Opening Words—December 4, 2011—House of the Transfiguration
A response to reading Acts of the Apostles, chapters 1 – 7
Alternating lines could be spoken by first one and then many, or rotate among the group. We passed a notebook around a table, for instance.
In the beginning, O God, your Spirit swept over the face of the waters
In the beginning, your Spirit rushed in to embrace those gathered in the upper room
In the beginning, you spoke the word of creation to the deep
In the beginning, your apostles spoke words of your power to those from every nation under heaven
In the beginning, you breathed life into the human being
In the beginning, you breathed life into the community Jesus commissioned to be witnesses to what they had seen and heard
All together:
In our beginning, O Holy One,
accompany us with your Spirit
prepare us to speak of where we see you creating and liberating in our lives,
and fill us with the new life of community.
We pray this in the name that our ancestors in the faith could not keep silent about,
Jesus the Messiah.
AMEN.
Closing Ritual—December 4, 2011—House of the Transfiguration
A response to reading Acts of the Apostles, chapters 1 – 7. Anointing with oil is a particularly powerful sign of God’s presence in some Christian traditions. The blessings weave together the experience of the apostles with contemporary queer people within the Christian family: claiming our truth in the face of opposition, caring for others and doing justice, and resisting the silencing of our own names as much as the apostles resisted the silencing of name of Jesus, through whom they experienced God’s love and healing.
Reader: A reading from Acts 2:25b-28 (The following comes from The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version, 1995, Oxford University Press)
I saw the Lord always before me,
at my side so that I will not be shaken;
therefore my heat was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
moreover my flesh will live in hope.
For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
or let your Holy One experience corruption.
You have made known to me the ways of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence
One: We have not been abandoned as queer witnesses to your life, Christ, for you follow through on your promise to empower us with the Holy Spirit.
As we leave this place, let us be reminded of God’s anointing with the Spirit—God’s presence with us. Let us each turn to our neighbor and anoint them with simple oil and three blessings. You make make the sign of the cross, a circle, or no pattern at all. I’m going to make a cross inside of a circle, if that is OK.
Anoint each other with the following blessings:
[Name], may the Spirit enable you to speak truth to power with boldness.
May the Spirit guide your hands to share what you have those in need; and to raise them in support for those struggling against oppression.
And may the Spirit be ever with you so that, thought authorities may order it, who you are and who Jesus is will not be silenced.
copyright 2011 by Ben Masters, printed with permission.
