Amazing Grace July 24, 2011 Rev.

Molly Housh Gordon

Prelude Opening Words Phil We arrive together here Travellers on life's journey Seekers of meaning, of love, of healing, of justice, of truth Numerous are our origins, our paths, and our destinations And yet, happily, our ways have joined together here today Spirit of life. Source of love. May our joining be a blessing May it bring comfort to those who are in pain May it bring hope to those who despair May it bring peace to those who tremble in fear May it bring wisdom and guidance for our journeys Chalice Lighting Phil Please join me in the unison chalice lighting words printed in your order of service At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

And now let us sing together Hymn #347, Here We Have Gathered. Please rise in body or in spirit. Hymn # 347 Gather the Spirit

Pebbles of Joy and Concern Now is the time in our service that we set aside to share the joys and the troubles of our hearts, and our prayers for our loved ones, ourselves, and the world. If you have a joy, a sorrow, or a prayer to share, please come forward, drop a pebble in the water, introduce yourself, and briefly share. Prayer and Moment of Silence Phil O Source of life and love, Torn by desires to sit back and to enjoy the beauty of the world -to savor the blue skies and gentle days -and by desires to recast the world and to fight its evils -to save the world... Torn by all those things that hurt and confuse and make no sense amid beauty -yet supported by all those things that heal and hold us -smiles, kisses, mountain vistas and gentle waves, warm words... We live in mystery. We live torn apart at times -so much glory -so much pain. We live in faith -faith in ourselves and each other -faith that we can create bonds of the spirit that proclaim we are not alone. We have much health within us -we can live through the heartache to new life. So, for the grace of the world and all the tumble, too, this day we give thanks. These things and more, in the silence we pray (silence for a time) Amen.
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Musical Meditation Reading Genesis 3:1-13 and 21-23 Molly Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God say, You shall not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die. But the serpent said to the woman, You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, Where are you? He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? The woman said, The serpent tricked me, and I ate. And then God curses them to experience pain, and hard work, and death And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.

Apple Meditation Molly (Distribute apple slices) Imagine with me for a moment, you are standing at the edge of the Garden looking out. You are naked and vulnerable. You can feel soft grass under your feet as you wiggle your toes. You feel the evening breeze grazing your skin. You glance behind you. There are trees, flowers, and animals in the garden. There is safety, innocence, predictability. The breeze comes every evening as God strolls about, without fail. Nothing changes. All is quiet and calm. And now you turn your face to gaze the other direction, upon the whole world that awaits you. There the breeze comes and goes. Now the air is still, expectant. Lightning strikes in the distance. There will be storms in the world as well as calm skies; there will be heat and cold. There will be joy and sorrow, excitement and fear, love and heartache, art, music, ideas, invention, destruction, war, tragedy, terror. It is all there. The whole world awaits you. You hold the apple in your hand. It will taste tart and sweet. It will open the world to you. Do you take a bite? Hymn #207 Earth Was Given as a Garden

Readings Phil and Molly #1 Phil From Teaching a Stone to Talk Annie Dillard In the deeps are the violence and terror of which psychology has warned us. But if you ride those monsters deeper down, if you drop with them farther over the world's rim, you find what our sciences cannot locate or name, the substrate, the ocean or matrix or ether which buoys the rest, which gives goodness its power for good, and evil its power for evil, the unified field: our complex and inexplicable care for each other, and for our life together here. This is given. This is not learned.

#2 Molly From Pauls Letter to the Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

#3 Phil The Way It Is William Stafford There's a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn't change. People wonder about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread. But it is hard for others to see. While you hold it you can't get lost. Tragedies happen; people get hurt or die; and you suffer and get old. Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding. You don't ever let go of the thread.

Offertory Homily Amazing Grace Molly (Sung ) Amazing Grace How sweet the sound. That saved a wretch Like me. I once was lost, But now am found. Was blind but now I see.

I love that soulful old hymn. And I love the notion of grace. It echoes of mercy and love and surprising strength. Grace is actually something I have experienced in abundance here, as you have welcomed me into your life together these past two years. The grace to let me start out a bit lost, trusting that you would find the ministry in me; the grace to give me a home base of support and care and love, as I tried on this vocation; The grace of forgiveness when Ive made mistakes; the grace to bestow upon me the gift and responsibility of ordination and to send me forth from here on waves of love.

I am glad and very grateful to say, this community is not lacking in grace. But grace is not a word that I hear very often here, or in any of our Unitarian Universalist churches. Realizing the intimate relationship between grace and original sin, I see why we dont often claim grace. According to common interpretation, the need for grace entered the world with the fallen and depraved nature of humankind that most UUs just dont accept. But we are a people who believe in our power to radically reinterpret, and I believe we can authentically reclaim grace. It all begins with a new telling of a very old story Once upon a time, our ancient parents, Adam and Eve, lived in the Garden of Eden in a state of complete and perfect innocence. They relaxed and walked and jiggled around naked, unaware of their bodies, unaware of themselves. And because they knew nothing of themselves, they also knew nothing of their connection with the trees and the animals and each other. And because they knew nothing of connection they knew nothing of love.

Now, since our mythic Mother and Father knew nothing of love, of course they knew nothing of pain. Yes, as we have always suspected, our Mother and Father didn't know very much. Then one day a wise snake came to Mama Eve and said, Here you are in the Garden of Eden, and life is easy and free of pain, but you are not whole because you know nothing of yourself or of good and evil. Now you are blind, but take this apple and eat of it and you will begin to see. Now Eve didnt understand a single word he said, but when the snake gave her the apple, she recognized that it was something to eat, and she took a bite, and she shared it with Adam, who took a bite as well. Then suddenly there was a moment, and it was the beginning of human time. After this moment, Adam and Eve came to know themselves, and they came to know shame and they came to know pain, and time began. The knowledge of good pulled them one way and the knowledge of evil pulled them the other, and it hurt a deep part of them that they didnt even know they had, and it felt to them that they must be shattering into a million pieces, that they must be cursed by God.

But God came to them and told them: My children. You have brought contradiction into the world, and now you will come to know the sweet and bitter taste of heartache. By eating of the apple you have opened the garden door into a world of infinite complexity and infinite possibility. But the world you both enter will always be changing, and you must change with it. You will have growing pains and birthing pains and dying pains. But fear not. For even as you suffer you will also have happiness. Even as you toil you will find times of grateful rest. Even as you struggle with jealousy and greed and rage, you will find in yourself empathy, contentment, and peace. And when the suffering and the joy, the toil and the rest, the struggle and the peace feel like they might tear you apart, yet still fear not, for my grace will keep you whole. Now go, my children, for I have made this world to be lived in. So, Eve and Adam, having heard the words of God, looked at each other, (for who else did they have?), grabbed each others hands, (for what else could they hold?), and stepped bravely out into the wide world (for truly, what else could they do?).
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 This is the story of a moment. It was the moment when life got complicated. It was the moment that things got interesting. It was just this moment when life became holy. I think of this story of original sin as a tale about our eyes openingopening to the wide world and our own naked vulnerability. Its a story about coming to know our own deep complexity and it acknowledges that sometimes that knowledge hurts. It hurts because the world and its people contain just as much bad as good. It hurts because the contradiction threatens to pull us apart-- apart from each other, apart from the warring aspects of our own selves, apart from God. One meaning of the word grace is ease of movement, and thats how I like to think about the fall from Grace. It was a falling away of ease. It was when life got hard. One Sunday morning about half-way through seminary, I walked into a church in Cambridge looking for relief from a pain in a deep part of me I didnt even know I had. My eyes had been opened a bit, a process that seminary is wont to exacerbate, and I did not entirely like what I saw. I was pulled one way by selfdoubt and the other by fear, and somewhere between the lighting of the
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candles and the first hymn, a crack in my heart began to spider-web out and I began to weep. Emerson tells us that there is a crack in everything that God has made. Leonard Cohen tells us, thats how the light gets in. You see it is only after the fall that our eyes are opened. And at that moment, another meaning for the word grace floods in through the cracks: divine love, unearned and freely given. This grace is not something we earn. Its not something we do. And it doesnt even mean that things become easy. But when were worn down and whispering this is too hard; when were hanging on by a thread, I think that thread is grace. Grace is the thread that binds us back up when were falling to pieces. It meets us where we most need it, when our hearts are reaching out for something to hold on to. That is when grace comes to us, out of mystery and into our lives, bearing the gifts of forgiveness and completeness, saying you are whole and loveable and beloved, just as you are. And grace is also the thread that ties this community together, as love in action arises between us, and among us, and from us. For there is also grace in a kind

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word; in an outstretched hand. Grace arises between us when we embody divine love in toward each other, and like a harmony that intertwines two voices into something more beautiful and complex than either voice could hope to be alone, we sometimes find between us a more awesome love than any of us could hope to give. That Sunday morning in Cambridge, as I wept and the congregation stood together to sing a hymn, the man in front of me turned around. His layered clothes were stained with weather and wear, and his belongings sat next to him in the pew in plastic shopping bags. His eyes knew better than mine the hardness of the world, but he reached out to me. He touched my hand, and smiled, and then he turned back around to sing. Quiet, Unexpected, Amazing, Grace. With a simple touch, this man reminded me that in falling out of the grace of ease, together we all fell into a life yet still blessed with love, unearned and freely given. We tumbled into a world of both contradiction and grace, so that even as love pulls us one way and pain pulls us the other, somehow still, we do not to shatter into a million pieces. By grace, together, we manage to love and be loved, we find ways to be whole. (Sung)

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Through many dangers, toils and snares/ We have already come/ Twas grace that brought us safe thus far. / And grace will lead us home.

Hymn Amazing Grace Thread Meditation Molly (Ask congregation to stand in a circle or move their chairs into a circle) What if grace were the thread that we followed? While you hold it you cant get lost. While you hold it, you are found. Our unseen thread has brought us safe this far, and it will lead us home, yet.

Let us each now take a moment to meditate on a moment in our lives when we have experienced the gift of grace (silence)

Now we make the thread of grace among us visible. As the thread passes to you, you may say a word or short phrase that represents your moment of grace, or you may receive the thread in silent reverence. (Pass spool of thread around the circle) Benediction Molly

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Now let us each take a deep breath, drop our thread and instead grab each others hands. As you step back out into your days and weeks and lives, may you be graced with holy love, freely given, and may you, in turn, bless the beautiful, fallen world with a little love of your own. Go and be blessed, and be a blessing. Postlude

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