Hybrid Order of Service 19th Sunday after Pentecost, October 16th, 2022

Hybrid Church

19th Sunday after Pentecost

October 16, 2022

 

Rev. Karen Hollis

Musician: Dorothy Dittrich

 

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!

Welcome & Announcements

If you are gathering in person, on zoom or worshipping at home with the bulletin, welcome! We are one community, one in the body of Christ. 

 

Centering & Stillness

 

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:  Moved-by-our-Suffering God,

All:    we cry out to you!

One:  Way-Making God,

All:    don’t delay another moment!

 

One:  And yet,

          you call out to us too, Tender One.

All:    You ask for our help, Heartbroken One.

 

One:  We worship the Radical and Relational Holy Spirit.

All:    The Helper and in need of our help.

 

Opening Prayer                                                                                          

Compassionate God, sometimes we feel compelled to action and sometimes we need to cry on the sofa. Sometimes we have fortitude to show up boldly for others and sometimes we need to get ourselves through another day. Sometimes the Beloved Community brings us healing, other times group dynamics overwhelm. Our prayers and our actions intermingle and overlap. They wax and they wane. Consolation and courage comes and goes. Bless it all, Changing God.

 

Hymn: Let Us Build a House V. 1,2,4,5                                        MV #1

1 Let us build a house where love can dwell

and all can safely live,

a place where saints and children tell

how hearts learn to forgive.

Built of hopes and dreams and visions,

rock of faith and vault of grace;

here the love of Christ shall end divisions:

All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

 

 

 

2 Let us build a house where prophets speak,

and words are strong and true,

where all God’s children dare to seek

to dream God’s reign anew.

Here the cross shall stand as witness

and as symbol of God’s grace;

here as one we claim the faith of Jesus:

All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

 

4 Let us build a house where hands will reach

beyond the wood and stone

to heal and strengthen, serve and teach,

and live the Word they’ve known.

Here the outcast and the stranger

bear the image of God’s face;

let us bring an end to fear and danger:

All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

 

5 Let us build a house where all are named,

their songs and visions heard

and loved and treasured, taught and claimed

as words within the Word.

Built of tears and cries and laughter,

prayers of faith and songs of grace;

let this house proclaim from floor to rafter:

All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

 

Prayer of Confession and Emptying          

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. Help us to distinguish between things can and cannot control . . . the things we need to take up and that which we need to let go. 

 

Please join me in the Palms Down Palms Up Prayer 

                                                                             

Release Begin by placing your palms down as a symbolic indication of your desire to turn over any concerns you may have to God.

 

Receive After several moments of surrender, turn you palms up as 

a symbol of your desire to receive from God.  

 

Commune You’re invited to spend a few remaining moments in silence and stillness with the Holy presence that is always here with us. Allow God to commune with you, to love you.              

from Richard Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline                                     

Assurance of Grace

Thanks be to God for the love that meets us right where we are. Thanks be to God for the courage to tell the truth and hear once again, you are beloved and free!

       

Passing of the Peace

Jesus said to his disciples, “My peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” Let us share his peace with one another:

 

One:    The peace of Christ be with you! 

All:      And also with you!

 

You are invited 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: Jeremiah 31:27-34    (NRSV)             Reader: Corinne Carlson

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD. In those days they shall no longer say: "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge. The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Psalm 119:97-104 (VU p.840)                                  Reader: Corinne Carlson

       Refrain: Happy are they who follow your law, O God.

 

Happy are those who live a blameless life,

who follow your law, O God.

          Happy are those who keep your decrees,

          who seek you with their whole heart.

They also do no wrong, but walk in your ways.

          You have given your precepts for us to keep diligently. R

 

O that my ways might be steadfast in the keeping of our statutes.

          Then I will not be put to shame,

          when I hear all your commandments.

I will truly thank you from the heart,

when I learn your righteous decrees.

          I will keep your statutes.

          O do not utterly forsake me. R

 

Gospel Reading                                                                                Reader: Angela Nutter

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 Luke

All:          Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Luke 18:1-8 (NRSV) 

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him 

day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

 

Reader: This is the Gospel of Christ.   

All:          Praise be to Jesus Christ       

 

Reflection: 

Silent Reflection

 

Hymn: Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah                                     VU #651

1 Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,

pilgrim through this barren land;

I am weak, but thou art mighty;

hold me with thy powerful hand;

Bread of heaven, Bread of heaven,

feed me till I want no more,

feed me till I want no more.

 

2 Open now the crystal fountain

whence the healing stream doth flow;

let the fire and cloudy pillar

lead me all my journey through.

Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,

be thou still my strength and shield,

be thou still my strength and shield.

 

3 When I tread the verge of Jordan,

bid my anxious fears subside;

death of death, and hell's destruction,

land me safe on Canaan's side:

songs of praises, songs of praises

I will ever give to thee,

I will ever give to thee.

 

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                                                                                       Mona Smart             

One:  Steadfast 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 to the Offering 

 

Doxology                                                                                                                                        CP #669

Praise God the Source of life and birth,

Praise God the Word, who came to earth.

Praise God the Spirit, holy flame.

All Glory, honour to God’s name.

 

Offering Prayer                                                                            enfleshed, adapted

Mary Oliver wrote “I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention…”. And so we pay attention to the needs of our community, ourselves included. And we imagine praying as having something to do with solidarity. Bless our offerings to our mindful attention. Bless our offerings towards our steadfast showing up. 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: Peace Be With You (x3)                                                MV #215

Peace be with you, peace forever
Peace be with you, my friends.
Till we meet again,
May God be with you.
Peace, Peace, Peace

 

Thank You

 

 

 

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!