The Reverend Dr. Beth A. Johnson
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"Endings" (Late December )

Announcements                                                                               
Musical Interlude                                                                
Sounding the Bell
We ring the bell 3 times.  Once for those who have gone before, once for those here today, and once for those who will carry on our living tradition.

Welcome        Rev. Beth                                                       
Welcome for “endings…” A Service of Contemplation

Today’s service is the first of two contemplative services that will serve as a hinge between the old year and the new.

Contemplation is the art of being with ourselves in a reflective and open posture…to be attentive to our inner life, to access the wisdom of our soul, to rest, to connect with that which is sacred to, and in, each of us.

The service is meant to be a pause after the hustle and bustle of holiday activity…a time for reflection on what this time of the year is inviting us to do  -  to reflect on “endings…” on letting go…as we know that we must do in order to bring in the new…

This service will unfold in songs and silence, musical interludes and readings…

We will sing simple chants in three languages and from different traditions – including a Sanskrit chant honoring the Hindu god, Shiva, the god of destruction that creates transformation and makes way for the new.

            There will be spoken words…

            There will be substantive times of silence…

I invite you to be with the silence and open to what wisdom comes through…

I, and the musicians, ask that you refrain from applause during this service so that we might all share and sustain the contemplative mood…

Let us enter into the spirit of quiet worship…

Please remain seated and join in singing Gathered Here…

Opening Song                       Gathered Here #389              
Call to Worship                    Rev. Beth                                           

                        Rainer Rilke, The Book of Hours I, 7Joanna Macy/Anita Barrows translation

If only for once it were still
If the not quite right and the why this
could be muted, and the neighbor’s laughter,
and the static my senses make –
if all of it didn’t keep me from coming awake –
Then in one vast thousandfold thought
I could think you up to where thinking ends.
I could possess you,
even for the brevity of a smile,
to offer you
to all that lives,
in gladness

Silence                                                                                               1 min

Music out of the silence      Caroline          
Chalice Lighting words by Rev. Beth                                                                    

Simple spark from sacred dark
We enter this hour of contemplation,
Present to each moment
Open to unfolding insight
Deepening into the freedom
Of letting go…
As we light this chalice
May it illuminate this hour
With wisdom and joy

Sad Romance   John Rott                                                                 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFZ7bBaYpcw  (We didn’t use the video. John played this beautifully.

Time for All Ages  Storyteller, Christina Chavez

Christina is a yoga teacher. She led the kids in a breath meditation and a song.

Sharing from Our Abundance
Children bring forward food offerings for the Interfaith Community Services.

Children’s Recessional                                                      

            We sing to you

Offertory   Caroline Celia & John Rott What Child is This

Find a Stillness  #352                                                                       

Silence                                                                                               3 min

Joys and Sorrows                                                                 

            Participants place pebbles in silence -  Caroline plays a piece of music while they drop the pebbles; Caroline plays  under beth’s prayer

Silence                                                                                               1 min

Ubi Caritas     #1048                                                            

In Blackwater Woods  by Mary Oliver                                

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars
of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,
the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders
of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is
nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side
is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

Silence                                                                                               4 min

Musical  Interlude  to bring us out of silence

Reflections on endings Rev Beth                                        

Letting go…
Releasing…
Endings…
Being alive, awake, and aware…striving, living, loving insures that we all, always, are letting go of something or someone…
It is unavoidable…
            It is in the nature of things…in the nature of life…

this season we have explored these themes in multiple ways…redeeming dark to find within it the capacity to deepen into the loss of light, we have told stories of light, at winter solstice we let go of that which no longer served us, and began to nurture the light within us…

And now, at year’s end we’ve paused one more time… muted the static…entered the stillness…opening to letting go…releasing…allowing the inevitable endings…always in the service of the next beginning…

We are always letting go of something…
When faced with choices, the one not taken must be let go…
Experiences, no matter how joyful, will end…
Experiences, not matter how awful, will end…
This life no matter how precious will end
Sometimes the endings are expected and blessed…
Sometimes the endings are rude and wretched…
Sometimes the endings are surprising and pleasant…
Sometimes the endings were too long in coming…
Whatever we let go of: resentments, love, ego, outcomes, habits, life, control, expectations….
Always endings are transformational
Always endings unfold into the new…
There is a grace to be found in living from the place of letting go…
Living with the awareness that each moment unfolds into the new has caused me to cherish the now…
when I remember…
When I forget, I am gently or fiercely reminded…
Of the dance…
The dance of endings…beginnings…
becoming and perishing…becoming and perishing, becoming and perishin
                                                                                             
Om Namah Shivaya   MC Yogi and Bhagavan Das             

http://mcyogi.bandcamp.com/track/om-namah-shivaya-feat-bhagavan-das

http://mcyogi.com/lyrics/om-namah-shivaya/

Silence                                                                                               2 min

From The Soul in Grief: Love, Death and Transformation by Robert Romanyshyn

Robert Romanyshyn suggests that we all, at times in our lives, especially during times of grief and loss, encounter within ourselves, The Orphan. He writes:

            “in accepting the responsibility of out orphanhood, we become faithful sentinels for the passing and the flowering of the world.

The Animal perishes but we, and those whom we love, die. In this difference, that gesture where we turn, stop, look, and linger is born, that backwards glance which says, in effect, that as we move through life we know we are forever taking leave, leaving something behind, that awareness which recognized that life is truly about building hopes this side of the grave, loving in the face of loss.

In a curious way, then, the Orphan, the most homeless of all, is the one who most appreciates the journey towards home, and who understands that this journey is marked by a fierce devotion to each moment as it presents itself.”

Silence                                                                                                1 min

Song - Alleluia                                                                                             

Going Forth in Service

            Extinguishing the Chalice

                        Although we extinguish this flame
                        we carry in our hearts the light of truth,
                        the warmth of community
                        and the fire of commitment
                        until we are together again.

Closing Hymn         Alleluia  (reprise)

Benediction             Rev Beth                    

Postlude                     Caroline Celia

Rev. Dr. Beth Johnson
[email protected]
​909.730.0711

  • Home
    • About me
    • Things I Love
  • Theology of Ministry
  • Worship
    • Sermons
  • Justice & Outreach
    • Prayers for the Public Square
  • Congregational Care
  • Leadership
  • Resume & References