Seventh Sunday of Easter - May 24, 2020

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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The image to the right is a bronze sculpture titled "Bill Working," created in 1923 by Malvina Hoffman  From the collection at the Springfield (MA) Museum of Art

-      -    Seventh 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.

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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)

67 Deus misereatur

1 May God be merciful to us and bless us, *
show us the light of his countenance and come to us.

2 Let your ways be known upon earth, *
your saving health among all nations.

3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.

4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, *
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide all the nations upon earth.

5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.

6 The earth has brought forth her increase; *
may God, our own God, give us his blessing.

7 May God give us his blessing, *
and may all the ends of the earth stand in awe of him.

(Old Testament: Read by one of the worshipers)

Exodus 3: 1-12

3 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Mid′ian; and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. ³ And Moses said, “I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.” ⁴ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here am I.” ⁵ Then he said, “Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

⁷ Then the Lord said, “I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, ⁸ and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Per′izzites, the Hivites, and the Jeb′usites. ⁹ And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰ Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” ¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” ¹² He said, “But I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain.”

The Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

---

Epistle 

Hebrews 12: 18-29
¹⁸ For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, ¹⁹ and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers entreat that no further messages be spoken to them. ²⁰ For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” ²¹ Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” ²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, ²³ and to the assembly^[a] of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, ²⁴ and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel.
²⁵ See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. ²⁶ His voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.” ²⁷ This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. ²⁸ Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; ²⁹ for our God is a consuming fire.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

(READING FOR THE DAY)

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

          Listen now for the Word of God.

Luke 10:17-24

¹⁷ The seventy^[a] returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” ¹⁸ And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹ Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. ²⁰ Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

²¹ In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will.^{[b] 22} All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

²³ Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see what you see! ²⁴ For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear 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