For Sunday, October 27, 2019, 3rd Sunday
in the Season of Creation*, Readings: Mother Theresa**, Psalm 133,
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen***, Luke 18:9-14
Whether you are a Hindu, a Muslim, or a Christian, how you
live your life is the proof that you are fully God’s or not…Our works of
charity are nothing but the overflow of our love of God from within… [Mother Teresa]
How very good
and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! [Psalm 133:1]
[The earth] is
in so many ways fruitful; all creation came from it, yet it forms not only the
basic raw materials for humankind, but also the substance of the incarnation of
God’s son. [Abbess Hildegard of Bingen]
The tax collector…was beating his breast saying, God, be
merciful to me, a sinner!…for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all
who humble themselves will be exalted. [Luke 18:13-14]
We
are truly all in "this" together ~
this life, this planet, right now. Mother Teresa was quite clear when she
said, how you live your life is the proof that you are fully
God’s or not. Love must undergird our lives and be
as normal to us as living and breathing. Too often, especially in
these fraught times, we look at "others" as different from
ourselves by skin color, nationality, religion, political views, sexual
orientation, life circumstance, or merely because someone lives in a different
part of the world, the country, or the community. How easily we dismiss, and
worse, completely reject those who aren't one of us. Suddenly
"they" become one of them, not to be trusted or
valued as the full human person God created, and in God's own image.
The Psalmist speaks simply with profound truth: How very good and pleasant
it is when kindred live together in unity! How very sad and tragic it
is that we set ourselves, within our self-limited chosen circles, as above
another individual or group as if our opinions, or neighborhood, or economic
circumstance, or political views are the only ones that matter.
The Abbess Hildegard fills us with an astounding and breath-taking concept when
she tells us that from God’s creation of the Earth we each contain not
only the basic raw materials for humankind, but also the substance of the
incarnation of God’s only son. Jesus is truly in our DNA! And, it’s even
in “them.”
In Luke, Jesus tells the disciples about
those who put themselves above others in the pride of their spiritual
accomplishments with contempt for those they deemed beneath them. The self-exalted
ones will not be justified as are those who are humbled by awareness of their own
sin.
The ways in which we care for each other ~ all others in
our common humanity ~ with the love as God has exhorted us to
give, will be a measure of the depth (or shallowness) of our own love for God.
To prosper only ourselves and our us may carry us in this
short temporal existence but we will not achieve the ultimate reward in eternal
life.
Humility is difficult to achieve. When you think have it, you've
lost it in that instant! I must paradoxically pray for humility and to not know that I have it. I am called to seek to become united with God through prayer, which is the
germinating power for our words and actions to be works of true charity,
in the overflow of our love for God from within
ourselves. It is time to relinquish marking my personal milestones and
simply keep putting one foot in front of the other, making each and every breath a prayer for our individual and common humanity.
LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE,
PRAY
Leader: ~ Most Gracious Parent, Creator of Our Entire Human
Family, keep us mindful that when we step from our everyday places and people,
we are each the other to someone else. Help us to humbly unite
with You in prayer, that our words and actions are as works of true charity, in
the overflow of our love for You from within ourselves.
O God of Earth
and Heaven
RESPONSE:
For
Your Mercy, we pray
~ Most Gracious Parent, grant us each and all, in
our many shapes, sizes, colors, races, ages, economic status, and genders, the
ability to be Your true voice in action. Let us challenge all in governments
across this planet, to work together to achieve the peace, for all we kindred, to
live together in unity. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
O
God of Earth and Heaven
For
Your Mercy, we pray
~ Most Gracious Parent, comfort all who are
burdened with serious illness, addiction, and/or emotional distress, and fill those
who give them care with energy and peace. We now join our voices to
pray aloud for those in need… add your own petitions
O
God of Earth and Heaven
For
Your Mercy, we pray
~ Most Gracious Parent, in the midst of sorrow
for our temporary loss, we give joyful thanksgiving for the glorious welcome of
our loved ones into Your eternal kingdom. We pray especially for…
O
God of Earth and Heaven
For
Your Mercy, we pray
~ Most Gracious Parent, we pause in this moment to offer You our
other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and memorials, aloud
or silently…
O
God of Earth and Heaven
For
Your Mercy, we pray
~ Most Gracious Parent, we
give You thanks for all who are chosesn to show us by Word and example, in
prayer and preaching, how to live in this life, and who walk with us on the
path leading to You. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
O
God of Earth and Heaven
For
Your Mercy, we pray
The Celebrant adds: God of the Hungry and the Privileged,
Lord of those Raised High and those Laid Low, grant us the joyful yet
solemn awareness that we each physically, and spiritually, bear within us the
very substance of Your Incarnate Son. Let us each be the seeds that germinate
the power of Your love, bear the fruit of unity among us, and intentionally
seek to be fully Yours in every day. We ask through the Compassion of Jesus our
Christ and the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit, who live and reign with You as One
God, every day, every way, always, and forever. Amen.
* The Season of Creation originated in the Anglican Church of South Africa and was formalized in 2008. It is designed for us to explore our faith from a Creation perspective. Click here for more information about: Season of Creation ~ In The Beginning
* The Season of Creation originated in the Anglican Church of South Africa and was formalized in 2008. It is designed for us to explore our faith from a Creation perspective. Click here for more information about: Season of Creation ~ In The Beginning
**A READING FROM THE WORD OF MOTHER TERESA:
Whether you are a Hindu, a Muslim or a Christian, how you live your life is the proof that you are fully God's or not. Loving must be as normal to us as living and breathing, day after day until death. To understand this and practice it we need much prayer, the kind that unites us with God and overflows continually upon others. Our works of charity are nothing but the overflow of our love of God from within. Therefore, the one who is most united with God loves her neighbor most.
Whether you are a Hindu, a Muslim or a Christian, how you live your life is the proof that you are fully God's or not. Loving must be as normal to us as living and breathing, day after day until death. To understand this and practice it we need much prayer, the kind that unites us with God and overflows continually upon others. Our works of charity are nothing but the overflow of our love of God from within. Therefore, the one who is most united with God loves her neighbor most.
From Everything Starts With
Prayer, White Cloud Press, Ashland, OR, 1998
***Reading
#2: Abbess Hildegard of Bingen
The earth is at the same time
mother; she is mother of all that is natural, mother of all that is human, she
is the mother of all, for contained in her are the seeds of all. The earth of
humankind contains all moistness, all verdancy, all germinating power. It is in
so many ways fruitful; all creation came from it, yet in forms not only the
basic raw materials for humankind, but also the substance of the incarnation of
God’s son.
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