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Call to Worship
Click Here for Audio Advent 3 - Joy 2021
When I look around, I see shadows of sadness, families who have lost loved ones [in the tornados this weekend], people in prison, people who are isolated and feel on their own…
When I look around, I see shadows of grief, people dreading the holidays because of painful memories, because they're recently divorced, [because they have lost loved ones,] because they don't want to spend another Christmas alone…
In the face of sadness, we light a candle of joy...
In the face of grief, in the face of loss, we light a candle of joy... (Light the third candle in your Advent wreath.)
May the light from this candle overwhelm the world.
May the light from this candle say to all that God’s joy is coming, on earth as it already is in heaven.
Friends, be not afraid, God’s joy is at hand!
https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/11/17/advent-candle-lighting-litanies
Opening Prayer
Click Here for Audio of Opening Prayer
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your holy Spirit that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy names. Amen.
The Lessons
From the Prophet Isaiah (12.3)
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
The Wisdom of the Psalter (30.5)
Misfortune lasts for only a moment,
while divine goodwill endures for a lifetime.
Weeping may last throughout the night,
but at daybreak there is rejoicing.
Words of the Apostle Paul (Philippians 4.4)
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
A Reading from Luke’s Gospel (3.10-16)
The crowds asked John the baptizer, "What should we do?"
In reply John said to them, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise."Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, "Teacher, what should we do?"
He said to them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you."
Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what should we do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages."
As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming…He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.
Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher
CLICK HERE for Audio of "Joy Is On The Way"
Joy is on the Way
It’s hard to believe we’ve arrived at the third Sunday of Advent. We’re now past the halfway point in our journey to Christmas. Just two weeks from today we will gather for our Christmas I Sunday service. All the hustle and bustle will be subsiding, all of the presents will be opened and most of the family visits and meals done. But today we feel the the mounting excitement of all that is to come in the next two weeks.
Advent 3 is the Sunday we celebrate joy. This is a hard thing as we review the past week, the rising numbers of CoVid… again, the news of devastating tornados in the US over this weekend, troop build ups on the border of Russia and Ukraine, and refugees on the border of Poland, the US, and other countries around the world. And yet here we are, on the edge of Christmas when we sing Joy to the World.
In Advent we live in a liminal space between the now and what will be. We wait and we look forward to the happy day when hope, peace, joy, and love are born anew in the world, for that day when the world pauses in its violence and anxiety to sing Silent Night together. Christmas is a time to spiritually rest, to renew our spirits, and to consider what a world that truly celebrates Christmas all year round could be like.
And when we get just a glimpse of what the world could be – unified, aware that we are all one family – the joy that fills our hearts is overwhelming. That is what Advent 3 is all about, contemplating the feeling of joy that we all can have when we awaken to the reality that we are all one human family, one beloved tribe.
What would it take to bring this concept, this idea to reality? Imagination. That is it. No complicated psychology, no international political science. Just the human imagination focused on the fact that we are all children of the One Parent who created us in her image, created us to love all of his creation.
It is no coincidence that hope, peace, and joy are the first three candles on our Advent wreath. These are the building blocks of love. Hope wipes away despair, peace conquers anxiety, and joy fills our hearts with laughter and forgiveness. This is the road to love, the love of Christ that fills us with compassion and calls us to be what we were made to be – kind, caring, empathetic, people who understand that hate is always overcome by love just as light obliterates the darkness.
In these last two weeks of our Advent journey let us open our hearts to the joy that is around us even as we pray for those who are grieving and experiencing pain. Let us remember that joy comes to us in supporting those who have a particularly difficult time at the holidays. Our joy need not trample on the emotions of another because we can channel our joy into being present to those who need us, lending a hand, offering to listen, sometimes just sitting quietly together.
Let us open our hearts to one another. Let hope and peace and joy overflow within us as our hearts fill with compassion for the world. When we embrace the joy of the season we, too can sing out the words of Mary the mother of Jesus, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior …” Amen
For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below:
"Living in Abundance" Sunday,November 7 , 2021, Sunshine Cathedral of Second Life
Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.
Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church where the past is past and the future has infinite possibilities!
This is the day our God has made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Opening Prayer
Click Here for Audio of the Opening Prayer
God is with us. Let us pray.
That we may be strengthened by divine grace for the tasks of this week.
That those who are in need will be helped and comforted.
That people of goodwill everywhere will seek peace and justice.
For these things we pray that the hearts of all humans may open. Amen.
The Lessons
Click Here for Audio of the first Reading
A Reading from Scripture 1 Kings 17:8-16
The word of the Lord came to Elijah, saying, “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”
But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.”
She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
Click Here for Audio of the Gospel Reading
Words of Scripture from the Gospel according to Mark 12:38-44
As Jesus taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher
Click here for audio of "Living in Abundance"
As is the case with many readings from our sacred texts the lessons contained therein can be tricky to discern. For instance both of these texts are regularly used by shyster TV and internet preachers to get poor people to give their last dollar so that they can live in luxury flying around in private planes and eating fine food. So let’s understand that neither of these stories is about that kind of giving.
Let’s also understand that this is not a subtext for women financing the needs of men or women giving everything they have, even putting their child in peril of starvation, to meet the needs of a strange man that shows up at their door step. Now that we have those two things out of the way, now that we understand neither of these examples is what these stories are about, now we can move on to look at what these stories ARE about.
Let’s start with the reading from 1 Kings. Elijah is a magical figure in the Hebrew scriptures much as Jesus is in the Christian scriptures of what is called by some the “new” testament. Elijah shows up at the Passover Seder as a figure that “returns” to earth to herald a new age. Sound familiar? In fact, some people thought Jesus was Elijah returned. And Elijah even shows up in the Quran as a messenger or prophet of God.
So what is this story telling us? Clearly any story where Elijah appears is important. Well we could use the story of the blessing of the loaves and fishes or what is called the “Feeding of the Five Thousand” form then Christian testament. This story is related in all four gospels. Both of these stories tell of the miraculous extension of a limited amount of food to make an unlimited amount of meals. We know for sure in real life that this does not happen. So what gives here?
Let’s look at the second story in our gospel lesson that features Jesus watching people putting money into the treasury. But wait a minute… what did he say just BEFORE he sat down opposite the treasury to watch people putting in money. He says, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
THEN he sits down to watch people putting money into the treasury. He knows that he will see the same scenario play out every time he sits down to observe this ritual. The rich will put in large sums of money. And the poorest, in an act of faith, will put in tiny amounts because they have so little. And so he uses this as a teaching tool for his disciples to help them understand that how the world judges money is not the true measure of the worth of an offering.
These two stories may or may not be about the faith of the women, we will leave that for another days’ discussions. But for sure both of these stories are about how we perceive whether we are living in want or living in abundance, whether we are living in scarcity or living in abundance, whether we are living in poverty or living in abundance. Now let me be clear, poverty means one thing when you have enough to eat and when you are hungry. But we are not talking here about our physical well-being, we are talking about our emotional and spiritual health.
For instance, I have had times in my life when I felt like I was the richest and most contented person on the planet with only a few dollars in my bank account. There have been other times when I was lonely and distraught about my life when I had all the money I needed and owed no one a penny. So clearly our outlook upon our circumstances need not be fixated on our bank balance or net worth. What IS important is how we perceive abundance.
Let me say here again… that it is very difficult to live in abundance when we are hungry. But there have been times when I turned down help out of false pride when I was sunk deep into a mindset of scarcity. When we live in an emotional and spiritual state of abundance we gladly accept the help we need because we know that there is enough for everyone. We know that it is not shameful to be in need, that what is shameful is to refuse help when we need it because pride clouds our minds with a mindset of poverty.
This principle also causes us to be greedy when we do have enough for ourselves. We neglect the poor in fear that we will give too much of what we have away and then not have enough ourselves. So living in a mindset of emotional and spiritual abundance is just as important when we have enough as when we are in need.
Here’s an example of what I mean, each month and year there is more than enough food grown in the world to feed everyone. But the rich buy more than they need and throw away tons of food because they have the resources to capture the food. It is incumbent upon those of us who have enough to share with those who do not have enough and that can ONLY happen when all of us live in the mindset that there is enough! Enough food, enough water, enough resources for everyone to have fresh water, food, shelter, and sanitary facilities.
When we all live in a mindset of scarcity then we tolerate people who find themselves experiencing homelessness and hunger. When did humanity stoop so low that we honestly allow ourselves to think that people living on the steps of churches covered in cardboard is acceptable? This is NOT acceptable. It is the job of government and religious and charitable organizations to join hands to ensure that every human’s basic needs are met.
What was identified in psychology as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as the most basic needs of every human being are these: air, water, food, sex, sleep, clothing, shelter, healthcare, and personal, emotional, and financial security. The theory suggests that if every human being had these basic needs met then most of the ills of society simply would not exist. But we humans do not live in a mindset of abundance, we live in a mindset of scarcity. If I have enough I dare not share lest myself and my family go hungry or lose the little that we have.
As the holiday season approaches let us consider how we will give gifts this year. Consider how fortunate we are to have survived in this pandemic. Consider how blessed we are to live in the country where all we have to do is make an appointment to get vaccines we need to survive and thrive through flu season and the continuing pandemic. Let us all consider how we can share what we have with those who have less this holiday season.
Advent is just a few weeks away now… let us give thanks for what we have been blessed with by practicing living in emotional and spiritual abundance knowing that what God wants for each of us is to be happy, joyous, and free. Amen.
For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link bel01:
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