September 19, 2009 Gathering

PRELUDE

Music by Marc Lavalle

WELCOME

Welcome to The Pub Church! As a church in a pub, the Spirit is with us. In this space feel free to move about, help yourself to drinks/food, doodle, and express ideas openly!

We come together with diversity of thoughts, stories, talents, hopes and hurts. All we bring is welcome; our prayer is that in coming together with all our differences and with Spirit, we participate toward a new divine reality. This is sacred space.

OPENING MEDITATION

Prayer by Kristin White

Prepare for the Goddess upon your tongue

– the taste of her wisdom in your mouth.

Prepare for Her scent within your nostrils

– the heady call of love and grace and justice.

Prepare for Her swirling purple beauty

– alive with lives of the past, ripe with anticipation of joy to come.

She is moving amongst our fingertips.

Extend our arms to welcome Her.

TELLING OUR STORY

I see you!

I am here!

PEACE – TOAST

In this place we creatively express;

Some of us are focused, some are a mess!

We participate during the sermon

And people do connect, we are learnin’

Greet all with a handshake, toast or a wave

At all times feel free to yell, rant or rave

Fake not friends, we can arrive as we are.

Cheers! Here’s to sacred space in a bar!

CREATIVE EXPRESSION

By Marc

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON

Mark 5:21-43

See handout - Long text!

~~~~~~~

· Initial thoughts?

· What does the sandwich structure do to the stories?

COMMUNION AND SHARING OF RESOURCES

God is with us.

Yes she is.

God of grape and God of harvest

God of wine and grain and wind and sun

We give thanks for your Creation – earth, and vine, and weather.

We lift up laborers, who work the fields of the world, who bring forth sustenance.

We rejoice in our togetherness.

We love you, heart of our lives and source of our blessings!

And we thank you for these elements, for showing us that you are an embodied material reality and possibility – we join you by sharing this meal now.

Take, eat, drink –

everyone is welcomed at this table.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

o Wes’s class

o Tuesday – John Gerard

o Thursday – Celebrate Bisexuality Day

o Disciples Update

CLOSING PRAYER AND BENEDICTION

Goddess, in this place, in this gathering, we pray for change, to become new vessels, full of courage, wisdom, hope and calm.

May we become new women, new men, new people,

changed, shifted, grown strong and hopeful by your grace and by one another’s love.

May we leave this space different than we arrived. We desire to be new wineskins, strong and healthy, filled with your grace. May our strong bodies hold your grace, pouring it out for well-being and for joy. Go in peace and Drink in the Spirit!

POSTLUDE

By Marc

September 12, 2009 Gathering

PRELUDE

Music by Andew Prete

WELCOME

Welcome to The Pub Church! As a church in a pub, the Spirit is with us. In this space feel free to move about, help yourself to drinks/food, doodle, and express ideas openly!

We come together with diversity of thoughts, stories, talents, hopes and hurts. All we bring is welcome; our prayer is that in coming together with all our differences and with Spirit, we participate toward a new divine reality. This is sacred space.

OPENING MEDITATION

**Adapted from The Prayers of Kierkegaard, p. 59.

Spirit who is in all places, when we meditate on what we will say and how we will say it, you are present; when we have resolved to come into your sacredness, you are present, but perhaps this truth is not always real to us. So bless this gathering in order that each of us individually and communally will in this hour feel your presence and know that you are indeed present.

TELLING OUR STORY

I see you!

I am here!

PEACE – TOAST

In this place we creatively express;

Some of us are focused, some are a mess!

We participate during the sermon

And people do connect, we are learnin’

Greet all with a handshake, toast or a wave

At all times feel free to yell, rant or rave

Fake not friends, we can arrive as we are.

Cheers! Here’s to sacred space in a bar!

CREATIVE EXPRESSION

By Andrew

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON

Mark 5:1-20

And they came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gerasenes. And when he got out of the boat, suddenly a person controlled by an unclean spirit cam from the tombs to accost him. This man made his home in the tombs, and nobody was able to bind him, not even with a chain, because, though he had often been bound with fetters and with chains, he would break the fetters and pull the chains apart, and nobody could subdue him. And day and night he would howl among the tombs and across the hills and keep bruising himself on the stones. And when he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran up and knelt before him and, shouting at the top of his voice, he says, “What do you want with me, Jesus, you son of the most high God? For God’s sake, don’t torment me!” – because he had been saying to it: “Come out of that fellow, you filthy spirit!”

And [Jesus] started questioning him: “What’s your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he says, “for there are many of us.”

And it kept begging him over and over not to expel them from their territory.

Now over there by the mountain a large herd of pigs was feeding. And so they bargained with him: “Send us over to the pigs so we may enter them!”

And he agreed. And then the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the bluff into the sea, about two thousand of them, and drowned in the sea. And the herdsmen ran off and reported it in town and out in the country. And they went out to see what had happened. And they come to Jesus and notice the demoniac sitting with his clothes on and with his wits about him, the one who had harbored Legion, and they got scared. And those who had seen told them what had happened to the demoniac, and all about the pigs. And they started begging him to go away from their region. And as [Jesus] was getting into the boat, the ex-demoniac kept pleading with him to let him go along. And he would not let him, but says to him, “Go home to your people and tell them what your patron has done for you – how he has shown mercy to you”

And he went away and started spreading the news in the Decapolis about what Jesus had done for him, and everyone would marvel.

~~~~~~~

· Initial thoughts?

· Does today’s text shed any more light on the good news Mark is communicating?

COMMUNION AND SHARING OF RESOURCES

God is with us.

Yes she is.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

BENEDICTION

Today is the beginning of everything. Go in peace, with new life, and Drink in the Spirit!

POSTLUDE

By Andrew