mind body mama: Giving it Up to God (II)

Folks have been after me to share some of the supporting material from the service at Our House of Warship, July 1, 2012.

Citations from the Sermon

You should read about these books at Amazon and then run down to your local bookstore to pick up a copy of each.

Anne Lamott: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

Kate Braestrup: Beginner’s Grace

Opening Words

I would have called this a Call to Worship if I wasn’t afraid of freaking out the humanists.

For this day which we have been given without condition, may we be grateful.

For the splendors of the natural world and the long view of history, against which our day-to-day concerns are made to look small, may we be awed and grateful.

For those people among whom our heaviest burdens are made lighter because they are carried together, may we be lovingly grateful.

For the hope and faith and action that bring each of us through our darkest hours, may we be desperately grateful.

For this gathering, for this opportunity to welcome and witness the divine in one another, to learn and grow in community, may we be open-heartedly grateful.

This is the day we have been given.  Let us glory in it together.

Kindling the Chalice

A responsive reading by Kate Braestrup, led by Small:

Who listens to our words when we pray?

Perhaps no one.
Will our prayers be answered?
Probably not.
What then shall we do?
Pray.
Alleluia.
Amen.

Story for All Ages

We excerpted ZenShorts by Jon Muth.  I read the main story about how Michael, Addy and Kurt met the Buddhist bear Stillwater.  Small read the parable Stillwater told when Addy went to visit him.

Readings

The first reading was a comment made to the press by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.  I have long felt that Secretary Rumsfeld was unfairly piloried for the syntax of this remark.

You may recall that he said,

“We know there are known knowns: there are things we know we know.

We also know there are known unknowns: that is to say we know there are things we know we don't know.

But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know.”

The second reading was from the poet Lenelle Moise, 2010-2012 Poet Laureate of Northampton, MA.   “Anahata” is a Sanskrit word referring to the fourth chakra.  According to Wikipedia, anahata translates as “unhurt, unstruck and unbeaten.”

Anahata

aside from faith,
as far as you know,
you will never have another heart.
better to grow the one you were born with.
fill it with blood & love. risk.
let the strange world sneak inside.
accept all of life in your chest.
death is the end of percussion.
breathe deeply, the music
will function. listen close.
freedom thaws in your ribcage.
dance with vehemence
to feel its fast-pumping.
tempt two lips to greet your throat
& take note: your racing pulse
will laugh & kiss back. god is strong
in the clock of your desire.
every tick, my friend, divine
confirmation: you are alive. beat. yes!
you are alive.

The final reading was an excerpt of the poem What is Prayer by Alla Renee Bozarth.  It appears in From Moving to the Edge of the World and is quoted in Kate Braestrup’s Beginner’s Grace.

Prayer is intimacy with the Great Mystery.
Be every moment aware of the Presence —
how you are loved!

…So be awake to the life that is loving you
and sing your prayer, laugh your prayer,
dance your prayer, run
and weep and sweat your prayer,
sleep your prayer, eat your prayer,
paint, sculpt, hammer and read your prayer,
sweep, dig, rake, drive and hoe your prayer,
garden and farm and build and clean your prayer,
wash, iron, vacuum, sew, embroider and pickle your prayer,
compute, touch, bend and fold, but never delete
or mutilate your prayer.

Learn and play your prayer,
work and rest your prayer,
fast and feast your prayer,
argue, talk, whisper, listen and shout your prayer,
groan and moan and spit and sneeze your prayer,
swim and hunt and cook your prayer,
digest and become your prayer.

Release and recover your prayer.
Breathe your prayer.
Be your prayer.

Meditation

We sung “Water Moving Forward” by Rabbi Minna Bromberg, affectionately known around these parts as Aunt Minna.  The lyrics are:                              
Water moving forward finds a way, it finds a way…
So be like water moving forward, find a way, find a way.

We are water moving forward, we find a way, we find a way…

We find a way.

Interlude

The mama of the little family sang Greg Brown’s Oh Lord, I Have Made You  a Place in My Heart, having practiced it on a recent visit to the family homestead in Iowa.                                                  

Benediction
Adapted from Kate Braestrup

May love and peace be in your hands.

May love and courage be in your heart.
May love and wisdom be in your mind.
May love be with you and work through you
Today and all your days.

Go in peace. The work of peace is in your hands.

Postlude

We heard Michael Franti’s Have a Little Faith.  Next time I’ll manifest a  band to do it justice.