Home Church 21st Sunday after Pentecost October 25, 2020

Home Church21st Sunday after Pentecost October 25, 2020 Rev. Karen Hollis

We acknowledge these lands upon which we worship are the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.

Preparing the Space Around Us

Whoever you are and wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here! Welcome if you are gathering on zoom or if you are worshipping at home with the bulletin. We are one community and all part of the body of Christ. I invite you to prepare the space around you

so that for the next hour you can be fully in this worship experience, not to keep out the realities of the world, rather to focus us in the midst of it all on God. If you need to go and get something or shift something around you, feel free.

Preparing the Space within Us

Let us prepare now the space within us for a time of worship. I invite

you to sit quietly, perhaps with feet on the floor, taking a couple of deep breaths and bring yourself into this moment. Open yourself to the presence of God who is with us and within us . . . as you intentionally open yourself to God, open yourself also to what you need from this time of worship.

Greeting
One:    The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God,

            and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

All:      And also with you    

A Song from Ezekiel     Ezekiel 36:24-28

I will take you from the nations,

and gather you from every country,

and bring you home to your own land. 

I will pour clean water upon you,

and purify you from all defilement,

and cleanse you from all your idols. 

A new heart I will give you,

and put a new spirit within you;

I will remove from your body the heart of stone

and give you a heart of flesh. 

I will put my spirit within you,

make you walk in my ways

and observe my decrees. 

You shall dwell in the land

I gave to your ancestors;

you shall be my people,

and I will be your God.

Opening Prayer  Read the prayer slowly.                                            

Gracious and Loving God, we are your people and you are our God.

We turn to you in this time of worship with gratitude for the gift of life,

for being a part of your creation, for our relationship with you.

Bless us, your people as we come to you with joy. Amen.

Hymn: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling  VU #333

1 Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven, to earth come down,
fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation,
enter every trembling heart.

2 Come, almighty to deliver,
let us all thy life receive;
suddenly return, and never,
nevermore thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray, and praise thee, without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.

3 Finish then thy new creation;
pure and spotless let us be;
let us see thy great salvation
perfectly restored in thee,
changed from glory into glory,
till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love, and praise.

Prayer of Confession          

God, we come before you with our worries and anxieties, our feelings

of loneliness and helplessness, our desire to manage and control;

we acknowledge how difficult it is to wrap our minds around the state

of the world and continue to surrender to its reality. Help us to distinguish between things can and cannot control and give us grace to let go so we may rest in you.

Palms Down Palms Up Prayer fr.Richard Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline

Release

Begin by placing your palms down as a symbolic indication of your desire to turn over any concerns you may have to God. Inwardly you may pray, ‘God, I release my control (anxiety, fear) over _____.’ Whatever it is that weighs on your mind or is a concern to you… release it. You may even feel a certain sense of release in your hands.

Receive

After several moments of surrender, turn you palms up as a symbol

of your desire to receive from God.  Perhaps you will pray silently, ‘God, I would like to receive your peace (your patience, your joy).’

Commune

Spend the remaining moments in silence and stillness. 

Do not ask for anything.  Allow God to commune with you, to love you.

Assurance of Grace

Even when the world is in chaos, God’s peace and stillness and assurance meets us where we are. This space is always available

to us as an inner resource for sustaining ourselves through a long challenging season. God will never leave us. Thanks be to God!

Peace of Christ

While the world is messy and the future is unknown, the peace Christ brings is wholeness through reconciliation. It’s the peace that comes when we know we are ok in ourselves, in relationship with others, and with God. Let us celebrate this peace with one another in a spirit of reconciliation.

              The Peace of Christ be with you!

              And also with you!

 

First Reading: Genesis 17:1-8  NRSV

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.’ Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, ‘As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.’

Gospel Reading                                   

One:      God be with you.       

All:        And also with you

One:      The Good News of Jesus Christ according to Matthew

All:        Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Matthew 22:34-46

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

One: This is the Gospel of Christ;

All:   Praise be to Jesus Christ

Reflection:  Covenant      

Silent Reflection

A New Creed: Let us affirm our faith . . .

We are not alone,

    we live in God’s world.

 We believe in God:

    who has created and is creating,

    who has come in Jesus,

       the Word made flesh,

       to reconcile and make new,

    who works in us and others

       by the Spirit.

We trust in God.

We are called to be the Church:

    to celebrate God’s presence,

    to live with respect in Creation,

    to love and serve others,

    to seek justice and resist evil,

    to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,

       our judge and our hope.

In life, in death, in life beyond death,

    God is with us.

We are not alone.

    Thanks be to God.

Prayers of the People Susan Brockley     

One:    Everlasting God,

All:      Hear Our Prayer

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial

and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power,

and the glory are yours

now and for ever. Amen.

Offering  Betty Schultze

Let us pray . . .

God of all people and all seasons, we give thanks for your walk with

us through busy seasons and when life slows down.  You meet us

where we are and offer us a space of love, support and deepening. 

We are so grateful that however we come, we can always rest in you. 

In Christ Jesus we pray, Amen.

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation, in the Church and in Christ Jesus, for ever and ever. Amen.

Hymn: Great is Thy Faithfulness v. 1,2 VU #288

1 Great is thy faithfulness, God our Creator;

there is no shadow of turning with thee;

thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not;

as thou hast been thou forever wilt be.

 

Refrain:

Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!

 Morning by morning new mercies I see;

 all I have needed thy hand hath provided -

great is thy faithfulness, ever to me!

 

2 Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,

  sun, moon, and stars in their courses above

 join with all nature in manifold witness

 to thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.

  Refrain:

Blessing  Iona Community

If you are with another person, you’re invited to bless each other,

 taking every other line.

 

One:      The Creator’s blessing be yours on your road, on your journey, guiding you, cherishing you.

N-Z:       The Son’s blessing be yours, wine and water, bread and stories, feeding you, challenging you.

A-M:      The Spirit’s blessing be yours, wind and fire, joy and wisdom, comforting you, disturbing you.

All:        The Angel’s blessing be yours, on your house, on your living, guarding you, encouraging you. Let us walk together, a community on a journey, sustained in God’s blessing. Amen!

One:      Let us go now in peace to love and serve the Lord.

All:        Thanks be to God! Alleluia!

Hymn: Great is Thy Faithfulness v. 3    VU #288

3 Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

  thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,

  strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow -

  wondrous the portion thy blessings provide.  R