Christmas Eve Dialogue 2020

 (This is an adaptation from one first written in 2009 [and also on this blog] to acknowledge the realities of Christmas in the midst of COVID-19)

P= Preacher struggling to prepare for Christmas Eve Service
G= God

P: [singing We Need a Little Christmas] AUGH! Select All and DELETE! This just isn't working! This has got to be wrong. God! You there God! What am I supposed to say this year?!?!
G: You called?
P: You're darn right I called! You really expect me to talk about tidings of great joy this year?
G: Of course. It's Christmas, you do remember that the Christmas story is about good news and hope and all those things right?
P: Yes yes I know all that. It's just that it doesn't seem to fit this year. I mean Celebrate? Good Times? You have to be joking! Haven't you been watching the news these last few months?????
G: So times are tough. That doesn't change the story.
P: Times are tough?? That is an understatement. We are in the middle of a global pandemic that has killed thousands. Because of that we can’t gather together with friends and family to share our tidings of comfort and joy. Christmas services are only being held online. People are lonely and isolated...
G: Yes and?
P: You want more? How about earlier this year when the bottom fell out of oil prices? Or the shutdowns to fight COVID that left people underemployed and businesses struggling? Then there are the persistent issues like Climate Change, and racism, and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, and so many more. These are NOT good times. Not even close!
G: SO? Where does it say that Christmas is about Good Times?
P: Pardon???
G: Where does it say that Christmas is about Good Times?
P: Well.. I guess it doesn't.
G: Of course it doesn't. Christmas is about all times. Christmas comes when things are going really well and when it is all falling apart. Christmas is about hope and promise and joy. When do you need those more than right now?
P: Well yeah but...
G: But nothing. What happens at Christmas? What do you talk about?
P: Well there is the story of course. You remember, the baby in a manger...
G: You mean the baby born to peasants who had nothing, not even a place to stay, whose lives were simple to the point of basic. Go on.
P: And there are the angels appearing to the shepherds...
G: Messengers from me to folk who were among the lowest of the low in their place and time. Messengers bringing good news to people who had nothing. Messengers telling them that I am active in the world. Messengers bringing good news of great joy for all people to a world where so many were struggling just to get by. Go on.
P: Well I guess that is about it. But the story is so old. Everybody knows it. What do I tell people that is new?
G: New is over-rated. I mean new is good sometimes, lots of times. But sometimes new and innovative gets in the way. Think about that story again. Yes it is a pretty simple scene but you must see that there is good news for the world today in that story.
P: Well maybe. But it seems odd to talk about joy and celebration these days. What is there to celebrate? It feels like our celebrations have been stolen from us this year.
G: Lots. Even when life is going badly there are small things to celebrate once in a while. And remember, celebrations don’t have to be fancy and noisy. They can be pretty simple and quiet too. Christmas isn’t about noisy and fancy. Christmas is about remembering that I am breaking into the world, that I am sharing this life you live. Is that worth a celebration?
P: But joy? So many people are unhappy and anxious and lonely and scared. What about joy?
G: Hey! Joy isn't about happiness! Christmas Joy has nothing to do with how much you laughed yesterday!
P: It doesn't?
G: NO! Christmas Joy is about recognizing that something special is happening. Christmas Joy is the rush you feel when you remember that you are not alone. Christmas Joy is in the promise that I am active in the world. It isn't about happiness, it goes much deeper. It's about faith and hope. Joy to the World! Listen to the angel song again. And think about that story. Who is in it? What happens to them? I just told you what was important about it.
P: The story? I told you we all know the story. A baby in a manger, angels and shepherds.[pause] oh, you mean that stuff about the couple who had nothing and messengers to the lowest of the low...
G: Now you're getting it. Do you maybe see what needs to be said this year?
P: Sort of. But...
G: I told you, no buts. That song you were just singing. Did you pay attention to the part where it says For I've grown a little leaner, grown a little colder, grown a little sadder, grown a little older,
P: Yeah, that was the part I really found meaningful this year.
G: well the important part is right after that. Think about what it says: I need a little angel sitting on my shoulder, need a little Christmas now. For we need a little music, need a little laughter, need a little singing, ringing through the rafter, and we need a little snappy "Happy ever after," need a little Christmas now.
P: Hey yeah. That matches what we need to hear right now! We need a little Christmas Joy and hope and promise. We need to remember that the angels are still singing to us about tidings of great joy for all people. We need to join in the song about peace on earth, goodwill to all.
G: And the fact that these aren't good times?
P: That's why we need to hear it! Just like the story is full of people who live hard lives being reminded that You are with them, we need to be reminded that we are not alone. Even with everything that seems to be going wrong around the world we can tell the story again and remember that You continue to break into the world today.
G: Now you've got it! That is what Christmas is all about! I really don't care whether anyone believes that Luke got the story right. Arguing about what really happened when Jesus was born isn't what Christmas is all about. Christmas is all about the present and the future, not the past. Christmas is all about people being able to recognizing that I am active in the world around them. Christmas is a promise that things can get better.
P: Thanks for that! If there was ever a time when we need a little Christmas this is one of them. Joy to the World! God is here, we are not alone. Let's all celebrate! Come ON!

A Christmas Prayer (2020)

 NOTE: Every Sunday this Advent season a piece of poetry has been worked into the sermon. This prayer uses bits from each of those poems.

God of Christmas,
we open our hearts and our lives to you.

Peace upon earth is the prayer we offer
Peace was the promise when Jesus was born
Peace to all [kin], Peace once again
To this war-weary, war-worried world this morn.
(from Peace on Earth by Miriam Therese Winter, Medical Mission Sisters ©1971)
God of peace, at Christmas you open a window on the possibility of peace.
You reach into our troubled hearts and troubled world,
and tell us that peace is possible.
Spread, we pray, your arms across the globe this holy night.
Where hearts are troubled, bring them comfort.
Where relationships are strained, bring open ears and hearts.
Where conflict reigns, bring a pause in the violence.
God of Peace, we pray for peace tonight.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth [God] sleep
The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to [all]."
(from Christmas Bells by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ©1863)
God of hope, with the birth of the Christ-child hope is born on earth.
Throughout this past year hope has sometimes seemed far away.
Social distancing and daily case counts and lockdowns
have sometimes made us wonder where we are headed.
On this Christmas night, remind us,
open our eyes and ears and hearts to angels proclaiming
Good news which shall be for all people, the Saviour is born.
God of Hope, reawaken hope in our hearts tonight.

Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas, now
(from Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Hugh Martin ©1943)
God of Joy, joy which somehow seems distant this year,
muddling through, making it up as we go along has been a big part of 2020.
This has not been the year we would have asked for,
this has not been the Christmas season we asked for.
God who brings tidings of great joy, on this night of nights,
reach into the souls of those who can not find joy,
touch the broken hearts of those who mourn, who are anxious, who are ill,
appear in our pain and anxiety and bring us comfort.
God of Joy, joy which comes from the promise of your presence,
help us share tidings of comfort and joy tonight.

Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine,
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.
(from Love Came Down at Christmas by Christina Rossetti ©1885)
God of Love, in the Christmas manger we see love smiling up at us.
As we sing the old songs and share the old stories,
we hear you inviting us into the great love story of the ages.
In this world of relationships, remind us how to live lovingly with each other.
God who loves the world so deeply
help us love each other as we have been loved.
In this world of fear and anger and ill-will,
spread love far and wide, touching and changing the hearts of your children.
God of love, love lying in a manger, love announced by a star and angels,
fill our hearts with love this night.

God of Christmas,
we open our hearts and our lives to you.
Fill the world with peace and hope and joy and love tonight.
In this year which has been so very different than others,
we look forward to the future and wonder what it will bring.
Open our eyes to see the promise of a baby in a manger,
open our hearts to be changed by his presence.
Amen.

Candle Lighting for Christmas Eve 2020

 

THE ANIMAL CANDLE

1: The first thing we will add to our creche scene are the animals: sheep, an ox, a donkey
2: This might seem odd because the Christmas story never actually mentions animals but if there was a manger we feel there must have been animals.
1: The animals remind us of some thing else. They remind us that Christmas is Good News for the whole earth,
2: Long before Jesus was born Isaiah shared God’s promise of a peaceful kingdom, a place where all animals and all people would live safely together.

1: At Christmas time we remember that promise. We hope following Jesus will make it come true.
2: So we light our first candle, the candle for the animals and the promise of peace.
(Candle is lit)

THE PARENTS CANDLE

1: If you have a baby, you must have some parents. So the next thing we will add to our creche scene are Mary and Joseph, Jesus’ parents.
2: IT must have been a little scary for them, having a baby and not sure what would happen next.
1: Jesus came as a surprise to Mary and to Joseph. Not every set of parents has an angel explain why they are having a baby right now.
2: But I bet they had hopes for what would happen next. I think most parents have hopes for what their baby will do.
1: And Mary and Joseph knew Jesus was a special baby. That could have made them very hopeful
2:So we light our second candle, the candle for the parents and the hope they had,
(Candle is lit)

THE ANGEL CANDLE

1: Time for another figure to join our creche scene. This time we add the angel hovering over top of the stable. It is hard to imagine Christmas without angels.
2: Already we have heard about two angel visits. One in Joseph’s dream and this time when Mary is told that she is having a baby.
1: There is another angel visit to come, another message from God to build the story about Jesus being born.
2: All these messages. God must really want people to know about Jesus. God must love people a lot to make sure they know that Jesus is coming.
1: That is what the story tells us. God loves the world so much that Jesus comes to help us learn how to love each other as much as God loves us
2: SO we light our candle for the angel, who brings us Good News about God’s love.
(Candle is lit)

THE SHEPHERD CANDLE

1: Here they come, running in from the fields, the shepherds. They are excited to join our creche scene.
2: This is the big part of the story. Apart from Mary and Joseph, the shepherds were the first people to know that Jesus was born.
1: The story tells us how excited they were. Imagine what it would have been like to be there.
2: I bet they were talking REALLY fast as they told Mary and Joseph what the angel had told them.
1:And I think they were really loud as they went around telling everybody else about baby Jesus. They must have sounded so happy.
2: So we light our candle for the shepherds, and we think about the joy they mus have felt on that special night.
(Candle is lit)

THE CHRIST CANDLE

1: Our creche is almost finished. Only one character to add. But this is the most important character. Jesus, the baby in the manger.
Without Jesus there would be no Christmas. His birth is the reason for the season. Jesus comes into our lives, into our world bringing peace and hope and joy and love. John calls Jesus the light that shines in the shadows and the shadows can never out it out. Even this year, when Christmas is so different because of the changes Covid has made in our lives, the light shines and can not be overcome.
We light our last candle, the candle for the Baby Jesus, the light of the world.
(Candle is lit)

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE for December 13, 2020 -- Advent 3B

God of Advent, through the Apostle Paul you encourage us to “Rejoice always”!
Sometimes Joy is easy. Sometimes Joy is hard.
God of Advent, through the Apostle Paul you ask us to “pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances”
Honestly, sometimes we forget to live prayerful lives.
Equally honestly, there are lots of times when thankful is the last thing we are feeling.
God of Advent, through the Apostle Paul you exhort us not to quench the Spirit.
We don’t do it on purpose. But when joy is hard, when thankfulness is scarce, when we are not grounded in you, spirits get quenched.
God of Grace, as we wait and prepare for the baby who will change the world,
open our hearts and minds and eyes to find the causes of joy right in front of us. Hear our laments for the things that steal joy from our lives. Accept our pledge to be more prayerful, more joy seeking, more thankful in the days to come, accept our words or repentance for those times we quench the spirit.
...time of silent prayer...
God has given us a promise of Good News of great Joy that shall be for all people. In that Good News is the promise of Grace. When we leave the path of wisdom we are invited, drawn, urged back. We are forgiven so that we can continue to seek hope, peace, joy and love.
Glory to God in the Highest! Alleluia! Amen.

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE for December 6, 2020 -- Advent 2B

God of the Jubilee year, God who renews the earth, pour your Spirit upon us we pray.
Open our hearts and lives so we too would bring good news to the oppressed, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, release to the prisoners; and comfort all who mourn
God who meets us as we wander in the wilderness, show us the highway that we should follow.
Clear away the obstacles we have laid in our way. Lower the hills we use to block other people’s paths. Speak to our pain and struggle. Touch our hearts in this hour.
Hear again the words of God: Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for God has clothed me with the garments of salvation, God has covered me with the robe of righteousness.
We are forgiven and loved. God has laid out a highway in the desert to lead us to the Reign of Peace and Justice.
Thanks be to God! Amen

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE for November 29, 2020 -- Advent 1B

God of Grace, you see our despair and come to offer us new hope.
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence
In a world disrupted by Covid-19, a world filled with injustice and fear, a world where we feel separated from our neighbours, we wonder what hope might look like.
Help us see hope in surprising places, as the world is changing around us.
In Grace shape us, mold us so that we are better able to follow the Way which leads to life.
we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
God is at work here, today, in our midst. God brings us hope that conquers despair, forgiveness that allows us to start again and graciously invites us to join in shaping the world.
Thanks be to God! Amen.

For ADvent 2020

CALL TO WORSHIP
As the days get shorter, we prepare again for the wonder of Christmas
Waiting for a birth, waiting for the world to be changed.
This year the celebration will be different.
Covid-tide has changed how we connect with each other and added worries to life
Still we are called to gather for worship, to hear God’s promise of _______
________ that meets us where we are and leads us into the future.
Come, let us worship together...

COMMISSIONING:
Our worship concludes for today
and we go out to continue preparing for a baby who will change our lives.
Go into the world! Proclaim the Good News that is for all people, Emmanuel, God-With-Us, is coming.
We go to share God’s promise of ________ with a troubled world.
Go with God: Parent, Child, and Holy Spirit: Three-in-One and One-in Three
God's _______ is with us so we need not be afraid.

 

For November 22, 2020 -- REign of Christ Sunday

CALL TO WORSHIP (based on Psalm 100)
May the Peace of Christ be with you!
And also with you!
Make a joyful noise to God! Worship God with gladness!
God made us, we are God’s people.
Come into God’s presence with thanks giving!
God’s steadfast love endures forever. We share our thanks and praise!
Come, let us worship together...

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
God you ask us to be sheep, following the Good Shepherd.
You also commission us to be shepherds, caring for your sheep.
Both of those can be hard to do.
Sometimes we want to head off in our headstrong way, not following the Shepherd.
Sometimes we forget our duty of care for our neighbours.
Still you are there. Trying to herd us. Hoping we will care for our siblings, your beloved children.
We seek your grace and mercy, we seek your strength and wisdom.
Help us to be better sheep, and to be better shepherds.
...time of silent prayer...
In grace God cares for and loves us as a shepherd loves the sheep. God calls out our own caring and loving impulses so that we could care for our neighbours. Even when we forget, even when we choose otherwise, God knows we can do better and gives us the chance to do just that. We are forgiven. We are loved.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

SENDING FORTH (based on Ephesians 1:17-19)
May the God made known in Jesus Christ give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation.
With the eyes of our hearts enlightened,
may we know the hope God has called us to.
May you see the inheritance that awaits you in the Kingdom of God
may we see the immeasurable greatness of God’s power.
Go with God, with Christ, and with the Holy Spirit
Who lives and reigns in and around us. Amen.

 

For November 8, 2020 -- Proper 27A, 23rd Sunday After Pentecost

CALL TO WORSHIP
May the Peace of Christ be with you!
And also with you!
We have been called together by the Source of Life.
We gather as people who wait for the Reign of Love to break into the world.
In the presence of the God who has created and is creating, of Jesus, the Word-made-Flesh, and the Spirit who works in all of us.
Let us worship together.

OPENING PRAYER
God of Peace, of Hope, of Love, as we listen and pray and reflect this morning,
move in and through us. Renew and transform us.
God of Peace, of Hope, of Love, in this week when we will pause to remember,
strengthen our pledge to work for the Reign of Peace, of Hope, of Love.
God of Peace, of Hope, of Love, as we wait for that day when your Reign comes to full flower,
keep us patient, keep us ready, open us to your transforming power.
We pray in the name of the Prince of Peace, who gives us Hope and calls us to Love as we share words he once taught his closest friends...

 PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
God you challenge us to be ready, to wait for the day when all will be well.
If we are honest, we get tired of waiting. We can only keep ready for so long.
Then other things happen and our attentiveness fades.
God you call us to be ready, to keep the light burning,
And as life goes by our stores of patience and energy burn off.
We might not be ready when the time comes
God of Grace, as we try to live out your call to be light to the world
keep our flask of oil filled, keep our wick trimmed, help us be ready.
God of Grace, when we let the oil run out, when we are not ready, when the flame sputters,
forgive our inattention and impatience. Renew and refresh us. In Jesus name we pray.
The God who calls us to be light to the world refills our flask of oil, relights our blown out flame, forgives our impatience and inattentiveness. God helps us to be ready for the turning and transforming of the world.
Thanks be to God! Amen.

 COMMISSIONING:
As people eagerly awaiting the coming of God’s Kingdom,
we go out to tend our lamps, to keep them burning as signs of hope
As people trusting in God’s abundance,
we carry our full flasks of oil to keep the flame of hope burning.
As people who are light and salt to the world
we go to let our light shine, not letting anyone blow it out or cover it up.
Go with God, who first said “let there be light”, with Jesus, the Light of the World, and with the Holy Spirit, the flame burning in our hearts, souls and bellies.

Prayers for a Regional Council Meeting

 

Opening Prayer/Prayer of Confession

God who calls us to be the church,
you call us to form a community shaped by the values of the Kingdom,
a place where we celebrate Your presence, seek justice and resist evil, love and serve each other.
This evening we gather as people who have been called into leadership in this part of the church in this place and time.
As we meet tonight move through and within us, flow through the bits and bytes that connect us across the miles, awaken in us a vision for what the church, this testing ground of the Kingdom, could be.
We know that this community of communities that we call the United Church has not always lived up to what it could be, what we tell ourselves we are.
We admit that the church is prone to the same prejudices and biases as the wider community around us.
God you call us to be the church,
a community of broken but hopeful believers, trying to embody Christ’s presence in the world.
Help us celebrate where we get it right, help us admit where we have missed the mark.
And then, through the Grace and Mercy proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth, help us sing of the church.
Empower us to live out the mission to which you have called us, move us to live as citizens of the Kingdom.
We pray in the name of Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope, who we proclaim as Christ, Messiah, Saviour, and Friend.
Amen.

Prayer to share In Memoriams and Celebrate Ministry Transitions

Source of life, God who shares every aspect of our lives as individuals and as communities.
You are there in the beginnings and you are there at the endings, and you are there in all the changes.
As we gather together tonight as the Northern Spirit Regional Council we mark beginnings and endings and changes since the last time we gathered together.
Tonight we pause to remember those in our communities who have taken their final breath in this life, who have moved to that which follows. We name them and we give thanks for the leadership they offered to their communities [read names]
May they rest in peace. May light eternal shine upon them.

God who calls us to be the church.
Tonight we pause to celebrate the beginning of a new Community of Faith, Living Spirit United Church in Drayton Valley. We welcome them into the larger Community known as Northern Spirit Regional Council and the even larger community known as the United Church of Canada.

Gift-giver, who calls us to use our gifts for the enrichment of community,
you have called us all into leadership in some form or another.
You have called some of us into paid ministry within the church.
Some are called first into one part of the global, church and are later led to exercise their leadership within the United Church of Canada. Tonight we celebrate [name] who has followed that leading to share his ministry in our midst.

As time goes by, the seasons of life move us into different places and we may choose to retire from one role to explore other ways of living, leading and serving.
So tonight, God of the turning seasons, we celebrate those who have lived out their call and now move into the new adventure of retired ministry [read names]
We thank them all for their years of service and wish blessings on them as they discover what new challenges you might have in store for them God of Grace.

God of beginnings and endings and transition we lift all these people in prayer in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Amen.

Resources for October 11, 2020 -- Thanksgiving Sunday

PRAYER FOR GRACE
God of Grace, help us to remember.
Help us to remember the times we have been blessed.
Help us to recognize the gifts that fill our lives.
God of Grace, help us to be thankful.
Open our lips in songs of praise and thanksgiving
Open our hearts in prayers steeped in deep gratitude
God of Grace, help us to be generous
Move us to respond to your abundance by paying it forward
Move us to give from what we have to enrich the world around us.
...time of silent prayer...
God calls us to remember, to be thanks-filled, to be generous. With Grace God encourages us to live out that call.
Thanks be to God: the Giver and the Gift, who challenges us to live lives of memory, gratitude, and generosity. Amen.

COMMISSIONING:
We have prayed, we have listened, we have opened ourselves to God’s presence.
Now we go out to live as people who remember, who are thankful, who pledge to share God’s gifts with the
world where we live and love.
Go with God, the Gift Giver; with Christ, the Gift; and with the Holy Spirit, who empowers us to be gift givers and gifts in our own way. Be Blessed and be a Blessing.
Amen

 

REsources for September 27, 2020 -- Proper 21A

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
God of the wilderness, you lead us through the deserts of our lives.
Even though we complain and grumble at times,
even though we sometimes doubt that you are there,
even though we are often sure we have a better plan.
God of the wilderness, as we travel through this time of challenge and chaos,
guide us, sustain us, listen to our concerns and complaints.
God of the wilderness, when our unmet needs make us grumpy, when they blind us to your presence,
open our eyes, give us what we need, slake our thirst.
God of the wilderness, as we grumble and complain, as we express our fears and anxieties and thirsts,
hear the pain and longing beneath them, and forgive our complaining and ill-manners, we pray.
The God who leads us into the wilderness walks with us on the way. God hears our cries and complaints and concerns then provides abundant sustenance to meet our needs. Then God calls us to keep following along the way. With Grace and Mercy, God calls us to journey with God to the Promised Land.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

COMMISSIONING:
God has led us this far in the wilderness of life.
God will continue to lead us as we continue the journey.
God has sent us springs of water in surprising places.
May God continue to shatter the rocks of the world for our support.
Go with God, who protects, guides and sustains us always.
We are not alone! Thanks be to God.

 

Resources for September 20, 2020 -- Proper 20A, 16th After Pentecost

 

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE

Guiding God, you lead us into the wilderness, with a promise of new life on the other side.
And to be honest we are not always willing to go.
We mourn for what we leave behind, what we have lost.
We want to go back to the comfortable, the known, the familiar.
Gracious God, in this COVID-tide season,
we carry grief and anxiety, we wish we we could go back to a more comfortable place.
Feed and sustain us in our desert time, we pray.
Hear our cries and share our grief.
Then when the time comes lead us into a future with a mix of familiar and new ways of being
Gracious God, when we chafe against the changes and chances of life,
strengthen us, embolden us, and forgive our doubting that this is the path of promise.
...time of silent prayer...
In Grace God leads us into the wilderness, in Grace God sustains us in the wilderness, with Grace God hears our griefs and complaints and anxieties in the wilderness.. Still God leads us into the future, sharing a promise of life renewed.
Thanks be to God! Amen.

COMMISSIONING:
As our worship concludes, we go out into the world to live and love and serve.
We carry with us our hopes for the future, but also our grief for what we have lost.
In the midst of hope and fear and grief and possibilities we meet God,
the one who continues to sustain us, the one who feeds with us in the desert.
And so we can share the promise that there is hope beyond the grief, even if we can’t go back to where we once were.
Thanks be to God who leads and sustains us into a new way of being.

A PRayer for Courage (to go with the Exodus 14 and the crossing of the Sea)

HI God. You know something? Sometimes we feel overwhelmed.
There is something coming that threatens our well-being and in front of us is something blocking our path. And we feel trapped.
We get afraid. We don’t know what to do next.
We need your help.
Then you tend to ask us to take a risk, to step out in faith, trusting that the path will appear.
To be honest, we aren’t always sure we can do that.
And so we pray for courage when the world is rough.
Strengthen us, embolden us, help us jump into the water.
Help us trust that the sea will part, that the path will emerge,
and that we can find ourselves freed from captivity.
God made known in Jesus, God who calls us to take those first small steps.
We pray, we offer our thanks, and we keep stepping forward, traveling along with you. Amen.

Backpack Blessing for 2020

I realized that my normal backpack blessing prayer needed some alteration for this year (basically I added a paragraph):

Hi God!
Another School year is about to start.
And every day people load up these backpacks
with school work and notes to (or from) the teacher and lunches and snacks.
Keep the straps from tearing, the zippers from jamming or bursting.
Help the backpack avoid the mud puddle or the toilet bowl.
Help it stay where it belongs so it can always find its human.
Keep the precious papers put inside safe, not scattered over the street (or the kitchen floor). 

But really God we worry about the people who carry these things.
Keep them safe.
Keep them away from bullies, keep them from becoming bullies.
Make them brave enough to help when they see another person being bullied.
Sometimes school is scary, some days it seems too hard, some days we just don’t want to go.
God when this happens make us strong enough to keep trying,
remind us that learning means making mistakes so we can try again,
help us find the good things even on a horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad day. 

 

And while we are at it,

we worry about all those other people.
The teachers who prepare and present lessons,
the parents who send their children off to school (sometimes worrying about what the day will be like),
the bus drivers who get kids from one place to another,
the people at after school programs who take over when the bell rings.
Help them too God. 

This year God, is special.
We know every year is special but this one is different. 

This year we have a whole new set of possible worries and anxieties thanks to COVID-19.
School will look different this year, whether at the building itself or attending via computer screen and working at home.
Arrows on the floor, masks on the face, what will be in the heart and mind?
This year our prayers for safety carry a sharper edge.
God of Grace, help each child, each teacher, each administrator, each parent
have what they need for a successful, safe, healthy school year. 

God help us protect each other’s physical, mental, and emotional health.
So that we can all learn and grow together.
 

God you promise that we are not alone.
At home, at school, on the bus, and everywhere else you are there. 

Thank you.
Amen.

For August 30, 2020 -- To go with Romans 12:1-21

 

CALL TO WORSHIP
May the Peace of Christ be with you
And also with you
I appeal to you therefore brothers, sisters, and friends, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Opening our hearts and souls and very beings to God, we gather for worship.
Here we invite God into our lives, to transform and renew us.
Let us worship together, let us pray....

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
Transforming, renewing, life-shaping God, through Paul you challenge us to do many things:
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;
love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour.
Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.
extend hospitality to strangers.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another
We do our best. We really do.
And sometimes we succeed, but sometimes we fall short.
Which is why we pray for Grace and Mercy, for the chance to learn and come round at it again.
Help us God! Forgive us God! Encourage us we pray
...time of silent prayer...
God is at work in us, renewing our minds and hearts, transforming our lives. Through Grace and Love God forgives us. Picks us back up, and leads us back out for another try. We are forgiven, we are loved, we are renewed!
Thanks be to God! Amen.

COMMISSIONING:
As our worship closes, go out into the week as people who have been transformed and renewed
We go as people committed to live as living sacrifices.
As you go remember Paul’s words to the Romans
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;
love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour.
Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.
extend hospitality to strangers.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another
We will do our best!

For August 16, 2020 -- Looking at Paul's Teaching on Eating Meat and Idols

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

The world is, as always, a tumultuous place.
We take a pause, we create a quiet space in the tumult to pray and listen and be with God.
Seeking to be refreshed and renewed so we can continue to live and love.
Come, let us worship...

Opening PRAYER

God of Community, we gather in our own spaces, separated and yet united with our family of faith.
As we pause to listen and pray and reflect, move in our hearts and souls.
Remind us what it means to be part of a community based on love and care for each other.
Restore our hope, re-energize us, fill us with what we need to live and love.
We pray in the name of Jesus, the one we call Teacher, Redeemer, Healer, and Christ. Amen.

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE

Source of Life, you call us to live in community, loving our neighbours as we love ourselves.
And we really want to do that. We really try to do that.
And sometimes we do it well. Other times we could do so much better.
God of Grace, you call us to live in community, loving our neighbours as we love ourselves.
Help us find the balance point between our own wants and what best supports our neighbours.
In a culture that so often tells us that the individual is king,
reawaken in us the glory of being part of a community and putting the community’s needs first.
Push us to pause and ask how our actions can best support all the members of the community.
And in this way live out our call to be people of love.
God of Grace, where we succeed and where we fail to live out Love
help us keep living and loving.
---time of silent prayer...
God is Gracious, God is Forgiving, God is Loving.
Where we succeed God celebrates with us.
Where we struggle, God gives us the chance and the tools to try again.
And in all of it God loves us, so that we can love ourselves and each other.
Thanks and praise be to God! Amen,

Prayers of the People

God of community, we open our hearts, our minds, our very beings to your presence.
Together with the rest of your global community we come before you in prayer.
We look at the world around us and see the wonders of creation:
flashing lightning and rolling thunder,
the beautiful colours in the sky at sunrise and sunset,
fields of golden canola in flower,
the smiles and the twinkling eyes of the people we meet day by day.
Recognizing the wonders of the world we share our words of Awe.

Loving God, on this, as on every day, we join with our neighbours near and far
to share our concerns and struggles.
We pray with and for:
those who wrestle with illness of body or mind or spirit;
those who worry about next month’s rent, or the power bill, of groceries;
those who live with the threat of violence on a regular basis;
those who are dealing with the vagaries of weather and natural disasters;
those who stare into the reality of death and grief and loss;
those who feel lost and alone;
all those who need a dose of hope to counter the despair that life has brought them.
Remembering all the reasons people struggle in life we share our prayers for Help.

Gift-Giver, with the rest of your beloved children we say Thanks for the gifts we have received:
for family and friends and loved ones who share our lives;
for food on our tables and a roof over our heads;
for the laughter of children and the wisdom of elders;
for the wisdom of children and the laughter of elders;
for gifts so innumerable they can barely be listed we share gratitude and thanksgiving.
These things we pray in the name of Jesus, our Teacher and Guide, Rock and Redeemer.
And we join with Christian across the years and around the globe sharing words he once taught his closest friends...

BLESSING:

As worship draws to a close the week and the world await.
Go out into the world to live and love.
Go knowing that God: Love, Beloved, and Lover is with you each day.
Be blessed, and be a blessing. Amen.

For June 7, 2020 -- Pride Sunday and Church Union Sunday

PRAYER OF CONFESSION ASSURANCE OF PARDON

God, you call us to be the church:

To live with respect in creation, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil.

Sometimes we get it right. Sometimes we miss the target by several miles.

We confess that we have failed to listen for your voice calling us to move out of our comfort zones.
We know that sometimes we miss your wisdom because it comes from an unfamiliar source.
We admit that loving others, seeking justice, and resisting evil are challenging,
that sometimes they take more energy than we feel we can give
and so we would rather share our prayers but not get too involved.
We admit that sometimes we who have privilege because of our skin colour,
or our sexual orientation, or our social class, or our gender identity or some other criterion
fail to, or choose not to, recognize the benefits of that privilege.
Help us use our privilege in the work of seeking justice, resisting evil, loving and serving others.
God, you call us to be the church, a testing ground for the Kingdom,
a place where different priorities and values are raised up.
For the times we fail to be the church, the times we miss the target, forgive us.
For the missed opportunities to change the world so it too lives by Kingdom values, forgive us.
Help us repent, to change direction, so that we make different choices in the future.
...time of silent prayer...
Here is Good News!
God is at work in this broken, flawed, imperfect world. God is at work in us.
God offers us forgiveness, for our poor choices, our missed opportunities, our failures.
God calls us to lament and repent and to step back into the fray of living and loving as we have been loved.
We are a forgiven and redeemed people! Thanks be to God! Amen.

Prayers of the People

God who calls us to be the church,
God made known in Jesus of Nazareth, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, in the wonders of creation,
in you we live, we move, we exist.
Today we remember those who have gone before us, those who built the church we have today.
We remember and we thank you for their vision, their determination, their generosity.
Today we give thanks for those who work to build the church today.
As they find new ways to share the old message, as they balance tradition with innovation,
we hold them in prayer, we thank them for their labour, we commit to support them.
Today we pause to listen for your voice calling us forward,
giving us a dream and a vision for what the church will be.
Help us to hear. Help us to dream.
Help us to continue to sing of a church that embodies Christ’s presence in the world, to sing your mission.
God who calls us to be the church, a loving and supportive community,
today and every day we lift up those in our communities who are struggling:
LGBTQ+ folk wanting to be accepted for who they are...
people of colour wanting to be seen and treated as equal...
those who have bodies or minds that no longer do what they once did...
those who find themselves isolated and lonely...
those who are grieving....
those who are anxious because of pandemic, or economics, or just because they read the news...
may all who struggle know that they are not alone, that they are loved.
God who calls us to be the church,
today and everyday we sing songs of praise and shout words of thanksgiving
for the many gifts we encounter along life’s highway:
for family and friends and loved ones...
for food on our plates and in our bellies...
for bright spring flowers, for new life springing from the earth...
for these, and so many other, gifts we share our thanks.
God of life and love, we offer these prayers, and all the other prayers of our hearts and souls, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, our Teacher and Guide, our Rock and Redeemer, in whose life, death and resurrection we find the promise of Abundant Life.
And we continue to pray as we sing words he once taught his closest friends...

BLESSING

As our worship draws to a close, we remember.
We are loved. We are challenged. We are called to serve. And most importantly, we are loved.
In the week ahead, may you know the love of God each and every second.
And may you share that love with all you meet – in person, by phone, or through a computer screen.

A Communion Prayer for May 31, 202 -- Pentecost During COVID-19

INVITATION

From the Beginning, followers of Christ have broken bread together.

Gathered at tables fancy and simple, sharing wafers or full meals.

In this era of pandemic and separation we continue to gather together.

Sitting in our homes, with our own supplies, but linked together by the bits and bytes and cables.

The meal we share is hosted by the God who meets us where we are. And so all who seek to live by the values of God’s Kingdom are welcome to join as we eat together, from a distance.

Let us break bread together in our homes.

GREAT THANKSGIVING

May the Peace of Christ be with you.

And also with you.

Feel the wind of God blow in your lives.

Refreshing us, bringing in new air.

We offer the God who is in our every breath our prayers

With the breath of God in us we share our fears, our hopes, our dreams, our thanks.

God you speak Creation into being. We give thanks for all that You have made.

For the waters from which life sprang forth, for the wind that fills our lungs, for the food that fills our bellies,

for the fellow creature with whom we share the world.

We sing songs and shout cries of praise and thanksgiving.

God you call us to live in you and you choose to share our lives.

And so we pour out our fears and anxieties...

We scream our laments....

We dare to share our dreams and visions...

Trusting that you hear our prayers, trusting that in love you hold them and answer them.

God you meet us where we are, be that in our churches, or in the fields, or in the forest, or in our living rooms.

You speak to us constantly through many voices.

You remind us over and over again that even when we are distanced from each other we are not alone.

We thank you for all those voices that have shared your love and promise over the centuries:

prophets and pastors, men and women filled with your Spirit,

all those who remind us of who you would have us live within the world you have made.

And as followers of Jesus of Nazareth, who we call Christ, we join in the cry of the ages:

Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the Highest!

REMEMBERING

As followers of Jesus, the one we name as the Messiah we remember his story.

Born of the young woman Mary, raised in a backwater town,

he came out to share your vision for the world.

He modelled your Kingdom, lived by its values, and in doing so enraged those with power.

Knowing what was to come, he promised that we would not be left orphaned;

that an Advocate, the Holy Spirit would be there to sustain us always.

Then he was arrested, tried, convicted executed.

But the story was not over.

You, God of power in weakness, you raised him from death

and he returned to breathe hope and life into his fear-filled followers, into us.

As we gather for this meal we remember a meal Jesus shared with his friends on the night before his death.

We remember that he took some bread, blessed it, broke it, and passed it to the saying: This is my body broken by and for the world. Eat it and remember me.

Then later he took a cup of wine, blessed it, and passed it to them saying:

This is the Cup of the New Covenant, Drink it and remember me.

And so, even all these years later, we continue to eat and drink and remember, sharing in the meal of faith.

And pledging, as we remember, to follow the Way that Jesus laid out for us.

INVOKING

Holy Spirit, you blow though closed doors and into the places where we are.

You meet us in our homes and fill us with hope, you light the fire of transformation in our hearts.

As we pause to eat and drink this morning,

make us, while separate, unified in heart and hope.

In this bread and this cup may we meet the Risen Christ.

In this meal of faith and transformation may we feel the fire and wind of the Kingdom.

And once we have eaten, may we be unified in the common quest to share the dreams You have given us.

Willing to offer what we have so that those dreams and visions take shape in our world.

We pray in the name of the Risen Christ, who breathes hope and peace into our fear, and who encouraged us to pray together saying:

Our Father, who art in heaven...

And all the people said

AMEN!

BREAKING/POURING

The Bread we break is the Bread of Life

The Drink we pour is the Drink of Love

These are Gifts from God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Shall we eat and drink together?

PRAYER AFTER THE MEAL

We have broken the bread, we have poured the drink, we have shared a meal together.

Even while we remain physically separated, we have been united in our souls.

May this meal we share with each other and with the whole Christian family across the centuries and miles change who we are.

May it feed the fire in our bellies. May it strengthen us when the storms blow through.

And now, as we continue to live as people who have had the Holy Spirit breathed onto and into us, may we love and serve God, our neighbour, and ourselves.

So that the Kingdom of Love is made real in our lives. Amen