Narrative Lectionary Prayers and Communion November 9, 2014

Call to Worship 

One: Once again, we are here.

Many: We have come looking for comfort, for refreshment, for another taste of God’s presence in our lives.

One: It is good for us to be here.

Many: And it is good for us to take the good news, the comfort, the refreshment, into the world for those who need them.

Reconciliation

One: It has been another week, O God, and once again we must admit to stumbling.

Many: Once again, we have not done what we wished to do, or done it poorly.

One: Forgive our weakness, give us strength and courage to do what we know is right.

Many: For we know that nothing can separate us from your love. Amen.

One: My friends, before we have asked, God has forgiven us. In the name of Christ, we are forgiven!

Many: We are forgiven! Thanks be to God!

 Communion

One: Lift up your hearts!

Many: We lift them up to our living God!

One: God of all creation, you made humans in your image, giving us your divine impulse to create and do new things. But in our arrogance, we took the earth as a possession, without thought for tomorrow, our sisters and brothers to come, or your divine plan. We mocked the ones you sent to set us back on your path. We call them saints but do not always follow their teachings, whining that they are too difficult for us. So in the end you sent Jesus the Christ, bearing witness to your grace and healing power, to show your presence with us always. And on the night before he paid the ultimate price for proclaiming your truth, he gathered with his friends in an upper room. There he took the bread, blessed it after the manner of his people, and broke it, then shared it among them with these words:

Many: This is my body, opened for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

One: And when the meal was over, he took the cup and blessed it after the manner of his people, then passed it among his friends with these words:

Many: This is my love, poured out for you and for all nations. Do this in remembrance of me.

One: Remembering all that God has given us, remembering the saints who have gone before us, testifying to your grace, we are bold to proclaim the mystery of our faith:

Many: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again! Go and tell!

One: Gracious God, we ask that you would make these gifts of grain and grape to be what we need them to be, in order for us to carry your love and healing with us. Pour out your spirit on cup and bread; make them a foretaste of your heaven and our hope. Amen.

Benediction

One: We have shared in the words of God, in the bread of life, our joys and our fears. Now as we go out into the world again, we take the wisdom, the strength, and the hope of God with us.

Many: Amen! Thanks be to God.

One: The love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and the grace of Christ go with you now and always, Amen.