Blessing of the Animals Worship Liturgy . . .

Call to Worship- based on Psalm 25

Pastor: To you, Abba, I lift my soul.

People: In you, Amma, I trust.

Pastor: Let us take solace in you.

Pastor: Let us learn your ways.

People: Make straight our paths.

Pastor: Teach us truth and wisdom.

Pastor: Let us leave our troubles.

People: Revive our hopes.

Pastor: We wait for you.

Invocation

God of slow time, in our impatience we try to direct. We like to demand things in our time and in our way. In this time though, right now, encourage us to let go of the reins and listen for you. Amen

Prayer of Transformation

Holy God, You created us in your image. Help us to continue to develop and mature in that image. There is so much that draws us away from you and taints our reflection. Call us back to your dream and hope. Help us trim the waste and release the build-up on our original sacred form. Teach us to listen to your still small voice within and give us the strength to follow wherever you might lead.

In you,

Through you,

And for you,

Let us develop to the fullness that you imagine. AMEN

Assurance of Pardon

May you know God is always working with us, in us, and through us. God loves you just as you are and seeks to help you grow. May the love and acceptance of God offer you the nourishment you need as you continue to heal and bloom.

Pastoral Prayer

Today, O Lord, we lift the world in prayer:

The places of strife,

The places of civil war,

The places of poverty, hunger, and pestilence.

We pray for the places, where there is what seems to be an impenetrable chasm between the rich and the poor.

We pray for those places that turn a deaf ear to the needs of the people and only line their own pockets,

We pray for those places where the rule of law is being side stepped for the enrichment and comfort of a few,

We pray for people being displaced and disappeared for those being deported, and for those living in fear that they are next.

There is so much on our mind and our heart.

Search for that which we have forgotten to say.

We pray also for the individuals known to us who are in need today. Hear now as we name them.

We pray all of this in the name of your son and our teach, Jesus, who taught us to pray together saying:

& Lord’s Prayer

Invitation to share

We are invited now to share. It is not a demand. It is not a requirement. It is not a key to heaven. It is an invitation into the reciprocity of creation. Seeds are sown. Plants grow. Fruits are harvested. Meals are made and served. We are invited to participate in a system of grace, gratitude, and giving. May you hear the invitation and respond with joyous love and appreciation.

Prayer of Dedication

God of all that was, is, and ever will be, acknowledge the gifts that we have brought forth. Like the fall harvest, you have long ago planted seeds within us. They have grown and born fruit; and so, we return a portion to honor what we received first from you. May these gifts represent our gratitude and thanksgiving for all that you have done, and may they go forward to plant and assure a crop of the future. AMEN

NOTE: Permission granted for use for religious or educational purposes with citation.

The blessing took place in lieu of our chancel steps time. The kids helped to bless the animals. Each animal was given a certificate and a cookie if it was allowed by their owner.

The sermon was based on the story of Balaam’s Donkey Numbers 22:21-33. This reading does not appear in the lectionary and is rarely shared in Sunday School stories so often is unknown to a congregation.

From our Ghana Sunday Service

Our church has a partnership with a community in Kpenoe, Ghana. This partnership has been in existence since 2008. To learn more about the partnership, visit https://www.wolfeboroucc.org/ghana.

Each year we renew our covenant with them and celebrate our friendship. This liturgy comes from that service in 2025.

This is a picture from last year’s celebration in which we centered the idea of harvest and the blessing of sustenance as embodied in the Yam.

Call to Worship Based on Psalm 33 –

Pastor: Rejoice in the Lord

People: Praise the Lord with instrument and voice.

Pastor: Sing to God a new song.

People: Play with vigor and joy.

Pastor: The Earth reverberates with the steadfast love of the Lord.

People: Let us tremble and stand in awe of God.

Pastor: Our soul shimmers in response to the creator.

People: our souls wait for God and are glad.

Invocation –

Holy and awesome God, we celebrate your presence amongst and between us. We honor all of your creation. Open our eyes to see you in all the ways you make yourself known to us. Let us learn more about you as we learn about each other. Amen

Prayer of Transformation

Lord,

I open my heart to you.

Soften it where it has hardened.

Move it toward compassion.

When I seek to protect it, keep me open and attentive to what it says.

Remind me of the courage and strength it contains so that I may support spiritual siblings.

Keep me aware of its inner yearnings.

Remind me that a heart is not divisible, but exponentially expandable.

Open my heart, O Lord.

Let me be crafted by your hand and be as you need me in this world. AMEN

Pastoral Prayer

Holy parent of all,

As we pray today, we cannot forget the wider world: not only those places that we are familiar with, but the points and places we may never see, the people who look and speak differently than us. People of different cultures, histories, and faiths. We bring before you, O God, the whole of the world and the world itself.

We pray for the planet

and for the people of every nation who inhabit it.

We pray for the soil under our feet, the air in the sky, the water that flows through the land and sits in aquifers underground.

We pray for the swallow and the orca, for the spider and the sea cucumber.

We pray for the iris and the prairie grass,

for peat moss and the giant sequoia,

for all that lives and breathes.

We pray for the interaction and the interchange that each has with the other.

Let us all remember that each is connected to you and a reflection of you.

We also pray for those specifically known to us that need your love and care this day . . . (Lift up your arms and let the congregation fill it with the names of their loved ones in need)

And all those we don’t know to name or don’t know how to name.

We pray this all in the name of Jesus. Our brother, your son. Who taught us to pray together saying:

Lord’s Prayer . . .

To be mindful of the reciprocity of this relationship – this will be our words to invite giving:

Invitation to share

Generosity is a very important concept in Ghana. One of their precepts is that we share because we are blessed with things to share. Unlike our tendency to assure that we have “enough” first, people in Ghana say, “Because I have something. I need to share.” So let us with joy consider what we have and therefore, what we need to share. As you decide what that is, whether dollars or actions; talents or treasurers; may you dance up your gift. Letting the joy of gift carry you into the act of giving.

We will also be interspersing the idea of hand washing within the worship to remind us that it is not only us doing the giving and they the receiving, but that we both learn and grow by through our relationship. At multiple times during the worship will will enact a symbolic hand washing, remembering that one hand washes the other. And thus our Prayer of Dedication following the collection of the offering will be:

Prayer of Dedication

Holy One, you have given and we have received. We are blessed and so we pass on that blessing. We send out our blessings into the world so that others too may be blessed. Let us continue the washing of one another’s hands as we celebrate the many gifts that you have poured upon us all. AMEN

Here is the link to last year’s Ghana Sunday worship: https://youtu.be/UYfCHU4yU68?si=DtF65pIp8ANU7bUE

Some liturgy from our mornings by the lakeside

Start in silent reflection:

Pastor: Before there was, there wasn’t.

Before there is, there was.

After there is, there will be.

May it be so.

Let us take a few moments to remember our place in all that was, is, and will be.

Lighting of the Candle

Pastor: Let us light the candle to remember in all of this there was, is, and will be God.

Call to worship:

Pastor: God bid us come to the lakeshore,

People: and we came.

Pastor: God calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves,

People: and we try.

Pastor: God inspires us to go out and do as Jesus did,

People: and we go

Pastor: bringing the love of God and the compassion of Jesus

People: where we can, when we can, and how we can. AMEN

Invocation:

God, you call us to be church in this world; not to go to church, but to be your church. We are here seeking to be just that: to refuel, to remember, to be revived. Send your Spirit upon us that we might be refilled to go out and share your love with the world that deeply needs it. AMEN

HYMN: Come Down to the Lakeshore –

The First Word

Let us hear this word offered by Abba Serinus:

They said of Abba Serinus that he used to work hard and always ate two small loaves. Abba Job, his companion and himself a great ascetic, went to see him and said, “I am careful about what I do in the cell, but when I come out I do as the brothers do.” Abba Serinus said to him, “there is no great virtue in keeping to your regime in your cell, but there is if you keep it when you come out of your cell.”

Here ends our reading. May God add to our understanding.

Silent Reflection

The Second Word: Acts 5: 1-10

Silent Reflection

Response – offering people an opportunity to reflect

Reflection – longer sharing from clergy or other worship leader

UNISON PRAYER- Inspired by the work of George MacLeod found in John Phillip Newell’s book Rebirthing God with the help of AI and editing.

Gathering God,
You join us together like the waters of this lake—
distinct, yet inseparable.

In a world that divides,
make us one in compassion,
one in hope,
one in the creation of justice.

Let us recognize our uniqueness

and also celebrate what we are when we come together.

In our interconnectedness,

let no one feel forgotten,
let every voice be heard,
And let each drop show its full wonder.

Let us together
be a glimpse of your kin-dom and our eternal home.
AMEN

PRAYER FOR THE PEOPLE

Pastor: Are there people that we should hold in our prayers today?

Pastor: May God be with each and offer them healing and hope as they have need. AMEN

UNISON PRAYER FOR THE OFFERING of GIFTS

Holy One, In a world where many are taught to hold tightly to what they have and seek to acquire more for fear of not enough, we have chosen to hear you and to open our hands and our heart. Receive these gifts as a sign of our love and commitment to you and your vision for this world. We trust in you. AMEN

Closing Litany – Lao-Tse

Pastor: If there is to be peace in the world,

People: There must be peace in the nations.

Pastor: If there is to be peace in the nations,

People: There must be peace in the cities,

Pastor: If there is to be peace in the cities,

People: There must be peace between neighbors.

Pastor: If there is to be peace between neighbors,

People: There must be peace in the home.

Pastor: If there is to be peace in the home,

People: There must be peace in the heart.

RESPONSIVE HYMN: Let there be Peace on Earth

Mid-week meditation – Literary Version

Here is a fun and interesting writing prompt that you can take into any book or character in the Bible. Frankly, you can use it in secular ways as well.

Take a word – Book of the Bible, Character, Value. I suppose even a short verse.
Write it vertically like you want to create an acrostic poem
Then write a story / poem being sure to include words that begin with those letters.

This is a fun and interesting way to engage with the text.

Here is an example of one that I wrote for Genesis (specifically Genesis 1:1-2)

Generally, in the beginning, we believe, is where things started, but our beginning begins in the deep. A deep that

Existed before time: a place of void and darkness, but also of possibility and

Newness. Nothingness is not nothingness if it is describable, if it is navigable, if it

Exists. So what was before there was? What was this vast

Sea that the wind blew on? How was it born? How did it begin? Was there something before that melted

Into the primordial soup? Or was this the beginning of God’s

Soup recipe? Set one part chaos to simmer. Stir lightly with the movement of the Spirit. Wait. Watch. And voila– Life!

Ode to the one I never knew:

A minister’s memory

By Rev. Dawn M. Adams

I stand.

I speak.

I reminisce,

but I never had a coffee

or beer

or donut with you.

We never sat on the porch and talked.

We never took a walk,

or called each other on overwhelming days.

And yet,

I remember.

I share.

I weave together your life.

I’ve never seen your face (except in a picture).

I’ve never held your hand.

I’ve never seen the mischievous twinkle in your eyes.

I have, though, laughed your jokes retold,

cried at your loss,

wondered about you more than people realize.

Before your family came into my office,

I never even knew you existed.

I didn’t know your name until your family gave it to me so that I could

write the liturgy of farewell and print the bulletins;

and yet you fill my heart.

You were dead before I even met you;

yet, you are alive now in my memory and written on my heart.

It is a sacred act – to re-member:

to put back together somethings that’s been torn apart,

to make space for the mourning and the pain,

and also to allow for joy and love to reemerge.

I never heard your voice,

but I did get the blessing of hearing from many who loved you.

I heard about how you met your spouse,

or why you never chose to marry –

about that car you lovingly restored,

about your famous stuffed shells.

I heard about your hopes and dreams,

about your travels,

and your accomplishments;

sometimes about the things you wish you had done,

but didn’t;

or about the challenges you faced.

Sometimes, I’ve heard about your own losses,

and even sometimes your own misdeeds.

I’ve watched pain, bewilderment, shock, anger, disbelief, satisfaction, horror, gratitude flicker.

I have witnessed the heartache left by your absence.

I’ve heard the testimony of your loved ones about who you were to them.

I’ve heard a lot about you;

and spoke about you before a gathered congregation.

You have died.

You no longer walk this earth.

I never knew you in this life;

and yet, I find myself thinking about you.

Your memory is a blessing to me.

To bury someone is a sacred act;

To prepare to bury someone and hear the stories of a person’s life is a privilege.

It is a holy calling to walk with loved ones to the graveside.

It is an honor to get to know those we did not know in life.

I didn’t know you

and yet I did.

Blessings to you and to all who knew you.

Liturgy for ONA Sunday

Opening Centering Chant –

I am precious in God’s sight.

You are precious in God’s sight.

All are precious in God’s sight.

Call to Worship

Pastor: Within each of us lies a holy seed.

People: Let us tend it. Let us nurture it.

Pastor: Let us not fear it as it presses its way to the surface.

People: God wants each of us to grow and thrive.

Pastor: The world needs each of us to grow and thrive.

People: Let us be as God designed.

Invocation

Holy One, pour your spirit upon us. Shine within us. Weed out that which chokes life and feed what brings it. Let us grow toward you; ever seeking, ever reaching to be all that you have created us to be. May our time today encourage us to continue to grow. AMEN

Prayer of Transformation

Liberation God,

Help me to peel off the facades that I have built up.

Take off the masks that I have created to protect myself and be what others thought I could or should be.

Remind me of my divine origin and inspire us each to nurture the divine flame within and encourage us to feed that flame in others.

Free us from expectations and revisions that society places on us and work with us to shed the ideas of shouldn’t, can’t, or that is not for you. Clear out our ears so that we might hear you whispering, “Beloved, you got this. Keep going.” Let us listen closely to our heart and with your support, bravely and honestly show who you made us to be. AMEN

Assurance of Pardon

God is our originator, our creator,

In us is the divine fingerprint.

Let us always seek to reveal that wonder within being fully who God created us to be.

Prayer of Illumination

Holy Spirit flow into our heart.

Open our ears and let us hear this spoken word.

May each phrase set upon us and enlighten our understanding of God’s kin-dom and dream. AMEN

Invitation to share

As one body, we do care for one another. This is what God asks of us.

Thus, like the earliest Christians, we gather our gifts together to help all of humanity and the ways of God.

Let us respond to the wonders of God and all of God’s gifts by opening our hands and our hearts.

Prayer of Dedication

God, Receive these gifts as a symbol of our deeper commitment to work together for the coming of your kin-dom of heaven on earth. AMEN

A Blessing for Your Journey

For those times when goodbyes are necessary, it is important to mark the occasion so that the community can both celebrate and grieve.

You are each a blessing.
We have been richer for your presence.
We are thankful for the time you have shared in this gathered body.
A part of us weeps at your absence,
but a greater part of us celebrates with you as you take this next step in life.

As we send you off, we offer you this blessing:

Go with our love in your hearts.
Go knowing you have made an impact here.
Go knowing you will always be a part of us.
Go with our blessings—

May God bless you and keep you as you reestablish your roots.
May you build community and find a new church home.
May you create new memories and be filled with joy
as you grow into your new life.
And as you are blessed, may you share that blessing
with all whom you meet.

We send you with love.
We send you with hope.
We send you with our support, if ever you need it.
May God watch over you,
and may this be a wonderful new adventure.

Amen.

You go with our blessing—and our love goes with you.

Using Words and Style as a Writing Prompt

This week in mid-week meditation, I offered two prompts based on the same poems. I randomly picked poems and then asked AI to remove punctuation and capitalization and randomize the words. The first prompt invited the writers to write using the words before them as a base.

For Example, here were my words:

films intentionally loving of the their feet while art culture borders hesitation possibilities fire paint artists loud or wall see and creative canvas kind-based canvas directed sprinting mumblings conscience limitations and all us deliberately windstorms blast motivation into with quality do art their struggle quiet questions without run does to and with move people or intentionally paint and has loving and and life-centered does toward can’t doubts with cameras name has create misrepresentations has blasts gates culture ideas advance and see a world centered civilization and and and the talk and struggle move escape and searching not and good or feet questionably questionably phones gates has ideas doubts the loving own toward move fire justice of people their advance loving art themselves has of not people computers its civilization paint forward clear canvas intentions blasts daily and pen paper question run run or walls feet as mumblings based with community run paint souls good rulers with and name quietly paint searching artists and loving has definitions and has gatekeepers and daily windstorms loving loving canvas with toward and and paint the

I gave us 15 minutes, this is what I wrote:

Untitled

To intentionally paint the world with love creates life.

There are no limitations

Civilization tries to rule

setting borders

and erecting walls.

It misrepresents truth

and sews doubts,

leaving society lost and lonely.

Daily windstorms tattering the art

that has so lovingly been created.

But the art of love

offers possibilities beyond the gates culture has created.

Love offers justice

it leans in with questions

and listens.

It paints quietly, slowly, subtly,

and brashly, without hesitation using bold strokes.

There are no gate keepers here

simply lovers loving:

a world searching for good,

souls seeking and searching

for new canvases on which to

paint beauty and possibility.

Then, I offered them the opportunity to read the actual poem. Mine was Art IV: Remembering Gwendolyn Brooks by Haki R. Madhubuti.

We then took an additional 10 minutes to write a poem based on the style they noticed in the poem. This is what I created:

Remembering Ezekiel Kallberg

children are fed what we feed them

they cannot forge on their own.

they are reliant on what we bring – good or bad.

children not only fill themselves

with the nutrients we provide;

But also the love, the wonder,

the hope, the resilience we fill them with

children absorb our ways

without us ever needing to

speak and perhaps even

before their ears can hear

outside the womb.

what shall we offer this

hungry one – ancient

dusty artifacts, a diet of anger

and war, a meal made

of mush,

or shall we choose to gather

them in our lap and blanket

them in love,

shall we surround them with

support and welcome them

into wonder.

shall we put before them a

feast which tantalizes them

and invites them to taste,

touch, sample

and decide for themselves

their favorites.

and perhaps even one day

teach them to cook.

Neither of these are perfect poems, but the process is like putting compost around your garden. The nutrients seep in and before you know fruit is produced.

I encourage you to give it a try and see what your process might seed.

Midrash Writing to understand deeper

The past two sessions of our Mid-Week Meditation, the literary edition, we have explored the concept of midrash (the idea of filling in the missing aspects of a biblical text). Last week, in worship, we read the story of the Paul and Silas getting put in prison which begins with their excising a demon from a slave girl who follows them calling out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved”. Sadly, the text (Acts 16:16-40) says that Silas rids her of the demon not to cure her or help her, but in his annoyance. The story then pivots to the trial of Paul and Silas who are sent to prison for this crime and this poor slave girl is left without her “gift” and still in slavery. In the sermon, I asked people to think more about this gift, who she was, how she was marginalized on multiple fronts, and even dared to wonder if what Paul and Silas did was helpful or harmful to this girls future.

In our meditation group, I asked them to think even more about this girl and write her story. Because so little is written about her, the leeway of what might be written is pretty wide.

This week I offered them pictures of Biblical stories like Rahab’s red cord, Moses being put in the basket and sent down the Nile, the rubble of the walls of Jericho, the woman at the well with Jesus, etc. Instead of writing from the perspective of the human characters in the story, I invited them to write from the perspective of an inanimate object. Mine for example was told from the perspective of a tambourine that the daughter of Jephthah (Judges 11:30-40).

Both of these exercises, while not scripturally sound, invited participants to interact with the scriptural texts in way they had not before. It opened up questions and curiosities; and invited us into a much deeper conversation.

I invite you to try either of these writing exercises and share them with us below.

Two for the day

Presence

I stuck my hands in the dirt –

my fingernails give evidence to my folly.

I bent down,

dug holes,

and implanted hope into the ground

declaring another year will come.

I breathed the air deeply. It cleansed my airway, my lungs, and my mind.

Now it is as if cotton balls have been pulled from my ears

and scales from my I eyes.

The world brightens around me, and I am gifted with the chatter of God’s creation.

I hear the vibrating hum of the wings of this spring’s first hummingbird,

The water ripples of two geese gliding by,

The call of the loon across the lake,

The twitter,

twitter,

twitter

of the unseen.

I ask myself, “Is it this simple?”

“Can it be this simple?”

“Is it this simple?”

Rest in my garden, little one, and you will be renewed.

A morning picture on the lake that my husband took.

The Patient Fisherman

The fishermen have come to the lake.

They set their lines oh so patiently

and then seem only to wait.

Are they waiting for fish?

Or are they waiting for You to come by an holler,

“Follow me!”

They do not seem anxious in their waiting,

but instead extraordinarily patient:

Not a muscle twitches.

They keep just a soft finger on the line

ready . . .

Both of these poems were written by me and all rights are reserved. Permission is given to use in a religious or educational setting with attribution. Both pictures are taken in Wolfeboro, NH. The loons by me and the fog on the lake by George Adams. All rights reserved.