Welcome to Worship at Kamloops United Church
Proper 18 – Year A September 4, 2011
Communion Sunday
Meditation for Personal Preparation:
“It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the action that we do.” – Mother Teresa
“If war is the violent resolution of conflict, then peace is not the absence of conflict, but rather, the ability to resolve conflict without violence.” – C.T. Lawrence Butler
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” –Winston Churchill
“Every conflict we face in life is rich with positive and negative potential. It can be a source of inspiration, enlightenment, learning, transformation, and growth–or rage, fear, shame, entrapment, and resistance. The choice is not up to our opponents, but to us, and our willingness to face and work through them.” – Kenneth Cloke and Joan Goldsmith
We Gather as People of God
Hymn Sing & Welcome
Life & Work of the KUC Community
Happy Birthday to you; in Jesus be true.
May all of God’s Blessings, descend upon you.
Lighting of the Christ Candle & Procession of our Prayers with Music for Centering
Call to Worship & Gathering Prayer:
Love’s Source calls us to gather in community; to live in sacred relationship
So we may learn the meaning of love.
Love’s Source calls us to love.
To love compassionately;
To love courageously;
To love honestly;
To love unconditionally;
To love mercifully;
To love generously;
To love joyfully;
To love wisely.
May our time together anchor us in holy love. May our prayers, our songs, our silence; may the meal that we share shape our loving. And may the manner of our loving open doors, open hearts, open minds and souls to the Light and Love of God. And the people say…Amen.
Hymn: VU#333 “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”
Prayer for Healing & Renewal:
Holy Light, you call us to love others as we love ourselves, but our love is so imperfect so often, what are you going to do with us? We may be able to love our children, our grandchildren, our friends and lovers without conditions; without trying to shape them in our image; without holding on too tightly or taking them for granted. We may even love creation: reducing, recycling, reusing. But these are relatively easy to love most days. It’s the hard to love we struggle with: those we judge as different, label as difficult, experience as threatening; those with whom we believe we have no connections, who do nothing for us, who only take without giving; those places and faces we deem ugly; malevolent. And, God, how do we love those who clearly don’t love us?
God, loving is such a challenge – especially when it comes to self-love; loving ourselves because you first loved us. We either put ourselves first or put ourselves dead last; either way, potentiallycausing injury, body and soul, to others and to ourselves. It’s our comforts; our rights; our feelings and thoughts; our manner of living; our ideas and illusions that take precedence over the needs and realities of others; or, we render ourselves voiceless; we abdicate our personal and collective power, disrespecting, distrusting our own selves. We either believe we are God’s gift to the world and the world is God’s gift to us; or, we think we are a gift to no one, and nothing beautiful was ever meant for us – including your love. What does it look like, feel like, Sacred Light, to love ourselves, not too much, and not too little, but just right, as you love us?
Even what we think love is and should be is misguided at times. When love calls for honesty, we remain silent for fear we’ll hurt feelings, burn a bridge or make an enemy. When love demands justice, we calm our anxiety by dealing with symptoms rather than righting the systems that created the dis-ease. When love calls for accountability, we shift the blame; we wait for someone else to deal with it. When love calls for forgiveness, we tell ourselves the depth of our love is reflected in the longevity and intensity of our hatred for those who hurt us and those we love.
God, it doesn’t matter how old we are, how experienced we are. We still have so much to learn about love – your kind of love. Never give up on us – please – challenge us with your love; heal us with your love; transform us in your love…
Sung Response: VU#17 “O Ancient Love” vs. 3-4
O gentle love, caressing those in sorrow;
O tender love, that comforts those forlorn;
O hopeful love, that promises tomorrow: R
Refrain
O living Love, within our hearts be born,
O living Love, within our hearts be borne.
O suffering love, that bears our human weakness;
O boundless love, that rises with the morn;
O mighty love, concealed in infant meekness: R
Assurance:
Know that God loves us into being; and God will continue to love us through our families, our friends; through creation’s beauty and abundance. And never forget, God loves us even through the people and situations that stretch us and challenge us because everything we experience in life teaches us about what it means to love, to be loved – no matter what. Thanks be to God for tangible and transcendent love.
We Listen for God’s Word
Time with the People of God: “Reconciling Love”
*Song of Blessing: “Love the Lord your God” (round)
Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and all your soul
and all your mind and love all human kind
as you would love yourself and
Love the Lord your God with all your heart
with all your soul and mind and love human kind.
We’ve got Christian lives to live,
we’ve got Jesus’ love to give;
we’ve got nothing to hide because in God we abide:
Love!
Scriptures:
Epistle Reading: Romans 13:8-14
VU#839 – Psalm 119 – Part Three, w/ sung Refrain 3
Gospel Reading: Matthew 18:15-20
Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
Response: Thanks be to God!
Reflection: “Love: The Other Four Letter Word” ~ Rev. Teri Meyer
Hymn of Reflection: MV#103 “Ka mana’o ’I ’O”
We Respond in Faith
Passing of the Peace:
Before we share this sacred me with one another, let us be reconciled to one another. Let there be nothing between us, nor between us and our God. May the Peace of Christ be with you all…
…And also with you.
Offering: Let us now prepare the work of our hands for the life of this church and Christ’s church in the world. The offering shall now be received.
Presentation Song: VU#238 “How Great Thou Art” v.1
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
consider all the works thy hand hath made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee,
How great thou art! How great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee,
How great thou art! How great thou art!
Prayer of Dedication (VU#402 “We Are One” v.3):
Bless what we bring to the table today and every day that your realm be manifest on earth; that people know your welcoming, healing embrace, your peace that surpasses all understanding; your equitable justice; your unending love. Bless our hopes and dreams, our tears and laughter, our prayers and songs, our bread and juice, our money and our talents. May what we give and what we do here today make a difference in someone’s life; in our lives. Thus we sing:
We are one as we feast, as we feast, peace becomes the sign;
in the bread and the wine there’s a sense of love divine.
We are one as we come, as we feed, we are fed;
and we feel God’s refreshing grace
as we meet at table in this place.
The Great Thanksgiving Prayer:
Life’s Source be with you!
And also with you!
Open your hearts.
We open them to Love.
Let us give thanks to God.
It is good to offer our thanks and praise.
Let us pray: Creator God, Cosmic Mystery, unknown yet known by so many names. From dreams you realized the cosmos; you wept and the waters flowed; you laughed and mountains, valleys, prairies and deserts bloomed; you breathed and life was formed from dust. You smiled and the stars, moon and sun lit up our world.
Life’s Source, thank you.
Filling a sense of deep longing, relationships were established between all life forms; an interconnectedness of all life enabling all of creation to know it was never alone – your energy, your pulse, your presence flowing through creation forged what felt like an unbreakable bond. I AM, became, WE ARE.
Love`s Source, thank you.
It was so good, so awe inspiring, we celebrate with all that is good and beautiful in the universe saying:
Holy, holy, holy are you, God of Power and Might;
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is the one who comes in your name,
hosanna in the highest, hosanna in the highest.
But we humans broke away from your creation – from you. Your love overwhelmed us; our shame bound us; our fear hurt us; our pride blinded us. Divide and conquer became our reality. Every man, woman and child for themselves, was our mantra. So you sent us prophets (you still send us prophets): female and male of all ages, of all races and creeds who came to call us back into relationship with you and with each other, in the midst of God`s shining Creation.
We forgot what we were; who we are part of.
So Love`s Essence was born into the world, into the midst of chaos, violence and fear to bring us back to our beginning; back to our source, our founding relationship with God and Creation.
We forgot what we were; who we are part of.
He called us brother and sister; and it felt so good to be welcomed in and loved so cleanly. And while it was good, we adored him. But when things got tough; when he began to ask for more than we thought we were able or willing to give; when he didn`t fulfill the role we thought he should play for us, we turned our backs on him: pretended we didn`t know him. In our weakness and fear, in our ignorance, we left him to die. And when he died, part of us died with him.
We forgot what we were; who we are part of.
Then amazingly, the Light returned to the world and continues to shine in so many unexpected places and faces. When he rose on that third day, part of us rose with him. Whenever truth overcomes deceit; love overcomes hate; welcome overcomes exclusion; knowledge overcomes ignorance; peace overcomes war, Love`s Child rises again and again, and we rise with him.
So today, we celebrate and remember that one evening, Jesus joined his friends as they observed a significant Holy Day by sharing a traditional meal together. As they prayed, talked and ate together, he took bread, staple food of his land, gave thanks, blessed and broke it, and gave it to those around him saying,
“Take, eat, this is my body, broken for you. Whenever you do this, remember me.”
After supper he took a cup of wine, common drink of his people, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying,
“Drink this, all of you, this is cup of the new covenant. Each time you do this, remember me.”
By remembering Jesus in this way, we acknowledge the timeless community to which we belong; and we proclaim the mystery of our faith as we say together…
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
By these signs of bread and wine, we recognize the longing of our hearts for a time when all humanity will be one family – when equitable justice, compassion and unconditional love and respect will be the way we live according to the Holy One we seek.
Prayers of the People and the Lord`s Prayer:
At this time, as we prepare to share in the mystery of your sacred meal, we bring to the table all with whom you would have us share this meal, all those who could not be here with us today – we bring in our hearts the yearnings of the entire creation;
(bell) – for the world
(bell) – for our country and countries of origin
(bell) – for our families and friends
(bell) – In this moment, we pray especially for:
– the Griffith Family
– Jessie Dinicol
– The Family of Noel Paul
– All people who are living with chronic and life threatening illness
– The family of Dorothy Hall
(prayers placed in “the prayer box” today are shared)
(bell) – for ourselves
(bell) All this we ask; all this we give thanks for in the name of our Guiding Light, the Glory of God, who taught us to pray together the prayer we pray now…
Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
for thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory,
forever and forever, Amen.
Prayer Over the Elements:
Ground of Being, pour out your Love and Light upon us and these gifts. May your life giving energy, soak into every cell, every molecule, every atom that we are, so that we, your Body, may be united in Spirit, in vision, in compassion and justice; and filled with your love, your light. And the People Say! Amen
My friends, these are the gifts of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!
Songs During Communion: VU#467 “One Bread, One Body”
MV#194 “Bread of Life, Feed My Soul”
Prayer after Communion:
God, we thank you that you have called your people from every direction, every gender, every age and ethnicity, orientation and status, to gather around your open table to share in the mystery; to share in the love; to share your living, dying, rising again. May all of us who have answered your invitation to eat, to drink, to follow and to serve remain committed to establishing your realm on earth; a realm where hope abounds, generosity is as natural as breathing, strangers are embraced as neighbours, and equitable justice flows like a mighty river into your sea of grace and mercy. Amen.
Hymn of Thanksgiving: VU#402 “We Are One” v.4
We are one as we hear, as we hear, heart and hand unite;
in the word we receive there’s a sense that God is light.
We are one as we leave, as we love, we are loved;
and we seek justice in God’s ways
as we move together from this place.
We Are Sent Forth
Commissioning & Benediction:
Go forth from this place having tasted love body and soul;
remembering who you are and to whom you belong.
And may the knowledge that comes from remembering
illumine your path so that others may join you on the journey.
God bless you; Christ stretch you; and the Holy Spirit inspire you,
now and always. And the people say…Amen.
Choral Closing: VU#298 “When You Walk from Here” (x3)
When you walk from here,
when you walk from here,
walk with justice, walk with mercy,
and with God’s humble care
Participating in today’s service:
Rev. Teri Meyer
Reader: Barb Hollingshead