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Season of Creation (SoC) 2008:
Rivers Sunday
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
or
'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.'
(or any of a dozen or so other one liners about water which you will find in the biblical witnesses!)
Original SoC website: www.seasonofcreation.com
This liturgy from http://ecofaith.org/mnc/soc
most of the liturgy is available on powerpoint
powerpoint with background images (pptx format, office 2007, may work with earlier versions) (1 mb)
powerpoint without backgrounds (works with powerpoint 97-2003) (300k)
Thanks to Nambucca and Macksville Uniting Church congregations for letting me road test this service with them in August.
These SoC liturgies have a more Uniting Church flavour than the original ones, and often an explicitly evolution/cosmology affirming context. They are written in the context of the mid north coast of NSW rather than Southern Australia. Distribute and modify to your heart’s content.
The services assume that worship is happening inside, but could be easily adapted for outside worship, though. I would highly recommend moving the service to an appropriate outdoor location to really engage with God as Creator in this season of creation.
Rev Dr Jason John
ecominister, mid north coast
minister, Bellingen Uniting Church
@ indicates a prayer or resource written by Norman Habel and found in the original SOC liturgies.
SETUP
- Someone in your congregation is bound to have a little 12V fountain or similar which could bubble away somewhere in the sanctuary or entrance way.
- This service doesn't include baptism, but it would be great here!
A possible Call to worship
When Jesus had been baptised, just as he came up from the river, suddenly the skies were torn apart and the Spirit descended like a dove and landed on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
And immediately the Spirit drove him into the outback.
Then on the last day of the festival in Jerusalem, shortly before his death, Jesus cried out, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.” As the scripture has said, 'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.'
SO…
@Be still. Be at peace. God is ready to give to us.
Here in this place in our needs.
the gift of healing for those in pain,
the gift of forgiveness for those in sin,
the gift of assurance for those in doubt,
the gift of hope for those in tears.
The gift of laughter for those full of joy-
The gift of rivers of living water for all of us!
Opening prayer 1:
(I do it non responsively, but you could use the bits in bold)
God of 70,000, million million million stars and countless planets.
We give thanks for your interest in ours.
You are welcome here.
We pray for a sense of your presence here amongst us, and an openness to what you have to say to us this morning.
Give us ears to hear and the courage to respond.
Opening prayer 2:
God's Spirit brooded over the formless waters
Jesus rose up from the waters to begin his ministry, turned it into wine, taught beside it, walked on it, washed feet with it, and had it pour from his side.
In John's vision the Spirit offers it to all who thirst:
Let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
Holy Spirit, living water, flow through our lives today, quench our thirst, offer us again this gift of life and grant us the humility to receive it.
Amen
Opening Prayer 3 :
The God of the rivers be with you.
And also with you.
@God, we gather this morning to worship in this sanctuary called Earth,
a planet filled with your presence,
quivering in the forests,
vibrating in the land,
pulsating in the outback,
shimmering in the rivers.
Reveal yourself to us in this place
and show us your face in all creation.
Opening Prayer 4
Holy Spirit, living water, flow through our lives today, quench our thirst, offer us again this gift of life and grant us the humility to receive it.
You are welcome here. We pray for a sense of your refreshing presence this morning.
Possible Song: God wants reconciliation (rivers)
Reflection/silent prayer
Rivers flow through our veins
Fill our cells.
We carry the rivers sealed within our skins
Like all mammals, like the reptiles
The river no longer oozes from our flesh, like it does for frogs
It no longer surrounds us, like it does for fish
But we hear it, flowing through this land
Flowing through our veins
Jesus said, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.” As the scripture has said, 'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.'
Let's take a moment to become aware of the rivers of living waters flowing out of our hearts to God and each other.
Confession
1. I'll be using Peter Gabriel's song: washing the waters, as a non directive kind of confession.
2. Or if you can get the Leunig cartoon about the yabbie net, that would be a great way into confession: have we lost our joy and wonder?
3. Otherwise this might do you...
Waters: living, fresh, deep, glistening, burbling, quenching, delightful.
Or: stagnant, tepid, polluted, dried up.
No doubt each of these images has probably summed up our feelings at some point.
In the silence, let’s confess our feelings, the state of our lives, our hopes and dreams and fears to God.
After the silence you could lead straight into this song...
Suggest week 1 of the SoC just listen, week 2 sings the bits in bold, week 3 sing it all.
If you have a guitarist who can work out the tune obviously that would be great.
Ashes to Ashes and dust to dust
people are made of such natural stuff
birth is a miracle, death is its end
a cycle repeated again and again
siblings parents, ancestors
learning their names and their places because
family’s a gift wrapped in every new birth…
but what of the kinship we have with the earth?
Creatures that creep and that swim and that fly
creatures that love and that talk and that lie
all are embodied, and breathe the same air
life is essentially something we share
villages, townships, cities & states
modes of community people have shaped
how has it happened, we’ve let them become…
a cancerous growth threatening creation?
Ashes to Ashes and dust to dust
ready to take all creation at once
pass me the bottle, I need an escape or
pass the petition before its too late!
turn on the TV, I need some peace or
give me a banner, I’ll take to the streets!
visions of power cast their spell, and their curse
Now where are the
visions of hope for the earth?
Assurance
Use whatever mix of these elements is appropriate:
Here are the visions of hope for the Earth! You, the pilgrim people, called to bring reconciliation and renewal to all creation, following the God who broods over the waters (parts them, transforms them, walks on them... according to your theology and focus for the day).
Turn to your neighbour and share with them a sign of hope you have seen this week/month for the world. (or get people to call out, but I found that there was a vibrant hubub when people shared with a neighbour, and only 2 people came enough to call out).
Whatever kind of water symbolises our lives, or whatever mix of symbols, we find God, the Spirit brooding over the waters, swallowing us when we fall, helping us float, turning us around.
We declare that nothing in all creation, including ourselves, is stagnant, tepid, polluted, or dried up enough to separate us from the love of God revealed in Jesus, who rose out of the river to be declared beloved.
All around us we see visions of hope for the Earth... (Rattle off whatever comes to mind:) Water restrictions, wetland rehabilitation, low flow showers, grey water recycling, compost toilets, mulch, low water gardens, ...
Nothing in creation, nothing done to creation, can separate us from the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus. So we confess the peace of Christ which surpasses all understanding.
May the peace of Christ, deep as the meandering river, powerful as a mighty waterfall, playful as a trickling brook, be with you)
And also with you.
Readings
Here is a quick medley of references to rivers and waters in the gospels.
See also this collection of general non-biblical readings
Those suggested at the SoC web site are Genesis 2:4b-22; Psalm 139:13-16; Acts 17:22-28; John 3:1-16
You might want to use Psalm 96 again.When I led worship at Woolgoolga we went with the regular lectionary readings for the week since they fitted so well anyway, and it emphasises that even the regular lectionary is relevant to ecological concerns.
Sermon:
Incase its useful, mine is included below. It was a little specific but much of it would be broadly applicable. It uses river metaphors, applies the question: what will it profit us to gain the world but lose our life, and ponders whether Jesus was a greenie.
Offering
Rain waters our crops and fills our reservoirs, rivers provide transport, recreation, beauty, irrigation. Water fills our veins and cells and makes life possible. Without the gift of water there would be no life.
So let’s live full lives in gratitude, not clinging to the hope of living here eternally, but of having eternal life.
Without our gifts of love, time, talents, and money, there would be no mission. Let us make our offerings to God.
Intercession
The reconciliation and renewal of all creation remains incomplete…Between species, amongst humans, even within each one of us.
But God is here. Here to listen to our concerns, and to share her concerns with us.
<If you are having communion this week, you might want to insert the “SoC Communion 2008” material here>
Sending forth/Blessing
1) May the living waters flow out of our hearts to God and each other this week.
May real waters be living also: flowing sure and clean, so that all life has access to this essential gift.
May the God in whom we all live and move and have our being quench our thirst.
or 2)
God is beyond us (like the clouds, deep, mysterious, uncontrollable)
God is here with us (like the Nambucca River.)
God is within us (like the water which makes up ¾ of our bodies.)
God is amongst us (flowing between us, encouraging us to wash each other’s feet)
&/or 3 Then the angel showed John the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.
The Spirit and the bride say, "Come."
And let everyone who hears say, "Come."
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
Amen.
Exiting Song
From the Collaborations CD, Guide me God, by Sinead O’Connor is a catchy one.
You can buy the single online, or hear it here on youtube, along with various remixes.
Sermon
(readings were Romans 12:9-21: Let love be genuine... overcome evil with good, and Matt 16:21-26 (what will it profit...)
Water water everywhere. In Jesus’ life.
Jesus’ ministry begins when he rises up out of it. He turns it into wine, walks on it (freaking out the disciples). He washes their feet with it (freaking them out even more). He offers living water to those who thirst, and it pours from his side at the crucifixion.
Water, water, everywhere. In our lives.
The Spirit brooded over it. Life emerged from it. Every cell in our body is full of it.
We spent the first nine months of life completely immersed in it. All life formed in the waters, and so did we. We bathe in it, drink it, eat the crops which get rained on by it. A few days without water and we are dead.
Little wonder that such a powerful part of our physical lives should be used as a metaphor for the spiritual life. Especially in a place like Palestine which, like Adelaide, where I am from, has so little of it. In a Mediterranean climate you know what it is to pant like a deer for water.
But until recently that didn’t stop most of my southern fellow citizens spraying it all over their driveways to wash away leaves, or maintain lush green lawns in the middle of a baking 40oC Summer. It hasn’t stopped people overusing the Murray. It didn’t stop us in Adelaide turning the River Torrens (the equivalent of your river here) into a brown cesspit with polluted mud so thick that anyone stupid enough to jump into it would be lucky to get out alive.
What does it do to our faith, one which draws so heavily on water imagery, to live surrounded by tepid, toxic, revolting water?
Fortunately that’s not something you need to worry about, by the look of your river. Neither do I now in Bellingen. A stone’s throw from here is a river of the kind of living water which you would want to have flowing out of your heart. The kind of river you can imagine jumping into and being immersed in, surrounded by pure water as we are surrounded by God. I can find the same a stone’s throw from the Bellingen Manse.
This is the experience of ecospirituality. That when we connect with creation, we find ourselves connecting with God the creator.
We are truly blessed to have such wonderful water to carry the images of the faith for us.
Then again, last week I read that the Kalang oyster farms are being closed because of human fecal contamination, and the same has happened in the Bellingen river due to agricultural contamination. If it rains heavily it is not safe to swim in the river in town because of all the cow poo in it.
Our ability to connect with creation on the mid north coast, and therefore to connect with our creator, is much greater than the ability of those in cities, but there are no guarantees that it will prevail forever. The Torrens used to be pure and sparkling living water too, once.
Which makes me think of today’s readings. As we know, so much of the devastation inflicted on the rest of creation by humans is due to two things.
1) The Wars which flow out of the failure to live out Paul’s injunctions to humility and peace. War is a major, if not the major, environmental pollutant of our time.
2) The failure to take Jesus question seriously:
What will it profit you if you gain the whole world but forfeit your life? Or what will you give in return for your life?
Having forgotten that the world belongs not to us creatures, but the creator, some of us have made a life’s purpose to possess as much of the world and its resources as possible. The few wealthiest humans “own” more of the planet than the poorest half. Many of us are sucked into their vortex, and many more are willing slaves to the lure of the kind of consumerism which is required to keep us in debt, and keep the whole economic machine rolling on, concentrating profits and resources in the hands of fewer and fewer humans.
Will we as a species actually have to live out the Sioux prophecy before we turn the corner?
Only when the last tree has died
and the last river been poisoned
and the last fish been caught
will we realise we cannot eat money.
Of course, many of our species are already experiencing that. Not so much because they wanted to chop down all the trees, or poison the rivers, or overfish their waters, but because rich people in other nations came into their lands and did it. And the people back home, who bought their products, were happy to ignore it.
What will it profit us if we gain the whole world but forfeit our life? What will we give in return for our life?
Was Jesus a greenie?
Apart from the sparrows Jesus says little directly about God’s attitude to the rest of creation. Clearly he is immersed in creation and life, to see how often living things are used in his parables and teachings. But there is little that labels him a greenie, on the surface at least. Of course there were only several million, not six billion humans on the planet back then. Humans settlements were tiny dots on the landscape, not a vast interconnected wed. The earth at night was black, not a Christmas tree. The world’s streams for the most part still ran clear, forests were widespread, and the air clean.
Perhaps its better to ask, if the western world, and especially the very rich part of the western world which claims to be Christian, actually listened to Jesus, would the world be greener? (and the rivers bluer)?
Especially when we think of how many of the world’s largest consumers (USA, closely followed by us), claim to be Christian. And are Christian.
How can there be third world debt, and the resulting flogging off of natural resources to pay interest on it, if American Christians gave to whoever asked them, without expecting anything back?
How can rivers like Ok Tedi in PNG be devastated by pollution from mining if Australian companies loved their neighbour like themselves, and did for others what they would want others to do for them?
What would happen if all western Christians took to heart: "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."
"Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.
Or today’s readings again. Being at peace as far as it is possible. Overcoming the desire for power and glory and dominion and realising that God’s followers are called to lose what the world considers a “good life” in order to find it.
What if we really believed that Jesus said, “So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not forsake all your possessions.”
Now, I don’t approach the biblical witnesses as a literalist. I know that Jesus’ teachings on wealth are variable and highly nuanced. And I wouldn’t try to cut them out of his context and paste them into ours.
But those of us who are biblical literalists and “straight down the liners” ought to be the greenest of green, far outstripping the efforts of all others to downsize and live lightly on the Earth. It is highly ironic that so many apply the texts relating to women’s authority and homosexuality in a straightforward manner, but turn themselves inside out to explain why “none of you can be my disciples if you do not forsake all your possessions” doesn’t really mean that.
But none of us live in absolutes, really. None of us have completely forsaken all our possessions. None of us are rampant consumers. Admittedly we do not 100% value ourselves and our lives purely in the way God does. But neither have we allowed ourselves to be 100% defined in terms of our ability to gather capital and consume goods and services.
So we move up and down a continuum.
Some days are muddy and stagnant and we fear drying up completely so badly that we wish we were rich so we could buy some security, some apparent immortality. We fear losing our lives so much that we actually do start to lose them.
On good days streams of living water fill our hearts and pour out in goodwill to others. We are so immersed in God’s love that what we own and our future mortality fades into insignificance. We forget to worry about our lives and so discover that we have found true life again.
As we go today, every time we look at the clear, living water flowing past this town, may God help us live more good days, and may we be encouraged to keep these rivers clean and living so that they can continue to bring life to their inhabitants, and remind us of God’s offer of eternal life.
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