This is the order for the communion service for 102809 at Mars Hill Graduate School:
A Welcome to Sinners & Saints Alike: A Brief Order of Confession
Got My List
Performed by Jonah's onelinedrawing
Sometimes I feel affected, then it all disappears,
The rain and clouds above my head, then all that disappears
I'd understand it, if I could grab it,
Another with on my list
One more day we made it through now, got my list
One more time we made it through yeah, got my list
Some days I feel protected, then all that disappears
We breathe as two but think as one, and it all disappears
Service of the Word
John 14:21-27 (The Message)
21"The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that's who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him."
22Judas (not Iscariot) said, "Master, why is it that you are about to make yourself plain to us but not to the world?"
23-24"Because a loveless world," said Jesus, "is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him--we'll move right into the neighborhood! Not loving me means not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn't mine. It's the message of the Father who sent me.
25-27"I'm telling you these things while I'm still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I'm leaving you well and whole. That's my parting gift to you. Peace. I don't leave you the way you're used to being left--feeling abandoned, bereft. So don't be upset. Don't be distraught.
Service of the Meal
"On the rostrum, seated in three compact rows of auditorium chairs, were about twenty children, mostly girls, ranging in age from about seven to thirteen. At the moment, their choir coach, an enormous woman in tweeds, was advising them to open their mouths wider when they sang. Had anyone, she asked, ever heard of a little dickeybird that dared to sing his charming song without first opening his little beak wide, wide, wide? Apparently nobody ever had. She was given a steady, opaque look."
All:
Therefore we praise you,
joining our voices with choirs of angels,
with prophets, apostles, and martyrs,
and with all the faithful of every time and place
who forever sing to the glory of your name:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
"She went on to say that she wanted all her children to absorb the meaning of the words they sang, not just mouth them, like silly-billy parrots. She then blew a note on her pitch pipe, and the children, like so many underage weightlifters, raised their hymnbooks."
Words of Institution
"They sang without instrumental accompaniment--or, more accurately in their case, without any interference. Their voices were melodious and unsentimental, almost to the point where a somewhat more denominational man than myself might, without straining, have experienced levitation. A couple of the very youngest children dragged the tempo a trifle, but in a way that only the composer's mother could have found fault with. I had never heard the hymn, but I kept hoping it was one with a dozen or more verses."
The Lord is with you
All: And also with you.
We give you thanks that the Lord Jesus,
on the night before he died, took bread,
and after giving thanks to you,
he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying:
Take, eat. This is my body, given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
In the same way he took the cup, saying:
This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood,
shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.
Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me.
As our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray.
All: Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
The gifts of God for the people of God
Amen.
All is prepared. Eat, Drink and be satisfied.
(please pass the elements and serve one another saying, "The body of Christ, given for you; the blood of Christ, given for you.")
High and Dry
Performed by Radiohead
Two jumps in a week, I bet you think that's pretty clever don't you boy.
Flying on your motorcycle, watching all the ground beneath you drop.
You'd kill yourself for recognition; kill yourself to never ever stop.
You broke another mirror; you're turning into something you are not.
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry
Drying up in conversation, you will be the one who cannot talk.
All your insides fall to pieces, you just sit there wishing you could still make love
They're the ones who'll hate you when you think you've got the world all sussed out
They're the ones who'll spit at you. You will be the one screaming out.
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry
It's the best thing that you've ever had, the best thing that you've ever, ever
had.
It's the best thing that you've ever had; the best thing you've had has gone away.
Laugh, follow The Road
Performed by Jonah's Onelinedrawing
I pretend these lights are on for free
I clean up for rewards
I share the parts of myself that taste good
and hide the rot
I nibble on alone in times like these
I want you to bury me
to make you live to say
and every inch is one more flaming lung
My laugh, fall, or the road
Sleep is the best drug
I saw my Moon
That and wishing she was on Mars
Anything but saying she wished she was
dead
I remember wonder what was the
difference to people left around
Messes not picked up
Infections let to green
I laugh, follow the road
Hymn of Response
How Firm a Foundation
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in his excellent word!
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
for I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to
stand
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
When through deep waters I call thee to go,
the rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
for I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
When through fiery trials thy pathways shall
lie,
my grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;
the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
Benediction
Let us Pray... Gracious God, you are God of the heart and soul, God of the details and fingernails. We know,
We know You,
We know You arrive--
Even when we don't.
An invitation to Return to us...
The Visitation
by Abigail Jimenez
She asks if there is anything she can
bring
I think first of the tree under her nest:
of the tiny maple,
the dwarf lemon
but most tenderly
the tall olive tree
(a mere branch leaning down across the soil
when she brought it home bowing, like a blessing
to her lover)
bring a branch from the olive tree, my dove:
my heart has been afloat too long now.
When you arrive, carry in your mouth the proof,
tell me
there are trees again
bursting from the horizon.
Tell me silently that the earth reaches out her arborized hands, and leafy fingers,
hoping to hold you up, proudly (loving your tiny toes curving around her fingers)
where you perch and play
and perform your miracles.
If there is solid ground again, a place to make a home,
I know you will tell me and you will bring a bit of it
wordlessly, weightlessly
leave leaves with me, my peace, my piece of home.
Credits: Short Story excerpts taken from "For Esme--With Love and Squalor" by JD Salinger
Words of Institution provided by the Presbyterian Church, USA
This liturgy has been composed to intentionally incorporate Word (poetry, prose, scripture, lyric, hymn) and Sacrament. For an electronic reference please find me at
skinnytree.berkeleyblogs.com
Thank you.
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