Gathering Our Spirit with God's Spirit

The room is still interactive where we can see each other. But it’s dark. In the middle is a circle – not the cross – it’s somewhere else – and the circle has bright, bright lights shining down into it. Like, really bright. The black stacked flower stand from the grocery store is in the middle. On it are 200 tea lights, not lit – but they will be near the end of worship, so we need lots of matchsticks. But there's also room on the stand for our drama participants to lay objects on the shelves of it.

• “Hold It Up to the Light” by David Wilcox plays
• A Journeyer steps up to light the lamp and another rings the bell
• Rick (E) and Leslie (L) make announcements

Worshiping with Our Children

• A Journeyer leads our children in talking about how sometimes when we've done something we’re not proud of, or something we think we’ll get in trouble for, we might want to hide. But God always loves us, no matter what. And everything that we are is beautiful for God because God can take anything in this world and turn it into something beautiful. God sees what is beautiful, because God is always Love.

Welcome and Breathe

• Rick welcomes us, talks about series
• Take a breath...

God’s Spirit and Our Spirit

• Judi Sawyer introduces Tom Prasada-Rao and Cary Cooper
• Tom and Cary sing "That's What Love Can Do" and "The God Whose Name I Used to Know"
• A Journeyer takes heavy objects to center of room
• The same Journeyer reads a poem by 15th-century Indian poet and mystic Kabir; then, silence

I had to seek the Doctor
because of the pain this world
had caused me.
When I got there, I couldn’t believe it –
the Doctor was my Teacher.
Before I left, my Teacher said,
“Are you ready for some homework?”
“Alright,” I said.

“Well, then, try thanking all the people
who have caused you pain.
They helped you
come to 
Me.”

• Two Journeyers take valuable objects to center of room
• The same Journeyers read from a letter by the early Christian teacher and church leader Paul, to a group of Jesus-followers in the large Greek city of Corinth; then silence

Reader One: God’s presence in us is patient and kind. God’s presence in us is not jealous or boastful or proud. God’s presence in us isn’t rude. God’s presence in us doesn’t demand its own way. God’s presence in us isn’t irritable. It doesn’t keep a list of who has wronged it. God’s presence in us isn’t happy when the wrong things happen; instead, it’s joyful when the good things happen. God’s presence in us never gives up. God’s presence in us never loses trust in what is good. God’s presence in us is always hopeful. God’s presence in us lasts, no matter what is happening. 

Reader Two: Right now I can't always see this clearly. None of us can see completely – we see only parts, only from certain angles. Even what we hear in our hearts is still incomplete. But when we are filled with God’s presence, full understanding will come. We won't worry about the things that we think are so important now. We’ll see fully. 

Reader One: Right now I can't always live this. I can't always get it. It’s as if I’m a little child – a child can't see everything clearly yet. A child thinks and figures things out in a childlike way. But when a child grows up and becomes a woman or a man, that woman or man lays aside the way a child does things and sees things. 

Reader Two: Right now we can only see part of what’s going on – as if we’re looking into a hazy mirror. But when we are filled with God’s presence, we’ll be able to see with perfect clarity. 

Everything I can know right now is incomplete, imperfect, only an approximation. But when I am filled with God’s presence, I know completely and perfectly – in the same way that God’s presence knows me, completely and perfectly. 

Giving -- To Help God Do God's Work in This World  

• A Journeyer says an offering prayer
• Tom and Cary sing "Gitanjali" and "Forgive What I Find" as the ushers pass the baskets 

Telling The Story and Our Story

• A Journeyer takes precious objects to center of room
• The same Journeyer reads from 13th-century Italian priest and theologian St. Thomas Aquinas; then silence

What does light talk about? 
When you recognize Light’s beauty, 
the eye applauds, the heart stands in an ovation, 
and the tongue when she is near 
is on its best behavior, which is,
it speaks more like Light. 

What does Light talk about? 
I asked a plant that once; 
the plant said, “I am not sure, 
but It makes me
grow.”

• Rick talks

Go Out to Serve with Love and Light

• Everyone comes to center and lights the tea lights while Tom P-R plays "It Is Well with My Soul" instrumental
• Leslie leads us in prayer based on a poem by 13th-century Persian mystic and theologian Rumi

If God said,
“_________, say thank you to everything
that has helped you
enter my arms,”
there would not be one experience of my life,
not one thought, not one feeling,
not any action, that I
would not
bow
to.

• Leslie dismisses us 
• “Hold It Up to the Light” plays again as folks depart