Sunday Worship Service 10:00am

Hybrid Worship

July 28, 2024

Summer Worship Series

The Healing Earth

 

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

 

Gathering

Eternal God, life whirls around us.  Life demands so much of us. 

So we turn to you, calm and generous. 

Your grace flows freely. 

We open ourselves in word and silence, in prayer and song,

in meal and companionship, to the overflowing abundance of your presence and your grace. 

Hungry and trusting, we open ourselves to you. 

Speak to us in this time of worship, O God, that we might recognize the abundance of your goodness, and find in your presence the things that sustain us.

Amen.

 

Singing Bowl

 

Prelude: Where Two or More are Gathered                Bruce Harding, 2022

 

Psalm 145:16-17                                                         

The eyes of all look to you, O God, in hope;
you give them their food as they need it.
When you open your hand, you satisfy the hunger and thirst

of every living thing.
God is righteous in everything God does;
and is filled with kindness.

 

Hymn: God Of Still Waiting                                                           MV #20

 

Call to Worship & Prayer

We gather to celebrate God’s world.

We gather to rejoice in this abundant love.

We gather to eat and remember.

Come let us worship.

 

God, we give thanks for the beauty that surrounds us.

We sense the smell of the food that sustains us.

We feel hugs and greetings that nurture us.

We hear laughter and song that nourish us.

Remind us to listen to your world,

the groans and the joys.

Teach us to care for and treasure your body,

your world, as we do our own.

We pray in Jesus’ name, who offers us the bread of life, Amen.

                                                                                                                                                            2

Land Acknowledgment

 

Lighting the Peace Candle

We are here. God is here

This place is sacred ground.

 

Hymn: Live A River Of Tears                                                      MV #98

 

Scripture: Deuteronomy 8:6-18 (The Message)            Reader: Angela Nutter

Eat and be satisfied

 

God is about to bring you into a good land, a land with brooks and rivers, springs and lakes, streams out of the hills and through the valleys. It’s a land of wheat and barley, of vines and figs and pomegranates, of olives, oil, and honey. It’s land where you’ll never go hungry—always food on the table and a roof over your head. It’s a land where you’ll get iron out of rocks and mine copper from the hills.

After a meal, satisfied, bless God, your God, for the good land he has given you.

 

Make sure you don’t forget God, your God, by not keeping his commandments, his rules and regulations that I command you today. Make sure that when you eat and are satisfied, build pleasant houses and settle in, see your herds and flocks flourish and more and more money come in, watch your standard of living going up and up—make sure you don’t become so full of yourself and your things that you forget God, your God, the God who delivered you from slavery;
the God who led you through that huge and fearsome wilderness,

those desolate, arid badlands crawling with fiery snakes and scorpions;
the God who gave you water gushing from hard rock; the God who gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never heard of, in order to give you a taste of the hard life, to test you so that you would be prepared to live well in the days ahead of you.

 

This is the Word of God

We give thanks for this Word today.

 

Gospel Reading                                                         Reader: Pat Armstrong

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.

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John 6:1–14 (NRSV)                                                                 Reader: Pat Armstrong

Jesus feeds the multitude

 

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.  Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?”  Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place, so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.  When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

 

This is the Gospel of Christ.

We give thanks for Good News today!

 

Word: The Food We Eat

 

Hymn: Put Peace Into Each Other’s Hands                            MV #173

 

Life & Work of the Church

 

Offering

 

Offertory Hymn: For the Beauty of the Earth (vs 1 & chorus) VU #226

¹For the beauty of the earth,

for the glory of the skies,

for the love which from our birth

over and around us lies,

 

[Refrain]

God of all, to you we raise

this our hymn of grateful praise.                                                               4

Holy Communion

 

Hymn: Bread For The Journey                                                 MV #202

 

Invitation                                                           Setting the Table, Anita Monro

Grain is gathered from the field; threshed and milled for flour.
We are formed from the grain of God’s harvest. Flour is mixed with water to produce basic dough. The water of baptism unites us.
Yeast is added to transform the mixture.
The vision of God’s realm draws us onwards.

Oil softens the dough and makes a new texture.

The Holy Spirit anoints us as the body of Christ.
A little salt improves the taste.

Jesus calls us to be the salt of the earth.

The bread is kneaded and shaped, molded and baked.

It is God who makes us a holy communion.

Grapes are harvested and crushed for juice.
You are the vine, we are the branches, O Christ.
Juice and skins are mixed with yeast for fermentation.

God’s reign is coming. God’s hope is here.

There is a time of waiting; then a time of pressing.

God’s new life presses forth through the sediment of our lives.
And finally, the feast is here!
Let us celebrate the feast of our life in God.

 

Great Prayer of Thanksgiving

God be with you all.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts;

We lift them up to God.

Let us give thanks to God!

It is right to give God our thanks and praise!

 

You invite us to this table, Holy God, out of our places of want and hunger. In our wandering, we long for the possibility of new rebirth.

For the sake of our yearnings for life-giving waters and bread enough for all, into new ways and hopes of seeing, may we open ourselves to you.

 

 

 

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We give thanks to you, O God, for your steady presence all through our journeys. Whether in wilderness or community, whether in word or sacrament, you come to us: seeking our wholeness, binding our wounds, challenging our presumptions, restoring our life.

And so we join the song of witness long past and yet to come:

 

Sing: Holy, Holy, Holy                                                               MV #203

O holy, holy, holy God,

O God of time and space

All earth and sea and sky above

bear witness to your grace.

Hosanna in the highest heav’n,

creation sings your praise.

And blessed is the One who comes

and bears your name always!

 

In Jesus, love incarnate, you provide what we need for each day:

his words comfort the weary; his actions challenge the contented;

his touch heals the sick;

his presence feeds the deepest hunger in our souls.

In Jesus and in this feast you provide for us the sustenance

we need to respond to the cries of creation.

 

The bread of life

nourishes our hungry bodies.

The cup of blessings

revives our thirsty souls.

The gathered community

strengthens our growing faith.

 

Sing: Memorial Acclamation                                                     MV #204

Sing Christ has died and Christ is risen,
Christ will come again!

 

Prayers of the People                                                         Paddy Waymark

You are our light,

        Hear Our Prayers

 

The Prayer of Jesus

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!

 

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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.

 

Breaking the Bread

We remember that Jesus blessed and broke bread,

offered thanks and shared a cup.

As we now bless these gifts on your table again, O God,

bless us as we share in your death and in your life.

The bread of life to feed and nourish

The wine of life to quench our thirst

 

Sing: Amen, Amen                                                                     MV #205

Amen, amen, O Holy One!

Hosanna and Amen!

 

Sharing the Bread and Cup

 

Prayer after Communion

Holy One, may we, who have been fed

at this table remember that we are the

body of Christ in the world today.

May our hearts be open, our words

grace-filled, and our actions life-giving.

May all that we do and

all that we say reveal the presence of Christ,

who has met us at this table. Amen.

 

Closing Words

 

Hymn: Bread Of Live, Feed My Soul                                        MV #194

 

Blessing

We have seen, smelled, and tasted

the grace God offers to all peoples!

Go into the world knowing your faith of ordinary acts works

to transform God’s extraordinary world.

                                                                                                                                                            7

Go into the world waiting longingly

to see God moving and growing.

Go into the world ready to be

sustained and eager to offer the treasure within you.

 

May the grace of God’s abundance surround you,

the gift of Jesus’ service inspire you,

and the movement of the Spirit stir within you.

Amen.

 

The peace of Christ be always with you.

And also with you.

 

Postlude: Peace Be With You                                      Alison Wesley, 2000