Saturday, November 22, 2025: Reminder: We meet at a new time this Sunday (Daylight saving time has ended and we don't want people driving home in the dark...): We begin our celebration with a gathering at 1:45pm followed by Liturgy at 2:00. Followed by a finger-food only potluck!
Location: Christ Church United Methodist Church: Classroom 8
1717 Yulupa Drive, Santa Rosa California 95405
For our beloved Zoomers:
Join Zoom Meeting with this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5193158573?omn=86138955990
Or start Zoom and Enter the Meeting ID and Passcode
Passcode: 1234
Meeting ID: 519 315 8573
Passcode: 1234
By Phone: One tap mobile
+16699006833,,5193158573# US (San Jose)
+16694449171,,5193158573# US
Emmaus Celebration for November 23, 2025
Opening: Ring the Singing Bowl, Welcome to the Community and to Guests
Opening Song: Peace Like A River
David: We’re ending the year in a few weeks. How quickly the time has passed! The great feasts of Thanksgiving and Christmas are just days away and Jane and I thought this might be a good time to take a few moments to review the year and prepare to celebrate today.
In order to do this we’ve created a celebration in 2 parts: The first part is a meditation on forgiveness. Jane will lead us through the three part meditation. We will pause for a minute of silence between each part in order to reflect on what we’ve heard.
Part 2 explores our celebration today in light of the Passover Meal Jesus celebrated with his friends as he prepared them for a life of service without him. Our celebration today is a continuation of that Last Supper, Jesus’ last Passover meal.
Our overall theme is forgiveness – for ourselves and for others in our lives.
In the sermon on the mount Jesus teaches that forgiveness is a necessary step in coming together.
(Luke 12:57–59) Jesus says: “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. First go, forgive your sister or brother and be reconciled; then come and offer your gift.”
As we near the end of the year and prepare for Advent, Jane and I would like to use this very brief lesson from Jesus, who always surprises us with his ability to forgive, even as he sits at table with someone who is going to turn him over to the Romans.
In our own age we have examples of people like Nelson Mandela who forgave his captors who had imprisoned him for 27 years.
Jane: During an interview after he was freed, Mandela said, “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. They must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” – Long Walk to Freedom (1995)
Forgiveness is hard. Forgiveness is not forgetting. It cannot be forced and even thinking about forgiving someone or something that happened to us in the past may bring up unwelcome feelings.
In this meditation we consider three ways of forgiving: People we may have hurt. Then How we may have hurt ourselves and finally Those who may have hurt us in some way. An image or memory may arrive into your awareness that you are ready to receive that feels safe and you can sit in silence with in order to practice forgiveness.
David; Now I admit I’m not the best example of forgiveness. I know I haven’t let go of my anger when I think about a priest i the seminary who harmed many of my classmates. I still bear that hardness in my heart and I’m working to release that anger from my life. I think I can forgive but I can’t forget.
It’s most important to feel safe with your thoughts and be gentle with yourself. You may not be ready, as I’m not ready, to let go of a particular hurt.
There are three parts to the meditation and after each part Jane reads there will be a minute of silence for reflection. Let’s prepare for this reflection -- by sitting as comfortably as you can, allowing your eyes to close and your breath to be natural and easy. Let your body and mind relax. Breathe gently and place your hands over your heart.
Jane: Forgiveness of Others: In our lives I may have hurt others. Picture one memory that still burdens your heart. As the remembrance becomes clearer for you, let your heart open and ask for forgiveness - and trust you will be heard.
Minute of Silence
Jane: Forgiveness for Yourself: There are many ways that I may have hurt myself. Picture one memory that still burdens your heart and as it becomes clearer for you, let your heart open and ask for forgiveness for yourself.
Minute of Silence
Jane: Forgiveness for Those who have hurt or harmed me: There may be times when other people have caused harm to me – knowingly or unknowingly, in thought, word or deed. I have carried this pain in my heart too long. To the extent that I am ready, I offer them forgiveness. To those who have caused me harm, I offer my forgiveness.
Minute of Silence
David: We know forgiveness is a process that takes time – maybe years. For some great hurts we may not feel we’re ready to forgive. And even discussing the pain we feel may uncover feelings or unwelcome images from the past. We need to be gentle with ourselves and find forgiveness at our own pace.
Forgiveness cannot be forced; it cannot be artificial. Simply continue the practice and let the words and images work gradually in their own way. In time you may want to make the forgiveness meditation a regular part of your life, letting go of the burden of the past and opening your heart to each new moment with a wise loving kindness.
David: Shared Homily: Thoughts on forgiveness
Song: The Servant Song:
Jane: As we prepare for the meal part of our celebration, we take a few moments to retell the story of Passover and to remember the events of the night Jesus celebrated the meal we call the Last Supper.
Passover was an especially holy event for the Jewish people in that it commemorated the time when God spared them from the plague of physical death and liberated them from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 11:1—13:16). At His Last Supper, Jesus knew his time was coming to an end. He provided the disciples with a a simple command for how to live when he was gone. “Love One Another As I Have Loved you.”
David: Before the start of the meal Jesus gives the guests a profound lesson. He removes His cloak, ties a towel around His waist, and washes their feet (John 13:3–5). They are all shocked. Jesus is their teacher and leader, and yet He humbles himself and serves everyone else. It’s clear they are to follow His example by dedicating their lives, not just to spreading His message, but doing so with a servant heart. (John 13:12–17).
Jane: By washing the feet of his guests, Jesus was once again breaking a strict societal rule: Established order demanded that service be provided by the youngest member at the gathering. But Jesus turns that around, saying “Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be the servant.”(Luke 22:26–27; John 13:1–20).
David: Imagine how Jesus must have felt. Passover was supposed to be a celebration of liberation from oppression, but he knew that his time was running out – the authorities would soon be coming for him. How similar it is to our immigrants who fear the knock on the door. The sight of masked men with guns taking them off to prison or worse…
Jane: Perhaps with the thought of his own knock on the door, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and shared it, saying,
All: ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’
In the same way, as supper was ending Jesus took the Seder cup, and shared it with his friends saying,
All: ‘This cup is the new bond between us, sealed with my life, which is poured out for you’” (Luke 22:17–20). For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink” (John 6:35, 51, 54–55).
These words of Jesus at Passover echo what He said after He fed the 5,000: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty… I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
Let’s all say together the prayer of Jesus:
All:
Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be Father and Mother of us all, Loving God, in whom are the heavens:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world! Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For You reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever.
Amen. (The Lord’s Prayer - The New Zealand Prayer Book)
David: The Kiss of Peace:
Greet one another with, “May you have peace beloved friend.”
Invitation to Communion
Everyone is welcome to this table. Spirit, whom the universe cannot contain, is present to us in this bread. Spirit who redeems us and calls us by name, now meets us in this cup. So come, Beloved Friends, and take this bread, drink this wine. In them, the Divine comes to us, so that we may come to the Divine in humility and service.
Communion Song: Make me a Channel of Your Peace
.jpeg)
Jane: Final Blessing:
Sorrow is how we learn to love. by Rita Mae Brown
If sorrow is how we learn to love,
then let us learn.
Already enough sorrow’s been sown for whole continents to erupt into astonishing tenderness.
Let us learn.
Let compassion grow rampant,
like sunflowers along the highway.
Let each act of kindness replant itself into acres and acres of widespread devotion.
Let us choose love as if our lives depend on it. The sorrow is great.
Let us learn to love greater -- riotous love, expansive love, love so rooted, so common
we almost forget the world could look any other way.
And the people of this beloved Emmaus Community say: Amen!
Comments
Post a Comment