Forty Prayers for Lent

Forty Prayers for Lent

 

1-God of mercy, we can’t help but feel that we have been tricked within the free conditions of this world to lose the best path of our life.  We thank you that you provided us with a guide to find our way by subjecting Jesus to a forty day fast when he was made completely vulnerable to an accusing foe.   Thank you that hero Jesus, did it once and for all and that he gave us the example to resist the Diablo.  Amen.

 

2-God of ideal timing, help us who are so often tempted to mistime what we do and say in our lives.  Thank you for making all things good, but giving them ideal release occasions which make them good, right and appropriate in their use for the good of our lives in community.  God, as one who can get us to the right place at the right time, help us to be in-sync with the Holy Spirit as our Global Positioning System.  Amen.

 

3-Gracious Heavenly Parent, you gave us a sibling, Jesus, who was like us in his needs, his esteem, and in having a human death date, but was obedient to the heavenly timing of his needs, his fame and glory esteem, and the purposeful way in which he was to die. Grant to us the ability to discern and obey God’s will for our lives as we seek to be ever appropriate to the times, places and people of our lives.  Amen.

 

4-God of discernment, you gave us the example of Jesus to expose the accuser, Satan.  Give us the power of resisting the accuser’s lies even as we discern the accuser attaining a personality when riding upon all the accusing voices of the imperfect diminishers of our lives who in our memories leave their echoing loud voices.  Give us strength to say, “get behind me Satan, in the name of my hero Jesus,” when the accuser rides as a parasite upon the memories of all our lives’ worst moments.  Amen.

 

5-Loving God, help us not to despair of perpetually missing the mark toward the target of perfection.  Help us to know that if we are aiming in the right direction with our life activity, then your angels will carry our falling short efforts to the mark on the wings of God’s grace as we can only be complete in you.  Amen.

 

6-O Divine Just one, how can we know where to aim the words and deeds of our lives unless you give us a model?  Yes, you did in Jesus give us a model, to inspire us to apply love and justice to all the activities of our lives.  Amen.

 

7-O God, if I could see you, touch you, and hear you, I’m sure that I would make idols out of such sensorial contacts and pretend to capture mystery in a bottle to add to my museum of mystical experiences.  Let me accept the traces of your mysterious touches in the guise of the ordinary and know that I cannot limit or contain you as I accept that I and everything else are contained in you.  Amen.

 

 

8-Eternal Word as God, through you, I know you even as I am a linguistic cipher within the total lexicon of the Divine Eternal Word. Let the words of my life and body language deeds articulate the fact that through Word as Communication, the Eternal Word is always communicating.  Amen.

 

9-Divine Christ, you are All and in All, and when you took bread and said, “This is my body,” you showed us that your presence did not end at your skin so that you are bread and the entire world which enters your purview.  Help us not to limit your presence to bread and wine and Bible, since these cannot exhaust You who are All and in All.  Amen.

 

10-O God, we love your showings in familiar places but we also like the surprise, “Peek a boo,” occasions when you appear without our knowing or even practicing to be prepared to greet you.  And when we smile without knowing why we smile, we thank you the uncaused one for the delightful touch.  Amen.

 

11-God, deliver us from perfectionism, especially when we judge others who are not gifted in the areas where we are gifted.  And deliver us when we are attempted to bemoan the fact that we are not perfect and falsely presume that we should be in the place of the perfect one.  Help us not to take on the role of omni-competence in self-reliant presumption so that we don’t hold ourselves responsible for something we can never be, because that role has been ever held by Thee.  Amen.

 

12-O great God, help us to know that you contain us, more than we contain you, because we live and move and have our being in you.  Give us grace to make love and justice the practice in our lesser environments located in your great Home of all that is.  Amen.

 

 

13-God beyond all, help me to accept my limited capacity and the provisional insights which come to me on the path to receive perhaps, more surpassing insights tomorrow.  Amen.

 

 

14-God of involvement with all, let me not demand of you final answers about anything, but adequate answers to the moment of need. Amen.

 

15-O God of beauty, let me be but a shard within your grand kaleidoscope, turning in time and being perpetually rearranged with all other shards, to give you a pleasing view.  Amen.

 

 

16-O God, remind me how natural it should be to be humble, with an infinite number of things all being in infinite number of relationships and with each person having a vantage point on a very limited number of things.  So, why God, am I tempted to over-value my very partial view when the realization of this should make me unavoidably humble?   Let me have the grace to be but a member of your orchestra blending to the glory of the One God.  Amen.

 

17-O Spirit of God, are you the literal breath within?  Are you the invisible wind blowing the trees?  Or are you behind the metaphor we must use to refer to the mystery of the animation of life itself?  Amen.

 

18-God, we endeavor to be awe struck fans seeking the divine autographs to be written on things as a proof like a tag on a product stating, “Made in and By God.” Amen.

 

19-God of greatness, while we want your signature to stand out in particular things, you perhaps are saying to us that all things are your signature. And with our prayers we acknowledge that we are signed, sealed and delivered by you.  Amen.

 

20-O God of discerning rebuke; teach us not to use intercession for others as a guise for us confessing for them, the sins which we think that they have.  Amen.

 

21-God of wisdom, please forgive my worry based upon the assumption that I can know and invent the problems of the future before they happen.  Please transform my anxiety energy into calm wise planning for probable outcomes and not worst-case scenarios.  Amen.

 

22-O God, with the arising of Jesus within a human family, you made it natural for human words and knowing to be valid ways of knowing you.  And you gave us hope for empathy by showing us that our experience is relevant to understanding all beings.  Amen.

 

23-Creator Genius God, like each unique snowflake you have made each of us unique in personal constitution and experience, and such uniqueness can also be experienced as being quite alone.  But who is more unique than you?  And through you we can experience the choir of other unique beings and proclaim that we are mutually unique with each other.  Amen.

 

24-God of creativity, thank you for stamping each person with singular uniqueness so that from the mist of personal aloneness creativity can arise to bless the community.  Amen.

 

25-God of comfort, when I feel that nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, let me be reminded that nobody has known the joys, the smiles, and the love that I have known in precisely the unique ways in which I have known them.  Help me to balance the uniqueness of my troubles with the uniqueness of my joys.  Amen.

 

26-God, forgive me of the arrogance of thinking that I have thought of things which you haven’t which result in the events of worry.  When my worry is but thoughts without any empirical verification, please teach me to value myself so that I don’t choose disaster for my mental entertainment.  Please transform the thoughts about future probabilities into intercession for others and wise planning toward beneficial outcomes.  Amen.

 

 

 

27-O God, you are synchronous with all becoming, you have subjected us to the binary of time, events of either before or after.  And with each “after” event we mark our age and note the differences between who we were before and how we are after and we can fall into regret of what we were not before, or nostalgia of what we are not now.  Give us grace to accept the continual flow of the before and after and to embrace transformation as the God given action of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

28-Forgive us God, when we have been fickle within the crowd, and when it has been safe to shout “Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in God’s name.”  But in another crowd, we have been crying, “Crucify him,” when we have been involved in the victimization of those who are already suffering.  Give us discernment when we see those who have been made victims, and give us the courage to support and stand up for the wrongly ostracized.  Amen.

 

29-Lord Jesus Christ, how often we would like to keep you as an “external” icon to gaze upon or as a story in the Gospels.  Let us accept our identity with you and let your Christ nature see through us, pray through us and act through us.  Amen.

 

30-Bless Holy Trinity, who is unavoidable as a Father Plenitude from whom we came, live and will return to.  Who is Jesus the Christ, to assume human life so that we might assume knowledge of divine life in a valid way.  Who is Holy Spirit as the omnipresence allowing us to conduct mutual experience and know that we are not alone.  We bless you, O unavoidable Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

31-Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for giving us the Eucharist as a meal to promote the future gathering of your expanding family.  Keep us loyal to the family meal, and let us not forget that this meal is connected with the needs of the hungry people of our world.  Amen.

 

32-God of all people, you have made us feel so welcome, we can in our privilege think that our religious experience is more valid than those who equally claim the dignity of Christ.  Give us grace to open our hearts to all who want the equal dignity of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

 

33-God, you have funneled knowledge of you to comply with our human smallness, but with that wonderful knowledge you have given us the ability to surpass what we ever thought that we could be.  Thank you for being Word made flesh in Jesus; please dear Word of God, be made flesh again and again in us.  Amen.

 

34-O God, our heavenly parent, you have given us your Son Jesus to help us be formed into a family with a new identity.  Give us a love of our identity with the life of Christ who lives in and through us by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

35-Gracious God, we look forward with hope for the return of the excessive use of the praise word of the Easter celebration.  As we have fasted from the unique Easter praise word, let our lungs be ready to return to the Easter excess of holy noise in praise of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

 

36-God of all praise, prepare us for the intensity of Holy Week, when we will recount the final week of the life of Jesus in his earthy body.  Let the remembrance of these events be dynamic so that their power can be made manifest again in us in new events of remembrance.  Amen.

 

37-Christ, to be in you, is to erase the ego of lesser identities, like ethnic, gender, and social and economic differences.  But to be in you is to uplift to equality people in their differences to know that you delight to dwell in each person in giving everyone a sense of an original experience of you.  Amen.

 

38-Lord Jesus Christ, in your death on the Cross, you showed us that God suffers with us in our lives even to the suffering of death.  We thank you that you preserved genuine freedom, by allowing the worst of all to happen, even to your Son.  We ask that we might be shocked by the worst that happens to be inspired to overcome evil with good through your blessed example.  Amen.

 

39-God of all Patience, we wonder why you tolerate so much in life, even as we know life would be all programmed outcomes without genuine freedom.  Help us to respect freedom so much that we would in the democracy of freedom, cast our votes for goodness, so the goodness will finally win the day.  Amen.

 

40-God of our Easter destiny, you call us during Lent to our Easter of hope.  We thank you that hope, itself, received a wonderful story in the resurrection of Jesus.  We thank you that Easter hope always gives us a future, in this life and the next.  Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

Is Gardening about Burying Seeds?

5 Lent B March 21, 2021

Jer. 31:31-34 Ps. 51:11-16
Heb. 5:1-10 John 12:20-33

Lectionary Page

When you begin your garden, are you in the habit of saying.  Time for a funeral; time for a seed memorial event in my garden.  I am going to lay to rest in burial, these fine seeds and hope that they die from their seedy state and sprouts some roots and stems out their seed casing until that seed is no longer recognizable as a seed.  But I am hoping for the resurrection of that seed into some marvelous plants with leaves and blossoms and fruit.  And the leaves, blossoms and fruit will not look like that seed at all.  The seed will have died to become something more glorious.

This is the metaphor of the cycle of a plant life which Jesus used to speak about his own life in our appointed Gospel.  The speaking of Jesus in John's Gospel is surely the oracle of the Risen Christ in the community of the Gospel of John.  This community was teaching new members the significance of the life of Jesus and what he had become as the Risen Christ in the church family which was living five to six decades after Jesus.

Let us compare the seed of the life of Jesus of Nazareth with the life of the Risen Christ in the Johannine church six to seven decades later.  Quite a difference between the actual physical life of Jesus and the glorious fruit of what the Risen Christ had become in the many, many lives of those who knew the presence of God's Holy Spirit.

The one seed of the physical life of Jesus of Nazareth had become the known personal image of God in the lives of many thousands, and now 2000 years later, the fruit of the personal image of God as the Risen Christ has been known by countless number of people.  This is what one could call the entering of Jesus into his glory.  This is what one could say is the glorification of the name of God.

Can see and appreciate how the Gospel story encapsulates the process of the seed of the life of Jesus of Nazareth attaining continuing glory in being the Risen Christ inwardly present in the lives of countless people.  The Greek at the feast represents the glory of the Risen Christ coming to the Gentile peoples.

The entire result of the success of the Risen Christ in the church was the heavenly voice crying:  I have glorified and will glorify the name of God.

Let us have faith to believe in the great cycle of life today.  The cycle of life includes phases of existence and each phase of existence includes within it all of the other phases.

When we think about a seed or a baby, we think young, and in appearance it is young, but in its lineage it represents the complete indeterminate connection with the fullness of the past from which it came.  And the seed and the baby is but a bridge in being connected to an endless indeterminate future.

So today, as we believe in the validity of the cycle of life, let us also believe in the validity of spiritual cycle of life that has become known in Jesus Christ.  Jesus, being in the appearance of merely a person, lost that appearance in his death.  But what did he become in his afterlife?  What is he becoming in his afterlife within you and me and many others who are claiming the image of God on their lives?

Believe in the cycle of the life of Jesus Christ.  And believe that his spiritual life cycle is interwoven with ours.  And we will know many states of appearances in this cycle and some may not be pleasant, like loss and death, but let us continue to believe in the cycle, just as we are hopeful gardeners who bury seeds in the garden bed graves in order that they might surpass their seedy state and become the glorious fruit of the future.

Let us get into the rhythm of the spiritual cycle of the life of Christ today.  The cycle happens whether we want it to or not; so why not become intentional participants in this spiritual cycle of continuous transformation?  Amen.

Sunday School, March 21, 2021 5 Lent B

 Sunday School,  March 21, 2021    5 Lent B

Theme: Change

Time means that things and people and everything change

People change

Have you ever looked at your baby picture?  Are you different now?  You have changed in many ways.  In fact, you have changed so much that only your parents would know that it is you in your baby pictures.

Sometimes we can see change as it is happening.  Sometimes we can see change right now.  You blow a bubble, it floats into the air and pops and disappears.  You see clouds in the sky and they change shapes and they pass across the sky.

A seed is a tiny thing planted in the soil.  It disappears out of sight.  A root grows from it and a stem pushes out of the soil and the little seed is gone.  It has disappeared.  It seems to have died, but it became something else.  It changed.

Jesus told the people that his life would be like a seed put in the ground.  The seed would be buried and would die.  But when Jesus died he came back to life to show people how God would change all of our lives after we die.  We will live again.  We will always be changing.  We change in a big way when we die.  But the life of Jesus came to us from God to tell us that we will change again after we die.  We will become something like the butterfly breaking out of the cocoon.

Let us accept change.  Let us try to make good changes in our lives, being kind and loving and in learning more and more.  We can keep changing in good ways and live with hope even though we know that at death we will change in a big way.

Because Jesus changed in a big way when he died and when he reappeared, he gave us the message that when we died we will reappear to be with God.

Everything is changing in big ways and little ways.  We can see some changes and some change is so slow we don’t recognize it.

Jesus said at the big change that happen at his death, he would change and live again.  And now we do not have to fear the big change of death.

Sermon

  I would like to tell you about Mr. Rose.  Mr. Rose like to plant a garden every spring.  He loved to plant vegetables.  And he liked to have some fun doing it.  When Mr. Rose planted his garden, his garden looked like it was decorated for Halloween.  At the end of each row in the garden, he would put little tomb stone markers.  On one tomb stone, he would write, “Carrot seeds, RIP,(Rest in Peace).  On another, “corn seeds, RIP (Rest in Peace). And he would do the same for the other rows of vegetables.  And he would set up a Ghost Scarecrow in his garden.

  All of the kids in the neighborhood would watch Mr. Rose and his garden that looked like a grave yard.  And the joke around town about Mr. Rose was this:  “Mr. Rose is burying his seeds in the ground.”

  We have read some words of Jesus today.  He said, “If a seed is not buried in the ground and die, it will always remain a seed, but if it is put into the ground, it dies, and it becomes a plant that produces fruit and many more seeds.”

  Jesus said this to teach us about the change that occurred in his life.

  When Jesus lived, only a few people knew who he was.  But when he died and rose again, he became the most popular person in the history of the world.  Jesus has been gone for more than 2000 years, but we still celebrate his life today.  Jesus once lived in Palestine, in Israel.  But today, Christ lives in our hearts.  Jesus went through many changes in his life.  He was a baby, a young boy, and he was great teacher and prophet.  And he died.  But when he died, he did not stay buried, he became the risen Christ who could be presence to people all over the world.

  You and I are going through changes in our lives.  We all started out real small and tiny….and we were born as babies and we became children….and we keep changing and growing.  When we grow big we lose our smallness and we gain our bigness.  When we go to second grade in school, we lose first grade.  So we are always losing things in life, but we are always gaining things too.

  And when we look at death, we can think that we are losing someone in a very important way.  And we are.  But Jesus tells us to have hope, because when people die, then we know that God is taking care of them, because we no longer can.

  Jesus tells us that our lives are always changing.  We are losing some things, but we are gaining better things.

  So, when a seed is put into the ground and we know that it is gone forever, we know that the seed will sprout and become a beautiful plant.  Jesus wants us to know that God can always bring something beautiful out of everything that happens to us.

  This is the hope that we can have today.

 

Intergenerational family liturgy with Holy Eucharist

March 21, 2021: The Fifth Sunday In Lent

Gathering Songs:

Jesus Loves Me,   When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, When Jesus Wept, May the Lord

Liturgist: Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins.

People: His mercy endures 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.

Opening Song: Jesus Loves Me This I Know (All the Best Songs for Kids, # 54)

1 Jesus loves me! This I know, For the Bible tells me so.  Little ones to Him belong; they are weak but He is strong.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  The Bible tells me so.

2 Jesus loves me!  He who died!  Heaven’s gates to open wide.  He will wash away my sin, Let His little child come in. Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  The Bible tells me so.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Praise the Lord

O God, you are Great!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have made us! Praise the Lord

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Praise the Lord

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Praise the Lord

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Praise the Lord

A Reading from the Prophet Jeremiah

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt-- a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD;

The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 51

Create in me a clean heart, O God, * and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence * and take not your holy Spirit from me.

Give me the joy of your saving help again * and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.

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.

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. "Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say-- `Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon:

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.

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: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,   

1-When I survey the wondrous cross where the young Prince of Glory died

    All the vain thing that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood.

2-Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small; love so amazing so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

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.

Baptism is the 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.  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 by 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:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast. 

Word of Administration.

Communion Hymn: When Jesus Wept (blue hymnal, # 715)

When Jesus wept, the falling tear in mercy flowed beyond all bound; When Jesus groaned, a trembling fear seized all the guilty world around.

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: May the Lord (Sung to the tune of Eidelweiss)

May the Lord, Mighty God, Bless and keep you forever, Grant you peace, perfect peace, Courage in every endeavor.  Lift up your eyes and seek His face, Trust His grace forever.  May the Lord, Mighty God Bless and keep you for ever.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

God So Loved the World

Lent B March 14, 2021

Numbers 21:4-9 Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10 John 3:14-21

Lectionary Page

The appointed Bible readings for today present quite a contrast in how God's people understood God and God's intervention in response to human behaviors.

Imagine yourself as a parent with children who complained about the food you served or about what they got to drink.  What kind of parent would you be if you said, "Alright, kids, I'm tired of your complaining.  Tonight, you're going to be locked in your room with a nest of poisonous snakes."

If you did this, you might get reported to Child Protective Services.

But what about God, the heavenly Parent and the children of Israel who complained about food and water to Moses?  God sent as punishment for the complaining people,  poisonous snakes to bite and kill many of them.  Moses interceded and was instructed to put a bronze serpent on a pole for the disobedient children to look at and be healed.  All they had to do was just glance at the serpent.  Not a hard task.  Accept the healing just by looking at the snake image.

In crueler times, this story seems to be a story that an older brother would tell to a younger sibling as what would happen if they didn't clean their plate and drink their milk.  You better eat your food or you know what happened to those complaining children of Israel, a long time ago.

Now fast forward to our New Testament readings we see find a contrast in how God is presented in the New Testament writings?  God so loved the world and gave us Jesus as a way to know the gift of everlasting life, in this life by the Spirit, and in the age to come.  And we are saved by grace through faith and further, according to St. Paul,  we are lifted up to be seated in heavenly places with Christ.

I would suggest that the Bible readings present quite an evolution in how people have understood God and God's interaction with us.

I think that we can be thankful that the best presentation has been saved for the last.

We don't have to face poisonous snakes for our sins, for our short comings, our ignorance and our under-developed moral and spiritual lives.

But what do the words of Jesus retain from the bronze serpent on the pole story?  It was only the glance of faith which healed.  And that is how the cross functioned for St. Paul and the Gospel writers.  If sin is the poisonous snakes which robs us of good living, then just look at the cross of Jesus where he is lifted up.  

Well, that's easy you say.  And isn't that the point of grace?  It's as difficult of simply taking it.  People who are prideful are in the habit of turning down or more often not recognizing the gifts they've been given.  Persons of sinful pride think: 'I don't need gifts.  I am a self made, go it alone person.  I don't need you.  I don't need God's grace.  I am an island of independence."

This is the illusion of the state of sin, being born within all of the provisions of the world and with the image of God upon our lives, and falsely believing we are the ones who made this happen.

The purpose of the life of Jesus is to convince us of grace and the total gift of God that has been toward us in creation itself.

And what are we to do?  We are to learn how to revel in God's goodness and abundant gifts all around us.  And we are to learn that abundant goodness can be inside of us too, in grace, love, peace and joy;  all these delicious wonderful free gifts.  But we need to learn to get the ego out of the way to merely learn how to take the glance of faith and receive and access the gifts.

Another thing, we need to learn about grace and condemnation.  Saving grace or condemnation is inherent in how we act or behave.  We don't have to wait for future punishments or for God to release poisonous snakes.  When we do what is wrong it is the manifestation of condemnation itself.  That we do wrong is its own punishment.  Conversely, grace and salvation are immediately inherent and self reinforcing.  The reward of grace and salvation, when we act in faith to do what is right, is that we get to be good, loving, kind, and just.

The reward of grace is immediate: Wow, we get to be nice and kind and that is salvation and grace.

What you and I can learn from John 3:16 is that God loves the world.  And God has hidden that love in each of us and all we have to do is let it out.  And as we give the gift of love, we receive more of the supply of love because it is all about the flow of the love of God through us.

And that is the secret of poetically being seated to Christ in heavenly place.  When we can love with the gift of God's love through us, that is what heaven on earth means.  Amen.