4th Sunday of the 2025 Season of Creation
September 27, 2025
Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87935930592?pwd=qZlKA506MIS9okXQQxBkaKsyhsZJDV.1
Presider: Karla
Responder: Theresa
Opening: Sign of the Cross: Karla
In the name of the Creator Spirit God, who gives birth to the Universe in love.
The Word of God, who became Jesus, our human brother, among us to reveal our mission to care for each other and for all Creation,
And of the Wisdom Spirit, reaching out in the prophetic voices of Creation, calling us to renew Earth. Amen.
May the grace and peace of our God, who loves us, forgives us, and is calling us to transformation and prophetic action, be with you.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKDT389nJ1g
Opening Prayer: Linda
Creator of all, we praise you for the gift of life and for the faith that unites us in care for our common home.
We confess how estranged we have become from one another, from your Creation, and from our most authentic selves.
We acknowledge that our greed and destructive impulses have fractured our relationships with you, with others, and with the Earth.
Fertile fields have become barren, forests lie desolate, and oceans and rivers are polluted. Thriving communities have become places of suffering, and the earth cries out. May we come together as one family, to labor for your peace—a shalom where all your people may dwell in safety, and rest in quiet places. Amen.
Expressions of Gratitude:
Karla: We
ask for grace to continually acknowledge our need to grow in goodness, peace,
and caring for ourselves and others. God, you created us in your likeness,
living among us, naming us as your own. R: Strengthen
us to bring honor and glory to your name.
Karla: God, you sustain us in our daily lives, offering your
love and grace, guiding us as your children. R: Lead us to transformation and action.
Karla: God, you promise us eternal hope, raising us up, calling us to new life in you. R: Lead us to acts of heartfelt compassion for others.
Karla: Loving God, whose glory it is always to be merciful, may your Word take root in us and bring forth an openness of heart in all our words and deeds. Amen
Patti: May our readings today become living bread. May your spirit empower them to shape us in Jesus’ likeness.
1st Reading: John
A reading written by David George Haskell from The Songs of the Trees
We’re all — trees, humans, insects, birds, bacteria — pluralities. Life is an embodied network. These living networks are not places of omnibenevolent Oneness. Instead, they are where ecological and evolutionary tensions between cooperation and conflict are negotiated and resolved. These struggles often result not in the evolution of stronger, more independent selves, but in the dissolution of the self into a relationship. Because life is a network, there is no “nature” or “environment” separate and apart from humans. We are part of the community of life, composed of relationships with “others,” so the human/nature duality that lives near the heart of many philosophies is, from a biological perspective, illusory. We are not, in the words of the folk hymn, wayfaring strangers traveling through this world. Nor are we the estranged creatures of Wordsworth’s lyrical ballads, fallen out of Nature into a “stagnant pool” of artifice where we misshape “the beauteous forms of things.” Our bodies and minds, our “Science and Art,” are as natural and wild as they ever were.
We cannot step outside life’s songs. This music made us; it is our nature. Our ethic must therefore be one of belonging, an imperative made all the more urgent by the many ways that human actions are fraying, rewiring, and severing biological networks worldwide. To listen to trees, nature’s great connectors, is therefore to learn how to inhabit the relationships that give life its source, substance, and beauty.
David George Haskell is a British and American biologist and writer. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist in General Nonfiction. In addition to scientific papers, he has authored essays, poems, op-eds, and the books The Forest Unseen, The Songs of Trees, Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree, and Sounds Wild and Broken.
Psalm 148 from Psalms for Praying by Nan Merrill: Karen
Let all people praise the Beloved, who is exalted in heaven and on earth; whose glory is above heaven and earth.
For all are to be called friends, companions to the true Friend, giving their lives joyfully as co-creators and people of peace.
Praise to the Blessed One, the very Breath of our breath, the very Heart of our heart.
2nd Reading: JayCee
A Reading from This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley.
Have you ever stood in the presence of a tree and listened to the wind pass through its leaves? The roots and body stand defiant and unmoved. But listen. The branches stretch out their tongues and whisper shhhhh.
Trees make symphonies without their trunks ever moving, almost as if the stillness of their centers amplifies their sound. The tree may appear still, but if you look closer, you’ll see that each leaf flails with breath. The tree may seem alone but plow deep and you’ll unearth its secret gnarled roots—the grotesque and the beautiful—creeping in the soil, reaching toward the ancestors.
Cole Arthur Riley is the creator of Black Liturgies, a space where Black words of dignity, lament, rage, and rest are curated and integrated with a liberating spirituality. An excellent collection of Prayers, poems, and meditations was published under this title in 2024. She serves as the content and spiritual formation manager for Chesterton House: A Center for Christian Studies at Cornell University.
Gloria: Patti
Grateful for all the blessings of Creation that we enjoy and conscious of all those who reach out in compassion and love to care for us, let’s sing out our gratitude from our hearts, giving glory to God.
Gospel Reading: Matthew 6:26-34 from The Message
If you choose to live a life of worshiping God, it means you won't fuss over what's on the table at mealtimes or whether your clothes are in fashion. There's more to your life than the food you eat, and more to your appearance than the clothes you wear. Look at the birds—free and unburdened, not tied down to a job, careless in God's care. And you are worth much more to him than birds. "Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by even an inch? All this time and money spent on fashion—do you think it makes that much of a difference? Instead of focusing on fashions, step outside into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen such colors and designs? The top-dressed men and women in the country look shabby next to them. "If God pays such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll care for you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to encourage you to relax, not to be so concerned with acquiring things, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and how he works worry about these things, but you know both God and his ways. Immerse your life in God's reality, initiative, and provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find that all your everyday human concerns will be taken care of. "Focus entirely on what God is doing right now, and don't get anxious about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you manage whatever difficult situations arise when the time comes.
The Gospel of Jesus the Christ. R. Praise be to you, Brother Jesus
Homily: Karla/All
The Affirmation of our Faith (Lucia)
God creates all things, renews all things, and celebrates all things. R. This we believe.
Earth is a sanctuary, a sacred planet filled with God’s presence, a home for us to share with all creatures. R. This we believe.
God became incarnated as a part of Earth, like Adam, a human being called Jesus Christ, who lived and breathed and spoke among us, suffered and died on a cross for all human beings and for all creation. R. This we believe.
The risen Jesus is the Christ at the center of creation, reconciling all things to God, renewing all creation, and filling the cosmos. R. This we believe.
Wisdom Spirit renews life in creation, groans in empathy with a suffering creation, and waits with us for the rebirth of all creation. R. This we believe.
We believe that with Christ we will rise and with Christ we will celebrate a new creation. R. This we believe.
Prayers of the Community: Pat
As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring our prayerful intentions to this table. Please feel free to voice your concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table….”
We pray for these and all unspoken prayers in our hearts. Amen.
Sign of Peace: Linda
Let us show the love God has instilled within us by greeting each other as a sign of God’s justice, peace, love, forgiveness, and grace. The peace of our Creator be with you in all things.
R. And with you.
Let us offer each other a sign of Christ’s peace.
Offering of the Gifts:
Galen: Blessed are you, God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you: fruit of the Earth and work of human hands. It will become for us the bread of life. R. Blessed be God forever.
Karla: By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who shared himself in our humanity.
Janet: Blessed are you, God of all creation, through your goodness, we have received this wine we offer you: fruit of the vine and work of human hands, it will become our spiritual drink. R. Blessed be God forever.
Karla: God is with you. R. And also with you.
Karla: Lift your hearts. R. We lift our hearts to God and to one another.
Penny: Let us give thanks to our God. R. It is good to give God thanks and praise.
Juanita: We gather together to give thanks and praise to you. You are the one Trinity, living and true, from the beginning of all time and throughout all of eternity. Amen
Jay Cee: God, you are the source of
life and goodness. You fill your creatures with every blessing. You lead your
people throughout the world to the transforming vision of your love. May we be
strengthened to build communities of justice, peace, and inclusivity in our
church and in our world. For this, we are always grateful, and we place our
hope and trust in you.
Barbara: Therefore, with people of all faiths in every part of the world, we join with all of heaven as we proclaim:
https://youtu.be/aQ7_z45lw4g?si=X5Hu1c56AYvUV47C
Janet: As a community, we gather in the power of your Spirit, refreshing wind, luminous wildfire, and living breath. We seek to live “rich in God” as Jesus taught us to do. May we ever remain Spirit-filled people, seeking the light, striving to be courageous and prophetic, and ever observant of your design for us.
Penny: We are grateful for the bread and wine and those who carefully tended the grapes and wheat that remind us of our call to be Your Presence in the world.
Prayer over the Gifts (Christine)
Our loving God, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine, nourishing signs of your faithful care for our needs through the rich diversity and bounty of Earth. Through these gifts, we offer you our true wealth: our lives, our talents, our commitment to serve you through our loving service to each other and to your Creation.
Epiclesis Karla Karla
Please place your hands over your gifts and call upon the Wisdom Spirit to transform our gifts and our energies into your true Bread of Life and the cup of salvation for our world in these difficult and troubled times.
Karla: Let us now honor the first Thanksgiving.
Please lift your plate
Nick: On the night before he faced the betrayal of friends and his death, Jesus sat at supper with companions and friends. He reminded them of all that he taught them over their years together.
Penny: When he returned to his place at the table, he lifted the bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread, and offered it to them, saying:
ALL: Take and eat, This is my Body, go and love one another.
Please lift your cup
Juanita: Then he took the cup of the covenant, spoke the grace, and offered it to them, saying:
ALL: Take and drink. This is the covenant of my blood. Whenever you think of me like this, I am with you.
Now, let us pray the prayer of Jesus (Chrys)
Dear Creator in heaven, in the air, soil, forests, and oceans. May we visibly honor your names by the way we care for your Creation.
Give us this day our daily bread that all may have enough to live life in fullness.
Forgive our greed, our exploitation, our lack of concern for other species and for future generations, as we forgive those who trespass against us through reconciliation with justice and peace.
Lead us not into the temptation to exploit your creatures and deliver us from the evil of destroying your gift of creation. For yours is the kin-dom forever and ever. You are our beginning, and you are our end.
Amen.
Karla: Creator, you continually fed us as it was in the beginning, today and into the future.
R. Happy are all, called to partake of this Supper of Creation.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=cdOvOXEiss0
Prayer after Communion (Cathy P)
Our loving God, we have shared this Eucharist in thanksgiving for your sacred gift of Creation in which we live and move, share life, and thrive.
We thank you for your invitation to discipleship in caring for it.
Now may the power of Christ’s body and blood reach deeply into our hearts, minds, and bodies to heal our wounds.
Please help us to listen more attentively to the prophets from our traditions and to the voices from Creation all around us.
Strengthen us to act with wisdom, compassion, urgency, and love to renew Earth.
We make our prayer in the name of Abba, God, our brother Jesus, and the power of the Spirit of Wisdom, where we live, move, and have our being now and forever. Amen
Karla: As we conclude our service, I invite you to join me in dedicating ourselves to the care of the Earth.
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 come together with the Earth and one another to rebuild the human community.
To promote justice and peace. To remember our children.
We join with the Earth and with each other to join as many and diverse expressions of one loving mystery: for the healing of the Earth and the renewal of all life. Amen.
Final Blessing: Nick
May the lavish welcome of the Creator accept us for
who we are.
May the incarnation of the Word touch and hold us close.
May the wandering of Wisdom Spirit help us risk ourselves for love.
Dismissal: Juanita
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=cdOvOXEiss0
