Sunday School, September 8, 2019 13 Pentecost C proper 18

Sunday School, September 8, 2019  13 Pentecost C proper 18

Sunday School Themes

For children, there has been the purposely avoided the “hard sayings” of Jesus about “hating” one’s family members to be a disciple of Jesus.  Though one could present how Jesus used contradictory riddles to present his priority.

The Gospel themes chosen center around wise planning

If you want to be a good baseball player, what do you do?  You practice, you join teams, you work out.

If you want to be a good ballet dancer, what do you do?  You join a dance studio and you practice and you listen to a good dance instructor.

Life is about planning because even though the future is not here yet, we believe that we will grow and change and we have to be prepared for what we are going to be doing in our future.

Parents begin to prepare their children for what they are going to do and become from the day of their birth.  Why?  Because life is about growing and changing.  Since life is about change we have to learn how to be prepared for the changes which will come to our lives.

Jesus said that a person who wants to build a big tower has to make sure that there is a plan.  There has to be materials and a design and the workers to do the job.  There has to be enough money to afford to build the tower.

Jesus said that we want to be his disciples, then we need to know what we need to do.  We need to be smart and wise about our planning.  A disciples of Jesus is a student of Jesus.  And we never graduate from being a student of Jesus.  So we need to plan on learning about Jesus for the rest of our lives.

Smart planning for learning how to be a disciple is to learn from the most important Christian rules.  And the most important Christian rule is to love God with all of our hearts and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

If we are planning to follow Jesus as his disciple and student, we need to plan to be his student and to always be learning about how to love God better and to love our neighbors better.

Sermon

  If you are going to build a house what do you need?

  Well, you need to have some money to pay for the building supplies.  You need an architect.  You need some land or a place to build your house.  You need a builder who can organize all of the workers.  You need building supplies, cement, wood, nails, shingles, electrical wires, lights, switches, sinks, counters, and many other things.

  So to build a house you have to do a lot of planning, because what will happen if you don’t plan?  You won’t be able to finish the house.  If you try to build a house you can’t afford then you won’t be able to finish it.  Or if you choose the wrong builder the house may not be built to last.

  Jesus reminded his friends that they needed planning in their lives, planning just like someone who was going to build a great tower, or just like a general who was planning a battle.

  And Jesus reminded his friends that they were going to have many people in their lives.  Their family and their friends.  To live our lives means that we have to learn to live with people.  So if we are going to plan our lives well, we are going to have plan our lives in learning how to live with people in our lives.  And it is important to learn how to live with people in our lives, with our parents, our brothers and sisters, with our husbands and wives, with our teachers and friends.  And it is important to learn how to live with our self.

  Now why do I say we have to learn to live with our self?  We have to know our self well, so we know how to plan our lives?  If I like baseball, but I am terrible at playing baseball, should I try to play professional baseball?  No, I would not be accepted by any team because I’m not good at playing baseball.  So I have to know myself and what I am good at in planning my life.

  It is important to know how to live with other people and with our selves.  So we need to plan well.

  And the best way to do this is to learn the law of Christ:  Love God with all of your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.

  This is the greatest plan of life.  And if we learn this plan in life, we will be successful in learning to live with other people and our self.

  So remember this great plan of Christ for our lives:  Love God with all our hearts and love our neighbors as our self.  Amen.

An intergenerational Eucharistic liturgy

September 8, 2019: The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Rejoice in the Lord Always, He’s Got the Whole World, Alleluia, Jesus Loves the Little Children

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and forever.  Amen.

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: Rejoice in the Lord Always   (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 197)

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. 

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. 

Rejoice!  Rejoice!  And again I say rejoice. 

Rejoice!  Rejoice!  And again I say rejoice.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Allow us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, since you always oppose the overly proud who do not think they need you, so you never forsake those who make there are very proud of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Litany of Praise: 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 Book of Deuteronomy

Moses said to all Israel the words which the Lord commanded him, "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 139

LORD, you have searched me out and known me; * you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar.

You trace my journeys and my resting-places * and are acquainted with all my ways.

Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, * but you, O LORD, know it altogether.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God!

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 Luke

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

When Jesus was speaking to the people about being disciples, he said, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.”

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

Offertory Song: He’s Got the Whole World (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 90)

He’s got the whole world, in his hands, he’s got the whole wide world, in his hands.  He’s got the whole world, in his hands, he’s got the whole world in his hands.

He’s got the little tiny baby, in his hands, he’s got the little tiny baby, in his hands.  He’s got the little tiny baby, in his hands, he’s got the whole world in his hands.

He’s got the brothers and the sisters, in his hands, he got the brothers and the sisters, in his hand.  He’s got the brothers and the sisters in his hands, he’s got the whole world in his hand.

He’s got the mothers and the fathers, in his hand, he’s got the mothers and the fathers, in his hand.  He’s got the mothers and the fathers in his hand, he’s got the whole world in his hand.

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 God.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of 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.

The Prayer continues with these words

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.  Bless and 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)

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

He’s my savior, alleluia.  He’s my savior, alleluia.  He’s my savior, alleluia.  He’s my savior, 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: Jesus Loves the Little Children   (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 140)

Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.  Jesus loves the little children of the world

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Challengings Koans of Jesus

16 Pentecost, Cp18, September 8, 2013

Deuteronomy 30:15-20   Psalm 1

Philemon 1-20 Luke 14:25-33

Lectionary Link
  

What if I had the following requirements for joining St. John's parish?  Hate your father, hate your mother, hate your wife, hate your children, hate your brother, hate your sister, hate your life, actively seek death on a cross and sell all your possessions.

  You might say, "No thanks, that's an impossible and undesirable standard for me.  I think that I'll try St. Swithin's down the road instead. I think they have different family values there."

  These words are troublesome for us to understand.  People who are very literal about biblical meanings twist their interpretations into pretzels to make sense of these sayings and atheists too like to remind us how we Christians have these "crazy" words of Jesus.

  You pay me the big bucks to tell you exactly what these words of Jesus mean but I'm going to punt.  I must confess that I do not know exactly what these words mean.  What I can do is present a range of meanings for these words. On the surface these words seem harsh and inconsistent with valuing one's life, honoring one's parents and family as prescribed in the Ten Commandments.  They are also contradictory with other words of Jesus elsewhere, like how is it we're supposed to love our enemies and those who hate us but we're supposed to hate our family and our own lives?  Surely something is lost in the translation.

  How about if I were to present you with a range of possible meanings and in doing so we cannot treat this Gospel writing like a scientific logical syllogism but we might understand the mood that this literary saying is trying to invoke for our spiritual lives.

  In Zen Buddhism, a disciple learns spiritual enlightenment by having the logical mind baffled so that hidden meanings can be understood.  A roshi or master will give the disciple a riddle to ponder.  These riddles are called koans.  Probably the most often quoted koan is this: "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"  We might learn to read the Gospel sayings of Jesus as words which baffle the logical mind in order for us to pierce another level of enlightenment.

  In trying to achieve a range of meanings, a first meaning might be an ironic reading of these harsh words.  "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple?  Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple?"  By reading these words of Jesus with different intonation, the exact opposite meaning is implied.  It could be that when oral tradition was written down, the intonation patterns of the preachers were lost.  If we use an ironic reading of these words, the meaning becomes clear:   "If you think that being my disciple is bad for your family and your life, then you really misunderstand me."  This ironic reading has some merit in the context because it comes after excuses that people were giving for not following Christ.  Some of the excuses had to do with family obligations, so the ironic reading of these words have a fairly crisp meaning.  Don't make your family an excuse for not following Jesus.

  The meaning of the words of Jesus are qualified by the conditions and the spirituality within the early Christian communities.  To bear one's cross and to die to oneself was a spiritual method found in the writings of St. Paul.  St. Paul wrote that "he had been crucified with Christ but he continued to live so there was an old self which died and a new self that had been born."  The word for life in the Gospel reading is "pseuche" or soul life.  Dying to one's soul life is not physical death but it means dying to one's former versions of self, family and possessions.  Pauline spirituality was based upon the continual process of dying to oneself and taking on new life.  Words like dying and hate are extreme words which are used, not to imply physical violence or the social shunning of one's family; they are extreme words to denote the profound attitude shifts which was taking place in the process of spiritual transformation.

  These words were probably very sensitive to the quite eclectic membership of the early churches.  Following Jesus and joining the Christian family meant significant change and possible opposition especially if the other members of one's family of birth were still loyal to the cult of the Emperor and the gods of the Roman Empire, or if they were still members of synagogues which had excommunicated the followers of Christ or even if they were members of the continuing community of John the Baptist.  It is important to remember that the Gospels were written in a time when the members of the church came from families that were often in religious conflict and so persons who wanted to follow Christ did have some very serious loyalty issues, a loyalty dilemma that one does not want to face.  It seems like a very unfair decision: follow Christ and lose my family.  Such undesirable dilemmas do occur in the history of faith communities and such dilemmas were the formation conditions of the early Christian communities.

  Another condition within the early churches was one of chief beliefs of various members.  Many of the leaders of the early Christian church like St. Paul came from the apocalyptic fatalism of certain strains of Judaism of the time.  Many Jews believed that the long suffering of their people and the occupation of their country required from their understanding of Hebrew Scriptures and other writings, a coming of a Messiah who would intervene and bring justice to the earth.  Jesus of Nazareth in his first coming was not a military king; so many persons within the Christian community believed that Jesus would come back quite soon after his resurrection and he would return as a Davidic Messiah.  If you believed that Jesus was coming back tomorrow, why get married, why raise a family, why get involved in the family business, why own property and possessions?  Such believers tended to be world hating and world denying since they believed that the world as they knew it would soon end.  St. Paul himself believed this; he even suggested that it was better for people to be unmarried as he was so that they could be in Spartan condition for dealing with the end times by getting the Gospel to as many people as possible.

  The early church also had a very radical sociology.  The early church had a radical notion of Christian family.  In the community of St. Paul, they believed that in Christ there was no Jew, no Greek, no Gentile, no male, no female, no slave, no free but a new creation.  Jewish society and Roman society had very strict definitions of family and social caste, so can we understand how radical that this new Christian equality was?  Everyone was equal in Christ even though they had different roles in society.  The letter to Philemon was a letter that St. Paul wrote to the slave owner of Onesimus.  Onesimus had run away from the home of Philemon; he had become of follower of Christ and a disciple of St. Paul.  So Paul wrote Philemon a letter to receive Onesimus back into his household without punishment.  He was to receive Onesimus back as a brother in Christ, even though he was a slave who was owned by Philemon.  So within the early church, the equality of Christian baptism made the spiritual family more important than one's flesh and blood birth.  The Gospel of John writer wrote:  To those who believed in Jesus, he gave power to be sons of God, not born of the will of man or the will of the flesh but of God.

  Can we appreciate the extreme poetry of this radical notion of Christian family?   If we understand the radical notion of Christian family, then the harshness of the words of the oracle of Christ within the early churches can be understood in the context in which they were first delivered.

  These words of the oracle of Christ have troubled literal readers at different times in the history of the church.  One could actually say that the monastic movement was born from these radical words of Jesus.  People who went to the monastery hated their personal ambitions, their family relations and personal possessions as they followed the counsels of perfection: poverty, chastity and obedience.  The reason that the church has a tradition of celibacy for clergy and religious is in part because of these harsh words of Jesus.  The monastic life is founded on the communalism that is found in the record of the early church of people having all things in common.

  So what about us today?  We hope and pray that our family relationships don't conflict with our devotion to Christ.  We accept today that the end of the world did not happen during the time of St. Paul and so we do not live in the same way in which some of the early Christians did.  We don't feel like we have to be communal in our lifestyle.

  Just as the early Christians had to find a way to be obedient to Christ within their own circumstances, you and I need to find the very best way to be loyal to Christ given the specific circumstances of our own lives.  We cannot use the situations of the time of the early churches as prohibitions to suggest that our life situations should be the same as it was then.  Faith in Christ means that we need to find meaningful and engaging ways to follow Christ today with good and true hearts in the unique situations of our own lives.

  Today, I wish you every good blessing as you seek to give Christ a special place in your life.   I hope your family supports you in your devotion to Christ.  And I hope that our devotion to Christ will be winsome toward the people whom we want to know God’s love. Amen.

Sunday School, September 4, 2016 C proper 18

Sunday School, September 4, 2016  16 Pentecost C proper 18

Sunday School Themes

For children, there has been the purposely avoided the “hard sayings” of Jesus about “hating” one’s family members to be a disciple of Jesus.  Though one could present how Jesus used contradictory riddles to present his priority.

The Gospel themes chosen center around wise planning

If you want to be a good baseball player, what do you do?  You practice, you join teams, you work out.

If you want to be a good ballet dancer, what do you do?  You join a dance studio and you practice and you listen to a good dance instructor.

Life is about planning because even though the future is not here yet, we believe that we will grow and change and we have to be prepared for what we are going to be doing in our future.

Parents begin to prepare their children for what they are going to do and become from the day of their birth.  Why?  Because life is about growing and changing.  Since life is about change we have to learn how to be prepared for the changes which will come to our lives.

Jesus said that a person who wants to build a big tower has to make sure that there is a plan.  There has to be materials and a design and the workers to do the job.  There has to be enough money to afford to build the tower.

Jesus said that we want to be his disciples, then we need to know what we need to do.  We need to be smart and wise about our planning.  A disciples of Jesus is a student of Jesus.  And we never graduate from being a student of Jesus.  So we need to plan on learning about Jesus for the rest of our lives.

Smart planning for learning how to be a disciple is to learn from the most important Christian rules.  And the most important Christian rule is to love God with all of our hearts and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

If we are planning to follow Jesus as his disciple and student, we need to plan to be his student and to always be learning about how to love God better and to love our neighbors better.

Sermon

  If you are going to build a house what do you need?

  Well, you need to have some money to pay for the building supplies.  You need an architect.  You need some land or a place to build your house.  You need a builder who can organize all of the workers.  You need building supplies, cement, wood, nails, shingles, electrical wires, lights, switches, sinks, counters, and many other things.

  So to build a house you have to do a lot of planning, because what will happen if you don’t plan?  You won’t be able to finish the house.  If you try to build a house you can’t afford then you won’t be able to finish it.  Or if you choose the wrong builder the house may not be built to last.

  Jesus reminded his friends that they needed planning in their lives, planning just like someone who was going to build a great tower, or just like a general who was planning a battle.

  And Jesus reminded his friends that they were going to have many people in their lives.  Their family and their friends.  To live our lives means that we have to learn to live with people.  So if we are going to plan our lives well, we are going to have plan our lives in learning how to live with people in our lives.  And it is important to learn how to live with people in our lives, with our parents, our brothers and sisters, with our husbands and wives, with our teachers and friends.  And it is important to learn how to live with our self.

  Now why do I say we have to learn to live with our self?  We have to know our self well, so we know how to plan our lives?  If I like baseball, but I am terrible at playing baseball, should I try to play professional baseball?  No, I would not be accepted by any team because I’m not good at playing baseball.  So I have to know myself and what I am good at in planning my life.

  It is important to know how to live with other people and with our selves.  So we need to plan well.

  And the best way to do this is to learn the law of Christ:  Love God with all of your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.

  This is the greatest plan of life.  And if we learn this plan in life, we will be successful in learning to live with other people and our self.

  So remember this great plan of Christ for our lives:  Love God with all our hearts and love our neighbors as our self.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

September 4, 2016: The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Rejoice in the Lord Always, He’s Got the Whole World, Alleluia, Jesus Loves the Little Children

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and forever.  Amen.

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: Rejoice in the Lord Always   (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 197)

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. 

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. 

Rejoice!  Rejoice!  And again I say rejoice. 

Rejoice!  Rejoice!  And again I say rejoice.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Allow us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, since you always oppose the overly proud who do not think they need you, so you never forsake those who make there are very proud of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Litany of Praise: 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 Book of Deuteronomy

Moses said to all Israel the words which the Lord commanded him, "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 139

LORD, you have searched me out and known me; * you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar.

You trace my journeys and my resting-places * and are acquainted with all my ways.

Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, * but you, O LORD, know it altogether.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God!

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 Luke

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

When Jesus was speaking to the people about being disciples, he said, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.”

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

Offertory Song: He’s Got the Whole World (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 90)

He’s got the whole world, in his hands, he’s got the whole wide world, in his hands.  He’s got the whole world, in his hands, he’s got the whole world in his hands.

He’s got the little tiny baby, in his hands, he’s got the little tiny baby, in his hands.  He’s got the little tiny baby, in his hands, he’s got the whole world in his hands.

He’s got the brothers and the sisters, in his hands, he got the brothers and the sisters, in his hand.  He’s got the brothers and the sisters in his hands, he’s got the whole world in his hand.

He’s got the mothers and the fathers, in his hand, he’s got the mothers and the fathers, in his hand.  He’s got the mothers and the fathers in his hand, he’s got the whole world in his hand.

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 God.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of 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.

The Prayer continues with these words

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.  Bless and 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)

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

He’s my savior, alleluia.  He’s my savior, alleluia.  He’s my savior, alleluia.  He’s my savior, 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: Jesus Loves the Little Children   (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 140)

Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.  Jesus loves the little children of the world

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Coming Events:

Tonight:  Yoga at 5 p.m. 

Tues., September 6, 1 p.m. Divine Arts

Thurs., September 8, 7:30 a.m.  Eucharist,  7:30 p.m. Chancel Choir Rehearsal