Earth Celebration 2012: The Worship Liturgy back
THE CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR
Earth Celebration at Dayspring
June 3, 2012
Over 100 people from the nine sister faith communities in the tradition of The Church of the Saviour gathered at Dayspring's amphitheater to celebrate and give thanks for Earth, our home, and for the gift of this place to deepening our ways of living faithfully in our times.
SOUNDING OF THE BELL
SILENT REFLECTION
Our Father, help us feel thy presence,
for otherwise our being here is nothing.
We must seek Thee with our whole selves now.
This is Thy moment.
Help us that it be not lost on us.
Here is the work of our hands.
Take it for Thy use.
We would see Thy glory as it enfolds this house
and makes of it a House of God.
Lord, help us clearly to read God’s blueprint for our lives.
When radiant hopes and dreams
are no longer part of our vision,
remake us in this spot, O Lord.
May the silence of these woods and good fields
hush the clamant voices of our sin.
Work Thou a work in our souls, Creator, mighty and complete.
Lodge of the Carpenter Dedication, 1956
PRELUDE "Song for Dayspring" Jesse Palidofsky
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader 1: Holy Creator of all that is,
you are the Dayspring from on high,
the One who calls us into relationship with you
and all of your creation.
People: You call to us in the voices of your creatures:
the sweet song of warbler and robin and wren,
the rat-a-tat of the woodpecker
and the honking cry of Canada geese,
the rasping chirp of grasshopper
and the deep croak of the bullfrog.
Leader 2: You number each hair on the rust-red coat of the fox
hunting rabbits in the gathering twilight;
and the dappled fur of fawns,
feeding beside their mothers in the slanting light of dawn.
People: You call us to consider the place
of even wood tick and poison ivy
in the intricate web of your design.
Leader 1: You call us today to celebrate and remember,
to listen for your call to the future of this land.
All: Help us to know that your Spirit is within us
and around us and among us,
the living Body of Christ walking always in you. Amen.
INVOCATION
HYMN “Holy Ground”
This is Holy ground, we’re standing on Holy ground,
For our God is present, and where God is, is Holy,
This is holy ground, were standing on Holy Ground,
For our God is present, and where God is, is Holy.
These are holy hands, God’s given us holy hands,
God works through these hands, and so these hands are holy,
These are holy hands, God’s given us holy hands,
God works through these hands, and so these hands are Holy.
Here on Dayspring land, we’re standing on Holy ground,
For our God is present and where God is is Holy,
This is Holy ground, we’re standing on Hoy ground,
For our God is present and where God is is Holy.
SILENCE
PRAYERS
COMMON CONFESSION
Leader 2: O God, too often we take for granted
the wonders of your Creation.
People: We offer thanks for daily bread,
but all too often fail to recognize
that everything has come from You.
Leader 1: It’s easy to forget that all we have
to clothe and comfort us is gift from You,
that all we have to share with others is ours to give
because you choose to love and give with generosity
we can scarce imagine.
All: Forgive us, Holy One,
for taking all the wonder of your world for granted.
INDIVIDUAL PRAYERS OF CONFESSION
ASSURANCE
Leader 2: The good news in Christ
is that God accepts us where we are,
and walks with us on the journey.
By the grace of God, we are forgiven.
All: Amen.
PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION
SONG "The Lord's Prayer" by Gale Quist
THE WORD: LESSONS FROM THE LAND Psalm 104:1-15
Bless the Radiant One, O my soul!
O Heart of my heart, You are so very great!
You are clothed with justice and mercy,
Arrayed in light as your fine attire.
You stretch over the heavens like a tent,
your radiance covering the waters;
You shine through the clouds and ride on the wings of the wind;
The wind, like the Breath of Life, carries your Word,
Fire refines the dross of our souls.
You set the earth on its foundations, strong and secure.
You covered it with the deep like a garment,
with many waters that life might come forth.
At your Word, the waters divided,
becoming rivers and lakes and mighty oceans;
storms came to ensure the balance and to renew the earth.
The mountains rose,
the valleys became low in the places You did appoint.
You brought harmony to all the earth,
that life might spring forth in abundance.
You created springs to flow into the valleys;
they flow between the hills,
giving drink to every creature of the field,
quenching their thirst
as your Living Water quenches ours.
With the air,
You have given birds their habitation;
they sing among the branches.
The majesty of Creation is seen
throughout the land,
the sounds of Creation mingle with the music of the spheres.
Through your Word, grass came forth for the cattle,
and plants for us to cultivate,
that we might have food from the earth,
and wine, the fruit of the vine,
oil and healing herbs of many varieties,
and bread, our daily sustenance.
-Nan C. Merrill, Psalms for Praying
HYMN “For the Beauty of the Earth”
A Litany Celebrating the Earth
As we celebrate sixty years of stewardship of this land, we will be using a litany like the fiftieth anniversary of Church of the Saviour, which we celebrated here in October, 1997. Today we remember all those whose faithful lives of action and reflection have added threads to the tapestry that is our story — the tale of one small family of faith communities that form part of the Body of Christ, discovering ways to live faithfully in our time and place. One of the strong warp threads is this land, Dayspring Farm, a land where we set down our roots in 1952.
Let us celebrate by offering up the ways in which we are thankful for Earth and for Dayspring.
Leader 1: Each community looks forward to the future from a different place
and sees a different vision. Called by our yearning for the Living Word,
we have found new ways to hear God's call on our individual and corporate
lives and sharpen our understanding of God's gifts to us.
All: If God gives us only this Earth, it will be enough.
In Dayspring Church
we thank God for forest and fields, creeks, springs, and ponds, and for big sky; for trees and meadows, gardens and flowers; for rabbits and foxes, swallows and hawks, woodchucks, deer, geese, ducks, heron, fish—the whole panoply of life in this sanctuary for silence and retreat. And we thank God for loving community in Christ, the Dayspring from on high, and for the twenty-five prized buildings in which we carry out our ministry. We pray here. We play here. We work here. We rest here. We worship here. We celebrate here. We live here.
All: If God gives us only this Earth, it will be enough.
In Bread of Life Community Church
we believe that life was created with all of the resources needed for abundant living. There is enough bread. Given the interconnected nature of all life, we recognize and confess that our actions and inactions are part of an economic system that perpetuates inequality. Yet, we believe that even as we are part of the problem we can be part of the solution.
All: If God gives us only this Earth, it will be enough.
In Eighth Day Faith Community
we have been given a vision of Earth’s future in the light of our disobedience. We seek to share that vision with each other, with our young people, and with any others who will listen. We have prayed for forgiveness and the courage to change. We have prayed for our Earth and the grace to remain a part of it.
All: If God gives us only this Earth, it will be enough.
In Festival Church
we have built a place where love can dwell, and all can safely live, a place where saints and children tell how hearts learn to forgive. Built of hopes and dreams and visions, rock of faith and vault of grace, here the love of Christ shall end divisions: All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.
All: If God gives us only this Earth, it will be enough.
In the Friends of Jesus Church
we give thanks for the disciplined quiet at Dayspring, in which we can attend together to God’s loving presence. We give thanks for the fertile open spaces at Dayspring, in which we can join with plants and animals to celebrate the abundance of God’s creation. We give thanks for Dayspring’s caregivers, for their nurture of its abundance, their witness to ways in which we humans can reduce our destructive impact on the Earth’s natural abundance, and their struggle to protect Dayspring from further encroachment by an aggressive world.
All: If God gives us only this Earth, it will be enough.
In Jubilee Church
we treasure our times in the heart of nature at Dayspring, providing us with spiritual renewal, personal growth, and communion with God. God created us to be connected to nature, and we lose sight of the gift of God's creation when we are not in touch with it. As the world turns toward the environmental crisis with a local green movement, let us, as Church of the Saviour communities, commit ourselves to sacrifice our first world comforts to bless this land for our younger generations.
All: If God gives us only this Earth, it will be enough.
In New Community Church
we give thanks to you God for directing and calling all the Dayspring saints and people that responded and continue to respond to your call to secure a place like this for respite, quiet, prayer, ecology and connection to You embodied in this Earth and church community at Dayspring. We thank you for the balance this place—this community of life helps to create in our lives between city busyness and Silent Retreat stillness and renewal. We give thanks for all those faithful ones who have gone before, who are here now, and who in faithfulness and love You will give in the future to steward this land, this community, this place of solitude and prayer and life abundant in the name and mighty Pentecostal Spirit, Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior and Good Shepherd.
All: If God gives us only this Earth, it will be enough.
In the Potter’s House Church
we choose to be present with the Dayspring land in the shivery, clean stillness of winter. We relearn from the stark bareness of tree limbs against clear night sky that after the season of growth and gathering, there is the season of stillness and waiting. We relearn trust that new life follows the desolate seasons of our own lives, just as, at Dayspring, the warm flowerings of spring will follow the dormant days of winter.
All: If God gives us only this Earth, it will be enough.
In Seekers Church
we commit to care for the whole of creation, including the natural environment. We seek to live lightly on the land. We love Dayspring Farm and support those who nurture its life for the good of us all.
All: If God gives us only this Earth, it will be enough.
Leader 1: We have been richly blessed by God through our stewardship
of this land. The Holy Spirit has given us visions of what it means
to be different expressions of the Body of Christ in our time and place.
Called to be servant leaders in a hurting world, called into ministry,
we have been given the gifts to respond with energy and compassion.
All: We give thanks to God for the journey,
and for the visions that call us into an unknown future
filled with hope. Amen.
OFFERING "All Good Gifts” Kip Landon
Chorus:
All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above.
Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord, for all God's love.
MEMORIES AND REFLECTIONS
A time for shared thoughts from the gathered community
on what God has taught us through Dayspring.
HYMN “The Celebration Song”
For our life together, we celebrate.
Life that lasts forever, we celebrate.
For the joy and for the sorrow,
yesterday, today, tomorrow, we celebrate.
For Your great creation, we celebrate
For our own salvation, we celebrate.
For the sun and for the rain,
Through the joy and through the pain
we celebrate.
Refrain:
Ah! There's the celebration!
Celebrate the whole of it!
For His body, broken, we celebrate
For the word He's spoken, we celebrate.
For the feasting at His table,
By His grace we are able to celebrate.
For the Lord above, we celebrate
For the God of love, we celebrate.
For the Son who is our brother,
For the Spirit, for the three together,
we celebrate.
BENEDICTION
Leader 2: We have stood on your hilltop.
We have known your presence in the voices of your creatures.
We have been nourished by the greater sense of your Spirit
In this, our land, our home.
Leader 1: Be present within us and among us
As we go forth from this place
to love and serve a broken and hungry world.
All: Amen.
RECESSIONAL “This Land is Your Land”
For more about the Earth Celebration, click here.
Gathering at The Farmhouse
in the early afternoon
