for November 23, 20147th Sunday in SoC, Readings: Proverbs 8:22-36 [from The Message*], Ps 148, A Reading from the writings of Matthew Fox*,
Matthew 25:31-45
...and neither is the Son younger than the Father,
nor is
the Father older than the Son;
and the
Holy Spirit breathes in them.
And the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
are inseparable. from TÃrechán’s
Creed in The Patrician Texts of the Book of Armagh, AD 670 Dublin
Christ has always been. Jesus became the Incarnation of the Christ, the manifestation of the love of God, the human-divine person, the self of God that we can come a bit closer to, in ways that resemble understanding, and yet is still filled with divine mystery.
The New Testament is filled with images of the Incarnation of Christ that connects us one to another and all of us to the cosmos of Creation, time, and space. The Letter to the Colossians, as one example, says: He is the image of the unseen God and the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: every thing visible and everything invisible...Before anything was created, he existed, and he holds all things in unity. [Col 1:15-17] And in these days as we discard divine mystery for "reality" and the health of the planet for financial gain, Matthew Fox gives us another view from Creation Spirituality: I believe the appropriate symbol of the Cosmic Christ who became incarnate in Jesus is that of Jesus as Mother Earth crucified yet rising daily...wounded, yet rising, Mother Earth blesses us each day as we wake from our sleep. [The Coming of the Cosmic Christ] Let us reconsider our actions, return to the inconvenience of responding to the call of Christ, relinquish our indifference, live as if life is a gift from God - what have we to lose?
LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY
Leader: ~ Glorious Lord, Creator of Cosmic Wisdom, we come
together today especially, to drink deeply of Your waters, awaken from our daily
indifferences to You, and stop squandering the preciousness of each moment of
life. Help us to give our best praises to You through our actions toward one
another and to our Mother the Earth.
Incarnate Jesus, the Christ of All Peoples
RESPONSE: Teach us to see You in all faces and consciously
embrace Your ways
~ Glorious Lord, Creator of
Cosmic Wisdom, let us call upon the leaders of this world, our country, and our
community to cease using religion and the politics of power and greed to divide
and threaten. Let us not be imprisoned together as strangers, but rather live peacefully
together as members of Your One Family. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
Incarnate Jesus, the Christ of All Peoples
Teach
us to see You in all faces and consciously embrace Your ways
~ Glorious Lord, Creator of
Cosmic Wisdom, let us create harmony and healing together for all who suffer in
spirit, soul, or body. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
Incarnate Jesus, the Christ of All Peoples
Teach
us to see You in all faces and consciously embrace Your ways
~ Glorious Lord, Creator of
Cosmic Wisdom, anoint the grieving with Your oil of compassion as You joyously receive
and bless those now entering Your gracious eternal kingdom. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
Incarnate Jesus, the Christ of All Peoples
Teach
us to see You in all faces and consciously embrace Your ways
~ Glorious Lord, Creator of
Cosmic Wisdom, we pause in
this moment to offer You our other heartfelt intentions and petitions, aloud or
silently …
Incarnate Jesus, the Christ of All Peoples
Teach
us to see You in all faces and consciously embrace Your ways
~ Glorious Lord, Creator of
Cosmic Wisdom, we ask Your special blessings upon those whose lives we depend
upon for guidance and inspiration as we make our way to You through the gifts
and trials of earthly life. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
Incarnate Jesus, the Christ of All Peoples
Teach
us to see You in all faces and consciously embrace Your ways
The Celebrant adds: Son of Man, the Incarnation of Love, let us come before You, sheep
and goats as we are, to receive and to give the blessing of Your hands,
welcomed and welcoming as inheritors of the holy and sacred Kingdom. We offer
our praise to You as Jesus our Christ, the Holy Spirit as the breath of the
Trinity, and the Creator, who together before time, live and reign as one God,
then, now, and into forever. Amen.
*1st Reading: Proverbs 8:22-36 [from The Message]
God sovereignly made
me—the first, the basic—
before he did anything else.
I was brought into
being a long time ago,
well before Earth got its start.
I arrived on the scene
before Ocean,
yes, even before Springs and Rivers and
Lakes.
Before Mountains were
sculpted and Hills took shape,
I was already there, newborn;
Long before God
stretched out Earth’s Horizons,
and tended to the minute details of Soil and
Weather,
And set Sky firmly in
place,
I was there.
When he mapped and
gave borders to wild Ocean,
built the vast vault of Heaven,
and installed the fountains that fed Ocean,
When he drew a
boundary for Sea,
posted a sign that said no trespassing,
And then staked out
Earth’s Foundations,
I was right there with him, making sure
everything fit.
Day after day I was
there, with my joyful applause,
always enjoying his company,
Delighted with the
world of things and creatures,
happily celebrating the human family.
So, my dear friends,
listen carefully;
those who embrace these my ways are most
blessed.
Mark a life of
discipline and live wisely;
don’t squander your precious life.
Blessed the man,
blessed the woman, who listens to me,
awake and ready for me each morning,
alert and responsive as I start my day’s
work.
When you find me, you
find life, real life,
to say nothing of God’s good pleasure.
But if you wrong me,
you damage your very soul;
when you reject me, you’re flirting with
death.
*2nd Reading: A Reading From the Writings of Matthew
Fox
Listen to the Cosmic Christ,
to Cosmic Wisdom calling all the children of God together: “Come children,
drink of my waters which are all common waters. They are free and available to
all my children. Drink of my wisdom from your own unique well. Let the Taoists
drink and the Muslims drink; let the Jews drink and the Buddhists drink; let
the Christians drink and let the native peoples drink. And then tell me: What
have you drunk? How deeply have you imbibed my refreshment? What wet and
running wisdom drips from inside you to the outside? What have you to share
with others of my wisdom and harmonious living, of the dripping of the oils of
compassion and the lubricants of your common anointings as my images, my other
“Christs,” my co-creators of wisdom on earth? I am tired of your religious
wars, your sectarian divisions, your crusading spirits that arise from
disharmony. I long for harmony. If there must be competition, let it take place
at the level of shared gifts and bountiful outpouring of wisdom. Pray together.
Create harmony and healing together. Celebrate, praise, and thank together.
Cease using religion to divide. Use it for its purpose, to reconnect to Mother
Earth, to blessings, to the underground river that I am and that you all share.
And cease scandalizing the young by your indifference to these awesome
blessings, by your competition, and your boredom. Praise one another. Praise
the earth. In doing so, you praise me.” Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ,
Harper and Row, San Francisco, 1988
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