Evening Service - April 4 2004 – Palm Sunday
Reflection
God Or Godswallop: That Is The Question
A book by Marian Barnes, Fraser Books, 2003
… In the end, she realised that when one removed the supernatural and the miraculous from the Christian story, there was still a set of values which relate to one universal concern; "of contributing to the pool of good in the world, and of having a stake in making the world into a better and a happier place." (p. 23)
Religious and non-religious people tend to agree on this. What makes a belief right for us is whether or not that belief brings out the best in us. In Barnes' words, "the ultimate reality, the ultimate truth is along the lines of that which brings out the best in us and impels us towards good." That is her definition of what she calls "the abstract God"; i.e. "that which impels us towards good equals that which I worship, equals God." (pg.33.)
Coming from an atheist stance, Barnes has come to an understanding similar to that of liberal / radical Christians such as Lloyd Geering and Ian Harris (who also happens to be her third cousin). One could say that she sees God as a constituent part of the nobility of the human condition.
What do you think?
Greeting and Welcome (drawing together)
From the dish in front of you, please select a memory stone that feels right to you. It is for you to take home and each time you see it to remember the love and peace of God, however envisaged, of our Galaxies community, of our friends and family, and of the faces of the stranger yet to be called friend.
Leader: We are all part of the rhythm of life.
As we mark this day of the journey,
may peace be with you.
People: and also with you.
Gathering Hymn AA8 Brother, Sister let me serve you
Affirmation of faith
All Say:
I give thanks for life and put my trust in all its possibilities for good …
For my good, for the good of those whose lives mine touches,
For all people, and for the earth itself;
I celebrate the honest search for meaning, for purpose,
for truth and wholeness shown by people of faith through the ages,
and join them in the quest;
I recognise in Jesus a man if integrity, insight and vision
who continually challenges my willingness to settle for too little,
Both in myself, and in the world around me;
I find in the Christ of faith a source of strength and wholeness,
An inspiration to new beginnings,
And a spur to be all I am capable of;
I affirm the communities of trust, love and endeavour of those who,
From time immemorial, have shared in the search
And who, with me, have felt our imagination quickened, our creativity fired,
And the boundaries of our understanding and empathy extended;
In these ways, and in the dynamic of their interlinking
I experience that which I call God
And in God I put my trust,
Now and into the future
Amen
Ian Harris
BLESSING OF THE FIVE DIRECTIONS:
Fire-South (Energy, Spirit, healing and
destroying, will, purification)
Someone lights the Galaxies candle then says:
We bring here our energy, or our lack of it, our ability to heal and also to destroy, our work at the service of others' well being, our will power, our weakness.
All say:
Source of Fire
present at the conception of the universe
be here with us now
in the passions which spark our work and celebration.
As you remain constant in the core of the earth,
stay in our hearts through all of life's turnings.
Air-East (Symbolizing the mind, all mental, intuitive & psychic work, knowledge, abstract learning, intellectual pursuit and work.)
Someone lights the incense and says:
We bring here all that touches our minds, our mental abilities, our intellectual work, our learning process.
All say:
Source of Air
blow the staleness away, fill our lungs.
Help us bring freshness into our lives.
Let there be clear skies, clear minds
for us to see our way.
Let our words create a safe space.
Water-West (Emotions, feelings, love, courage, daring, sorrow, intuition and the unconscious mind, womb, generating, fertility)
Someone brings pours the water into a bowl, dips their hand in it and playfully finger flicks everyone, then says:
We bring our emotions, our feelings, our loves and affections, our courage, our pains, our unconscious.
All say:
Source of water
rain on us, quench our thirst.
Help us taste
love, anger, sorrow and joy.
Let our emotions flow freely
until we know how to nurture ourselves
and each other, and You.
Earth-North (Body, growth, nature, sustenance, material gain, money, creativity, birth, death.)
Someone puts the flowers into the bowl of earth and says:
We bring our body, our creativity, our creative work, our worries over money, our material responsibilities.
All say:
Source of Earth,
ground our timid hearts.
Keep our dream visions firmly placed.
May our love extend like vines
and give birth to our many gifts.
Spirit-Centre & Circumference: (Transcendence,
transformation, change)
Leader pours the grape juice into the Chalice
and says:
We bring our desire to nurture our spiritual self at this gathering, our needs for silence, our thirst for the God within us all.
All say:
Source of love, life and spirit,
however or whomever we imagine you to be,
you are in all things
and we are in you.
Help us see love, life and spirit
in the many faces, of the many races
in our young and in our old
in our friends and in our enemies
in acquaintances and in strangers
in you and in me.
Witness
Bible reading: Luke 19:28-40
Thinking together
Contemporary reflection – Creative Protest (Norman Knipe)
Palm Sunday: Creative Protest
When you read through the Gospel of Mark especially and then take some time to think about this man Jesus you can't help thinking of him as a rebel, a protester, a challenger of the traditional way. John's gospel expresses this in a different way. John's gospel is a gospel of meanings rather than a direct reporting of actual events.
John takes certain events in Jesus life and uses them as signs which point to a spiritual learning. John places one of these events while Jesus is on his journey to Jerusalem.. It is the healing of a man born blind from birth. John tells the story of the physical healing of the man and then moves on to talk about spiritual darkness and light. This is a restating of the theme that runs right through John’s gospel; the theme of "Light and Darkness, Light in the Darkness, Light from Darkness." We hear this stated right in the beginning of the gospel; "The Word was the source of life, and this life brought light to human kind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out."
Here in this event of Jesus entering into Jerusalem on a donkey and accepting the popular welcome of the crowd, we see again this young rebel, this protester challenging the darkness of the traditional way and bringing a challenge of new light.
That theme is at the heart of what I want us to think about tonight. The theme for Easter could be expressed as Light shining in the darkness. There are many ways that spiritual darkness is expressed in our lives - ignorance, denial of truth, hate, anger, jealousy, fear, just to name a few. There are many examples too of wonderful, courageous people in whose lives we find light shining in the darkness. I want to share with you one example, I am sure you will know of others too.
I first met this young guy when he was in our youth group and he was at College.. After he left College he moved into Wellington to work; he lived with another young man and they became lovers. Some time later he took the AIDS test and discovered he was HIV positive. He moved to Sydney but was very unhappy and lost. He left and went to Melbourne. I was ministering in a parish in New York and wrote to him that Christmas I received a wonderful reply. He was 18yrs when he wrote this.
"Dearest Norman,
I'm glad to hear you're having such a beautiful time in the good old Americas. I wish I could say that I have had a good time. Don't get me wrong, my life now is almost everything I could want it to be and what is missing will come when I am ready and the time is right.
As usual at this time of the year I remember the past year and I’m glad it's nearly over. It will have to go down as one of the worst, but what a time of growth and change. I've drifted, it seems, in and out of reality and taken on board some fantasy to create a reality confirming that I, like the rest of humanity, am stark raving mad. Finally I find something in common with the rest of the human race.
I've just celebrated my first AIDS anniversary; one year conquered, and many more to go, or so the illusion perpetuates. Melbourne and my friends have been fantastic for my hope and for myself. It’s good to believe in your-self totally, and that is something I am finally understanding. I now have strength to be who I am with few worries most of the time. You can't beat the feeling. So if you're passing over Melbourne whisper a prayer and give a little wave. Thoughts carry many miles when they're sent in love.
What wonderful light shone through his life and the darkness never put it out.
That entry of Jesus into Jerusalem challenges us too to be part of the light- and that is a challenge to take risks, and risks often lead to hardship or loss but also have the goal of resurrection.
Palm Sunday is a day to celebrate all those courageous people who have stood up to tyrants and oppressors through the centuries
Palm Sunday is a reminder that standing up for a cause is often best done in a counter cultural way. The soft overcomes the hard, the gentle overcomes the rigid. Palm Sunday says 'be as wise as a serpent and as gentle as a dove'.
We've seen from the US the opposite logic and time will tell what damage is done. The Bush and Blair alliance claims to be using weapons of destruction to stamp out weapons of destruction; war to defeat war.
They ignore the United Nations in order to make clear to Saddam Hussein that the United Nations cannot be ignored. Peace is too important not to take up arms to defend. If the only way to bring democracy to Iraq is to invalidate the democracy of the Security Council, then they feel honour-bound to do that too, because democracy, as they define it, is too important to be stopped by a little thing like democracy as the UN defines it. They cannot leave in power a dictator who ignores his own people. And if their people, and people elsewhere in the world, fail to understand that, then they have no choice but to ignore them.
This is the logic of the first century leaders who killed Jesus on suspicion. They had a system to protect after all. They would execute an innocent man to uphold a system that claimed to protect innocent people. They would break the natural order of fair trial and justice in order to maintain their brand of order and justice.
Jesus in turn offered another way, a way that confounds the logic of power and self-righteousness; the way of persistent, courageous non-violence. He chose his timing, his mode and his message. Resurrection was his victory, the ultimate act of civil disobedience.
Oh that Bush and Blair might realise this. Oh that we might be inspired to live by these values this Palm Sunday.
Reflection Hymn AA22 Come into the streets with me
Prayers for the people
Behold, visit and relieve all persons with HIV/AIDS, give the power of healing to those who remember and care for them and to those who seek a cure; strengthen the weak, encourage those who fear, and comfort those who mourn; that sickness may be turned into health and our sorrow into joy.
Gracious God, we pray to you for the mission and ministry of Galaxies. Grant that we, seeing the image of God in one another, may be guided in the way of justice and truth, united in bonds of love, and strengthened to struggle against oppression; that all lesbians and gay men may know that peace which is the fruit of righteousness and show the power of your love to all among whom they live; through Jesus Christ, our Lover and Liberator. Amen.
Loving God, strengthen, we pray, the hands of all who strive for justice throughout the world, and, seeing that all human beings are your offspring, move us to share the pain of those who are oppressed, and to promote the dignity and freedom of every person. Nurture us, O loving God, in the dignity and worth you give to all your creatures, that we may respect the diversity and richness of your creation; that we may honour the persons who come to us; that we may refuse to use or to be used as objects of selfish gratification; and that we may work for equity and justice for all people Amen.
Help us to keep faithful, O God, to our duty of love; make us responsible for the proper use of our hearts and bodies; fill our minds and souls with your wisdom and peace; and give us the courage of sincere commitment to you and to those we love. Help us to communicate the knowledge of safer sex practices without judgment or superiority, and keep us responsible to our own health and that of others. Amen.
©1985, The Rev. James K. Taylor (amended)
Pause for individual prayers from the people gathered
Interfaith prayer for peace
All:
Lead us from death to life,
from falsehood to truth
Lead us from despair to hope,
from fear to trust
Lead us from hate to love,
from war to peace
Let peace fill our hearts,
our world, our universe
Passing the Peace
Leader:
Let us share our peace and love
Let us feel the power of the earth that holds us
together.
Let us celebrate our gifts in song and dance.
Let us all rejoice in our power and our beauty.
People:
We open our hearts to the miracle of birth and the mystery of God's love in all creation.
We carry in us the divine light that shone so brightly the night of Christ's birth.
The gift of love, which we share tonight, deepens us as people, deepens us as sisters and brothers.
People share the peace with those around them.
Breaking bread
Leader
(Rev Norman Knipe):
May God be with you
All: And also with you
Leader: Let us open our hearts.
All: We open them up to the
beauty of the earth and the mystery of God's presence in all creation.
Leader: We hear you, God, in the wind that shears the dried and
fruitless branches, allowing for new growth; providing wood to kindle our
home-fires.
All: We know you in the letting
go of old pain and useless fear, leaving an empty space to be filled more
abundantly with your presence and warmth.
Leader: We watch you at play in the dancing sea otter who dives and
swims and sings in the sun, fully at home in her watery world.
All: We know your spirit in our
dance and song, our joyful pride in our selves and our sisters and brothers.
Leader: We see you in the great mother bear as she cares fiercely and
tenderly for her young cubs, protecting and nurturing this gift of life.
All: We thank you through our
sense of caring and justice in our daily work as we strive to deepen these
qualities in ourselves and in all around us.
Leader: We feel your presence within us and among us and in the spirit
of our brothers and sisters who cannot be here today.
All: And now we remember Christ,
your most generous gift. On the night he was betrayed, he shared a meal with
his friends. He took bread, and after he had given thanks, broke it and said,
"This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In
the same way after the 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."
Leader: As we remember Christ, may we remain always mindful of our own
power, our elemental birthright.
All: Allowing the wholeness of
Creation to flow joyfully through our hearts, together we gather to share in
your love and reflect that to each other …
Offertory Hymn AA127 Take my gifts
(Offering plate passed around during the hymn)
Offering and prayer of dedication
ALL: We recognise and bless the gifts brought to the table and those given to support the mission of Galaxies.
The Lord's Prayer – Jim Cotter
All: Eternal
Spirit Earth-maker, Pain-Bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be.
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever.
Amen.
The blessing
Leader:
Stop for a moment and calm your thoughts…
Let go of your anxieties and look around you. What do you see?
You see a world filled with beauty. You see a life filled with possibilities.
You see dreams being born being nurtured and being fulfilled.
ALL:
Yes, there are challenges. Yes, there is sorrow. Yes, there is violence and hatred.
But more than these there is love, there is goodness, there is joy.
The future is uncertain … and that means there's no limit as to how beautiful and joyful you we make it. Yet what we have is right now … and right now is completely as it should be. It is our time to live.
Leader:
Think of what a precious thing your life is and how truly blessed you are to be experiencing it. Right now.
Right now, any anxiety you may have about the future is only an illusion. Let it go.
Let it fade away as the beauty and perfection of right now wash over you.
The best thing you can do for the future is to live with everything you have in the present.
You are in a position to create real, lasting positive value for the world in which you live. How do you do that? By following your heart. By being the you that is really you. You may have wandered away from yourself. Now is the time to come home. You know in your heart that you're here for a reason.
The pain you feel is that purpose, that reason for living, as it constantly aches to break free. When it does, you'll be more alive than you ever could have imagined.
Breathe in the beauty around you, the beauty and richness of being alive. It is your gift. It is your fortune. It is your blessing … and it is yours, to live, to experience, to fulfil.
Departure Hymn AA59 He came singing love
Notices
