Musical Reflection
Isaiah 45:23 by Mountain Goats
Invocation
the oppressed set free,
and your love made manifest
First Reading
Advice to a Prophet
by Richard Wilbur
In God’s name to have self-pity,
Unable to fear what is too strange.
A stone look on the stone’s face?
How the view alters. We could believe,
The jack-pine lose its knuckled grip
The dolphin’s arc, the dove’s return,
Dispelled, that glass obscured or broken
And all we mean or wish to mean.
Second Reading
What’s Written on the Body
by Peter Pereira
Ar-kon, he says. All better now.

Luke 4:14-21
Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news about him spread throughout the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been raised. On the Sabbath he went to the synagogue as he normally did and stood up to read. The synagogue assistant gave him the scroll from the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me.
The Lord has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to the prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to liberate the oppressed,
and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the synagogue assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the synagogue was fixed on him. He began to explain to them, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it.”
Musical Reflection
Writer in the Dark by Lorde

by Edwin Hatch, adapted
Breathe on us, Breath of God,
Fill us with life anew,
That we may love what thou dost love,
And do what thou dost do.
Breathe on us, Breath of God,
Until our hearts are pure;
Until with thee we will one will,
To do and to endure.
Breathe on us, Breath of God,
Till we are wholly thine;
Until this earthly part of us
Glows with thy fire divine.
Breathe on us, Breath of God,
So shall we never die,
But live with thee the perfect life
Of thine eternity.
Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
O Silent Sound,
whose shimmering music pulsates
at the heart of each and all,
Clear a space in us where thy melody
may be perceived in its purity.
Let the rhythm of thy counsel reverberate through our lives,
so that we move to the beat of justice, love, and peace.
Then, our whole being at one with thy song,
grant that the earth may be filled
with the beauty of thy voice.
Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share
what each being needs to grow and flourish,
And give us courage to embrace our shadow with emptiness,
as we embrace others in their darkness.
But let us not be captive to uncertainty,
nor cling to fruitless pursuits.
For from thee springs forth
the rhythm, the melody, and the harmony,
which restores all to balance, again and again. Ameyn.
Musical Reflection
Read Your Book by Sóley
Blessing
Blessing and laughter and loving be ours,
the love of a great God
who names us
and holds us
while the earth turns and flowers grow
this day
this night
this moment
and forever.
May the blessing of God – the Giver, the Gift, and the Giving,
be with us and remain with us always. Amen.
Sources:
Invocation from Prayers for an Inclusive Church by Steven Shakespeare
Musical Reflection Isaiah 45:23 by Mountain Goats
Poem Advice to a Prophet by Richard Wilbur
Poem What’s Written on the Body by Peter Pereira
Musical Reflection Writer in the Dark by Lorde
Aramaic Lord’s Prayer by Mark Hathaway