The Lord be with you! Good morning, Cheviot Churches – and Good morning to those joining us in other places too! You are all very welcome. This is Colin, and I hope everyone is staying well. Come, people of God, let us worship together for our service for Harvest Thanksgiving.
Notices:
The land has yielded its harvest: God our God has blessed us. The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice Hymn 233 – Come, ye thankful people, come (vv1,2) Prayers of Adoration and Confession God of harvest time we gather together today as Your people and Your church to celebrate and to give thanks for the harvest that we have been fortunate enough to share in. Enable us to be fruitful in our worship and to praise You with joyful hearts. Father in heaven, all good gifts come from you. You send the sunshine and the rain, and it is through your love and care that we enjoy the harvest. Thank you for providing so richly for our needs and help us to share the good things we have with those who have little or nothing. Let us confess our forgetfulness of God, our failure to give thanks and the ways in which we have wasted the gifts of creation. We confess to you our lack of care for the world you have given us. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. We confess to you our selfishness in not sharing the earth's bounty fairly. Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. We confess to you our failure to protect resources for others. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. May God show us mercy, restore us in God’s likeness and give us generous hearts and lives. Lord’s Prayer Readings – Ruth 2: 8-12 Luke 12: 13-21 Hymn 230 – Praise God for the Harvest (1,3,5) Weekly Prayer Heavenly Father, may we come to know the wisdom that comes from heaven which is first of all pure; peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Help us to become peacemakers who sow in peace in order to raise a harvest of righteousness. Amen. Reflection It has been wonderful to see the tractors and combines out in the fields around us over these last few weeks – bringing in the harvest. It is always a special time of year, and although harvest really goes on all year now and there are many kinds of harvests, such as animals and fish, it is always good to have a day in the year to stop and give thanks. Many of the books of the Bible were written in agricultural settings, and Jesus in his parables often used examples from farming life – like the story today of the rich farmer, who had a bumper harvest and wanted to build more and more barns to put his crops in. But his philosophy was one of ‘Eat, drink and be merry’. Look out for No 1 first – and number is SELF. An attitude obviously that Jesus condemned. But in the reading from Ruth, we met another farmer, Boaz. Again, he seems quite prosperous. He has land, and in the snapshot we have of him, he is enjoying a good harvest. No doubt like all farmers, he would have his anxieties; the weather, the fear of a plague of locusts which would destroy the crop, and even war. Just like farmers today worry about the weather and climate change and various diseases and bank loans. But Boaz was not like the farmer in the parable, thinking only of himself. He cared for his workers, but also for the poor in the community. The Law always encouraged Israelites to care for the widow and the orphan and the stranger, and at harvest time some of the harvest was left for them to glean or to gather. In fact, it still happens in Israel today. Boaz very much kept the law, and when he saw Ruth, a young woman, a widow and a foreigner, he encouraged his workers not to take advantage of her and also to leave her enough to gather and to take home. He was a good man, Boaz. For Ruth she was vulnerable as a young widow far from home, standing ‘amid the alien corn’ with only her mother-in-law to look after her, but because of Boaz’ kind treatment of her, she felt welcomed and soon became part of the community. An example for us all to take to heart. Angela is also a widow and also feeling vulnerable. She grows coffee in Nicaragua in Central America, but the climate is changing, and it has become hotter and that has affected the growth of her crop. There are new pests, and Angela is losing more and more each year. She has two daughters, and life in hard. But Christian Aid has helped to set up a cooperative in her village, and they have now diversified their crops and switched to growing climate-resistant cocoa. Suddenly everything is good, and they can look to the future with hope. Another Harvest voice is Alwyn, a father of two from Northern Ireland. He had lost his job and found himself on a downward spiral. There was rent to pay, bills kept coming in, there were school trips to fund, but some days there was just no money for food and he found himself in a dark place. Often he would just give his daughters sugar to keep up their stamina and lots of water to keep them hydrated. He was referred to the local food bank and felt embarrassed going. But he was met with a welcome smile, a cup of coffee and given a bag of food. A few weeks later it was Christmas, and the family were given a bag of treats. Alwyn has since found a good job, and the family are on a stable footing, but he was so impressed by the Food Bank. At Harvest we give thanks to God for providing us with food to eat, but we are encouraged to look beyond ourselves and see those in our wider community and those overseas who struggle to make ends meet, and especially at this time of Covid-19, and reach out with love and practical assistance. Hymn 232 – Pears and Apples Prayers of Dedication, Thanksgiving and Intercession God of all creation, we praise and give thanks for all that You have given to us in our lives. We thank You for the beauty of the countryside around, for hills and rivers and fields and rolling landscapes. We thank You for the orchards, the grazing pastures and the rich soil for cultivation. We thank You for all those who work the land and sea to provide food to feed us; for farmers who grow crops and produce livestock with love and care and those fishing the deep oceans. We thank You God for the rich variety of food that comes from all across the world. We pray today for farmers and farm-workers, especially those we know in our parish. We pray for them in the heat of summer and in the wet and cold of winter, as they tend their stock daily and cultivate their fields, as they manage the hedges, woodland and waterways. We pray for safety in a hazardous industry, encouragement for the solitary and anxious, and a fair price for their products. Generous God, as we celebrate Your goodness to us in Scotland, we also remember the plight of those abroad, and especially those whose harvests have failed. We pray for those whose land or crops have been affected by floods, drought or fire, by pests and disease. For those whose families are hungry and for those who have no seed or livestock for the future. We also remember those who are dependent on food banks. Help us to be generous givers – of our money, food and time, as Christian disciples in this place, and show us how to be stewards of the resources of Your world, for the benefit of all people. We continue to remember our country and all the countries of the world at this time of pandemic. Be with all who lead and grant ever wisdom, and help us to be ever considerate to the needs and health of others. Be with those in countries where medical professionals are few and where facilities in hospitals and clinics are limited. Be with all who are sick at this time and grant healing we pray. Silence Amen Hymn 229 – We plough the fields and scatter (1,3) Benediction May God who clothes the lilies and feeds the birds of the air, who leads the lambs to their pasture and the deer to still waters, lead us, feed us and change us to reflect the glory of our Creator. And may the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, rest upon you and upon those whom you love and those whom we are called to love, now and for ever Amen
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![]() The Lord be with you! Good morning, Cheviot Churches – and Good morning to those listening in other places too! You are all very welcome. This is Colin, and I hope everyone is staying well. Come, people of God, let us worship together for our service for the 16th Sunday after Pentecost. Notices: · The podcast of this service can be accessed on Podcast page of the website or by clicking HERE. · A video of today’s service is posted on Video page of the website early on Sunday afternoon - or you can access it by clicking HERE. · Harvest will be held next Sunday, 27th September in both Yetholm (10am) and Morebattle (11.15). Donations to the Food Bank will be gratefully received. · Dorothy Baird will be cremated on Wednesday, 23rd September at 11am. You can access HERE it on with username Paha2593 and password 746453. · There will be an ecumenical drive-in service near St Boswells on 27th September at 3pm. Details can be had at: www.bordersdrivein.co.uk · Yetholm Kirk is open for private prayer every Wednesday between 10.00 and 12 noon. Colin will be there, if anyone needs to see him. · We join with all the other denominations in Scotland to light a candle at 7pm. · Our singing on the podcast is led by Heather and Gordon Call to Worship The Lord our God is great and to be highly praised. We come to worship. The Lord our God is great beyond our understanding. We come to worship. The Lord our God is loving and full of mercy. We come to worship. Hymn 457 – All Hail the power of Jesus’s name (1,3) Prayers of Adoration and Confession Loving God, compassionate Son, healing Spirit, You meet us in so many places and in so many different ways, when our need is deep and we long for you, and when we think we can manage on our own. You draw near to us in kindness, regardless of our state or condition. You turn weeping into laughter, sorrow into joy, death into life. You speak a word of challenge and a word of comfort to draw us to you. In gratitude, we come before you this day, to seek your word for us, and to enjoy your gift of life in its fullness. Receive our praise and our prayers this day offered in the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen. God, you are the giver of all good gifts, yet we confess that our own generosity is limited. We share what we have, but often reluctantly. We compare ourselves to others and focus on what they have that we lack. We fear running short of things rather than trusting your attention to our needs. Forgive us our worries about tomorrow and give us generous hearts that trust in you. The mercy of our God is from everlasting to everlasting. Friends, hear and believe the good news of the Gospel. In Jesus Christ, God’s generous love reaches out to embrace us. In Christ, we are forgiven and set free to begin again. Thanks be to God! Lord’s Prayer Readings: Philippians 1: 21-30 Matthew 20: 1-16 Hymn 159 – Lord, for the years Weekly Prayer Faithful God, God of heaven and earth, companion in life, Spirit of truth; to Jesus alone, in whom all power and authority in heaven and on earth is given, we turn our eyes and lift our hearts. Help us to serve you and you alone. Amen Reflection All of us like a story, and especially if there is something in it that makes us think. Jesus was the master storyteller, and his parables have spoken to people down the centuries. I wonder what your favourite parable would be? Maybe it is the Good Samaritan, where it is the outsider who helps the person who has been beaten up. We associate with him and are left with a good feeling. Or maybe it is the Prodigal Son, where the young man has squandered everything, but then comes to his senses and goes back home, expecting a terrible reception, but instead is enfolded in an embrace. Again, we are left with a good feeling. But I don’t think many would rate the parable we read today, the workers in the vineyard, as their favourite. There is no strong character for us to associate with and no warm feeling at the end. Instead, more often than not, we feel frustrated with it and cry out ‘It’s not fair!’ It’s not fair – from childhood we seem to have an innate sense of what is right and wrong, a sense of justice, and the way the workers are paid in this parable just isn’t fair. Let’s remind ourselves of the story again. Day labourers had gathered in the village square hoping for work. It is a situation I have seen in Africa and even in the Arab villages in the North of Israel. Workers hoping someone will come along and hire them for the day, so that there would be enough food to put on the table for their families in the evening. It is a precarious kind of existence. Hoping you look fit enough for the work, hoping you will be lucky. In the story, the landowner has work in his vineyard and comes and chooses some of the workers. The others were left disappointed, but then later on the landowner returned – maybe there was more work than he had imagined, but he chose more. The rest were left disappointed – and a bit undervalued, as you can imagine. It wasn’t their lucky day; the children would go hungry that evening. But as it grew late, the landowner returned yet again and picked up the rest. Imagine how they would have felt. Overjoyed- maybe they would be paid enough for a loaf of bread. But then comes the rub. Those who have come last and only worked for an hour or two at the most get paid a decent sum – a day’s wages. Word goes down the line, for surely those who have worked from early morning, sweating in the midday sun, will get far more. But no! They got exactly the same. And that isn’t fair. Those who worked far longer should have a greater reward – that is how things are. But the landowner stated, ‘We agreed a wage, and you got that wage. It is my money – what is it to you that I should be generous with my own money’. The parable is not really about the workers, but about the generosity of God, about the grace of God, which is overwhelming. And sometimes love in the form of grace trumps justice. The mother of the disciples James and John wanted her sons to have a special place in the kingdom, because they had been such loyal followers, but was firmly told that it didn’t work like that. As human beings we define ourselves against other people, comparing ourselves and often begrudging their good fortune – we are in for a shock. We may have been in the church from the year dot, made countless sandwiches and cups of tea, even been elders, but God’s grace is overwhelming and we are going to be surprised at those we find in the Kingdom. But I think this parable also shows the landowner helping those who were left behind, those who didn’t appear so strong, the undervalued and those with no sense of worth, and the Gospel has a bias to the poor and to the vulnerable. God wants them in the Vineyard, such is the generosity of grace. As the Church, we have to embody that. One way is to support the Food Bank. Another way is to be conscious of so many in our world working for minimal wages, and the importance of ensuring a fair wage and by supporting Fairtrade. God’s generosity abounds, and we too should show something of God’s generosity and grace. Hymn 798 – The peace of the earth Prayers of Dedication, Thanksgiving and Intercession Loving God, you have already today accepted our confession and turned it into forgiving love; you have accepted our praises and turned them into the song of heaven. Now accept our offerings of money and time and turn them into the tender ministry of the body of Christ in your world today. God of Hope, When the world is bleak and dim, you pierce the shadows with light. You help us see new paths and possibilities. For hope in times of despair, for a way forward when we thought all was lost, we give you thanks. We pray today for those who feel hopeless; for those who are sick or dying; for those who mourn; and for those weighed down by heavy burdens. We think of those in the West coast of America who have lost homes to wild fires. May each of us know and share your gift of hope. God of Peace, All around us there is conflict: in our world, our communities, our families, even our closest relationships. We thank you for steps toward reconciliation in our lives, our communities, and among peoples of different cultures. We pray today for places where pain, violence and cruelty seem to have the upper hand. We think of those refugees selling organs from their bodies. May each of us know and share your gift of peace. God of Joy, We give you thanks for moments of delight and occasions of celebration; for happy gatherings, gentle solitude, pleasure given and received; for laugher, friendship, and love. We remember those who do not taste such joy; those who are lonely or bitter, hurt, or difficult to love. May each of us know and share your gift of joy. We pray for our families, those closest to us or and anyone estranged. We pray for friends and for acquaintances, strangers, for those very different from ourselves, and even for our enemies. Help us draw our circles of affection wider, seeing our kinship with all people. May each of us know and share your gift of love. Hear us now as we pray in silence Amen Hymn 804 – You shall go out with joy. Benediction Go in peace to love and serve the Lord, and the Blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you and all whom you love, wherever they may be, now and forevermore, Amen ![]() The Lord be with you! Good morning, Cheviot Churches – and Good morning to those listening in other places too! You are all very welcome. This is Colin, and I hope everyone is staying well. Come, people of God, let us worship together for our service for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost. Notices:
For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is God’s steadfast love; As far as the east is from the west, so far God removes our transgressions from us. So let us rejoice in God’s presence! Let us praise the name of the Lord together Hymn 198 – Let us build a house Prayers of Adoration and Confession Holy and loving One, God of might and mercy, The heavens and the earth are full of your glory. Your love transforms our lives. You take darkness and give light. You take grief and give healing. You take fatigue and give strength. You take fear and give courage. You take death and give new life. So we come before you in worship, handing over to you all that weighs us down, waiting for your refreshing gifts. Renew us in this time of worship, we pray, so that we may serve you in Jesus’ name. Amen. O God, we confess that our lives do not always reflect your transforming power. You are gracious, but we cling to judgement. You are forgiving, but we nurse grudges and old wounds. You are filled with joy, but too often we are filled with dissatisfaction and complaints. Forgive us, O God, and fill us with your Holy Spirit, and make us new through Christ, our Saviour. The proof of God's amazing love is this: while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Know that you are forgiven by his grace and be at peace. Lord’s Prayer Readings: Exodus 14: 21-31 Matthew 18:21-35 Hymn 180 - Give thanks with a grateful heart Weekly Prayer Heavenly father we pray week by week “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” but so often we fall short of your standards in our lives. Again today, we ask for your forgiveness and help to live as you intended us to live, as we seek to follow the example of Jesus. Amen Reflection ‘Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors’. Sounds familiar. We say it every Sunday in the Lord’s Prayer, though one or two may say ‘trespasses’ and even ‘sins’ instead. But ‘debts’ certainly works, considering our parable today. It trips off our tongues, but think about what we are saying, ‘Forgive us our debts AS we forgive our debtors’. I think we hope God just listens to the first bit and then switches off. In our Gospel reading today, Peter asks about forgiveness and suggests to forgive 7 times, which is incredibly generous. But Jesus says 70x 7. In other words, there should be no limits to forgiveness. And Jesus goes on to tell the parable about the servant who owed a massive debt to the king. Not even Trillions, but zillions, but graciously wipes the slate clean. Only to hear that the forgiven servant had not shown the same spirit of mercy to a colleague who owed him a trifle. The king’s spirit of mercy evaporated, and he sent the servant to be tortured. God doesn’t seem to like un unforgiving spirit. But as human beings, we are not very good where forgiveness is concerned. Sometimes it can be trivial things, and we should really know better, but often people really offend us, hurt us or, worse, hurt those whom we love, and it is a hard ask to forgive them – and especially when they don’t seem to show any remorse themselves. And I am sure we can think of many examples when someone has really hurt us. Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch woman and strong Christian, who wrote about her experiences in the 2nd World War, where she and her sister helped to hide a number of Jews. Ultimately someone informed on her, and they were both sent to a concentration camp. Corrie survived, but her sister didn’t. After the war she spoke a lot at various rallies and meetings about reconciliation, but on one occasion came face to face with one of the guards from the camp. Memories of her sister came flooding back, and she felt numb. He approached her, said that he had become a Christian and wanted to ask her forgiveness. She felt nothing but anger, but struggled within herself and somehow managed to forgive him. She felt such a sense of release. Forgiveness broke the chains of bitterness and freed her to live her life. It was as if she had been held captive by the past: she had to move on. The Israelites must have felt bitter by their experiences of slavery and oppression: the crossing of the Red Sea liberated them and they had their time in the wilderness to process their thoughts. Though the widows of the Egyptian charioteers who drowned and the stable girls or boys whose horses did not return would also have felt bitterness, though whether against Pharaoh or the Israelites, I don’t know. Maybe the two groups could have come together to share their feelings. That is what happens with restorative justice. In Rwanda, after the genocide there, Tutu and Hutsi came together, people whose families had been butchered to death came face to face with the perpetrators of the crime. There was so much anger and distress, but it was a cathartic experience and brought about so much healing, that the country was able to move forward. The past couldn’t hold them back any more. It is hard to forgive, but as the parable reminds us that we, like the servant, have been forgiven so much. God has been so gracious and merciful to us, forgiving and accepting us. We have experienced God’s amazing grace, and so we too should be gracious to others and forgive, and if that forgiveness is genuinely from our hearts, then we will have learnt something in the process. Amen Hymn 782 – Lord of life, we come to you Prayers of Dedication, Thanksgiving and Intercession Generous God, we offer you our gifts of love, of service and of money. Use these gifts to sow seeds of love and hope and bring closer your dream of justice and peace God of light and hope, we pray for those who face lives filled with darkness: those who suffer in body, mind, and spirit; those bent under burdens of sorrow; those who cannot see the way ahead. We pray for those who accompany others in dark times and places; For those who comfort the grieving, and work for healing and new possibilities. May all these find their darkness transformed by your presence. Lord in your mercy, Hear our Prayer God of peace and promise, we pray for those who work for peace in the world, for leaders and decision makers, for those who hold power and can make a difference in their communities, and for those who make, interpret, and enforce laws. Awaken a respect for the needs of the most vulnerable, including the earth and its fragile balances. Lord in your mercy, Hear our Prayer God of forgiveness and reconciliation; we pray for those we have hurt or offended and for those to whom we have been unkind. We pray for those who have hurt us, or been careless with our feelings. Work in our lives to redeem broken relationships. Shape us into gracious and forgiving people. Lord in your mercy, Hear our Prayer In a moment of silence we bring the prayers of our hearts. Amen Hymn 252 – As a fire is meant for burning Benediction This is still God’s world. May we live in it with faith. This is still God’s world. May we live in it with hope. This is still God’s world. May we live in it with love. And may the blessing of God Almighty, the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer be with you and be with all whom you love and those we are called to love, Now and forevermore. Amen. The Lord be with you! Good morning, Cheviot Churches – and Good morning to those listening in other places too! You are all very welcome. Come, people of God, let us worship together for our service for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost.
Notices:
O God, who called all life into being The earth, sea and sky are yours Your Spirit enlivens all who walk the earth With her we yearn for justice to be done For creation to be freed from bondage For your Kingdom of peace to come on earth. Hymn 165 – Praise to the Lord for the joys of the earth (vv 1,4,5) Prayers of Adoration and Confession Holy One, God of grace and glory, Your creative power is beyond imagining. Your love is wider than the whole universe; your mercy, greater than the heights of heaven; your wisdom, deeper than the sea. Maker of all things, you became one of us in Jesus Christ, and through your Spirit you are present with us in every place and every time. We worship you, Creator, Christ, and Spirit, one God, now and always. Creator God, we confess that we have not been conscientious stewards of your creation. We confess our failure to learn lessons, to care for our world, and to treat nature and animal life with respect. Forgive us, good Lord, and help us to turn our sorrow into action, our failure into change, our guilt into grace. God, the source of all mercy, has sent the Holy Spirit amongst us for the forgiveness of sins, the equipping of the saints and the fine tuning of our hearts. We are forgiven! Be at peace with God, with yourself and with each other. Lord’s Prayer Readings – Exodus 12: 1-14 Matthew 18: 15-20 Hymn 251 – I the Lord of sea and sky (1, 3) Weekly Prayer Faithful God, thank you for your promise that where two or three come together in your name you have promised to be with them. Deepen our understanding of the message of the Passover, that we are safe under God's protection and as we pray through this coming week may we do so with your heart of compassion. Amen. Reflection In discussing our experiences over the lockdown period, everyone I have spoken to has commented on how lucky we have been to live in this part of the world with the countryside on our doorsteps and being able to look out on hills and on rolling fields, whose colour has been ever changing depending on the crops being grown. But there has been another picture of the countryside over the last few months – of crowded beaches, and bottles and plastic bags of rubbish, strewn over the sand. Another picture has been of beauty spots violated by day-trippers or campers, littering, soiling, damaging the habitats. It has been horrific, and while none of us could think of anyone who would pollute the countryside in this way, there are obviously those who do. We have become more and more conscious of the environment and just how fragile our planet is and how we need to care for it. This month of September has been designated as ‘Creation Time’ by the British churches, including Church of Scotland, and we have invited to reflect on the way we as humans abuse the earth but also be challenged to take action. At first sight, we may wonder what our lectionary readings have to say about this. The Exodus reading can be a bit gruesome, talking about slaying lambs and smearing the blood over the door lintels and also of the slaying of the Egyptian first born. It is about the preparations for Passover. The Israelites had been oppressed and enslaved, and despite plague after plague, Pharaoh had not listened and had rejected any change. But now God was preparing a fresh start for the Israelites. Led by Moses, they would escape the oppression of Egypt and be liberated, set free. A new way of living was beckoning, and that was a life with God. Like Pharaoh, we have had so many warnings about the damage we have done to the earth, and the plagues of pollution and over consumption and abuse of the good resources like water. We have to listen and act. In the Creation story in Genesis 1 there is a constant refrain – It is good, it is good, it is good. God created a wonderful creation, and we have to remember that and treasure the earth, treating it gently (Yoruba Poem: Enjoy the earth gently, enjoy the earth gently; for if the earth is spoiled it cannot be repaired; enjoy the earth gently). We can, like the Israelites, make a new start. But our Gospel reading reminds us how divided we can be as human beings. There is the wonderful phrase, often said at evening services, ‘Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them’, but where two or three are gathered, often there are two or three different opinions. It is just the way we are as people. It is called living in community. But for the small Christian community that Matthew was addressing in his Gospel, these views or maybe actions could severely damage the community, and so had to be addressed. Matthew proposes a way to restore good relations – by being open and talking together. It still happens today – sometimes congregations can be split in two, and healing has to take place. There is an organisation in the Church called ‘A place for hope’ which remit is to bring about reconciliation. Just as we are called to treat the earth gently, so we have also to treat one another sensitively and ever seek to build up the community. In our world where there is sexism and racism denigrating others and causing so much harm, we have to learn to live together with one another, but also live together creatively and gently with our planet. Song – Let my people go! Prayers of Dedication, Thanksgiving and Intercession Lord God, receive these gifts, offered in a spirit of generosity and humility. Bless and use them for the work that you long to do in the world for Jesus’ sake Creator of heaven and earth, lover of each and every soul, we are filled with a sense of gratitude for all the blessings of this life. For making us in your image to love and care for one another, we give you thanks. For the gift of Christ, who redeems and guides us, and who gives us a pattern for everyday living, we praise you. Hear us now as we pray for situations where your love and grace are sorely needed in the world you love. We pray for the Church in this place and around the world, facing so many new challenges to respond to, so many enduring needs… We pray for this beautiful planet, the fragile home we share with all living things… For those who govern in this place and the nations of the world, that they may find the wisdom and courage to do justice in the decisions they make… For the homeless and the hungry, for the unemployed and the anxious, and for all who have become more vulnerable through the pandemic… For those lying on hospital bed, those who mourn and those who are alone or feeling isolated… For the powerless and oppressed, and those caught up in destructive relationships or unjust political systems… And for the concerns we bear on our hearts this day… Eternal God, we thank you for those who have gone ahead of us and showed us some measure of your eternal love. Keep us always in communion with you, and with your people from every time and place. Amen Hymn 515 – Soldiers of Christ, arise Benediction May the blessing of God who is always sustaining as Parent, Beloved, and Breath of All Life - surprise you, connect you as friends of Creation, hands, feet, hearts at the ready, alert and awake! Amen |
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