Holy Sap?

5 Easter     B  April 29, 2018

Acts 8:26-40 Psalm 22:24-30

1 John 4:7-21  John 15:1-8

Lectionary Link

Alex:  Last week, we read about Jesus being the Good Shepherd and we are sheep of his flock.  This week we move from animal metaphors to plant metaphors and we can understand this metaphor about vines and branches, because everywhere around us we can see vineyards.  Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches.”  And he also said that “God the Father is the Vinedresser or the one who takes care of the vineyard.”  I am wondering where we can find God, the Holy Spirit, in this metaphor about the Vine and branches?

In this metaphor, we would have to say that the Holy Spirit would be the Holy Sap.  That does not sound very nice, because we know it is not nice to call someone a “sap.”

But sap is like plant blood.  It is what keeps a plant alive and well.  So, the Holy Spirit is the Holy Sap, or the flow of life between the branches and the vine.   The Holy Spirit is our connection with Christ and because we have the Holy Spirit we can abide in Christ and Christ can abide in us.

What does the sap allow a plant to do?  It allows a plant to have leaves, blossoms and fruit.  Jesus said that we should bear fruit in our lives.  St. Paul said that there are fruits of the Spirit.  And my friends are going to share with us the fruits of the Spirit.

Stephanie:  Love is a fruit of the Spirit.  Love is so great, that love is the best definition of God.  God is Love.  It is not enough to say that God is love; we also have to love each other and that is not always so easy.  This is way we need the life-giving sap of the Holy Spirit to help us achieve the great fruit of living, the fruit of love.  And one of the fringe benefits is, we can write Country Western Songs, too.

Rebecca: Joy is a fruit of the Spirit.  Joy is different from happiness.  Happiness depends upon what happens; joy is something that we can have even when unhappy things are happening in our lives.  Joy is a fruit and a gift of God and it is like magic.  Why does a tiny little baby smile?  It could be that joy is an original gift of God and fruit of the Spirit because we are just happy and don’t know why we are happy.

Chike: Peace is a fruit of the Spirit.  Peace happens outside of us when people stop fighting and when wars end.  But peace is something inside of us.  If we can find peace inside of us, it will help us be peaceful with each other.  Peace is such a great fruit of the Spirit that we pass the Peace each Sunday, to remind ourselves how important it is for us practice kindness and forgiveness.

Catherine:  Patience is a fruit of the Spirit.  Why do we need patience?  Because we cannot have everything right away when we want it.  We have to wait for many things in life.  Sometimes it is not easy to wait for things.  Patience is required because we live in Time.  Time means we have to wait for new things to happen because we cannot do or have everything all at once.  If we have patience we can learn to wait for the many good things that God wants for us in our lives.  Amen.  I can’t wait for my sermon to get done.  Patience, Catherine, Patience!

Sasha: Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit.  Why do we like little babies and puppies?  There is something very attractive about gentleness.  Innocence and gentleness awakens something in us and when we see gentleness, we want to be gentle too.  Everyone needs the comfort of gentleness in life because life can bring sadness, suffering and disappointment.  We often need gentleness to heal us and make us feel better again.  This is why gentleness is an important fruit of Holy Spirit.

Daniella: Goodness is a fruit of the Spirit.  We need goodness as a special gift of God’s Spirit because when bad things happen, we can begin to believe that bad things and evil are stronger and more normal than goodness.  The life of God’s Spirit within us is like a deep well of goodness.  This helps us to remember that Goodness is what is natural and normal in life and it reminds us not to let evil and badness have more power in this life than they deserve.  The Fruit of the Goodness helps us to flex our goodness muscles and overcome evil with good.

Alec: Humility of is a fruit of the Spirit.  I wish I could say that I was proud of my humility but that would be a contradiction.  We can be proud of ourselves and have self-esteem but at the same time we can make room for other people to be proud of themselves and have self-esteem too.  When we have the fruit of humility, it means that we have learned to make plenty of room for other people.  A story in the Bible says that the original sin of Lucifer, the Devil, was Pride.  He thought that he was bigger than God and so he revolted.  With the fruit of humility, we can recognize God’s greatness and that God’s greatness provides enough room for everyone.  When we are humble, we do not need to tell people how great we are; we let our actions speak for themselves.

Caroline: Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit.  To be patient we need the fruit of self-control because we can’t have everything exactly when we want it.  We have to have some very strong muscles inside of us to be able to say “no.”  We cannot speed all the time; we have to have the ability to take our foot off the accelerators of our lives.  Self-control means that we all have to learn to be our own heroes, because learning to control our behaviors is the biggest challenge all our lives.  We have to control what we do and say and when we take on some bad habits, we really need the fruit of self-control to help us enjoy the good things through portion control.  If we learn self-control, we can all become our own superheroes.

Rylie:  Wow, there are lots of good clusters of grapes growing on our branches as we remain connected with Jesus as the Vine.  We want to continue to bear the good fruits of Spirit.  We want the Holy Sap of God Spirit flowing inside of us to keep us abiding in Jesus Christ.  We are in the season of spring when we can see the blossoms on the tree.  We want to be fruitful Christians.  And we can be as we abide in Christ.

Jesus, you are the vine and we are your branches.

Holy Spirit, you keep us connected with Jesus to help us grow fruits of the Spirit.

God, we are able to love because you are love.

We thank you for joy, no matter what happens.

We pass the peace because we want to live in peace.

We ask for the strength of Patience to be able find the right time to do the right things.

God, give us gentleness because we often need your comfort and we need to know how to comfort others.

God, in the freedom of life let us make goodness the winner over evil.

Holy Spirit, grant us humility which can be natural as we worship the greatness of God and realize how small we are in this great universe.

And finally, God, give us the fruit of self-control.  Let us learn to do and enjoy everything at the appropriate time and in the appropriate way. 

God, thank you for Jesus the Vine and thank you for the fruits of the Spirit.  Amen.

Molly's Multiplication of Trees

5 Easter    B  April 29, 2018

Acts 8:26-40  Psalm 22:24-30

1 John 4:7-21  John 15:1-8

Lectionary Link

  I would like to tell you story about Molly.  Molly was a wonderful little girl who liked to help her mom.  She used to watch her mom do all kinds of things.  She watched her cook in the kitchen and she watched her work in the garden.

  Molly liked to help her mom and do special things for her.  One day she watched her mom plant a small tree in the yard.  It was just a small tree, but it had four branches on it with leaves.

   Molly thought she would like to help mom and surprise her.

   She thought, “Mom loves trees.  What if planted more trees for her?”

Do you know what Molly did?  When mom went to the store, Molly decided to surprise her.  She went out to mom’s tree and she broke off the four branches.  And she planted each of these branches in the ground.  And she was very excited because now mom would have five trees and not just one tree.

  When mom came home from the store, Molly went out to see her and she was excited to tell her about a special surprise.  She said, “Mom, you planted just one tree, but now you have five trees.”

  And mom asked, “How did you do that Molly?”  Molly took her out to the yard and showed her how she had broken four branches from the tree and planted them in the ground.”

  Mom did not want to disappoint Molly, so she said, “You will have to remember to water your new trees.”  And so Molly watered her new trees every day, but they did not grow.  In fact, the leaves on the trees turned dark and they became brittle and soon the wind blew them away.

  Molly was disappointed that her trees would not grow.  She decided to pull one of them out of the ground and she saw that it was just a dead stick.

   Molly asked her Mom, “What happened?  Why didn’t my trees grow?”

   Her mom told her, “The branches can only grow if they stay attached to the trunk of the tree.  The roots of tree suck up water and plant food in the ground and makes a tree blood called sap.  And if you cut the branch off, the branch no longer gets the tree blood called sap and it dries up and dies.”

   Jesus told his friends, “I am the vine and you are the branches.”  The branches can live because they stay attached and connected to the vine.  They get the plant blood called sap.

  Jesus used this riddle to teach a lesson.  He said that we needed to remain connected to him.

  How do we do that?  We pray.  We learn.  And we find within ourselves the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is like the sap that flows through a plant.  It keeps branches alive, connected and attached to the vine.

  So too, the Holy Spirit deep inside of us keeps us connected to Christ.  And if we remain connected to Christ, we have the ability to have the fruits of the Spirit.  What are they?  Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, self-control and humility.

  The lesson for us today to remain connected to Christ so that we can grow the fruits of the Spirit.

The Need for Holy Sap?

5 Easter     B  April 29, 2018
Acts 8:26-40 Psalm 22:24-30
1 John 4:7-21  John 15:1-8

Lectionary Link

One of the effects of the experience of the sublime is to be "shut up," or left stammering with repetitive tautologies or a profoundly simple word like "Wow!"

In human experience, if a person is fortunate, one is able to be able to use the word love authentically.  To be brought to stammering by the sense of love or the encounter of love or the sense of having been transported by love is perhaps the most fortunate human experience of all.

The Belle of Amherst, Emily Dickinson wrote about sublime love in very few words, short and simple, and yet it is taunting to the reader to want to have the experience of love.  She wrote: "That love is all there is, is all we know of love."  It seems so simplistically stated but it invites us to know what it means and to know whether it is true and whether it is true in a meaningful way for me.

If there is some sub-atomic unifying essence in everything in a place where the material world joins with the relational world of personality, then such an invisible relational unifying magnetic energy in the English language is reduced to the word "love."

Love must be meaningfully true since it creeps into all human traditions; and it must be more than magnetic lust for procreation; it has to include the hopeful wish of mutual well-being exchanged between people in relationship.

When the dialoging Plato's Socrates tried to emulate a hired hand rhetorician, he spoke in rhetorical performance like a hired speech maker, against love.  But then he recanted and apologized to Love, who was Eros who was a god for the Greeks.

Can Love be interchangeable with God?  Can God be Love?  Can Love be God?  One can find words about love and God within Holy Scripture.  The Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon is a sensual love confession, where God's name is not mentioned, and the images seem all too human, all too deliciously human,  and yet so divine the ancient rabbis thought that the beauty of such love had to be in the canon of Scriptures.  And Christian canon makers, those whose votes counted on what books to include in the Bible, also included this sensual love confession within the Christian Bible.  The love is so expressive of the lucky gift of mutual relational well-being, Christian expositors could only say it was an analogy of the soul's relationship with God.  The experience of intense mutual relational well-being evokes the elevating poetry and when one rises to the sublime, one wants to confess that which attains being God-worthy, God-inspired, God-incarnate.

Another apparent bachelor also wrote profoundly about love, St. Paul.  When compared with faith and hope, St. Paul said that love was the greatest of all.

Today, we have the portion of first Epistle of John and we find the writer stammering about love and God.  In woeful lack of stylistic variation, the writer mentions love 28 times.  "Get a Thesaurus!" one might say.  In the same short passage, there are also 39 uses of God and mentions of members of the Trinity and pronouns for the same.   God and love are used so often in such a short passage so it is not surprising that the writer uses the ultimate metaphorical tautology by writing, "God is Love."  One could see how this confession about God would have some resonance in the wake of Hellenistic culture in the Roman Empire.  Love as the name of God was familiar poetic discourse.

As exalted and as poetically sublime that this confession of love is, it is also very much down to earth.  How so?  One cannot say that one loves God who is not seen, if one does not love one's brothers and sisters whom one does see.  It is no good elevating love to a sublime name for God or for a sublime feeling toward God, if one's regard for one's fellow human being does not ratify one's confession of love for God.  Charlie Brown confessed the hypocrisy of "mere" pious love when he declaims, "I love mankind!  It's people I can't stand!"  

We as those who are trying to be worshipful and piously respectful toward God can find it much easier to love an invisible ideal God than to love in messy details the people of our world.  The writer of the Epistle of John warns us not to separate the piety of love for God and the messiness of the love of fellow human beings in the practice of gritty justice and care.

How indeed do we avoid a pretentious love piety for God in swooning mystical experience with contradictory misanthropic behaviors toward our fellow people?

First we confess the truth about how hard it is to love people unconditionally.  We might be tempted to limit the use of the love to what we really mean by "like."  But we cannot reduce love to mere personal affinity or personal taste.  How do we bring the energy of swooning mystical love of God who is Love to the messy details of human interaction?

I would suggest that attempting love in human interaction teaches us failure at love.  So what do we do with failure at love?  Do we avoid?  Do we fuel our disillusionment with imperfect people into misanthropic behaviors?  Or is our failure to love, the crucible to ask for the higher Power of God's love to be present even within our imperfect bodily vessel?  Let us have the humility not to think that we originate such a wonderful thing as love and with this humility we ask for the power, the gift and the fruit of the Spirit, God's love.

The discourse in the John's Gospel with Jesus saying, "I am the vine and you are the branches and my Father is the vine grower," does not mention directly the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

But we can read between the lines.  The Holy Spirit would be the Holy Sap.  Sap is plant blood.  It flows and delivers life throughout the plant.  How does the branch abide in the vine?  Through sap.    How do we abide in Christ?  Through the presences of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the life and power of God in us, loving through us even when it is difficult for us to love some of the people in our world.

The words of Scriptures invite to the reality of God as love.  The words of Scripture warn us not to separate religious love from actual down to earth love.  The words of Scriptures promise us help in learning to love as we abide in Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sunday School, April 29, 2018 5 Easter B

Sunday School,  April 29, 2018    5  Easter B

Sunday School Themes

The writer of the Gospel of John uses examples from farming and agriculture to teach lessons.

How close is a branch to the main stem of a plant?

How close are the leaves and fruit to a grape vine?

Very Close

When we speak about a grape plant we know that they consist of a root, stem or vine and branches which have leaves and grapes.

Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches.”

This means that the life of Christ is very close to us and a part of us.

How does the life of the vine give life to the branches?  Plant blood is called “sap” and it flows inside of the plant to provide life food to all parts of the plant.

Jesus said there is something like sap which keeps us connected to him.

This sap would be the experience of God’s Holy Spirit who keeps us connected to Christ as the special life of God which we can find within ourselves, but we need to pay attention to it through prayer and study.

Allegorical Role playing Dialogue

Vine and Branchie.

Branchie: I am getting tired of just hanging around.  I want to leave this neighborhood and go away.

Vine: How are you going to do that?

Branchie:  Well, I will just swing really hard in the wind until I fall off on the ground and then I’ll get up and walk away.

Vine:  I don’t think so Branchie.  That is not the way plant life works.

Branchie:  Why not?  Why can’t I leave this neighborhood?

Vine: Well, you will always be a branch and you cannot be anything else.  So you have to follow the rules for branches.

Branchie:  What kind of rules?

Vine: Well, sometimes you have to get a “hair cut.”  You have to get pruned and trimmed.

Branchie: Ouch, that hurts.

Vine:  Yes, but it makes you grow much better and it helps you grow the very best grapes.  You like to grow grapes don’t you?

Branchie:  Well, yes, but why can’t I leave this neighborhood and travel?

Vine: You can because if you are broken off from me, you will lose your supply of plant blood and you will dry up and die and you will just be recycled.

Branchie: What is plant blood?

Vine:  Plant blood is called sap and you get your sap from me your Vine.  And you cannot live without the plant blood called sap.  So you have to stay connected to me.  I am happy to provide you with plant blood and I like to have you living close to me.

Branchie:  But can I ever leave or travel and still live?

Vine:  You can in a different way.  When you produce wonderful grapes, then your grapes are used for wine and for eating but also you produce more seeds for more grapevines.  And so the grapes are like your children and they get to travel and create more plant life everywhere.  They get to provide wonderful life for the people who eat them.  So you have a very important role in life.

Branchie: Yes, I do and I want to produce many good grapes so I want to stay close to you my Vine so that the plant blood or sap can continue to give me good life.

Vine: I would like these boys and girls to know that Jesus is like a Vine.  The Risen Christ is like a big tree with many branches.  And each of these boys and girls are like branches on the tree of Christ.  And they have the wonderful plant blood or sap inside of them.  Inside of each of these boys and girls is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God provides a wonderful special kind of life within them and this special kind of life will last forever, even after they leave this earth.

Branchie:  Wow.  That is a special life.

Vine:  Boys and Girls can you repeat after me:  Christ is the true Vine of my life.   He provides me with the special inner life of God’s Holy Spirit.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

May 3, 2015: The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Gathering Songs:  Glorify Your Name; If You’re Happy; Alleluia; Lord, I Lift Your Name

Liturgist: Alleluia, Christ is Risen.

People: The Lord is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.
Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: Glorify Your Name (Renew!  # 37)

1.      Father, we love you, we worship and adore you, glorify your name in all the earth. Glorify your name, glorify you name, glorify your name in all the earth.

2.      Jesus, we love you, we worship and adore you, glorify your name in all the earth.  Glorify your name, glorify your name, glorify your name in all the earth.

3.      Spirit, we love you, we worship and adore you, glorify your name in all the earth.  Glorify your name, glorify your name, glorify your name in all the earth.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia
O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia
O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia
O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia
O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia
O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the First Letter of John

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 22

My praise is of him in the great assembly; * I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship him.

The poor shall eat and be satisfied, and those who seek the LORD shall praise him: * "May your heart live for ever!"
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, * and all the families of the nations shall bow before him.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!
For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!
For work and for play. Thanks be to God!
For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!
For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!
For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.
   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,
We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.
We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and
     resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.
We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is
     welcome.
We believe that Christ is kind and fair.
We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.
And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.
For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.
For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.
For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.
For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.
For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.
For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.
For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.
For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Youth Liturgist:          The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:                        And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Song: If You’re Happy and You Know It   (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 124)

1.      If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.  If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.  If you’re happy and you know, then your face should surely show it, if you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.

2.      Make a high five…. 3. Make a low five…  4. Shout Amen.

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of heaven.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.
Holy Baptism is a celebration of our birth into the family of God.
A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.
The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts
We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 
Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All may gather around the altar)

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image
And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:
Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.
And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph
And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat

  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.
Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.
As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.
But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.
Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.
Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:        Alleluia! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Alleluia (Renew! # 136)

1. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.  Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.
2. He’s my Savior, Alleluia… 3. He is worthy, Alleluia…. 4 I will praise him, Alleluia

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;
We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.
And His Presence has been known to us.
We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers
    and sisters in Christ.
Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the
     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,
As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: Lord, I Lift Your Name on High (Renew! # 4)

Lord, I lift your name on high; Lord, I love to sing your praises. 

I’m so glad you’re in my life; I’m so glad you came to save us. 
You came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross, my debt to pay. 
From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky; Lord, I lift your name on high.

Repeat

Dismissal:   

Liturgist: Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.

People: Thanks be to God! Alleluia!  Alleluia!