Ante-Communion and Celebration of New Ministry
St. Mary’s-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church, Ramona, CA
May 17, 2020
Welcome to our worship today at St. Mary’s-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church, Ramona, CA. My name is Phil Cooke, vicar of St. Mary’s-in-the-Valley Ramona. Today is special for us because we are having a virtual Visitation of our Bishop, The Right Reverend Susan Brown Snook. Bishops are central in the identity of our church, since “Episcopal” means, “having bishops.” We are organized around having a bishop, and the office of bishop is an important symbol signifying the unity of the church in history and in geography. A bishop symbolizes our connection with the church of the past; a bishop symbolizes our current connection with Christians gathered in other places in our world now. Bishop Susan is our chief Pastor in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego and we’re pleased that we can receive the benefit of her unifying ministry in our Diocese and the church-at-large. Following today’s, Bishop Susan will preside at the Celebration of the New Ministry in a Zoom Meeting installation of the vicar of St. Mary’s-in-the-Valley. We are pleased to begin with, “Old Time Religion,” played on the hammer dulcimer by Stanley Smith. Our Bishop connects us in succession with the Old Time Religion of Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit helps us to apply the Gospel in our current time. Thank you for joining us today.
Prelude: Old Time Religion
Played on hammer dulcimer by Stanley Smith
Give me that old-time religion
Give me that old-time religion
Give me that old-time religion
It's good enough for me
It was good for our mothers
It was good for our mothers
It was good for our mothers
And it's good enough for me
It has served our fathers
It has served our fathers
It has served our fathers
And it's good enough for me
Makes me love everybody
Makes me love everybody
Makes me love everybody
And it's good enough for me
Alleluia. Christ is risen.
People The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
The Celebrant may say
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth. Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory. Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world; have mercy on us; you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer. For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
The Celebrant then says
The Lord be with you.
People And also with you.
Celebrant Let us pray.
Collect
O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
The First Lesson
Acts 17:22-31
Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,
Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s people
Thanks be to God
Psalm 66:7-18
Jubilate Deo
7 Bless our God, you peoples; *
make the voice of his praise to be heard;
8 Who holds our souls in life, *
and will not allow our feet to slip.
9 For you, O God, have proved us; *
you have tried us just as silver is tried.
10 You brought us into the snare; *
you laid heavy burdens upon our backs.
11 You let enemies ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water; *
but you brought us out into a place of refreshment.
12 I will enter your house with burnt-offerings
and will pay you my vows, *
which I promised with my lips
and spoke with my mouth when I was in trouble.
13 I will offer you sacrifices of fat beasts
with the smoke of rams; *
I will give you oxen and goats.
14 Come and listen, all you who fear God, *
and I will tell you what he has done for me.
15 I called out to him with my mouth, *
and his praise was on my tongue.
16 If I had found evil in my heart, *
the Lord would not have heard me;
17 But in truth God has heard me; *
he has attended to the voice of my prayer.
18 Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer, *
nor withheld his love from me.
The Epistle
1 Peter 3:13-22
Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you-- not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
Lord, You give the Great Commission
Sung and played by Joshua Charney
Verse 1
Lord you give the great commission
Heal the sick and preach the word
Lest the Church neglect its mission
And the gospel go unheard
Help us witness to Your purpose
With renewed integrity
With the Spirit's gifts empower us
For the work of ministry
Verse 2
Lord You call us to Your service
In my name baptise and teach
That the world may trust Your promise
Life abundant meant for each
Give us all new fervour draw us
Closer in community
With the Spirit's gifts empower us
For the work of ministry
Verse 3
Lord You make the common holy
This my body this my blood
Let us all for earth's true glory
Daily lift life heavenward
Asking that the world around us
Share Your children's liberty
With the Spirit's gift empower us
For the work of ministry
Verse 4
Lord You show us love's true measure
Father what they do forgive
Yet we hoard as private treasure
All that You so freely give
May Your care and mercy lead us
To a just society
With the Spirit's gifts empower us
For the work of ministry
Verse 5
Lord You bless with words assuring
I am with you to the end
Faith and hope and love restoring
May we serve as You intend
And amid the cares that claim us
Hold in mind eternity
With the Spirit's gifts empower us
For the work of ministry
The Gospel
John 14:15-21
Jesus said, ”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
”I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
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