Home Church, 6th Sunday of Easter, May 22, 2022, Guest Presider: Rev Jim Holland

Home Church, 6th Sunday of Easter, May 22, 2022, Guest Presider: Rev Jim Holland

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

Whoever you are and wherever you are on life’s journey,

you are welcome here!

Preparing the Space Around Us

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       

Call to Worship                                                    

One:  Alleluia! Christ is risen.

All:    He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Opening Prayer                                                    

Gracious God, your desire for us is health, peace and joy. When we come to you with our needs,  help us to trust you wisdom and love.

Amen

Hymn: All Creatures of our God and King v. 1, 2                         VU #217

1 All creatures worship God most high,

lift up your voice in earth and sky,

alleluia, alleluia!

Thou burning sun with golden beam,

thou silver moon with softer gleam,

O sing ye, O sing ye, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

2 Thou rushing wind that art so strong,

ye clouds that sail in heav’n along,

alleluia, alleluia!

Thou rising morn in praise rejoice,

ye lights of evening, find a voice,

O sing ye, O sing ye, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

(Acapella Pat Armstrong)

Invitation to Confession           

We often act in ways that are the opposite of what we want to do, and what is good for us and others. Let us ask for Trust in God's goodness and wisdom.                

Silence

Prayer of Confession                                   

Gracious God, help us in our stubbornness to trust in your wisdom. Help us in our blindness to see your hand in our lives. Help us in our deafness to hear your words of love. Help us in our busyness to see and care for one another. Forgive us, heal us, bless us.            

Silent Prayer of Confession

Assurance of Grace

One:  May God bless you and forgive you. May God keep you in all goodness and bring you to eternal life.

All:    Amen.

Peace of Christ 

Please unmute your microphones for the passing of the peace.

A-M:     The Peace of Christ be with you!

N-Z:      And also with you!

First Reading: Acts 16:9-15              Reader: Nancy Heatherington-Pierce

During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshipper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.’ And she prevailed upon us.

Second Reading: Psalm 67          Reader: Nancy Heatherington-Pierce

May God be gracious to us and bless us

   and make his face to shine upon us, Selah

that your way may be known upon earth,

   your saving power among all nations.

Let the peoples praise you, O God;

   let all the peoples praise you.

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,

   for you judge the peoples with equity

   and guide the nations upon earth, Selah.

Let the peoples praise you, O God;

   let all the peoples praise you.

The earth has yielded its increase;

   God, our God, has blessed us.

May God continue to bless us;

   let all the ends of the earth revere him.

Gospel Reading                          Reader: Nancy Heatherington-Pierce 

One:  God be with you.            

All:    And also with you.

One:  The Good News of Jesus Christ according to John;

All:    Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

John 5:1-9

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

Now that day was a sabbath.

One: This is the Gospel of Christ; 

All:   Praise be to Jesus Christ

Reflection                  Connecting Through Needs            

Silent Reflection

Creed

Let us affirm our faith…

Hear, O Israel,

the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Love the Lord your God

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

with all your mind,

and with all your strength.

This is the first and the great commandment.

The second is like it:

Love your neighbour as yourself.

There is no commandment greater than these.

Prayers of the People        Angela Nutter                                                                     

One:  God of Peace,

All:    Hear Our Prayer.

Lord’s 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 Prayer  

Loving God, we give thanks for the many blessings we receive in community. May the gifts we offer help to pay forward these blessings to places of need in the world.

Hymn: Now The Green Blade Riseth v. 1, 2                              VU #186

1 Now the green blade riseth, from the buried grain,

Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;

Love lives again, that with the dead has been:

Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

2 In the grave they laid Him, Love who had been slain,

Thinking that He never would awake again,

Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:

Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

                                                                                                      (Acapella Pat Armstrong)

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.

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.

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

N-Z:   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!

 

Thank you