Blessing of the New Tulsa Health Dept. Wellness Center, Sat. Sept. 29, 11 am

Eternal Spirit, of LovingJustice and Healing Community, known in many traditions, it is in deepest thanksgiving we come today. Thank you for this day, and thank you for the lives who have come to celebrate here today and to commit ourselves on this day to growing healthy lives and communities, especially here in our place of great vulnerability and suffering and despair. Thank you for those who could not be here, but whose vision and dedication have helped us to reach this milestone event for all of our region. May we keep their vision alive and growing. Thank you for those who have worked with their hands and hearts and souls to build this building and open it up so the lives of others may be saved and transformed. May we all treat this space as holy space worthy of the care and attention and respect for which the blood sweat and tears of many in many ways have gone into its creation.

Bless all those, employees and volunteers and persons seeking help, who will give of themselves in this place, as they pursue the mission of healing with all those considered “the least of these” whom so many others seek to neglect and turn away from. Open our hearts and guide our actions as we strive to make real Your presence in all we do and with all we come into contact. Be with those, too, who hold the purse-strings and the power of the budget that they will always create a place at the table for the poor, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned and impaired, and that they put them, and their homes and families, and neighborhoods first in their minds and hearts and decisions as do You at your Welcome Table. Remind us to be humble, remind us of the blessings of our imperfections, for we know that as we are a human community that even in our great ideals and hopes we will break our hearts and those of others with our acts of commission and omission, so may Your heart of forgiveness and mercy hold us all in those times and help us ever to move forward, renewing our community.

 For those who walked this land before us, for those among us whose suffering has called forth the mission of this building, for those who will walk through these doors in pain and in promise, for those who serve, every day doing small acts of justice done with great love, for us and our neighbors right around us in this community of strength and spirit despite its statistics and stereotypes, and for those who will come long after we are gone, we ask blessings of peace and goodwill, of compassion and courage, and always Your Love. Amen.

This is the blessing I will give at our new Tulsa Health Dept. facility on Sat. Sept. 29 at 11 am. followed by tours, free food, wonderful music from Soul Revolution, and more.  Welcome them to our neighborhood.