Sunday, December 9, 2007

Call to Silence and Opening Meditation

Song ("I'll Tell You A Story," by Judith Beckman and Rose Engel):

I'll tell you a story that's old and yet new, A story that each generation finds true;
A tale of our fight against tyranny,
A tale of our fight for our right to be free...with dignity.

Antiochus, King on the Syrian throne; He ordered the people:
"No god of y0ur own; to Greek idols bow!"
Against Syria's might, the Jews were despondent, no spirit to fight (to fight)

From Mod'in came Judah and his Macabees: brothers courageous against Epiphanes.
Though small was their band, though long was their fight,
Their victory at last rekindled God's light (eternal light).

Reader: Chanukah is a festival of light. Each day another candle glows: one becomes two, two become three, until the Menorah is full of candles and the room is full of light. On Chanukah we learn that light can grow, if we do our part. It is we who must kindle a light for ourselves and others.

Reader: "My Thread" by David Hofstein

Travel-stained with my wanderer's stick and ancient pain,
O world, I have brought a white linen thread
dipped in red wine for the new wick of freedom's torch.
To that new wick of freedom's torch, thick-woven, with threads of many colors,
I too bring a thread.
When it burns and the red is black with smoke,
I shall not know the one I brought
Enough to know that I too brought my thread
for freedom's torch!

Reader" With joy and gratitude we greet this season of our freedom. Not by might was it won, not be power was it gained, but through strength of spirit, the spirit of God within us. (from Zechariah 4:6)

Reader: Since that day when the land was re won, and the Temple restored to the worship of the Holy One of Israel, we have won and we have lost, we have suffered and rejoiced. We have struggled to keep our faith alive. For all our deliverance's, we give thanks.

Reader: May all who are not free go forth from bondage; may all who suffer find healing and peace.

Song: ("Dona Dona" words by Aaron Zeitlin, music be Shalom Secunda)
On a wagon bound for market, there's a calf with a mournful eye.
High above him flies a swallow, winging swiftly through the sky.

How the winds are laughing; they laugh with all their might.
Laugh and laugh the whole day through and half the summer's night.
Dona dona, dona dona dona dona, dona dona dona dai,
Dona dona dona dona, dona dona dona dai.

"Stop complaining," said the farmer. "Who told you a calf to be?"
Why don't you have wings to fly with, like the swallow, so proud and free?"
(chorus)
Calves are easily bound and slaughtered, never knowing the reason why,
But whoever treasure freedom, like the swallow must learn to fly.
(chorus)

Reader:

We pray for all who live in darkness: let light shine upon them.
We pray for the hungry, the poor, the weak; let the sun of a better day shine on them.
We pray: may we be among those who bring this day to pass.

A reading from the Gospel of Mary

...the Blessed One greeted them all, saying: "Peace be with you-may my Peace arise and be fulfilled within you! Be vigilant, and allow no one to mislead you by saying: "Here it is!" or "
There it is!" For it is within you that the Son of Man dwells. Go to him, for those who seek him, find him. Walk forth and announce the gospel of the Kingdom.

Reader: Let the lights we kindle shine forth for the world to see. May they illumine our lives and fill us with gratitude for those who came before us, whose will and courage, time and again, kept the flame of faith from extinction.

("LIGHTING OF CHANUKAH CANDLES, with blessing and Ma-oz Tzur.)

Call to Conversation:

(except from "The Four Zoas" by William Blake"

Reader: It is an easy thing to triumph in the summer's sun, and in the vintage, and to sing on the wagon loaded with corn. It is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afflicted, to speak the laws of prudence to the homeless wanderer, to listen to the hungry raven's cry in wint'ry season, when the red blood is fill'd with wine and the marrow of lambs.

Reader: It is an easy thing to laugh at wrathful elements, to hear the dog howl at the wint'ry door, the ox in the slaughterhouse moan; to see a god on every wind and a blessing on every blast; to hear sounds of love in the thunder storm that destroys our enemies' house; to rejoice in the blight that covers his field and the sickness that cuts off his children, while our olive and vine sing and laugh 'round our door, and our children bring fruits and flowers.

Reader: Then the groan and the dolor are quite forgotten, and the slave grinding at the mill, and the captive in chains, and the poor in the prison, and the soldier in the field, when the shatter'd bone has laid him groaning among the happier dead.

It is an easy thing to rejoice in the tents of prosperity.

Closing Song: "Light One Candle"

Light one candle for the Maccabee children, give thanks that their light didn't die.
Light one candle for the pain they endured when their right to exist was denied.
Light one candle for the terrible sacrifice justice and freedom demand.
Light one candle for the wisdom to know when the peacemakers' time is at hand.

Don't let the light go out, it's lasted for so many years.
Don't let the light go out, let it shine through our love and our tears.

Light one candle for the strength that we need to never become our own foe
Light one candle for those who are suffering the pain we learned so log ago.
Light one candle for all we believe in, let anger not tear us apart.
Light one candle to bind us together with peace as the song in our heart.
Chorus
What is the memory that's valued so highly that we keep alive in that flame?
What's the commitment to those who have died when we cry out, "They've not died in vain?"
We have come this far always believing that justice will somehow prevail.
This is the burden and this is the promise and this is why we will not fail!
Chorus
Don't let the light go out, don't let the light go out, don't let the light go out!


We ask for your coments/thoughts to continue our Sunday conversation. Thank you.