For Easter 7C

OPENING PRAYER

God of life, once more you have called us together for worship.

We have come to be refreshed, we have come to be reminded of whose we are, we have come to explore who and how you are calling us to be in the world.

God of light, in this time together,

open our eyes, our hearts, our very beings to see, hear and feel how You are active in our midst.

God of love, who calls us to live love,

may the time we spend listening for your still small voice awaken an awareness of how we can put love into action, how we can care for all our relationships.

We pray in the name of Jesus, the man from Nazareth, who taught his friends to pray saying...

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE

That all may be one...

We echo the prayer of Jesus.

That All may be one...

All? You mean All? But some people are so different.

That All may be One...

Where we build walls when we are called to build bridges, God help us to hear Your voice.

All my relations...

Parent God, remind us that we are related, remind us that we share a status as Your children.

All my relations...

Help us live into the call to love and serve others, those who are like us and those who are different.

And for those times we forget the deep meaning of those phrases...

forgive us we pray. Through Grace awaken us to what is possible.

...time of silent prayer...

Jesus prayer that we would all be one as he and God were one. Sometimes it seems impossible. But with God all things are possible. God's grace pushes us past our biases and blindnesses. God's grace moves us from the mis-steps of the past into the possibilities of the future. We are loved, we are forgiven, we are made new.

Thanks be to God! Amen

COMMISSIONING:

We go from our worship,

we go back to the world where we live to serve.

We go with a challenge,

to live out Jesus' prayer “that all may be one”, to treat those we meet with the reality that they are part of “all our relations”.

We go out with a promise,

the God made known in Jesus of Nazareth, the God made known in the Spirit's breath, the God made known in Creation, is with us always.

To challenge and to guide, to comfort and to support.

Hallelujah!