Sunday, May 17, 2020

Sixth Sunday of Easter - May 17, 2020 - Rogation Sunday


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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(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)
93 Dominus regnavit

1 The Lord is King;
he has put on splendid apparel; *
the Lord has put on his apparel
and girded himself with strength.

2 He has made the whole world so sure *
that it cannot be moved;

3 Ever since the world began, your throne has been established; *
you are from everlasting.

4 The waters have lifted up, O Lord,
the waters have lifted up their voice; *
the waters have lifted up their pounding waves.

5 Mightier than the sound of many waters,
mightier than the breakers of the sea, *
mightier is the Lord who dwells on high.

6 Your testimonies are very sure, *
and holiness adorns your house, O Lord,
for ever and for evermore.

(Old Testament: Read by one of the worshipers)

Leviticus 25:1-17
25The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: 2Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the Lord. 3For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; 4but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. 6You may eat what the land yields during its sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound labourers who live with you; 7for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.
8 You shall count off seven weeks* of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years. 9Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month—on the day of atonement—you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. 10And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family. 11That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. 12For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces.
13 In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property. 14When you make a sale to your neighbour or buy from your neighbour, you shall not cheat one another. 15When you buy from your neighbour, you shall pay only for the number of years since the jubilee; the seller shall charge you only for the remaining crop-years. 16If the years are more, you shall increase the price, and if the years are fewer, you shall diminish the price; for it is a certain number of harvests that are being sold to you. 17You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.
.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Epistle 


James 1:2-8, 16-18
2 My brothers and sisters,* whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, 3because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; 4and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; 7, 8for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 16Do not be deceived, my beloved.*
17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.* 18In fulfilment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.


(READING FOR THE DAY)

Leader: This morning's reading comes from the Gospel of John
          Listen now for the Word of God.

Luke 12:13-21

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ 14But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ 15And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ 16Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” 18Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” 20But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” 21So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’
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
 

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