Sunday, January 23, 2022
CALL TO WORSHIP
Psalm 51
MUSIC
Curated by Kevin Borst
Bethel Music - I Believe
Brooke Ligertwood - A Thousand Hallelujahs
Chris Tomlin - Good Good Father
Hillsong Worship - What A Beautiful Name
EUCHARIST INVITATION
Written by Larissa Amour
Take a moment to focus on this invitation.
The late Rachel Held Evans wrote this reflection on the practice of the open table communion: “If people are hungry, let them come and eat. If people are thirsty, let them come and drink. It’s not my table anyway. It’s not my denomination’s table or my church’s table. It’s Christ’ table. Christ sends out the invitations, and if he has to run through the streets gathering up the riffraff to fill up his house, then that’s exactly what he’ll do. Who am I to block the door?”
The door has been open. Wide open for some, and seemingly just slightly ajar for others. But open nonetheless. These little cups we hold in our weary hands, fiddling with the very symbol that reminds us there will forever be a seat ready for you at the table. Come to this meal with all your baggage, your worry, your fear and sin. There’s room for it all and then some. That’s quite literally the whole point. Christ’s body is broken open for you to tangibly sense a grace so overwhelmingly good, the only thing left to do is to humbly make room at the table for our neighbour to experience it too.
So come, come to the table not because we must but because we may. Taking the elements not because we hope to earn God’s favour, but because we stand in constant need of grace and divine love.
In just a moment, I’ll invite you to take a seat. As you sit here or at home, pause for a moment to be still before you take the elements.
Offer a quiet prayer of thanks, confess a need, or simply hold silence that honours where you are and what you’re feeling.
If you are not comfortable taking your mask off here in the room, that’s fine.
You can take the elements with you and partake at home.
Whatever form your prayer takes, trust these mysteries held by the friends that shared that final meal…and the Church that remembers it still:
Christ has died for us all,
Christ has risen,
Christ will come again.
I offer you this short prayer:
Embodied God,
Will you continue to show us the ways in which
you transform the ordinary, into holy things
How scraps of bread, and empty cups can become an eternal feast.
May we in turn transform the ordinary parts of our lives into holy things.
Seeing how small acts of kindness and grace,
can spread so far and wide in our communities,
your embodied spirit filling out every crack and crevice
In desperate need of your light.
Lord, will you continue to make us whole.
Amen.
SPECIAL VIDEO: THE STORY BEHIND COMMONS KIDS ONLINE
