May 23, 2009 Gathering - BBQ Afterward!!

WELCOME

 

Welcome to The Pub Church! As a church in a pub, the Spirit is with us. In this space feel free to move about, order drinks/food, doodle, and express ideas openly!  

 

We come together with diversity of thoughts, stories, talents, hopes and hurts. All we bring is welcome; our prayer is that in coming together with all our differences and with Spirit, we participate toward a new divine reality. This is sacred space.

 

OPENING READING

By Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook (p. 120)

 

This I have always known – that if I did not live my life immersed in the one activity which suits me, and which also, to tell the truth, keeps me utterly happy and intrigued, I would come someday to bitter and mortal regret.

 

SILENT MEDITATION

Be Still and Aware of the Divine presence within and all around us.

 

TELLING OUR STORY

 

PEACE – TOAST

 

In this place we creatively express;

Some of us are focused, some are a mess!

 

We participate during the sermon

And people do connect, we are learnin’

 

Greet all with a handshake, toast or a wave

At all times feel free to yell, rant or rave

 

Fake not friends, we can arrive as we are.

Cheers! Here’s to sacred space in a bar!

CONVERSATIONAL SERMON 

Mark 2: 13-22

 

Again, he went out by the sea. And with a huge crowd gathered around him, he started teaching. 

¹⁴As he was walking along, he caught sight of Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the toll booth, and he says to him, “Follow me!” And he got up and followed him. ¹⁵ Then, Jesus happened to recline at table in (Levi’s) house, along with many toll collectors and sinners and Jesus’ disciples. (Remember, there were many of these people and they were all following him.) ¹⁶And whenever the Pharisees’ scholars saw him eating with sinners and toll collectors, they would question his disciples: “What’s he doing eating with the toll collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷When Jesus overhears, he says to them: “Since when do the able-bodied need a doctor? It’s the sick who do. I did not come to enlist religious folks but sinners!”

John’s disciples and the Pharisees were in the habit of fasting, and they come and ask him, “Why do the disciples of John fast and the disciples of the Pharisees, but your disciples don’t?” ¹⁹And Jesus says to them: “The groom’s friends can’t fast while the groom is around, can they? So long as the groom is around, you can’t expect them to fast. ²⁰But the days will come when the groom is taken away from them, and then they will fast, on that day.

²¹“Nobody sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, otherwise, the new, unshrunk patch pulls away from the old and creates a worse tear. ²²And nobody pours young wine into old wineskins, otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and destroy both the wine and the skins. Instead, young wine is for new wineskins.

~~~~~~~

·        Thoughts on today’s reading.

·        Questions?

·        Why don’t religious folks need a doctor?

 

SHARING OF RESOURCES

COMMUNION

 THE INVITATION

One:  God is with us.

All:  Yes she is.

 

FEEDBACK AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

CLOSING PRAYER

 

Great, living God, never fully known,

joyful darkness far beyond our seeing,

closer yet than breathing,

go with us now as we continue to drink in the spirit!