For Sunday, October 23, 2022, Season of Creation 3*, Readings:
Mother Theresa**, Psalm 47, Alice Walker***, Matthew
22:34-40
Norman Rockwell
“The Golden Rule” 1961
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]
For God is King of all the earth; sing praises to our King, sing
praises. [Psalm 47:6]
Praying–not a curse–only
the hope that my courage will not fail my love. But if by some miracle, and all
the struggle, the Earth is spared, only justice to every living thing (and
everything is alive) will save humankind…Only justice can stop a curse. [Alice Walker]
You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and will all your mind…You shall love your neighbor as yourself. [Matthew 22:37, 39]
We are
truly all in "this" together ~ this
life, on 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 whom we designate as not one
of us. Suddenly "they" become one of them, not
to be trusted or valued as the full human person God created in God's own
image.
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.
Alice Walker minces no words describing the
enormity of (their) crimes against humanity bringing such crimes from the
global history of white colonization and the destructive privilege of wealth,
to her people, her family, and her own experiences in our own times. Yet while outlining
specifics for venting her justified rage, she suddenly turns us all to the
stark necessities of saving our planet when she says So let me tell you: I
intend to protect my home. Praying – not a curse – on the hope that my courage
will not fail my love…only justice to every living thing (and everything is
alive) will save humankind…Only justice can stop a curse.
Matthew’s Gospel reminds of us the words
we think we know so well and utter easily and without deep examination of how we
are to apply them in our everyday moments, especially in the most difficult
circumstances: You shall love the
Lord Your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and will all your
mind…You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love God with ALL YOUR/MY
heart, soul, mind, and YOUR/MY Neighbor as myself. Too many of us may actually
love God and our neighbors as we really do love ourselves: badly. Judgment,
criticism, anger, mockery, even hatred, may be more of a mirror than we would
like to admit.
The
ways in which we care for each other ~ all others ~ and
ourselves, with the love for God and our Human Family that Jesus has exhorted
us to give, is 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 it is not the way of Jesus nor does it turn us toward
the ultimate reward of eternal life.
The humility that Jesus exemplified is
difficult to achieve and uncomfortable in an environment of excessive greed, selfishness,
and disdain for the life of others and this planet. 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 achievements and live more simply,
putting one foot in front of the other, making each and every breath
a prayer and every step in love and with love and toward justice for
our whole Human Family.
LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY
Leader: ~ Most Gracious Creator of Our Entire Human Family, keep us ever mindful that we are each sometimes the other, creating and receiving suspicion and fear, when we step away from our familiar cultures and communities. May our eyes continually radiate Your Light, and our everyday thoughts, actions, and prayers reflect the overflow of our love for You from within ourselves.
O God of Our Human Family
RESPONSE: We serve Justice with Love and Courage
~ Most Gracious Creator, 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 Our Human Family
We serve Justice with Love and Courage
~ Most Gracious Creator, 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 pray especially for: add your own petitions
O God of Our Human Family
We serve Justice with Love and Courage
~ Most Gracious Creator, 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… add your own petitions
O God of Our Human Family
We serve Justice with Love and Courage
~ Most Gracious Creator, we pause in this moment to offer You our other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and memorials, aloud or silently… add your own petitions
O God of Our Human Family
We serve Justice with Love and Courage
~ Most Gracious Creator, we give You thanks for all who are chosen 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 Our Human Family
We serve Justice with Love and Courage
The Celebrant adds: O God of the Hungry and the Privileged, O 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 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, so to love You and each other as we are to love ourselves. 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.
Leader: ~ Most Gracious Creator of Our Entire Human Family, keep us ever mindful that we are each sometimes the other, creating and receiving suspicion and fear, when we step away from our familiar cultures and communities. May our eyes continually radiate Your Light, and our everyday thoughts, actions, and prayers reflect the overflow of our love for You from within ourselves.
O God of Our Human Family
RESPONSE: We serve Justice with Love and Courage
~ Most Gracious Creator, 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 Our Human Family
We serve Justice with Love and Courage
~ Most Gracious Creator, 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 pray especially for: add your own petitions
O God of Our Human Family
We serve Justice with Love and Courage
~ Most Gracious Creator, 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… add your own petitions
O God of Our Human Family
We serve Justice with Love and Courage
~ Most Gracious Creator, we pause in this moment to offer You our other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and memorials, aloud or silently… add your own petitions
O God of Our Human Family
We serve Justice with Love and Courage
~ Most Gracious Creator, we give You thanks for all who are chosen 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 Our Human Family
We serve Justice with Love and Courage
The Celebrant adds: O God of the Hungry and the Privileged, O 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 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, so to love You and each other as we are to love ourselves. 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
**A Reading from 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." From Everything Starts With Prayer, White Cloud Press, Ashland, OR, 1998
***A Reading from Alice Walker: "When
I have considered the enormity of (their)..crimes against humanity…Against
women, Against every living person of color. Against the poor. Against my
mother and my father. Against me. When I consider that they are a real and
present threat to my life and the life of my daughter and the life of my
people, I think....Let the earth marinate in poisons. Let the bombs cover the
ground like rain. For nothing short of total destruction will ever teach them
anything. And it would be good, perhaps, to put an end to the species..rather
than let these wealthy white men continue to subjugate it, and continue their
lust to dominate, exploit, and despoil not just our planet, but the rest of the
universe, which is their clear and stated intention, leaving their arrogance
and litter not just on the moon, but on everything else they can reach. If we
have any true love of the stars, planets, and the rest of Creation, we must do
everything we can to keep men like these away from them. They who have
appointed themselves our representatives to the rest of the universe. They who
have never met any new creature without exploiting, abusing or destroying it.
They who say we poor and colored and female and elderly blight neighborhoods,
while they blight worlds. However, just as the sun shines on the godly and the
ungodly alike, so does our destruction of our environment. And with this
knowledge it becomes increasingly difficult to embrace the thought of
extinction purely for the assumed satisfaction of–from the grave–achieving
revenge. Or even of accepting our demise as a planet as a simple and just
preventive medicine administered to the Universe....Earth is my home–though for
centuries white people have tried to convince me I have no right to exist,
except in the dirtiest, darkest corners of the globe. So let me tell you: I
intend to protect my home. Praying–not a curse–only the hope that my courage
will not fail my love. But if by some miracle, and all the struggle, the Earth
is spared, only justice to every living thing (and everything is alive) will
save humankind. And we are not saved yet. Only justice can stop a curse." Excerpts from
“Only Justice Can Stop A Curse,” in The Impossible Will Take a Little While,
ed.Paul Rogat Loeb, Basic Books, New York, 2004
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