Sunday Liturgy

CALL TO WORSHIP
Psalm 98

MUSIC
Curated by Rebecca Santos
Ancient Gates by Brooke Ligertwood
Sing His Praise Again by Bethel Music
Never Walk Alone by Hillsong
What a Beautiful Name by Hillsong

PRAYER
By Bobbi Salkeld

[INTRO]

Many of us wash up on the shores of Commons from different backgrounds when it comes to the rituals of faith in community.

You may have learned to pray with the Lord’s prayer, or you may have learned to pray extemporaneously. You may have lined up along the alter to receive the Eucharist, or you may have passed around a loaf of bread.

The same is true for baptism.

Some of us were baptized as children, others was teenagers or adults. Some were sprinkled with holy water, others dunked in a lake.

The beauty of the sacraments is in the way we celebrate how God takes the ordinary stuff of our everyday lives and breathes new life and meaning into elements like language, bread, and water.

Today, we have the very special honour in participating in a community liturgy alongside two individuals at Commons: baptism.

Remember your own baptism, and consider the way the sacrament of baptism holds sacred meaning for us all.

Let us pray.

[PRAYER]

Loving God,
Your Spirit hovered over the waters of creation in Genesis,
You brought your people out of slavery and through the Red Sea in Exodus,
And Jesus came to John to be baptized in the Jordan River in the Gospels.
Through birth, death, rebirth, liberation, loyalty, commitment, and communion we live and move and find our being.

In this sacred story of bodies and water, we find our story.
Today, we pray for those being baptized.
Your Spirit leads them to the water, fills their lungs as they step into the pool, and sings over them with love.
May they always trust your nearness.

We also pray for our own baptism identity.
That in the lowering down moments of life,
May we trust the rhythm of grace to lift us up,
Dry us off,
And renew us with hope.

By the Spirit we are baptized into one body,
and shaped into the likeness of Christ.
Sent out into the world to love and to heal
with blessing on our heads
and bodies renewed for service.
Amen.