“Summer’s Glory”©
Mattatuck Unitarian Universalist Society, Woodbury, CT
The Rev. Jeanne Lloyd, Minister
June 19, 2011
“I believe a single blade of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars . . .”
~ Walt Whitman PRELUDE
(In the spirit of peace, we invite you into silence and quiet reflection while we listen to
the prelude.)
CALL TO GATHER
“Come, Come Whoever You Are” #188 Come, come, whoever you are,
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
Ours is no caravan of despair.
Come, yet again come.
Minister: “Come, come, whoever you are; Man, woman, parent, child Whatever your religious journey, Whatever your skin color, Whatever your abilities, However you identify yourself, Whomever you love­ You are welcome here this morning. You are welcome at our table. You are welcome in this religious home.” WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Good Morning! Welcome to the Mattatuck Unitarian Universalist Society, and to Flanders Nature Center. I am The Rev. Jeanne Lloyd, and it is my great pleasure and privilege to serve this wonderful congregation. We welcome all of you. � To newcomers we are especially glad that you found your way to us, today. Please be sure to introduce yourself to us after the service. Give us a chance to get to know you. � To parents – we encourage our children to stay with us in this service until after joys & sorrows, when they will go with our teachers to their class in another part of the nature center. They are, of course, welcome to stay with you throughout the service, as well. ©2011. All notes, research, sermons and other products are the sole intellectual property of Rev. Lloyd, unless otherwise noted as the intellectual property of another. Sermons may be copied for individual use, only. If quoted, appropriate attribution to Rev. Lloyd is expected.
“Summer’s Glory”
Rev. Jeanne Lloyd, 6­19­11
Page 2 of 9
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This congregation is what we each bring to it. Today’s service was made
possible by a number of people. Please stand or raise your hand if you worked
as a volunteer to bring this service together. Many hands and hearts make light
work. Thank you.
In particular, after the service, Joan Smith­Walleck will provide a guided tour of
the botany trail, and, Arthur Milnor will provide a hayride to explore the nature
center and all it offers.
Please note that we have available a clean accessible toilet.
Please note the announcements in your order of service. If there are any other
MUUS related announcements that are not already in the Order of Service, we
ask that you line up to my left to share them now and please use the
microphone.”
Here endeth this morning’s greetings and announcements.
Let us begin our service. I invite everyone to relax your body, come into this space of
beauty, faith and love. Take the next few moments to focus on your breathing. Breathe
deeply. Relax. We welcome you into this place made more sacred by your presence.
SOUNDING OF BELL
CHALICE LIGHTING
Please join me in saying our chalice lighting.
Love is the spirit of this society.
Dwelling together in peace,
Seeking truth,
Helping one another,
Serving human needs,
Honoring the Earth and all that is,
This is our covenant.
*HYMN #389 “Gathered Here”
Gathered here in the mystery of the hour.
Gathered here in one strong body.
Gathered here in the struggle & the power.
Spirit, draw near.
©2011. All notes, research, sermons and other products are the sole intellectual property of Rev. Lloyd,
unless otherwise noted as the intellectual property of another. Sermons may be copied for individual use,
only. If quoted, appropriate attribution to Rev. Lloyd is expected.
“Summer’s Glory” Rev. Jeanne Lloyd, 6­19­11 Page 3 of 9 RECEIVING THE FLOWERS (You are invited to bring your flowers forward or you may
hand them to someone else to bring forward) (walking music)
*CONSECRATING THE FLOWERS – UNISON READING
Flowers unfold slowly and gently, bit by bit in the sunshine. A soul, too, must never be pushed or driven but unfolds in its own perfect timing to reveal its true wonder and beauty. Our work is to be gardeners of . . . souls, wherever we are. Everywhere, seeds are beginning to germinate. Let us tend them with the greatest of care. They are very tender and delicate. Let us water them with love. (from The Findhorn Garden)
HONORING OUR JOYS AND SORROWS (with music)
Each of us, this day, awoke, to the earth’s glory, with pressing matters on our hearts and minds. These matters envelope us in a variety of spirits, the Spirit of Joy and of Sorrow, the Spirit of Worry and of Gratitude, the Spirit of Love and of Discontent. Each of us has things on our minds or dwelling in our hearts that we know we need to let go of, if only for a while in the sheltered sanctuary of this congregation. Let the water in this vessel symbolize our shared joys buoyed by this community. Let each stone symbolize our individual worries & sorrows. You are invited to come forward in body or spirit, to take a stone, imagining it to be a burden, to let go. Let it fall away from you. Relinquish its power to possess. Allow the sustaining power of the Spirit of Life and this congregation to call you forward into the path of Love and reconciliation.
PRAYER AND MEDITATION
In Words & Song “Spirit of Life” #123
In honor of all parents today, I offer you this reading by Philip Booth, called, “First Lesson.” First Lesson by Philip Booth
Lie back daughter, [lie back son], let your head be tipped back in the cup of my hand. Gently, and I will hold you. Spread your arms wide, lie out on the stream and look high at the gulls. ©2011. All notes, research, sermons and other products are the sole intellectual property of Rev. Lloyd, unless otherwise noted as the intellectual property of another. Sermons may be copied for individual use, only. If quoted, appropriate attribution to Rev. Lloyd is expected.
“Summer’s Glory” Rev. Jeanne Lloyd, 6­19­11 Page 4 of 9 A dead­man's float is face down. You will dive and swim soon enough where this tidewater ebbs to the sea. Daughter, [son,] believe me, when you tire on the long thrash to your island, lie up, and survive. As you float now, where I held you and let go, remember when fear cramps your heart what I told you: Lie gently and wide to the light­year stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you. Hymn #123 Spirit of Life
SILENCE
CHILDREN’S BLESSING (the children gather their flowers)
Our children are a blessing to us, their parents, and members of this congregation.
Likewise, we invite them to come forward to take a flower, a blessing of the earth, for
their own, as they go to their class.
HOMILY
“Summer’s Glory” A Collection of Poems & Prose
adapted by Rev. Jeanne Lloyd
Christopher Robin as written by AA Milne
"Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known." (from Julie Howell) PAUSE Brian Andreas (from Kate MacKinney)
"She said she cried almost every day, not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful and life was so short." PAUSE Ode to Spring by Robin Sotire, June 2011
Bursting forth, reborn, renewed, ©2011. All notes, research, sermons and other products are the sole intellectual property of Rev. Lloyd, unless otherwise noted as the intellectual property of another. Sermons may be copied for individual use, only. If quoted, appropriate attribution to Rev. Lloyd is expected.
“Summer’s Glory” Rev. Jeanne Lloyd, 6­19­11 Page 5 of 9 following the pull of the cycles of the sun. Moved by a knowing within, a way of being. Vivid wild color, splendor of fragrance, gentle rains. Rejuvenating, refreshing, invigorating. A sensuous warming, a yearning to be free, dreams awakened, minds impregnated with wonder. Songs are in the breezes, wishes are in the clouds, possibilities are in the earth, magic is in the forests. Life in balance and everlasting, primordial joy that knows itself realized. The promise of contentment, nature ­ verdant, rich, absolute, Divine. PAUSE The Message by Norma Jean Moore, August 1995
While wondering through the woodlands, passing tree after tree – Stop and hear the message they give to you and me. “We love to have you visit us,” I heard one say one day, “But please don’t pull our bark or leaves off, and then just walk away. Sit down and watch the birds with us, beneath our lovely limbs, and think about the wonders that only nature gives.” PAUSE Be Like the Bird by Victor Hugo (from George Roberts) Be like the bird, ©2011. All notes, research, sermons and other products are the sole intellectual property of Rev. Lloyd, unless otherwise noted as the intellectual property of another. Sermons may be copied for individual use, only. If quoted, appropriate attribution to Rev. Lloyd is expected.
“Summer’s Glory” Rev. Jeanne Lloyd, 6­19­11 Page 6 of 9 who halting in his flight on limb too slight feels it give way beneath him, Yet sings . . . knowing he hath wings.
(In this moment, during the service a hummingbird came into the tent and took our
breath away.)
PAUSE From Mary Oliver, "While I am Writing a Poem to Celebrate Summer, the Meadowlark
Begins to Sing" (from Barbara Eler) Sixty­seven years, oh Lord, to look at the clouds, the trees in deep, moist summer, daisies and morning glories open every morning their small, ecstatic faces­­­ Or maybe I should just say how I wish I had a voice like the meadowlark's sweet, clear, and reliably slurring all day long from the fencepost, or the long grass where it lives in a tiny but adequate grass hut beside the mullein (mullen) and the everlasting, the faint­pink roses that have never been improved, but come to bud then open like little soft sighs under the meadowlark's whistle, its breath­praise, its thrill­song, its anthem, its thanks, its alleluia . . . PAUSE Deep Summer by Mary Oliver from her book, Evidence (from Barbara Eler) The mockingbird opens his throat, among the thorns, ©2011. All notes, research, sermons and other products are the sole intellectual property of Rev. Lloyd, unless otherwise noted as the intellectual property of another. Sermons may be copied for individual use, only. If quoted, appropriate attribution to Rev. Lloyd is expected.
“Summer’s Glory” Rev. Jeanne Lloyd, 6­19­11 Page 7 of 9 for his own reasons but doesn't mind if we pause to listen and learn something for ourselves; He doesn't stop, he nods his gray head with the frightfully bright eyes, he flirts his supple tail, he says: “Listen, if you would listen.” There's no end to good talk, to passion songs, to the melodies that say this branch, this tree is mine; to the wholesome happiness of being alive on a patch of this green earth in the deep pleasures of summer. What a bird! “Your clocks,” he says plainly, “which are always ticking, do not have to be listened to.” [Instead, listen to] the spirit of his every word. PAUSE A small portion of “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman1, 1819­1892, age 73
. . . Night of south winds­­night of the large few stars! Still nodding night­­mad . . . summer night. Smile O voluptuous cool­breath'd earth! Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees! Earth of departed sunset ­­earth of the mountains misty­topt! Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue! Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river! Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake! Far­swooping elbow'd earth­­rich apple­blossom'd earth! Smile, for your lover comes. Prodigal, you have given me love­­therefore I to you give love! O unspeakable passionate love. 1
http://www.daypoems.net/poems/1900.html June 4, 2011
©2011. All notes, research, sermons and other products are the sole intellectual property of Rev. Lloyd, unless otherwise noted as the intellectual property of another. Sermons may be copied for individual use, only. If quoted, appropriate attribution to Rev. Lloyd is expected.
“Summer’s Glory” Rev. Jeanne Lloyd, 6­19­11 Page 8 of 9 31 I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars, And . . . [all] is equally perfect, [as is] a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren, And the tree­toad . . . And the running blackberry [that] would adorn the parlors of heaven, The narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery, The cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue, A mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions . . . . . . 52 The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering. I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric “yawp” over the roofs of the world. The last scud of day holds back for me . . . It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk. I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun, the runaway sun, the runaway sun, I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags. I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again[,] look for me under your boot­soles. You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, But I shall be good health to you nevertheless, And filter and fibre your blood. Failing to fetch me at first[,] keep encouraged, Missing me one place[,] search another, I stop somewhere[,] waiting for you. And, so may it be. ©2011. All notes, research, sermons and other products are the sole intellectual property of Rev. Lloyd, unless otherwise noted as the intellectual property of another. Sermons may be copied for individual use, only. If quoted, appropriate attribution to Rev. Lloyd is expected.
“Summer’s Glory” Rev. Jeanne Lloyd, 6­19­11 Page 9 of 9 PAUSE FLOWER COMMUNION (You are invited to retrieve a flower while we sing our hymn)
In the spirit of gratitude and humility for nature’s bounty and this people’s generosity, you are each invited to come forth to take a flower, remembering that it is by our sharing with one another that we come to understand the whole of which we are a part. OFFERINGS “Run Come See the Sun” Pete Seeger
Today we bask in the glory of the sun, the sweetness of this earth, the love of this congregation and those who love us. Gratitude arises from our hearts. It calls us to give something of ourselves in return. Let us give as best we can to sustain this loving congregation. *EXTINGUISHING THE CHALICE We extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. These we carry in our hearts until we are together again. Let the congregation say, AMEN! Please be seated. I’d like to ask Arthur Milnor, Executive Director, to come forward to receive our thanks and gratitude for letting us worship here today. ©2011. All notes, research, sermons and other products are the sole intellectual property of Rev. Lloyd, unless otherwise noted as the intellectual property of another. Sermons may be copied for individual use, only. If quoted, appropriate attribution to Rev. Lloyd is expected.