Celebrant: God, you are with us.
People: You are always with us.
Celebrant: May we open our hearts.
People: May we know your presence.
Celebrant: In thanksgiving,
People: And in deepest honor.
Who is our neighbor? That’s the question:
Who is this person we’re to love?
The one across the street? Or next door?
Or in the apartment up above?
Our hymnals are full of great hymns. Great because the melodies and harmonies have survived, in some cases for centuries. Great because the lyrics, whether in their original language, or translated, or adapted, can often read as timeless poetry, lending themselves to effortless memorization.
read moreThis, my song, a skeptic’s hymn,
ode to mystery within,
Sung to you no one can prove,
dwelling there, as real as love.
Spirit within us, Spirit we call Holy,
With us, not of us, God’s own self with ours.
Presence of power, Spirit to spirit given,
This be our prayer now:
Through us your will be done.
Here is bread and here is wine,
Food and drink we savor with delight;
Now upon this altar blessed,
Moving us beyond our taste and sight.
Within our life we have two homes,
Known in our minds, and in our bones.
To one who often will return.
For one our spirits ever yearn.
For one our spirits ever yearn.
God’s dearest work of art
we long have called the heart,
The depth within from which begin
the prayers that we impart.
Jesus, you were born at Christmas,
like us, a child of God.