Sunday School, June 15, 2025 Trinity Sunday, C

 Sunday School, June 15, 2025    Trinity Sunday, C

Today is Trinity Sunday

What does Trinity mean?

It means that we believe God is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit

But if God is three persons, how can God be One God?  Do we believe in three Gods?

No, we believe in One God, in three Persons who are all equally God

Why do we believe in God as a Trinity?

Even though we believe God is much greater than us, we believe that God wants us to know about God. We as human being believe we are persons.  A person is someone who knows oneself in relationship with each other.  I am a son because I have a father.  I am a father because I have a son.  I am a brother because I have brothers and sisters.  I am a husband because I have a wife.  So I have many expressions of my personality depending upon what relationship I have with other people.

We believe that God wants to be related to us as persons.  So we believe that God can best be known to us in being known as Persons of the Trinity.

When we relate to God as our creator, we speak of God as our Father.  When we relate to God as someone who became human to show us how to live the best human life, we know God as Jesus the Son.  And when we know that God surrounds us like water surrounding a fish and when we know that God is close inside of us, we know God as the invisible Holy Spirit.

So in our relationship with God we know God in different kinds of relationships and yet each of these kinds of relationship are with a single one, kind and loving God.

The Trinity is our confession about a great God who wants to be in relationship with us and we wants us to be in relationship with God, in different ways, sometimes as our Father, sometimes as our big brother Jesus and sometimes like the invisible breath or wind when we know God is with us because we feel the closeness of God.

Exercise: What is your name?  How many persons are you?  Son? Daughter? Brother? Sister? Boy? Girl? Student? Soccer Player? Dancer?

Puppet Show for Trinity Sunday
Characters:

Officer George

Father Phil

  

Sign on the Puppet Theatre

Security Agent, Security Systems and Driving Instruction

Fr. Phil: (knocks on the puppet theatre) Is anyone in?  I need some help.

Officer George:  (pops up)  Hello, I’m Officer George here.  Can I help you?

Fr. Phil:  Yes,  I need some one to teach a friend of mine how to drive.

Officer George:  Happy to help you.  Just have them come and sign up and I will be do the driving instruction.  I have never had a ticket but I wrote lots of tickets for speeders when I was a traffic cop.

Fr. Phil:  Great, I’ll have my friend come by to see you and sign up for the class.

(Officer George leaves)

Fr. Phil:  Oops, I forgot that I needed something else.  (Fr. Phil knocks on the theatre again)   Hello, is anyone still in the office?

Officer George: (pops up)  Yes, I’m still here.  Do you need another driving lesson?

Fr. Phil: No, I want to talk to your security person.  I need to have an alarm installed at my home.

Officer George:  Well, you’ve come to the right place.  I’ll be happy to help you.

Fr. Phil:  But aren’t you the Driving Instructor?

Officer George:  Yes, but I also install alarm systems.  Is that a problem?

Fr. Phil:  Well, no but you must be a busy person.  I will give you my address.  When can you come by and give me a bid.

Officer George:  I’ll come by tomorrow and help you decide what kind of alarm system that you need.  Good bye…..(Officer George disappears)

Fr. Phil:  Oops.  I forgot I still need something.  I need a security guard to come by each night and check our property.  Knock!  Knock!  Is anyone still there?

Officer George:  Oh, hello.  I see you are still here.  How can I help you? 

Fr. Phil:  I want to talk with your security agent.  I need a watchman to check out the church each night.  Can I hire one of your night watchmen?

Officer George:  Yes, you can.  I am the night watchman.

Fr. Phil:  How can you be the Driver Instructor, the alarm installer and the night watchman?

Officer George:  Well, I could ask you how you, the one and same person, could need a driver instructor, an alarm installed and a watchman.

Fr. Phil:  Well, as a person I have many needs.

Officer George: So you can be just one person and have many needs?  Don’t you think that I can be one person and have many jobs and titles?  I am a Driving Instructor, an alarm installer and a watchman.  Fr. Phil as a priest you should be able to understand that?

Fr. Phil:  Why do you say that?

Officer George:  Well, today is Trinity Sunday.  God is One, but we know God in different ways in God’s different Persons.  We know God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Fr. Phil: Officer George, thank you for your instruction about the Trinity.  Do you think this will help the children at St. John’s understand the Trinity?

Officer George:  Maybe a little…but now you’ve given me a fourth job, a teacher.  I think that I’ll stick to my three jobs.  Good bye, as you see I’m a very busy person having three different jobs.

Fr. Phil:  Good bye Officer George and thank you.  God must be a very busy God since there are so many people who have so many needs.  It’s a good thing that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Don’t you think so?

A Sermon for Trinity Sunday.

Can you be a brother or sister, and a son or daughter, and student all at one time?  Can your father be a father, brother and husband all at one time?  Can your mother be a mother, sister and wife all at one time?

  So one person can be many different personal roles at one time.  I am a father, a brother, a son, a cousin, a priest, and yet I am still just one human being.  I am a father person, a brother person and a son person, but still just one human being.

  Today is called Trinity Sunday.  Does anyone know what Trinity means.  Whenever you see the three letters TRI at the start of a word, what number are we talking about?  The number three.  So Trinity refers to three persons.

  As Christians we say that God is One God but in trinity of persons.  And what are the three persons?  Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

  If you are talking to your Dad, then you know him as your father.  But if your uncle is talking to your dad, he will know your dad as a brother.  And if your mother is talking her your dad, she will know your dad as her husband.

  So whether we know God as Father, Son or Holy Spirit, it all depends on how we are knowing God.

  If we are talking about God as the great creator, we will be speaking about God as our Father. 

  But if we are talking about God as God became known to us as a human being, then we will talk about Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

  And if we talking about how God can be present everywhere at one time, then we will talk about God as the Holy Spirit.

  So God can be one God and be also known as three different persons, depending upon what we need to know about God.

  And that is the wonderful thing about the Trinity.  God can be known to us in different ways.  Because sometimes we need to know God in different ways.

  Today let us be thankful that God can be known to us in different ways, as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  This is the Trinity that we celebrate today.  Amen.

 

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

June 15, 2025 Trinity Sunday

Gathering Songs: The King of Glory, Glorify Thy Name, Eat This Bread, Peace Like a River

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: The King of Glory Comes, (Renew! # 267)

Chorus: The King of glory comes, the nation rejoices.  Open the gates before him, lift up your voices.

1-Who is the King of Glory; how shall we call him? He is Emmanuel, the promised of ages.

2-In all of Galilee, in city or village, he goes among his people curing their illness.

3-Sing then of David’s son, our savior and brother: in all of Galilee was never another

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, 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 Book of Proverbs

Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?   On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: "To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.  The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 8

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, * the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,

What are men and women that you should be mindful of them? * and their children that you should seek them out?

You have made them but little lower than the angels; * you adorn them with glory and honor;

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 to the disciples, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

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: Glorify Your Name, (Renew!, # 37)

Father we love you we worship and adore you. Glorify your Name in all of the world.  Glorify your name, glorify your name, glorify your name in all the world.

Jesus we love you we worship and adore you. Glorify your Name in all of the world.  Glorify your name, glorify your name, glorify your name in all the world.

Spirit  we love you we worship and adore you. Glorify your Name in all of the world.  Glorify your name, glorify your name, glorify your name in all the world.

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 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.

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,

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments) 

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:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast. 

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Eat This Bread, (Renew! # 228)

Eat this bread, drink this cup, come to me and never be hungry. 

Eat this bread, drink this cup, trust in me and you will not thirst.

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: I’ve Got Peace Like a River (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 122)

I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.  I’ve          got peace like a river; I’ve got peace like a river.  I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.

I’ve got love…. 

I’ve got joy…

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God! 

Holy Spirit: Immanent Mutually Conducting Essence of Us with All

Day of Pentecost C   June 8, 2025
Acts 2:1-21. Ps. 104: 25-32
Romans 8:14-17 John 14:8-17, 25-17 

Lectionary Link

Our lives in this world seem to be governed by the rule of diversity and differences. We are all different and because we are different we often make our differences our chief identifying features, so much so that we find reason to be in conflict with each other. Even when we find common ground, such commonalities are often not enough to save us from war, conflicts, or petty but spiteful disagreements.

Even things that we share are often not winsome enough to keep us from serious disagreements. People being American does not keep Americans from conflict with each other, sometimes in very vitriolic ways. One might think that speaking the same language might or should be a unifying for people but we are reminded of the Shavian/Wilde quip about the British and the Americans being peoples divided by having a common language.

Today is the Day of Pentecost, and the story of Pentecost is told in the Acts of the Apostles as being a healing of the poly-glottic curse which had long befallen humanity. One would think that unity is a good thing, but according to the ancient story of the tower of Babel, a mono-glottic world, where people were unified by speaking the same language was actually an occasion for unifying in a prideful attempt to overthrow the most High God. And the Most High God was not amused by their unity in such a coup, so the Most High God cursed the people of Babel with the sudden imposition of people speaking many different languages, so confusing that they had to disperse throughout the world into their different language groups with different locales.

Attempts to unify the world through language have occurred as various lingua franca have been imposed on the world by the various conquerors, whether the ancient Assyrians and Aramaic, or the ancient Greeks after Alexander the Great and his generals brought a "common Greek" to their conquered world. It is this "common Greek" which was used for the New Testament writings. One could also say that for many the "common Greek" had conquered the Hebrew Scriptures because the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, the so-called Septuagint was the preferred version read by many in the post-Alexander the Great world.

Linguistic unity does not guarantee social unity or peace among people. People who speak the same language can violently disagree. This means that the real issue of the Tower Babel story was not a language issue; it was an interior character issue. If people are united by denying their connection with the Most High, then prideful egos ruled the day and the ownership of the universe was usurped. The result is what we have today; people fighting over the ownership of their land and lives and not having the humility that recognizes that all belongs to the great conditions that came before and the Greater Life that continues to endure after we are gone. In short, the Tower of Babel story is a parable about the fallen spiritual condition of humanity.

Do we automatically solve the unity problem if we speak the same language? Certainly not. No universal lingua franca can solve the spiritual problem of prideful usurping of the ownership of the world by the Greater Life that pre-existed us and that will outlast us.

The Pentecost insight is not to impose a single language upon everyone; rather it is about how to use the languages of our births in a way that is evidence of our spiritual healing, a healing of our prideful separation from God and our fellow humans in our world.

Spirit, a multi-language world, and Christly nature are definitive of Pentecost and they it provide us with insights for personal and global health. We need clean hearts and renewed spirits within us to foster our personal healing and the healing of our world.

The Holy Spirit of Pentecost is not a monolithic God creating exact copies in a cookie cutter sameness imposed upon all people; rather the Spirit of Pentecost is the inside job upon the lives of people giving them freedom to live Christ-like behaviors with each other in this world.

What historic churches have mostly done is to declared that Holy Spirit unity is a dominant administrative Empire-like organization that through canon law says, "we are all one, because you obey our dogma, doctrine, and specific practices." Churches essentially decided that the Roman Empire and worldly empires are the best models for spiritual unity, even to the point of imposing worldwide the uncommon language of Latin as the official language of prayer.

A more insightful understanding of Pentecost is to understand the presence of the Holy Spirit as always local and personal, as renewing one heart at a time in various circumstances so that people are converted to Christly ways which is also the way of peaceful living together.

We really find it difficult to conceptualize about Oneness and Unity because our lives are so conditioned by rampant and obvious diversity and differences. How might we appropriate a workable notion of Oneness?

What is One is the continuously expanding in time of the One Great Container, who we call God, and who continuously surpasses the Divine Self in each creative occasion of becoming. How do we who live and move and have our being in this Great One Container express oneness and unity. First, by acknowledging the alway, already experience of connectedness and togetherness within this Great God Container of All. We are irretrievably together and to humbly acknowledge that is the first step in living in unitarian ways. In this Great God Container of All, we are connected by the ability to have mutual experience of the things, the creatures, and people of our particular setting. We might call this omnipresent connecting essence within the total divine ground, the Holy Spirit of Life.

We best live in unitarian ways by celebrating togetherness in our differences through what we might call the harmony of love and justice. Love and Justice cannot be imposed by empires or governments, either sacred or secular. Empires and governments can impose laws for versions of their justice; but true love and justice must come from interior winsomeness of the Holy Spirit as connecting essence of us with all.

Let us today submit humbly to our connected togetherness with all, and make our interior lives open to new spirits and new hearts caressed by the great Holy Connecting Spirit within the complete divine milieu. And as the Spirit works in winsomely persuasive ways to melts us toward Christlike behaviors, let us endeavor to also live winsomely with each other in our specific locations so as to spread the effects of Holy Spirit in collateral ways.

Let the Gospel of Pentecost for us today be the winning of our hearts to the togetherness of all within God whose connecting Holy Spirit inspires us to live in the unitarian ways of love and justice. Amen.

Prayers for Easter, 2025

Saturday in 7 Easter, June 7, 2025

Give us grace and humility O God, to admit the obvious of togetherness on the ground of Great Becoming; give us courage to express togetherness as the supreme harmony of justice allowing differences to be harmonized in perfect togetherness.  Amen.

Friday in 7 Easter, June 6, 2025

Spirit of Life, give us enough clusters of harmony within human community to promote health, love, and justice as being what is most definitive of the divine will for how we are to live together.  Give us wisdom and courage to choose these clusters of harmony. Amen.

Thursday in 7 Easter, June 5, 2025

O God, how can we know Unity and Oneness without the effects of Oneness? Give us grace to respond to the Oneness of All, with worded products of kind speech, wise writing, and body language deeds of justice, which is the perfection of harmony.  Amen.

Wednesday in 7 Easter, June 4, 2025

God from whom the plenitudinous diversity was born and derived; coax us back to your Oneness as we in mystery know the mysterious depth of the Spirit as the Ground of Being before which any language or interpretation of the same can occur.  Let your omnipresence which is always before our interpretation of the same lure us to deeds of love and justice today which are fitting to your Oneness.  And forgive us any use of language which would deign to presume omni-competence. Amen.

Tuesday in 7 Easter, June 3, 2025

Holy Spirit, your Oneness is only known through love and love's outcomes; deliver us from confessing Trinitarian Oneness while not practicing the proof of such in loving behaviors.  Amen.

Monday in 7 Easter, June 2, 2025

Holy God, we seek the operation of your oneness to be manifested in harmonious peace among the peoples of this earth; give us grace in our local situations to initiate continuously the peace of unity to collaterally effect our world and join with other local peace initiatives to spread the divine Shalom.  Amen.

Sunday after the Ascension, June 1, 2025

Ascended Christ, you are the confession of the church about a mysterious place of the absence of Jesus to our eyesight; we thank you that as inapparent as you are to our eyesight, your apparency has now attained an inner presence within our bodies as temples of the Risen Christ.  Amen.

Saturday, Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, May 31, 2025

Gracious God, we thank you for the lodging behaviors of birthing women like Blessed Mary and Elizabeth whose experience of actual gestational oneness with another person gives them gifted insights into empathy with others which can heal our communities toward acceptance of the completeness of harmonious differences.  Amen.

Friday after Ascension Day, May 30, 2025

Word Made Flesh Jesus, you became Flesh Made Word in the story of your Ascension; help us to ride the most apparent presence of the Divine in Jesus Christ into the invisible omni-Worded Christ as the All and in All as an interpretive practice of hope within the vast range of what may happen to us.  Amen.

Thursday, Feast of the Ascension, May 29, 2025

Ascended Christ, when Jesus become out of sight, you did not become out of mind but you imparted another presence to awaken our interiors to our God-ward spark; let your absence to our sight inspire us to access the inward Christ and to act from divine compelling love.  Amen.

Wednesday in 6 Easter, May 28, 2025

God of wisdom, in our attempts to accrue wisdom from our actual experience, keep us humbly expectant and willing to be open to the uncanny and the surprises which can reveal our complacent thinking we have been calling objective knowledge.  Amen.

Tuesday in 6 Easter, May 27, 2025

Eternal Word, teach us how to use language appropriate to the occasion and to avoid confusions of codes for the various discourses, so that we don't say true things in lying ways, or lying things while hiding behind the natural respect and good will that people may want to afford us.  Amen.

Monday in 6 Easter, May 26, 2025, Memorial Day, USA

God of the living and dead, those who have gone before us are the foundational past necessary being and they have coded us with the traces which they have left in our lives; we honor with thanksgiving those who have died and left us with legacies to inform the direction of our decision making now for the enhancement of the common good.  Amen.

The Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 25, 2025

Manifestations of All at Once, let your wholeness exude toward us healing effects for situations of cruel war, hatred, and oppression, and let your wholeness coax everyone to a togetherness of the harmony of total mutual dignity of all people.  Amen.

Saturday in 5 Easter, May 24, 2025

God, on whom we project language ability enough to be a language user and omnipresent conductive communicator; help us to be communicators to spread peace and justice in ways which will promote the healing of our world.  Amen.

Friday in 5 Easter, May 23, 2025

God, whose strength of patience is perceived as weakness before freedom; we think that you should intervene to prevent innocent suffering and the bullying of the powerful of all sorts; it does not seem much consolation to know that evil and harm have a terminus date in time as too much harm occurs in the meantime.  We patiently wait for the worth of true freedom for moral validity to proven as the supreme value in life.  If freedom be the supreme value, let us and all freely chose love and justice.  Amen.

Thursday in 5 Easter, May 22, 2025

O God of the Expanding Becoming Container of all, send the good ripples of echos from the expanding boundary throughout the whole and enable cataclysmic intervention in the evil trends of neglecting the expansive care for the greater common good of the world.  Amen.

Wednesday in 5 Easter, May 21, 2025

O God, Send our world synchronies of peace and justice so that all might realize their gifts for the common good.  Amen.

Tuesday in 5 Easter, May 20, 2025

Favor by protection from potential harm, O God, we remember those who do not have the favor of protection when they need it even as we don't under why everything that happens when it happens.  Give us grace to live with life's bafflements.  Amen.

Monday in 5 Easter, May 19, 2025

Protect and keep us this day from the storms of life, so that we might know safe and harmonious timing with what may happen.  Let all manner of things be known to be well indeed today especially for those who do not have the knowledge, power, or wealth to preventatively avoid the harms of life.  Amen.

The 5th Sunday of Easter, May 18, 2025

Grant O God of Love, that we might be known by our love, not as gushy feelings but as the tough practice of applied justice in giving each person their proper dignity in their immediate setting.  Amen.

Saturday in 4 Easter, May 17, 2025

God who comprehends infinite diversity, you have given us language to enable story telling to give us definitive meaning and purpose on a continuum of being without differentiation save by the naming of words; give us grace to craft stories of love and justice within the many human clusters of community and let us found superlative meanings on love and justice in our clusters and be proverbial pebbles of justice hitting the waters of reality and influencing to the edge of all.  Amen.

Friday in 4 Easter, May 16, 2025

Eternal Word, we cannot help but commit language products through and through; give us grace to be adept language user and help each to find their particular holy voice in articulating the very best of love and justice.  Amen.

Thursday in 4 Easter, May 15, 2025

God of rushing profound Interiority; send irresistible love to the interior places of all people in apparent ways such that they would be convinced to commit themselves to justice and peace.  Amen.

Wednesday in 4 Easter, May 14, 2025

God of love, your love includes abundant freedom for learning and such freedom to learn often reveals that we hurt each other and the earth badly; give us hope that the lure of your love for us to surpass ourselves in excellence will not cease even when in the temporal cluster of our experience gloom seems to triumph.  Amen.

Tuesday in 4 Easter, May 13, 2025

Gracious Jesus, our identity with you is known through the practice of love; forgive us when we have failed both in our practice of love and in thus failing to instantiate our identity with you.  Amen.

Monday in 4 Easter, May 12, 2025

God, you are the plentitude for us in being born into a human world of language such that all comes to some linguistic product which we name as thought, vision, spoken word, body deed, encoded environments, and from having access to endless interiority we confess you as the More of life; in humility we embrace ourselves as exponentially less than your More and we seek wisdom for the ordering of the small cluster within plenitude in which we are limited.  Amen.

The 4th Sunday of Easter, May 11, 2025

Eternal Word of God, be in us so that all our word products of thought, speech, writing, and body language might produce what is wisdom for each situation in our lives.  Amen.

Saturday in 3 Easter, May 10, 2025

God, let us confess the universally recommendable loving our neighbor as ourselves as what is truly catholic about our church; give us grace to love beyond our administrative restrictions which often exclude people who have no chance of complying with our historically and culturally derived rules and let us never deny the God given dignity to those who are different from us.  Amen.

 Friday in 3 Easter, May 9, 2025

God who wants to be One Shepherd with one flock of humanity; you are challenged to encompass such a diversity of human sheep in the cultural differences and in the developmental maturity differences such that the forced cohabitation often results in chaos and discord; give us grace to accept our local unities of like mindedness but with open mindedness to those who differ significantly so that we might be influenced to broaden our capacity to love in better ways with more people.  Amen.

Thursday in 3 Easter, May 8, 2025

Plenitudious One, it seems as though good and evil live as genetic viruses in the conditions of freedom while we hope for the winsomeness of goodness to be made our ultimate health; give to all the desire not to be repugnant in our behaviors to ourselves, to others, and to you.  Amen.

Wednesday in 3 Easter, May 7, 2024

God, we desire you to be most charming and irresistible in persuading all people of this world to the outcomes of peace and justice but would such a great seduction be a assault on our naive and ignorant freedom to persist in the chaos of competing free systems?  We commit the mystery of the failure of your irresistability to the vital necessity of creative freedom and ask for courage to find immanent causes of love and justice as worthy of our constant efforts.  Amen.

Tuesday in 3 Easter, May 6, 2025

Christ as All and in All, the object of our ultimate metaphorical license; let us resist sweeping poetic license for you if we refuse to let your Christly values of love for our neighbors sweep over our words and deeds of life.  Amen.

Monday in 3 Easter, May 5, 2025

God, the Good Shepherd of all, we often wish that you were a forceful and coercive shepherd in not allowing freedom, but your hands off permission for all things to freely happen challenges us to use our freedom responsibly for the benefit of all.  Give us grace to learn how to be shepherd the freedoms of our lives.  Amen.

Third Sunday of Easter, May 4, 2025

Restore us O Christ by your Risen presence so that we might rise from our failures to be our best, to continue with humility to refuse to label our imperfections as perfection, but steadily surpass ourselves in the graceful excellences which pertain to love and justice.  Amen.

Saturday in 2 Easter, May 3, 2025

Jesus Christ of mercy, you show us that mercy is what we need in time not to achieve perfection as some final state of being but to fill out completeness in time; give us grace and wisdom to understand completeness as integrating confession, repentance, and forgiveness.  Amen.

Friday in 2 Easter, May 2, 2025

Jesus Christ, you are presented to us as the Shepherd who came to teach shepherding, which is the use of knowledge, power, and position to help the vulnerable; help us to follow you in being those who rightly use our knowledge power, and wealth for lifting up of the vulnerable to their God-given dignity.  Amen.

Thursday in 2 Easter, May 1, 2025

Risen Christ, your appearances achieve biblical stories not to limit them to but a privilege few but to invite us to bring to witness where the essence of the Risen Christ intersects our lives; give us boldness to acknowledge your presence wherever we find the actualization of love and justice.  Amen.

Wednesday in 2 Easter, April 30, 2025

Shepherd of our souls, you call us from groveling in our own self-disillusionment to use the energy of disappointment about our lack of perfection for shepherding those who need care, because the act of care takes our gaze from ourselves and channels the grace of your love.  Amen.

Tuesday in 2 Easter, April 29, 2025

Risen Christ, you restored Peter who denied you as the story of how any of us can be ignorantly proud of abilities only to be confronted in our failure and experience self-disillusionment; give us like you gave Peter hope for rehabilitation and continuous forgiving grace with each other in community to walk in the path of surpassing ourselves in excellence.  Amen.

Monday in 2 Easter, April 28, 2025

Show yourself again Risen Christ, in telling ways so that the inner revealed peace in the hearts of those who know your indwelling might be motivated for the work of peace which is needed to be worked in our world.  Amen.

The Second Sunday of Easter, April 27, 2025

Risen Christ, doubting you at times is what we often do when you don't seem apparent because we prefer that you be known to us in only favorable things happening to us; thank you for returning to us in apparency so as to train us to remember that the sun of blessed presence still is shining even when the night of doubt darkens our life.  Amen.

Easter Saturday, April 26, 2025

Eternal Word, language is loose like a raging fire within human communities; we don't control that we have language, but we are given by you significant freedom to filter the portals of what we take in and what we produce in speech, writing and body language.  Give us grace to be playwrights and actors of justice and love in our performance of living.  Amen.

Easter Friday, April 25, 2025

Give us awareness, O God, of the always already Risen Christ presences to us or we remain guilty of accusing you for short changing you for not giving us adequate God experiences because we compare our experiences as inferior to others.  Let us have the grace to embrace the different but equal experience of Christ as all and in all.  Amen.

Easter Thursday, April 24, 2025

Risen Christ, your many post-resurrections appearances to the billions who did not and have not seen Jesus affirms the mystical reality of our faith; give us humility not to make our own experience as reason to judge others whose experience is different than ours.  Amen.

Easter Wednesday, April 23, 2025

God of hope, we ponder how our lives might be retained after the event of death, not because we think we deserve to live on after we die, but because hope's vision have given us such possibilities which leaves us feeling perpetually unfinished.  Let us not be left in the regret of unfinished lives without the hope of further completeness.  Amen.

Easter Tuesday, April 22, 2025,  (Earth Day)

Forgive us Risen Christ, for presuming that only those who walked with Jesus had valid experiences of God while we think it is humble not to have significant spiritual experience with unopened eyes to your many presences to us always, everywhere especially on this beautiful diverse earth given to us to steward.  Amen.

Easter Monday, April 21, 2025, Death of Pope Francis

We commend to your resurrection life, Francis, who gracefully switched the perspective of his family of faith from emphasizing dogmatic exclusion and appealed to the winsome love of Christ for all people in various states of not being perfect but who could be on the grace complemented perfectible path of becoming better at loving God and our neighbors.  Amen.

Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025

Gracious Risen Lord, on this day we celebrate that you were known to have profound continuity with yourself after you had died at the hands of a crushing empire; give us joy in knowing that we have hopeful continuity with the everlastingness which you revealed.  Amen.

Sunday School, June 8, 2025 The Day of Pentecost C

Sunday School, June 8, 2025  The Day of Pentecost C

Themes

Pentecost is a celebration of the birthday of the church

Song:  Sing Happy Birthday to the Church

You will need about 1988 candles for the number years

What is one of the first signs of life when a baby is born?

A baby begins to breathe.  The baby’s lungs start working and we know that a baby is alive because the baby is breathing.

Breathing is a sign of first life or birth.

Pentecost is a celebration of the birth of the church and this was known because of the signs of its birth.

The sign of the birth of the church was the presence of the Spirit of God.

Spirit means “breath” or “wind.”  You cannot see breath or wind but you know that they are there.  You can see the leaves of the trees move when the wind blows on them.

Unseen “breath” or “Wind” became the name for God who is presence but not seen.  God’s Spirit became known within the community of people who followed Jesus.  Jesus died, he rose and he left this earth but he promised to leave his Spirit with his friends and with anyone who wanted to simply discover God’s presence in their lives.

Pentecost is when a rally happened in Jerusalem and people gathered and realized that even though Jesus was gone, His Spirit was still in them and gave them power and energy to do the same things which Jesus did.  God’s Spirit was discovered within their hearts and they had power to preach good news, to practice healing and good health, to share with one another and to love one another.  They also received the ministry of letting all of the people in the world know about how close that God was too them because of God’s Spirit.

Pentecost is a celebration of the discovery of God’s presence in all people and how we can all be different and yet still live together in love and peace.

We can celebrate Pentecost best by taking time to discover the Spirit of God in our lives and in the lives of other people.  We can honor the Spirit of God through peace, love, caring, forgiveness and sharing the Good News of Jesus.  Jesus came to show us how close God is to us.  The Spirit is proof that God is close to us now and that we can know ourselves to be sons and daughters of God.

Pentecost Sermon (use harmonica or Pan Flute)

Do you know what kind of instrument I have in my hand?    It’s called a harmonica?  And do you know how this instrument is played?    It’s played by putting it up to my mouth and blowing.

  How is this instrument different than a whistle?    A whistle usually makes just one sound, but this harmonica can make many different sounds.

  It is a reed instrument.  If we open up the harmonica, we can find many differ little pieces of thin metal and they are different sizes.  Some are short and some are long.

  When I blow air across the short ones a high sound is made.  When I blow air across the long ones, a lower sound is made.

  So if we blow in the correct way, we can play many different notes and different kinds of music.  A harmonica is not like a whistle because a harmonica can make many different sounds.  And we can play many different songs with the harmonica.  We can even bend the notes and make it cry….or we can make it sound like a train.

  What is it that makes the harmonica play.  It is blown air or wind that comes from the lungs.

  Did you know that one of the ways that we talk about God is to call God, the Holy Spirit.  The Special Spirit.  The Special Wind or Breath.  Can you see Wind or Breath?  Well we can see clouds or we can see our breath when it’s cold.

  But we don’t actually see the Wind or Breath.  We know Wind and Breath are here because we can feel and see the movement that is caused by Wind and Breath.  When you blow on a Wind mill, you can see the wind mill turn.

  So today in when we celebrate the Invisible presence of God who is everywhere, just like wind and breath. 

  And we celebrate the fact that God’s wind or breath is within us blowing us…or playing us, just like I blow air into this harmonica to play the different sounds to make music or noise.

  We cannot see God Spirit…But God’s spirit is blowing through us and playing us as music.

  So we need to see ourselves as God’s musical instruments.  All different sizes and shapes, ages, with different appearances, different abilities and gifts.  God enjoys that we are all so different.  Because we’re different God can play lots of different songs through us.

  And what kind of music does God’s breath or Spirit play through us?  We call that music love, joy, peace, faith, self-control, gentleness, patience and all of the other good things that God wants to do through us.  How many of you want to be God’s instrument today?  Do you want the Wind or Breath of God to be blown through you today?

  Today, we remind ourselves that the Breath or Wind of God, the Holy Spirit is filling us today to help our lives be like a beautiful song for God today.  So today we let God the Spirit play a beautiful song through us.  Amen.

Gospel Puppet Show

Day of Pentecost

Characters:

Dovey the Dove

George

Dovey: (singing) Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you.  Happy birthday Christian Church.  Happy birthday to you!  And many more!

George: Why did you sing Happy Birthday to the Church Dovey?

Dovey:  Well today is the Day of Pentecost and the Day of Pentecost is the Birthday of the Church.  Let’s see the church is 2019 minus 33 equals 1986.   Happy 1986th birthday to the church.  But who’s counting?

George: Obviously you are counting.  We are a pretty old group of people.

Dovey:  Yes, you are one of the oldest and long lasting organizations that ever existed.

George: I wonder why the church has lasted so long.  Do you think that the church will still be here after I die?

Dovey:  Well George, you’re not going to die for awhile but yes the church will be here after you die to have more birthdays.

George:  How do you know Dovey?

Dovey:  Well, because even though you are a member of the church, the church is really not about you.

George:  Well, what is the church about?

Dovey:  The church is about Jesus Christ.  His message of love was so wonderful and it created so much excitement in people they called his message Good News or Gospel.  And Jesus said if we just keep sharing this good news to each new group of people who are born then this message will live forever.  This is why the church will continue to have birthdays forever.  Do you know what Pentecost means?

George:  Do I have time to Google it?

Dovey: Goo..goo…goo…Google it?  What’s that?

George:  It’s like a big storage brain outside of me where I store all of the information of the world and maps.  Google maps can even tell me where to go.

Dovey:  Well, I’ve got a built in Google maps and GPS.  Did you know that my family has been making a nest and laying eggs in the same tree for more than a hundred years.  I’ve got GPS in me that automatically tells me where to go.

George:  Wow, where did you get that?  That’s better than Google maps.

Dovey:  God made me this way and God the Holy Spirit is everywhere like a divine GPS system.  But the Holy Spirit became better known to everyone on the Day of Pentecost.

George: So what does Pentecost mean?

Dovey:  It means 50 days after Easter and it is the day when the Holy Spirit became known to the friends of Jesus.

George:  What happened on the Day of Pentecost?

Dovey:  Well, the Holy Spirit was discovered by the friends of Jesus and they were happy and joyful and they found that the Holy Spirit helped them to tell the Good News about Jesus in every language.

George:  So the Holy Spirit is like a great Google translator?

Dovey:  I guess you techies might say it that way.  Yes, the Holy Spirit is the wonderful personal energy of God’s love with us to help us to continue to tell the Good News about Jesus so that the church will continue to have birthdays into the future.

George: Wow!  Pentecost and the Holy Spirit are exciting.  But where are we going to get 1980 candles for the birthday cake?  Oh well, at least we can sing Happy Birthday.  Sandra, can you hit it on the piano and help us sing?

Everyone:  Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you.  Happy birthday Christian Church.  Happy birthday to you!  And many more!

George:  Do you think I can have some chocolate cake for the church’s birthday party?

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

June 8,  2025: The Day of Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Every Time I Feel the Spirit; Butterfly Song; Lord, Be Glorified

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: Every Time I Feel the Spirit, (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 48)

Refrain: Every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray.  O every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart I will pray.

1-On Pentecost day, the Spirit came.  The people praised with joyous tongues.  The Spirit came to everyone.  Jews and Gentiles, all the same. Refrain

2-God’s Spirit lives within the church.  He gives us gifts to build us up.  God’s Spirit fills us with his love.  O blessed Spirit, heavenly dove.  Refrain

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ 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 Letter of Paul to the Romans

All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ-- if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 104

You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; * and so you renew the face of the earth.

May the glory of the LORD endure forever; * may the LORD rejoice in all his works.

I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; * I will praise my God while I have my being.

May these words of mine please him; * I will rejoice in the LORD. Hallelujah!

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.

Philip said to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.  "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you."  "I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid."

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: The Butterfly Song, (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 9)

If I were a butterfly, I’d thank you Lord for giving me wings.  If I were a robin in the tree, I’d thank you Lord that I could sing.  And if I were a fish in the sea, I’d wiggle my tail and I’d giggle with glee, but I just thank you Father for making me, me.

 Refrain: For you gave me a heart and you gave me a smile.  You gave me Jesus and you made me your child.  And I just thank you Father for making me, me.

If I were an elephant, I’d thank you Lord by raising my trunk.  If I were a kangaroo, you know I’d hop right up to you.  If I were an octopus, I’d thank you Lord for my fine looks and I just thank you Father for making me, me.  Refrain

If I were a wiggly worm, I’d thank you Lord, that I could squirm.  If I were a billy goat, I’d thank you Lord for my strong throat.  And if I were a fuzzy wuzzy bear, I’d thank you Lord for my fuzzy wuzzy hair and I just thank you Father for making me, me.  Refrain

Song:  Spirit of the Living God

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 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.

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:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast. 

Words of Administration

Communion Song:        Spirit of the Living God, (Renew # 90)

1          Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.  Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me. Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me.  Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

2          Spirit of the living God, move among us all; Spirit of the living God, make us one in love: humble, caring, selfless, sharing— Spirit of the living God, fill our lives with love.    

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, Be Glorified (Renew!  # 172)

1- In our lives, Lord, be glorified, be glorified, in our lives, Lord, be glorified today.

2- In our homes, Lord, be glorified, be glorified, in our homes, Lord, be glorified today.

3- In our church, Lord, be glorified, be glorified, in our church, Lord, be glorified today.

4- In your world, Lord, be glorified, be glorified, in your world, Lord, be glorified today.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!