The following is an excerpt from a contemplative prayer service and includes a Guided Meditation
EPISTLE READING I
Corinthians 3: 1-9
And
so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but
rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2I fed you with
milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are
still not ready, 3for you are still of the flesh. For as long as
there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and
behaving according to human inclinations? 4For when one says, “I
belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely human? 5What then is Apollos? What is
Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. 6I
planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7So neither the
one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the
growth. 8The one who plants and the one who waters have a common
purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. 9For
we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION “Ready
for Solid Food?”
·
Would
Paul’s rhetorical strategy have affected you positively?
·
As
you think about your own spiritual journey, do you feel yourself becoming
hungrier for “solid food”? What does
“solid food” look like in your own spiritual life and in your relationships
with others?
·
Does
jealousy, quarreling, or some other unhealthy way of relating invade our faith
community at times? If you were Paul
writing to Open Table, how would you fill in this blank: “Even now you are still not ready, for you
are still of the flesh. For as long as there is _______ among you, are you not
of the flesh?”
SONG “Where Charity and Love
Prevail”
HOLDING SILENCE
*GOSPEL READING Matthew
5: 21-37
One: 21“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient
times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to
judgment.’
Many: 22But I say to you that if you are
angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you
insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say,
‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.
One: 23So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if
you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24leave
your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or
sister, and then come and offer your gift.
Many:
25Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way
to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the
judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. 26Truly I
tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
One: 27“You have heard that it was
said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
Many: 28But I say to you that everyone who
looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his
heart. 29If your right eye
causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose
one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And
if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is
better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into
hell.
One: 31“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let
him give her a certificate of divorce.’
Many 32But I say to you that anyone who
divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit
adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
One: 33“Again, you have heard that it was said to those of
ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have
made to the Lord.’
Many: 34But I say to you, Do not swear at
all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35or by the
earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the
great King. 36And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one
hair white or black. 37Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’;
anything more than this comes from the evil one.
SONG “First Born of Mary” p. 25 in songbook
GUIDED MEDITATION “An Evolving Ethic: Lessons
on Relationship
As
a preacher, I have a lot to learn from Jesus’s preaching. His Sermon on the Mount, probably a
paraphrased compilation of Jesus’s best loved teachings, spoke to people right
where they lived. He was not developing
doctrine. He was not pontificating about theology. He was simply teaching us how
to get along with one another.
His
first sermon (according to Matthew) started gently enough with “Blessed are the
peacemakers,” and maybe that’s the starting point for ushering in God’s way of
living together. The theme of right relatedness continues through this long
“sermon” about God’s realm, but hyperboles in the beatitudes (Rejoice when
you’re persecuted? Be the light of the world?) turn more shocking. To emphasize
harmonious relationships, Jesus exaggerates his point by claiming that getting
angry is tantamount to murder; saying that just looking at a woman with lust is
equal to adultery; recommending that you rip out your own eye rather than look
at a woman in the wrong way.
Upon
hearing the beatitudes, we may yearn for the blessedness of the idyllic kingdom
of heaven. But by the time we encounter the verses that follow, we may recoil
from the horror of what it is to live outside the kingdom’s ethic of love. Relationships
characterized by murderous anger, destructive lust, faithlessness, and
deception are the anti-beatitudes. And
it sounds like hell, doesn’t it—to live in angry, selfish, unfaithful, and
deceitful relationships? Some of you may have, unfortunately, glimpsed what that
kind of relationship is like.
In
contrast to the way God’s kingdom works, this hellacious way of relating to one
another is the antithesis of peacemaking and mercy and meekness and
selflessness.
Today’s
Gospel lection may or may not have anything to do with Jesus’s notion of an afterlife. It most certainly offers wisdom about relationships
right here and now that are blessed or cursed.
But
Jesus is not merely contrasting the blessed and the doomed way of living. He’s also contrasting an earlier ethic with a
new way of living. He’s raising the
ethical bar here. It’s not enough, he says,
just to refrain from murder. It’s not
enough, he says, just to avoid adultery.
It’s not enough to avoid swearing falsely. This more evolved ethic says that attitudes
and intentions matter. What’s in my
HEART (anger or lust or cold indifference) can keep us estranged—not just my behavior.
We
can say the right words and avoid egregious offenses—yet still not love, still
not be in right relationship.
PAUSE now to call
to mind some current relationships that, though polite, are superficial and
distant, maybe even strained. Of course,
we can’t have deep relationships with everyone.
But maybe there are people in your life you wish to know in more than a
Facebook sort of way. What’s preventing
that?
We
cannot know what Matthew calls the “kingdom of heaven” until we have known the
beauty and blessedness of rich and real relationships.
And
here, my friends, is the best and worst thing about being church together. WE are both the students learning right
relatedness and we are the textbook on right relatedness. WE as a church are the school in which
reconciliation is learned and practiced.
WE as a faith community become—through our messy lives and complicated
relationships and godly aspirations and embarrassing failures—I say, we become the
best curriculum for teaching what it means to live as imperfect creatures
trying to love one another—and failing—but continuing to try.
God
did not set us down here with a step-by-step manual on how to love one another.
The Bible is not a simplistic “how to” book on anything. It’s a storybook about how people have tried
and failed at forming the beloved community. The Bible may illustrate how some
have related to one another. But our
real curriculum is found right here—within a faith community that USES the very
challenges of human relatedness to learn how to love.
The
trouble is that when the messiness begins, some folks run off. “I hate the hypocrisy of the church” or “This
is too much effort,” they say as they close the church door behind them, glad
they can now claim not to be part of that failed experiment in human
relatedness. Just when relationships get complicated or frustrating or
disillusioning or downright heartbreaking, some folks leave. Like the Corinthians to whom Paul wrote, some
hit the first big challenge and bail from a marriage, from a friendship, from a
faith community and thus miss the opportunity to learn the love lessons that
can only be learned in tough circumstances.
PAUSE now to
think about an important and enduring relationship in your life. Has it been
devoid of conflict and disappointment? How
have some challenging moments strengthened the relationship?
Give thanks to
God for the difficulties that brought you new insight and brought your
relationship new depth.
Let
me add here that I don’t think all relationships are salvageable. Nor do I
believe God sends us painful events in order to teach us lessons. If God designs tragedy to teach us, then
that’s sick. But I do think that we can learn from failure and challenge, by
God’s grace.
When
the church council meets—as we did at Ann’s house yesterday—we may seem to be
doing the “business” of the church: deciding on how to spend our budget,
planning events for the church. But in
the process we are—often without being conscious of it—learning how to love . .
. learning how to listen . . . learning how to consider the good of the whole .
. . learning how to pray together with a unified spirit . . . learning how to
fail and not feel we ourselves are failures . . . learning how to speak with
direct honesty yet kindly . . . learning how to take responsibility for our
actions without being responsible for another’s feelings. . . . learning how to
live in community.
Too
often churches plug people into leadership slots in order to accomplish
necessary tasks—and forget that every time we work together we are
accomplishing tasks AND we are being formed spiritually AND we are creating the
beloved community.
You
can stick around and show up for worship occasionally and probably avoid ever
having to develop a relationship that gets complicated.
Or
you can roll up your sleeves and get to know us better and even get involved in
a project or attend a council meeting or show up for a Family Promise
night. If you choose to be more
involved, you’re sure to have a frustrating or disappointing experience with
someone at some time. And when you do, I
hope you’ll remember to thank God for the chance to learn a love lesson in the process.
SUNG PRAYER “In Love You
Summon” p. 37 in songbook
PRAYER STATIONS
1.
Storytelling about reconciliation
Let the painting by George Tooker
titled “Embrace of Peace” speak to you about moments of human connection. Does this picture tell a story about
forgiveness and reconciliation after a painful event? About reunion after
separation? About welcoming of new
members into a group? Something else? It
might remind you of a story of human relatedness from you own life or it might
help you get inside this painting to imagine what has brought these characters
into this communal embrace. Use the notebooks beside the painting to write a
brief story, true or imagined, that this painting brings to your heart and mind.
2.
Giving offerings after we have given up a grievance or anger
Imagine
what our lives would be like if we followed Jesus’s advice to “first be
reconciled to your brother or sister and then come and offer your gift [at the
altar] (Matthew 5:23). Before bringing your offerings to
God, spend some moments considering if you may be shortchanging some
relationships in your life. Then as you place your monetary gifts in the
offering plate, resolve to give more of yourself to someone in your life who
needs more from you—more forgiveness, more time, more patience, more listening,
more gentleness, more honesty . . . .
3.
Receiving communion in communion with our church family
Let the milk on the table remind you
that we are choosing solid food, the Bread of Life, out of a maturing
commitment to follow the demanding ways of Jesus.
4.
Praying with your pastor
Te pastor will come forward to kneel in prayer at the altar railing. You may take turns coming alongside her to
ask for prayer for yourself or others.
SHARING
FORMING A PRAYER CIRCLE
ANNOUNCEMENTS
BENEDICTION
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