February 13, 2010 - Gathering

PRELUDE

Music by Andrew Prete

WELCOME

Welcome to The Pub Church! As a church in a pub, the Spirit is with us. So feel free to move about as the Spirit inspires and express yourself openly!

We come together with all our diversity and everything that we all bring is welcome. We pray 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 PRAYER

Holy Living God, you have called us to life. You have called us to live in love and compassion with one another – to live according to a different and divine standard; one that does not make sense.

We are grateful! Lead us now to be present to one another with the love and compassion that we see embodied in the life of Jesus, so that all that we do and say in this gathering will bring us closer to you.

TELLING OUR STORY

What is your most memorable experience with prayer?

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 9:14-29

When they had rejoined the disciples, they saw a huge crowd surrounding them and scholars arguing with them. And all of a sudden, when the whole crowd caught sight of him, they were alarmed and rushed up to meet him. He asked them, “Why are you bothering to argue with them?”

And one person from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you because he has a mute spirit. Whenever it takes him over, it knocks him down, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and stiffens up. I asked your disciples to drive it our, but they couldn’t.”

In response he says, “You distrustful lot, how long must I associate with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him over to me!”

And they brought him over to him. And when the spirit noticed him, right away it threw him into convulsions, and he fell to the ground, and jept rolling around, foaming at the mouth. And [Jesus] asked his father, “How long has he been like this?”

He replied, “Ever since he was a child. Frequently it has thrown him into fire and into water to destroy him. So if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us!”

Jesus said to him, “What do you mean, ‘If you can’? All things are possible for the one who trusts.”

Right away the father of the child cried out and said, “I do trust! Help my lack of trust!”

When Jesus saw that the crowd was about to mob them, he rebuked the unclean spirit, and commands it, “Deaf and mute spirit, I command you, get out of him and don’t ever go back inside him!”

And after he shrieked and went into a series of convulsions, it came out. And he took on the appearance of a corpse, so that the rumor went around that he had died. But Jesus took hold of his hand and raised him, and there he stood. And when he had gone home, his disciples started questioning him privately: “Why couldn’t we dive it out?”

He said to them, “The only thing that can drive this kind out is prayer.”

Silent Meditation: Be still and aware of the Divine presence within and all around us as we prepare for our conversation.

COMMUNION AND SHARING OF RESOURCES

God is with us.

Yes she is.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

v Wednesday Open Conversations

v Quincy next Saturday

BENEDICTION

POSTLUDE

By Andrew

October 24, 2009 Gathering

PRELUDE

Music by John Gerard

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 REFLECTION

Kabir (version by Robert Bly)

Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive. Jump into experience while you are alive! …

What you call “salvation” belongs to the time before death.

If you don’t break your ropes while you are alive, do you think ghosts will do it after?

The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic just because the body is rotten –

that is all fantasy.

What is found now is found then.

If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death.

If you make love with the divine now,

in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire…

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 John

OPENING PRAYER

Spirit, Guide our voices and our thoughts, so that in telling our own stories and listening to the stories of others, we may gain some insight into the mystery of life and into the mystery of the Divine.

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjYqyb-BYWI

Mark 6:7-13

Then he summoned the twelve and started sending them out in pairs and giving them authority over unclean spirits. And he instructed them not to take anything on the road, except a staff: no bread, no knapsack, no spending money, but to wear sandals, and to wear no more than one shirt. And he went on to say to them: “Wherever you enter someone’s house, stay there until you leave town. And whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, get out of there and shake the dust off your feet in witness against them.”

So they set out and announced that people should turn their lives around, and they often drove out demons, and they anointed many sick people with oil and healed [them].

~~~~~~~

· Initial thoughts?

COMMUNION AND SHARING OF RESOURCES

God is with us.

Yes she is.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

o Halloween party – ideas?

CLOSING PRAYER AND BENEDICTION

Go in peace, filled with courage, strength and hopefulness to meet and engage each other with compassion, patience, and love.

Blessed be!

POSTLUDE

By John

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

August 22, 2009 Gathering

PRELUDE

Music by John Gerard

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

by Donald Jeffrey Hayes, Earth Prayers, p155

Do not stifle me with the strange scent of low growing mountain lilies – do not confuse me with salubrious odor of honeysuckle!

I cannot separate in my mind

Sweetness from sweetness – Mimosa from wild white violets; Magnolia from Cape Jasmine!

I am from the north tide country, I can understand only the scent of seaweed; Salt marsh and scrub pine riding on the breath of an amorous fog!

O do not confuse me

With sweetness upon sweetness;

Let me escape safely from this gentle madness –

Let me go back to the salt of sanity

in the scent of the sea…!

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 John

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON

Mark 4:35-41 (end of Ch. 4)

Later in the day, when evening had come, he says to them, “Let’s go across on the other side.”

After sending the crowd away, they took him along since he was in the boat, and other boats accompanied him. Then a great squall comes up and the waves begin to pound against the boat, so that the boat suddenly began to fill up. He was in the stern sleeping on a cushion. And they wake him up and say to him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are going to drown?

Then he got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Be quiet, and shut up!” The wind then died down and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so cowardly? You still don’t trust, do you?”

And they were completely terrified and would say to one another, “Who can this fellow be, that even the wind and sea obey him?”

~~~~~~~

· Thoughts on today’s reading?

· Who is this ‘fellow’ anyway???

· What do they find so terrifying?

COMMUNION AND SHARING OF RESOURCES

God is with us.

Yes she is.

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

BENEDICTION

And now may the Goddess bless you all and bless you kindly – Be at Peace and Drink in the Spirit!

POSTLUDE

By John