Saturday, July 27, 2024: Join us Tomorrow July 28, 2024 for our Emmaus Liturgy:
We start at 3:45 with a welcoming
4:00: Liturgy
5:00: Yummy Potluck and massive sharing
In-Person at Knox Presbyterian and Thanksgiving Lutheran (a facility we share with both congregations)
1650 West Third Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
or Join Zoom Meeting with this link:
Passcode: 1234
Or Use the Meeting ID: 519 315 8573
Passcode: 1234
Or by Phone: +16699006833,,5193158573# US (San Jose) +16694449171,,5193158573#
Emmaus Liturgical Order of Service for Sunday, July 28, 2024
“The Feeding of the Five Thousand”
Victoria: Rings the Singing Bowl X 3 (to signal start of liturgy) Welcomes everyone and any new guests; and speaks briefly about the theme of today’s liturgy. Then asks Jeanine to explain our opening ritual. Then Victoria asks Jeanine to explain our Community Ritual of Connectedness.
Jeanine: Explains our Community weaving ritual
David: Opening Song/Hymn: https://youtu.be/RO07MOSf19s?si=HYCYWv-1ek_ogyr6
Jane: Reads our Opening Prayer:
Five loaves and two fish
What meager beginnings to feed so many
Yet, person by person sharing bread and breath;
The task was accomplished.
Slowly we too accomplish
Beautifully, before our eyes
Similarly impossible tasks
by starting out
beginning, even when it seems impossible;
sharing fish of our faith
loaves of our love
the resources of our heart
To reveal before our eyes
The task accomplished
The miracle of the living Christ with us, leading us,
beyond the impossible
by the work of our hands,
the love of our hearts
and in the joy of our hope.
We have only
To start.
Liturgy of The Word:
Marcie: Reads our First Reading: (from A Broken Piece of Barley Bread by Flora Slosson Wuellner, WEAVINGS Volume XIX, Number 6)
Though all four Gospels tell this story, it is only in John’s account that it was Jesus himself who directed them to gather the bread fragments so that nothing would be lost.
There is always a special reason for pointedly emphasized details in Scripture. Often it is a profound reason with deep spiritual significance, and often it takes a while to discern the significance. Usually there is an explanatory link to be found in the same chapter.
The meaning of the carefully gleaned fragments of bread is made clear much later in the chapter when Jesus refers to himself as the Living Bread sent into the world by God to draw to himself all those who thirst, hunger, and hurt. “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away…this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me…” (John 6: 37, 39)
Are we those bread fragments, poignantly referred to as “broken pieces” in the other Gospels? What better symbol for our throw-away abandoned people; our broken, fragmented humanity; our own individual shattered dreams, hopes, trust; all the shards of lives which have never been realized or fulfilled in wholeness. “…so that nothing may be lost,” Jesus said.
Dan: reads our Responsorial Psalm: (from Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022))
…let yourself receive the one Who is opening to you so deeply. For if we genuinely love Him, we wake up inside Christ’s body,
where all our body, all over, every most hidden part of it, is realized in joy as Him, and He makes us, utterly, real,and everything that is hurt, everything that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful, maimed, ugly, irreparably damaged, is in Him transformed
and recognized as whole, as lovely, and radiant in His light; we awaken as the Beloved in every last part of our body.
Jim Keck: Reads our Gospel Reading: John 6; 1-15
Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.
The Jewish feast of Passover was near. When Jesus raised his eyes
and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip,
"Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"
He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered him,"Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little."
One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?" Jesus said, "Have the people recline."
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted. When they had their fill, he said to his disciples,
"Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted." So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, "This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world." Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone.
Victoria: offers Homily (Homily “starter” with questions to prompt our Dialogue Homily):
In this time of my life, what are my feelings about scarcity, and where do I see abundance?
How am I being “Bread of Life” to myself and others?
John Poole: explains our Emmaus tithing and offers the Collection/Offering Basket
Nancy: Invites us all to consider: What Do We Bring to the Table tonight?
(Using our hand motions)
David: Offertory Song/Hymn: _________________________________________
Liturgy of the Eucharistic:
Eucharistic Prayer: (from Blessing the Bread, The Cup by Jan Richardson © janrichardson.com
Jeanine:
Let us bless the bread
that gives itself to us
with its terrible weight,
its infinite grace.
Victoria:
Let us bless the cup
poured out for us
with a love
that makes us anew.
Jeanine:
Let us gather
around these gifts
simply given
and deeply blessed.
Victoria:
And then let us go
bearing the bread,
carrying the cup,
laying the table
within a hungering world.
(As Jeanine holds up the bread and Victoria holds up the wine, everyone says:)
All: For it is Through Christ, With Christ, and In Christ, in unity with the Holy Spirit that all honor and glory are yours, now and forever.
Amen.
Jeanine: Leads us in The Lord’s Prayer: (by Parker Palmer)
Our Mother, Our Father Holy and blessed is your true name.
We pray for your reign of peace to come.
We pray that your good will be done.
Let heaven and earth become one.
Give us this day the bread we need.
Give it to those who have none.
Let forgiveness flow like a river between us, from each one to each one.
Lead us to holy innocence beyond the evil of our days.
Come swiftly Mother, Father, come.
For yours is the power and the glory and the mercy:
Forever your name is All in One.
Nancy: Invitation To Offer Our Sign of Peace:
Let us now offer one another as sign of peace
Victoria: Offers the Invitation to Communion:
Everyone is welcome at this table. The Spirit, whom the universe cannot contain Is present to us in this bread. God’s Sacred Presence, that redeems us and calls us by name, Now meets us in this cup. So, come, take this bread, Drink this wine, In them, The Spirit comes to us
So that we become one with Spirit.
Distribution of Communion for all
David: Communion Song/ Hymn: One Bread, One Body (from Dana and Doug Library)
Nancy: Offers our Closing Blessing: (from Rabia Terri Harris, Coordinator, Muslim Peace Fellowship, New York)
Creator of the Universe
Preserve us from our own presumptions. Do not let us close ourselves into ourselves But open us continually into You.
Let us be more in love with You Than with our notions of You.
Let us stop claiming to know everything
So that we may understand something.
Increase in us kindness.
Make us people who care
And people who take care,
People who venerate the truth.
And recognize each other.
Draw us with an irresistible beauty!
And the people of this beloved Emmaus Community say: Amen!
David: Closing Song/Hymn: How Beautiful is the Body of Christ
(from the Dana and Doug Couey Library/Archives)
David: Announcements:
Please join us for our potluck immediately following our liturgy.
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