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Water Communion
Sunday, September 11 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am
On September 11 we’ll gather as a community to welcome our new Minister, Rev. María Cristina, and to express our gratitude for our spiritual home, East Shore. We’ll also give thanks for having access to clean drinking water and for those bodies of water that refresh our bodies and souls. Join us in person or via zoom, as we bring together the waters we have collected (from the ocean, rivers, or our garden hose) to pour into a communal vessel, symbol of our Beloved Community.
How to Attend
Bulletin
We require masks in all buildings. We encourage all in person participants to be vaccinated. Read more about our In Person Guidelines here.
• To virtually attend, please Zoom in using room number 989 3107 9078, passcode: chalice.
• To phone into the service, call 669-900-6833, Meeting ID: 989 3107 9078.
For those joining, please mute as soon as you enter the room, so everyone can hear. Please note, the services will be recorded, but at this time, there are no plans to share the recording.
More Information
Religious Education for children and youth happens on Sunday. Learn more here!
If you don’t have a chalice, but want to light one, check out our Making a Chalice at Home page.
Both virtual and in person services are followed by coffee hour.
Children’s Story
Sermon Audio
Water Communion
Sermon Text
One of my favorite quotes from Buddhist Teacher Thich Nhat Hanh is: “Our true home is in the here and now… I have arrived. I am home in the here and now. I am solid. I am free. In the ultimate I dwell.”
When I realized that my first time leading worship would be on September 11, I felt my heart racing…aching…I wondered whether this was an auspicious day and whether I should reschedule it…September 11 brings up memories of the twin towers in New York city, a tragic event that appeared on our tv screens almost like an incredible horror movie…unfortunately it was very real…for New Yorkers, their families, for this nation, and the world, the tragedy of September 11, 2001 will be etched in our memories forever…Almost three decades before, On September 11, 1973, in Chile, my country, there was a horrible military coup that resulted in years of a dictatorship that persecuted, jailed, disappeared and executed thousands of people, including my own family members. For me, it is also the reason we lost our home and became immigrants. For Chile, for my family, and the world, September 11, 1973, will always be a day of mourning, a day to denounce injustice, a day to recommit to human rights and freedom. To know me is to know that September 11 shaped me, made me the minister I am: committed to social justice and to making this world a better place, dedicated to building the Beloved Community wherever I go.
As an immigrant, I have experienced the grief of leaving home, friends and family behind; So how could I find inspiration or joy in greeting you officially from this pulpit on a day like today? Well, to know me is also to know that while I have been marked by intense grief, and have lost home many times, I have also had the blessing of reimagining and recreating home every single time I came into a new community. Like many of you, I carry both the grief of the losses accumulated over the years as well as the joys of falling in love, giving birth to dreams, building a family of choice, delighting in learning and teaching, learning to dance like nobody’s watching, sharing my story, and like healing water, allowing myself to be transformed by the power of love. I am an immigrant, bringing with me the beauty, the wisdom, and the songs and poetry of my ancestors from southern and northern Chile and Greece, with a life experience that brought me to New York, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, California, and now here with you in Bellevue, Washington state. My family and I have built and rebuilt our home time and time again. Always missing those beloved friends, we left behind yet always hopeful that we would make new friends in our new home. On this date that conjures up so much grief, I choose to summon hope and joy as a revolutionary act, for after all the root of the word revolution is to turn. I choose to declare this day to be auspicious, life giving, and I invite us to turn together towards joy, towards hope, towards the light that shines bright in our hearts, towards this new beginning that allows us to live into the both and, to acknowledge our losses, to honor our grief, and to make room for the new, for new ways of being with each other, making room for the restoration of trust, for strengthening our faith in this Beloved community, our spiritual home.
My dear seminary colleague Valarie Kaur taught me that in the Sikh religious tradition there is an amazing daily spiritual practice: it is called Chardi kala: ever-rising spirits, ever-rising joy even, and especially, in the midst of chaos, of suffering, of uncertainty, of fear… I share Valarie’s gift with you this morning to remind you of how courageous, creative, and brave you have been over the years: you who have held onto each other, laughed and cried together, kept the faith and kept this congregation strong and vibrant over many decades, you who might have many reasons not to feel joy right now…I invite you into the practice of Chardi kala. Valarie teaches us that we cannot force joy but that we must make room for it, for joy is our greatest act of moral resistance. When we let joy in, we welcome hope, we embody possibilities, together. Joy, like water, refreshes and renews our spirits. Joy, like water, breaks through, wears down the rock, joy like water flows and transforms everything and everyone it touches…
Beloveds, are you ready to practice joy as an expression of our revolutionary love? Are you ready to step into a new shared ministry with a foundation built upon the daily practice of Chardi kala? Are you ready to turn towards the light of hope, towards each other with love? May we feel at home in the world, in loving solidarity with all who suffer. May we feel at home in this community, our shelter in the storm. May we open the doors of our hearts and our sanctuary to let the spirit of joy in and allow it to flow and dwell among us.
“Our true home is in the here and now… We have arrived. We are home in the here and now. We are solid. We are free. In the ultimate we dwell.”
Amen. Ashé. Blessed Be!
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