Liturgy Pacific: July 2018

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Proper Prayers for RCL Proper 18B (5 August 2018)

For all my friends who are preparing their worship services for this coming Sunday,

here are some proper prayers for your consideration.

Proper 18B

Sunday between 31 July and 6 August

2 Samuel 11.26-12.13a; Psalm 51.1-13; Ephesians 4.1-16; John 6.24-35

Collect

Almighty God, your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry with the bread of his life and the word of his kingdom. Renew your people with your heavenly grace, and in all our weakness sustain us by your true and living bread, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Amen. [The Book of Alternative Services 1985, 371]

O God, eternal goodness, immeasurable love, you place your gifts before us; we eat and are satisfied. Fill us and this world in all its need with the life that comes only from you, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen. [Evangelical Lutheran Worship 2006, 44]

God of Moses, who rained down bread on Israel’s wandering people: lead us to the food that never leaves us craving, but fills our whole humanity with life enough for all; through Jesus Christ, the true bread of heaven. Amen. [Liturgy Task Force 2016, 89]

God of the lowly and the mighty, even when we harm and destroy one another, you offer us forgiveness of our sins if we but open our hearts to your grace and mercy, so that we may build up one another in love. Amen. [Liturgy Task Force 2016, 89]

Prayer over the Gifts

God our sustainer, accept all we offer you this day, and feed us continually with that bread which satisfies all hunger, your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. [The Book of Alternative Services1985, 372]

Holy God, gracious and merciful, you bring forth food from the earth and nourish your whole creation. Turn our hearts toward those who hunger in any way, that all may know your care; and prepare us now to feast on the bread of life, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen. [Evangelical Lutheran Worship2006, 107]

God of all creation, all you have made is good, and your love endures forever. You bring forth bread from the earth and fruit from the vine. Nourish us with these gifts, that we might be for the world signs of your gracious presence in Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen. [Evangelical Lutheran Worship2006, 107]

Blessed are you, O God, maker of all things. Through your goodness you have blessed us with these gifts: our selves, our time, and our possessions. Use us, and what we have gathered, in feeding the world with your love, through the one who gave himself for us, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen. [Evangelical Lutheran Worship2006, 107]

God of mercy and grace, the eyes of all wait upon you, and you open your hand in blessing. Fill us with good things at your table, that we may come to the help of all in need, through Jesus Christ, our redeemer and Lord. Amen. [Evangelical Lutheran Worship2006, 64]

Merciful God, as grains of wheat scattered upon the hills were gathered together to become one bread, so let your church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom, for yours is the glory through Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen. [Evangelical Lutheran Worship 2006, 64]

Prayer after Communion

God of grace, we have shared in the mystery of the body and blood of Christ. May we who have tasted the bread of life live with you for ever. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [The Book of Alternative Services 1985, 372]

We give you thanks, almighty God, that you have refreshed us through the healing power of this gift of life. In your mercy, strengthen us through this gift, in faith toward you and in fervent love toward one another; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [Evangelical Lutheran Worship 2006, 114]

O God, we give you thanks that you have set before us this feast, the body and blood of your Son. By your Spirit strengthen us to serve all in need and to give ourselves away as bread for the hungry, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [Evangelical Lutheran Worship 2006, 114]

God of abundance, with this bread of life and cup of salvation you have united us with Christ, making us one with all your people. Now send us forth in the power of your Spirit, that we may proclaim your redeeming love to the world and continue forever in the risen life of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. [Evangelical Lutheran Worship 2006, 114]

Gracious God, in this meal you have drawn us to your heart, and nourished us at your table with food and drink, the body and blood of Christ. Now send us forth to be your people in the world, and to proclaim your truth this day and evermore, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen. [Evangelical Lutheran Worship 2006, 65]

O God, our life, our strength, our food, we give you thanks for sustaining us with the body and blood of your Son. By your Holy Spirit, enliven us to be his body in the world, that/so that more and more we will give you praise and serve your earth and its many peoples, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen. [Evangelical Lutheran Worship 2006, 65]

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Unleashing the Power of God: Reflections on Ephesians 3.14-21 (RCL Proper 17B, 29 July 2018)

Unleashing the Power of God

Reflections on Ephesians 3.14-21

RCL Proper 17B

29 July 2018

Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral

New Westminster BC

Click here to listen to the Sermon as I preached it at the 10.00 Eucharist on Sunday the 29th of July.

Ephesians 3.14-21

^3.14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. ¹⁶I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, ¹⁷and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. ¹⁸I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

²⁰Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

1) In 1946 a woman entered a movie theatre in Nova Scotia to spend some time while her car was being repaired.

a) Her name was Viola Desmond and she was forcibly removed from the theatre arrested and fined $20 for tax evasion.

b) The real reason for her expulsion and arrest was that Viola, a black woman, had chosen to sit in seats reserved for white people instead of the balcony where seats for blacks were assigned.

c) I remember her story because, when I came to Canada as a person raised in the United States during the 1960’s and who attended a high school that was desegregated by order of a federal court, I thought that Canada had been spared the effects of racism. I quickly learned that Canada had its own history of racism.

d) But I will come back to this story.

2) Today we hear a familiar passage from the Letter to the Ephesians that ends with a prayer that had entered the worship life of the Anglican Church of Canada.

a) “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” [1]

i) What is this power of God?

ii) Love is the power of God.

b) But what kind of love are we talking about?

i) Friendship? Almost but not yet.

ii) Passion? Almost but not yet.

iii) Family? Almost but not yet.

iv) Self-giving, life-giving love? Yes.

(1) Love that strives for justice and peace among all people, love that respects the dignity of every human being. [2]

(2) Love that seeks and serves Christ in all persons, love that loves our neighbours as we love ourselves. [3]

(3) Love that perseveres in resisting evil, love that whenever we fall into sin, we repent and return to the Lord. [4]

(4) Love that safeguards the integrity of God’s creation, love that respects, sustains and renews the life of the earth. [5]

3) How do we unleash this love, this divine power within us?

a) We unleash this power through eucharistia.

b) Eucharistiais a life committed to gratitude for the divine windfall gift of life, the gift of time, of talent and of treasure, the gift of family, meaningful relationships, meaningful work.

4) But eucharistiadepends upon remembering.

a) Humans have a remarkable talent for amnesia, for forgetting all that God has done and is doing for us and in us.

b) We need to remember, to ‘re-present’ the past in our hearts, our minds, our souls and our strength.

c) Every time we gather for worship we ‘re-present’ God’s generosity and compassion in this time, in this place, in our lives

i) by reading and reflecting on the Scriptures and what they teach us about God’s love;

ii) by offering our intercessions, petitions and thanksgivings with the intention that God will use us as agents of what we pray for; and

iii) by sharing in the bread broken and the wine poured so that we might become the gift we have received in Jesus, our way, our truth and our life.

d) In this way we remember who and whose we are, so that the power of God’s love, dwelling in us, can be unleashed to transform our homes, our workplaces, our communities.

5) Although we live in a culture dominated by an idolatry of celebrities, an idolatry which can diminish our confidence in our ability to influence the course of events in our communities, in our country and in our world, Christian communities such as ours comprehend that we can resist and can do more than we can ask or imagine through the power of God’s love.

a) History is full of the stories of women, men and children who unleashed the power of this love and changed the world.

b) Some of them we know and celebrate, some are known to God alone. But the world in which we live is their legacy.

6) Never under-estimate the power of a human being, fuelled by God’s love, to work with God to renew and to restore the creation, one small piece at a time, one step after another.

a) Prior to her arrest Viola Desmond had opened a beauty school for black women in Halifax. Why? Because beauty schools in Nova Scotia did not take black students.

b) She trained her students not only to be beauticians but to be entrepreneurs who established their own businesses.

c) She chose a path of empowerment. Just one woman, in collaboration with her husband, seeking to overturn centuries of injustice.

d) She died in 1965, having lived long enough to see the movement for equality take sail, having died too soon to see that movement achieve significant changes in our societies, north and south of the 49^thparallel.

e) Never under-estimate the power of God’s love working in us and through us.

God is working his purpose out

as year succeeds to year:

God is working his purpose out,

and the time is drawing near;

nearer and nearer draws the time,

the time that shall surely be,

when the earth is filled with the glory of God

as the waters cover the sea. [6]

-->

[1]Ephesians 3.20-21.

[2]The Book of Alternative Services 1985, 159.

[3]The Book of Alternative Services 1985, 159.

[4]The Book of Alternative Services 1985, 159.

[5]The Book of Alternative Services 1985, 159.

[6]The Hymnal 1982, #534, v. 1.

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Proper Prayers for Proper 17B (29 July 2018)

Proper 17B

Sunday between 24 and 30 July

2 Samuel 11.1-15; Psalm 14; Ephesians 3.14-21; John 6.1-21

Collect of the Day

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy, increase and multiply upon us your mercy, so that with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. [The Book of Alternative Services 1985, 370]

Gracious God, you have placed within the hearts of all your children a longing for your word and a hunger for your truth. Grant that we may know your Son to be the true bread of heaven and share this bread with all the world, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen. [Evangelical Lutheran Worship 2006, 43]

In your compassionate love, O God, you nourish us with words of life and bread of blessing. Grant that Jesus may calm our fears, and move our hearts to praise your goodness by sharing our bread with others. Amen. [Liturgy Task Force 2016, 88]

Sustainer of the hungry, like a mother you feed your children until each is satisfied. Turn our eyes to you alone, so that, aware of our own deepest longings, we reach out with Christ to feed others with the depth of your love. Amen. [Liturgy Task Force 2016, 89]

Prayer over the Gifts

God of grace, accept all we offer you this day, as we look toward the glory your have promised. This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [The Book of Alternative Services 1986, 369]

Prayer after Communion

God of grace, we have received the memorial of the death and resurrection of your Son. May your love, poured into us, bring us to your promises. We ask this in the name of our Redeemer Jesus Christ. Amen. [The Book of Alternative Services 1986, 371]

Saturday, July 21, 2018

"Us" Versus "Them" --- A Never-ending Story: Reflections on Ephesians 2.11-22 (RCL Proper 16B, 22 July 2018)

“Us” Versus “Them” --- A Never-ending Story

Reflections on Ephesians 2.11-22

RCL Proper 16B

22 July 2018

Holy Trinity Cathedral

New Westminster BC

Click here to listen to the Sermon as preached at the 10.00 Eucharist on Sunday the 22nd.

Ephesians 2.11-22

^2.11So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision” — a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands — ¹²remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. ¹⁵He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. ¹⁷So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; ¹⁸for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, ²⁰built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. ²¹In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; ²²in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

Who’s calling who ‘foreigner’?

When my father retired for the second and last time, he took up an interest in genealogy. It’s easy for me to understand why our family history became so important to him. He had, in effect, been an only child who was often left on his own as he was growing up. Most of his friends came from larger families and I think exploring our family history gave my father a sense of being part of just such a larger family.

One branch of the family come to the New World in the early 1600’s from Anglesey in north Wales. For whatever reason this Welsh connection resonated with my father and with me. I began to learn bits and pieces of the Welsh language and, in the process, learned something that helped me years later when I was teaching in the Native Ministry Program at Vancouver School of Theology.

I learned that the word ‘Welsh’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘walesc’ which means ‘foreigner’. Now it seems a bit rich that the Anglo-Saxons, arriving a thousand or more years after my Welsh ancestors settled in Britain, called those who were already living in Britain ‘foreigners’. The Welsh word for themselves is ‘Cymry’, something akin to saying ‘us’ or ‘my extended kin’ not ‘you’ or ‘your strange lot’.

And thus, a never-ending human story about ‘us’ versus ‘them’ gained another chapter.

In Christ God bridges the gulf between Jew and Gentile.

Before the writer of the Letter to the Ephesians goes more deeply into his reflections on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, he addresses head on the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ story of his day: the relationship between Gentiles and Jews.

In the Mediterranean world of the first century Gentiles viewed Jews as being eccentric. Jews only worshipped one God and had no time for the many gods of non-Jewish people. Jews followed a covenant that frowned on inter-marriage, promoted living within tight-knit Jewish communities in the major cities and avoided participation in most non-Jewish community events and practices. Some Gentiles were attracted to Jewish belief and practices, but they were a very definite minority.

On the other hand, Jews viewed Gentiles as people with lax moral characters who permitted ‘easy’ divorce, who were known to leave unwanted children to die in rubbish heaps and who had a nasty habit of conquering and occupying other peoples’ territories. Their gods were as bad as those who worshipped them.

But in Christ, our unknown writer proclaims, God has broken down the ‘dividing walls’, the ‘hostility’, that has Jew and Gentile apart. For the disciples of Jesus there is the possibility of reconciliation and respect. From the Jews Gentile disciples learn a way of life in covenant with the living God. From the Gentiles Jewish disciples learn that God has given Jesus as ‘the pioneer and perfecter’ of God’s eternal commitment to humanity, first made known in creation, reaffirmed in God’s promises to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses and now, embodied in Jesus.

Rather than write another chapter in the never-ending human story of ‘us’ versus ‘them’, God is writing a whole new story, one in which there is only ‘us’.

In us God is reaching out to the ‘other’.[1]

I believe that you and I live in a culture and society not so different from the culture and society of the writer to the Ephesians. On the one hand, there are many non-religious and even anti-religious people who think that you and I --- or any religious person --- is not only odd but potentially a danger to society. Our rituals and our beliefs seem ‘other-worldly’ or ‘archaic’. True, some of these folks love to visit holy sites or ancient churches and other places of worship --- but actually to belong to such a community? ‘Not my thing.’

On the other hand there are religious people, some Christian, some belonging to other faiths, who so distrust contemporary society that they close themselves in, sometimes physically, sometimes intellectually, sometimes both. Some even perpetuate violence against ‘unbelievers’, whether through the political process or through actual acts of physical violence.

But you and I, my friends, have been called by God into a community who has at its heart a vocation to those who have been far away and to those who are near. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, ‘So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us . . . . ‘ [2] We exist, as a community of faith, primarily for those who, in one or another, are alienated from God. Our gatherings to hear the Word proclaimed, to offer our intercessions, thanksgivings and petitions, to break the bread and to drink the cup strengthen us, console us, empower us to be a people for others. But it is not an easy task God has set before us.

No way : Some of our neighbours have had deeply negative experiences in their encounters with God and those who claim to be God’s friends. There is ‘no way’ these neighbours will draw near to us. But that does not free us from the responsibility to draw near to them and face their hurt and anger. By drawing near we may begin the process of healing.

No longer : Then there are our neighbours who, at one time or another, have been part of the Christian community. For one reason or another, they have simply slipped away and are ‘no longer’ active. But it just may be that a word from one of us, an invitation extended with no strings, might be the gentle tug that will re-unite them to this community of disciples.

Not yet: Among many people I meet are ones whom I might describe as ‘not yet’ disciples. They have some connection with the Christian faith through their parents, their grandparents, their aunts and uncles, their friends. They’re not against belonging; they’ve just never seen it as a ‘value-added’ part of being a person. Just like our ‘no longer’ friends, the ‘not yet’ folk may only need an invitation to join us in God’s work of renewal and reconciliation.

Never: Then there is the ‘never’ group. They walk by Holy Trinity but have never entered the door. They buy crosses in jewellery stores but do not know the story behind it. They are interested in participating in meaningful action to better our world but don’t immediately connect being part of a community of faith with that kind of activity. What they need is our openness to their questions and our interest in their hopes.

We reach out by ‘turning inside out’.[3]

So what are we to do? We could encourage one another to be active in civic affairs and charitable groups but keep what we learn and experience in those activities separate from what we do here. Here, we might say, our walls give us a safe place from what is going on outside. But that’s not our way. Every Sunday we offer our prayers for the world around us, we wonder what the Word proclaimed in the Scriptures is calling us to be and to do.

We are called to turn inside out. What God is asking each one of us, lay and ordained, to chip away at the walls that divide people: the walls divide people of one faith from those of another faith, the walls that divide one community of Christians from another Christian tradition, the walls that divide those who ‘have’ from those who ‘have not’, the walls that divide people of religious faith from those who claim to have no religious faith.

We break down these walls by proclaiming the ‘mystery’ of faith: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. We break down these walls by daring to speak to others of our faith

· that creation is not an accident but an act of love,

· that every human being is made in the image of God which is love,

· that every human being is called to grow into the likeness of God which is to love and be loved and,

· that every human being is invited to work with God in secure the freedom and dignity of all God’s creatures.

My friends, there are no ‘foreigners’ here. Our story is not one of ‘us’ versus ‘them’. Our story is about offering to others the welcome and hospitality God has given us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. While some voices in our world will try to arouse our fear of the stranger, of the other, we will sing our song, a song about the love of the stranger, of the other, the song sung by the angels, the song sung by Jesus, the sung bequeathed to us.

In Christ there is no east or west,

in Christ no south or north,

but one great fellowship of love

throughout the whole wide earth.

In Christ shall true hearts everywhere

their high communion find,

whose service is the golden cord

close binding humankind. [4]

[1]These four groups come from the work of Lillian Daniel.

[2]2 Corinthians 5.20a.

[3]Thomas Schattauer, Inside Out: Worship in an Age of Mission(1999).

[4]Common Praise#484, vv. 1, 2.

Liturgy Pacific

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Proper Prayers for RCL Proper 18B (5 August 2018)

Proper 18B

Sunday between 31 July and 6 August

2 Samuel 11.26-12.13a; Psalm 51.1-13; Ephesians 4.1-16; John 6.24-35

Collect

Prayer over the Gifts

Prayer after Communion

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Unleashing the Power of God: Reflections on Ephesians 3.14-21 (RCL Proper 17B, 29 July 2018)

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Proper Prayers for Proper 17B (29 July 2018)

Proper 17B

Sunday between 24 and 30 July

2 Samuel 11.1-15; Psalm 14; Ephesians 3.14-21; John 6.1-21

Collect of the Day

Prayer over the Gifts

Prayer after Communion

Saturday, July 21, 2018

"Us" Versus "Them" --- A Never-ending Story: Reflections on Ephesians 2.11-22 (RCL Proper 16B, 22 July 2018)

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