Gathering Music

“I am Your Mother”

Call to Worship

Melissa Vander Plaats

One: For the water that sustains us:
All: We thank you Creator God.
One: For the plants that breathe for us:
All: We thank you Creator God.
One: For the soil that nourishes us:
All: We thank you Creator God.
One: For the light that guides us and darkness that restores us:
All: We thank you Creator God.
One: For the Earth that is a home for us
All: We thank you Creator God. Amen.

Confession

Melissa Vander Plaats

We who have lost our sense and our senses–our touch, our smell, our vision of who we are: we who frantically force and press all things, without rest for body or spirit, hurting our earth and injuring ourselves: we call a halt.
We want to rest. We need to rest and allow the earth to rest. We need to reflect and to rediscover the mystery that lives in us, that is the ground of every unique expression of life, the source of the fascination that calls all things to communion. We declare a Sabbath, a space of Quiet; for simply being and letting be; for recovering the great, forgotten truths; for learning how to live again. Amen.

Reading

Case Akers

Chapter 8, Tao Te Ching, New English Version

The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
It is content with the low places that people disdain.
Thus it is like the Tao.

In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don’t try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.

When you are content to be simply yourself,
and don’t compare or compete,
everybody will respect you.

Sung Response

“For Everyone Born”

Reading

Caelyn Adams

A Poem on Tending in the Midst of Destruction by Rev. Anna Bladel

last night, before bed, my lover
told me i’ve started grinding my teeth
while i sleep, and all night i
dreamt my teeth were falling
out of my head, and at 3-something a.m. i awoke with a start
afraid to open my mouth.

last week, when the ceiling started falling
at work, my first thought was: “seems about right.”

everything is falling apart.

there’s a new word for existential despair
caused by climate change: solastalgia.

everything is falling apart, too fast and too soon.

nayyirah waheed whispers into the whirlwind:

1. rub honey into the night’s back.
2. make sure the moon is fed.
3. bathe the ocean.
4. warm sing the trees.
   –tend

and who has time for these luxuries?
and who are we to think we can make it, without?

and today i will make giant pot after giant pot
of vegan soup to feed students through the coming weeks
of winter, because for now it still gets bone cold here.

and today i will take a walk under falling leaves
with my lover’s hand tucked in mine

because the ceiling is falling
and the world is burning
and i awoke convinced that only a walk together outside
will save us from erasure.

and flint still doesn’t have clean water.
and hundreds of children are still separated from their parents.
and a majority of white women still side with predatory misogyny and white supremacy.
and black people are still being executed by the state.
and trans people are still told we don’t or shouldn’t exist.
and clergy colleagues are still pretending that there’s middle ground with bigotry and hatred, and hear this, revs: i don’t need you to “listen to my story,” i need you to resist, and share the risk, ok? value people over rules, justice over popularity, ok? because until you do the church you’re trying to save isn’t worth it, ok? and there are more urgent losses right now, and crises, ok? and the word ally is meaningless if you’re not doing the work, ok?

and the only thing i know
is to tend to the small, the slow, the simple:
this head of garlic
this pungent ginger root
this pile of black beans
this butternut squash

tend tend tend tend tend

this afternoon’s walk
this evening’s work

tend

this life, so gorgeous and holy and horrible, and over all too soon

Reflection

Caelyn Adams

Sung Response

“Draw the Circle Wide”

Prayers of the People

Dean Pratt

We join with the Earth and with each other.
To bring new life to the land
To restore the waters
To refresh the air
We join with the earth and with each other.
To renew the forests
To care for the plants
To protect the creatures
We join with the Earth and with each other.
To celebrate the seas
To rejoice in the sunlight
To sing the song of the stars
We join with the Earth and with each other.
To recreate the human community
To promote justice and peace
To remember our children
We join with the Earth and with each other.
We join together as many and diverse expressions
of one loving mystery: for the healing of the
Earth and the renewal of all life.

Blessing

Marsena Mungin

Precious Spirit of all bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction. Touch the hearts of those who look only for gain at the expense of the poor and the earth. Teach us to discover the worth of each thing, to be filled with awe and contemplation, to recognize that we are profoundly united with every creature as we journey towards your infinite light. We thank you for being with us each day. Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle for justice, love and peace.”

Sending Music

“God Has Work for Us to Do”

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Worship Notes:

Call to Prayer: Written by Cassidhe Hart, published by Ecoliturgies.org

Confession: Author unknown, published by GreenFaith.

Poem: written by Rev. Anna Blaedel, published by enfleshed.

Blessing: from Laudato Si