Easter Six, Year C

Musical Reflection
Colorblind by Counting Crows

Invocation

Holy One,
you breathe the word of love
and the promise of new creation
into the secret places of the soul,
opening heart to heart:
in the wildness of your Spirit,
uncaptured in the wide world,
teach us the costly way
of fearless love
and priceless peace;

Birthing God,
by whose Spirit’s wings
stir the waters of creation:
hear our stories
of paralysis and exclusion;
accept our desire
for welcome and acceptance;

and lead us to find
our dignity in your gift;

through Jesus Christ, through whom God dwells with us, the healer.

Amen.

First Reading

Blind Curse

by Simon J Ortiz

You could drive blind

for those two seconds

and they would be forever.

I think that as a diesel truck

passes us eight miles east of Mission.

Churning through the storm, heedless

of the hill sliding away.

There isn’t much use to curse but I do.

Words fly away, tumbling invisibly

toward the unseen point where

the prairie and sky meet.

The road is like that in those seconds,

nothing but the blind white side

of creation.

You’re there somewhere,

a tiny struggling cell.

You just might be significant

but you might not be anything.

Forever is a space of split time

from which to recover after the mass passes.

My curse flies out there somewhere,

and then I send my prayer into the wake

of the diesel truck headed for Sioux Falls

one hundred and eighty miles through the storm.

Second Reading
If Spirits Walk
by Sophie Jewett

“I have heard (but not believed) the spirits of the dead
May walk again.”
– Winter’s Tale

If spirits walk, Love, when the night climbs slow

The slant footpath where we were wont to go,

Be sure that I shall take the self-same way

To the hill-crest, and shoreward, down the gray,

Sheer, gravelled slope, where vetches straggling grow.

Look for me not when gusts of winter blow,

When at thy pane beat hands of sleet and snow;

I would not come thy dear eyes to affray,

If spirits walk.

But when, in June, the pines are whispering low,

And when their breath plays with thy bright hair so

As some one’s fingers once were used to play—

That hour when birds leave song, and children pray,

Keep the old tryst, sweetheart, and thou shalt know

If spirits walk.

Gospel Reading 1
John 14:23-29

Jesus answered, “Whoever loves me will keep my word. Abba God will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word that you hear isn’t mine. It is the word of the Abba God who sent me.

“I have spoken these things to you while I am with you. The Companion, the Holy Spirit, whom Abba God will send in my name, will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I told you.

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled or afraid. You have heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away and returning to you.’ If you loved me, you would be happy that I am going to Abba God, because Abba God is greater than me. I have told you before it happens so that when it happens you will believe.

Gospel Reading 2
John 5:1-9

After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate in the north city wall is a pool with the Aramaic name Bethsaida. It had five covered porches, and a crowd of people who were sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed sat there. A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, knowing that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

The sick man answered him, “Sir, I don’t have anyone who can put me in the water when it is stirred up. When I’m trying to get to it, someone else has gotten in ahead of me.”

Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” Immediately the man was well, and he picked up his mat and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.

Musical Reflection
Blindsided by Bon Iver

Strength Prayer
by Rabindranath Tagore, adapted

This is our prayer to thee, our lord – strike, strike at the root of penury in our hearts.
Give us the strength lightly to bear our joys and sorrows.
Give us the strength to make our love fruitful in service.
Give us the strength never to disown the poor or bend our knees before insolent might.
Give us the strength to raise our minds high above daily trifles.
And give us the strength to surrender our strength to love.

Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father/Mother who art in heaven,
Our Creator, you are all around us and within us.
hallowed be thy name.
We praise you with many different names.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done
Help us live as we understand we should from knowing you
in harmony and connectedness with each other,
on earth as it is in heaven.
With all creatures of the earth,
and with the earth and the universe itself.
Give us this day our daily bread,
Help us to use your resources wisely
So that we might be sustained.
and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Help us take responsibility when we fail to live harmoniously,
And help us understand and forgive when others let us down.
And lead us not into temptation,
Let us know you well enough that we are not tempted
to live outside of your love.
but deliver us from evil,
and empower us to work together to overcome evil.
for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.
We believe that you created the world
and that you will be all around us and within us forever.
Amen.
We are open to you.

Musical Reflection
Walk On and Sing by Po’ Girl

Blessing

The love of the faithful Creator,
The peace of the wounded Healer,
The joy of the challenging Spirit,
The hope of the Three-in-One
surround and encourage us
today, tonight, and forever.

May the blessing of God – the Creator, the Healer,
and the Spirit,
be with us and remain with us always. Amen.