the connection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Come friends.

Come with your grief.

Come with your loss.

Carry all the pieces of your heart

And come sit with us.

Bring your disappointments

And your failures.

Bring your betrayals

And your masks.

We welcome you no matter where you come from

And what you bring.

Come and join us

At the intersection of acceptance and forgiveness

Where you will find the house of love.

Bring your empty cups

And we will have a feast.

 

 

This is my father’s world
     and to my listening ears

All nature sings, and round me rings
     the music of the spheres

 

This is my father’s world
     I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas
     His hand the wonders wrought

 

This is my father’s world
     oh, let me never forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong
     God is the ruler yet

 

This is my father’s world

     why should my heart be sad
The Lord is king, let the heavens ring
     God reigns, let the earth be glad

 

Hey everyone, it’s good to be with through the technology of waves and wires.  I hope this weekend is giving you some opportunity to take a break from the busyness of the week.

As I mentioned last week, we are working to create some smaller, physically distanced opportunities for people to see one another for little visits throughout the summer months. Our first attempt at this will be this Wednesday, July 8^th and we’re calling it Driveway Drop-bys.  The ideas is that on July 8^th, between 7 and 8:15 pm, you’ll be set up with three, fifteen minute visits, with other people from the connection community. (For those who may feel nervous about generating conversation out of thin air, we’ll also provide a couple of questions that you can use to get started.)   You can sign up as either a host or as a traveller.  You can sign up as a household, by yourself, or with a couple of people in your ‘bubble.’ Once we see who’s interested, well set up a schedule, and send it out.  If you could, please register by tomorrow, at 6 pm.  If you’re interested, just click on the registration link below the link for this liturgy.

 

It’s summer now, and so we are adding a fun feature for July and August that features Beverly.  Yay Beverly!

 

 

So for the liturgy this week I wanted to try something a little different.  I wanted to try and put together something more in the fashion of a playlist.  That you may wish to listen to while you’re driving or as you’re sitting on your deck, or taking a walk. It’s not so much a linear teaching but rather a collection of readings and prayers underpinned with music.  It is also has visuals that go along with it, so you may wish to watch it rather than just listen.  Or you may wish to watch it today and listen to it as you move through the week.

 

I recorded the voiceovers outside, so hopefully the ambient sounds with add texture to the liturgy.

 

If you would like to watch it, simply click on the link below the audio link for this liturgy.

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart

and try to love the questions themselves,

like locked rooms

and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue.

Do not now seek the answers,

which cannot be given you

because you would not be able to live them.

And the point is, to live everything.

Live the questions now.

Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it,

live along some distant day into the answer.

For hope is the embrace of the essential unknowability of the world. 

Hope is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart;

it transcends the world that is immediately experienced,

and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons.

Hope is a dimension of the soul;

it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation

of the world or estimate of the situation. 

Hope, in this deep and powerful sense,

is not the same as joy that things are going well,

or willingness to invest in enterprises

that are obviously headed for early success,

but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good,

not just because it stands a chance to succeed. 

To hope is to gamble.

It’s to bet on the future, on your desires,

on the possibility that an open heart and uncertainty

is better than gloom and safety.

To hope is dangerous,

and yet it is the opposite of fear,

for to live is to risk.

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,

and the fact that I think I am following your will

does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you

 does in fact please you.

And I hope that I have that desire

in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything

 apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this

you will lead me by the right road,

though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore I will trust you always

though I may seem to be lost

and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,

and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Eternal God who desires our wholeness

because life is difficult and love is not easy,

and doubt and struggle, suffering and failure,

are inevitable for each and every one of us.

Help us to respect the darkness of our pain and grief

and make a bold place for them in our lives.

Help us to recognise that without them

we can have no true sense of life’s great depth,

and that within them lies our capacity to love,

to create and to make meaning.

Help us also to welcome our yearnings for joy

and release, for flowers and the sun,

spaces to dream and the need to be loved.

May our joy and despair, loneliness and longings,

not remain hidden or divided from one another;

but help us to build each other up in mutual friendship,

that we may be enlivened and made strong.

God our life, our wholeness, our friend,

lead us to that place within us

where darkness and light,

the mornings and evenings of the heart,

may meet one another, know one another, and embrace.

 

Oh the vapor of it all
     it’s a chasing of the wind
   the powers of the earth so pale and thin
We will set our hearts on you again

Holy, you oh God are holy
     trees clap their hands for you
   oceans they dance for you
You are holy

Oh the mystery of it all
     I can never peer within
   could never find the words or understand
The fullness of a God become a man

Holy, you oh God are holy
     trees clap their hands for you
   oceans they dance for you

You are holy
     infinite and holy
A billion suns rise for you
     clouds paint the skies for you
   mountains stand tall for you
     valleys bow down to you
Everything rising
     to sing all our song for you

 

Alleluia

Holy, the impossible and holy
     kings become fools for you
   kingdoms to ruins for you
     vapor finds ground in you
   music finds sound for you
Everything rising, everything rising

Come like dawn
     like waves
   like sunlight
Bring this world to life

Come like rain
     like breath
   like springtime

Bring us back to life

You have looked deep

   into my heart, Lord,

     and you know all about me.

You know when I am resting

   or when I am working,

     and from heaven

    you discover my thoughts.

You notice everything I do

   and everywhere I go.

 

Before I even speak a word,

   you know what I will say,

 

and with your powerful arm

   you protect me

     from every side.

 

I can’t understand all of this!

   Such wonderful knowledge

     is far above me.

 

Where can I go

   from your presence?

     Where could I ever outrun your Spirit?

If I go up to the heavens,

     you are there.

   If I lie down in the grave,

    you are there.

You are the one

   who put me together

     inside my mother’s body,

and I praise you

   because of

     the wonderful way

 you created me.

 

Everything you do is marvellous!

   Of this I have no doubt.

 

Nothing about me

   is hidden from you!

I was secretly woven together

  deep in the earth below,

but with your own eyes

   you saw

     my body being formed.

 

Even before I was born,

   you had written in your book

     everything I would do.

 

Your thoughts are far beyond

   my understanding,

     much more than I

   could ever imagine.

I try to count your thoughts,

   but they outnumber the grains

     of sand on the beach.

 

And when I awake,

   I will find you there.

Open unto us light for our darkness.

Open unto us courage for our fear.

Open unto us hope  for our despair.

Open unto us peace for our turmoil.

Open unto us joy for our sorrow.

Open unto us strength for our weakness.

Open unto us wisdom for our confusion.

Open unto us forgiveness for our sins.

Open unto us love for our hates.

Open unto us thy Self for our self.

Lord, open unto us.

Amen.