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.
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.
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.
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!
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
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.*
15And 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
