Here is a video of this week's chaple service:
I have learned that some of you have computers without the capacity for sound, so a transcript of our chapel service is below for you:
Opening Prayer:
God of the still, small voice, quiet us within.
Help us to understand your guidance.
Let the words of the scripture inform us:
“Be still and know that I am God.”
In weakness, help us know our strength.
In depression, help us know our joy.
In apathy, help us know our love.
We pray all his with grateful hearts and in your name, Amen.
Sparking Hope and Imagination:
It is Hanukkah, friends, and so I thought for our chapel service today we might explore what that is and what exactly it means.
Hanukkah, (Hebrew: “Dedication”) is also called Feast of Dedication, Festival of Lights, or Feast of the Maccabees, and is celebrated for eight days. Hanukkah reaffirms the ideals of Judaism and commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem by the lighting of candles on each day of the festival.
I am no expert in comparative theology nor am I Jewish, but I discovered this Blessing for Shabbat Chanukkah by Rabbi Michael Adam Latz online, and I thought it would be great to share with you today:
“The Kabbalists (Jewish mystics) teach that before humanity was created, the world was a perfect vessel of Divine light.
When the universe birthed its first humans, that light shattered, each fragment to spark the hope and imagination of every soul who would ever dwell on Earth.
After this year we’ve been through, we feel the rupture and the shatteredness acutely; we feel it in our bodies, in our souls, in our tears.
In a sky dark with a politics of callousness and peddlers of cynicism and despair, we could so easily be consumed by the blight of despair. The miracle of Hanukkah is not that oil lasted for eight days or that the Macabees defeated the Assyrian army.
The miracle of Hanukkah is that in the depths of winter and the valleys of darkness, each of us has the capacity to take our spark of Divine light and illuminate the world with it. We Jews are a people intoxicated with compassion and consumed with hope. Hope is our superpower.
So as we light the flames of Hanukkah, we are called to ignite possibility and promise, kindness and decency.
It isn’t easy. Forces want to snuff out our hope, want us to believe we have no power, need us for their own material gain to believe that we and our lives do not matter.
But we do matter. And when we join together to touch our sparks with our neighbors, to ignite the promise of equity and equality, justice and human dignity, we create a blaze of truth and a fire of holy love that will remake the world.”
Beautiful, right?
My friends, I share this with you to let you know in this holiday season, when we string lights and light candles for Christmas that Christians do not have a corner on the market of that light.
Many faith traditions around the world have observances and holidays during this time of year that serve to illumine the dark. And, without a doubt, we have been living in dark times.
That spark that the rabbi speaks of gives me great hope, and the understanding that no matter who we are or where we are from, there is an inner spark within everyone to light the way and unite us all.
I thank you for reading, be blessed this day.
Just because we are not meeting in person does not mean we cannot make prayer requests. You can do so in the chapel on the first floor of the hospital, or by email to jshawker@connallymmc.org Your requests are kept confidential and prayed over for a total of sixty days.
The Prayer for Protection (Rev. James Dillet Freemen)
The light of God surrounds us.
The love of God enfolds us.
The power of God protects us.
The presence of God watches over us.
Wherever we are, God is.
Amen.
And a song about inner light for you to enjoy:
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