Justice Sunday 2014
Plant Seeds, Harvest Hope
A Worship Service Reflecting on Food Sovereignty
By Rev. Katherine Jesch
Whether in local U.S. communities or in low-income communities of the Global South, growing resistance to the land grab by powerful multinational interests is creating openings for new structures to organize the production and distribution of food. Building on our understanding of food justice and ethical eating, how are Unitarian Universalists engaging with this added dimension of food sovereignty, both in our own communities and around the globe?
Note: All suggested numbered hymns and readings are from Singing the Living Tradition, unless otherwise specified.
Chalice Lighting
#434, by Anonymous
May we be reminded here of our highest aspirations,
and inspired to bring our gifts of love and service
to the altar of humanity.
May we know once again that we are not isolated beings
but connected, in mystery and miracle, to the universe,
to this community and to each other.
Katherine Jesch
Call to Worship
#451, by Leslie Pohl-Kosbau
Flame of fire, spark of the universe
that warmed our ancestral
hearth—
agent of life and death,
symbol of truth and freedom,
We strive to understand ourselves and our earthly home.
Come let us worship together.
Opening Hymn
#175, “We Celebrate the Web of Life”
Alternate: #1028, Singing the Journey, “The Fire of Commitment”
Responsive Reading
Adapted from #438, “Morning,” by Clinton Lee Scott
This reading was used by travelers to the eco-villages of Haiti in March 2012. The images have been slightly adapted to express some of what they witnessed during that experience.
From the east comes the sun, bringing a new and unspoiled day.
It has already circled the earth
and looked upon distant lands and far-away peoples.
It has passed over mountain ranges
and the waters of the seven seas.
It has shone upon laborers in the fields,
into the windows of homes, and shops, and factories.
It has beheld proud cities with gleaming towers,
and also the hovels of the poor.
It has been witness to both good and evil,
the works of honest men and women,
and the conspiracy of the selfish and greedy.
It has seen the ruins of flooded valleys,
the ruins of shaken buildings, the ashes of burned landscapes.
It has seen flowers planted by survivors
at the entrance of emerging villages,
the naked soil, plowed by the survivors,
ready to receive the seeds of the future.
Now, unsullied from its tireless journey,
the sun comes to us, messenger of the morning,
Harbinger of the new day.
Story for All Ages
“The Bippolo Seed,” by Dr. Seuss, in The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories
Singing the Children Out
#402, “From You I Receive”
Sharing of Joys and Sorrows
Candles of Concern
“Within the Shining of a Star”
Meditation
“Communion Circle,” by Mark Belletini, in Sonata for Voice and Silence: Meditations
The earth.
One planet.
Round, global,
so that when you trace its shape
with your finger,
you end up where you started. It’s one. It’s whole.
All the dotted lines we draw on our maps
of this globe are just that, dotted lines.
They smear easily.
Oceans can be crossed.
Mountains can be crossed.
Even the desert can be crossed.
The grain that grows on one side of the border
tastes just as good as the grain on the other side.
Moreover, bread made from rice is just as nourishing
to body and spirit as bread made from corn,
or spelt or teff or wheat or barley.
There is no superior land, no chosen site,
no divine destiny falling on any one nation
who draws those dotted lines just so.
There is only one earth we all share,
we, the living, with all else that lives
and does not live. Virus, granite, wave,
city, cornfield, prophet, beggar, child,
slum, tower, mine, robin, eel, grandfather,
rose, olive branch, bayonet, and this poem
and moment are all within the circle,
undivided by dotted lines or final certainties.
Everything,
everything, for good or ill,
is part of the shared whole:
sky, earth, song, words and now, this silence.
[Silence]
Hymn
#207, “Earth Was Given as a Garden”
Alternate: #69, “Give Thanks”
Sermon
“Plant Seeds, Harvest Justice,” by Rev. Katherine Jesch
Katherine Jes
Prayer
For activists and justice workers
Spirit of Life and of Love, God of many names,
We are grateful for this opportunity to give and receive the blessings of working for a just and sustainable future for all the beings who inhabit this Earth. Today we are reminded that our work for justice is not a lonely path. We ask for grace to sustain our motivation and commitment for the long haul. Help us to be good partners with all the activists and advocates who work to create empowering change and foster a climate of creativity and hope.
Now is our time to give our gifts to the world. We are reminded that our charge to work for justice and compassion is a sacred duty, and we are grateful to be a part of this exciting time when we can literally change the world. Grant us blessing as we engage our minds and hearts, as well as our hands and feet, for this work of a lifetime.
Amen and blessed be.
Hymn
#134, “Our World Is One World”
Alternate: #121, “We’ll Build a Land”
Closing Words
#693, by V. Emil Gudmundson
And now, may we have faith in life to do wise planting that the generations to come may reap even more abundantly than we. May we be bold in bringing to fruition the golden dreams of human kinship and justice. This we ask that the fields of promise become fields of reality.
Benediction
Go in peace,
walk with gratitude,
and practice love.
Amen and blessed be.