Good Shepherd New York • 3.29.20

[Music] [Music] [Music] welcome Church today we're going to sing a song that my sister ro Eevee [Music] day when the sadness and sorrow is gone we will all be together for as long as forever and we'll all rejoice in the Lord when the sadness and sorrow is gone we will all be together for as long as forever and we'll all rejoice in the Lord [Music] in the gift of this and the gift of this day in the gift of this in the gift of this day you hi I'm Lucy Regina and today I'm gonna be reading a poem from John O'Donoghue and it's called for for one who was exhausted when the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic time takes on the stream until it breaks then all the unattended stress falls in on the mind like an endless increasing wait the light in the mind becomes dim things you can take in your start before now become labor some events of will weariness invades your spirit gravity begins falling inside you dragging down every bone the tide and never valued has gone out and you are marooned on unsure ground something within you has closed down and you cannot push yourself back to life you have been forced to enter empty time the desire that drove you here has relinquished there is nothing else to do now but rest and patiently learn to receive the self you have forsaken in the race of days at first your thinking will darken and sadness take over like listless weather the flow of unwept tears will frighten you you have traveled too fast over false ground now your soul has come to take you back take refuge in your senses open up to all the small miracles you rushed through become inclined to watch the wave rain when it flows so slow and free imitate the habit of Twilight taking time to open the well of color that fostered the brightness of day draw alongside the silence of stone until it's calmness can claim you the excessively gentle with yourself stay clear of those vexed and spirit learn to linger around someone at ease who feels that they have all the time in the world gradually you return to yourself having learned a new respect for your heart and the joy that dwells far within slow time my feet are strong my eyes are clear I cannot see the way from you but on we go he knows his arms he keeps visas keep watch [Music] the shadows flee the valleys he but evil cannot conquer me your art and sad they protect me you give me rest you give me pee [Music] Oh [Music] I see the short I see the shore from trouble see this tiny ship that carries me [Music] but it will be so ever come it's you [Music] why [Music] Oh [Music] to me I'm holding on to you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Oh [Music] good morning church family as we come together virtually today marks the 25th day that my family and I have been on quarantine for Kogan 19 some of us have more severe symptoms and others and staying inside it's been a true test of our own sanity happy to report my family is now the other side of the sickness and is recovering well my family and I agreed 'fl for all the love and prayer that this community has given us during this time we are now ready to support the folks in this community just starting your journey with the sickness we're here free let us say together our generosity liturgy godliness with contentment is great game we bring nothing into this world and we take nothing out of it we who call Jesus Lord devote ourselves to resisting greed which plunges the human heart into ruin and Pierce's it with many griefs we're determined to practice generosity with three hearts fixing our hope on God and not the uncertainty well we desire to be rich in good deeds willing to share all that we have laying up for ourselves treasure that will not decay each of our community why don't you turn to one another and speak peace not with anyone text somebody crazy please text someone grace and peace are Gospel reading is from John 11 on his arrival Jesus bound Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother when Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went out to meet him but Mary stayed home Lord Martha said to Jesus if you had been here my brother would not have died but I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask jesus said to her your brother will rise again Martha answered I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life the one who believes in Me will live even though they die and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die do you believe this yes Lord she replied I believe that you are the Messiah the son of God who is to come into the world after she said this she went back and called her sister Mary aside the teacher is here she said and he's asking for you when Mary heard this she got up quickly and went to him now Jesus had not yet entered the village but was still at the place where Martha had seen him when the Jews who had been with Mary in the house comforting her noticed how quickly she got up and went out they followed her supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there when Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him she fell at his feet and said Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews had come along with her also weeping he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled where have you laid him he asked come and see Lord they replied Jesus wept then the Jews said see how he loved him but some of them said could not he have opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying Jesus once more deeply moved came to the tomb it was a cave with a stone Laden across the entrance take away the stone he said but Lord said Martha the sister of the dead man by this time there is a bad odor for he has been in there for days then jesus said did I not tell you that I if you believe you will see the glory of God so they took away the stone then Jesus looked up and said father I think thank you that you have heard me I knew that you always hear me but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me when he had said this jesus called in a loud voice Lazarus come out the dead man came out his hands and feet wrapped in strips of linen and a cloth around his face jesus said to them take off the grave clothes and let him go the gospel of our Lord this story of Jesus weeping and Lazarus rising it's in the very center of the story that John is telling it offers us wisdom that we need at this moment especially as our world kind of tilts on its axis and it begins to revolve in almost a seemingly different direction it's disorienting it has many of us looking for our bearings now this story in our gospel text looks back to the first half of the story which sums up its important themes and then it also looks ahead to the second half which is the passion or the suffering of Christ as he closes in on the city of Jerusalem where political and religious authorities await ready to destroy him now John's story of Jesus is basically told in seven great miracles or signs we have a sense of them sort of ascending in importance beginning with Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding party and ending here with Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead it's a beautiful way to tell the story and John also has Jesus offering these seven identity statements they're known as the great I am statements and here we find number six listen to these words of Jesus I and the resurrection and the life those who believed in me even though they died shall live and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die now in all these seven signs and the seven I am sayings there are only two times that we have a pairing together first in John 6 when we have the miracle of the multiplying of the loaves and the fish and that's followed by Jesus saying I'm the bread of life and here in John 11 where we see Jesus saying I'm the resurrection and the life just before Lazarus is raised from the dead perhaps the central moment of the other three Gospels the Gospel of Matthew and Mark and Luke is this moment when Jesus is recognized by his disciples as the Messiah and in those three the voice comes from Peters mouth and the confession takes place in city names this accessory of Philip I now here in John's story the story of Lazarus which we look at today it contains John's moment of confession only here it's Martha not Peter making that claim now I think this is a beautiful story it's written in stages for us to consider and really what we want to get to the heart of is the contours of human life that are seen here in the story now at the beginning of the year we talked about our identity is a church we're rebranding we're changing our name to Good Shepherd New York on Easter which we're really excited about we didn't anticipate it in this environment but here we are we've given this fresh language to our values and to our mission and also to our distinctives and at the very beginning when we began this season to talk we said the entire reason for our existence as a church that the deepest motive that we have for everything we do can be found in one word life and life is the reason that Jesus said he came into the world he said quote I've come that you would have life and that you would have it to the full end quote now life and fullness are themes that run throughout the story and they're also present here in this miracle Jesus is showing us moment by moment story by story what exactly it means to be human we see in the story three contours of being truly human that's modeled by Jesus and and by in the presence of his friends and these are contours that we must learn to embrace I think like never before our moment is demanding that we evolve in our experience of being human we see Jesus with contemplative depth here we see Jesus with emotional intelligence and we see Jesus with a hopeful courage so I want to trace out these themes first of all we start with Jesus and his contemplative debt now the first little clue that we have in the story that Jesus is swimming in pretty deep contemplative waters is in his timing watch his pace follow how he responds to his circumstances listen to the text I love this it's Captain Obvious but it says now a certain man was ill Lazarus of Bethany and then in the end of the same sentence it says Lazarus was ill so we're like okay John we get it Lazarus is sick and this is the circumstance that John is careful to show us that is high-stakes circumstance it's not just any person this is someone who is dear to Jesus now for many of us the outbreak of the corona virus is becoming super real and it's becoming real one relationship at a time it's moving from this inconvenient circumstance to a sense of an urgent circumstance you have love you maybe have a loved one who's sick or perhaps has even died you've lost work or you've seen massive financial losses and you're not sure how you're going to pay your bills or how you'll move on with life as you once knew it now I would like to ask you a simple question what do we do when we're faced with urgent circumstances how do we respond well that's exactly what we do we simply respond a famous psychologist Carl Jung sums up the human experience as the relationship between stimulus on the one hand and response on the other now the unhealthy the underdeveloped mind simply experiences the stimulus right the job lost the sickness the death maybe the threat that is right there looming on the horizon and what do we do we immediately begin responding we worry we try to control we try to complain or blame or make razor-sharp schedules and then we feel super guilty or shameful that we're not following through on them we deny or we even medicate in short we survive but as we often say in our community surviving is not the same thing as thriving Jesus isn't inviting us to simply survive Jesus is showing us how we can thrive now back to Carl Jung dr. Jung suggests that the difference between mental health and pathology or put it in the words of our community the difference between surviving and thriving is the ability to create space between the stimulus and the response we need to learn how to allow from moments of observation of reflection we need to learn how to create space for silence or for solitude or for stillness now I want you to consider Jesus timing here someone he loves is very sick and he receives this news and yet he decides to stay home where he is he waits and then he decides to go later so the timing here the way John's telling the story is screaming at us and it's calling us to pay attention to a specific thing Jesus is not controlled by his circumstances like some robot simply restart the responding from one stimulus to the other no Jesus shows us what it looks like to have some contemplative depth it's a depth that not only gives him a different sense of timing but it gives him a profound insight into the meaning of the moment he offers that to his friends Mary and to Martha and he expresses it beautifully in this one prayer I want you to hear this prayer this is right before he raised his Lazarus from the dead he says father I thank you for having heard me I knew that you always hear me but I've said this for the sake of the crowd standing here so that they would believe that you sent me now Jesus is portrayed here as dwelling in and dwelling with God in a profound way and it's that dwelling which is expressed in this prayer as dependence as a poverty of spirit as meekness as a purity of heart Jesus makes it clear that this isn't a unique mode that only he can experience but it's something that we are all invited into to dwell deeply in God that God seeks to dwell deeply in us this contemplative debt is a holy collaboration with God now the difference that this contemplative depth makes is that it basically allows us like Jesus to sort of dance to different music than that which rings loudly in our circumstances and right now our circumstances are definitely beating a certain kind of drum it's the ability to sort of stop and pause and know God and to feel free from selfishness and to feel connected to the God who made us the God who loves us and the God who holds everything together we see the contrast between the contemplative depth here and the sort of shallow addiction to circumstance in Luke's story of Mary and Martha Martha is responding to circumstances by just simply getting busy and she becomes so easily distracted serving making sure everybody's taken care of but it's Mary who sits at Jesus feet and this is a radical act of presence she's showing up for the moment she's paying attention now if you or I or the church will offer words and actions that matter in this coronavirus moment it will be because we are flowing and they are flowing from this Deeping relationship with God and that our life of Prayer is present and active and that our contemplation of Jesus is strong I think it's in that way that were transformed but we're often unfortunately an anxious Church for an anxious world and when we're locked into anxiety we become these slaves to our circumstances and we lack the energy to love in fact we lack mental and emotional health as a psychologist that I love Diana fossa she says in her book healing the power of emotion quote along with suffering psychopathology brings with it an energy crisis there's a shrinking sphere of life lived with zest there's a depletion of resourcefulness and there's a growing sense of restriction on our inner lives and when we are anxious and overwhelmed when we're locked into responding it sort of drains us it constricts us and we don't want to be people who are preoccupied with our own survival we want to be a people who are called into a bigger story who are concerned with the salvation of the world that's the heart of the church and the church is calling now I love this quote by Rowan Williams he says contemplation is very far from being just one kind of thing that Christians do it is the key to prayer to liturgy to art to ethics it's the key to the essence for renewed humanity it's capable of seeing the world and other subjects in the world with freedom freedom from self oriented acquisitive habits the distorted understanding that comes from them to put it boldly contemplation is the only ultimate answer to the unreal and insane world that our financial systems and our advertising culture and our chaotic unexamined emotions encourage us to inhabit to learn contemplative practice is to learn what we need so as to live truthfully honestly and lovingly it is a deeply revolutionary matter and what Jesus is showing us is that having a deeply contemplative life is in fact revolutionary Jesus offers meaning here in this moment and importance in the face of what seemed like random moments of life you and I become more human when we can dwell in God and we can gain a sense of meaning in the here and now so we see Jesus with this contemplative depth in the story but we also see him modeling an emotional intelligence that frankly is mesmerizing when we read this story we love Jesus in fact most of us love Jesus for this because when we tried to memorize the Bible growing up it was the shortest verse that we had to memorize jesus wept so watch what happens when Jesus arrives in the town of Bethany so Martha she comes to meet him she makes her good confession she says you are the Messiah and then Mary comes and she kneels at Jesus feet and she says Lord if you had been here my brother would not have now listen to Jesus respond in this moment pay attention to his emotional intelligence quote when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping he was greatly disturbed in spirit and he was deeply moved he said where have you laid him and they said Lord come and see Jesus began to weep and so the crowd said see how he loved him but some of them said could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying and then Jesus again greatly disturbed came to the tomb listen to this language weeping greatly disturbed deeply moved right these are words of intense emotion Jesus is shown to be experiencing the depth of the full range of human experience now the word translated here greatly disturbed it means to be shaken to your core and this is the one place in John's Gospel where Jesus lays his deepest emotions bare and we are not repulsed we're actually drawn to him in this moment because that's how vulnerability works when we're vulnerable we don't push people away we draw them in when we're vulnerable in our prayers we draw God in when we're vulnerable with each other we draw each other in and the contemplative depth of Jesus has set the tone for him sort of to take this risk of vulnerability to feel deeply and to trust that that feeling will not be his end it won't paralyze him but it will energize him and so he can take the risk of compassion as well to not only feel his own feelings but enter into the pain of his friends and he can take the risk perhaps of even of anger now many commentators speculate that Jesus is feeling a deep anger right here because you have these professional mourners and they're seen to be intruding on what would otherwise be this tender intimate moment with his loved ones his friends but however you interpret Jesus here there is no question his emotion is real his emotion is raw it is not him isolating it's not him denying it's not him bargaining or depression depressing he has accepted this feeling right now you and I we need permission to feel we're all coming to grips with how real the stages of grief really are a lot of us are just reeling right now looking for ways to experience our emotions and as a church we're providing lots of ways for you to be able to do this one of our good friends of our community Andrew Joseph is going to be offering these video online therapy groups and he himself is a therapist in the city who is wonderful and we couldn't recommend him highly enough but he's gonna be pulling men together in these smaller groups in order to lean into vulnerability to learn how to feel our feelings and I think this this moment as a church is filled with so much possibility you and I we have the chance to learn how to experience our feelings afresh maybe the pace of our lives up to this point in this city has been breakneck and we haven't really been able to stop and pause and have a healthy relationship with where we actually are but during this season we want to take the opportunity we're gonna seize the moment and figure out how do we create to how we feel how do we experience the vulnerability that Jesus leads us to in this story we're doing as we've been mentioning a practice called the eights we're at 8:00 in the morning and 8:00 in the evening we have an opportunity to connect with each other to check in on how we're doing and already as I participated in these over the past couple of weeks I felt this wave of connection come over me I felt a new sense of connection to how I'm actually doing and how I'm feeling I mean how often are we doing daily check-ins not to me not to mention twice daily check-ins on how we're doing but this is a moment where we need to learn how to embrace the skill of emotional intelligence if we don't do this the cost is too high for those of us trapped in apartments with lots of people like my family right now we are going in we're not for these kinds of practices in this kind of space we're prioritizing therapy we have a whole list of therapists that we can recommend to you to help you process your emotions in this time and we'd love to be able to recommend them to you so that you can meet with them even if it's by phone one of the things that we encourage you to in this time some of you who battle with addiction and here you are in quarantine locked in your apartment and your board your fidgety and you're finding yourself going back to old thought patterns and thought loops like this is a time to lean back into support to find even digital ways to participate in things like a a for all of us right now this is a moment to give ourselves permission to grieve to give ourselves permission to be angry to give ourselves permission to be sad because we're living in a sad moment and that's what we love about our tradition our tradition gives us a sort of beautiful pairing of that contemplative depth and that emotional intelligence in the Psalms you have a wide range of the psalmist praying this space with God saying God where are you I thought this was how the world was supposed to work and it's not working that way and then you have other Psalms that have been through the depth of terror even hanging up the phone so to speak on God but then they come through the other side with a hopeful resolution and that brings me to the last point we not only see a contemplative depth in Jesus here we also see him with emotional intelligence but finally we see him with a hopeful courage Jesus knows before he even announces this miracle before he you know actually performs it and everybody is in awe he knows that this is the one domino that will make all the rest of them fall he knows that after this there is no avoiding the collision in Jerusalem and yet Jesus can look at the future on the horizon one that he knows will will involve his destruction one that he knows will be dark in some sense in a profound sense and he can look it in the face and he can embrace it with courage because his he's not ruled by his circumstances he has a sense of a deeper music that's care him forward there is a deeper joy that's buoyant that's holding him up it's keeping him afloat even in the midst of circumstantial suffering and it's one of the things that during Holy Week as we approach next week that we stand in awe of as Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem and has the sense of the buoyancy of God's joy the buoyancy of God's love holding him afloat in the midst of waters that threatened to drown and to overcome so we see Jesus here looking in the future with a sense of hope and with a sense of courage and right now friends we need that hope more than ever it's not denial it's only denial if we rush right to the hope but if we can feel our feelings we'll find ourselves coming to calm we'll find ourselves coming to curiosity we'll find ourselves coming to courage we'll find ourselves coming to that that true self that's always been there but has often been untapped and I think this is going to call the best out of us and I think we're going to be able to move from self-preserving from just self protecting and taking care of ourselves to really loving and serving our city and we want you to know there's opportunities to do that we're gonna be connecting you with so many opportunities one of those is a house on Beekman a house on Beekman is are one of our partners in the South Bronx and one of the things that they're doing right now is they're helping buildings that don't have Wi-Fi get it so that kids can get on the internet and can do their schoolwork they're helping kids who don't have meals or have lost meals through the schools being shut down make sure that they're fed and taken care of they're checking in their team with the small group of students they normally work with every day making sure that they are seen that they're heard that they're connecting with their own emotions in this moment and that they're moving forward in a healthy way and they're doing a benefit at the very beginning of April that we can support a lot of you have already been supporting whatever it is in this moment that you feel led to we invite you to stretch yourself to challenge yourself to give of yourself but truly we can't offer anything of worth unless we're cultivating that depth contemplatively and we're also cultivating some emotional intelligence so let's follow Jesus together as a community in the season of Lent as we come and look toward Easter to be what it looks like to be human in the way of Jesus amen let's pray God guide us as our Good Shepherd give us the resources we need right now for this moment help us where we're weak help us where we are crushed where we are vulnerable help us to learn how to express it in your presence help us to create space for those quiet moments of reflection and give us the grace we need by your spirit to love each other well and rise to this moment in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit amen and now we take a moment to declare our faith having reflected on our sacred text and together we will recite the most ancient form of our faith known to our tradition which is the Apostles Creed so would you join me in this Creed we believe in God the Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth we believe in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified died and was buried he descended to the dead then on the third day he rose again he ascended into heaven he is seated at the right hand of the Father and he will come again to judge the living and the dead we believe in the Holy Spirit the Holy Catholic Church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen and now friends we lift our voices and our prayers to God together and here to lead us in the prayers of the people are Kyle and Kate before we pray today let's take a moment to reflect in the last seven days when did you feel close to God when did you feel distant what were the moments where you felt suffering and what were the moments where you felt a sense of joy Lord as the pandemic continues to spread throughout the world in our city it has moved from an abstract concept to a very concrete and harsh reality for most of us either we have contracted the virus ourselves or people close to us have some of us are in critical condition wondering if we're going to make it some of us are less critical but still suffering we feel overwhelmed and worn down we feel helpless and fearful and yet you say if you're not for I have redeemed you I have called you by your name you are mine when you pass through the waters I will be with you and through the rivers they shall not overflow you when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned nor shall the flames scorch you Lord be gracious to us we are strength every morning our salvation in times of distress Lord in your mercy hear our prayer Lord in your mercy hear our prayer to sing Lord in your mercy hear our prayer Lord during this past week we've become overcome by waves of fear and anxiety this chaotic moment leaves us with so many questions well my will loved ones be okay will I get my job back how will I survive in the meantime well my business survive has God forgotten me and yet you remind us that in Christ we have a high priest who is fully human and understands our fears and anxieties before he faced all of these same emotions that we do he is our refuge he was our strength an ever-present help in times of trouble and I'm convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love neither death nor life neither Angels nor demons neither our fears today who are worries about tomorrow not even the powers of Hell can separate us from God's love for our hope is in him it would be gracious to us be our strength every morning our salvation in time of distress Lord in your mercy hear our prayer Lord in your mercy hear our prayers Lord in your mercy hear our prayer [Music] bored for many of us this social isolation has made us feel all alone for others being cooped up with too many people in one space has made us long for some solitude either way it's not easy to be cooped up in our shoebox New York City apartments when all we can do is wait even as this world is a hurricane of anxiety and overwhelming uncertainty we pray for a deep and centering peace to give us something to hold onto we pray that you quiet the internal chaos that we're feeling ease the weight of difficult news we pray for our spirits to be resilient and Lord you say John near to me and I will draw near to you I will not leave you nor forsake you be strong and of good courage the Lord is good to those who wait for him to the soul who seeks him he will lead us by still waters he makes us lie down in green pastures Lord be gracious to us we are strength every morning our salvation and time of distress Lord in your mercy hear our prayer Lord in your mercy hear our prayer Lord in your mercy hear our prayer Lord as the church members of one universal body we ask how should we act in this moment is their unique calling you have on us at this time the problems we face feel so big Lord and we feel so small and yet you remind us if one member of the body suffers all members suffer with it we are all in this together we are called to serve each other let nothing be done through selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility let us consider others better than ourselves [Music] leticia let each of us look out not only from our own interests but also for the interests of others may our city and our world know that we are your disciples by how we love each other and how we serve our community Lord be gracious to us be our strength every morning our salvation and time of distress Lord in your mercy hear our prayers using lord have mercy lord have mercy Christ have mercy lord have mercy Christ have mercy we pray these things in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit amen and now having offered our prayers we make space for confession as we prepare our hearts for the table one of the things we say every week when we confess our sins is that this isn't just a killjoy or a beatdown this is not just morbid introspection what we're doing now is the serious and beautiful work of taking responsibility for the ways that we fall short of love for God and for our neighbor and so right now is an act of holy memory it's not something meant to trigger anxiety it's meant to be something that opens you up like a flower in the light of God's love the Bible tells us that it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance and so for any meaningful change to happen it has to happen in the context of a sense of love a sense of safety a sense of embrace and that's what this moment is all about and so right now in the kindness of God I invite you into an active holy memory and just think about the week behind you think about how you've struggled to love God how you struggled to love yourself how you've struggled to love your neighbor and hold these memories that come to your your mind that prick your conscience now let's hold them together in God's presence let's take a moment for that and now we remember that we are not alone nor are we just the sum total of individual sins but we sinned together that there are collective and systemic sins that need to be named that need to be repented of and so would you join me in this corporate confession most merciful God we confess that we've sinned against you in thought word indeed by what we have done and by what we have left undone we've not loved you with our whole hearts we've not loved our neighbors as ourselves we are truly sorry and we humbly repent for the sake of your son Jesus Christ have mercy on us and forgive us that we would delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your name amen and now friends hear the good news of the gospel that you are loved that you are forgiven and that you are welcomed as you are the Bible says as far as the east is from the west so far has God removed our transgressions from us and as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is God's love for you amen and now we come to the table and this has been one of the weirdest adaptations that I think we've had to endure and it looks like we will have to do together and so let's make the most of it let's embrace our connection which is what this table is all about our connection with Christ our connection with each other and with all of humanity let's let this table move us toward unity in a moment of strife so let's join in prayer we start with gratitude that's what eucharist means it means the great thanksgiving and we start with this ancient prayer would you join me in it the Lord is here his Spirit is with us lift up your hearts we lift them up to the Lord let us give thanks to the Lord our God it is right to give thanks and praise Lord it is good and beautiful to say thank you in the face of so much goodness and even though we feel overwhelmed by the stress and the chaos of this moment we have eyes to see through these moments and through these rituals the good and beautiful in our lives we thank you for those quiet moments with with our friends with our loved ones even if they're digital we thank you for the good gifts of the slow slow slowing nature of our pace the good gifts of making our own food the good gifts of just appreciating the people who are laying their lives on the line to care for us and to make sure that we're safe and that we're healthy well we have so much to be grateful for right now and we lean into that gratitude together and we pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit and according to your holy word that these gifts of bread and cup would become to us and for us the body and blood of Christ who AM the night he was betrayed took bread and cup and bless them now I'd encourage you to take the cup and the bread that you have at home and to just hold them as we lift them up to God and consecrate them together now on the night Jesus was betrayed he took bread and after he broke it he gave it to his disciples and he said this is my body given for you do this in remembrance of me so we welcome you risen Christ we thank you for this body broken for us in love we pray that we would receive this sense of vulnerable love afresh and that we would return it not only to you but to ourselves and to our neighbor amen likewise Jesus took the cup and after he blessed it he gave it to his disciples and he said this cup is the cup of the New Covenant in my blood shed for the forgiveness of sins do this in remembrance of me and so we welcome you risen Christ we thank you for this cup which speaks a better word than our violence and then our retaliation and then all of our instincts to sort of get back at people in our lives when we hurt instead we embrace this cup the cup of salvation and the cup of peace help us to live in the way of peace the way that you receive us in peace amen and now friends our practice is to take the cup and to dip the bread in the cup it's called intention and as we receive this gift simply say thanks be to God [Music] and now we declare the mystery of faith Christ has died Christ is risen and Christ will come again and these are God's holy gifts for God's holy people Jesus Christ is holy Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father amen and now friends we are so grateful to have shared this experience to share communion together to share a digital worship gathering and we encourage you this week as we continue to look for ways to connect and ways to serve our neighbors to stay connected and to be courageous and to strengthen and deepen our contemplative relationship with God and now receive this benediction may your heart be sustained in the love of Christ during this time of isolation may that love strengthen and soften your battered heart expanding your capacity to love yourself and others may your mind be filled with the Peace of the spirit may that peace free your burden mind lifting the cat cloud of anxiety and worry may the peace of the Spirit bring you life-giving quiet and presence throughout each day may your gracious and loving God be your strength may you be strengthened to enjoy in peace may the grace of God give you strength to keep going one day at a time breathing in breathing out receiving and releasing the love of our Creator that is our grounding and our life go with God [Music] praise him all creatures here below praise him our body heavenly home praise Father Son and Holy Ghost [Music] [Music] [Music] we're gonna join together in the Apostles Creed now I actually read the wrong version of the Apostles Creed a couple of weeks ago and so I want to make sure that I get this right now actually I don't have it up

Channel: Good Shepherd New York

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Length: 56min 31sec (3391 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 29 2020