Good morning.
Today is Saturday,
October 31st,
2020.
O Lord,
Let my soul rise up to meet you as the day rises to meet the sun.
Glory to God,
The three in one,
Creator,
Redeemer,
And sustainer,
As it was in the beginning,
Is now,
And will be forever.
Amen.
Come,
Let us bow down and worship.
Let us kneel before the Lord,
Our maker.
Remind yourself that you are in God's presence.
Notice how God may be speaking to you today.
Let yourself dwell on a word or a phrase that jumps out at you and let your heart respond to God in prayer.
Please repeat these words.
You order your kingdom with justice and establish the world in peace.
Let us then be children no longer,
Tossed here and there,
Carried about by every wind of doctrine or by human trickery or crafty deceitful schemes.
Rather,
Let us speak the truth in love and grow to the full maturity of Christ the head.
Through Christ,
The whole body grows.
With the proper functioning of each member,
Firmly joined together by each supporting ligament,
The body builds itself up in love.
So I declare and testify together with Christ that you must stop living the kind of life the world lives.
Their minds are empty.
They have no understanding.
They are alienated from the life of God.
All because they have hardened their hearts.
They have dulled their sense of right and wrong.
For they have abandoned themselves to sensuality in order to indulge in every form of licentiousness and greed.
That is hardly the way you learned from Christ unless you failed to hear properly when you were taught what the truth is in Jesus.
You must give up your old way of life.
You must put aside your old self which is being corrupted by following illusory desires.
Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God's likeness,
In the justice and holiness of truth.
Please repeat these words.
You order your kingdom with justice and establish the world in peace.
On Saturdays we pray for ourselves and we think about our grief.
And so I invite you now to hold your broken heart before God.
Consider your heartache,
Your sadness,
Your grief,
Your longing and hold your broken self before God this morning.
Don't worry about diagnosing your sadness or telling God what to do.
And as you hold yourself before God,
Hear these words of blessing spoken over you.
May the light of Christ go before you and behind you,
Beneath you and above you,
On your right and on your left,
When you rise and when you lie down.
May the light of Christ be with you.
May the light of Christ be in you.
May the love of God go before you and behind you,
Beneath you and above you,
On your right and on your left,
When you rise and when you lie down.
May the love of God be with you.
May the love of God be in you.
In the name of Jesus who taught us to pray,
Our Father which art in heaven,
Eternal God,
Earth maker,
Pain bearer,
Life giver,
Source of all that is and all that shall be,
Not only Father but Mother of us all.
May the howling of your name echo through the universe.
May the way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world.
May your heavenly will be done by all created beings.
May your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today,
Feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another,
Forgive us.
In times of temptation and test,
Strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure,
Spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil,
Free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
Now and forever.
Amen.
Lord,
Within your community we are strengthened to persevere,
Empowered to proclaim your truth and shaped to wait on you.
Teach us anew what we can learn from other faithful brothers and sisters who serve you in their particular ways of worship and proclamation.
Amen.
And now my friends may the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ go with you wherever he may send you today.
May he guide you through the wilderness,
Protect you through the storm.
May he bring you home rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you.
May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
Go in peace.
