Category: Uncategorized

Lectionary Texts

In Jeremiah 18. 1-11 God says, “You are the clay and I am the potter. I reshape you as I see fit.”

Psalm 139 prays, “God, you created me.” (Knitted and woven, specifically, which were women’s work). “You know me; you are always with me. Help me to avoid doing evil.”

Philemon was apparently indebted to Paul, and owned a slave, Onesimus, who had possibly run away to work with Paul. In this letter Paul returns Onesimus and asks Philemon to set him free, not as an obligation, which Paul could have demanded, but in love, asking Philemon to see Onesimus not as an inferior but as a brother.

In Luke 14. 25-33 Jesus invites us to love at all costs. And he gets honest about that cost. If you’re building a tower you first count the cost to make sure you can finish. To truly follow Jesus is to carry the cross, letting go of all that we cling to and our loyalty to everything and everyone but God—even our own loved ones. Don’t lose your saltiness, Jesus says.

Preaching Thoughts

Luke
     “Hate father and mother..” — Strong language, typical of Jesus. Obviously he doesn’t mean dislike, enmity or mistreatment. (Notice how he defends “honor your father and mother” in Mark 7.11). He means honoring your discipleship even above family loyalty. We easily surrender our beliefs or our integrity to avoid upsetting people we care about (well, yeah, and even strangers). We “go along to get along.” This can be hardest in families or bonds of significant friendship. How many folks don”t talk politics” with family members? Jesus invites us to stand for who we are, even when the resistance is costly. That’s when we really become ourselves. Of course, the point is not to start family arguments; some disagreements are best left untested. But not arguing about our beliefs is one thing; staying true to them is another. That’s what counts.
     “Carry the cross.” — A “cross to bear” is not an annoyance. It’s our willingness to suffer for the sake of loving others. And love requires suffering. Mayne not much, but always at least a little. Sometimes a lot. Every parent knows your heart will be broken a thousand times. But you do it, because the cost is actually a good deal. Love is worth it. But don’t think it won’t hurt. “Count the cost.” — I think people need help discerning the difference between the authentic cost of discipleship and unrelated struggle or suffering. Not every “thorn in the flesh” is a result of our love, forgiveness, generosity or work for justice. “Stuff happens.” On the other hand, we often minimize just how much we have to let go of to really live lives of love, forgiveness, humility, vulnerability, reconciliation, healing and justice. Each of us needs to discern: What do I need to let go of to be perfectly loving? What are the things I cling to that are likely to hold me back from loving deeply, forgiving entirely, or risking for the sake of others?
     “Salt is good.” — What a cryptic, evocative image. Be salt. There’s not much correct doctrine to it, nor any clear senses of definition. In the context of carrying the cross, it seems to mean “be loving.” Its ambiguity invites us to ponder: What feels like “salty” living to you? Loving? Kind? Authentic? Simple? Bringing out other people’s beauty, as salt brings out other flavors? It certainly seems to describe behavior, not belief. Who has “salted” your life? What do you value in that? The image of salt invites a lot of play, imagination and storytelling.

Call to Worship

1.
Leader: Creator God, divine artist, you fashion the universe with skill and beauty.
All: We praise you!
Jesus the builder has shaped our hearts with loving hands and a steady eye.
We thank you!
Holy Spirit, breath of new creation, you continually fashion us anew.
We worship you. We open our hearts to you.
We surrender ourselves to your shaping hands. Alleluia!

2.
Leader: God, you have searched us and known us.

All: Holy Mystery, we wonder; and we praise you.

Where could we escape your presence? Even in the farthest desolation, you are there.

Loving Presence, you accompany us; you sustain us, and we thank you.

You have formed our inner nature; you create us by your grace.

How vast is your love! We praise you,

for we are astoundingly and wonderfully made.

Search us, and remove whatever is evil in us,

and lead us in the way everlasting.

3.
Leader: Creator God, we praise you!

All: We thank you and we worship you.

God, you search us and know us;

you are all about us, within us and among us.

Your presence is everywhere; help us to be aware.

Come be with us now, God, and help us in our worship.

Alleluia! Come, Holy Spirit, and transform us by your grace. Alleluia!

4.
Leader: Creator God, you are the potter; we are the clay.
All: Shape us by your Word.
By your grace help us to turn from the things we possess

and worship you with all our heart and mind and soul and strength.
By your grace help us to take up our cross and follow.

Savior of the world, we devote our hearts to you. Alleluia!

Collect / Prayer of the Day

1.
Potter God, shape us by your Word. Fashion us with your divine skill. In your grace re-make us in your image. Speak to us, and your Word will call us to new life. Amen.

2.
God of love, Christ calls us to take up our cross and follow him. But we confess that we hold back; we cling to many things. Grant us the faith to trust your grace, to let go of all that burdens us, and to take up Christ’s love for the world and follow him in faith and service. Speak your Word to us, call to us in our fear, and give us courage to follow. Amen.

3.
God, we want to worship you. Christ, we want to follow you. Living within us, you know better than we what holds us back. Spirit, rise up in us now, and bend us toward you. You are the potter; we are the clay. Shape us by your Word. With your steady hands upon us, change us from one degree of glory to another, and form us into your delight. You are the weaver. Weave the threads of our hearts into the tapestry of your image, the Body of Christ, our Savior and our brother. Amen.

4.
Gentle God, you know that we cling to many things in this life. Help us now to let go of them all, and to open ourselves to your presence and your Word. As your scriptures are read and your good news proclaimed, help us to hear your voice, and to allow ourselves to be changed, in the Spirit of Christ. Amen.

5.
God of love, Jesus called his hearers to leave behind their worldly attachments and follow him. Lead us by your grace to let go of everything to which we cling, so that we can be open to your Word. Open our hearts, so that as the scriptures are read and your good news proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you are saying to us today. Amen.

Prayer of Confession

Great Potter God,
we confess we have had a mind of our own,
and shaped our lives as we have chosen,

not as you have hoped for us.
In stillness we repent.
Lay your strong and gentle hands upon us,
and reshape us according to your delight.
Forgive our sin, heal our wounds,
and shape us by your grace,
as vessels of your light.

Readings

Poetry by Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Response / Creed / Affirmation

1.
       Loving God, you are our creator. You create all things in your love; you create us as an image of your love. You are the potter; we are the clay. We submit ourselves to your shaping hands.
       Loving Christ, you who perfectly embodied God’s love, who taught and healed, who fed the hungry and gathered the outcast: you call us to follow you. You were willing to pay the cost for your radical faithfulness to God: you were crucified. But God raised you from the dead. The way of the cross is not the way of death, but the way of Life! Christ, you call us to surrender all and follow you. We submit ourselves to your life-giving Way.
       Loving Spirit, it is by your power alone that we are faithful, You breathe in us; you give us grace to take up our cross and follow. Make us people of trust and forgiveness, people of prayer, people of resurrection. You are the potter and we are the clay: mold us and shape us according to your will. Amen.2.
Leader: God, like a thoughtful grandmother you knit each of us a life.

All: Like a weaver at her loom of beauty you weave us together.

Like an artful potter you shape us for your purposes.

And when we are distorted you re-shape us again.

You are the beauty that draws us toward life.

You are the love that beckons us out of self-centeredness

and toward our sisters and brothers in compassion and gratitude.

You are the treasure that is worth the greatest cost.

Alleluia! We gladly give up everything and turn to you.

Bless us, and transform us by your grace. Alleluia!

Listening Prayer

(suitable as a Collect, preparation for hearing scriptures, or invitation to prayer)

Eucharistic Prayer

[The body of the prayer may be read responsively or by the presiding leader(s) alone.]

God is with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your heart.
We lift them up to God.
Let us give thanks to the Holy One, our God.
It is good and beautiful to give God our praise.


     (Sanctus)

Blessed are all who come in your name,
and blessed is Jesus, your Christ,

     (The Blessing and Covenant)
As long as we break this bread and share this cup
we remember his death and resurrection, until he comes again.
Therefore, remembering these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we offer ourselves as a living and holy sacrifice,
in union with Christ’s offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of our faith:
     (Memorial Acclamation)

Pour out your Holy Spirit on these gifts of bread and cup,
that they may be for us the body and blood of Christ.
Pour out your Spirit on us, that we may be for the world the Body of Christ,
(Amen.)

____________
* The Blessing and Covenant
[I usually don’t print the words. I want people to be looking at the bread, not their bulletins.]

On the night in which he gave himself for us
Jesus took bread, blessed it,. broke it, and gave it to his disciples,saying,
“Take and eat; this is my body.”
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup,
blessed it with thanks and gave it to them, saying,
“Drink of this, all of you. This is my blood,
poured out for you and for many, in a new Covenant,
which is the forgiveness of sin.”
As long as we break this bread and share this cup
we remember his death and resurrection, until he comes again.

Prayer of Dedication / Sending

Prayer after Communion

Gracious God, we thank you for this mystery in which you have given yourself to us. You have shaped us by your Word; now send us into the world to embody that Word, forsaking all our possessions, our habits and attachments, to follow Christ with courage, to heal the broken and set free the oppressed with compassion, and to praise you in all things, by the grace and power of your Holy Spirit in us. We pray, as we live, in the name of Christ. Amen.

Suggested Songs

(Click on titles to view, and hear an audio clip, on the Music page)


I Am Open (Original song)

Dear gentle Jesus, I open to you
the deepest secrets of my soul.
My heart is open, wounded and broken.
Heal and forgive and make me whole.
Open, I am open, open to your grace.

Beloved Jesus, my eyes are open;
your healing touch restores my sight.
Like open windows, they shine, and in flows
your glory filling me with light.
Open, I am open, open to your grace.

My wounded Jesus. Your arms are open,
our hurt and dying to embrace.
When I would close them, hold my arms open,
to be so loving by your grace.
Open, I am open, open to your grace.

Now risen Jesus, my life is open,
a flower unfolding in the sun:
by your light growing, and boldly showing
the love of God, as you have done.
Open, I am open, open to your grace.


I Take Up My Cross (Original song)

Congregation:
Letting go, I am held. I take up my cross and follow.

Cantor
1. Jesus, you call to me, and draw me into your life.
2. Christ, I leave all behind, to follow you in love.
3. I yield my life to you, for you alone are God.
4. Loved with your costly love, I’ll suffer for the sake of love.
5. Christ, make my one desire to be to serve you in love.

           Blessed are you who are poor,
           for yours is the Realm of God.
                           —Luke 6.20


The blessing is not in being poor.
   The blessing is that the realm of God is yours.

Your poverty, your hunger, your mourning
are circumstances.
   The presence, the fulfillment, joy of God
   are yours no matter what.

Your failures are mere passing breezes.
   But the grace given you is eternal as the stars.

Your riches, your fullness, your merriment,
they, too, are passing.
   But your belovedness is eternal.

Let the winds blow. Let them.
   You remain in the Beloved.



______________
Weather Report

Variable,
as light and shadow
flow around each other.
Conditions will remain unstable
except within,
which is subject to the constancy of love.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

The liturgy below is available here in a .doc format for ease of editing.

Contrary to our popular thoughts, baptism is not a sign of a believer’s faithfulness, but a sign of God’s. (John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance, but Christian baptism is a recognition of the Holy Spirit in us whether we repent nor not!) We are immersed in God’s grace, “born again” not of our own believing but of God’s grace. We don’t “get our children”— or ourselves— baptized. Baptism isn’t something we do at all, but something God does. The Baptismal service is our way of beholding what God has done and is doing in the person baptized—and in the community, for we are charged to treat the person as God’s beloved so they can accept it and integrate it for themselves. Therefore the sacrament of baptism is not repeated: God got it right the first time. But we need to continually renew our awareness of our baptism, our awareness of God’s faithful love for us and the invitation to live out a faithful response.

This liturgy is an adaptation of the service in the United Methodist Hymnal, It may be used for services of baptism and/or baptismal renewal, including Confirmation. (In Confirmation what we’re confirming is our baptism, so it’s most fitting for confirmation to include baptism renewal.)

For a baptism, names and pronouns that need to be correct are italicized. (The placeholder “Name” is intentionally misspelled so it shows up in your spell check.)

For a service including a baptism omit sections 9 and 13, 14, 15.
For congregational renewal or Confirmation without a baptism— omit 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 12.

The Sacrament of Baptism

1.
Introduction
Pastor: Beloved in Christ:
through the sacrament of baptism
God gives us new birth through water and the Spirit,
includes us in Christ’s holy church,
and makes us part of the salvation of the world.

So we come to the water—
Yes, everyone who thirsts! Come to the waters:
water of new birth, poured out and flowing freely
for all who will receive it;
water of justice rolling down,
water of righteousness like an everflowing stream;
a spring of water in us gushing up to eternal life;
the river of God for the healing of the world.

We come to this water
because our souls thirst for you, O God,
as in a dry and weary land.

2.
[If there is a baptism:]
Sponsor: We come to this water
to baptize NAMIE
and to bathe them in your love for them.
Pastor: We come to this water as a community.

3.
All: We come to this water
to renew our love as siblings in Christ,
and to renew our baptism
in the death and resurrection of Christ.

4.
[In a baptismal service: asked of those being baptized, or their parents;
for Confirmation, asked of Confirmation candidates;
for a baptismal renewal service asked of the congregation.]

The Baptismal Vows
Pastor
As we behold the mystery of God’s grace,
I invite you to profess your faith,
and to confirm the baptismal covenant made in your name:
Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness?
Individual(s) or Parents:
We confess our need for the saving, life-giving grace of God!
Will you turn away from the powers of sin and death?
We renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness,
reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of our sin!
Will you let the Spirit use you as prophets to the powers that be?
We accept the freedom and power God gives us
to resist evil, injustice, and oppression
in whatever forms they present themselves!
Will you receive God’s grace, give yourselves wholly to God,
and live as disciples of Jesus, Christ’s body on earth?
We confess Jesus Christ as our Savior,
put our whole trust in Christ’s grace,
and promise to serve Christ as our Superior,
in union with the church which Christ has opened
to people of all ages, nations, and races!

5.
[For baptism of children, asked of their parents]
Will you, their parents and mentors, nurture these people in Christ’s holy church?
Parents and mentors : By teaching and example we will guide them
to accept God’s grace, to grow in faith, and to lead a Christian life.

6.
[For baptism of those who can answer for themselves]
According to the grace given you,
will you remain faithful members of Christ’s holy church
and serve as Christ’s representatives in the world?
I Will.

7.
[If there are sponsors]
Will you who sponsor these people
support and encourage them in their Christian life?
I will.

8.
[For a baptismal service, asked of the congregation]
Do you, Christ’s Body, the church, reaffirm your rejection of sin
and your commitment to Christ?
Congregation: We do.
Will you be living witnesses to the gospel,
individually and together, wherever you are, and in all that you do?
We will live as faithful members of the Body of Christ
and serve as Christ’s representatives in the world.
Will you nurture one another in living the faith through the church
and include these people in your care?
With God’s help we will embody the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We will surround nayme with faith, hope and love
that they may grow in grace and faith
and learn to trust God and live in loving service in the world.
We will pray for them and walk with them
on their journey of discipleship among us.

9.
[For baptismal renewal service without a baptism]
Will you be living witnesses to the gospel,
individually and together, wherever you are, and in all that you do?
We will remain faithful members of Christ’s holy church
and serve as Christ’s representatives in the world.
Will you nurture one another in living the faith through the church?
With God’s help we will embody the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We will surround each other with faith, hope and love
that we all may grow in grace and faith
and learn to trust God and live in loving service in the world.
We will pray for each other and walk with one another
on our journey of discipleship together.

10.
Profession of Faith (The Apostles’ Creed)
Let us join in professing our faith.
Do you trust in God the Father and Mother?
All:: I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

Do you follow Jesus Christ?
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Begotten, our Superior,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of God,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

Do you live by the Holy Spirit?
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy universal Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

11.
Thanksgiving over the Water

The Spirit of God is among us.
The blessing of the Beloved is upon us!
Let us pray. Loving, life-giving God, we give you thanks,
for in the beginning your Spirit brooded over the waters
and you brought forth Creation.
You brought us to freedom through the waters of the Red Sea.
You gave us new birth through baptism into Christ,
and gave us life that cannot die.
The river of God is full of water,
the river of the water of life,
bright as crystal, flowing from the heart of God.
We who are baptized into Christ Jesus
are baptized into his life,
born in the water of a womb;
we are baptized into his ministry,
giving water to the thirsty,
washing the feet and sharing the tears of all who suffer;
and we are baptized into his death,
so that just as Christ was raised by the glory of God,
we too might walk in newness of life.
Born of water and the Spirit,
may we enter into the Realm of God
as children of God,
born not of human will, but of God.

12. [If there is a baptism]
Pour out your Holy Spirit in this water
and bless the one who receives it,
that claimed by your Word, nourished in your grace,
washed from all sin and borne by your Spirit,
they may live in freedom, trust and courage,
sharing in the eternal life of Christ.

Namme, you are God’s Beloved,
in whom God is well pleased.
All reverence and delight is yours,
infinite and loving God, now and forever.
All praise to you, Eternal Father and Mother,
Son and Holy Spirit,
in the present moment and in eternity. Amen!

… Baptism with Laying on of Hands …

Let us welcome our new sibling in Christ.
nanme, Child of God, claimed by water and the Spirit,you are joined to God’s new creation.
We are one in Christ Jesus,
sharing in Christ’s royal priesthood.
With joy and thanksgiving
we welcome you as a member of Christ’s church.
God bless you now and in eternal life. Amen.

13.
[If there is a renewal without a baptism.]
Pour out your Holy Spirit in this water
and bless us as we remember it.
Claimed by your Word, nourished in your grace,
washed from all sin and borne by your Spirit,
may we live in freedom, trust and courage,
sharing in the eternal life of Christ.

Children of God, you are God’s Beloved,
in whom God is well pleased.
All praise to you, Eternal Father and Mother,
Son and Holy Spirit,
in the present moment and in eternity. Amen!

14.
[The congregation is invited to interact with the water in ways not easily interpreted as being “re-baptized.” Possibilities include having people come forward and touch the water; having people kneel and receive a cross of water on their foreheads; sprinkling the congregation using evergreen branches…]

15.
[Confirmation and/or reception of new members may be held here]

16.
Blessing:
Pastor: The God of all grace, who loves us,
blesses us and calls us in Christ,
establish you and strengthen you by the power of the Holy Spirit,
that you may live in love and grace and peace.