As individuals, we often find peace, comfort, and a close connection to God in a garden. The way of the cross and the way of the dance, an earthquake that destroys complacency and, The Risen Christ is the liberated Inner Child which is allowed to dance,to skip, to sing for as Jesus said, unless you become as a little child you are unable to enter the Kingdom of God (the commonwealth of God, the dancing space of God), Kingdom of heaven (your heaven. So, the next morning I rose early, and as the mist was rising over the water I paddled out toward the mouth of the bay and waited. I share these tears with you knowing full well that tears wont put an end to war, nor will they end our constant reliance upon violence to maintain a fragile peace. Alleluia, amen! *Leader: Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord! now we cry to our King immortal, who, triumphant, burst the bars of the tomb'sdark portal; "Alleluia!" Leader: Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord has prepared this table for all who love him and trust in him alone for their salvation. And there was no official campsite back then. Easter 5A in Quarantine: Refuge in God. Worship Resources by Lisa Frenz, Mt. If the sacrament is not to be celebrated, the service may conclude with PartV.). var thisact = jQuery('#submission-action').val(); Here at this table your promise of life is made tangible. and celebrate with joy the eternal Life offered to us through Jesus Christ. But it does have the power to transfigure. By the way, theres much more in Chapter 15 of Pauls letter to the followers of Jesus Way in Corinth. The parts of the service preceding the text in UMH are guided by a bulletin or by announcement. Some will hurl the text at me in ways which communicate their anger, their disgust, and in some cases their hatred of me. Thousands of rotting corpses were left nailed to crosses in order to terrify the masses into submission. Alleluia! She phoned her own mother and told her to get there as fast as she could. We take wine and drink, as Jesus invited his friends to drink, Years ago, a good many years ago in fact, when my life as an adult had only just begun, I was backpacking around Europe, and I began to hear people talk about the land of the mid-night sun. So, when I was preparing for this worship service, I confess I was tempted to leave out the reading from 1st Corinthians 15 which is prescribed for this particular Sunday by the Revised Common Lectionary. Do we have the courage to drink from the cup which Jesus offers to all who profess to follow him? All risings of the human spirit are preceded by brokenness, loss or rejection. This despite the fact that the biblical author of the book of Joshua wrote that God stopped the rotation of the sun around the earth in order to provide Joshua with an extended period of daylight in which to kill his enemies. Ice and water below me, the Sun shining before me, and behind me the Moon rising, all holding me in the embrace of a Cosmos the likes of which exceeds the farthest horizon of my ability to comprehend. Thank you for sharing this liturgy for communion. Anna and Steve were Pentecostals who were convinced that my slack Lutheran ways simply werent serious enough to earn me a coveted spot in the Heaven of their dreams. Mishandling scripture to avoid traditional interpretations of it. This week, two events stand in stark contrast to one another. If there is a natural body, then there is also a spiritual body., Theres more, lots more, but lets just stop and catch ou breath. This piece of Scripture was followed by a passage from Pauls letter to the Romans, all of which was underlined in red: God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. I can certainly identify with the disciples in the story who became angry with the sons of Zebedee for jockeying for seats alongside Jesus in the next world, when the forces of Empire in this world continue to suck the life out of the poor. The SPIRIT of DIVINITY is BEYOND Creation, BEYOND the Cosmos, even as it is in, and with, and through, all of Creation, all of the Cosmos. The congregation is encouraged to move around the sanctuary. And each and every time we find what has been lost is a time for celebration. Fosdick Dr. NW #80 Why they decided to cut your off before you made your point, well thats a sermon for another day. yet again to the Spirit raising. Easter communion liturgy, involving children Ana Gobledale, UK. The sermon is broken up into three short homilies. Life finds a way. Jesus passions reveal to us the image of the Mystery that we call God that Jesus worshipped. Amen. Please feel free to use in your faith communities with attribution. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. If we begin with what is actually happening in these parables, we will have to confess that these parables of the lost and the found are simply outrageous. Is that right?, Crystal was a little breathless from all the crying she had been doing and all she could manage was a whimpered, Mmm hummm. Honey, tell grandma the truth now. This knowledge has an impact on how we interpret the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Contact Us. Little did I know that in 1977 it would take me almost three days to travel the more than 1,000 km; a trip which included disembarking over and over again to lend a hand to the conductors as we worked together to clear the tracks of snow. There is so much more we can do and offer our readership with your support! Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and his reputation spread throughout the region. In the past few weeks, Ive been thinking a great deal about the systems of domination and the pain inflicted by the unjust empires of our world. Their beloved leader had been brutally executed by the powers that be and they were terrified that they would be next. Easter is the festival of the irrepressible God whom not even death can contain. By John van de Laar|2023-02-22T21:53:14+02:00Feb 22nd, 2023|Categories: Daily Worship|, THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK When it comes to life, the Bible is clear that we can only be most fully alive when we are deeply and meaningfully connected with others. Whenever the news became more than I thought I could bear, I just switched it off. This question has generated more than a few sermons of its own. Do you still have a hold of that candy? Mmm humm. Life is somehow stronger than death. Welcome to the liturgy of The Namaste Church! It can all tend to become a nice "show" or a good academic exercise, but with little impact on us as we seek to follow this Jesus. Jesus Way of being insists that justice for everyone is the only way to peace. This service is found in UMH 12-15 and is designed for those wishing a brief text beginning with the Invitation to the Lord's table. But I suspect that justice, the kind of justice which ensures that everyone has enough so that everyone can live in peace, is something worth leaving behind everything you have in order to pursue. O God, who gifts us moments of amazement, help us to accept the rhythm of the ordinary and the extraordinary that we may retain a steady awareness of your presence both in grey days and in bright. Through a simple meal of grain and grape, we, your children, unite. BAT KOL, the DAUGHTER OF A SOUND or as some translations put it the DAUGHTER OF A VOICE. My words are not up to the task of describing CHRIST weeping in this way. Continue reading . Let us be LOVE in the world, by fearlessly serving the poor. 3:6 No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. *All sing: (suggested: "I Serve a Risen Savior" or "Christ Our Lord Is Risen Today"). Faith and EthicsKaren Armstrong is amongst a group of religious scholars who have noted that the essential teaching of each of the major religions usually includes some version of "love your neighbour". Our kinship warmed me as I imagined their delight at our Suns sensuous self-giving display as it set. We are not alone! The concluding prayer of thanksgiving was (heavily) adapted from a prayer by Katherine Hawker. But way back then; the bay was only accessible by the most treacherous of logging roads. But we must honour the suffering of generations, by doing something now, so that generations from now little families wont have to cry all over again. Ive got to say that even though we shared the same weight class for most of our childhood, when it came to world class wrestling holds, I had him beat. (BL), www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/boundlesslife, http://www.methodist.org.nz/resources/hymns/the_mystery_telling, Singing the Sacred, Vol 1 2011 World Library Publications, Jesus Christ is alive and lives in me. This story was written by the anonymous gospel-storyteller we know as John some 70 years after Jesus death, some twenty years after the Jewish war with Rome in which the Empire destroyed the Temple, raised most of Jerusalem to the ground, and sent Jews and the followers of Jesus into exile. thanksgiving prayers Many Christians understand the sacrament of Holy Communion as a means of grace that nourishes and strengthens our faith for life and ministry in the world. May this Spirit help us to recognize the Christ-presence in our midst. All rights reserved. All glory and honor are yours, eternal God, now and forever. Surely, Jesus cant be pointing to the GREAT I AM, the MYSTERY which we call GOD and saying that GOD is a fool. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Sometimes boundaries must be crossed in order to achieve justice.Peace-making requires risk-taking, and the reckless abandonment of some things we hold very dear. May we live in a way which will not deprive other beings. The proud questioned your power, devised your death. That left my chamber-maiding at a local lodge where the housekeeper was always kind enough to keep my Sunday mornings free so that I could go to church, while hung-over colleagues struggled to clean up. Alison Etter. Moments when as Paul would say, we put away childish things. Moments in which the Christian short-hand explanation of Jesus death has died in you. As frightened as I was, I was determined to get close to these magnificent beasts. I dont much care about silly arguments about Jesus rising from the dead unless those arguments lead us to a place where we ourselves can claim the power of resurrection to create a hunger for SHALOM, a passion for the justice which creates peace. My youth and inexperience allowed the more ornery side of my nature to come to the fore. Required fields are marked *. But there is more going on in this story than just the literal words on the page. Others, they looked confused and terrified as they are loaded on board trains. What can we see in the wounds which are depicted in this story? Through this space and time together today, we celebrate the covenant that ties us with God, Jesus the Christ, our neighbors and creation. If you look into the dust for long enough and contemplate its mystery, you shall find a resurrection. You responded with grace, humility, and welcome. if ( '' != thisact ) { I find the stories of the empty tomb hard to take in. It empowers us to hope in the coming resurrection and new life. Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the world. He conveyed to us the importance of love and compassion. When I was an amateur wrestler, I was a world-class champion wrestler. delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made us a new people. After all, could one rise without a body to rise in? LORD'S PRAYER C: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. we gratefully receive the Easter offering. What we refer to as the soul was a foreign concept to first century Jews. The precious vase had been handed down from her great-grandmother to her grandmother, to her mother. Christmas, Mother's Day, etc. To free the captives? I knew I was about to drown. I assumed that it had something to do with counting myself out of their way of worshipping. Lord, help us to make. As we enter this season of Easter, we ask that the warm winds of the Spirit encircle this table and accompany us on our journey. Lectionary Liturgies, Easter B, 2015, Thom M. Shuman, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). One: It is through our neighbors and creation that we see the rising of Christ, O God. To feed the hungry? He enacted peace in the midst of violence, love in the face of hate, Remember the precarious nature of the lives of the people who first heard these parables. Im afraid that sacrificing more than just a pittance of my own wealth and privilege wont accomplish much more than landing me among povertys captives. Winter, with its cold and dark days has gone, just as Good Friday has passed to Easter and beyond. Because when you look at the shepherd, the woman, and the father in these parables, they come do come off as reckless fools, unless they are risking all that they have for the sake of something worth risking everything for. In the 17th century, Galileo Galilei a personal friend of the Pope, published a paper demonstrating that the sun could not possible revolve around the earth.
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