Prayer and Blessings

Four prayers and blessings from Jennifer Kenna

Celtic Invitation
A Blessing
Reading from Soul Weavings
Homily, Sunday October 25, 2015 – NECW Board Eucharist

Celtic Invitation

This is the table not of the church, but of the Lord.
It is made ready for those who love God and those who want to love God more.
So come, you who have much faith and you who have little; you who have been
here often and you who have not been here long; you who have tried to follow
and you who have failed.
Come, because it is the Lord who invites you.
It is his will that those who want him, can meet him here.

Blessings

The Wisdom of God, the Love of God and the Grace of God equip you to be Christ’s hands and heart in this world. And the blessing of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer be upon you and remain with you, and all those you love and pray for, this day and always. Amen.

Reading Soul Weavings

Spirit of love, who moves in creation,
drawing the threads to color and design
life into life, you knit our true salvation:
Come work with us, and weave us into one.

Though we have frayed the fabric of your making,
tearing away all that you intend,
yet to be whole, humanity is aching:
Come work with us, and weave us into one.

Great loom of God, whose history is woven,
You are the frame that hold us to the truth,
Christ is the theme, the pattern you have given:
Come work with us and weave us into one.

Homily, Sunday October 25, 2015 – NECW Board Eucharist

In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. Amen.

It is probably the most famous scene in the Jack Palance-Billy Crystal mid-life crisis movie “City Slickers.”

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is? (holds up one finger). THIS!

Mitch: Your FINGER??!!

Curly: One thing, just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean [nothin!] (my word – not a literal quote)

Mitch: But what IS the “one thing?”

Curly: That’s what you have to find out! ( Taken from “Gnaw on This” commentary. Rev. Mike Kinman, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis, MO website, Proper 25B, 2012)

Billy Crystal’s young Mitch is trying to find some meaning in his life, and it is the OLD cowboy, Curly(Palance) who tells him, he just has to answer one question for himself: What is YOUR one thing? What is the one thing that will make all the difference? What is the one thing that means the most? What is the one thing that will make you whole again? What is YOUR one thing?

AND I am going to take it one step further today. As I look around this room I see women who arrived as strangers to each other – well, SOME of us – and now are trying to figure out OUR ONE THING. We are trying to build relationships with each other. We are striving to weave ourselves together so we can best reach and lead and support the women and ALL of this wonderful Episcopal Church in new ways. We are looking for the ONE FOCUS, the ONE THEME that will sum up ALL of our experiences and ideas and hopes and longings – that will guide us in creating a new vision for the future of ECW.

Today we see the blind Bartimeus – sitting by the side of the road, shouting to Jesus, constantly told to STOP. This sightless outcast begging for Jesus’ time and mercy – calling him Son of David – recognizing him as MESSIAH! A BLIND man RECOGNIZES Jesus and names him.

Remember those three times when Jesus told his totally clueless followers that he was the Messiah and what that meant for them? NOBODY got it . . . . oh, except for the BLIND beggar now sitting on the side of the road. Jesus invites that outcast into the inner circle, into the midst of that community. And unlike last week’s gospel – you know, the one where James and John try to cash in on THEIR relationship with Jesus to get him to do whatever he could for THEM – unlike that story, we now see Jesus calling this man living on the edges of society – this Bartimeus – and asking HIM “what do you want ME to do for YOU? What is your one thing – what will make YOU whole – what will make a difference?”

For Bartimeus it is his sight – Jesus’ mercy meant that he could SEE again. And Jesus, without even TOUCHING Bartimeus, points out that his FAITH has made him well – his sight is restored. And then Bartimeus follows Jesus on the way – the only person healed in Mark’s gospel that does that, by the way. Jesus heads for Jerusalem – for his death and resurrection – with Bartimeus by his side.

This story takes place in Jericho – a place that rests in the hearts and minds of the Jewish people as a place where a miracle happened, a place where their faithfulness to God was rewarded – where against all odds that well-fortified city was taken by the Israelites. The writer reminds those first-century followers of Jesus that God can do seemingly impossible things when his people are faithful.

And here WE are in Bean Blossom, IN. And I don’t THINK we can count on any miracles happening – altho’ ya never know I guess. But we can be Bartimeus, as individuals and as a Board – crying out to Jesus, not backing down if and when we are told to stay by the side of the road. I think history has proven that WE don’t do that EASILY! Cooperation and attention to each other and kind listening may well be rewarded by the quiet whisper of the voice Jesus saying “what do you want me to do for you?” It may even be in the whisper of one of our sisters here. IMAGINE THAT!!!!

For Jesus and Bartimeus it’s about something deep down and vital to life – the ability to SEE. It made all the difference to Bartimeus, who kept on until he was right there with Jesus. It was about RELATIONSHIP. And I pray that it will be the same for us over the next three years – first and foremost our relationship with God and Jesus  – and finally with each other – bringing our gifts and talents, sharing our memories and our dreams, opening our hearts and minds and eyes to see all the possibilities that lie ahead. We just have to be PERSISTENT, grounding ourselves in prayer, going to God as Bartimeus went to Jesus, and let the faith that brought us to this place lead us and guide us!

SO what DO we hope that God will do for US and ALL of this great church?  What does the path to the future look like – what is OUR one thing? It’s time to leave the side of the road, be persistent and walk with Jesus.

Let us pray.

May the Lord bless [us] and keep [us]. May God’s face shine upon [us] and be gracious unto [us].

May God give [us] the grace never to sell ourselves short; grace to risk something big for something good; grace to remember that the world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.

So may God take [our] minds and think through them; may God take [our] lips and speak through them; may God take [our] hearts and set them on fire. Amen (William Sloane Coffin, adapted)

From “The Essene Book of Days” by Danaan Parry

Sometimes I feel that my life is a series of trapeze swings. I’m either hanging onto a trapeze bar swinging along or for a few moments I’m hurtling across space in between bars.

Most of the time I’m hanging on for dear life to my trapeze bar of the moment.

It carries me along at a certain steady rate of swing and I have the feeling that I’m in control of my life. I know most of the right questions and even some of the right answers. But once in a while, as I’m merrily swinging (or not so merrily) swinging along, I look ahead of me into the distance and I see another bar swinging towards me. It’s empty and I know, in that place in me that knows, that this new trapeze bar has my name on it. It is my next step, my growth, and my aliveness coming to get me. In my heart-of-hearts I know that for me to grow, I must release my grip on the present, well-known bar to move to the new one.

Each time it happens, I hope and pray that I won’t have to grab the new trapeze bar. But in my knowing place I realize that I must totally release my grasp on my old bar and for some time I must hurtle across space before I can grab onto the new bar. Each time I am filled with terror. It doesn’t matter that in all my previous hurtles across the void of unknowing, I have always made it. Each time I am afraid I will miss – that I will be crushed on unseen rocks in the bottomless chasm between the bars. But I do it anyway.

Perhaps this is the essence of what the mystics call the faith experience. No guarantees, no net, no insurance policy, but you do it anyway because somehow, to keep hanging onto that old bar is no longer an alternative. And so for an eternity that can last a microsecond or a thousand lifetimes, I soar across the dark void of “the past is done, the future is not yet here.” It’s called transition. I have come to believe that it is the only place that real change occurs.

I have noticed that in our culture this transition zone is looked upon as a nothing – a no-place between places. Surely the old trapeze bar was real and that new one coming towards me, I hope that’s real, too. But the void in between?

That’s just a scary, confusing, disorienting “nowhere” that must be gotten through as fast and as unconsciously as possible. What a waste! I have a sneaking suspicion that the transition zones in our lives are incredibly rich places. They should be honored-even savored. Even with all the pain and fear and feeling of being out-of-control that can accompany transitions, they are still the most alive, most growth filled, most passionate, most expansive moments in our lives.

And so, transformation of fear may have nothing to do with making fear go away, but rather with giving ourselves permission to “hang out” in the transition between trapeze bars. Transforming our need to grab that new bar – any bar, is allowing ourselves to dwell in the only place where change really happens. It can be terrifying. It can also be enlightening, in the true sense of the word. Hurtling through the void-we just may learn how to fly.

Offered at two National ECW Board gatherings during conversations about change. by Evita Krislock