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Here are the words:

Together Apart #1 | Lent 4 | Psalm 23 | March 22, 2020

Candle-lighting

Our candle is lit. Perhaps yours is too.
Take a moment to look at the candle.
Breath.
“Our heart an altar and your love the flame.”

Invitation to Worship

We come to worship by this unusual means.
We follow Love’s Way –
seeking to be faithful by being apart;
each one doing their part to flatten the curve.
We come together apart for a moment of stillness and comfort perhaps,
repairing our soul in this unusual time,
still offering our heart, our commitment, our love.
We follow Love’s Way

Prayer for Courage  (by Padraig O Tuama)

Courage comes from the heart
and we are always welcomed by God,
the Heart of all being.
We bear witness to our faith,
knowing that we are called
to live lives of courage,
love and reconciliation
in the ordinary and extraordinary
moments of each day.
We bear witness, too, to our failures
and our complicity in the fractures of our world.
May we be courageous today. May we learn today. May we love today.  Amen

Theme Conversation

I wonder how this week has been for you?

I wonder what you are missing? I know some of you had school trips. Some are involved in a lot of activities like skating, music, karate, dancing, hockey, jobs and lots of other things.

I wonder what you are doing? I’ve been thinking a lot about you.

There is a lot we don’t know. A lot that is scary. A whole pile of things we can’t do anything about.

But there is one really important thing we can do. It is “our demanding common task.”

I know some of you know Winnie-the- Pooh.

Piglet and Winnie the Pooh are walking down a path. We see their backs. Piglet asks Pooh, “Where are we going Pooh?”

“Home Piglet. We’re going home, because that’s the best thing to do right now.”

That’s what we can do right now. “Our demanding common task.”

Be like Piglet and Pooh and stay home and help keep those who have to be out safe! And listen for ways we can support one another as we listen to this Psalm. 

Scripture: Psalm 23

Reflection

It is a gift that this is the Psalm for Lent 4. In such a time as this, it is familiar. It is comforting.

I heard the ancient words in a new way this week.

I noticed there are three spaces in the Psalm.

There is outside space – where there are green fields and still waters.

They are the places where we can find a moment of stillness, of quiet, of peace.  We are physically distancing as our “demanding common task” but we can still look for the signs in creation that comfort us.

Eagles above the river.
A great horned owl in the trees by the church.
A walk in the fresh air.
Birds at a feeder.
We got tulips this week because we needed this beautiful thing.

Keep track this week- make your own Psalm 23 Journal – a gratitude journal with words or drawings of beautiful things. Send we pictures of the beauty you see in the world around you. 

There is, of course, the dangerous place. We walk through the valley of shadow and uncertainty. This is a time of lament, of grief. We can’t make sense of it. Let our lament be loud. Cry our tears. Feel our disappointment. our worry and our anger. It’s not fair. Lament is a good practice for this time. Give it space. It is our rod and our staff. Write your own laments. And if you don’t have words, read the Psalms. They are full of lament.

There is also inside space in the Psalm – the space of hospitality, where there is hospitality, abundance, flowing and home. We are literally at home right now. This is our physical space of being. We are here for the sake of the Love of one another.

May we be at home inside ourselves too.

The Hebrew word for friend comes from the word for shepherd (I’m told.) Let us lean on the friendship of God. We will find hospitality for the raggedness of our days. We will find an abundance of strength to draw upon. We will step into the flow of Love.

We follow Love’s Way. We are loved.

Our Community Prays 

We make prayers of gratitude – three things we are grateful for, where we saw kindness and love in action.

We make beauty celebrating beauty. Look out your window. Name three things we see that touch your heart.

We pray the prayers in our heart for those you love.

What are the prayers praying in your heart?

Our Father ….

Blessing

A blessing to carry into the week knowing that blessing will surround us in all we experience.

May the blessing of the One who is our Maker, our Love, our Friend be with us.