PRELUDE
Music by John Gerard
WELCOME
Welcome to The
We come together with all our diversity and everything that we bring is welcome. We pray that in coming together and sharing our differences with one another and with Spirit, we participate in a new divine reality. We are in sacred space.
OPENING MEDITATION
From Walking the Coast, by Kenneth White
the pebble of rough
and unprepossessing stone
the harsh dull case
splits open
to reveal
the lovely agate crystal
the boulder
cut asunder
shows a blue-gleaming layer of amethyst –
there is a principle
of beauty and order
at the heart of chaos
within life there is life
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”
TELLING OUR STORY
What are the “harsh dull cases” in our lives
that may be hiding beauty and life?
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
Happy Birthday John!
CONVERSATIONAL SERMON
Reading from The Book of Creation, by Phillip Newell
And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
(Genesis 1:6)
If the ‘first day’ of creation is compared to the cosmic burst of light at life’s initial moment, the ‘second day’ can be viewed as the ongoing explosion of elemental particles hurtling through space. There is nothing neat and tidy about this mighty creative energy.
Like nature, God’s wildness is unrestrainable. The book of Genesis portrays all things as born out of the wild wind that swept over the face of the waters. Do we think that we can have creativity without such turbulence? Are we expecting it to be entirely different in our lives? Can creativity emerge without surges of unordered energy rising from the unknown depths within us?
Part of what we fear, of course, is the uncontrollableness of wildness. We have witnessed it from afar in places of terrible violence in our world. We have experienced it in ourselves and in our relationships when the eruption of unexpected passion has led us along self-destructive paths.
Have we thereby come to believe that wildness is essentially harmful, to be suppressed at all costs? What we need to reclaim is its creativity. At the beginning of life a mighty wind swept over the face of the deep. Creation emerges from this troubling of the waters. Yes, of course wildness can be destructive. We know that. But do we know also that the wildness that is at the heart of creativity, like the passion that is at the beginning of life’s conception? If we deny these depths of wildness the unsettled waters within us will turn to destructive rather than creative energy.
Whether emotionally or sexually or artistically, when fear suppresses the energies in us that have their origin in the wildness of God, they will be turned into forces of death rather than vitality.
Silent Meditation: Be still and aware of the Divine presence within and all around us…
COMMUNION AND SHARING OF RESOURCES
God is with us.
Yes she is.
FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
v Wednesday Open Conversations
v Peter Rollins
v 3/6 Happy Hour, 3/13 Andrew
BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE
By John
