ORDER OF SERVICE

First Church and Parish in Dedham

September 7, 2008

10:00 am

Centering Thought Centering Thought: “He who postpones the hour of living is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.” -Horace (Ancient Roman Poet. 65 BC-8 BC)

Prelude

Welcome and Announcements

Introit

Opening Words West Wind #2 by Mary Oliver

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Lighting of the Chalice Sam King and Allison Staton

Parish Committee Co-chairs

*Hymn #347 Gather the Spirit

*Unison Affirmation

Love is the spirit of this church, and service is its law.

To dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in freedom,

To serve humanity in love –

Is our covenant with each other and with God.

Offertory

A Story for All Generations How Do The Salmon Know Which Way To Go?

Rev. Rali Weaver

Meditation on the bedrock beneath the flow Rev. Rali Weaver

Anthem

Reading An Excerpt from “Learning to Fall: The Blessings of an Imperfect Life” by Phillip Simmons

ISBN 978-0553381580

We have all had our magic moments, when we enter that forest clearing where dragonflies dance and sunlight descends like a kind of grace. But we know such bright moments only because of the darkness that surrounds them. The clearing needs the forest and I have learned to be thankful for its shadows.

The other day, my wife, my children and I watched toads breeding at Bearcamp Pond. Their loud trilling drew us to the sheltered lagoon where toads slid and tumbled over one another in the shallows. Our eyes were drawn to one mating pair, the smaller clinging to the larger female’s back, out in deeper water, now sinking, now rising to the surface, now resting, now stroking their rear legs together, a languorous and lovely dance. Not for some time did we see, with a slight shift of focus, the snapping turtle just below, an old giant, half boulder, half jaw, big as a hassock waiting in the depths to devour them. Who’s to say where God lies?

We have all heard poems, songs and prayers that exhort us to see God in a blade of grass, a drop of dew, a child’s eyes or the petals of a flower. Now when I hear such things I say that’s too easy. Our greatest challenge is to see God not only in the eyes of the suffering child but in the suffering itself. To thank God for the sunset pink clouds over Red Hill- but also for the mosquitoes I must fan from my face while watching the clouds. To thank God for the broken bones and broken hearts, for everything that opens us to the mystery of our humanness. The challenge is to stand at the sink with your hands in the dishwater, fuming over a quarrel with your spouse, children at your back clamoring for attention the radio bleating the bad news from Bosnia, and to say “God is here, now in this room, here in this dishwater, in this dirty spoon.” Don’t talk to me about flowers and sunshine and waterfalls: this is the ground here now, in all that is ordinary and imperfect, this is the ground in which life sows the seeds of our fulfillment.

The imperfect is our paradise.

Let us pray, then, that we do not shun the struggle.

May we attend with mindfulness, generosity and compassion to all that is broken in our lives. May we live fully in each flawed and too human moment and thereby gain the victory. (p. 50)

*Hymn #100 (Gray) I’ve Got Peace Like A River

Sermon “Swimming in the Waters of Life” Rev. Rali Weaver

Have you ever listened to the sound of the rain? The soft and gentle tapping of drops on a rooftop? Last night was a perfect example of a sweet and gentle rain that can lull you to sleep. Rain that can nourish our earth and provide us with the nourishment we need to survive.

But we have had examples this summer of rainstorms that are not so gentle. Rains that are combined with lightening and thunder and deliver water enough to overpower rivers and flood basements.

So I think that it is important to acknowledge that while rain is often needed to fill our rivers and water our plants, it can just as easily overpower us. This year in fact we have had so much rain farmers and gardeners in our area were reporting the rotting of plants and lower than normal harvests.

Not to mention the problems created by the relentless rain and wind in a Hurricane. It is hard to find anything good to say about water that displaces 2 million people in the Gulf Coast region.

It is hard to find anything good to say about heavy rains that cause the outbreak of Cholera in Namibia in Southern Africa.

It is hard to find anything at all romantic about the water that has relocated more than 3 million people in India in the worst Monsoon season in recent memory displacing the poorest citizens who live among the banks of the Kosi river.

It is equally difficult to find anything good to say about drought conditions that dry up our rivers and streams.

As we bring our water forward today for our water communion I think it is important for us to acknowledge that water can be equally healing, as it can be destructive. That having too much water or too little water creates an imbalance in our world.

Your water from vacations has I hope healed you and refreshed your spirit in ways that renew and energize you. But in our bowl today- this bowl of water that we will use to mark the naming of all of newborns in the coming year, in this bowl I want to also offer the truth about water. That we need water to nourish the earth but it can also over power the earth and not having enough water or enough clean water can create all kinds of troubles as well.

In most religious traditions water has been considered to be a purifier. Ritual baths and baptisms are used to cleanse a person and help them to regain their wholeness.

In a more basic way we all use water to purify our external bodies by taking showers and baths and we purify our internal body by drinking 8 glasses of clean water per day.

And lets not forget about Crying. There's an old Jewish saying: "What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul." Crying too is a way of purifying your heart and of releasing yourself from suffering.

In Japan crying has become the new fad for dealing with stress.

Stressed businessmen, housewives and teenagers go alone or in a group to a café’ in which they rent out an intimate room by the hour and watch a Tear Movie (which is a sad movie made specifically to make them cry). After a good sob, they report feeling refreshed and emotionally cleansed.. This has become such a popular form of stress relief several clubs have been created to meet this need charging approximately $10 per visit.

While crying in response to physical pain is a common reaction among all mammals humans are the only mammals to cry in response to emotional trauma. Allowing room for our tears is an important part of emotional healing, not being able to cry when you are sad or having no place to cry can leave you feeling as dry river in a drought.

It is my hope that we offer a safe place to bring our tears (both to this church and) to our water bowl today.

The waters of life are not perfect.

They bring us all kinds of beauty and all kinds of trouble.

And the only real problems arise when we cannot accept it all.

Life is sunny days and rainy ones, gentle rains and violent storms. Dry times and wet ones. The courage to stay open and awake to all that life has to offer is the gift I hope First Church and Parish in Dedham offers to every person who enters its doors and to every baby it baptizes.

I am constantly amazed at people who can return to their homes after a catastrophic hurricane or stay and weather out a long drought season, knowing that there is a good chance the same problem will arise again.

I can understand not having the resources to go anywhere else. And I can understand the desire to go home. But how do you live fully at home without being stymied by the fear that the same trauma you experienced before will come again?

And yet what Phil Simmons is suggesting is that the challenge lies not in dividing the difficulties from the beauties but instead by living fully in the ambiguity of both.

And that is the true question for each of us as individuals and all of us collectively as a church.

How do we maintain a calm center when we live in the midst of the raging storm?

Where do we stand on solid ground as the riverbanks over flow?

My most favorite metaphor for meditation is the one we used today.

Focusing on the bedrock that lies beneath the river is a powerful life enhancing prayer.

Paying attention to the nourishing waters or the rough seas that flow over us is a way of waking up to where you are.

Knowing in our hearts that there is some part of us that will never be swept away with the rush of water no matter how strong the storm may be –and paying attention to if and how we are nourished by the waters of our lives- is an important way to stay grounded.

Keeping our eye on our core nature and being aware of the current that flows over it and through it, helps to awaken to the truth of our lives.

I believe the danger in our culture is that we are focused on the quick fix and we are given the impression that we are supposed to feel happy all of the time.

I think focusing too much on the light, can keep us from acknowledging the truth of life.

Sure there is sunshine.

We naturally want to baptize our children with the sunshine of life.

But the truth of life is there is also sadness and disappointment and grief.

Finding the ways to navigate through the rush of sadness and disappointment without loosing the ground of your spirit is the gift of being present in the now.

Finding the support for the journey is why I hope we come together.

Rowing together so that we can help each other and those outside our walls to navigate their way through the storms of life is a big part of what makes us a church.

So let us bring our waters to the table.

Knowing that through good times and bad we row together.

May it be so.

And Welcome Home

Water Communion

*Hymn #163 For the Earth Forever Turning

*Benediction and Response

Postlude