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."