A liturgy for holy communion by Rev jon Watson
HOLY COMMUNION
This morning the suns rays were just visible above
the top of the Mt.
Alexander
We
give thanks for the warming of the spring sun chasing the cold gloom of winter
away. We give thanks for the warming of the soil to strike life into our
vegetable and flower seeds.
Many times we read in the gospels how Christ and
the disciples gathered for a meal.
The culmination of which was the last supper
drawing together teacher and disciple, word and deed of the Way the truth and
the life. There fellowship and friendship was strengthened and enhanced.
Like the disciples we also come to gather in the
name of Christ.
To hear in each other his word of hope and live his
word of faith.
But we
also come to break the bread of commitment and drink the wine of blessing.
Come then let us take this Holy Sacrament to our
comfort. Acknowledging he who in some way gives himself for the life of the
world, and for the life of our fellowship here tonight
We remember that Christ was among friends as they
gathered around a table.
Yes
there he took bread and having blessed it, he broke it and gave it to his
disciples saying, “This is my body, which is given for you”.
We also remember that on the same night after they
had eaten, he took a cup of wine and gave thanks for it; he poured it out and
gave it to His disciples, saying,
“This cup represents the new relationship with God
sealed with my life. Take this and share it. I shall drink wine with you next
in the kingdom “.
So Lord
we come. Opening ourselves to your love and seeking to know your grace.
For as we eat the one bread and drink the common
cup we experience anew the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Come now tender Spirit of God, brood over these gifts
of bread and wine, that they may represent your life to us in our fellowship
tonight.
Let the
bread be broken for us.
(we eat the bread)
Let the
wine be shared amongst us
(we drink the wine)
Let there be joy amongst us as we remember that this
common meal is celebrated throughout the world wide Church.
Thanks
be to God.
But let there also be a sadness, amongst us as we
remember
The asylum seeker issue,
The wars in:
Iraqi,
The Middle East ,
and parts of Africa .
Lord we
lay before you our deep concern for these countries as they struggle for peace
and healing for their people.
Let us now eat. And may our eating lay us open to
Christ, and our talking be the mood of Christ amongst us.
Amen
HARVEST
THANKSGIVING AND BLESSING.
You O Lord are the
creator and redeemer of the Cosmos.
You created our
planet Earth with its seasons and brought forth the fruit of the earth and
rewards for human
labour.
Today we want to
celebrate the blessings that you have provided through our harvest this season.
Symbolised here are the many grains planted and harvested, wool produced and
sold, cattle raised and processed for the feeding of people here and elsewhere.
We give thanks for your gracious gifts of life and
harvest.
Nothing can be
harvested without the corresponding tilling, planting, fertalising and watering,
all be it by rain. We thank you for the many machines that make our work so
much easier and more productive.
We give thanks for those who service and maintain our
machines and help with productivity.
But we are conscious
Lord of those farmers who may not have had a good harvest.
Who toiled without
reward and who feel again the pressure of financial hardship.
We remember those
who have little food, and those who have little ability or opportunity to turn
unemployment into productive labour.
As we rejoice in our harvest we feel empathy for those
who have not.
And now Lord we
come before you aware of our desire to give thanks for the harvest that has been
ours, and the opportunity to act as servants and stewards in your creation.
Take these gifts
produced from the work of human hands. Take our gifts symbolising our harvest,
our wealth, and our gifts of bread and wine as we remember your life given that
we might have life, in all its fullness.
Lord bless these gifts which we bring before you, use
them for your creative purposes in our community and beyond. Amen.
(written by Rev jon Watson,
2013)
A communion liturgy by jon and Ralph
SERVICE OF HOLY COMMUNION Aug.2010
OPENING OF WORSHIP
Now is the time to live, to come to the Father who creates us, to sing to the Father who frees us, to dance with the Spirit who fills us.
Yes now is the time.
Let us invite the whole creation to join us in our celebration.
We invite the sky to thunder His word, earth to rumble in praise, the sea to swirl with song.
Let us invite our whole city to worship with us.
We call the traffic in the streets to halt, people living in town houses, people living in broken houses, to stop and shout His name.
Let us invite our political candidates to stop their electioneering for the day, and celebrate His name.
We ask all people living alone, black and white, those who feel left out, unemployed, the angry poor, to tell us their truth in love.
Let us invite those who love us to eat and drink with us.
We invite our friends to know our joy, those we love to know our Lord, and those we long to have beside us now, to celebrate life with us.
We extend an open invitation to one and all to join in one full circle of joy.
HYMN No. 179 “Praise with joy”
INTRODUCTARY COMMENTS TO SERVICE
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION and…………..
Lord we come to confess our feelings. Some of us come with anxiety and sorrow but also with hope and expectation.
Jesus, we come to the lonely cross, we see you stripped, naked, murdered and deserted.
Christ, we come to the empty tomb, we see our own death, we see our own tomb, we see our own emptiness. And we remember how we have treated other people - members of our family, friends and neighbours.
Lord we come to your tomb, we see a hungry world before us, the pain of starving children, the guilt of war on our hands, and we know that collectively we share in those injustices.
Lord we come to the empty tomb, we search within ourselves and we cannot escape what we are, people caught up in the pain of our own wrong doing, for some a deep sense of loneliness and a frustration of what we would be but are not.
Lord when we come to the empty tomb, we lay before you our pain, our emptiness and look to you for hope.
People of God why do you seek the living among the dead in an empty tomb? Are you afraid, are you uncertain, and are you uncomfortable here?
Well our wounds are deep, we have turned away from that man, we have broken with him and seek his fellowship.
Do not dwell on your wounds any longer for he has risen to heal you, he has risen to forgive you; he has risen to change us all and bind us together now. Christ has risen to forgive us.
Thanks be to God.
Hosea 11: 1 – 11
Luke 12: 13 - 21
HYMN “Nothing s lost”
SERMON
HYMN “Oh where are you going “ (Heaven Shall not Wait No 98)
OFFERING/DEDICATION
ANNOUNCEMENTS, JOYS, CONCERNS
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Karin
English
WE CELEBRATE THE EUCHARIST
Loving and caring God, you have searched us out and known us; all that we are is open to you. As we come to this celebration of Communion,
look not upon our shortcomings but upon our faith. Break down all barriers which we erect against your love. Cover us with a blanket of your peace. And let your justice reach to the ends of the earth.
So that we may come with joy to this celebration.
When our prayers are as dry as the drought last year, and our spirits as prickly as spinifex,
Drench us with a downpour of your mercy.
When we take things for granted and gratitude goes to sleep,
Put a new song on our tongues.
When life’s abrasive pressures fray us, loosening our hold on life around us,
Tell us again about the changing colours of winter, the promise of the coming Spring, the voice of magpies and a God who loves and seeks after us.
THE PEACE.
No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome at this table with its symbols of God’s Creative Presence.
In company with all who seek nourishment at this table, we come to celebrate community and to share these life-giving symbols.
Let us greet one another as a sign of God’s peace.
The peace and presence of God is here……to stay.
Thanks be to God.
STORIES FROM OUR TRADITION
We remember the stories from our tradition. How on many occasions Christ would share a meal with friends. Bread and wine shared in community.
For everyone born, a place at the table.
How the bread would be taken and then shared between them.
And all of them ate.
How some wine would be poured out, a blessing offered and then passed between them.
And all of them drank.
And then a time of concern, conversation and celebration.
The bread and the wine symbolised human lives interconnected with other human lives, and the power of giving and receiving.
May the passion for life as seen in Christ, and in the lives and struggles of many other committed and faithful people then and now, enable us to dare and to dream and to risk…..
Together may we dream of how the world might be.
Together may we work to make all things new.
Together may we celebrate the possibilities and hope we each have and are called to share.
SILENCE
For everyone born, a place at the table.
We remember that night among friends, reclined at the table ……..Jesus again shared a meal with his friends. Through grain and grape, bread and wine, and in fellowship together, Christ spoke of his enduring love for each of them.
So we will take the bread and the wine mindful of the Spirit at work in our lives. May they make our lives a source of renewal and hope.
BREAD AND WINE
We break this bread in celebration of the great truth that on this tiny planet, hurtling through cold, empty space, death is made the servant of life, and out of death, life is forever resurrected.
We break the bread for the broken earth, ravaged and plundered by reckless human action.
May there be healing of planet earth.
We have broken this bread for our broken humanity, for the powerful and the powerless trapped by exploitation and oppression.
May there be the healing of humanity.
We have broken this bread for those who follow other paths: for those who follow the noble path of the Buddha, the yogic path of the Hindus; the way of the Eternal Guru of the Sikhs; and for the children of Abraham and Sarah – Jews and Muslims.
May there be healing where there is pain, separation and woundedness.
We have broken this bread for the unhealed hurts and wounds that lie within us all.
May we all be healed.
This cup with its fruit of the vine, is a celebration that things are not always as they seem: that out of faithfulness and steadfastness, may come unsought blessings for all of humanity.
May we all be healed and reconciled in the passionate love of Christ.
This is the cup of peace and new life for all. It is a sign of love for the community of hope.
A reminder of the call to live fully,
to love wastefully
and to be all that we can be.
BLESSING OF THE ELEMENTS
So now Lord, we take this bread and wine….
May they be a constant presence of the Spirit of Life and Love, healing renewing and making us whole.
Together we remember our past, we discern our present, we shape our future.
THE COMMUNION
To eat and drink together reminds us of the deeper aspects of human fellowship, for from time immemorial the sharing of bread and wine has been the most universal of all symbols of community.
Come all is prepared let us celebrate the feast of Christ.
AFTER COMMUNION
Now the Lord steps into the air once more to taste its colour and feel its songs. He inhales the thoughts of children, the breath of yesterday, the hopes of tomorrow and wonders whether some of His children are too old to celebrate their dreams.
We have been refreshed by the Spirit of Christ and his call to love.
We will go enfolded in His love and ready for His service.
HYMN No. 611 “God of grace”.
BLESSING
Embracing God, as we have shared your sacrament, let your Holy Spirit move, dance and mingle among us. Bless us with a sharpened awareness of your presence,
with a deep compassion for others, and the patience and daring of the mystics.
BENEDICTION
Go, enfolded in God’s love, gifted by God’s presence and sustained by God’s grace.
We shall go embraced in that love and ready for discipleship.
(In the preparation of this service I have used and modified material from two sources, the Rev. Rex Hunt and the Book “Interrobang-Habel”)
