Performing Arts Center of MetroWest, Framingham

Pearl St. Entrance; Red Door & Elevator to 3rd Floor!

Laughter:  one of the “ordinary miracles” of our lives.  Children do it naturally, reminding us how good it feels.  Scientists tell us that laughter reduces the levels of our stress hormones, increasing health-enhancing hormones like endorphins; they remind us that it enhances our immune system and reduces the physical effects of stress.

Jesus must have laughed.  Luke remembers him promising laughter for those who found themselves weeping (6. 21).  He delighted in children, who live in an abundance of laughter; maybe that’s what he meant when he told the stern adult disciples that “to them belongs the reign of God”!

And the parables – which he may have told like this:  “Hey, did you hear the one about that millionaire from the Twin Cities who wanted to throw a party? Or. . .the Norwegian bachelor farmer?”  Okay, it would have been a rich guy from Jerusalem, and a poor Galilean farmer.  But, hey! you get the point.

Now, whatever happened to laughter in church?  Come find out this Sunday evening, as we celebrate laughter as a measure of grace among us.

Wear something ridiculous.  Come prepared for joy.  And why not, when you consider the options?

Come to taste the joy that cannot help but laugh.  Sing.  And, who knows, maybe even dance!  Come ready to welcome OpenSpirit, the laughter of God among us!

November 15, 2009; 7-8 pm; Performing Arts Center of MetroWest

Sound and silence, Psalms and Himalayan Singing Bowls.  How are these connected?   Join us as OpenSpirit welcomes a special guest this Sunday evening, Dr. Doug Koch from Curry College.  It promises to be a moving experience. 

“As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for You ,O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When shall I enter and behold the face of God?”  Psalm 42:1,2

The Psalms articulate so many facets of human yearning for companionship with God.  These relational poems utter the anguish, the ecstasy, the self-rightness, and ego transcendence of persons aiming their lives into God’s.  Are we so aimed?  How shall we “enter and behold?”

In our meditation this Sunday evening we will explore ways we may enter more deeply through one particular psalm into God’s Presence.  Psalm 42 will be our “portal to the Presence,” facilitated by the intriguing and transcendent sounds of Himalayan singing bowls.

What do these sounds, bowl and psalm, reveal to us about prayer and practicing presence?  How might we express our yearning for God in this duet of sacred sounds?

OpenSpirit Sunday Evening; November 8, 2009; 7-8pm; Performing Arts Center of MetroWest

Bring a friend–or something that reminds you of a friend. 

It’s easy to take friendship for granted.  We get busy; we lose touch; we forget to let our friends know how much they matter to us.  This Sunday, November 8, we will take to honor our friends and our friendships.  We will lift up friendship as an “ordinary miracle.”

Surely it is miraculous when children learn to share with each other, when bonds form across differences that usually separate, when we forgive large and small hurts, when we drop other priorities to support one another.

For our celebration, we invite you to bring a friend.  Or if your friend is not available, bring something that reminds you of a friend–a picture, a gift, a memory.  Our worship will include an opportunity to share miracle stories–stories of friendship.

November 1, 2009; 7-8pm; Performing Arts Center of MetroWest, Framingham, MA

Invitation:  Bring a picture or story of your favorite saint – famous or anonymous!

But wait!  What on earth IS a saint?  Someone extra-ordinary, holier than the rest?  A worker of wonders, possessing special power, revealing a sacred dimension above and beyond the mundane?

Gustav Klimt "The Tree of Life"

Who on earth is a saint?  Could it be someone simply human,  someone who perseveres in some extraordinary way?

‘A cloud of witnesses’ … saints inspire us in faith and spirit, in works of justice and of love.   In their daily lives, they show us the holy in and among and all around us.

Who are the saints you revere and remember in the family tree of faith?  Who are saints among your ancestors and those you love?  Bring a photo or object, some representation of a saint we can lift up together.

All Saints Evening, at OpenSpirit.  In music and memory, in hope and faith, we will celebrate our saints in the family tree of life.  In this season of falling leaves, we will remember those who have gone before … and those whose touch and voice and meaning are still very much with us.

Sunday, October 25, 2009; 7-8 pm; Performing Arts Center of MetroWest

Over the last week, perhaps you have participated in a variety of events around the International Week of Climate Action, leading up to the crucial gathering of world leaders in Copenhagen in December. 

The events of this weekend highlight that we are at a turning point in the life of our planet, and they call us to action to reduce our collective carbon footprints dramatically. The challenges we face are daunting, and the potential to make a difference is energizing.

In the midst of this week of education and calls to action, our gathering this Sunday invites us to step back–to celebrate that we are part of this wondrous creation, to honor  beauty and hope, and to seek strength and grace for the work we are called to do.

We are blessed to have folk singer Dean Stevens joining us for this service.  Along with Willie Sordillo on saxophone, Dean will offer original songs, along with songs from Jean Ritchie, Fred Small, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Bernardo Palombo, and Jay Mankita.

October 18, 2009; 7 – 8 pm; Performing Arts Center of MetroWest

“Love, love, love:  all you need is love!”  So sang the bard among us, reminding us of what we all know:  that love is the heart of what makes us human.   

It is the theme of songwriters through the ages, the story-line that shapes novels and films with a beguiling beauty.  It’s not always easy, of course.  In its complications, it brings not only laughter but also tears to us.  In all this it surely ranks as the greatest of the “ordinary miracles” we come to know in our lives.

And know it we do, as a power at once fragile and holy, one sanctified but also complicated by desire.  It is “strong as death, and passion fierce as the grave,” as one ancient Hebrew poet put it; “many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.”

This week, we will give ourselves to the miracle of human love, and see how it is celebrated in scripture and song, ancient and modern.  It is the poet’s great theme, and ours.  Love fires the story we find in the “Song of Songs,” that un-religious jewel at the heart of the Bible.  In anticipation of our gathering, find time to read and meditate on this text, especially ch. 2.  Who is this unnamed lover who knows herself as “a lily of the valleys”?  And who does she extol as the “apple tree among all the forest’s trees”? 

This week, we’ll celebrate love in all its longings.  We’ll hear from this love-song in scripture, and from other love songs penned by more recent poets and bards.  Bring one of your own favorites to share as we celebrate the “ordinary miracle” of love in all its passion and beauty.

My heart’s love
came down to his garden,
to the bedding of spice,
to meander in his garden
and to browse among the lillies.

I am my beloved’s
and he is mine.
He feeds among these lillies.  (Song of Songs 6. 2 – 3)

OpenSpirit Sunday Evening; October 11, 2009; 7 – 8pm; Performing Arts Center of MetroWest

First, an invitation!  Please, if you are able, bring something with you – ’something you possess that possesses you.’

Is there a belonging that weighs you down, encumbers you?  If you can’t bring the item itself, then bring something that symbolizes it.  You’ll find out the rest when you get here!   

Jesus calls us to let go of anything that gets in the way of God.  Sometimes we perceive his call as a joyous invitation; sometimes it is a challenge to our way of being in this world.

Together, we will explore Jesus’ ancient words, a passage from the Gospel of Mark … which are perhaps more relevant in these days than ever before.

Do you ever long for simplicity, be owned less by material possessions?  Bring this longing to OpenSpirit.  We will reflect on letting go, and in so doing, receiving.  Losing, in order to find; it’s paradoxical, like many things in the life of the spirit.

Come, be with us as we search together for simple gifts of the Spirit.  OpenSpirit; in the evening light, to the strains of music and the whispers of prayer, God is with us.

OpenSpirit, Sunday Evening, October 4th, 2009; 7 – 8pm; Performing Arts Center of MetroWest.

Healing happens.  Maybe not always on our timetable;  maybe not in the way we expected.  But God does bring healing, and our spirits rise with new life.

Healing happens.  And even in those times when healing of the body is not possible, there can still be healing for our spirit; transformation, resurrection of joy. 

The Gospels are punctuated with stories of Jesus, healing people.  Sometimes he healed their bodies.  This week we’ll focus on a story of Jesus liberating a woman’s spirit from that which kept it down, and the way she rose up, reaching for God, in praise.

What is healing, for you?  Do you have a miraculous story?  Or is this a time when you are deep in prayer, deep in need, waiting – sometimes patiently, sometimes not – for God’s healing touch?

Come, bring your story or your need to OpenSpirit.  In word and in song, with time to reflect and respond, we will center ourselves around our shared memories and hopes of healing.

OpenSpirit.  We light the lamps of evening, gather in an open circle, tune up the instruments and our voices, and practice God’s presence in new and ancient Christian ways.  Bring who you are, and what you carry.  Lay your burdens down, for a time, and let yoursef be held – in community, and in God.

September 27, 2009; 7 – 8pm; Performing Arts Center of MetroWest, Framingham, MA.

Are you longing for space to listen for God?  Come, join us; OpenSpirit can be that space.  Are you searching for ways to hear God’s voice, companions who will listen with you?

Eremitic Order of Mount Carmel: Elijah the Prophet

Do we hear that precious voice in a whisper, in the wind?  In flames of fire, an earthquake’s power?  Or is it found in paradox, a sound of sheer silence?  Come, at OpenSpirit, we will experience all of these.  Together, we listen for Beloved’s voice; gathered, we discern invitation and message and call.

Last week, we sojourned with Elijah under ‘broom trees’ of our own; sustaining angels graced our stories, and our prayer.  This week, let us journey with our ancient prophet to the mountaintop, experience the majesty of Creation’s elements.  Let us discover the Voice, the Word that awaits us.

What is the sound of stillness, the quality of sheer silence?  Is it papable; can it transform?

Bring a friend, and share the experience of OpenSpirit.  Worship is experiential and participatory.  The music invites you to dance.  We gather in an open circle, and there is aways an extra chair.  In word and in silence, with elements of Christian tradition both ancient and new, as a community, we practice the presence of God.

Sunday Evening, September 20th, 2009; 7 – 8 PM; Performing Arts Center of MetroWest

Welcome back to OpenSpirit!  Come, join us, as we light the lamps of evening, tune up the instruments, and settle in again, with friends old and new.  OpenSpirit, creativity and arts in worship; always different, always fun!  Pearl St. entrance, red door, elevator to 3rd floor.

Is the busy pace of fall start-up – back to school, back to work, back to church – feeling a bit frantic?  Could you use some space for solace, for renewal?  Come away, and God will sustain us, in surprising ways.  Sometimes, an angel finds us … when we expect it the least, when we need it the most.

Dieric Bouts the Elder, Prophet Elijah in the Desert

This week at OpenSpirit, we’ll share an ancient story, a Hebrew prophet who bent under the burden he tried to carry, all by himself.  Sound familiar?  But an angel brought sustenance … and will nourish us, as well.  Maybe this old, old story will touch us in a new way, remind us of the power of community to sustain us, to feed and heal us.

OpenSpirit is back!  Yes!  Come, let us rejoice in the animating energy of God’s Spirit.  A time of Sabbath was good … but maybe being together again is even better!

Invite a friend, bring a neighbor.  All you need is an open heart, a curious mind, and a hunger for God’s presence.  We gather in a black box theater, in a performing arts center.  There is music and prayer, movement and poetry, time for sharing, time for silence.   And food!  Aways food.

This Sunday evening, we will welcome the amazing gifts of David Hunte on piano and vocals!  Get ready to sing and dance!  We will entertain angels unawares, welcoming the presence of God in our midst; unexpected, always surprising, transforming.