Summertime – Noontime
Theme: Live in the fullness and freedom of your faith.
1. Introduction: Summer – Noontime
Please click the arrowhead in the center of the video to hear the Introduction.
2. A Summertime Story
Spend a little time now reflecting on,
or re-listening to the story.
Does it awaken any spiritual thought
or prayer in your heart?
3. Sister Kate has a few thoughts on Noon and Summer:
4. Praying with Scripture
Picture Israel in the beautiful warm weather. (Maybe some of you are fortunate enough to have been there.) It might have been a late May Saturday afternoon. Jesus and his young companions are on a little picnic but – typical guys – they forgot the food!
But there in the colorful field, the heads of wheat are still green and not yet turned golden and dry. The wheat kernels are plump and soft, full of protein and sugar. This is the only time of year that they could be eaten raw.
The whole scene speaks to us of summer, and of the joy and freedom Jesus came to offer all of us within the New Law of Love.
And then the Pharisees appear – those whose power depends on using the law to control and oppress, requiring sacrifices and taxes of the poor only to benefit themselves.
Let’s listen to Matthew describe the scene.
Scripture : Matthew 12: 1-8 — Picking Grain on the Sabbath
Take some quiet time to reflect on this passage.
Allow yourself to be in the scene beside Jesus.
5. Reflection Nuggets: Summer – Noontime
6. Poetry
Please enjoy these beautiful poems evoking the sentiments of summer, noontime, fullness and energy. You may want listen to this lovely music as you read the poems.
Eagle Poem - Joy Harjo To pray, you open your whole self To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon To one whole voice that is you. And know there is more That you can't see, can't hear Can't know except in moments Steadily growing, and in languages That aren't always sound but other Circles of motion. Like eagle that Sunday morning Over Salt River. Circles in blue sky In wind, swept our hearts clean With sacred wings. We see you, see ourselves and know That we must take the utmost care And kindness in all things. Breathe in, knowing we are made of All this, and breathe, knowing We are truly blessed because we Were born, and die soon, within a True circle of motion, Like eagle rounding out the morning Inside us. We pray that it will be done In beauty. In beauty. Now I Become Myself – May Sarton Now I become myself. It’s taken Time, many years and places; I have been dissolved and shaken, Worn other people’s faces, Run madly, as if Time were there, Terribly old, crying a warning, “Hurry, you will be dead before—” (What? Before you reach the morning? Or the end of the poem is clear? Or love safe in the walled city?) Now to stand still, to be here, Feel my own weight and density! The black shadow on the paper Is my hand; the shadow of a word As thought shapes the shaper Falls heavy on the page, is heard. All fuses now, falls into place From wish to action, word to silence, My work, my love, my time, my face Gathered into one intense Gesture of growing like a plant. As slowly as the ripening fruit Fertile, detached, and always spent, Falls but does not exhaust the root, So all the poem is, can give, Grows in me to become the song, Made so and rooted by love. Now there is time and Time is young. O, in this single hour I live All of myself and do not move. I, the pursued, who madly ran, Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!
Lavish Mercy 