Camp Egan Retreat Communion Worship Sunday, May 26, 2013

Camp Egan Retreat Worship, 2013

Call To Worship

Today is the day which God has made:

Let us rejoice and be glad therein.

What does the Eternal require of us?

To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.

O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you

As the day rises to meet the sun.  

Be with us in our humble and deliberate beginning of the day

We Come into God’s presence with thanksgiving.

Opening Songs of Praise

Holy, Holy, Holy

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

For The Beauty of the Earth

Morning Prayers

Prayer of Confession:

Gracious and Loving God, we acknowledge to you, to one another, and to ourselves that we are not what you have called us to be.

We have stifled our gifts and wasted our time.

We have avoided opportunities to offer kindness, but have been quick to take offense. We have pretended that we could make no contribution to peace and justice in our world and have excused ourselves from risk-taking in our own community.

 Have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and help us to live our lives differently.

We long for peace within and without, for harmony in our families, for the well-being of our neighbors, and help us to love our enemies.

Yet we have too often not made the hard choices that love requires.

Show us how to walk in your path of faithfulness, hope, and love.

Amen.

Words of Assurance:

One fact remains that does not change: God loves all. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. This is the good news that brings new life.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Pastoral Prayers:

Eternal Spirit, we come with hungry hearts, waiting to be filled: Waiting to be filled with a sense of your presence; Waiting to be filled with the touch of your spirit; Waiting to be filled with new energy for service; We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.

Loving Creator, we confess what seems always with us: broken things within us that seem never to mend, empty places within us that seem always to ache, things like buds within us that seem never to flower.

God of everlasting hope and forgiveness, help us to be open to your Presence within us, mending and tending to our aching hearts and to our hurt and wounded land. Help us to listen to others, and empower us to be your hands of action and healing, sowing seeds of compassion and justice into our families and communities and to support all those in need in our one world which you made and called good.

Song: Peace Like A River

Pastoral Prayer

Let us pray for those who weep, and for those who cause their weeping. Hear our prayer, O God. For those who are without food, clothes, and a place of shelter this day and everyday. Hear our prayer, O God. For those who live without hope and meaning. Hear our prayer, O God. For those who live in fear or sickness. Hear our prayer, O God. For those who make gods of things and of themselves, Hear our prayer, O God. For those who are working to serve others this day, Hear our prayer, O God. For those travelling today, Hear our prayer, O God. For those in harm’s way, in homes and on battlefields, Hear our prayer, O God. For those who are finding their way again to love and laughter, Hear our prayer, O God. And for the great mission of God to bless the poor, to pardon the imprisoned, to bring sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to provide hospitality to the resident aliens, to clothe all, to visit the sick, and to proclaim the year of the Lord and end all debts, Hear our prayer, O God.

Lift Up Names For Prayers

Eternal Spirit of Life and Love and Liberation, may we be open to your presence in our lives, in all our joys and sorrows, fears and faith, dreams and disappointments, hurts and hopes, those shared openly with others, and those shared only with You.

Everlasting Hope that holds us up, so that we may go hold others, we give thanks for all that has blessed us, and all that has brought us to this day of Life’s Celebration.

Universal Love, continue to show us the way home to our own true hearts, our duties, and to the service of creating a better world for all. Help us to see anew the sacredness placed right before us, right beside us, right within us.

Deepest Source of All, may our prayers be times of listening as well as speaking. May we be open to what Life yet speaks to us of truth, joy, and goodness.

God beyond all human naming, yet as close as our breath and beating hearts, we bring today these reflections of our minds, these meditations of our hearts, these prayers of our souls. Now we join in praying as Jesus taught all those who would follow in his radical, inclusive, compassionate and transforming way, we pray,

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Song: Amazing Grace

Communion

Prayer

 O God, we gather at this welcoming table open to all no matter what, remembering how Jesus gathered people from all the walks of life, stranger and friend and enemies, gave thanks to you, offered all the bread of life and the cup of blessing and proclaimed a covenant of love for all in your name.  We remember too the wonder of his life, as we remember the wonder of all of Creation given unto us and how all are One, and all lives sacred.  We remember his death and how on the night before he died he still gathered in love to share a meal and the hope for a better world, and we remember all the terrors and the tyrannies that oppress people today. In the mystery of faith in the everlasting Spirit, the triumph over fear,  help us to remember to practice resurrection everyday as we remember all those who have given Love the ultimate trust and the last word and who have worked to create the beloved community of renewed and abundant life. Help us to remember with this sacred and symbolic meal especially all those who are hungry, and may we treat all our meals as sacred and to be shared. Take us, bless us, so that even in and with our brokenness we may serve others and receive Your Spirit.

 Amen.

Song: “I Love To Tell The Story”

Communion Homily: Being The Story

Blessing of Plate and Cup

Jesus said I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And they said, Lord, when did we do this? And he said, You did this for me when you did it for the least of these.

Here is the bread of life, food for the spirit. Let all who hunger come and eat.

Here is the fruit of the vine pressed and poured out for us. Let all who thirst now come and drink. 

We come to make peace. We come to be restored in the love of God. We come to be made new as an instrument of that love.

All are worthy. All are welcome.

Passing The Bread of Life and Cup of Hope during Singing of “Let Us Break Bread Together”

Closing Song: “Love Lifted Me”

Benediction:

The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you;  The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.