Hybrid Church, 7th Sunday of Easter, May 29, 2022, Rev. Karen Hollis

Hybrid Church, 7th Sunday of Easter, May 29, 2022, Rev. Karen Hollis

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:  You shake the ground beneath us, O God

All:    You shake us free from the chains that hold us down

One:  You open the doors that confine us

All:    You heal the parts of us that don’t act in our best interest

One:  How do we respond when our eyes are opened as if for the first time?

All:    We gather together and worship you, holding nothing back.

Opening Prayer                                 

It is a new morning, O God; it is a new day. Be in our breath, be in our movements, be in our thoughts. Lead us in a new way, that today may have meaning, that today we may be a source of comfort and compassion for those we meet. In the name of the risen Christ, Amen.

Hymn: Morning Has Broken (organ)                                                     VU #409

1 Morning has broken

Like the first morning,

Blackbird has spoken

Like the first bird.

Praise for the singing!

Praise for the morning!

Praise for them, springing

Fresh from the Word!

2 Sweet the rain’s new fall

Sunlit from Heaven,

Like the first dewfall

On the first grass.

Praise for the sweetness

Of the wet garden,

Sprung in completeness

Where his feet pass.

3 Mine is the sunlight,

Mine is the morning,

Born of the one light

Eden saw play.

Praise with elation,

Praise every morning,

God’s re-creation

Of the new day!

Prayer of Confession:                      

Dear friends in Christ, God is steadfast in love, infinite in mercy, and is inclusive of all. Let us bring our whole selves before God, confident in God’s grace.

One:  When we choose what is easy over what is just, 

          have mercy on us, O God

All:    When we speak harsh words or deny the truth of another, 
          have mercy on us, O God

          When we push ourselves beyond our capacity, 

          have mercy on us, O God

One:  Let us in silence confess the ways in which we turn from God . . .   

Silent Confession

Assurance of Grace

Rejoice in the One who makes a way for us today, who breaks our chains and offers us grace in the places we need it most. Thanks be to God!      

Passing of the Peace

The Peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding binds us together in this worship space. Let us share this peace with one another:

One:    The peace of Christ be with you! 

All:      And also with you!

I invite you to turn to those directly around you and share Christ’s peace. Those on zoom, please unmute and share with one another.

Reader: By the gift of your Spirit, calm and quiet our souls that we may hear your Word today and be lifted up to walk with you. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen     

First Reading: Acts 16:16-34 (NRSV)                                  Reader: Tim Leadem

One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.’ She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour.

But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, ‘These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.’ The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.’ The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They answered, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

Psalm 97 (CEV)                                                                                                 Reader: Tim Leadem

The Lord is King! Tell the earth to celebrate and all islands to shout.

Dark clouds surround him, and his throne is supported by justice and fairness.

Fire leaps from his throne, destroying his enemies, and his lightning is so bright that the earth sees it and trembles.

Mountains melt away like wax in the presence of the Lord of all the earth.

The heavens announce, “The Lord brings justice!” Everyone sees God's glory.

Those who brag about the useless idols they worship are terribly ashamed, and all the false gods bow down to the Lord.

When the people of Zion and of the towns of Judah hear that God brings justice, they will celebrate.

The Lord rules the whole earth, and he is more glorious than all the false gods.

Love the Lord and hate evil! God protects his loyal people and rescues them from violence.

If you obey and do right, a light will show you the way and fill you with happiness. You are the Lord's people! So celebrate and praise God!

Gospel Reading                                                                                   Reader: Tim Leadem

As is your custom, please stand or sit for the reading of the gospel. 

Reader:           God be with you.         

All:      And also with you

Reader:           The Good News of Jesus Christ according to John

All:         Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

John 17:20-26 (NRSV) 

"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 

Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

       Reader: This is the Gospel of Christ.   

       All:        Praise be to Jesus Christ       

Reflection        

Silent Reflection

Hymn: Be Thou My Vision v. 1,2,5 (organ)                                    VU #642

1 Be thou my vision, O joy of my heart;

naught be all else to me, save that thou art,

thou my best thought, by day or by night,

waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

2 Be thou my wisdom, my calm in all strife;

I ever with thee, and thou in my life;

thou loving parent, thy child may I be,

thou in me dwelling, and I one with thee.

5 Great God of heaven, after victory won,

may I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's sun!

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,

still be my vision, O ruler of all.

Affirmation of Faith

You are the new song.

You are the next beat in my heart.

You are the praise and possibility. 

You are the present and the future.

I believe the Light of the World has come this day. 

I see it now in all days. 

Those gone and those to come aflame in love.

Your love wrapped in human form,

Your love learned in justice and in mercy,

Your love risen over death.

I believe love has come on this day.

I believe love has and will always come.                                             

Prayers of the People                                                                                 Betty Schultze

One:  Loving God,

All:    Hear Our Prayers

Lord’s Prayer (sung)                                                                   VU #959

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.

Invitation for Offering                                                                            enfleshed

Love calls us together in pursuit of God’s dreams for our shared lives. That justice may come, and all may rest, and the earth may thrive, this is the work of God. Not for one day, but today. With faith, let us acknowledge our offerings and gifts like a prayer, thy Kindom come, thy will be done. You’re invited to place your offerings into the plate at the back of the sanctuary after the service.

Offering Prayer                                                                                                  enfleshed

Let us pray, Holy One, in this midst of all that brings ache and injustice into our world, we bring our offerings to you and pray: “Here we are. Here is what we have. Here are our hearts, our bodies, our commitments.” We know through your grace, this is enough. We are enough. You have assured us, O God, showing up together in service to your Love will never be in vain. May it be so

Hymn: We Shall Go Out (Strathdee Video)                               VU #586

1 We shall go out with hope of resurrection;

we shall go out, from strength to strength go on;

we shall go out and tell our stories boldly;

tales of a love that will not let us go.

We'll sing our songs of wrongs that can be righted;

we'll dream our dream of hurts that can be healed;

we'll weave a cloth of all the world united

within the vision of new life who sets us free.

2 We'll give a voice to those who have not spoken;

we'll find the words for those whose lips are sealed;

we'll make the tunes for those who sing no longer,

expressive love alive in every heart.

We'll share our joy with those who are still weeping,

raise hymns of strength for hearts that break in grief,

we'll leap and dance the resurrection story

including all in circles of our love.

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.

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.

Right/Zoom:   

          The Son’s blessing be yours, wine and water, bread and stories,

          feeding you, challenging you.

Left:  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