Tag: holy ground

Oct 3 God’s Name is Revealed

Living into this God Given World: Helpers

Exodus 2:23-25; 3:1-15, 4:10-17

John 8:58

Psalm 46

Trickle Down Grace: A Prayer

Call to Worship (based on Psalm 46)

God says, come into the house of the Lord

We gather together, to be with God

We come to be still, and know God

Come let us worship God, exalted among nations.

Prayer of Confession: God, we confess that sometimes we are like Moses. We feel unworthy to be called upon. We are ware that we lack. We feel that the burden is too heavy. Forgive us, and call us again to be the helpers we pray. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: God is with us, forgiving us. Know the truth: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Let us dedicate ourselves to God, who sends his servants to free the earth. The one who promises to make wars cease. Come let love and serve the Lord. Amen.

Children: Discuss with children Mr. Roger’s famous “consider the helpers” when things are scary or bad conversation. (Keeping in mind that us grown ups are the ones who are supposed to be these helpers setting this example)

Hymns: God of Compassion in Mercy Befriend Us, God of the Ages Whose Almight Hand, Wherever I May Wander, Live Into Hope, When Israel Was in Egypt’s Land, Be Thou My Vision, Called as Partners in Christ’s Service

More Narrative Lectionary Year 4

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Tasting #God

I look over as I raise my glass, the bread has been swallowed individually, because we are all individuals in Christ, and there is Westley, 7 years old and dead serious.

“This is the blood of the New Covenant, Friends, drink ye all of it” I pronounce. Westley holds his cup as steady as he can…and then he drinks it and we drink it.

And Westley tastes God.

Watching my autistic son take communion, being soothed by its ritual, experiencing the taste of the liturgy in community in a way the wordy-words of the sermon and even the half-warbled hymns from his throat doesn’t.

Westley loves church, because he knows he is loved. He knows he is accepted. Working on body language, empathy & instinct, Westley will run from the room if he feels unwanted. He knows. This little boy who doesn’t sit, not even in front of his beloved electronics without fiddling or bouncing or squishing. Sits solemnly throughout service. participating not just with the community, but as a part of it.

But this is his church, this is his space, he is growing up here. And for a little boy who has a lot of trouble speaking and understanding words, the bread and the cup (grape juice) speak to him.

For Westley, Communion is community, its love, its ritual, its sensational in all the right ways. Communion is the taste of God, the one-ness with humanity. Seeing Westley take Communion is holy ground, because we ask God to be present, and miraculously, God is there. God is in the little boy who carefully picks his bread from the platter, and eats it, waiting for the cup to be raised, so we can drink it, as communion.