Link to slide presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1KmfCfZr7sXFzk_GHJbYo5OrUtqWc1whN1MYzvCPvs_w/edit?usp=sharing
Gathering Music
“Come, Sing the Plenteous Power of God,” OneLicense #A-729109
Words: Sister Grove Collective, Tune: UMH 152 (“I Sing the Almighty Power of God,” arr. Ralph Vaughn Williams)
- Come sing the plenteous power of God alive in humankind
to hold and heal to seek and save to leave our wars behind
to join with all creation now, a partnership of love
to tend the handiwork of God in whom we live and move. - Come sing the power that lets us weep to see what greed has done
to rob and harm our fragile earth, our home beneath the sun
to join with people everywhere and dare to change our ways
To save what can be saved of earth in these most crucial days - Come sing the timeless realm of God while human empires fall
come join with folk around this world who here creation’s call
to tend with deep humility, that dares not blame or boast
this tiny earth so full of life, our home or Hope our host.
Call to Worship
Kai Park
Psalm 148:1-5, 7-13, adapted by Thandiwe Dale-Ferguson
Leader: Praise the Eternal One!
Praise God from the heavens;
praise God in the heights!
People: Praise God, sun and moon;
praise God, all you shining stars!
Praise God, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!
Leader: Let us praise the name of the Love,
for God commanded and they were created.
People: Praise the Creator from the earth,
you sea dragons and all creatures of the deep,
fire and hail, snow and frost,
stormy wind fulfilling God’s command!
Leader: Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
Wild animals and all cattle,
creeping things and flying birds!
Rulers of the earth and all peoples!
Young of all genders alike,
old and young together!
People: Let us praise the name of the Eternal One,
for God’s name alone is exalted;
God’s glory is above earth and heaven.
Poem
“Love this” by Gretchen Primack
Anthony Bourget-Plaag
If you permit this evil, what is the good
of the good of your life?
—Stanley Kunitz
The body floods with chemicals saying, Love this,
and she does, and births it; it is a boy
she begins to clean and nose, but he is dragged
away by his back feet. She will never touch him
again, though she hears him howl and calls back
for days.
Her breast milk is banked for others. Her son
is pulled away to lie in his box.
He will be packed for slaughter. How ingenious
we are! To make product from byproduct:
make use of the child,
kill and pack and truck him to plates.
And when the gallons slow, we start over,
and her body says, Love this! And she does,
though in a moment she will never touch
him again. His milk is not for him.
And when the milk slows too slow,
she will join him on the line, pounds
of ground. And how we will dine!
And talk of our glossy dogs! Her body
will break up on our forks, as mothers
beg us for the grain we stuffed her with,
and children beg us for the water
scouring her blood from the factory walls.
And when her wastes and gases and panic
heat our air so hot our world stops
breathing—then will we stop?
Then will we grow kind,
let the air cool and mothers breathe?
Introduction of Speaker
Dr. Laurel Kearns
Message
“Beyond Factory Farming: Mindful Eating as Ritual Resistance”
Dr. Jim Robinson
Sending Song
“God Has Work for Us to Do,” OneLicense #A-729109
Words: Carl Daw Jr., Music: Mark Miller
Till all the jails are empty
And all the bellies filled,
Till no one hurts of steals or lies
And no more blood is spilled!
Refrain: God has work for us to do!
God has work for us to do!
Till God’s will is done and all things
Are made new
God has work for us,
Work for us to do!
In tending to creation,
To water, land, and air,
Through what we do and what we don’t
To nourish and repair
Refrain
In seeking the protection
Of creatures great and small,
In binding up the web of life
That animates us all!
Refrain
Closing Guided Meditation
Dr. Jim Robinson
Sending Song Reprise
“God Has Work for Us to Do”
Refrain: God has work for us to do!
God has work for us to do!
Till God’s will is done and all things
Are made new
God has work for us,
Work for us to do!
