Web Morning prayer - 4/26/2020 - Third Sunday of Easter

This version of the Morning Prayer is adapted from the Episcopal Book of Prayer and the Ionia Prayerbook.

This is the same text, absent the lectionary reading, I use when I lead Morning Services at a Convention. 

There are references to "reader," "leader," and " people" within the text    this is for when the services are done "in person."   You are invited to read aloud those portions if you wish.


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-        Third Sunday of  Easter   -

(OPENING RESPONSES)

leader: The world belongs to God

all:      The earth and all its people

leader: How good it is, how wonderful,

all:      To live together in unity

leader: Love and faith come together,

all:      Justice and peace join hands

leader: If Christ's disciples keep silent

all:      These stones would shout aloud

leader: Open our lips, O God,

all:      And our mouths shall proclaim your praise

Leader: Holy God, Maker of all

all:      Have mercy on us

Leader: Jesus Christ, Servant of the poor

all:      Have mercy on us

leader: Holy Spirit, Breath of life

all:      Have Mercy on us

leader: Let us in silence confess our faults and admit our frailty

(A BRIEF PERIOD OF SILENCE IS KEPT)

Leader: Before God, with the people of God,

          I confess to my brokenness:

          to the ways I wound my life,

          the lives of others,

          and the life of the world.

ALL:   May God forgive you, Christ renew you,

          and the Spirit enable you to grow in love

Leader: Amen.

All:     Before God, with the people of God,

          we confess to our brokenness:

          to the ways we wound our lives,

          the lives of others,

          and the life of the world

Leader: May God forgive us, Christ Renew us,

          and the Spirit enable us to grow in love.

All:     Amen

(PRAYER FOR GOD'S HELP)

Leader: Move among us, O God; give us life:

All:     Let your people rejoice in you

Leader: Make our hearts clean within us:

All:     Renew us in mind and spirit.

Leader: Give us again the joy of your help:

All:     With your spirit of freedom sustain us.

Leader: And now, as Jesus taught us, we say:

ALL:   Our Father in heaven,

          Hallowed by 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,

          Save us in the time of trial

          And deliver us from evil,

          For the kingdom, the power

          And the glory are yours,

          Now and for ever. Amen.

(AFFIRMATION)

Leader: With the whole church

All:     We affirm

          That we are made in God's image,

          befriended by Christ, empowered by the Spirit.

Leader: With people everywhere

All:     We affirm

          God's goodness at the heart of humanity,

          Planted more deeply than all that is wrong.

Leader: With all creation

All:     We celebrate

          The miracle and wonder of life;

          The unfolding purposes of God,

          Forever at work in ourselves and the world.

Prayer for Thanksgiving

Blessed are you, Lord God of our salvation,
to you be praise and glory for ever.
As once you ransomed your people from Egypt
and led them to freedom in the promised land,
so now you have delivered us from the dominion of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of your risen Son.
May we, the first fruits of your new creation,
rejoice in this new day you have made,
and praise you for your mighty acts.
Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

All:  Blessed be God for ever.

Christ has been raised from the dead: •
the first fruits of those who sleep.
For as by man came death: •
by man has come also the resurrection of the dead;
for as in Adam all die: •
even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

(PSALM: said responsively - by one of the worshipers)

150 Laudate Dominum

1 Hallelujah!
Praise God in his holy temple; *
praise him in the firmament of his power.

2 Praise him for his mighty acts; *
praise him for his excellent greatness.

3 Praise him with the blast of the ram's-horn; *
Praise him with lyre and harp.

4 Praise him with timbrel and dance; *
praise him with strings and pipe.

5 Praise him with resounding cymbals; *
praise him with loud-clanging cymbals.

6 Let everything that has breath *
praise the Lord.
Hallelujah!

(Old Testament: Read by one of the worshipers)

Exodus 18:1-12

18Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. ²After Moses had sent away his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro took her back, ³along with her two sons. The name of one was Gershom (for he said, ‘I have been an alien^* in a foreign land’), ⁴and the name of the other, Eliezer^* (for he said, ‘The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh’). ⁵Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came into the wilderness where Moses was encamped at the mountain of God, bringing Moses’ sons and wife to him. ⁶He sent word to Moses, ‘I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you, with your wife and her two sons.’ ⁷Moses went out to meet his father-in-law; he bowed down and kissed him; each asked after the other’s welfare, and they went into the tent. ⁸Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had beset them on the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. ⁹Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in delivering them from the Egyptians.

10 Jethro said, ‘Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh. ¹¹Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because he delivered the people from the Egyptians,^* when they dealt arrogantly with them.’ ¹²And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt-offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God.

The Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Epistle 

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1 John 2:7-17
7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. ⁸Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because^* the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. ⁹Whoever says, ‘I am in the light’, while hating a brother or sister,^* is still in the darkness. ¹⁰Whoever loves a brother or sister^* lives in the light, and in such a person^* there is no cause for stumbling. ¹¹But whoever hates another believer^* is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.
¹² I am writing to you, little children,
   because your sins are forgiven on account of his name.
¹³ I am writing to you, fathers,
   because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young people,
   because you have conquered the evil one.
¹⁴ I write to you, children,
   because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers,
   because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young people,
   because you are strong
   and the word of God abides in you,
     and you have overcome the evil one.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; ¹⁶for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷And the world and its desire^* are passing away, but those who do the will of God live for ever.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

(READING FOR THE DAY)

Leader: This morning's reading comes from the Gospel of Mark

          Listen now for the Word of God.

The Longer Ending of Mark

9 [[Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. ¹⁰She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. ¹¹But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

12 After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. ¹³And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.

14 Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.^{* 15}And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news^* to the whole creation. ¹⁶The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸they will pick up snakes in their hands,^* and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.’

19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. ²⁰And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.^* ]]

The Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

(a period of silence is kept)

Leader: For the Word of God in Scripture,

          for the Word of God among us,

          for the Word of God within us

ALL:   Thanks be to God.

(Homily by leader)

(PRAYERS OF GRATITUDE AND CONCERN)

Leader. Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten;

All:     Nor the hope of the poor be taken away.

Leader: Create in us clean hearts, O God;

All:     And sustain us with your Holy Spirit.

Leader: For each of our prayers, please add, aloud or silently,

           your own concerns

Leader: Give guidance and care for the needs of the world at large,

          and for the life of Your church

          God, in your mercy,

All:     Hear our prayer

Leader: For the concerns of our cities, towns and nations,

          give guidance to our leaders and care for their people

          God, in Your mercy,

All:     Hear our prayer

Leader: For the concerns and comfort of those of us here, our families,

          for those absent or those who are ill,

          and in remembrance of those who are gone,

          God in your mercy,

All:     Hear our prayer.

Leader: Remember all those the world has forgotten,

          Those without family, or those on the streets,

          Those who are damaged by drugs, alcohol or their own minds.

          Remember the unemployed, the widow, the orphan,

          and the prisoner.

          God in your mercy,

All:     Hear our prayer.

Leader: Living God, may we not fail you,

All:     Nor we fail them

Leader: O God, set Your blessing on us

          as we begin this day together.

          Confirm us in the truth by which we rightly live;

          confront us with the truth from which we wrongly turn.

          We ask not for what we want,

          but for what You know we need,

          as we offer this day and ourselves for You and to You,

          Through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

ALL:   Amen

A Prayer of St. Chrysostom

Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen.

(CLOSING)

Leader: This is the day that God has made;

All:     We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Leader: We will not offer to God

All:     Offerings that cost us nothing.

Leader: Go in peace to love and to serve;

All:     We will seek peace and pursue it.

Leader: In the name of the Trinity of Love,

All:     God in community, holy and One.

          Amen