OPENING
PRAYER
God
of Resurrection, in this Easter season,
we
gather for worship, to celebrate the promise of New Life.
As
we sing and pray and listen this morning,
open
our eyes and ears and hearts to your Word
transform
us, and then send us out to help transform the world.
We
pray in the name of the Risen Christ, as we share the words he taught
his friends so many years ago...
PRAYER
FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
God
you continue to invite us to see the new thing you are doing
but
if we are honest, we don’t always do new things well.
In
the Risen Christ, in the mystery of Easter, you transform the world,
but
transformation may be uncomfortable, and so we sometimes work against
it,
even
persecuting those who proclaim the new thing
But
still God you persist in the new thing, you call the loudest critics,
revealing
the promise of New Life, opening their eyes to what is possible.
God
who is doing a new thing, when we are unwilling to follow the new
path,
open
our eyes and hearts, move us beyond protection of old understandings,
lead us to see where you are pointing.
God
of Grace,
forgive
our stubbornness and unwillingness to change,
forgive
our willingness to strike back against the new simply because it is
not what we have always done,
forgive
our periodic blindness to what you are doing in our midst
God
is doing a New Thing to share the old message of Love. Where we
resist, God is patient and coaxing. God forgives us and calls us to
try again. God opens our eyes to see what God is up to.
Thanks
be to God! Amen.
COMMISSIONING:
God
meets us on the road of life.
Sometimes
in a still small voice, sometimes with a flash of light.
God
calls us to go from those meetings and share the Good News of Christ.
We
go to the world where we live and serve and carry the Love of Christ
Go
now, secure in the knowledge that you are held in God’s Loving arms
wherever the road may take you
Thanks
be to God! Hallelujah!
