Thursday, December 22, 2022

Christmas Prayer 2022

God of Hope,
sometimes hope is scarce.
Soaring inflation tightens our budgets
Flu and COVID and RSV strain our health system
Our daily news so often brings despair.
As Christmas comes round again,
help us see the hope found in a baby,
a baby who will change, renew, revitalize our lives and our world.

God of Peace, tonight we mark the birth of one called “Prince of Peace”
He is born again into a world where we hear of mass shootings,
and warfare in Ukraine, and Yemen, and too many other places,
and domestic violence shelters full to the brim,
and people on our streets struggling with poverty, and health, and addiction.
Where is the Peace?
As Christmas comes round again,
help all of us see how peace and justice are possible
transform us to be people who actively work to make them grow around us,
so that we can echo the angel song of “Peace on earth, goodwill to all”

God of Joy,
sometimes Joy is absent.
When worry and stress take over our lives,
when there is an empty spot at the table,
when grief is still raw,
when we are afraid,
it is hard to sink into the joy of the Christmas season.
As Christmas comes round again,
remind us of the joy that goes deeper than happiness,
the joy of knowing that You walk with us, that You will always be with us,
the joy that comes with an abiding sense that somehow, someday, all will be well again.

God of Love,
lovingly you break into our lives, sharing all that we do and are and will be.
You challenge, command, convince us to live lives guided by love,
love for family, for friend, for stranger, for enemy, for neighbour.
Where we miss the chance to act lovingly, forgive us,
and move us to be better next time.
As Christmas comes round again,
fill us with the dream of a world where love is the universal rule of life,
fill us with the love that casts out fear
and may that love overflow from our hearts onto everyone we meet,
so that, as people of love, we can help build a renewed, revitalized world

God of Birth,
tonight we gather to celebrate a birth that happened long ago,
the birth of a child laid in a manger
But tonight we also celebrate births that happen everyday:
we sing praises for hope born anew in the midst of despair,
we watch as peace is born in the middle of violence and struggle and disparity,
we listen as joy is born afresh in the broken-hearted,
we are overcome with emotion as love is born time and time again,
overcoming fear and distrust and hatred,
we stand in the glow as tiny sparks give birth to a light that warms and illuminates the wonders of life.
For all the births we celebrate this night we offer prayers of thanksgiving and praise
Amen.


Monday, December 19, 2022

Everyday Miracles -- A Christmas Eve Reflection

(also posted on Pastoral Ponderings)

What miracles have you seen at Christmas?

Christmas is a time for miracles. Sometimes the miracles are big, like the complete personality change we see in the Grinch or Ebenezer Scrooge. But most often they are small everyday things that we could easily miss. In her poem The Christmas Miracle Angela Morgan writes:

Do you know the marvel of Christmas time,
The miracle meaning of song and chime,
Of hearty love and huge good will,
Of feasts that gladden and gifts that spill?
Do you know what happens to homes and men
When Christmas love is abroad again?
Could you look beneath, you would see the rush
Of a flood as real as a river's gush;
A torrent wonderful, deep and wide,
That sweeps the world in its magic tide.

Oh, it isn't the gift, and it isn't the feast;
Of all the miracles, these are least.
It's the good that flows from the hearts of men
When Christmas love is abroad again.
For wishes are real, and love is a force,
And the tide, which ages ago had source
In the heart of a babe, has grown and gained
Till all humanity, single-veined,
Answers the call of the mighty surge,
Swings to the great resistless urge.

What miracles have you seen at Christmas? What small everyday miracles have been part of your Christmas celebrations?

Christmas is not only a time for miracles, Christmas draws out miracles. As we tell again the story of God breaking into the world, of God becoming one of us, the Word-Made-Flesh we are drawn to look for the miraculous around us. At the same time, the story and the spirit of the season draws the miraculous out of us.

I think of the phenomenal amount of giving that happens this time of year. Salvation Army campaigns, toys for kids, Christmas Hampers, “Adopt-a-family” programs. What is the success of those things if not a miracle? Even when times are tight and everyone expects givings to be down I am often surprised at the amazing generosity of people in the Christmas season. A specific example. As Advent began the St. Paul’s Explorers group asked for help so they could fill “blessing bags” for the Friendship Centre. Three weeks after they asked they had enough donations (and money to buy more supplies) that they were able to fill 52 bags. Which happened to match almost exactly the number of clients the Friendship Centre had who they would give those bags to. Is that a Christmas miracle?

The ghost of Jacob Marley tells his former partner that it is required of every spirit to walk among their neighbours. Too often we fail to let our spirits do that, maybe because we are too busy, or too wrapped up in our own ‘stuff’, or just too tired. But there is something about Christmas that pushes our spirits out and about. That may be an everyday miracle in and of itself, certainly it allows more miracles to happen. When we reach out beyond ourselves and share gifts of love miracles happen.

The next stanza of The Christmas Miracle reads:

Oh, vain is the boast of the hardened one
Who scouts what the centuries have done.
Be he ever so mean, be he ever so cold,
Though his heart be flint and his claim be bold,
His veins will tingle, his pulses thrill,
To the sound of " Peace on earth, good will! "
Why, even the man who grips his purse
With a stingy mouth and a cruel curse
Must yield to the flood and be borne away
To join in the glory of Christmas Day.

So I ask again, what miracles have you seen at Christmas? Were they big and showy or were they everyday miracles? Something like one bored child choosing to entertain another young child and getting a hug in return. Or maybe strangers connecting so that one is not alone and lonely over the holidays. Or maybe the person with just enough still putting a couple of bucks in the Salvation Army Kettle. Or maybe some other gift of love shared with a neighbour, a friend, a family member, a stranger. What miracles might have floated right under our noses without our seeing them? What miracles have we done without thinking it was a big deal?

Christmas is a time for miracles. The miracles of Christmas are expressed in words like hope, peace, joy, love, and birth.

Hope: it is a miracle of Christmas that God breaking into the world gives us hope for what yet may be. Even with all that seems to go wrong in the world Christmas reminds us that God is still active in the world, God still moves us toward God’s vision for the world.

Peace: Christmas marks the birth of the Prince of Peace. A miracle of Christmas occurs when the story moves us closer to living together in peace and justice with all our neighbours. We may have a long way to go, but the miracle is that we keep heading in that direction.

Joy: Christmas Joy is that deep sense that somehow, some day all will be well. Christmas Joy is the miracle that allows us to search for joy even when our hearts are heavy.

Love: Love is always a miracle. Love that moves us to give of ourselves for the benefit of our neighbours is deeply embedded in the Christmas story. The baby in the manger is Love in human form. Love that is shown in grand gestures and gentle everyday kindnesses is the miracle that keeps the world functioning, keeps us hopeful, leads us to peace, and gives us great joy.

Birth: New life, new possibility, birth is a miracle. Birth happens in many ways, many things are born each new day. Each birth opens a door to a new way of being in the world. What is being born in your heart this Christmas time? What new miracles might that birth bring about?

In The Lord of the Rings we find gems of wisdom like “I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” or “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future” or “Such is of the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”. It is wisdom like this that leads me to believe so strongly in the power of everyday miracles, everyday acts of love. Not because they are grand or showy, but because they are loving. We may feel we can not accomplish great things but each of us can do many small things. We are all capable of sharing the love, peace, hope, and joy that shines from the manger on Christmas night. And that might be the greatest miracle of all.

We close with the remainder of The Christmas Miracle:

Have you guessed the secret of Christmas night,
When the whole world loves with all its might,
When the whole world gives with a lavish hand
And joy is awake throughout the land?
Do you know the marvel that happens then
In the glow that goes from the hearts of men?
Have you looked beneath, have you seen the fire
That leaps from the soul of a great desire —
A warmth as real as the heat that springs
From the hearth where the great log laughs and sings?

Oh, it isn't the holly, it isn't the snow,
It isn't the tree or the firelight glow;
It's the flame that goes from the hearts of men
When Christmas love is abroad again.
'Tis the laughter of children, quivering high
In a shower of radiance to the sky
For wishes are real, and love is a force,
And the torch which ages ago had source
In the star that lighted the wise men's way
Burns with a magical fire to-day.

So great the shining, so pure the blaze,
It reaches beyond, through the stellar ways,
Till — listen! A wind voice told it me —
Our globe that swims in ethereal sea
Glows like a lamp whose flame is love
To the other worlds that swing above;
And this the signal that makes them know
We have hearths and homes and cheer below
Why, gods and angels walk by the light
That streams from the earth on Christmas night!

Let us all listen for the laughter of children and words of love. Let us all look for the glow that radiates from the manger and through the hearts of men, women, and non-binary folk alike. Let us all walk with gods and angels this Christmas night,

May we all see the miracles happening right in front of us. May we all take the chance to be miracle-workers in our own right – even if our miracles are of the humdrum, everyday type.
Amen.

Wednesday, October 5, 2022

For October 16, 2022 -- Affirming Week begins, Sermon titled Scripture: Weapon or Balm?

 

PRAYER OF CONFESSION & ASSURANCE OF PARDON
God, in the stories, songs, letters, proverbs, and poems of Scripture,
we meet you, we find wisdom about how we could live, we learn about your vision for the world.

In those old passages we can find a healing balm,
words that heal our broken spirits and comfort our shattered hearts.
But to be honest we, your people, have not always used those old words well.
Sometimes we use the old stories as weapons, things that can break spirits and shatter hearts.
And sometimes we have forgotten that your Word of Life is living and growing,
choosing instead to lock it into ancient understandings, old ways of seeing the world.
God of Life, made known in many ways, Living Word of love and hope and promise,
Where we have misused your wisdom to harm each other, forgive us
Help us always find the ways that your wisdom brings healing and wholeness to our world.

...time of silent prayer...
Yes, we sometimes get things wrong. We sometimes take something that proclaims love and turn it into a weapon. But there is hope and Good News. The God who is revealed in Scripture constantly speaks words of love and hope into our souls. God moves us past our mistakes and transforms us so that we make different choices next time. We are loved, we are forgiven, we are healed.
Thanks be to God! Amen.

COMMISSIONING:
The God we meet in Scripture
Walks with us in the world.
The God who offers us healing
Calls us to carry healing love to the world.
Go now, ready to counter hatred and fear with words of love and hope.
And as you go, trust that God made known as Parent, Child and Spirit is with you wherever you go
Thanks be to God. Amen

 

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Resources for June 12, 2022 -- Trinity Sunday

CALL TO WORSHIP
The Ageless One has called us here.
Responding to their call, we gather in the name of She Who Is Holy
We come to worship together, to listen for the voice of Wisdom of Ages
We open our hearts and souls as we sing and pray and reflect together.

OPENING PRAYER
Parent, Partner, and Friend; we open ourselves to your presence.
Wellspring of Life, as we worship here this morning,
help us grow in our understanding of what it means to be your people,
expand our imagination so that we can see you both in old and new ways,
give us the grace to allow each other to explore who you are for us.

We pray these things in the name of Jesus, Son of Woman, The Anointed One and we remember words he once taught his closest friends....

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
Generous One, you are revealed in so many ways.
And you challenge us to be imaginative, to be open to new ways of understanding who and how you are.

Fount of Wisdom, too often we find our imaginations limited by traditions, by “the way it has always been”,
with the result that we limit the language that can be used to describe you,
with the result that our experience of you is less than it might have been.

She Who is Faithful, open our hearts and minds and souls to the broad expansiveness of who you are.
Help us see you in new ways, help us see your presence in all our neighbours, regardless of age or gender identity, or sexuality, or skin colour, help us move beyond the limits we may have been taught in the past.
The God Who Redeems is constantly at work in the world and in our lives. She continues to reveal themself in new ways. He continues to expand our understanding of how the world could be. This is an act of grace, this is an act of growth, this is a way of bringing new life to the world.
Thanks and praise be to the Author of Life. Hallelujah! Amen.

COMMISSIONING
The Ancient of Days brought us together this morning
We have prayed, we have sung, we have been invited to share our Images of God.
Now our time of worship draws to a close.
Now She Who Is Faithful leads us back out into the world.
Go out to share the Good News that the Ever-Living God is at work in the world.
We go to share the promise of resurrection, of rebirth, of renewal given in the life and ministry of Jesus, Redeemer and Saviour, Teacher and Friend.
Go secure in the Knowledge that the Three-in-One: Father, Son and Spirit; Life, Liberation and Love; Creator, Christ, and Compassion; is with you.
Always and All ways. Hallelujah!

*the names for God in today’s liturgy have been taken from A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church by Wilda Gafney

 

Monday, May 2, 2022

REsources for May 8, 2022, CHristian Family Sunday

 CALL TO WORSHIP
May the Peace of Christ be with you!
And also with you!
We gather as a family of faith
We turn and see our siblings, our family of choice, with whom we celebrate God’s presence in our lives.
God has invited us to this place and time
In person and in virtual space we greet each other and open ourselves to God’s words of hope and faith
Come, now is the time for worship...

OPENING PRAYER
Nurturing God, God who loves us as a Parent, as we gather our hearts and souls for worship this day,
open our minds and ears and eyes to see and hear and know how you are present in our lives.
As we sing and pray and listen this morning,
awaken in us a sense of hope and promise that life and love will indeed have the victory.
When we leave this time of worship,
lead us into the world to share the promise of hope, to share the news that you are present in our midst.
We pray in the name of the Risen Christ, and we share together the words he once taught his friends...

 PRAYER FOR FAMILIES
God of many faces, today we pause to give thanks for our families,
and we celebrate that family can mean so many different things.
We lift up the many different combinations of people we can call family,
parents and children, grandchildren and cousins, friends who are ‘family by choice’.
We also pause to remember the many ways families can be a challenge.
Broken relationships, the grief of loss, distance both physical and emotional,
for all those things that may make family a mixed blessing we pray.

...time of silent prayer...
God who calls us to be part of a wide, expansive, many-faceted family,
we give thanks for the places we feel we are among family,
we give thanks for the love we find there.

Help us reach out and share the love.
We pray in the name of the Risen Christ, who makes us all siblings in faith.
Amen

Saturday, April 16, 2022

Stayin’ Alive Redux for Easter Sunday 2022


Well I can tell by the look upon your face
You’re quite confused, what’s goin’ on
You came out here to weep and mourn
‘cause Jesus who you love is gone

Hey now it’s all all right. Don’t be afraid.
You see the stone’s been rolled away
Please please try to understand
He who was dead’s alive again!

When your heart is broken
new hope is being woken
Resurrection’s real, Jesus is alive
Feel the earth a-shakin’
The hold of death is breakin’
Jesus is alive and stayin’ alive
Ah Ah Ah Ah stayin’ alive stayin’ alive
ah ah ah ah stayin’ alive!

Well all this is just as he said
That he would die and rise again
Hear this message I have for you
Go tell the others, spread the news

Hey now it’s all all right. Don’t be afraid.
New life has come, it’s here to stay
Please please try to understand
God’s promise is that life will win

When your heart is broken
new hope is being woken
Resurrection’s real, Jesus is alive
Feel the earth a-shakin’
The hold of death is breakin’
Jesus is alive and stayin’ alive
Ah Ah Ah Ah stayin’ alive stayin’ alive
ah ah ah ah stayin’ alive!

Easter has come now. We celebrate life.
Sing alleluia
Jesus is Risen! Sing Alleluia
Stayin’ alive

Well now here we are on this Easter Day
Sharing songs of joy and praise
The tomb is empty life has won
Let’s share the news forevermore 

Hey now it’s all all right. Don’t be afraid.
New life has come, it’s here to stay
Please please try to understand
God’s promise is that life will win

When your heart is broken
new hope is being woken
Resurrection’s real, Jesus is alive
Feel the earth a-shakin’
The hold of death is breakin’
Jesus is alive and stayin’ alive
Ah Ah Ah Ah stayin’ alive stayin’ alive
ah ah ah ah stayin’ alive!

Easter has come now. We celebrate life.
Sing alleluia
Jesus is Risen! Sing Alleluia
Stayin’ alive

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

COmmunion Prayer for Maundy Thursday

Source of love, light, and life,
we gather at this table in the name of Jesus, the Servant King,
the one who calls us to love and serve each other,
who reveals most fully your love and hopes for the world.

Creator, you spoke and the world came into being,
in you live, we move, we exist.
Here and now we reflect on the many gifts we have received throughout our lives.
We join our hearts with people around the globe who shout, sing, dance their thanks.
And so we name, aloud or in the silence of our hearts,
those things for which we are thankful this evening....
For all you goodness God, we give you thanks.

Ever-loving God, you promise to never abandon us,
you are there when our hearts are heavy,
you are there to carry us when our strength fails,
you share our tears and comfort us in our dis-ease.
This evening we hold in prayer all who struggle, for whatever reason,
and we name them aloud or in our silent prayers...
Comforter, may all those in pain, in grief, in fear, all those who struggle,
know that they are loved this night.

God of our past, our present, and our future,
The One who is and was and is to come,
Since the beginning you have communicated with your children in many ways.
You have sent messengers and teachers and prophets.
With joy we remember folk like
Sarah and Abraham, Moses and Miriam, Deborah, David, Micah,
Peter, Paul, Mary, Lydia, and so many others.
The writer of Hebrews reminds us that we all have a great cloud of witnesses.
As part of the community that stretches far into the past and wide in the present
we remember those who are part of our clouds and name them aloud or in silence...
God of community, we give thanks for all we have learned from others in our walk of faith.

God who is always active in the world.
As followers of Jesus of Nazareth, the one we call Christ and Messiah,
we give thanks for the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Word-Made-Flesh.
We remember what he taught about your Reign.
We remember how he modelled what living as citizens of the Kingdom of Love could look like.
Eating with the marginalized, healing the broken-ness in people’s lives.
And we commit ourselves to follow The Way he showed us.

As we gather at this table we remember another table, long ago and far away.
Jesus and his friends gathered at that table to share the feast of liberation, of freedom from bondage.
During that gathering he took bread, blessed it, broke it and passed it to his friends saying:
Take, eat. This is my body, broken by and for the world. Whenever you eat it remember me.
Then later Jesus took a cup of wine, blessed it and passed it to them saying:
Take and drink, This is the cup of the New Covenant. Whenever your drink it remember me.
All these years later we continue to eat and drink and remember, God who meets us here.

As we eat and drink here tonight, pour your Holy Spirit onto us.
Awaken in us a passion for your Kingdom.
Make us willing to give of ourselves to spread your love and hope in the world.
Help us follow The Way of Jesus Christ.
We pray these things in his name and we share together words that unite us with Christians across the miles and through the ages, words Jesus taught his friends long ago:
Our Father...

Monday, March 28, 2022

For April 3, 2022 - Looking at "Who Is My Neighbour?" and the Lessons of Covid-tide

 

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
God you challenge, ask, command us to love our neighbour.
And like the lawyer we ask “but who is my neighbour? Who should I show love to?”
So you remind us, you broaden our field of view, and again tell us to love our neighbour
But still we wonder, what does it mean. What should we do? What is the best way to love our neighbour?
And you keep pushing us, pushing us to give priority to the needs and safety of others even when it may make us less comfortable.
But still we push back. We argue about the best way to balance priorities. We question who needs to sacrifice more and if the promised benefits will come.
God who walks with us in times of challenge, in times of pandemic and warfare, when the best way to love our neighbour seems uncertain,
With grace you pick us up when we trip over the complications of life, in grace accept our confusion and our reluctance to do what seems best for the whole community.
...time of silent prayer...
The world is a complicated place. The best way to love our neighbours as we love ourselves is not always obvious. But God is there to guide and to challenge, to lead us forward and help us reset when we get it wrong. We are loved. We are held in grace. We are given chances to get it right.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

Monday, February 28, 2022

FOr MArch 6, 2022 -- 1st of Lent

CALL TO WORSHIP
The One who has Created and is Creating invites us here.
As followers of the Word-Made-Flesh we gather for worship.
The One who works in us and others by the Spirit,
moves in and around us as we gather to eat, to pray, to sing, and to listen together.
As a community gathered in both physical and virtual space,
let us worship together

OPENING PRAYER
OK God, the world is a bit of a mess right now,
so we need to hear a word of hope, we need to be reminded who we were created to be.
In this time together, as we break bread together, as we share our prayers, as we sing our faith,
speak to our hearts, embolden us, remind us of what is possible.
We gather of followers of Jesus the Christ, we pray in his name.
Amen

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
Creator of all that is, you shaped us for paradise.
You meant for us to live as partners with all that has been created.
And yet, we have often wandered from the primeval garden.
Our focus has been drawn to things that lead to hurtful words, hurtful actions, hurtful thoughts.
You call us to put aside those things that are hurtful to ourselves, to each other,
help us, we pray, to do that, transform us, lead us back to the garden.
...time of silent prayer...
The Sovereign God who created, and who is constantly re-creating, acts in power and in mercy and in grace. In Christ we are given new life, a new self, a new beginning. We are forgiven. We can be transformed. We can live in partnership with all that God has created.
Thanks be to the Creating One. Amen

COMMISSIONING:
Our time of worship draws to a close.
Our time of service continues.
Go from this time of eating and singing and praying to carry the love of Christ into the world.
We go to proclaim the Good News with our words and through our deeds
As you live and serve, remember that God who created and re-creates you, who is made known in the man Jesus of Nazareth, the Risen Christ, who is active in the world as the Holy Spirit is with you.
Wherever we go, we are not alone. Thanks be to God.

 

Monday, January 24, 2022

For January 30, 2022 -- working with Presentation of the Lord Readings

CALL TO WORSHIP
In a world where sometimes we feel cast out
God calls us back to community
In a world sometimes obsessed with ideals of purity
God calls us to be renewed and restored to community
In a world where there is always more to do,
God invites us to pause, to pray, to listen, to worship in community
Come, let us worship together

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
God, sometimes life gets messy,
and the messiness spills onto us, and we feel unclean, stained, or tainted.
When that happens we want to be cleaned, renewed, purified.
You invite us to take time, to recover, to feel like ourselves again.
You give us rituals and practices that allow us to welcome each other back into the community.
Help us to be restored, help us to welcome others back.
Renew us in body and soul.
Remind us that we can be cleansed and purified.

God is Gracious, through Grace God offers us restoration to the community and renews us. With Grace God reminds us that we are their Beloved children, formed in their image.
Thanks be to God. Amen.