Approaching Solstice

The word “solstice” derives from the Latin for sun (sol) + to cause to stand (sistere). On June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere, the Summer Solstice will occur at 1:45 a.m. The sun appears to reach its northernmost point in the sky, stand still for a moment, and then begin its long journey south once more.

Friends of the Historical Jesus are having their own solstice of sorts. We will “stand still” for the month of June, go about our individual concerns and contemplations; we will pause and reflect.

This small community devoted to scholarship in pursuit of the authentic voice of Jesus of Nazareth and worship via house assembly in the Early Christian tradition truly began the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, 2006. I attended Mass at Holy Spirit Ecumenical Catholic Church. How could I have known I would meet three persons there who would impact my life dramatically?

Our numbers grew to four, to five, occasionally six.

Together we have striven to:

* be part of a small but growing movement of faithful people independent of organized or institutionalized religion. We have gathered to pray, meditate, read Scripture, and break the Bread in commemoration of the Lord’s Last Supper;

* encourage each other on paths of discipleship according to the time and talents of the individual;

* study sacred literature in its historical context;

* discern and live the Values of the Kingdom of God;

* be progressive disciples of Jesus of Nazareth.

From my perspective, we have especially encouraged one another on unique paths of discipleship, and made every effort to see what Kingdom Values are in the 21st Century. There is always more to do.

I look forward to this time of rest, rejuvenation, even to the possibility of a change in direction. To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.

Until next time, here is a song to bless and keep you. (Consistent with our views against the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, we sing a few different lyrics.)

“Untitled Hymn”

Shalom!

Eucharist and Communion

I needed time and study to ‘wrap my head’ around a notion of Holy Communion I could accept—one that satisfied my 21st century sensibilities AND spoke to my heart. I began with a booklet, Introduction to the Episcopal Church, and after coming to the conclusion that the ‘body and blood’ of Jesus were infinitely different than any human body and blood, that I was not engaging in cannibalism, that this was spiritual food, I partook of my first Holy Communion in 2005. I told my uncle, who accompanied me, “It was the most natural thing in the world!”

However, I continued to ponder the subject. I wasn’t satisfied. My focus came to be more on the last meal Jesus shared with his disciples and friends.

Do this in remembrance of me.
1 Corinthians 11:24

I learned that he was adamantly against the Temple culture of sacrifice. One Monday evening, a group of friends met at church and shared a meal in the Early Christian tradition. We brought a variety of breads, fruits, cheeses, olives—mostly Mediterranean foods—and read 1 Corinthians 11:17-26. We passed the bread and juice. That evening I learned more regarding the historical context of the Last Supper, that it indeed was a Seder meal and because Jesus was poor and had no money to purchase even a dove for sacrifice, he offered the simple elements of bread and wine—food and drink that even the lowliest peasants had at least a little of—and declared these humble substances would replace the body and blood of sacrificed animals in a New and Lasting Covenant which he offered to all who remembered him and lived as he taught. Thus, he brought peace even to the animals.

This understanding is the foundation of the non-violent Eucharist celebrated by the Friends of the Historical Jesus.

The questions linger. I would like to share the most beautiful and compelling explanation I know, with my thanks to Leland Somers:

[This is an explanation of the Eucharist that I sent to a friend who asked me what I thought about it. My friend had just heard the traditional Roman Catholic explanation that the bread and wine actually are changed into the body and blood of Jesus — a medieval magic show that I rejected years and years ago.]

The traditional teaching of the Roman Church is that by a sort of magic formula bread and wine are changed literally into something else—namely, the body and blood of Jesus. Clearly that isn’t true as anyone can tell when they eat the bread and drink the wine, which is the same after the words of Institution as they were before the words of Institution. It is still bread and wine, not something else. So the words must be metaphorical—which indeed, they are—at most.

The celebration of the Eucharist is not about bread and wine changing into something else. The word “Eucharist” means to give thanks. During the Sacred Meal we are giving thanks for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and by eating the bread and drinking the wine—which are the elements that represent the promise of the New Covenant—a covenant not based on blood sacrifice but on shared grace and shared meals, and an understanding that God’s love, like the bread and wine, are there for all of God’s people, everywhere and at all times.

The celebration of the Eucharist is a celebration of God’s grace and thanksgiving for the life of Jesus and for our own lives as we are now a New Creation in Jesus Christ.

I’ve come to believe that Jesus rejected the entire notion of sacrifice as necessary to please God. Sacrifice (of animals) is the basis of the Temple worship in Jerusalem when Jesus was teaching and healing. The Temple was based on the idea that in order to please God and get God to bless you, you had to sacrifice animals. I, along with more and more people, believe that when Jesus went into the Temple and drove out the money changers and the people who sold the animals for sacrifice, he did so as a symbolic destruction of the Temple. Never in any of the Gospels do we find Jesus going to the Temple to offer sacrifice. If he valued this practice he would certainly have been remembered for doing it himself. On the contrary, he goes to the Temple and has a hissy fit about what is going on there.

With that as background, this is how I see what we call “The Last Supper.” Jesus was eating the Passover Meal with friends and disciples. He took bread—which by the way was standard fare at meals and bore little resemblance to most bread we eat today—and he had the bread in his hands when he said, “This (bread) is my body of sacrifice.” The same with the wine. “This wine is the blood of the New Covenant.” Not flesh from his own body or blood from his own veins, but the bread represents the very flesh of the Earth itself and the wine represents the very life of the Earth expressed in the water that is necessary for all life to exist. Jesus is saying that it is bread and wine which are the elements of sacrifice for the New Covenant between God and human beings as represented by Jesus’ life among us.

Bread made from the crushed grains of wheat, oats and rye from the womb of the Earth. Wine from the crushed grapes are the very blood of the Earth. This is the new Sacred Meal that Jesus wants to share with us and in sharing with us, expects us to share with the world.

Jesus is present in the gathered community offering, the sacrifice of prayer, praise and thanksgiving for the revelation of his love and grace in the life of Jesus. A life that by us becoming a part of it in the symbols of bread and wine makes Jesus alive in the world today.

That is why when I gave out Communion I said, “You are the body of Christ.” Through baptism and Communion, we become one with Christ and we are then Christ for the World.

—Leland Somers

We are Easter People!

We live not by the horrors of the Cross, but by the Light which turned the Shadow of Death into morning.

We devote our lives to the simplest glories:

Feed the hungry;

Clothe the naked;

Heal the sick;

Love our neighbors.

We are Easter People.

We gather and bring a gift of food:

the bread

the wine

the cheese and fruit.

We sing praise and

read the sacred history:

“Do this in memory of me.”

We break and dip, take and pass

the Gift,

revealed in light and warmth and wholeness.

We are Easter People.

© Merry Ruthe Wilson 2007

We’re a little bit Celtic, a little bit Catholic, and a whole lot Progressive!

God is present in creation, the events of our lives, and in our hearts.

Christ is seen as being with and for the poor.

Healing is regarded as a grace that releases the essential ‘well being of God’ within us.

Creation is viewed sacramentally.

Christ is portrayed as liberator of the image of God in us.

The life of heaven and the life of earth are seen as inextricably bound together.

The delights and demands of welcome and hospitality—expecting to meet Christ in the stranger’s guise—are accentuated. (Celtic Prayers from Iona, J. Philip Newell)

We meet God in prayer. Our faith and experience are as unique as our fingerprints. We encounter God in a play of light, in the laughter of friends, in a silent embrace. We are Easter People!

We meet Jesus in Scripture and the Breaking of the Bread, and in each other—in the friend, the spouse, the lover, the neighbor, the stranger, the family. We think about Jesus as God revealed:  in his life and death, his teachings,  the enduring message of Jesus the Jewish peasant from Galilee. We are Easter People!

We understand that God is conceived in many ways by many people around the world. Because we understand that God is all good and cannot inflict evil, we understand the execution of Jesus by the Roman Empire under Pontius Pilate as an ultimate demonstration of the wickedness of human beings toward one another. The experience of the Risen Jesus by his disciples is an affirmation of God’s goodness. We are Easter People!

We understand the Bible as a collaboration of Hebrew and Christian writers, a work by human hands, where the radicality of a God of justice, peace, love and non-violence is revealed to the world in story, poem, myth and metaphor. We respect the fact that other cultures have sacred books wherein they find the Ultimate or the Holy revealed to them. We also understand that God is revealed in us by the Spirit both in our individual lives and as we gather together in the name of Jesus in communities of worship, prayer and practice. We are Easter People!

We understand that the history of Christian churches has embraced various dogmas and doctrines to the exclusion of others; that Christians—contrary to the explicit teachings of Jesus—have persecuted and continue to persecute both other Christians and non-Christians; we bear the shame of such practices. Thus, we call ourselves Disciples or Friends of the Historical Jesus rather than “Christians.” We are Easter People!

We understand that discipleship is about lifestyle and is very difficult and very challenging because it departs radically from any other lifestyle we encounter in the 21st century world. Still we try, and we share and support the endeavors of each individual to live faithfully according to his/her unique talents and opportunities. We are Easter People!

We understand that discipleship includes care of the planet and compassion for its non-human inhabitants. We are Easter People!

(Leland Somers/Merry Wilson)

Breaking Bread

No bellowing

exhortation

quoting chapter and parable;

No sharing

cathartic experiences—

wondrous encounters;

No

steam engines of faith

puffing pompously;

No.

Break bread

with one another

and Jesus

will be known.

© John Rehg 2009

Reflection on Luke 24:35-48

(Reprinted with permission)

We wish you and yours a Joyous Easter!

Annie, Blackie, Leland and John

Merry and Lady Jane Greyhound

Joe

Leland and John

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am with you.” —Matthew 18:20

Holy Week

A change of plans. . .

Originally, I was to offer a painstaking summary of John Dominic Crossan’s seminar based on his book, The Last Week. But I would like to present something much more compelling than what I fear might have digressed into a plodding recap.

With his permission, I have reprinted “Holy Week” by Leland Somers, originally published in Seasons of Reflection: Alive in Christ!  A 2008 Lenten-Easter Journal presented by Holy Spirit Ecumenical Catholic Church, edited by John Rehg and myself.

HOLY WEEK

He kept his thoughts to himself as he rode into Jerusalem on that sunny day at the beginning of the Passover celebration. It would be his last week. He knew that there would be a confrontation of some kind, but the results were hidden in dark places from which his mind recoiled. He wished that with him were more than the one woman who understood what may well happen.

Peter, James and John had it all wrong. They had it all wrong from the very beginning. They did not understand that the Kingdom of God was completely opposed to the Empires of Men. They did not know that the Kingdom of God had nothing to do with Temple Worship or Synagogue gatherings. They stuck with him this far because they thought he was going to call down God’s wrath on the Roman occupiers and the Jewish elite who cooperated with them in the oppression of his people. They were ready to take their seats in a throne room and lord it over those trampled by the Messiah’s armies.

They were like little children in so many ways. They lived in a fantasy world of Jewish armies under a warrior Messiah. They dreamed of glorious battles and waves of battle flags unfurling under a sun that would not set until they had beaten the Romans away from the Holy Land of their God. They just didn’t get it.

When he spoke of the Kingdom as a weed in a well ordered garden, they wondered by he did not speak of the Kingdom as a cedar of Lebanon. When he spoke of the Kingdom as yeast mixed with flour to make bread, they were dreaming of armies rising up for God. When he spoke of God as a woman looking for a lost coin, they were dreaming of wealth and power that come through war and victory. When he spoke of God as a mother hen gathering her chicks to herself to protect them from a storm, they thought of storming the gates of Roman cities and conquering them for God. When he spoke of the Kingdom as a group of little children at play, they were plotting who would get the first and second seats of power in God’s Kingdom.

He knew that they would not stay with him. He knew that when they saw what happens to those who oppose both religious and political authorities, they wold scatter like pigeons when the fox leaps into their midst. They sought a new order that would be a replica of the old order, an order based on power, domination, exploitation and when necessary—war, victory and peace. He understood that they simply were not ready nor were they willing to understand that the Kingdom of God happens when people live as the had them live. That is why he kept telling them that the Kingdom of God is here.

It has arrived! Look at me! See how we live together! See how we share! See how we heal and bring peace and wholeness to those with whom we eat. This is the Kingdom of God.

He had lived with them and in the heart of the living was the message. But they were looking for something else. They were not looking for a Kingdom based on God’s radical justice which brings utter Shalom, complete peace.

Irony of ironies! He found that aside from the woman who anointed him at Simon the Leper’s house, it was Pilate who really understood the radical nature of his mission and his life. Here at last someone understood what it was all about. Here is someone who understands and also knows that anyone who has an agenda that is so radically opposed to that of Rome must die. Here is someone who understands and who will have him executed as what he has always been—a radically subversive enemy of the Roman Empire and his own Jewish religious and political leaders who owe their positions and wealth to Rome.

The God he preaches and whose Kingdom he lives in and out of is far too dangerous. He must be killed. With any luck his movement will die with him. Surely  no group of people, no matter how dedicated, will be willing to continue this Kingdom living after he is gone. He fears that it will all have been in vain because they might think that he’ll come back and “fix it all” for them. He hopes that someday they will understand that whatever he has done, they can do and more.

Then darkness fell.

©Leland Somers 2007

Reprinted with permission

Weekend with John Dominic Crossan

We were delighted to attend a seminar on The Last Week at St. Peter’s Episcopal Cathedral, St. Petersburg, Florida, March 27 through March 28, and hear Dr. Crossan (or Dominic, his preferred form of address) preach during services on Sunday, March 29.

Highlights are summarized below.  Thanks to my husband Tony Napodano for his photograph of my book signing. My thanks also to John Rehg for contributing his notes and photographs.

The Matrix of Mark, Friday evening

The matarix is four-sided: time and place; vision and tradition. The Gospel of Mark was written for refugees fleeing the destruction of the Temple in 66 C.E. The author’s audience was Jewish Christians living under the domination of the Roman Empire. How tragically they were disappointed when God did not return to save them; some 6,000 perished as they ran back into their burning Temple.

These people were desperately hoping for what Crossan terms “apocalyptic eschatology” from Greek, meaning a revelation of the end of evil on earth, i.e., the death and destruction wielded by the Empire. Mark’s Jesus had a radical message: “The Kingdom of God is here and now, and human beings are called to cooperate with God in bringing about a new world.” (collaborative eschatology) This new belief system hardly set well with Rome. Indeed, it was tantamount to sedition, as it conflicted with the Empire’s pagan ideology of peace and justice existing somewhere else after death and only as the aftermath of military/violent victory of the Empire. God cannot be violent if he has invited us to participate in the eschaton. We are called to collaborate non-violently with a non-violent God. In other words, when we collaborate with God, things happen.

In the first century, the Gospel writers and Paul  expected the Kingdom to arrive ’soon,’ that God would clean up all our messes, and all were wrong. We’re still getting it wrong today. Are we refusing collaborative eschatology?

The title “Son of Man” is Mark’s favorite for Jesus. It is a grander title than “Son of God,” (also used to describe Roman emperors) because Jesus represents all of humanity. He has earthly authority.

When asked what this authority looked like, Crossan replied that rather than assume a punitive authority —a punishing, then forgiving God as the basis for Jesus’ authority—we should consider human consequences and take responsibility for ourselves rather than be guilt-ridden and beg forgiveness.

“Sin” (the etymology of the word = missing the mark) is about violence, not sexuality.  The first act out of Eden was fratricide, remember.

Crossan contrasted the “programs” of John the Baptizer and Jesus:

John:  God is coming soon Jesus: God is here now; participate

John: God is coming violently (punitive) Jesus: God is not punitive

John: all depend on the Baptizer Jesus: “franchising”: send disciples/apostles out to initiate others into the Kingdom of God

John: be ready for God to do it Jesus: collaborate with God

John Dominic Crossan notes an “acute disinterest” by Jesus in life after death. He suggests looking at the Lord’s Prayer for key interests:

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

Thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil,

for thine is the kingdom, the power,

and the glory forever. Amen.

The prayer’s focus is taking the world back for God (as it is God’s world) through peace, justice, and non-violent resistance to Empire values. We were to ensure justice for all, food for all, care for all.

During a Q&A, I asked Dominic how he interpreted the fact that Jesus never baptized anyone. The answer was rich. First of all, the ritual performed by John the Baptizer had nothing to do with the one practiced today. It was, in fact, a sacramental re-enactment of Exodus. Baptism as described by Paul heralded a return to the dawn of creation, when nothing existed but the ‘waters of chaos.’ (The wild sea was a powerful symbol of chaos and destruction in early Judaism.) The full immersion into water, symbolizing the ‘chaos’ of one’s former life before baptism (for John only the Jordan River would do), followed by one’s emergence symbolized a new creation, not the “washing away of sins.” For Crossan, this interpretation of baptism trivializes a sacred rite.

Leland Somers remarked of Paul’s use of the term “new creation” as also meaning a new creation of the Christian community as a nucleus for the Kingdom of God. Crossan agreed emphatically: The new creation is always personal and cosmic; never private.

Such a radical vision of justice was admitted (“yes, we really need to do this”) and then subverted (“Well, it’s really beyond my comfort zone to take care of this, do that — what? Feed a beggar? Heal on the sabbath?”) But indeed, such behavior was part of Jesus’ program.

Somers asked another dramatic question, which must be paraphrased. “Has the Church been deliberately turned upside down?” The answer was respectfully, classically Crossan. Again, I paraphrase, but the answer was “Kinda. Yeah. We’ve all done it.”

Friday evening concluded with a poignant reminder:  The center of Christianity is not a book (i.e., the Bible) but a person, i.e., Jesus of Nazareth. “We are washed in the blood of the lamb, not the ink of the lamb,” Crossan joked, but his humor was laden with meaning.

Next: The Disciples in Mark’s Gospel

Death and Life

New life comes from suffering,
no pain, no gain;
can there be no growth through joy?
Can there be no change through laughter?

Hate my life in this world
and I’ll keep it for eternal life?
Why? I’d only hate it eternally.

Lent—a time for reflection,
a time for questioning,
a time to rest in God’s love.

Has this grain of wheat died?
Yes, but not through death’s pain
did it bear fruit;
’twas love’s water and nourishment.

The order is not life and death;
rather, it is death and life,
repeated each time we grow.

Has your faith changed this Lent?
Have you died to new life?

© John Rehg 2009
Reflection on John 12:20-33
(Reprinted with permission of the author)

What are you doing for Lent this year?

That’s not exactly the most urgent question you’ll hear these days. But for those who choose to keep the season — whether traditionally or in a personal sense — I offer this inspiration. It’s been around, online and in church bulletins, for a couple of years with refinements along the way.

Lent: A Season for Fasting and Feasting

Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ dwelling within them.
Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of all life.
Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.
Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.
Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger; feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.
Fast from worry; feast on trust.
Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.
Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.
Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from hostility; feast on nonviolence.
Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.
Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal truth.
Fast from discouragement; feast on hope.
Fast from facts that depress; feast on truths that uplift.
Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.
Fast from suspicion; feast on truth.
Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.
Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.

So this year, I’m not ‘giving up’ anything for Lent. It’s more a time of contemplation, introspection — which feels a little like slacking because I’m inclined that way, regardless. A couple of years ago I avoided cinnamon for the requisite 40 days and did horribly miss it. Not on cereal, not flavored coffee, no decadent cinnamon buns, no cinnamon gum. It didn’t make me any better spiritually, I’m certain, but I most definitely FEASTED upon the spice which became sacred for me during Lent!

I decided to focus on a particular theme. What recurs is the idea of wilderness. Within and without. A dear friend described the outer wilderness as the “weeds and toxic plants” of greed, exploitation, war, injustice of every stripe. Another friend said he would focus on “asking questions” during the Lenten season. My wilderness is internal:  sometimes dark and foreboding, but most often the choice of which enticing path to explore next. There are many possibilities and, being a dilletante, I wander all over and don’t delve as deeply as I’d like to.

So, perhaps, if there is any Lenten discipline for me this year, it’s to narrow the paths to tread. But that diminishes my heart and spirit! As my God-concept is one of the abundant nurturer, it seems counter-intuitive to force this kind of restraint.

Spring is coming! Grow, bud, burst and flower!

New Name, Same Spirit!

…Espousing love, peace, empowerment, and respect for every person, creature, and environment….

MARIGOLD Communities:

M  Mindful

A  Assembly

R  Religare

I   Intentional

G  God-centered

O  Outreach

L  Loving

D  Discipleship

We’ve recently changed our name as “MARIGOLD Communities” seemed to remind everyone of a garden club! By calling ourselves Friends of the Historical Jesus, we more accurately describe what we’re all about:

+We are part of a small but growing movement of faithful people who often describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious” — people independent of organized or institutionalized religion. We gather weekly at the homes of friends for encountering the Holy Spirit in Scripture, centered prayer/meditation, breaking of the bread in commemoration of the Lord’s Last Supper (non-violent Eucharist/the Eucharist of Jesus), and enrichment in Progressive Christianity.

+We encourage each other on paths of discipleship according to the time and talents of the individual.

+We study sacred literature in its historical context.

+We strive to discern and live the values of the Kingdom of God.

+We are progressive disciples of Jesus of Nazareth.

In the forefront of our minds is “the difference between ‘the world’s way’ and the ‘Way of Jesus and God’s Kingdom.’ There is a radical difference between the Way of Jesus and the Way of the Empire, Roman and American. When Jesus speaks, ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.’ —John 14:27—he (In John’s way) is making a radical distinction between the Empire of Caesar (Bush, Napoleon, Stalin, Pol Pot) and the Kingdom of God. John elaborates on this a little in the final discourse which replaces the other Gospels ‘Last Supper’ when Jesus answered (to Pilate):  ’My Kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ John 18:36

“The difference is between the son of god—Caesar— and the Son of God—Jesus— and the two kingdoms. This is a constant covert theme in all the gospels. Caesar, the son of [a pagan] god’s kingdom is based on violence, war, victory, peace. God’s Kingdom is based on justice which produces peace – shalom – a word commonly translated as “peace”, but it means much, much more. Wikipedia has a good short description but fundamentally it means completeness, wholeness; something that cannot be the fruit of any sort of violence but must be the result of justice-compassion.”

—Bishop Leland R. Somers

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am with you.”

—Matthew 18:20

GATHERING PRAYER

Gracious and loving God:
Bring us together today
as one heart and one mind,
oblivious to our differences,
delighting in what we share:
our love for you
first and foremost.
Bring us together today
as one, bound by the next
great commandment:
to love one another as
we love ourselves;
to seek and find and
nurture the Christ in each;
to be not only fisherpeople,
but fishers of people.
Bring us together today
in your grace,
that we may depart into
the world anew, refreshed,
and, as you have gathered us,
embrace a waiting dreamscape.
Amen.
—Merry Ruthe Wilson

The Eucharist of Jesus
Blessing and Giving the Bread
Reader 1: Jesus sat with his friends regularly. Jesus ate with all people.
Response: Jesus blessed and broke the bread and they remembered him.
Reader 2: We break the bread and we remember Jesus.
Response: When we remember Jesus, he lives in the midst of our community.
Reader 1: Blessing, healing, loving, caring – through us, his disciples.
Response:Jesus said the blessing and broke the bread and told his friends:
Reader 2: This bread is the flesh offered in the new covenant.
Response: Not the flesh of animals, sheep, rams, much less of the Human One.
Reader 1: Bread, wheat gathered from hillsides and plains around the world.
Response: Here gathered into one loaf, one people, one community where I
live.
Reader 2: When you gather and break the bread I am here and you will see
me;
Response: In the eyes and voices and hearts of your friends gathered with you,
there I am.
Reader 1: Eat this bread and remember me.
Response: Wherever you are, there I am.
(The bread is passed from one to another.)
The Eucharist of Jesus
Blessing and Giving the Wine
Reader 1: Jesus sat with his friends regularly. Jesus drank with all people.
Response:Jesus poured the wine and shared the cup, all remembered him.
Reader 2: We pass the cup and we remember Jesus our friend.
Response: When we remember Jesus, he lives in the midst of our community.
Reader 1: Blessing, healing, loving, caring – through us, his disciples.
Response: Jesus said the blessing and passed the cup and told his friends:
Reader 2: This wine is the blood offered in the new covenant.
Response: Not the blood of animals, sheep, rams, much less of the Human
One.
Reader 1: God does not desire sacrifice, blood from animals or human beings.
Response: God desires that we drink the wine of compassion and mercy.
Reader 2: When you gather and drink the wine, I am there and you sill see me;
Response: In the eyes and voices and hearts of your friends gathered with
you, there you will find me.
Reader 1: Drink of this cup and remember me.
Response: Wherever you are there I am.
(The cup is passed from one to another.)

—Bishop Leland R. Somers

SUMMATION PRAYER AND BLESSING

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your heart and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
May God give you to drink of his cup, the sun shine bright upon you, may the night call down peace and when you come into his household may the door be open wide for you to go in to your joy.
Hear what the Spirit is saying to you!

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

Blessed be!

—Adapted from A Celtic Eucharist

“The kingdom of God is inside you and all around you…Split a piece of wood and I am there; lift a rock and you will find me.” — Gospel of Thomas

“You are the way God seeds kindness in the world. You are a soul seed. You are a reminder to the world to be a more wondrous and gentle place. You are a messenger of kindness. Find a new way to show kindness today. — Rabbi Rami Shapiro

“I have sought to understand Jesus as a boundary-breaker, as one who calls people to step outside the circles of their security systems. To walk the Christ path is to be empowered to step outside and beyond these various human security systems. It is to walk beyond all religious forms that bind our humanity in order to enter the religion-less world of a new humanity. It is to seek divinity not externaly but as the deepest dimension of what it means to be human.” — John Shelby Spong, Jesus for the Non Religious

“What makes me happy is just love, and the occasional joy in creative work. My biggest long-term need is for the religious faith to love life and to say Yes to life with all my heart.” — Don Cupitt, Above Us Only Sky