Sunday Hybrid Worship 18 May 2025

Hybrid Worship

18 May 2025

 Rev. Suzanna Bates

Music Director: Dorothy Dittrich

 

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

Whoever you are and wherever you are on life’s journey,

you are welcome here!

 

Words For Worship

Words in bold italics, please say together

 

Prelude: There Is Room For All                                         Bruce Harding (2004)

 

Gathering

 

Call to Worship

God calls us to worship, and we come,

some with laughter and songs of joy.

God calls us to worship, and we come,

some from a sense of obligation or habit.

God calls us to worship, and we come,

some with hearts heavy with grief.

God calls us to worship, and we come,

some with distraction or exhaustion.

God calls us to worship, and we come,

some with eagerness and enthusiasm.

God calls us to worship, and we come,

some with stress, loneliness, or depression.

As God’s dearly loved children, we bring all our joy and pain,

hurt and hope into this place of Spirit-given grace, love, and hope.

Come, let us worship God

 

Hymn: Let Us Build a House                                                        MV #1

 

Opening Prayer

With you, gracious God, we move into this time of worship,

grateful that you are never farther than the reach of our need

and our prayer.

You who tower over the universe are yet intimately present,

always renewing the face of the earth,

always renewing the faith of your children.

Now, in your mercy, make your way past all that worries and

distracts us to lodge in us anew and to center

our worship on your great glory. Amen.

 

Acknowledgement of the Land & Candle Lighting

 

As we light this candle today, we celebrate resurrection and life.

Christ is the light of our lives, spilling over into every space,

bringing new creation, breaking barriers, bringing light.

We are here.

God is here.

This place is sacred ground.

Prayer For Transformation

God of love, we confess we put limits on our love and put some people beyond the bounds of our compassion. Forgive our judgments, heal our fear, and renew in us your perfect love that includes everyone without exception.

Give us, O God, a heart of love.

 

Forgive us, O God, when we treat people as though they are just a nuisance. When we are annoyed with others’ behaviour;

when people unexpectedly assert themselves;

when we find it difficult to include those who think or act differently

from the norm;

when we are cruel in our judgements or exclusion,

Give us, O God, a heart of love.

 

Forgive us, O God, when we do not hear or heed Jesus’ prayer for unity.

We pray for all who exploit their workers for profit.

We pray for all those who experience exploitation and feel their helplessness.

Open our eyes to any ways in which we can encourage justice.

Give us, O God, a heart of love.

So be it. Amen.

 

Hymn: Come Down O Love Divine                                           CP #645

 

Prayer Before the Reading of Scripture

 

Acts 11:1–18 (The Message)                                                Reader: Paddy Waymark

Peter explains to the Jerusalem church his vision, and the gift of the Holy Spirit among the Gentiles.

 

The news traveled fast and in no time the leaders and friends back in Jerusalem heard about it—heard that the non-Jewish “outsiders” were now “in.” When Peter got back to Jerusalem, some of his old associates, concerned about circumcision, called him on the carpet: “What do you think you’re doing rubbing shoulders with that crowd, eating what is prohibited and ruining our good name?”

 

So, Peter, starting from the beginning, laid it out for them step-by-step: “Recently I was in the town of Joppa praying. I fell into a trance and saw a vision: Something like a huge blanket, lowered by ropes at its four corners, came down out of heaven and settled on the ground in front of me. Milling around on the blanket were farm animals, wild animals, reptiles, birds—you name it, it was there. Fascinated, I took it all in. “Then I heard a voice: ‘Go to it, Peter—kill and eat.’ I said, ‘Oh, no, Master. I’ve never so much as tasted food that wasn’t kosher.’ The voice spoke again: ‘If God says it’s okay, it’s okay.’ This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the sky.

 

“Just then three men showed up at the house where I was staying, sent from Caesarea to get me. The Spirit told me to go with them, no questions asked. So, I went with them, I and six friends, to the man who had sent for me. He told us how he had seen an angel right in his own house, real as his next-door neighbor, saying, ‘Send to Joppa and get Simon, the one they call Peter. He’ll tell you something that will save your life—in fact, you and everyone you care for.’

 

“So, I started in, talking. Before I’d spoken half a dozen sentences, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as he did on us the first time. I remembered Jesus’ words: ‘John baptized with water; you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ So, I ask you: If God gave the same exact gift to them as to us when we believed in the Master Jesus Christ, how could I object to God?”

 

Hearing it all laid out like that, they quieted down. And then, as it sank in, they started praising God. “It’s really happened! God has broken through to the other nations, opened them up to Life!”

 

This is God’s Word.

May God’s Word raise us to life.

 

Gospel Reading                                                       Reader: Paddy Waymark

As is your custom, please stand or sit for the reading of the gospel.

 

God be with you.

And also with you

The Good News of Jesus the Christ according to John.

Glory to you, Christ Jesus.

 

John 13:31–38 (New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition)

A new commandment: love one another.

 

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and as I said to the Jews so now, I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.

 

This is the Gospel of Christ

We open our hearts to Good News!

 

Word: Resurrection is Messy

 

Hymn of Response: Jesu, Jesu                                                CP #504

 

Life & Work of the Church

 

Offering

 

We’ve heard God’s call to us – to be abundant with our gifts of grace, love, forgiveness and time.  And so let us be abundant in our giving so that the work of the church can be carried out beyond this building.

 

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Dedication

 

Let Love be our offering.
Let Love be our giving.
Let Love be our dedication.
Let Love be our calling.
Let Love be our thanksgiving.
Let Love be our prayer.
Amen.

 

Prayers of the People followed by The Lord’s Prayer       Betty Schultze

Loving God,

            Hear our Prayers.

 

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

 

Lead us not into temptation

but deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power,

and the glory are yours

now and forever. Amen.

 

Hymn: Draw the Circle Wide                                                     CP #418

 

Blessing & Sending

People of Love, as you go from this place,
let love be what blesses you,
love that is not nice or polite, but knows how to sing
in the midst of despair; how to rise up in the midst of death;
how to hold fast in the midst of chaos.
Let love be the blessing you share, love that is not tolerant
or charitable, but knows how to care when all seems hopeless;
how to listen when others are silenced;
how to come alongside when no one else will.
People of Love, let love be your blessing,
this day and every day until the end of time.

 

And the peace and love of Christ be with you all.

And also with you. Amen

 

Postlude: Leaves of Grass                          (Walt Whitman) Sound Design (2017)

 

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