Liturgy: Time of Lamentation and Unburdening based on Isaiah 65:17-25

(Please feel free to use this resource.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer.)

For one or two voices.

With congregational sung response – Voices United 370

Sung Response:

Send your Holy Spirit on your gathered people,

merciful and loving God, hear us, as we pray.

Reading:

For I am creating new heavens and a new earth;

the former troubles shall not be remembered or come to mind.

Be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating;

for I am creating a city of peace and joy,

and creating its people as a delight.

Prayer:

O God of love, we are in need of your creative power within and among us.

Our urge to destroy has always been larger, stronger, and easier to listen to,

than your call to peace and harmony.

Help us to see your city of peace and joy, not as a future promise,

but as a present reality.  Help us to live in your new earth even as we struggle with the challenges and troubles of our lives.

Sung Response:

Send your Holy Spirit on your gathered people,

merciful and loving God, hear us, as we pray.

Reading:

I will rejoice in the holy city,

and delight in my people;

no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,

or the cry of distress.

No longer will there be in it an infant that lives but a few days,

or an elder who does not live out a lifetime;

for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,

and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered unfortunate.

Prayer:

O God of love, we are in need of your compassion within and among us.

Sometimes the pain of living seems a burden too heavy to bear,

and we lose our ability to rejoice and take delight.

We long for a time when tears will not be necessary,

but in the meantime, help us to see through your eyes

and delight in the wonders of creation,

and rejoice in the miracles of birth and growth,

and thus dispel the shadows of death and suffering.

Sung Response:

Send your Holy Spirit on your gathered people,

merciful and loving God, hear us, as we pray.

Reading:

They shall live in the houses they build;

they shall eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant.

They shall not build homes for others and yet be homeless;

they shall not plant for others and yet remain hungry;

for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree,

and my beloved people shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

Prayer:

O God of love, we are in need of your divine justice within and among us.

We know that some have gathered to themselves so much wealth

as to make it meaningless to measure it,

while others toil for no reward and struggle to acquire the basics of life.

Too often we have benefited where we have not laboured,

and too often we have seen others abused and not spoken out.

Too often we have taken the resources of your created world

without regard for balance, harmony, or sustainable relationships.

Help us to seek more and more each day

a way of being in which those who have much do not have too much,

and those who have little do not have too little,

and all our relations are given space

to thrive and grow as you would have them do.

Sung Response:

Send your Holy Spirit on your gathered people,

merciful and loving God, hear us, as we pray.

Reading:

They shall not labor in vain,

or bear children doomed to suffer;

for they and their descendants shall be people blessed by God.

Even before they call on me, I will answer,

while they are still speaking I will hear.

The wolf and the lamb shall eat side by side,

the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

Serpents will be content to live on the ground,

and shall not do any harm on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

Prayer:

O God of love, we are in need of your presence within and among us.

In Christ you are at work reconciling all things to yourself.

We long to see the day that we and all of creation are reconciled,

each to the other,

so that none will know fear, hunger, or despair,

and then none will suffer injustice, abuse, or neglect,

and then all will be able to open their hearts,

and then all will be transformed in the divine image,

and then the peaceable kingdom will be realized.

In the meantime, help us to love as we have been loved,

to give as we have received,

and to live as though we have been born to eternal life.

Sung Response:

Send your Holy Spirit on your gathered people,

merciful and loving God, hear us, as we pray.

Liturgy: Worship Pieces from the Song of Faith (United Church of Canada, 2007)

(Please feel free to use these resources.  Credits:  "Song of Faith (2007)", adapted by Rev. Murray Speer.)

Call to Worship

We offer worship

as an outpouring of gratitude and awe

          as a practice of opening ourselves

          to God’s still, small voice of comfort

and to God’s rushing whirlwind of challenge.

Through word, music, art, and sacrament,

in community and in solitude,

          God changes our lives, our relationships, and our world.

          We gather with trust.

Opening and Unburdening Prayer

In and with God,

We can discover our place as one strand in the web of life.

          We can grow in wisdom and compassion.

Made in the image of God,

we yearn for the fulfillment that is life in God.

Yet we choose to turn away from God.

          We surrender ourselves to selfishness, cowardice, or apathy.

Becoming bound and complacent

in a web of false desires and wrong choices,

          we bring harm to ourselves and others.

We are all touched by this brokenness in human life:

the rise of selfishness that erodes solidarity;

          the concentration of wealth and power

          without regard for the needs of all;

the toxins of religious and ethnic bigotry;

          the degradation of blessed human bodies

          and human passions;

the delusion of unchecked progress and limitless growth

that threatens our home, the earth.

We lament our foolishness and weakness.

Yet evil does not—cannot—

undermine or overcome the love of God.

God forgives,

          and calls all of us to confess our fears and failings

          with honesty and humility.

God reconciles,

          and calls us to repent the part we have played

          in damaging our world, ourselves, and each other.

God transforms,

          and calls us to protect the vulnerable,

          to pray for deliverance from evil,

          to work with God for the healing of the world,

          that all might have abundant life.

We are reminded of grace.

          Amen.

Response to Scripture

Scripture is our song for the journey, the living word

passed on from generation to generation to guide and inspire.

God calls us to be doers of the word and not hearers only.

Prayer of Dedication

In grateful response to God’s abundant love,

  we bear in mind our integral connection

  to the earth and one another;

we participate in God’s work of healing and mending creation.

We send our love with these gifts,

and pray that they will be multiplied

until they become blessings upon blessings.

Amen.

Commissioning

We are God’s good news lived out,

a church with purpose:

          faith nurtured and hearts comforted,

gifts shared for the good of all,

          fierce love in the face of violence,

human dignity defended,

          members of a community held and inspired by God.

We are called together by Christ

          as a community of broken but hopeful believers,

loving what he loved and living what he taught,

          and striving to be faithful servants of God

          in our time and place.

Dramatic Reading: Missing the Boat (Matthew 14:22-33)

(Please feel free to use this reading.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer, 2011.)

Good morning.  My name’s Carl, and I hear you folks have been asking about the Messiah.  Well, I’m in a position to tell you ALL about the Messiah.

Now, just looking at me, you might not think I was the Messiah-following type.  I’m just a fisherman from Galilee.  But he called me, and I listened.  Yep, the guy himself.  Frank.  The Great Frank Christ.

There were a lot of guys around calling themselves the Messiah… there was Barabbas, and this guy Jesus Christ… but Frank was the real deal.  Sometimes we’d go and listen to the other guys’ speeches or talk to their disciples, and I always knew that the Great Frank was on the right track.

See, unlike Jesus, who I did see a couple of times here and there, the Great Frank never spoke to big crowds.  If you speak to a crowd, you never know WHO might hear what you believe!  Nope, Frank and us followers kept our beliefs to ourselves.  That way, we could quietly figure out who our enemies were, and talk about them behind their backs.  While Jesus was telling entire towns full of people that they would be sorry if they didn’t change their ways, we just kept silent.  Boy, his disciples must have been so embarrassed about that!  Way to rock the boat, Jesus!  Try to keep a lower profile next time.  Clearly and openly stating your beliefs only causes trouble.  Better to do everything behind the scenes, if you ask me.

Just recently we heard about John the Baptizer being killed by Herod.  Word was Herod was looking for anyone else who might be stirring up trouble.  The Great Frank and us followers, we went into hiding.  But that Jesus, what did he do?  He held a picnic!  Some folks say there was 5000 people there.  I wasn’t there myself, you see.  I’m too smart to show up to something like that, and maybe have my face seen by someone in authority.  I’m sure it wasn’t that great a time anyway.  I mean, how much food are you really going to get if you have to split it 5000 ways? 

Then Jesus did his first smart thing – he decided to split from his disciples and send them across the lake, out of Herod’s jurisdiction.  His little movement was doomed to failure from the start, anyway.  Even if 5000 people showed up for his picnic, he was destined to just be a flash in the pan.  Unlike the Great Frank.  If you ask me, Jesus did the right thing.  Send your followers away, maybe change your name, cut off your beard, and start over.

Only thing was, a wind came up that night.  Oo-ee, I’m a fisherman and even I wouldn’t have ventured out on the lake that night.  I’ve been out in a wind like that one.  You point the nose of your boat into the wind, and then you go up one side of a wave with your nose pointing almost straight up, then you crest and do down the other side with your nose pointing almost straight down.  Half your energy is spent just keeping the boat pointing the right direction. Another half of your energy is spent bailing water out of the bottom of the boat – which doesn’t leave much in reserve for rowing forward.

Nope, I wouldn’t have wanted to be one of Jesus’ disciples that night.  Nothing good could come from being in that boat.  I was glad to be safe in my local tavern, where everybody knows me, and nobody knows my beliefs.  But they must have made it to the other side, because some time later they showed up again.  And guess who was with them!  Yep, Jesus.  Just couldn’t learn his lesson, I guess.  They told me they’d been on a great tour – they went to towns like Gennesaret, Tyre and Sidon, Caesarea Philippi, and Magdala… and everywhere they went Jesus just kept on rocking the boat!

Boy, following a Messiah like that must be a lot like rowing in that wind… You’re not sure where you’re going to end up.  Half the time you’re just trying to figure out what it is he wants from you, and the other half the time you’re rushing to keep up as he tells you to tend to sick people and feed the hungry.  Meanwhile, as you’re doing all the hard work, I bet he just sits there safe in the bottom of the boat and prays.  I bet he doesn’t do a single thing to make it easier for you.  He’d just leave you to fend for yourself and find your own way forward.  I bet if you fell overboard, he wouldn’t even reach his hand out to pick you up.  It must feel so lonely and scary to be HIS disciple.

Nope, that’s why I prefer Frank.  The Great Frank never asks me to take any risks.  He never puts me in danger or does anything embarrassing.  Nobody ever has to know that I follow the Messiah, which means I can go on with my life as usual.  When I think of Jesus’ disciples, well, I’m sure glad we’re not in the same boat.

Liturgy: Communion Prayer based on the Song of Faith (United Church of Canada, 2007)

(Please feel free to use this liturgy.  Credits:  Song of Faith (2007), adapted by Rev. Murray Speer.)

(Portions of the liturgy in square brackets are to be filled in from other resources.)

Introduction
In the sacrament of communion the ordinary things of life
—water, bread, wine—
point beyond themselves to God and God’s love,
teaching us to be alert
to the sacred in the midst of life.

[Sursum Corda]

Preface
Let us pray,
Blessed are you, gracious God,
Creative and self-giving,
generously moving
in all the near and distant corners of the universe.
Nothing exists that does not find its source in you.
From the beginning your Spirit has swept
over the face of creation,
animating all energy and matter
and moving in the human heart.

Creator, Christ, and Spirit,
we praise you for your love expressed to us through Jesus,
a Jew,
born to a woman in poverty
in a time of social upheaval
and political oppression.
He knew human joy and sorrow.
So filled with the Holy Spirit was he
that in him people experienced the presence of God among them.
Jesus announced the coming of God’s reign—
a commonwealth not of domination
but of peace, justice, and reconciliation.
He tended to the sick and fed the hungry.
He forgave sins and freed those held captive
by all manner of demonic powers.
He crossed barriers of race, class, culture, and gender.
He preached and practised unconditional love—
love of God, love of neighbour,
love of friend, love of enemy—
and he commanded his followers to love one another
as he had loved them.

[Sanctus-Benedictus]
[Words of Institution]
[Anamnesis-Oblation]
[Memorial Acclamation]
[Epiclesis]

Intercessions
We pray that we will know your purpose for us,
that faith will be nurtured,
suffering hearts will be comforted,
gifts will be shared for the good of all,
forces that exploit and marginalize will come to an end,
fierce love will be known even in the face of violence,
human dignity will be defended,
and that we will remember the price that Jesus paid
for who he was,
for what he did and said,
and for the brokenness of the world.
Make us, who through this wine and bread
are renewed in faith and hope,
witnesses to your divine mission,
feeding as we have been fed,
forgiving as we have been forgiven,
and loving as we have been loved.

Doxology
Divine creation does not cease
until all things have found wholeness, union, and integration
with the common ground of all being.
As children of the Timeless One,
our time-bound lives will find completion
in the all-embracing Creator.
In the meantime, we embrace the present,
embodying hope, loving our enemies,
caring for the earth,
choosing life.

[Prayer of Jesus]
[Amen]

Prayer after Communion
Eternal and gracious God, we place our hope in you.
     We look to a life beyond life
     and a future good beyond imagining:
a new heaven and a new earth,
     the end of sorrow, pain, and tears,
Christ’s return and life with you,
     the making new of all things.
We yearn for the coming of that future,
     even while participating in your eternal life now.
     Amen.

Liturgy: Call to Worship For Good Friday, based on Isaiah 53:1-6, 10-12

(Please feel free to use this liturgy.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer.)

Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

He grew up like a sapling before us, like a root out of arid ground.

He had no majesty or beauty to make us look at him, no charm to attract us.

He was rejected and despised by others; he knew suffering in his heart.

Song:  Voices United #144 vs. 1-2

Yet he bore our illnesses and our suffering.

We thought he was being punished by God, but he was being wounded by our transgressions.

He bore a punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we were healed.

All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, but the Lord laid upon him the punishment of us all.

By making an offering of himself, he protects his descendents and prolongs his days.

Through him, the purposes of the Lord will prosper.

Therefore, he will have a reward among the great, for he poured himself out to death.

He interceded for the weak, and bore the punishment of many.

Song:  Voices United #144 vs. 3-5

Translation: Luke 16:1-9

(Please feel free to use this translation.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer.)

He kept speaking to his disciples:  There once was a rich man who had a steward, and this one was slandered to him how he was spreading around his wealth.  And he called him and said to him:  “What is this I hear about you?  Produce the books of your stewardship, for you can no longer steward.”

And the steward said to himself:  “What will I do now that the master has removed the stewardship from me?  I am not strong to dig; I am ashamed to beg.  I know what I will do, so that when thrown out of the stewardship they will welcome me into their houses. “

And calling his master’s debtors one at a time, he kept speaking to them.  To the first: “What do you owe to my master?”  And he said one hundred barrels of oil.  And he said to him, “Take your account and sit down; quickly write fifty.”  To another he spoke: “And what do you owe to my master?”  And he said one hundred loads of grain.  He said to him, “Take your account and write eighty.”

And the master praised the steward’s unrighteousness, because he acted with insight.  Because the sons of this age are more insightful than the sons of light into this age in which they live.  And I say to you: Use your unrighteous wealth to make true friends for yourself, so that when this age ends they may welcome you in the eternal dwelling place.

Translation: Luke 18:9-14

(Please feel free to use this translation.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer.)

And now he spoke to some people who were confident in their own faithfulness and despised all the rest, and told this parable:

"Two men went up to the temple to pray.  One, a Pharisee.  The other, a tax-collector.  The Pharisee, standing in the open, was praying:
'God, thank you that I am not like all the rest: thieves, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector.  I fast two times every week [instead of just once] and I give a tenth of everything I own [not only things that are normally tithed].'

"But the tax-collector stood way in the back and would not even raise his eyes upward.  He kept hitting his breast, and said:
'God, show compassion to me, who is not a good Jew.'

"I tell you, when this one went down to his house he was pronounced faithful, more than the other one.  Because those who raise themselves up will be brought down, and those who bring themselves down will be raised up."

Dramatic Reading: Good Friday for Four Voices (Peter, Judas, the Other Mary, Magdalene)

(Please feel free to use this reading.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer.)

Part One: Peter’s Tale (Matthew 26:31-56)

I told him I would never leave him.  But, I have to tell you, all this strange talk about how he would have to suffer and die - and how we would leave him to suffer alone - and that I would disown him?  Me!  Peter, the rock!  All this strange talk was getting to be too much.

When we set out on the road for Jerusalem, we knew that big things would happen.  Everywhere we went, people were listening to Jesus.  REALLY listening.  In every town, the local Pharisees debated with Jesus.  They didn’t like that he preached resistance against the government, but they had to admit that he followed the Scriptures.  And the people loved him, so the authorities had to take him seriously.

It would be the same in Jerusalem, we were sure.  The people would love him, and the High Priest would have to admit that his teachings were valid.  Everyone would have to take him seriously.  And things would change.

We knew it was dangerous.  We knew what happened to the Baptizer.  Herod had him executed.  We had steeled ourselves to face danger.  Jesus didn’t want us to fight, but we wouldn’t listen to him.  We were ready to fight and die for him.  It was absurd to suggest that we would desert him.  But surely nothing would happen until after the Passover festival!  He would continue to teach, more and more people would listen to him, the priests would take him seriously, and the government would have to start treating us differently.

So, imagine our surprise when they came to arrest him on the night before Passover.  How dare they disrespect the holiday?  I drew my sword, determined that no one would stop me.  But, somehow, he did stop me.  And then he did something I never imagined.

He went with them, willingly.  Didn’t he have confidence in us?  Didn’t he think we could win a fight?  Does he want us to just give up, now that we’re so close to our goal?

Part Two: Judas’ Tale (Matthew 26:57-27:5)

Where could I find forgiveness?  I never dreamed they would send armed guards to arrest him.  I never imagined they would haul him away in chains like a criminal.  We thought his strange talk about having to suffer and die was just pessimism.  We thought he was just selling himself short.

We’d been in Jerusalem for days and still he hadn’t met with the high priests.  They refused to come out to discuss with him, and he seemed reluctant to go to them.  But what if I could be the one who brought them together, where they could listen to his preaching!  If I could arrange that meeting, I would be guaranteed greatness in the kingdom to come!

When I told the priests where to find him, I thought they would go alone.  I thought they wanted to talk privately with him, without the audience that would gather if they went in public.  But when the time came, they made a public affair of it!  They brought soldiers, and invited a crowd to follow!  There was nothing I could do but beg them to take him peacefully.  I saw the way his other followers looked at me.  As though I had betrayed them all.  It was almost unbearable.

I followed them into the city.  Then I realized that they weren’t going to let him explain himself.  He would be convicted and thrown into prison, because he held demonstrations against them and the government.

When they brought him out, I thought that maybe I had been wrong.  Maybe they had heard him, and everything would turn out okay!  But he was still in chains.  I followed as far as I could, until I realized where they were going.  They were taking him to Pilate.  I couldn’t believe it!  The high priests were turning him over to the Romans!  That a Jew would hand another Jew over to a heathen authority!  My heart turned to water.   There’s only one reason that they would hand him over to Pilate.  They want him killed, and they don’t have the authority.  They’ll frame him.  He’ll be crucified as a terrorist.

I did this.  Where could I find forgiveness?

If he dies, I’ll die too.  There is no life after he dies.  If I can’t live in his kingdom, I’ll take my own life.  So be it.

Part Three: The Other Mary’s Tale (Matthew 27:11-32)

Magdalene and I were the only ones to stay with him through his horrible ordeal.  The men all ran, including my sons James and Joseph.  We saw Peter and Judas in Jerusalem, but by the time the soldiers brought Jesus out of the presidium, beaten and bleeding, they had disappeared just like the others.

I don’t blame them, really.  Nobody outside our group had ever noticed us at all, through all the healings and the debates and the demonstrations.  The men would squabble over who was his greatest disciple, while we got to work bandaging the sick and giving alms to the poor.  This meant that they were so much more visible - so much more recognizable as his disciples.

You never know with the Roman authorities.  When they go after a group like ours, sometimes they take only the leader, and other times they round everybody up to be crucified.  It was probably smart for them to disappear.  But that didn’t make it any easier for me and Magdalene, to watch what happened.

It was horrible when the people called for Bar-Abbas to be released.  Again, I don’t blame them, really.  Let me tell you about Bar-Abbas.  He’s a famous bandit.  He and his men live in the hills and raid caravans.  They’re angry over the suffering of the poor, so they steal from the rich.  But, if you ask me, they’re really doing it for themselves.  How much of the wealth they steal do they give to the poor villages they left behind?  Almost nothing.

But Bar-Abbas says he fights for the poor, so the poor people love him.  And the people he raids are either Romans, or Jews who work with the Romans.  So the people who hate Rome love Bar-Abbas.  They think that a man in the hills with a sword can change things.  I don’t blame them.

How quickly they forgot Jesus - the man who tried to change things by tending to their broken bodies and broken spirits.  They forgot the man who tried to show them that God loves each and every one of them.  They forgot the one who tried to change the world by touching their hearts and opening their eyes.

I don’t blame them, really.  But it was a horrible thing to see.

Part Four: Magdalene’s Tale (Matthew 27:33-66)

What do we do now?  When the Baptizer died, Jesus was there to pick up the pieces and show us a way greater than we imagined.  But who will pick up the pieces now?

I remember when we first came to Jerusalem - the energy and the excitement.  We thought we could change things.  Show people that there is another way to resist the Romans other than violence.  Jesus was building a community of people who cared for each other.  Before him, all you saw was people neglecting others and focusing only on themselves.  That’s what the Empire is doing to us.  Pilate and Herod prefer to rule over selfish people.

We tried.  We tried to show people that by caring for each other, you can have the kingdom of God.

But we didn’t change anything.  We failed, and Jesus is gone.  I watched him, there on the cross.  I didn’t take my eyes off of him.  He called out, “Why have you forsaken me?”  If only he could have seen me, and known that I was there.  If only he could have known that not everyone had forsaken him.

I don’t know what we’ll do next.  I think we’ll find each other and talk about what happened.  It’s still Passover, and Jesus would want us to be together.  Then, when things have quieted down a bit and the Sabbath is over, we’ll go and see where they laid him.

We’ll do our best to pick up the pieces.  But things will never be the same.

Translation: John 14:1-14

(Please feel free to use this translation.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer.)

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. You put faith in God; put faith also in me.

There are many dwelling places that belong to my Father’s household. If it were not so, I should tell you so, because I go ahead of you to prepare your place.

And if I have gone and prepared a place for you, I come again and join up with you, so that where I AM, there you might also be.

And you already know the path I follow."

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we have no idea where you travel. How can we already know the path?"

Jesus said to him, "I AM the path, and I AM real, and I AM alive. No one comes to the Father without me.

If you comprehend me, you will comprehend my Father also. From now on you do comprehend him and have seen him."

Philip said to him, "Lord, explain the Father to us, and we will have all we need."

Jesus said to him, "So much time I AM with you, Philip, and you still do not comprehend me? Whoever sees me sees the Father. How do you say, ‘Explain the Father to us'?

Do you not trust that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The things that I say to you I do not speak from myself; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

Trust me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then trust because of the works themselves.

Very truly, I tell you, the one who puts faith 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.

And if you ask for something that honours me, I will make it so, so that the Father may be honoured by way of the Son.

If you ask me for something that honours me, I myself will make it so.

Translation: A Retelling of Genesis 1 (Paraphrase)

(Please feel free to use this reading.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer.)

At the very start of things was God, and God decided to start things.  Everything was all the same, everywhere, and nothing was itself.  God blew around looking at everything, and finally decided things should start.

God spoke:  Light up!

And things lit up.  God liked it.  Part of everything was dark, and part of everything was lit up, and God stood in between.  God took the light that was lit up and shaped it into spheres.  Each lit-up sphere was itself and between the spheres there was darkness.  And God called the spheres “stars”.

Then God decided that there should be solid ground.  So God took parts of the lit-up spheres and spun them out until they were solid globes.  Each globe was itself and God made them to be companions to each other and to their stars, sharing the light and the darkness.  God called the solid ground “earth”.  And on the earth God made air to separate the solid ground from the darkness between the stars.  And God liked it.

Then God walked on the solid ground and decided that there should also be waters on the face of the earth.  God made the salty seas and the fresh rivers, the lakes and the swamps, and the rains and waterfalls.  God liked it.

Then God decided that there should be life on earth.  God started small, with algae and fungus.  Soon there were ferns growing on the earth, and God liked it.  Trees began to grow, and flowers, and vines, with wonderful fruit and beautiful colours.  Each life was itself.

God spoke:  Move around!

And life began to swim, and crawl, and fly, and think, and learn.  God liked it very much!  God put a blessing on the living things, and wished that they would bear fruit and become many.

God blew around looking at everything, and liked it all very much.  Then God decided that there should be someone who could look at everything and like it in the same way.  So God made human beings who could reflect on their own existence and appreciate beauty.  And God made the human beings responsible for all the other living creatures, and the trees and flowers, and all the water and the solid ground.

So God made human beings, both men and women, to be like God in this way.  And God put a blessing on the human beings, and wished that they would bear fruit and be many, and that they would take responsibility for the earth and everything on it.

God blew around and looked at everything one last time, and God liked it very, very much.

And God rested.

Translation: 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 (Paraphrase)

(Please feel free to use this paraphrase.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer.)

Love lasts forever.  Religions and philosophies will each come to an end; words and languages are not eternal; knowledge is fleeting.  Only love is eternal.

For our knowledge can never be complete, and our religions and philosophies can never be perfect.

When all is said and done, these things will be gone, and only that which is complete and eternal will remain, which is love.

When I was young, I had the perspective of a youngster.  Now that I am an adult, I understand the world differently.

Likewise, in this life our perspective is like looking into a distorted mirror, but when all is said and done we will be face to face.  We can’t know everything in this life, but my faith tells me that if I have love, God will know me fully.*  And when all is said and done, I will finally understand.

* From 1 Corinthians 8:3

Prayers: Prayer of Unburdening (General)

(Please feel free to use this prayer.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer.)

God of all, for times when we call on you
without first listening for your call to us,
forgive us.
When we ask for your presence among us
even though there are unreconciled relationships between us,
be gracious.
If we trust in our salvation so much
that we stop transforming our hearts in your image,
have mercy on us.
When we build walls around our souls because we are afraid,
send your light to break through to us.
If we crucify your Chosen One
by neglecting ourselves, our neighbours,
the last and least, or you,
send your Risen One to renew our faith. 
When we are weak, angry, ashamed, or grieving,
give us strength and courage to overcome.
Amen.

Liturgy: Litany of Creation Based on Genesis 1:1-24

(Please feel free to use this liturgy.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer.)

(For one or two voices, congregational responses in bold.)

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the world was formless and fluid, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters. Then God said,
     ‘Let there be light.’
And there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
     And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Help us to remember that you are the source of life, and are intimately connected with all living things.  You bring form out of chaos, and call all things into being.  Everything that we have is thanks to you, O God.

     (sung: Voices United #370)
     Send your Holy Spirit on your gathered people,
     merciful and loving God, hear us, as we pray.

And God said,
     ‘Let there be a dome that separates the waters below from the
     emptiness above.’
And it was so. God called the dome Sky.
     And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

The air that we breathe is yours, O God.  Too often we have befouled it with radiation, acidity, and toxic fumes.  Forgive our neglect.

     (sung: VU 370)
     Send your Holy Spirit on your gathered people,
     merciful and loving God, hear us, as we pray.

And God said,
     ‘Let the waters be gathered together, and let the dry land appear.’
And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said,
     ‘Let the earth produce plants and trees.’
And it was so.  And God saw that it was good.
     And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

The ocean and the land are yours, O God.  Too often we have treated them as a means to an end or an unlimited resource, without realizing the delicate balances of nature.  As we pave over farmland and pour oil into the ocean, forgive our over-reaching ways.

     (sung: VU 370)
     Send your Holy Spirit on your gathered people,
     merciful and loving God, hear us, as we pray.

And God said,
     ‘Let there be lights in the sky to give light to the earth.’
And it was so. God made the sun, the moon, and the stars, in order to shine light upon the earth. And God saw that it was good.
     And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Your dominion is not limited to our globe, O God.  As our technological presence extends to other globes, and our biological presence follows, help us to be mindful of your call and respectful of the integrity of your created universe.

     (sung: VU 370)
     Send your Holy Spirit on your gathered people,
     merciful and loving God, hear us, as we pray.

And God said,
     ‘Let the waters teem with countless living creatures, and let birds fly
     across the sky.’
So God created the sea creatures of every kind, and all the winged birds. God blessed them, saying,
     ‘Bear fruit and be many, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds be
     many on the earth.’
And God saw that it was good.
     And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

The animals of the sky and the sea belong to you, O God.  As we hunt and fish species to extinction and destroy their natural habitats, help us to feel your outrage and your compassion.  Forgive our disregard for “all our relations.”

     (sung: VU 370)
     Send your Holy Spirit on your gathered people,
     merciful and loving God, hear us, as we pray.

And God said,
     ‘Let the earth teem with countless living creatures of
     every kind.’
And it was so. God made the wild animals and the livestock and everything that creeps on the earth.
     And God saw that it was very, very good.

We call on your mercy and your grace, O God, to carry us into a new communion with the created order.  Pour your compassion and your forgiveness over us.  Give us a vision of healing and togetherness for your entire world.  We know that, with Christ as our helper, we can restore justice and balance and live in harmony with all that you have made.

     (sung: VU 370)
     Send your Holy Spirit on your gathered people,
     merciful and loving God, hear us, as we pray.

Liturgy: Communion Prayer for Creation Time in the Season of Pentecost

(Please feel free to use this liturgy.)

(Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer, adapted from "Prayer D" and other resources in Celebrating God's Presence, and "A New Creed")

In the sacrament of communion the ordinary things of life
—water, bread, wine—
point beyond themselves to God and God’s love,
      teaching us to be alert
      to the sacred in the midst of life.

This is not the table of (local) Church, or (denomination), or the worldwide church.  It is Christ’s table, and all are welcome at the table of the Lord.  If you do not wish to partake, please stay and watch so that you can tell others what we do here.

Come, not because you are strong but because you are weak.  Not because you are blessed but because you are hungry.  Come because you know God a little and want to know God more.  God is present in the act of communion.

We are not alone.
      We live in God’s world.
Open up your hearts.
      We open our hearts in prayer.
Let us give thanks to God.
      It is good to give our thanks and praise.

Let us pray.
Loving God, Source of all,
we praise you with our lips and with our lives,
that, having created all things through your Word,
you enter into intimate closeness with us.
For the goodness of creation,
and the glory of your redeeming love,
we praise you.
For your holiness which calls us to follow you,
and your justice which calls us to repent,
we praise you.
That you have created and are creating,
that you have come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh, to reconcile and make new,
that you work in us and others by the Spirit,
we praise you.
We trust in you.
Therefore, with all the faithful of every time and place,
we join the song of all creation
to proclaim your goodness:
                               
      Holy, holy, holy God,
      power of life and love!
      All of creation glows
      with your glorious light!    
      Hosanna through the ages!      
      Blessed is the one       
      who comes in the name of God.           
      Hosanna through the ages!    

On the night before he died,
Jesus took bread, gave you thanks,
broke it, and said: “Take, eat.
This is my body, given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way he took the cup, saying:
“This is the cup of a new covenant,
poured out for the sake of many.
Whenever you drink it,
do this in remembrance of me.”

Loving God, Creative Parent,
blessing your name, we seek your Spirit.
Come to us and bless these gifts of bread and wine,
fruit of the earth and of our labour,
that they may be for us the sacrament of Christ,
sign and seal of our participation in his ongoing life
and our adoption as children of One Parent.
You call us to be the church,
to celebrate your presence,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil.
As we eat and drink together,
make us one with Christ and with each other,
a sign of your eternal reign in all creation.

      We proclaim Jesus,
      Crucified and risen,
      Our judge and our hope.

This offering of praise and thanksgiving
we make to you, loving God
through Christ your Word made flesh,
and in the creative power of your life-giving Spirit,
now and forever.

      We are not alone
      Thanks be to God.

Now as Jesus taught, let us pray together, saying:

    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,
    for ever and ever.
    Amen.

Come, for all are welcome at the table of our God.
Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life.
      Amen.
Jesus Christ, the Cup of Blessing.
      Amen.

Gracious God, may your gifts of love move us
      to live lives of thankfulness.
May your presence among us move us
      to seek you in other times and places.
May your justice, your peace, and your love move us
      to live with respect in creation.
      Amen.

Psalms: Responsive Reading of Psalm 8

 (Please feel free to use this adaptation.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer.)

O Lord, our God,
how majestic is your name throughout the universe!
   Even newborn infants declare your glory!
The vastness of the heavens is your refuge,
   making even the angriest soul fall silent.
When I look at the vast sky, the handiwork of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you arrange,
   I think, what are we that you are mindful of us?
   That in our smallness you will care for us?
Yet you have gifted us with divine awareness,
   and anointed us with light and spirit.
You give us responsibility for the works of your hands;
   you make us stewards of creation.
Not only the livestock and house animals,
   but the wild creatures, the birds and the fish,
   and all the inhabitants of the earth.
O Lord, our God,
   how majestic is your name throughout the universe!

Translation: Philippians 2:1-8

(Please feel free to use this translation.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer.)

Therefore,
if there is any encouragement in Christ,
any consolation from love,
any participation in the Spirit,
any affection and compassion,
then fill me with happiness:
share in the same understanding,
having the same love,
living in harmony,
and being of one wisdom.
Do not regard others as competition
or look on them with pride,
but with a sense of your limitations
regard each other
as having more value than yourselves.
And be concerned not only with your own interests,
but also with others.
Have the understanding that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he had the nature of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but giving up power,
he emptied himself,
taking on the nature of a bonded servant.
Being born as a human,
and attaining human form,
he behaved without pride
and became obedient until death
even death by crucifixion.

Psalms: Responsive Reading of Psalm 19:1-6

(Please feel free to use this adaptation of Psalm 19:1-6 - Credit: Rev. Murray Speer.) 

(Responsive reading with sung refrain – Voices United 740, ref. 2)

Glory and praise to God, whose word brings life!

The daytime sky announces the glory of God!
     The night sky proclaims God’s handiwork!
Day by day and night by night they speak,
     Though their voices are not heard,
Yet their message travels throughout the earth,
     And their words to the end of the world!

Glory and praise to God, whose word brings life!

God has made an abiding place for the sun,
     which emerges like a wedding party ready to celebrate,
and which runs its course with joy,
     like a youngster with strong legs.
There is no end to its rising and falling,
     and nothing is hidden from its warmth.

Glory and praise to God, whose word brings life!

Prayers: Prayer of Lamentation and Unburdening In Response to Jeremiah 4:23-28

For Creation Time - Via Negativa
(Please feel free to use this prayer.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer.)

Jeremiah 4:23-28
I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. I looked, and lo, there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled. I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger. For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. Because of this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above grow black; for I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn back.

The prophet Jeremiah looked on the earth, O God of love,
and saw the undoing of creation.
What had been formless and fluid in the beginning,
called by you out of chaos and given form,
Jeremiah saw as once again an empty void.
Where in the beginning you had placed light in the heavens,
Jeremiah saw once again only darkness.
Where you had in the beginning made solid ground,
Jeremiah saw shaking mountains and quaking hills.
Where in the beginning you made the trees and flowers,
the birds and creatures,
Jeremiah saw nothing, nothing at all.

The prophet assumed that you were responsible for what he saw,
for who else could destroy the world that you created?
Who else could have the power to undo life, and unleash chaos?

The prophet didn’t know, O God of love,
what we would one day be capable of.
The fall of the great forests.
The melting of cities in an instant.
The release of 800 million litres of crude oil into the ocean.
The loss of biodiversity through habitat destruction.

Help us to believe that this future is not set.
For if we believe that it is, then we will be set.
Set in our ways; set in stone; set for destruction.
Help us to turn aside from the path that Jeremiah saw.
Lead us, more and more each day,
to move ourselves out of the centre of our worldview.
Through your word all things were made.
It is your word that is the centre of creation.
Send your word to cleanse our hearts,
and renew our faithful relationships
with your creation.  Amen.