Home Church Third Sunday of Easter April 18, 2021,Rev. Karen Hollis & Rev. Karen Toole  

Home Church Third Sunday of Easter April 18, 2021,Rev. Karen Hollis

We acknowledge these lands upon which we worship are the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.

Preparing the Space Around Us

Whoever you are and wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here! Welcome if you are gathering on zoom or if you are worshipping at home with the bulletin. We are one community and all part of the body of Christ. I invite you to prepare the space around you so that for the next hour you can be fully in this worship experience, not to keep out the realities of the world, rather to focus us in the midst of it all on God. If you need to go and get something or shift something around you, feel free.

Preparing the Space within Us

Let us prepare now the space within us for a time of worship. I invite you to sit quietly, perhaps with feet on the floor, taking a couple of deep breaths and bring yourself into this moment. Open yourself to the presence of God who is with us and within us . . . as you intentionally open yourself to God, open yourself also to what you need from this time of worship.

Greeting

One:    The Easter joy of the living Christ Jesus be with you all.

All:      And also with you.

Opening Prayer:    UCC Worship Ways

God of love and light, we come as witnesses of your glory and faithfulness, amazed to discover your transformative love. God, we desire for you to abide within us, and for your grace to be revealed anew daily. Be with us and awaken within us the call to love one another, in the way it was made real through Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Hymn: Joyful, Joyful We Adore You      VU #232

1 Joyful, joyful, we adore you,

God of glory, life and love;

hearts unfold like flowers before you,

opening to the sun above.

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness,

drive our fear and doubt away;

giver of immortal gladness,

fill us with the light of day.

 

2 All your works with joy surround you,

earth and heaven reflect your rays,

stars and angels sing around you,

center of unbroken praise.

Field and forest, vale and mountain,

flowery meadow, flashing sea,

chanting bird and flowing fountain,

sound their praise eternally.

 

3 You are giving and forgiving,

ever blessing, ever blest,

wellspring of the joy of living,

ocean depth of happy rest!

Source of grace and fount of blessing,

let your light upon us shine;

teach us how to love each other,

lift us to the joy divine.

 

4 Mortals, join the mighty chorus

which the morning stars began;

God's own love is reigning o'er us,

joining people hand in hand.

Ever singing, march we onward,

victors in the midst of strife;

joyful music lifts us sunward

in the triumph song of life.

Prayer of Confession   Kate Crawford, Gathering, edited.

God of empty tombs and of hearts made free, we come before you aware of our own frailty, our incompleteness, our shreds of disbelief. Give us the grace to see ourselves that we may also see your love for us and give you thanks . . .                            

Silent prayer of confession

Assurance of Grace

Friends, hear the good news. We are frail, we are incomplete, and we do not believe all that is possible with God . . . these are not requirements for God’s love. God loves you because you are God’s own, because you are precious, and nothing will ever change that. Thanks be to God!

Peace of Christ

One:    Christ is Risen, and greets us with peace.

All:      The peace of Christ is among us, indeed.

One:   We are witnesses of God’s glory and steadfast love.

All:      The transforming love of Christ is among us, indeed!

A-M:    The Peace of Christ be with you!

N-Z:     And also with you!

Offering     Loretta Smith

Offering Prayer

We are at home in your love, O God. You are the One who lifts us up, embraces us, challenges us, and moves us to reach out to others. We give thanks for community where we celebrate your love, grow in it, and offer it to those we meet. It is a privilege to serve in your loving name. Amen.

First Reading: Acts 3:12-19    Betty Schultze

Listen for the word of God to you this morning . . .

When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, "You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you. "And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.    

       One:  Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church

       All:    Thanks be to God

Psalm 4     (Voices United)   Paddy Waymark

Answer me, when I call, O God, defender of my cause, for you set me free when I was in distress

       Be gracious to me now and hear my prayer.

How long, you people, will you defame my honour?

       How long will you love what is worthless and seek lies?

Know this, that God has chosen the faithful;

       God hears me when I call.

Stand in awe, and cease from sin;

       commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still.

Offer the sacrifices that are appointed,

       and put your trust in God.

There are many who say,

“O that we might see prosperity! Lift up the light of your face on us, O God.”

But you have put gladness in my heart more than those whose grain and wine are plentiful.

Safe and sound, I lie down and sleep, for you alone, God, make me dwell in safety.

Gospel Reading      Paddy Waymark                                    

One:      God be with you.       

All:        And also with you

One:      The Good News of Jesus Christ according to Luke

All:        Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Luke 24:36b-48

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you--that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

       One: This is the Gospel of Christ;

       All:   Praise be to Jesus Christ

Reflection:   Rev. Karen Toole                       

Silent Reflection

A New Creed

Let us affirm our faith . . .

We are not alone,

    we live in God’s world.

 We believe in God:

    who has created and is creating,

    who has come in Jesus,

       the Word made flesh,

       to reconcile and make new,

    who works in us and others

       by the Spirit.

We trust in God.

We are called to be the Church:

    to celebrate God’s presence,

    to live with respect in Creation,

    to love and serve others,

    to seek justice and resist evil,

    to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,

       our judge and our hope.

In life, in death, in life beyond death,

    God is with us.

We are not alone.

    Thanks be to God.         

Prayers of the People      Paddy Waymark   

One:    Gracious God,

All:      Hear Our Prayers.

Lord’s Prayer     New Zealand Prayer Book – Jim Cotter

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,

Source of all that is and that shall be,

Father and Mother of us all,

Loving God, in whom is heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!

The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!

Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!

Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope

and come on earth.

With the bread we need for today, feed us.

In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.

In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.

From trials too great to endure, spare us.

From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,

now and for ever. Amen                              

Hymn: Blest Be the Tie That Binds   VU #602

1 Blest be the tie that binds

our hearts in Christian love;

the unity of heart and mind

is like to that above.

2 Before our Maker’s throne

we pour our ardent prayers;

our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,

our comforts and our cares.

3 We share each other's woes,

each other's burdens bear;

and often for each other flows

the sympathizing tear.

4 The glorious hope revives

our courage on the way;

that we shall live in perfect love

in God's eternal day.

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation, in the Church and in Christ Jesus, for ever and ever. Amen.

Blessing  Iona Community

If you are with another person, you’re invited to bless each other, taking every other line.

One:      The Creator’s blessing be yours on your road, on your journey, guiding you, cherishing you.

N-Z:       The Son’s blessing be yours, wine and water, bread and stories, feeding you, challenging you.

A-M:      The Spirit’s blessing be yours, wind and fire, joy and wisdom,           comforting you, disturbing you.

All:        The Angel’s blessing be yours, on your house, on your living, guarding you, encouraging you. Let us walk together, a community on a journey, sustained in God’s blessing. Amen!

One:      Let us go now in peace to love and serve the Lord.

All:        Thanks be to God!