Sunday, February 8, 2026: Join us today for our Sunday Celebration with community greeting at 1:45 followed by liturgy at 2:00PM
In person at: Christ Church United Methodist
1717 Yulupa Avenue, Santa Rosa, California 95405
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Here's the liturgy for Tomorrow by Dan Vrooman and Dan Lambert
Welcome: (Dan Lambert) Our theme for today’s liturgy revolves around living gratefully to become a blessing to others.
The apostle Paul and Jesus speak of a light that shall break forth from the darkness of oppression, of the wisdom of the cross, and of a salt that can lose its taste. They each express awareness of constraints, bleakness, and tastelessness in the historical moment of their lives. We may also experience depletion of meaning in our personal life or, on a larger scale, in the disintegration of social bonds, and in the predominance of individual or corporative interests. In modern times even the name of God has lost its taste for many people, mainly because of our use or abuse invested in structures, or old wineskins. And yet the good news that resounds today is that we can become the salt, the yeast, and the taste-givers of the Earth. How can it happen?
Video of Red-winged blackbird: (very brief into to opening song)
OPENING SONG: Morning Has broken w/lyrics by Cat stevens
DV - Opening Prayer: Look deep Into yourself, into another;
It is to a center which is everywhere That is the holy journey…..
First you need only look; Notice and honor the radiance of Everything about you… Play in the universe. Tend All these shining things around you:
The smallest plant, the creatures and objects in your care. Be gentle and nurture. Listen As we experience and accept
All that we really are… We grow in care.
We begin to embrace others as ourselves, and learn to live
As one among many, --- Anne Hillman
First Reading: (Melva) “First Happenings” by Mary Oliver
A morning glory morning with its usual glory,
dawn particularly startling with citrons and mauves,
petunias in the garden flashing their tender signals of gratitude.
The sunflowers creak in the glass-colored dresses.
Cosmos, the four o’clocks,
the sweet alyssum nod to the roses who so very politely nod back.
And now it is time to go to work.
At my desk I look out over the fluttering petals, little fires.
Each one fresh and almost but not quite replicable.
Consider wearing such a satisfying body!
Consider being, with your entire self, such a quiet prayer.
Response: (All) Just an ordinary sliver of time, an alternative look at the garden, a listening heart, and---suddenly---an explosion of tasty joy radiates in naming and feeling the multicolored flowers, as if each one of them has a soul, is an epiphany, an embodied prayer.
Second Reading: (Jim Jepson) Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 2: 1-5
When I came to you, brothers and sisters, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of Spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
Gospel: Matthew 5: 13-16 (Marcie)
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Dialogue Homily: (DV) With careful attention, Mary Oliver makes herself a hospitable vessel where the creatures reveal their inner vibrations, their surplus of splendor: their flavor. We pay new attention to the hidden work of flowers themselves. We have in fact discovered how they found an amazing way to season the world, how they became a catalyst of beauty, and life on our planet. With creative intelligence and many attempts, they were able to transform light into an extraordinary symphony of life through the process of photosynthesis. Between all these flavors that creatively made the world tasty, the Universe was able to express Jesus as a manifestation of God’s gratuitous and rising compassion. Jesus is a tremendous storyteller; his parables season the soil of our lives and awaken us to the radical sense of grace that touches and flavors each being.
Each of us remembers the parables of the birds in the sky and the lilies of the field, reminding us that we can know everything, have everything, control everything; but if there is no deep trust in the inner wellspring of love, we create a cold desert, deprived of meaning, beauty, and creative passion. Similar to the process of photosynthesis, Jesus is able to transform even death, illness, and violence into a poem of life and of love.
Dialogue Questions:
1. “We are called not to hide our light under a bushel.” What fears or hesitations prevent you from fully shining your unique gift in the world?
2. How can you move to becoming a blessing to others, truly living as the light of the world?
What do we bring to the table this afternoon?
Eucharistic Prayer:
Dan L: You call us to be salt for the earth, a city on a hill. Help us, O God, to season a world that hungers and lacks direction with your goodness and shine with the radiance of your presence.
DV: Grateful eyes naturally become blessing eyes, which aligns with the call to be the light of the world, for every moment, every “now,” is a gift to be cherished.
Dan L: Spirit of the Universe, You have filled us, and all creation, with your blessing, and fed us with your constant love; you have called us in Christ Jesus, and knit us into one body. Through your Spirit you replenish us, and call us to the fullness of life.
DV: On the night before he died, Jesus was at table with his friends. He took bread, gave thanks to you, broke it, and gave it to his friends saying,
ALL: “This is my body , broken for you.”
Dan L: As supper was ending, Jesus took the cup of wine. Again he gave thanks to you, gave it to his friends and said,
ALL: “This cup is the new covenant of my lifeblood shed for you and for all. And as often as you do this. You do this in memory of me.”
DV: Now gathered at your table, we offer to you our gifts of bread and wine, and ourselves, as living offerings of your love. Pour out your Spirit upon all these gifts and all of us that we may be Your Living body, Your Lifeblood.
Breathe your Spirit over the whole earth and make us all your new creation. In the fullness of time bring us with all your saints from every tribe and language, from every people and nation to feast at the banquet prepared from the foundation of the world.
ALL: To you be the glory, the praise, the deep, abiding wonder, now and forever. Amen
Dan L: Let us pray in the words of Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer:
ALL: “Today we have gathered and when we look upon the faces around us we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now let us bring our minds together, as one as we give greetings and thank to each other as People. Now our minds are one….
We are thankful to our Mother the Earth, for she gives everything that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she still continues to care for us, just as she has from the beginning of time. To our Mother, we send thanksgiving, love and respect, Now our minds are one….
We now turn our thoughts to the Creator, or Great Spirit, and send greetings and thanks for all the gifts of Creation. Everything we need to live a good life is here on Mother earth. For all the love that is still around us, we gather our minds together as one and send our choicest words of greetings and thanks to the Creator. Now our minds are one.”
DV: Communion Welcoming:
Everyone is welcome to this table. Our God, whom the Universe cannot contain, is present to us in this bread. The God who redeems us and calls us by name now meets us in this cup. So come, take this bread, Drink this wine, In them, God comes to us, so that we may come to God.
Communion Song: Taste and See
Enid: Birthday blessings
Closing Song: This Little Light of Mine by Raffi (in remembrance of our beloved John Poole)
CLOSING PRAYER: (Victoria) Blessing of Salt, Blessing of Light
By the time you come to the end of this blessing, these words will be barely enough
to fit in the palm of your hand. But fold your fingers around them and take them as an offering, a sacrament, a sign.
Touch the words to your tongue and taste how they have traveled through marrow and bone to reach you, how they have passed through each chamber of your heart, how they have come through the layers that make up your soul-- the strata of stories and questions, longings and dreams.
Savor the way the words are not mere residue
Or dross, the bitter leavings from the refining.
By their taste, you will know instead they are the essence, they are the core,they are what has come through the burning, holding still the memory of fire and the imprint of light, holding the clarity that comes when all that is not needful passes away.
So take these words as a blessing; touch them to your mouth (may you taste)
your eyes (may you see) your ears (may you hear)
and then let them go; let them fall to earth where all salt finally returns.
See the path they make for you, the path that blazes inside of you, lighting the way ahead of you that only you can go.
And the people of this beloved Emmaus Community, say: Amen.
