Revealing…Confessing…Absolving…Commissioning

This list is not prescriptive, so much as it is descriptive.  It’s not that worship ought to be like this if you are “doing it right”.  It’s simply what happens because we are who we are and God is who God is and when you put the two together this sorta thing just happens.

REVEALING

You know that you’ll probably hear these words in the first five minutes of being at Church of the Beloved – “Welcome.  God is here.” Because invoked or not, Bidden or not, whether we know it or not, whether we pray for it or not – God is here.  Filling every atom of this space, in, under, over, around, and holding it all together is the presence of the invisible God.

It’s a startling, mind blowing – raise the hair on your arms – kind of reality… that is, if it’s really real to you.  The difficulty is that there couldn’t be anything more ordinary, more common, more everyday – than the presence of God.  It’s like trying to tell a fish it’s in water.  If we were aware of it all the time, we would be filled with so much awe and amazement and terror and excitement that it would be exhausting.  But there are certain moments, unplannable, uncontrolable, holy moments when this revelation of God’s presence stops us in our tracks.  Two people could be in the same room – for one it’s holy, and for the other it couldn’t be any more ordinary.

Elizabeth Barret Browning wrote:

“Earth is crammed with heaven,

every bush is afire with the glory of God.

but only those who see take off their shoes.

The rest of us sit ‘round and pick blackberries.”

For Moses it was finding a fire defying bush in the middle of a hike.  For the Paul it was a bright light that came crashing into his business trip.  For Peter it was at the end of a really bad day at work that he saw the Rabbi Jesus in a whole new light.  But here’s another revelation of God’s presence:  “Lord, when did we see you naked, imprisoned, hungry, naked, sick?”  And Jesus says,  “When you did this for the least of mine – you did it to me.”  For where there is love, God is truly there.  Jesus said that this is the sign by which people will know that your are my followers – how you love one another…and especially the “least” among you.  Worship starts with God revealing God’s presence in the midst of the ordinary.

CONFESSING

Where God’s presence is revealed you can be sure that there’s going to be some confessing going on.

Confession just follows naturally for us.  When we encounter God we want to confess.  When Isaiah encounters the presence of God in the Temple he says, “I am undone!  I fall apart!  I crumble into a pile! I melt into a puddle!”  And when Moses encounters the presence of God in the wilderness he takes off his shoes and hides his face.  He says, “I can’t look you in the eyes!”  And when Peter encounters the presence of God on a boat full of fish he says, “Get away!  Lord, go away!”  Why would a boat load of fish be something to be terrified about?  I mean, he just won the fish lottery!  You’d think he’d say, “We’re in the money! Never leave me!” rather than, “Get away from me!” . . .

What’s terrifying is that he’s just had the epiphany that this is no ordinary rabbi.  His whole perception has just radically shifted about who Jesus is.  Because now he is in the presence of someone who can do for him what he couldn’t do for himself.  And he’s been fishing his whole life!  And he’s been fishing all night long!  And he’s been fishing in that same exact spot that Jesus takes them back to!  And yet, he’s come up with absolutely nothing.  So the terror is that he is in the presence of One who can pull in a boat load of fish, where there were no fish.  An encounter with the Holy God, always inspires a sense of ambivalence in us that says:  “I don’t ever want you to go, and I can’t stand here for another second.  It’s too much… you are too much!  And I’m not enough!

A long time ago I had a pentecostal friend who kept bugging me to go hear this charismatic prophet speak.  I thought it was silly and scammy and didn’t have any time for it.  I kept putting it off until finally I gave in.  We arrived late but got there in time for the prophet to give personal prophecies to anyone who wanted to come forward.  And something happened to me that I totally did not expect.  The thought of being utterly transparent and completely known before this strange man, who I did not trust, filled me with an intense terror.  I was instantly flooded with the thoughts of all the insecurities that rule my life, all my endeavors to be self-important, and all the things that my heart clings to, and I was terrified at the thought of this man knowing me.  And yet!  I wanted to see him and I went forward.  But when he looked at me he said, “Brother, God wants you to know that you are loved more than you can imagine.  In fact, you are a son of promise with a long history of God’s faithfulness to draw from.  Be forgiven.”

I went up front expecting judgement and I, quite literally, was surprised by grace.

ABSOLVING

Where there is confession you can be sure that God is absolving.

This is God’s most favorite thing to do – to absolve you of your sin, to relieve you of your excuses to run and hide, to forgive you of your guilt, to accept you in your shame, to hold you in your frailty, to lift up the humble.  Where there’s confessing God is absolving.

Peter says, “Get away from me. I can’t be near you.  I am a sinner.  I am afraid of you.”  And Jesus says, “You don’t have to be afraid”

Certainly Peter has reason to be afraid, but Jesus says, “Don’t be.  I’m not going to hurt you.  It’s just the opposite of what you think.  I want to heal you of what hurts you.  In fact, I even want to heal you of the fear in you that thinks, ‘God wants to hurt me.  God hates me.’  I want to give you a new understanding of who God is, and how very much God delights in you, recklessly loves you.  Loves you for who you are, not who you can be, what you can do,  loves you regardless of the worst you can do, loves you to the cross and to the grave and beyond.

COMMISSIONING

Where there’s absolving you can be sure that God’s commissioning will soon follow.

This last one I think is the curve ball.  It’s the one that I don’t expect.  Worship doesn’t end at absolution.  Encounters with God prepare us for a purpose.  A purpose that we never would have even dreamed of attempting prior to the encounter.  God doesn’t say, “Thanks for letting me interrupt here.  Just wanted to scare you and then calm you down again.  Now carry on with what you were doing.”  Grace makes a new future open up for you to step into.  God doesn’t send people out guilt.  God wont let it go from revelation to confession to commission and leave out absolution, because God wont ask you to do anything motivated by guilt and fear. God sends people out graced.

God tells Isaiah – “Alright I know you are a potty mouth.  But I’ve touched your mouth and it is clean.  Now I want to use your mouth to speak to my people.”  Jesus tells Peter – “Alright, I know you are one salty fisherman.  But don’t be afraid of me.  From now on you will fish for people.”  There is something about encountering this God, who has loved you from the beginning of time that makes ordinary moments holy, that makes ordinary tasks missional because they are done for others, that gives your whole life new meaning because it’s lived for the one who gives you your life.  When you are caught up in the embrace of this God, you can’t help but offer your own presence – full of transparency, full of grace for the other’s confession, and God’s mission becomes your mission.  The shape of worship can’t help but shape the worshiper.

ONE: The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
The Word who was God,

Everything was created through God’s Word;

Every person entering Life

the Word brings into Light.

This Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
and the darkness couldn’t put it out.

ALL: Lord, Have Mercy

ONE: God’s Word was in the world,

the world was made through him,
and yet the world didn’t even notice.

ALL: Christ, Have Mercy
ONE: God’s Word came to his own people,
but they didn’t want him.

ALL: Lord, Have Mercy
ONE: But whoever did want him,
who believed he was who he claimed
and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
their child-of-God selves.

God’s Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
No one has ever seen God,

not so much as a glimpse.
But Jesus, this one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made God as plain as day.

GOSPEL John 11:32-44

MARTHA: This is God’s Story:

ALL: When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.  He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”  Jesus began to weep.

PT. ONE  :  MARY

MARY: Why weren’t you here?  We called for you four days ago… four days ago!  Why wouldn’t you come when we called for you.  It was an emergency.  I know that it’s dangerous for you to come here.  I know that last time you were here they tried to kill you.  But… but he’s our brother.  He was like your brother too.  You loved him like your own brother.  I’ve seen you cure sick people with just a touch, not even a touch, with just a word.  They were strangers.  People you met on the street.  That man that was blind his whole life.  That woman who had the bleeding condition.  The man that became paralyzed in that accident.  They were all strangers.  They didn’t know you like we know you.  They didn’t follow you like we follow.  You even healed gentiles.  They’re not even your people!  We’re your people.  We’re your family.  Why weren’t you here?  You could have helped.  You were the only one who could have helped, and you weren’t here.  I don’t know where you were, but you weren’t here.  I would have given you everything, our family inheritance, this perfume, anything!  Anything for Lazarus to be alive.  But you weren’t here.  And now there’s nothing anyone can do.

LAZARUS: This is God’s story:

ALL: So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”  Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.  Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”  Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

PT. TWO  :  MARTHA

MARTHA: What are you asking of me?  What do you want me to believe?  Jesus, this is too much.  Let me mourn, let me grieve, let me be angry, and sad, and alone… but don’t ask me to hope.  That’s just way too much.  You don’t think I’ve tried everything?  I have.  He’s my little brother.  I’ve done everything I could to save him.  You don’t think I believed hard enough?  If you would have told me what to believe I would have believed it.  I would have done it.  But not now.  Now just let him be.  He’s dead.  He is dead.  Four days is… the smell… we can’t touch him… it’s not right.  Just let him be now.  I know how to mourn, I know how to grieve.  But why are you asking me to hope?  Don’t you think we are past that?  Hope was four days ago.  I’ll hope in the resurrection on the last day, but not today.  Today let me be.

MARY: This is God’s story:

ALL: So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.”  When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus come out!”  The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him and let him go.”

PT. THREE  :  LAZARUS

LAZARUS: It was dark.  And I felt really cold and really thirsty.  I remember wanting some water.  It was so dark that I couldn’t tell if my eyes were open or not.  I had no idea where I was.  The last thing I remember was I was sick and at home and my sisters were taking care of me.  Mary just stayed right next to me, she said that Martha was finding someone to go get Jesus.  They said that they had seen him do amazing things – heal people and stuff.  That he would help me.  “Just hold on.” They kept saying.  “Just hold on.”  And then it was dark.  I don’t know how much time had passed. Maybe a couple minutes, maybe a couple years… who knows?  But then I heard this voice.  I couldn’t tell if it was a long ways away or if it was right next to my ear… maybe both.  And this voice knew my name, knew me.  It said, “Lazarus, come out… Lazarus…  come out.”  I sat up.  I couldn’t believe I had burial cloths wrapped around me.  I could barely take small little steps without tripping, but I just kept walking toward that voice, that voice that knew my name.

People treat me really strange these days.  They call me a saint.  But I didn’t do anything.  I died and Jesus told me to come out.  I guess that’s all it takes to be called a saint.  Will I die again?  I don’t know?  Will I be raised again at on the last day?  Well, something has changed in me since that experience.  I don’t associate life and death and resurrection with a future event any more.  I associate it with a person, with a voice… that knows my name.

MARTHA:  This is God’s Story

ALL: This is our story.

John Cage was an avante garde American composer, whom some consider one of the greatest musical influences of the 20th century.  He was especially fascinated by sound, and described music as “a purposeless play which affirms life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we’re living”.

In 1951 John Cage made a visit to Harvard’s state of the art anechoic chamber. This room was specially designed to eliminate every earthly sound possible inside of it. The material covering the walls of an anechoic chamber used wedge-shaped panels to dissipate as much audio energy as possible before reflecting it away.  Even the room itself rested on shock absorbers, negating any vibration from the rest of the building or the outside.  Rooms without echo are called “dead” by audio engineers, but when John Cage entered this room and the door closed behind him the room was alive with sounds!  He spent a long time in there listening to all the noises.  Finally when he came out one of the engineers asked him if he was impressed by the absolute silence?  “No.” He said. “I heard two distinct sounds: one very low and one very high.”  The engineer told him, “As long as you are alive you’ll never stop hearing those sounds.  The low rumble you hear is your circulatory system, your blood pulsing through your body, and that high whistling noise is the sound of your nervous system.”

Cage was delighted by this revelation and the next year he wrote his most famous and most favorite work: 4’33″.  It was a four minute and 33 second performance consisting of nothing but the quiet environmental sounds in that performance space.  He intended the piece to allow the audience to reflect on the reality that no hearing person has yet been able to escape noise entirely, sound is inherently present even within us.  It is inescapable.

We gather together as Church of the Beloved because there is one more sound that we have found impossible to escape: the small persistent voice of God within all of creation, and it is just as inescapable as the blood in our veins or the hum of our nerves.  God’s is a voice you know.  Trust that voice, like sheep trust a shepherd.  Listen for the voice of our Shepherd.

FOUR: Transfiguration of our Lord, part one:  A New Gestalt.

ONE:  According to Thomas Kuhn, the catalyst for a genuine scientific revolution is not a critical mass of compelling argument, but rather a shift in the way the scientific community perceives the world—a shift in paradigm. This shift involves, first and foremost, a new interpretation of things perceived, a new way of seeing—to use the German term, a new gestalt. It is this gestalt—this novel way of seeing—that allows us to look up at the night sky and perceive an unimaginably vast cosmos, seething with energy, swirling and transforming. It is this gestalt that allows us to perceive our bodies as composites of dynamic cells, themselves composites of atoms and molecules.

TWO: Psychologists tell us that all of perception involves gestalt to some extent. Our brains “fill in the gaps”: a half-hidden building still appears to us as an entire building; while listening to music, we isolate and attend to certain frequencies amidst a barrage of sonic information; subtle facial expressions communicate emotion with limitless nuance.  (Phil Woodward)

THREE: In life, as well as in science, new gestalts can be acquired. We have all experienced gestalt switches of some sort: when that long-time companion becomes the object of our affection; when a foreign language begins to take on meaning of its own for us; when an insightful analogy clears up an otherwise opaque concept. Perhaps we have experienced spiritual gestalt switches as well: when a song, a work of art, a teaching, or an emotional state is suddenly filled with the reality of the presence of God.  (Phil Woodward)

FOUR:  “Earth is crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only those who see take off their shoes – The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.”  (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

ONE:  There exists a disorder called agnosia in which patients are unable to take in an object as a gestalt and hence cannot interpret it correctly. Sufferers from the disorder are unable to recognize faces—sometimes even their own in a mirror. They can describe their surroundings well enough, and they can recall relevant details about their friends and family members, but when it comes time to interact with them, they miss out entirely, because they lack the relevant faculty of perceptual interpretation.  (Phil Woodward)

TWO: The people of Jesus’ time suffered from a sort of spiritual agnosia—an inability to perceive in Christ the fullness of God. They saw him as a teacher, a prophet, a healer, or a demoniac, a glutton, a drunkard, but few recognized him as the Son of God.  Are we any different now?  (Phil Woodward)

THREE: In a few fleeting moments, just three of the disciples were offered the chance to have every obstacle to perception removed, and to see Jesus plainly and gloriously—to be forever cured of their spiritual agnosia.  (Phil Woodward)

SONG:  ARISE (by Restoration Project)

Arise, arise
Your light, your light has come
Nations shall come
All shall come, all shall come

For your love has turned me around
For your love has turned me around
You whisper in my ear
And you speak to me in tongues
Nations shall come
All shall come, all shall come

TWO: Transfiguration of Our Lord, part two:  A Holy Moment

FOUR: He was your friend.  He was an artist whose medium was metaphor and language, he used words like a scalpel, performing prophetic surgery on a religion that had turned in on itself, an emergency operation on a culture that had grown tired of hoping.  He knew how to talk to the people and he knew how to relate with everyone in such a way that made each person feel like he really understood them.
And he was your friend.  He had become a local celebrity and sometimes it was hard to just get one minute alone with him.  No one had even heard of him when you first met him.  “Where’s this guy from?” people used to ask you as he spoke to small crowds that were growing every day.  These days you spend most of your time as a bouncer, keeping the crowds back, finding lodging for him when you reach a new town.  The tour is relentless.
So when he said “Let’s get away for a little while, let’s go for a hike.”  You were thrilled, “Do you want me to tell the other’s?”  You ask.  “No, it’ll just be the four of us.”  He tells you.  “Finally, just like old times.”
You wake up early, but can’t fall back sleep.  You leave before anyone can see where you and Jesus are going.  It’s cloudy out, perfect weather for a hike—you wont get fried by the sun on the mountain.  He walks in front of you, walking with purpose up the mountain, switching back up the side of the hill.  Small talk seems shallow.  He’s walking as if he wants to show you something—a secret of some kind.  You look at your other two friends, the brothers.  They’re bickering over stupid details about the night before but then they stop.  You share a look of knowing, like “hey, something’s going to happen”.  And Jesus keeps walking ahead of you, determined.  But now you follow even closer, too nervous to ask questions.  (Ryan Marsh)

SONG: TRANSFIGURATION (by Sufjan Stevens)
When he took the three disciples
to the mountainside to pray,
his countenance was modified, his clothing was aflame.
Two men appeared: Moses and Elijah came;
they were at his side.
The prophecy, the legislation spoke of whenever he would die.

Then there came a word
of what he should accomplish on the day.
Then Peter spoke, to make of them a tabernacle place.
A cloud appeared in glory as an accolade.
They fell on the ground.
A voice arrived, the voice of God,
the face of God, covered in a cloud.

What he said to them,
the voice of God: the most beloved son.
Consider what he says to you, consider what’s to come.
The prophecy was put to death,
was put to death, and so will the Son.
And keep your word, disguise the vision till the time has come.

Lost in the cloud, a voice: Have no fear! We draw near!
Lost in the cloud, a sign: Son of man! Turn your ear!
Lost in the cloud, a voice: Lamb of God! We draw near!
Lost in the cloud, a sign: Son of man! Son of God!

FOUR: He was your friend.  He was an artist, a rising celebrity.  But now you know even more than before.  You know something about him that could threaten the religious leaders, that could threaten the government and now your safety could be at stake.  With a sense of urgency in his face Jesus warns you, “Don’t tell anyone.  Not yet.  They will execute me, but I will live again.  After this happens you can tell everyone what you’ve seen today.  But until then keep this just between us.”  And from that moment on Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem, walking with determination.  The city was drawing him, pulling him toward something that you didn’t yet understand.  You came down the mountain changed… a little scared… a lot amazed… and transformed.  (Ryan Marsh)

ONE: Transfiguration of Our Lord, part three: Trans. Formation

THREE: Holy God, you are beyond our knowing,
yet we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
and in the voice from the bright cloud claiming Jesus your beloved Son,
you foreshadowed our adoption as your children. 
Transform us into the likeness of your Son,
who renewed our humanity so that we may share in his divinity. (Prayer of the Day, ELCA)

TWO: The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is snuffed out. (Jewish Proverb)

ONE: Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.  (Marianne Williamson)

TWO: “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”  (St. Matthew)

THREE: “It may be possible for each of us to think too much of his own potential glory; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor.  The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.” (C.S. Lewis)

FOUR: Dearest Lord, may I see you today and every day in the person of your sick, and, whilst nursing them, minister unto you.  Though you hide yourself behind the unattractive disguise of the irritable, the exacting, the unreasonable, may I still recognize you, and say:‘Jesus, my patient, how sweet it is to serve you.’ O beloved sick, how doubly dear you are to me, when you personify Christ; and what a privilege is mine to be allowed to tend you.  (Mother Teresa)

THREE:  There are no ordinary people. You have never met a mere mortal.  Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations, these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.  But it is immortals with whom we joke, work, marry, snub, and exploit — (our interactions make up) immortal horrors or ever lasting splendors. (C.S. Lewis)

TWO:  The transfiguration inspires many questions.  How do we perceive Jesus Christ?  Have we seen his glory in others?  In ourselves?  In the unique ways that he has made us and the unique ways we show God’s strong and tender love?  Have you caught people in God’s glory and had the courage to say ‘Wow, in this moment I have seen Christ in a new light!’  And allow those revelations to fill our hearts with gratitude and awe?  In this Free Form time take a moment to ponder the ways you have experienced God’s glory, when the mundane becomes marvelous and the ordinary, transfigured into extraordinary.  You may want to share some thoughts those sitting close by…

(This meditation has been four years in the making… the fingers who have shaped it belong to Phil Woodward, Lacey Brown, Gwen Owen, Ryan Marsh, Graham Travis, Willow Travis and Janet Prichard.)

A reflection on the stations by Graham Travis

INTRO:  Christ was offered 3 gifts by the 3 eastern astrologers.  Tonight we will engage these gifts through 3 corresponding stations.  You are invited to visit each of these stations and in so doing, meet Christ, reflect on his natures, examine our worship, and receive resolve for a new year:

STATION 1 – GOLD: a gift for a King.
It is a metal so precious people die and kill for it – so valued that we rob the creation of her riches and leave the wounds open to infection.

RECEIVE:
Take a piece of gold leaf in your hands.
You are a powerful person.
Think of every resource and opportunity you have.

RESOLVE:
How will you worship God in your strength in this new year?  …with your riches, with your power, with your influence will you worship God?

STATION 2 – MYRRH: a gift for a mortal.
It is the smell of a cover up – used to hide death and decay, but nothing is hidden from you, God.

RECEIVE: Dip your finger in the Myrrh oil and make the sign of the cross on your for head.
You are a fragile person.
Think of every limitation and challenge ahead of you.

RESOLVE:
How will you worship God in your weakness in this new year?  …with your poverty, with your defeat, with your powerlessness will you worship God?

STATION 3 – FRANKINCENSE: a gift for God.
It is the fragrance of worship – giving God the honor and love that is due to him.

RECEIVE:
Take a piece of frankincense and place it on the burning coal.
You are God’s beloved person.
Watch the smoke float upwards and let your prayers mingle with the rising incense.

RESOLVE:
How will you integrate all of your life with worship in this new year?  …in joy and in sorrow, in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health will you worship God?

Welcome to Church of the Beloved. Tonight is called epiphany.  The word itself means ‘light rising to the surface’ – and the season of epiphany is characterized by questions and by quest… Who is this mysterious child?  What’s God up to?  Who is all of this for?  Tonight is the first of the epiphanies.  This is a service for all questioners and for all those who quest.  Tonight we follow three wise sages who travel long distances from east of Israel, crossing deserts, rivers and mountainous regions, following the maps of the day—the clear night sky, unsure of exactly what or who they would find—but knowing that this would change everything.  And it is the same for us tonight.  In following what little we know of God, we’re not sure what or who we will find, yet we suspect that this Christ will change everything.
We enter this story through the window of three poets: first is Rumi, who was a 13^th century mystical sufi, poet from ancient Persia, also a wise man from the east. And then an American poet from the last century, T.S. Elliot, and lastly we’ll hear a creation of an early 21^st century Christian community in London called Vaux, which mixes together Rumi’s poetry and St. Matthew’s second chapter.  So now as you listen and as you sing, let your heart question and let your heart quest for God is drawing us to worship.

READING PSALM 139: GLORIA
ONE: This is the prayer of the psalmist concerning the body:
O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.

You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.

ALL: O Lord, you know me inside and out.

ONE: For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

ALL: O Lord, you know me inside and out.

ONE: My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.

ALL: O Lord, you know me inside and out.

ONE: All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

ALL: O Lord, you know me inside and out.

ONE: In fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

ALL: And we are the body of Christ.

ONE: So let there be no division in the body, rather its parts should have equal concern for each other.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

ALL: And we are the body of Christ.

ONE: The human body is a unit, it is made up of many parts; and although there are many parts, they form one body. So it is with Christ.

ALL: And we are the body of Christ.

ONE: For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, female or male—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

ALL: And we are the body of Christ.
ONE: In fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

ALL: And we are the body of Christ.

ONE: So let there be no division in the body, rather its parts should have equal concern for each other.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

ALL: And we are the body of Christ.

ONE: Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?  Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

ALL: And we are the body of Christ.

ONE: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”  For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim Christ’s death until he comes.

ALL: And we are the body of Christ.

This is the opening words to this weeks Advent Worship Gathering, written by Jon Glenn.  We started around the Christ Candle in the entry way, so it wasn’t capture in the recording of the service.

Welcome to Advent at Church of the Beloved.  Advent is a womb for hope.  And it’s here that we wait and watch for what may be birthed among us, reminded of the great mystery of the incarnation and reminded that those who have been created by God now birth God into the world.

So wait here a while, for even as God formed us in our mother’s womb, God is now forming hope in us.
Watch here a while, both like the expectant mother and like the child waiting to be born.

The child has no idea what awaits on the other side of the womb.
The infant cannot even imagine that there is another side of the womb…
Likewise we wait, unsure of what to hope for, but allowing God to grow a hope in us that something beyond our wildest imagining is about to come.