Liturgy

To those who gave birth this year to their first child
we celebrate with you
To those who lost a child this year
we mourn with you

To those who are in the trenches with little ones
every day and the badge of food stains
we appreciate you

To those who experienced loss this year
through miscarriage, failed adoptions,
running away, or incarceration
we mourn with you

To those who walk the hard path of infertility,
fraught with pokes, prods, tears, and disappointment
we walk with you
Forgive us when we say foolish things
We don’t mean to make this harder than it is.

To those who are foster moms, mentor moms,
and spiritual moms
we need you

To those who have warm and close relationships
with your children
we celebrate with you

To those who have disappointment, heart ache,
and distance with your children
we sit with you

To those who have lost their mothers
we grieve with you
To those who have experienced abuse
at the hands of your mother
we acknowledge your pain

To those who have lived through driving tests,
medical tests, and the overall testing of motherhood
we are better because of you

And to those who are pregnant with new life,
both expected and surprising
we anticipate with you

To those who have emptier nests
we grieve and rejoice with you

Mothering is not for the faint of heart
and we have strong caregivers in this place
we remember you

For all those who have lead
with the mothering spirit of strength, compassion,
forgiveness, encouragement and belief in us
we see God’s Love more clearly because of you
(Amy Young)

Scripture

We invite you to hear from the reading of Acts 17.

22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is God served by human hands, as though God needed anything, since God gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.

26 From one ancestor God made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for and find God—though indeed God is not far from each one of us. 28 For ‘In God we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said

30 While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now God commands all people everywhere to repent 31 because God has fixed a day on which the world will be judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God!
The grass withers and the flower fades,
but the Word of the Lord endures forever. Amen.

Homily and Reflection

Homily Podcast – Expressing the Unknown 5.14.2023

How might you notice our idols of scapegoating, isolationism, and violence?
What might it look like to name the injustices of scapegoating the trans community, our interventions into the politics and economies of Latin America, and lament our dependency on violence, guns, and death?
How might you express hope in light of the unknown in the coming weeks?

Benediction

Go live fully. Live and be reminded
of the God who lived fully among us:
Christ, God and human.

Go laugh, go play, go sing, go and dance.
Feel invited into the rhythm of life, and ask
others to join in.

Stretch into yourself, and feel
the vibrations of God’s Spirit.
Join into the dance that has been
going on before and will continue after us.

And when you can not push through,
fall on the waves of God’s grace.

Remember that we have an Advocate and Guide
who will never leave us. The peace of the Lord
is always with you, now and to the end of the age.

Leave in the name of
God the Creator,
Christ the Risen One,
and Holy Spirit, the Rhythm of Life.
Amen.

Go in peace, and live the church.
May you find belonging and community.
See you throughout the week.
(Naomi Jackson)