Lectionary texts
In Isaiah 6.1-8 the prophet sees a vision of God in the Temple. He feels inadequate because of his sin—and his people’s sin—but an angel sears his lips with a burning coal: he has been purified. Then God asks “Whom shall I send?” and the prophet replies, “Send me.”
Psalm 29 honors God’s glory and strength. God’s mighty voice (God’s power) shakes all Creation
Romans 8. 12-17 says rather than living according to our self-limited desires (“the flesh’), we live by God’s spirit in us, since we are God’s children. In this Spirit we are radically free
In John 3. 1-17 Jesus tells Nicodemus that we must be born “from the top,” that is, both from God and also anew, over and over. We receive our life from God. John then goes on to say that Jesus was sent for our salvation. The Son of man will be “lifted up” (meaning both “crucified” and also “honored”) like the bronze serpent Moses lifted up to cure people in the desert.
Call to Worship
1.
Leader: Eternal God, Holy Mystery, Infinite Love, we are in awe.
All: Wow.
Loving Christ, Body of God, you heal us and accompany us and show us the way.
Thank you.
Holy Spirit, breath of God in us, re-create us, birth us anew and fill us with your love.
Please.
2.
Leader: I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of God’s robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above God; they called to another and said:
All: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of God’s glory!
God so loved the world as to give us Christ, that whoever trusts may have eternal life.
Praise be to Christ, who is our life!
The Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.
May we live by the Spirit, as children of God.
O Holy Mystery, Holy Trinity, Mother, Son and Holy Spirit,
we worship you; we praise you; we give our lives to you. Alleluia!
3.
Leader: Creator God, we praise you!
People: Risen Christ, we greet you!
Holy Spirit, we are one body by your grace.
Alleluia! Eternal God, Holy Trinity, you are Mystery,
you are grace, you are the power of love within us.
In awe, and gratitude and in obedience we worship you. Alleluia!
Collect / Prayer of the Day
1.
Loving God, Mother of our Birth and Creator of all things, your Spirit blows where it will. You bear us in your arms through all our lives. We turn to you now to hear your voice, to nurse from your love, and to give ourselves wholly to you. Through the Spirit and the Word give us new birth. Amen.
2.
O Holy One, you who are beyond us, and beside us, and within us, you who are our Source, our Companion, and our Life: we open our hearts to you. We don’t need to see your infinite splendor; but let us behold your glory just enough to fall in love, and give ourselves entirely to you, in the name and the Spirit of Christ. Amen.
3.
Eternal God, you who are Mystery to us, yet who reveal yourself to us, we open our hearts to you. We do not ask that you enable us to understand or explain you, but only that you fill our hearts with your love, that we may receive your blessings and serve you in love, in the name of Christ, in whose name we pray, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
4.
Holy One, you so love the world that you give us your Beloved, your Only Begotten, that we may be made whole. By your Spirit in us, may we be born again and again from you grace; may we be readily blown where the wind of your Spirit blows us, in the name and the company of Jesus. Amen.
Listening Prayer
(suitable as a Collect, preparation for hearing scriptures, or invitation to intercessions)
Loving God, you make us your children and you call us to help you to love the world. Stir up your Spirit in us so that as we read your scriptures and proclaim your Word we might hear what you are saying to us, and be transformed and enabled to sing more freely and beautifully the song of your grace. Amen.
Reading
Romans 8.12-17, a paraphrase.
Dearly Beloved, siblings in Christ, we are not isolated bodies,
constrained by their needs and limitations.
When we live that way, as separate units, we die.
But when by the breath flowing from God
we leave behind mere survival, we live deeply.
All who are led by the Spirit are children of God.
The Spirit doesn’t leave you in slavery, leashed to fear:
the Spirit is your adoption as God’s own.
When we cry out to God it is God in us making it clear
that we are God’s children—who inherit from God what Christ does,
invited as Christ’s siblings to share in Christ’s sufferings,
and also in Christ’s glory.
Response / Creed / Affirmation
We believe in God, who is mostly mystery but all love, the Holy Trinity: the Lover, the Beloved and the Love that Flows Between.
We follow Jesus, whom God gave to us in love, not to condemn us but to save us from slavery to our self-centeredness. Though the world condemned him, he did not condemn, but loved. Though he was crucified, by the eternal Spirit that was complete in him, he rose from death and gave to us his spirit.
We live by that Spirit, by whom we are born again and again from God, with new life. By the grace of that Spirit we are not isolated individuals but one, the Body of Christ, infinite in life and love. On the wind of that Spirit we sail into this world as Love leads us, to do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly with God. In love the Spirit breathes us into the world to be the good news of God’s grace. Alleluia.
Prayer of Dedication / Sending
(suitable for dedicating the offering of gifts or sending forth at the end of the service. You may substitute “our lives” for “these gifts.”)
1.
Gracious God, we give you our gifts as symbols of our lives. Receive them with love, bless them with grace and use them according to your will. Holy God, Three In One, send us in the love of Christ and the power of your Spirit for the sake of the healing of the world. Amen.
2.
Gracious God, receive our lives nd all our gifts, which we give to you in thanks and joy. In giving this we honor you as our Creator, and we humble ourselves before you. We remember the gifts of your Son, Jesus, and offer thanks for his grace. And we open our hearts to your Spirit, that you may use us to show your love to all Creation, in the name of Christ. Amen.
Prayer after Communion
Gracious God, we thank you for this mystery in which you have given yourself to us. As you have fed us in this meal, give new birth to us in every breath: continually make us new in love for you, for each other, and for the world, in the name and Spirit of Christ. Amen.