The amazing praise thou speaks us now, That save the wets by me,
My heart so thoughts the now I am, Was thine, but now I see,
Was praise that dog my heart to me, And praise my fears we believe,
How precious is that praise of me, The hour I first meet,
My chains are gone, I've been set free, My dog, my savior, the best of me,
And I, for God, will learn to praise, I'm letting one amazing praise.
The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secludes,
He will my shield and portion me, As long as life endures,
My chains are gone, I've been set free, My dog, my savior, the best of me,
And I, for God, will learn to praise, I'm letting one amazing praise.
My chains are gone, I've been set free, My dog, my savior, the best of me,
And I, for God, will learn to praise, I'm letting one amazing praise.
The earth shall soon dissolve by snow, As sun for air to shine,
But God, who knows me here and now, Will be forever mine,
Will be forever mine, You are forever mine.
Read from Ephesians 4
spirit just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one lord, one faith, one baptism,
one god and father of all who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given
grace according to the measure of Christ's gift. The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles,
some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of
ministry for building up the body of Christ until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God to maturity to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no
longer be children tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine by people's trickery,
by their craftiness and deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth and love, we must grow up
in every way into him who is the head into Christ from whom the whole body joined in it together
by every ligament with which it is equipped as each part is working properly promotes the body's
growth in building itself up in love. Will you please join me in prayer? Our lord and our god,
we come before you today from places all over the world, places in our lives that are very different
one from another, but we know that you bring us together. We're grateful lord that we can come
into your presence knowing that by the grace of God we are welcome. Lord there are so many things
on our minds and our hearts today. It is difficult to put them all in line and yet we know that you
care about each and every thing and walk beside us in all the things that we face in this life.
Lord we know that there are those who are suffering sometimes for reasons that we cannot
comprehend and yet we feel your presence lord in the midst of all of that your comfort
surrounding us and saying peace. Lord we know that there are some of us who are struggling
and we pray that you would grant us the peace of knowing that you are walking that path with us
that in the midst of all our difficulties and all our trials that you are there with us
and that you will not bring us into anything that we with your help cannot face. We know
that there are those among us who are experiencing great joy. Lord we are so grateful that you share
that joy with us and that you know it at its deepest measure. Lord there are those among us,
many of us who are earnestly seeking your will and your way for our lives but we are a little
confused and we would welcome signs, words, some sense of where you want to guide us and pray
that you would reach out and send us that word that we need to hear. Lord strengthen our hearts
and our minds that we do not rely so much on the things of this world political power physical
power strength or even our ability to reason that we might live out our lives in the joy of
knowing that you are God are with us in all circumstances that we do not have to face these
things by ourselves and with our own limited capacities. We lift all of our heart and our
mind to you right now all of those things that we are thinking in the in the very depths of our
hearts things that we might not even say to anyone but you we lift them to you now Lord
and ask that you take them and give back to us the sense of how to live that out.
Lord we pray that you would take all the varied aspects of our hopes and our dreams take that
and mold it and shape it and create in it a path for us that we might become all that we are meant
to be that we might see with our own eyes the image that you have for us we pray all these things in Jesus name
that is
and in the hour and in the glory of her ever.
Amen.
What a worthy heaven Jesus,
all our sins and praise to them,
what a privilege to every,
every thing to God in prayer.
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
oh, what elest rain we bear,
oh, because we do not carry,
every thing to God in prayer.
Jesus answered them very truly I tell you,
you're looking for me not because you saw signs,
but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
Do not work for the food that perishes,
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the son of man will give you,
for it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.
Then they said to him,
what must we do to perform the works of God?
Jesus answered them, this is the work of God,
that you believe in him whom he has sent.
So they said to him, what sign are you going to give us then,
so that we may see it and believe you?
What work are you performing?
Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness,
as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Then Jesus said to them very truly I tell you,
it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven,
but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.
They said to him, sir, give us this bread always.
Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,
whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
There are so many ways to read and study the Bible,
and one of them that I try sometimes is to pick a person
in the Bible story, one person,
and to read that story from that person's perspective
and wonder what would she be thinking in the middle of all that,
or what would he be feeling when all that was going on,
and to read the story from that person's perspective.
So I'm going to ask us to try that today,
and I'll ask you to imagine just for a few minutes
that you are Jesus.
You are Jesus, and you are at the table,
and you are troubled.
Now, it's not that you have trouble
with difficult dinner table conversations,
that's not it, you're a master at those.
Because your ministry has been at the table for years now,
and it makes sense, because everybody eats,
hopefully we eat every day,
and sometimes when we eat we sit down,
and we relax, and we talk with each other about the day,
and the things that are exciting us,
and the things that are worrying us,
and sharing a meal with somebody can be a great way
to get to know them at a deeper level.
So those meal times are very, very worth it,
even if they're not always that simple.
And with you, meal times are not always that simple,
because ever since the scribes and Pharisees
started really paying attention to who you were
and who you were eating with,
they have been scandalized.
And it really didn't surprise you that much,
because you expect people to fumble a little bit
when they come up against new ideas and different situations
and unfamiliar people.
You expect that.
The new, the unfamiliar, the different,
that's part of life, that's part of growing.
And sometimes life and growing can be so difficult
that we cope by making these labels.
That man, he's a tax collector,
and the work that he's doing,
just the job that he has says it all,
you can't trust him,
or that woman, the sinner,
the lifestyle that she's living,
the choices that she's making.
It doesn't matter why she's doing what she's doing,
as long as she's living that way.
See, when we make labels,
we don't even have to deal with the people,
we just deal with the labels.
And so when the Pharisees and the scribes saw you
eating with tax collectors and sinners,
they saw you taking the risk of looking behind the label
and seeing the people.
Of course, that made them feel uncomfortable.
And it didn't trouble you that much
when they questioned you or criticized you for that,
because you knew that it meant they were dealing
with the difficult questions.
Like, what does faith mean here and now?
Those are important questions.
Very important, because every fish and loaf
multiplied on those slopes of Galilee,
every conversation at a soup kitchen table,
every meal shared with those hungry kids,
every one of those meals is a chance
for people to catch a glimpse of their lives
held in your grace.
And those meals are so worth it.
But however divine you may be,
you are also human.
And sometimes at the end of the day,
when you've had all your energy out there
and you've spent time with people
who don't really know who you are
and they don't know what on earth to make of you,
sometimes it would be nice to know
that somebody was going to be there.
Because we humans, we want to be able to assume
that our parents, spouses, children,
sisters, brothers, friends, friends in the faith
that the people we love are going to see the good in us
and are going to be looking out for our good.
We want that.
You know that the people we love
don't always live up to that.
You've seen it.
You've seen the families torn apart,
the friends who will barely look at each other anymore,
the churches and synagogues that are split
because people who want desperately to live the faith
don't agree on how to do it.
That is what's troubling you today.
Because at this table,
here are some of the people closest to you in the world.
And you know what's going on.
You've heard, you've seen it.
Judas Iscariot is this close to being done with you.
And after everything that he's seen,
this man has experienced the hungry getting fed
and people captive to all sorts of things
getting set free and all those ways big and small
that grace creeps in and changes this world.
He has seen it.
And his heart was starting to melt.
His heart was melting.
But now he's gotten scared.
Scared and angry.
Angry that Rome is still occupying the country
and beating people down with its economic policies
and military presence.
Angry that people are still hurting.
Angry that he is still hurting
and that life still isn't fair.
You know, you haven't fixed everything yet.
But he's getting so angry that he is forgetting the miracles
and he's forgetting the life that you have shared together
and you can tell that he has already made the decision.
He has already decided to go tell them where they can find you
so they can come do whatever it is they think they want to do with you
as if he didn't even care.
And it's people like that.
There's only one thing to do with people like that.
You offer the bread.
It's a sign of friendship.
And he is your friend.
Even if he's acting like he cannot see the reality
of God's power to redeem and reclaim everyone
and everything, it's still true.
Grace is still the way this world is put together.
So you offer the bread.
And yes, yes, she will deny you.
He will doubt you.
Love is what you do with people.
That's been your point all along and you offer the bread.
Yes, they may absolutely turn their backs
on the rich people, poor people, black, brown, red, yellow, white people
for being different, for being wrong, for being selfish.
You keep looking behind the labels
and welcoming them all to use the gifts you have given them
to bless this world.
You keep offering the bread.
Because there's only one thing to do with people like that
and people like that and people like that
and people like this.
You offer the bread.
As you have loved them,
they will learn to love each other.
And so you keep offering this life-giving bread.
Thanks be to God.
One bread, one body, one more law.
One double blessing, which we bless.
And we only need you out here.
We are one high in this world of gold.
It's time for you, servants of the free,
woman of men of old.
One bread, one body, one more law.
One double blessing, which we bless.
And we only need you out here.
We are one high in this world of gold.
Part of the focus of our worship today
has been on people in other times and other places.
People who are different from us.
People who live in different places and speak differently.
And we've been reminded that God and Jesus Christ
are far bigger than any small group of us.
We have been reminded and we are reminded afresh
that Christians everywhere, no matter what our background,
we come together and we are one at this table.
Today we have a very special reminder of our oneness.
We have on the table in front of us today
a chalice and a patin,
which are soon to belong to a Christian community in Pakistan.
The pastor of this community in Pakistan
and some of his followers
have been part of our Disciples Net family
almost from the very beginning.
And these two magnificent symbols of Christian worship
are going from our church at Disciples Net
to their church in Pakistan.
And I would remind all of us today
that we are indeed all part of one family of God,
one family of Jesus Christ,
and that we remember that especially
when we come to this table.
When we worship together in this way today,
we are eating and drinking
with our brothers and sisters everywhere.
We are by our participation in communion today in this worship.
We are blessing and sanctifying these worship elements
that are soon to be part of our brothers and sisters in Pakistan.
And I invite all of us now to come to this table
to share in the blessing of these precious worship elements
and to join in feasting together.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father,
we come to this table excited
about being sisters and brothers around the world.
And we thank you so much, Lord Jesus,
for giving your life for all of us
that we may be one with everyone
that are followers of Christ.
When we drink of this cup and eat of this bread,
we are blessed.
And we thank you for that.
We ask that you bless this cup, bless this bread
so that we will be reminded forever
what you done on that cross 2,000 years ago
to make us all one in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
The Lord Jesus Christ on the night he was betrayed took bread.
When he had given thanks, he broke it,
saying, this is my body which is broken for you.
And he took it and he ate.
In the same manner also he took the cup after supper,
saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup,
we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
Come now, all is in readiness.
We come to the feast.
This chalice that I hold in this pattern with the bread,
the communion that we've taken and the juice in here,
we are now commissioning this to be sent to our friends in Pakistan
to be part of sharing this table that is so big.
For all of you watching there today,
whatever you're drinking from,
whatever your bread comes from, whatever form it's in,
even if this is symbolic,
then we ask God to bless that unless you're coming
and to fill you and sustain you and nourish you
with the love of Jesus Christ.
Now we'd like to pray right now for this chalice in this pattern.
Would you join me please?
Oh gracious God, we come to the table time and again
in the name of your son Jesus Christ.
We ask that you bless this chalice in this pattern
and all those who would come in need, dear Lord,
to take the drink from this cup,
to take the bread from this plate
and that we'll go into who they are
and lift them up and bring them to be one people in your name.
Dear Lord, we ask that those who come
would not go away wanting that you bless their lives
and help them fill your constant presence in those lives.
For all these things we ask in the name of Jesus,
your holy and precious son.
Amen.
Let's go our ways now in the grace of God
and the love of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit
knowing that we are being redeemed.
Go in peace. Amen.
Amen.
