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Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
It’s All in the Asking
Welcome: Our theme in the readings tonight is “it’s all in the asking”. Let’s see where the words and sharing take us.
Let us pray: Holy One, we know you, we experience you in, around, and among us. When we are aware of our connection to you we are at peace in all circumstances. How blessed are we. Amen.
Opening Song: Endless is Your Love by Tom Kendzia
LITURGY OF THE WORD
A Reading from a Shabbat Evening Service.
You are with us in our prayer, in our love, and our doubt, in the longing to feel your Presence and do Your will. You are the still clear voice within us. Therefore, O God when doubt troubles us, when anxiety makes us tremble, when pain clouds the mind, we look inward for the answer to our prayers. Then may we find You, and there find courage, insight and endurance. And let our worship bring us closer to one another, that all who seek you, may find new strength for Your service.
May we find peace in our hearts as we live our lives in Your Love. Amen.
Celtic Alleluia
A Reading from the gospel of the anonymous writer called John
Jesus said to the disciples, “The truth of the matter is if you ask Abba God for anything in my name, it will be given to you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask, and you will receive so that your joy will be complete. I have spoken these things to you in veiled language. A time is coming when I will no longer do so—I will tell you about Abba God in plain speech. On that day you will ask in my name.
Now I am not saying that I will petition Abba God for you—God already loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
May the words of this Gospel increase our love for all. Amen
Shared Homily
This gospel begins with the phrase “the truth of the matter”, well for me the “truth of the matter”, asking God for anything in Jesus’ name just doesn’t ring true. At one time or another we all have asked God for something and ended the prayer “in Jesus name we ask”. We have asked God for small things, let our favorite team win or for the rain to stop so we can have our annual family picnic. We have asked for very important things, please stop this war, please take this cancer away, please don’t let my spouse die. But the “truth of the matter” as we know firsthand, our prayer is not answered by a simple ask.
Perhaps the key to asking is in the gospel verse “I will not petition God for you—God already loves you” and in the first reading the phrase “we look inward for the answer to our prayers”.
When we pray in the name of Jesus we are uniting our heart with his heart. Our prayers are much more than asking for healings and blessings. We already have what we need and we are blessed. Being united heart to heart with Jesus also means we are united with Abba God. We go inward in prayer to connect to the Holy One. Asking is more than asking. It is a deep conversation, a deep connection between ourselves and the Holy One. Jesus is showing us the way because Jesus always knew Abba God loved him and Abba God loves each of us too.
What did you hear? How will it change you?
Statement of Faith
All: We believe in one God, a divine mystery
beyond all definition and rational understanding,
the heart of all that has ever existed,
that exists now, or that ever will exist.
We believe in Jesus, messenger of God's Word,
bringer of God's healing, heart of God's compassion,
bright star in the firmament of God's
prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that We are called to follow Jesus
as a vehicle of God's love,
a source of God's wisdom and truth,
and an instrument of God's peace in the world.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
The life of God that is our innermost life,
the breath of God moving in our being.
The depth of God living in each of us.
We believe that God's kin-dom is here and now,
stretched out all around us for those
with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it,
and hands to make it happen.
Eucharistic Prayer of Belonging
As we prepare for the sacred meal we bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns. Please feel free to voice your concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table….”
We pray for these and all unspoken prayers and blessings. Amen.
We are a priestly people. We are anointed. With open hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer as one voice:
All: O Nurturing, Mothering One, You are always with us. We are grateful for Your constant loving and unconditional presence. At times we forget that You are holding us, attending to us. We fall and You pick us up. You send strangers, friends and family to our aid. We are never without Your Light and Spirit.
We experience great joy and we experience great pain and suffering. You are with us in the joy and the pain and suffering. When we experience Your presence we long to sing our hymn of praise:
Here in this Place – Holy Holy Holy by Christopher Grundy
All: Creator and Lover of all beings, we cannot grow in the darkness of this world without Your Light. Our desire to be in Your light is a gift from You. Help us keep our hearts and minds open to You through our love and care for each other and all creation.
Please extend your hands in blessing
All: This bread and wine is a sign of Your nourishment and a sign of Your great love. Your Spirit is upon us and we belong to You and one another.
We thank you for Jesus, simple servant, lifting up the lowly, revealing you as God-With-Us, revealing us as one with you, and all creation.
On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for the supper with the people closest to him. Like the least of household servants, he washed their feet. Once again he showed us how to love one another.
(All lift the bread)
All: Back at the table, he took the bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread and offered it to them saying, Take and eat, this is my very self.
(All lift the cup)
ALL: Then he took the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying:
Take and drink of the covenant
Made new again through my life in you.
Whenever you remember me like this,
I am among you.
Bread and wine are transformed by Your Spirit and we are transformed when we open ourselves to Your Spirit. Every time we share this bread and wine we choose to be transformed. We choose to love as You love us.
What we have heard with our ears, we will live with our lives: as we share communion, we will become communion, both Love’s nourishment and Love’s challenge.
Please receive the bread and cup with the words: I am a child of the Holy One.
Communion Song:
Berakah, The Blessing by Jan Novotka and video by MTStreck https://youtu.be/awJwUf6fq7k
Communion prayer:
Loving Source of our being, You call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice. We live justly, we love tenderly, we walk with integrity in Your Presence Amen.
Let us pray together the prayer of Jesus:
O Holy One, who is within, around, and among us, we celebrate your many names. Your wisdom come. Your will be done, unfolding from the depths within us. Each day you give us all that we need. You remind us of our limits, and we let go. You support us in our power, and we act with courage. For you are the dwelling place within us, the empowerment around us, and the celebration among us, now and forever. Amen.
The Prayer of Jesus as interpreted by Miriam Therese Winter
BLESSING
Please extend your hands and pray our blessing together
May we continue to be the Face of God to each other. May the certainty of our connectedness to one another and all creation ignite us to love more fully. May we stand together in the suffering and like Jesus be a shining light and a blessing for all.
All: Amen.
Closing Song
Canticle of the Turning Video by Denise Hackert-Stoner
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