Monday, April 13, 2015

For April 19, 2015 -- Peter's Dream, Opening the Circle of Faith Wider

CALL TO WORSHIP
People of God! Gather together for worship!
We come in this Easter Season to celebrate the promise of new life.
People of God, gather together for worship!
We celebrate the diverse family of God, with whom we gather to celebrate God's presence.
And so we turn to our friends and neighbours, our brothers and sisters in faith, to share the Peace of Christ.

OPENING PRAYER
God of life in all it's wondrous diversity,
we come from many different places, many different tasks, many different realities.
Here in this place you call us together.
Here we worship together, naming what makes us united, celebrating our diversity.
During this time of prayer and song and word,
challenge our ideas of who is welcome in the community, open us to draw the circle wider.
This things we pray in the name of the Risen Christ, who taught his friends to pray saying...


PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
God you call us to embrace each other as part of one circle,
but we insist are drawing lines that keep some in and some out.
You tell us that what you have called clean, we should not call profane,
but we find ourselves unwilling to live that out.
You tell us that in you the old dividing lines don't count anymore :no more male or female, Jew or Gentile,
but we find comfort in knowing who fits and who doesn't.
God of grace,
move in our hearts, opening us to be channels of your abundant grace and love.
...time of silent prayer...
There is a wideness in God's mercy. God draws the circle wider than we can imagine – keeping all of us inside the line. This is Good News!
Thanks be to God!
Amen.

COMMISSIONING:
We have gathered to celebrate the God who welcomes us all into the circle.
Now we go out into the many other circles of our lives.
Into those circles we carry a precious precious gift:
the love of God, the word of acceptance, the promise of welcome.
Go now with the knowledge that God: Parent, Child, and Spirit, Three-in-One goes with you
Wherever we go. We are not alone. Thanks be to God

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