was forged from the hillside

Long before a voice uttered freedom's cry

Long before she wrapped her bleeding arms around a child

there was a love this ancient love was born

4 Long before the name of God was spoken

Long before a cross was nailed from a tree

Long before she laid her arm of colours 'cross the sky

there was a love this ancient love was born

5 Wakeful are our nights and slumbers our morning

Stubborn is the grass sowing green wounded hills

As we wrap our healing arms to hold what her arms held

this ancient love this aching love rolls on

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation, in the Church and in Christ Jesus, for ever and ever. Amen.

Blessing                                                                                 Iona Community

If you are with another person, you’re invited to bless each other, taking every other line.

One:  The Creator’s blessing be yours on your road, on your journey,           guiding you, cherishing you.

N-Z:   The Son’s blessing be yours, wine and water, bread and stories,            feeding you, challenging you.

A-M:  The Spirit’s blessing be yours, wind and fire, joy and wisdom,           comforting you, disturbing you.

All:    The Angel’s blessing be yours, on your house, on your living, guarding you, encouraging you. Let us walk together, a community on a journey, sustained in God’s blessing. Amen!

One:  Let us go now in peace to love and serve the Lord.

All:    Thanks be to God! Alleluia!

Thank you

Coffee Groups

About this morning's gospel translation: Neil Douglas Klotz translated and reinterpreted these beatitudes in Luke from the standpoint of the Middle Eastern spirituality as found in Jesus' native language of Aramaic. The approach is simple: because aramaic, unlike Greek or English, allows for a much greater range of meaning than a simple word-for-word translation could offer, he rendered each line of the text five to seven different ways in poetic form. This morning's reading was assembled by selecting one rendering of each verse and placing them one after another.