A Boy Shares His Lunch

9 Pentecost cycle b proper 12     July 26, 2015

2 Kings 4:42-44  Psalm 145: 10-19
Ephesians 3:14-21 John 6:1-21

Lectionary Link

  We may think that recycling is only a recent trend in our efforts to improve our ecological practices, but in the world of ideas expressed in oral traditions and literature recycling is a rule of life.  The fact that human beings use language means that ideas necessarily get recycled.  In our lives of faith we need to leave the practice of chauvinistic narrowness in thinking that we've always got the best and the final ideas and learn to be growing and developing people in the recycling of stories and ideas as we make fresh application of all of the words of our lives for faithful living.
  The composition of the bread of heaven discourse in the 6th chapter of John is an example of the recycling of words expressing the ideas, the insights and the meanings of the church which gathered and produced the writings of the Gospel of John.
  What has been recycled and re-used and re-interpreted?
  The Gospel of John served a greater function within the early communities than literature does today.  Today we are flooded with words and we have many genres and specialized areas of study.  Bible literature in the original communities had to be their liturgy, their Scripture, their Sunday School, their entertainment and their politics.  We are used to the division of life experiences because of the massive growth of world knowledge.
  The writers of the Gospel of John were aware of the religious and political speculation about the appearance of another great prophet.  The appearance and the disappearance of great people mean that we always expect and look for the next great person since the world needs the leadership of great people for us to survive and to make creative advance.
  Moses, David, Elijah and Elisha were the seminal great leaders for people who inherited the Hebrew traditions.  The people in the Hebrew tradition had religious and political speculations which involved an anticipation of those who would be regarded to be successors of Moses, David, Elijah and Elisha in greatness.
  The intertestamental  literature and apocalyptic literature, particularly the book of Baruch, suggested that a prophet would arise who would like Moses be involved in the marvelous provision of bread for his people.  To be like Moses, one also had to be associated with the taming of water events.  Moses interceded to part the Red Sea and led his people into the wilderness where he interceded again and God brought the miraculous Manna or bread from heaven.
  The writers of the Gospel of John were quite certain that Jesus was the one who could be the successor to Moses, Elijah, Elisha,  and David.  The story of the multiplication of the loaves is a story of identifying Jesus with the Manna tradition of Moses and Israel.  And we also have read that the prophet Elisha was associated with the sudden multiplication of food for a crowd.   Moses had a great water event in the crossing of the Red Sea.  Elijah's pupil Elisha  levitated an axe head to the surface of the water.  So in recycling these stories from the Hebrew tradition and using them as templates for telling the story of Jesus, the leaders of the church were teaching their members that Jesus was the valid successor of Moses, Elijah and Elisha.  Jesus fed the 5000 and he walked on water in these stories of identification with the great men of faith.
  The writers of the Gospel of John are very much against literalism.  The writers of Gospel of John are not interested in light, healing, blindness, sight, multiplication of loaves or death as literal empirical conditions; the writers are interested in their spiritual meanings.  It is amazing how many people today want to read the Gospel of John as "supernatural" events rather than understand that the writer is a wisdom teacher who uses the natural to illustrate the spiritual. 
  The story of the multiplication of loaves also has interesting side light meanings.  Take the little boy who initiated the great picnic by sharing his lunch.  One can see the kingdom of God belonging to children motif here.  When we can act from our child aspect of personality not totally jaded by adult calculating doubt, we can find surprises.  Philip said with true adult doubt; there's not enough food or money to feed this crowd.  But this young boy shared without being inhibited by "kosher" food rules which would make one suspicious of public eating.  So Jesus took the example of the boy sharing his lunch....told the people to close their eyes when he gave thanks and when they opened their eyes it became obvious there was more than enough, not only to share but to collect the left overs for more sharing.  There is a faith meaning in this:  if the little we have makes us shy about sharing we will not know the abundance which can be gathered within a community.  It is when each person shares their little that the miracle of abundance can happen when it is collected with what is given by everyone.
  The writer of John used this story also to discount the literal and natural meaning of being a king.  The people received from Jesus their bread and circuses; they received their food and entertainment and if someone could give them enough food and entertainment, they would be a satisfied citizenry willing to serve such a king. Jesus would not allow himself to a "bread and circuses" king.  He withdrew from this notion of kingship.  He withdrew from the notion of a earthly political and warrior king like David.  The kingship, the messiahship of Jesus was understood to be his rule within the realm of spirit and light, a realm which people had access to if they could be cured of their crass literalism and come to meanings of how  they could know themselves in a relationship with God even while they had a different sort of relationship with the political situation of their lives.
  We will spending four weeks in the Bread of Heaven Discourse, and we will pursue other meanings of this discourse in the sermons coming up in the next three weeks.
  For today, let us remember that great events and great people invite future great events and future great people because the world is in need of continuous touches with greatness to propel us both to survive and creatively advance in the kind of excellence which can help us to surpass ourselves in faithful living.
  Moses, David, Elijah and Elisha, introduced and invited the world to be ready to know the greatness of Jesus.  And the greatness of Jesus inspires us to be excellent.
  The Gospel for us today is also about the simple story of a boy who shared his lunch and this lunch became the magnet which drew to itself a great meal to feed the crowd.  The Gospel for us is not to minimize the meaning and the significance of what each of us has to offer for the miraculous to happen within our community.  May God help us to share beyond our shyness and discounting modesty about our gifts and invite our community to a greater abundance.  Amen.

Enjoying Summer Vacation, While People Are in Dire Need?

8 Pentecost P.11     July 19, 2015

2 Samuel 7:1-14a Psalm 89:20-37

Ephesians 2:11-22   Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Lectionary Link

   We may have the habit of being compartmental eaters in our table habits.  You know, you eat all of one item before moving on to the next.  So things don't get mixed in our mouths even though we know that everything eventually gets mixed together.
  We cannot always be compartmentalists in life experience even though we try to exert control on the kinds of things that we want to happen to us at any given time.  If modern life requires us to be multi-taskers, the life of faith requires us to be faith managers of varieties of human experiences.
  Jesus told his disciples to take a vacation even though there was a crowd of needy people who wanted to follow them to get help.  When you want to take a vacation, people still get sick, accidents still occur and death is no respecter of vacation time.  As Jesus and the disciples went on vacation, Jesus saw the crowd and there is the commentary upon the crowd of needy people: They were like sheep without a shepherd.  And so Jesus began to teach them and heal them and the vacation had to wait.
  Sheep without shepherd might sum up what we often observe in the failure of humanity to   take proper and adequate care of everyone.  In another Gospel, Jesus is quoted as saying, "The poor we always have with us."  And he said this to justify the woman who anointed his feet with expensive perfume when she was criticized for her excess.
  King David was worried that he had such a nice place to live in but there was not a Temple to be a beautiful sacred space for the worship of God.  God told David that it would have to wait for his son Solomon to build the Temple.
  St. Paul was finding success with the message of Christ but mainly within the Gentile populace and he was having a difficult time blending Jewish and Gentile followers of Christ.   The different communities had lots of cultural baggage to over come.
  Poor people, ignorant masses, sick people without care, community disagreements, and a King who wants to build a nice house for God:  these are only portions of what get juxtaposed in the diversity of life experience.
  Faith means that we learn how to live with the diversity of life experience and not get cynical, or misanthropic or escapist or denying and fatalistic or become an isolationist.
  The crowd was like sheep without a shepherd.  This is the great dilemma in life.  Many people fall through the cracks and do not get care.  We can wax eloquent about why it is happening and who is the blame and what everyone should be doing about it and all of this may just be our own denial or our own tendency to blame others when faced with the insurmountable.
  The sheep do not have enough shepherds.  People who have the education, power and the wealth do not get matched properly with people who can benefit from them.  The sheep do not have enough shepherds.   This is not a problem that can be solved like the plot of an action adventure movie.  There is no Super Shepherd to arrive on the scene and fix the situation.
  People become dependent sheep through ignorance and neglect.  In our world we do not have rational procreation with every child being brought into a world of caring shepherds who know they have the ability to ably provide for and take care of their children.  We have many, many kleptocracies in our world consisting of those who have the power and wealth and knowledge to exploit the needy and completely neglect them.  We have lots of comfortable people who throw up their hands and say, "It's not my responsibility."  We have prophets on behalf of the poor who make the poor into saints; and the poor and ignorant are not automatic saints.
  And we still have to take vacations.  We go to concerts.  We build expensive stadiums and churches.  We buy pipe organs.  We exercise manifold activities in our leisure time.  And we know that leisure time can be expensive.  And we justify using leisure money for such purposes even while we know that there are many sheep without shepherd.
  It is the human condition of freedom that there are not perfect matches of befriending for all of the people in this world which would allow for adequate care always to be experienced. Sometimes liberals and conservatives use the Bible to blame others or simply establish a political position.  I believe the truth of the meanings of the Bible is to present a full variety of the ambiguity of the human condition to us, and then challenge us to accept the life of faith as the best way to live given the hodge podge of all that freedom allows to occur in human experience.
  Are we going to solve all of the problems of the sheep without shepherds in our world?  No, we're not.  Should we take vacations even though there always will be sheep without shepherds?  Yes.  Should we honor the aesthetic dimension of our human lives through music and art and worship?  Yes.  Should we activate our capacity to play and enjoy the play of others?  Yes.  And we have to do all of this while living with the dire conditions of human need in  this world.
  This requires of us a life of faith which is versatile and finessed.  It requires of us to have wisdom to "pick our battles" in how we prioritize what we can do and what we need to do to maintain ourselves so that we can be effective shepherds of others.
  Our lives of faith need to be dedicated in part to shepherding the people in need in our world.  Our faith needs to be prophetic?  We need to be prophetic about waste.  We are told that 4-6 trillion dollars or more have been spent on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Have these effort improved the conditions for their people or for us or have they created more human need?  We have had recent financial fraud in our country of incredible magnitude?  Such debacles have harmed pension funds and more.  In our lives of faith we need to be more creative in solving the problems of human need than we are at developing schemes for promoting the further financial wealth of but a small group in society.
  The life of faith has to be able to diversify to advance the call to be shepherds in a world full of needy sheep, and we have to do it while acknowledging all of the other facets of our intellectual, educational, cultural, aesthetic, religious and spiritual lives.  The life of faith needs to be embraced as the ability to juggle the incredible ambiguity of the free conditions of life without succumbing to isolationism and escaping from the true problems of a world of need.
  The Gospel today is this: by faith you and I are challenged to do it all.  We develop strategies of shepherding for the sheep of this world even as we maintain the full balance of the things which we need to enrich ourselves and keep us effective in human fellowship to do the work of the church together.
  So, I hope you enjoy your vacations, your leisure time, your aesthetic events, your play even while we hope that having balanced lives of faith will help us be strong and resist the despair that we could know if we focused only upon human need.
  May God grant us the rest and the leisure to become more effective shepherds in our world of needy sheep.  Amen.

  

Plumb Crazy Prophets

7 Pentecost Cycle b proper 10     July 12, 2015

Amos 7:7-15   Psalm 85:8-13

Ephesians 1:3-14  Mark 6:14-29

Lectionary Link

  A plumb line is tool used to establish a straight vertical line much like water is used in a level to establish a horizontal line.  A mason uses a plumb line to make sure that a brick wall is not leaning.  A plumb line is a simple tool; a string with a weight. The string is held up and when the weight stands still at the lowest point of the pendulum swing, a vertically certain line is established to become the measurement of anything that is compared with this line.
  So the word plumb has come to mean certain or sure as when we are sure in questioning the sanity of someone by saying "he was plumb loco, or plumb crazy."
  The prophets of old were regarded by the misbehaving general populace to be plumb crazy.  Why?  The prophets had this sense that the commonly accepted behaviors of people were wrong and doubly wrong because people could not see that they were wrong.  The prophets had a vision of what needed to be corrected and they usually did not have political authority to make those correction.  They had to speak from the point of a higher authority and so they spoke as oracles of God. They believed their higher standard was like the top of the plumb line held in the pinched fingers of God and the line had a weight on the bottom among the human community.  And the weight came full stop and created a vertical straight line expressed by the covenant which God had with the human community.  The covenant was expressed in the "plumb" and certain behavior for right living as expressed in the 10 commandments and other laws of justice.
  The prophet Amos found that the people with whom he lived were out of plumb.  God gave Amos a vision of the plumb line.  The moral and spiritual walls of his people had come to have a great lean and like Humpty Dumpty, they were going to have a great fall.  Amos was called to bring them back into a vertically straight standard.  But the people had gotten used to the leaning walls, and like the leaning tower of Pisa, they made their leaning walls into their everyday tourist attractions.  But a leaning wall will eventually lead to damage and destruction.  A people who have fallen out of a "plumb" relationship with God will eventually do harm to themselves and each other and so the unpopular prophets of "plumbness" have been sent to people to remind people of the higher calling of their creation which they have forgotten to their own detriment.  Injustice is out of plumb with God best plan for this world.  The evolution of humanity into the actual practice of justice is perhaps the greatest evolution which could ever happen.  Just think about how long this world has lived tolerating slavery, subjugation of women, the mistreatment and non-recognition of gay persons and the failure to aid full participation of people with impairment in our societies.  For thousands of years we have been living among the leaning walls of injustice and we would have continue to live that way if the prophets had not come and said, "hey guys, here's the plumb line of justice; don't you know your moral practice is leaning and leaning in the direction of cruelty?"  What would the world do without our "plumb" crazy prophets who have called us back to the obviousness of human justice and compassion?  What would this world be without Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos?  Without John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul the Apostle, or St. Francis, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., Susan B. Anthony, Mahatma Gandhi, Caesar Chavez, or Harvey Milk?  These "plumb" crazy prophets were not all perfect but what they were perfect about was the obviousness, the plumbness of some basic dignity of people which was not being recognized or practiced.
  John the Baptist came as a prophet who was regarded by many to be "Plumb Crazy."  He even dressed and acted the part.  He wore a camel hair garment and he lived in the wild, ate locusts and honey and he was alone with God to discern what humanity was supposed to be in their behaviors.  John the Baptist was the plumb line which God dropped out of heaven to show people how to bring their lives back into vertical uprightness with God.  As wild as John looked, we can be certain of his cleanliness because he was often baptizing others in the waters of the Jordan River and asking people to take a public stand for their willingness to amend their lives and bring them back into alignment with recommended plumb rules of God for human behavior.
  John the Baptist was like many prophets, he spoke the truth to the powerful and the powerful are not often amused to be ask to correct their behaviors.  Often the powerful and wealthy believe that they hold the plumb line and they just move the plumb line to fit their own wishes and expect people to follow their lead.  When prophets reveal the plumb obviousness of justice, those who do not practice such justice  get angry.  John the Baptist spoke out against the practices of Herod and as a result, he was imprisoned and he was killed in a most cruel way as a way of fulfilling a trivial party favor of his step-daughter who was manipulated by the retaliating Herodias.
  Sometimes in life we cannot recognize what is plumb; we cannot recognize what should be obvious in the practice of love and justice in our world.
  I believe that the Gospel of Christ means that we are always in the process of evolution towards the obviousness of justice and compassion.  One of reasons that today it seems like injustice prevails is because people are now crying out more loudly about what is wrong.  Modern media can broadcast hurt around the world in a second and bring cruelty to our attention.
  The writer to the Ephesian church wrote about being in Christ.  Being Christians means that we live a parallel existence; we live a heavenly life even while our feet are firmly upon the earth.  In our heavenly life we experience salvation; salvation is health and it is dignity and justice which best expresses the meaning of salvation in our lives.
  You and I are called to be "plumb" crazy prophets today when we see the leaning walls of injustice in this world.  We are to hold the straight vertical line of the meaning of justice in each and every situation of our lives.  May God give us the wisdom, the grace and the strength to be "plumb" crazy prophets of justice today.  Amen.

Sunday School, July 12, 2015 7 Pentecost, B proper 10

Sunday School, July 12, 2015  7 Pentecost, B proper 10

Sunday School themes

If you use the passage from the prophet Amos, you can use the metaphor of the plumb line.

Bring a plumb line and show how the lowest point of the pendulum swing creates a vertically straight line.  This can be used by brick layers so they can be sure their wall is straight up and down and not leaning.

So God provides us with plumb lines so that we can live lives which do not topple over.

The Plumb lines of our lives are the laws and rules which give us guidance for our very best behaviors.

You might remind them of some of the famous Plumb Line Rules:  10 Commandments, Golden Rule and the Summary of the Law.

The letter to the Ephesians remind us that we are made for a wonderful purpose.  We are created for higher values and we need to learn to find those highest values as we practice our faith within our community.

Amos was a prophet who had to remind his people that their lives had become like a wall that was built crooked.  They needed a plumb line to correct their leaning wall by rebuilding to be straight up and down.  Amos was to remind them to return to the vows of keeping the commandment of God.

People do not always like to be corrected.  The prophets were sometimes attacked and injured when they tried to correct the bad behavior of people.

John the Baptist was a prophet too who was put in to prison and put to death because he tried to instruct all people including King Herod about what the law of God was for their behavior.  We need to stand up for people who are willing to tell us the truth about wrong behaviors.

Liturgy for the Day

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

July 12, 2015: The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Prepare the Way; Peace Before Us; My Jesus I love Thee; Soon and Very Soon

Song: Prepare the Way of the Lord   (Renew!  # 92)  Sing Four times

Prepare the way of the Lord, prepare the way of Lord, and all people will see the salvation of our God.

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

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and for ever.  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.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany Phrase: Alleluia (chanted)

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  to the Ephesians

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Or A reading from the Prophet Amos

This is what the Lord God showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by;

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

 

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 85

Truth shall spring up from the earth, * and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

The LORD will indeed grant prosperity, * and our land will yield its increase.

Righteousness shall go before him, * and peace shall be a pathway for his feet.

Birthdays: Betty Baker, Bob Groth, Shawn Oliver, Kevin Purcell, Jane Russell

Anniversaries:    Richard and Aimee Fiorito

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 Mark

People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.

King Herod heard of the demons cast out and the many who were anointed and cured, for Jesus' name had become known. Some were saying, "John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him." But others said, "It is Elijah." And others said, "It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People: Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon:  Fr. 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. (chanted)

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.

Song: Peace Before Us (Wonder Love and Praise, # 791)

Peace before us, peace behind us, peace under our feet.  Peace within us, peace over us, let all around us be peace.

Love before us….  3. Light before us….  4  Christ before us….

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.

The Prayer continues with these words

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

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

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

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

Breaking of the Bread

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

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Song: My Jesus, I Love Thee (Renew! # 275)

My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine, for thee all the follies of sin I resign; my gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou; if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

I love thee because thou hast first loved me, and purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree; I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow; if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight, I’ll ever adore thee in heaven so bright; I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow;  If ever I loved thee, my Jesus ‘tis now.

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: Soon and Very Soon (Renew! # 276)

Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King.  Soon and very soon we are going to see the King.  Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King.  Alleluia, alleluia, we’re going to see the King.

No more dying there, we are going to see the King.  No more dying there, we are going to see the King.  No more dying there we are going to see the King.  Alleluia, alleluia, we are going to see the King.

Dismissal:   

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

People: Thanks be to God!