Day 2: Vision

OPENING PRAYER

This morning, we call on mystics and saints Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila, Harriet Tubman, and Howard Thurman, whose visions of divine love transformed their spirits and ways of being in the world. Like St. Benedict instructs, we open ourselves to see with “the eyes of the heart” the wonders of creation and all who share this life.

OPENING SONG: Wade in the Water

See them children dressed in white
Gonna trouble the water
The leader looks like the Israelite
Gonna trouble the water

I said
Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children
Wade in the water
My God’s gonna trouble the water

Don’t you see them children dressed in red
God’s gonna trouble the water
They look like the band that Moses led
God’s gonna trouble the water

See them children all dressed in black
God’s gonna trouble the water
They’re goin’ over Jordon and they ain’t coming back
God’s gonna trouble the water

I said
Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children
Wade in the water
My God’s gonna trouble the water

FIRST READING: Wilda Gafney

The sanctified imagination is the fertile creative space where the preacher-interpreter enters the text, particularly the spaces in the text, and fills them out with missing details: names, back stories, detailed descriptions of the scene and characters and so on. . . the sacred imagination tells the story behind the story, the story behind the lines on the page.

SUNG PSALM OPENING

O Vision, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. (Repeat)

PSALM 8

Many-Named One
beyond imagining–
When I contemplate the night sky,
the cosmos which all unfolded from a speck,
galaxies, stars, this beautiful earth
Who are we humans, that you attend to us?
mere mortals in our tiny corner, and you love us?
We are life come to knowing and feeling.
The whole world is in our hands.
plants and animals, oceans and ice caps, rain forests
atmosphere and ecosystem.
Touch our hearts, O God,
make us worthy of this trust
Help us care for life on this beautiful earth. Amen.

SUNG DOXOLOGY

Glory to the Maker, Lover, and Keeper; as ago, in this breath, and will be ever. Amen, Amen.

SECOND READING: Mihee Kim Kort

Queerness embraces and cultivates that weirdness. It sees deviation as normal and normative. It sees what is perplexing, rare, or unfamiliar as a possibility for a new, glorious iteration not only of humanity but of all creation.

SILENT CONTEMPLATION

PRAYERS OF CONCERN

Breath of Life, your sacred imagination danced creation into being. It can be so hard to see ourselves with the same loving gaze with which you look upon us. Help us to see ourselves with clarity and non-judgement. Open our vision to honor stories of the past, respond to the present, and cultivate a future in which our diversity is celebrated, and our similarities grounded in the recognition of shared humanity.

Sung Response

O God of Vision, receive the prayers we offer.

Spirit of Being, we give thanks for the gift of this Earth. We know the harm we’ve visited upon your creation and ask forgiveness for apathy that keeps us from cherishing ecosystems. When visions of our future climate look bleak, expand our gaze to see the truth and possibility. May wonder and courage disrupt cynicism and inspire our collective work to pass along a thriving habitat for plants and animals, mountains and prairies, children and grandchildren, and all who live in this shimmering world.

Sung Response

O God of Vision, receive the prayers we offer.

Godde of Holy Sight, cast away our assumptions and prejudices so we may see those we other and value their personhood as deeply as we value our own. We are willing to see injustice and acknowledge its reality. We will not look away from suffering but rather turn our gaze to the world as it truly is in all its beauty and brokenness. As our sight clears, inspire our lives to be grounded in deep listening and authentic love.

Sung Response

O God of Vision, receive the prayers we offer.

Please add the prayers you are longing to express.

Sung Response

O God of Vision, receive the prayers we offer

CLOSING SONG: Plowshare Prayer

Refrain
I pray that I’m heard
And I pray that this works
I pray if a prayer has been used as a sword
against you and your heart, against you and your word
I pray that this prayer is a plowshare, of sorts
that it might break you open, it might help you grow

CLOSING BLESSING

This blessing comes as a healing salve
to cast away the dross on your sight.
May you be like the hawk soaring above,
able to see a vast expanse of sky, and the
minute details of a landing place.
Vision is different than sight.
Even if you remain blind and cannot
see the colors of the world, your
inner gaze is fed by sacred imagination.
Use your senses to “see with the eyes of the heart.”
When you feel the air moving in and out of your body,
see your breath as divine inspiration that gave you life.
When you hear birdsong in the morning,
see the call of love connecting you to one another.
When you taste ripe fruit,
see the sweetness of life.
When you smell dried leaves and rot,
see the wisdom of decay.
Your creative self has all the gifts you need
to make the world more beautiful
and share in the joy of a new creation
filled with peace, acceptance, and understanding.

SUNG AMEN