The Promise of God's Presence

Sixth Sunday of Easter

**Please note this service is based on the format of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada. Unless otherwise indicated, all prayers come from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW). Hymns and other prayers have been sourced to give appropriate credit.

**This is for personal use at home as the church is unable to gather in our houses of worship but together we can worship in our own homes.

Introduction to the day

Jesus does not abandon his followers. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus comes to abide with his disciples of every generation. As Pentecost draws near, we are reminded that the risen Christ dwells in us as the Spirit of truth. We receive this Spirit in baptism and pray that in our gathering around the Lord’s table the Spirit will transform us to be the body of the risen Christ in the world.

Call to Worship (from Lectionary Sermons Archives – http://www.lectionarysermons.com/ARCH-W.html)

Make a joyful noise to God all the earth,

Sing out the praises of God.

Come all you people and know the joy of the Lord,

The love of God is greater than the tongue can tell!

Bless the Lord all you people, bless his Holy Name!

We praise, and worship, and honor, and glorify Your name O Lord!

Confession and Forgiveness

Blessed be the holy Trinity, one God,

who forgives all our sin,

whose mercy endures forever.

Amen.

Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Let us confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another.

Most merciful God,

we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name.

Amen.

In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for his sake God forgives us all our sins. As a called and ordained minister of the church of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Thanksgiving For Baptism

Blessed be the holy Trinity, one God,

the fountain of living water,

the rock who gave us birth,

our light and our salvation.

Amen.

Joined to Christ in the waters of baptism,

we are clothed with God's mercy and forgiveness.

Let us give thanks for the gift of baptism.

We give you thanks, O God,

for in the beginning your Spirit moved over the waters

and by your Word you created the world,

calling forth life in which you took delight.

Through the waters of the flood you delivered Noah and his family.

Through the sea you led your people Israel from slavery into freedom.

At the river your Son was baptized by John and anointed with the Holy Spirit.

By water and your Word you claim us as daughters and sons,

making us heirs of your promise and servants of all.

We praise you for the gift of water that sustains life,

and above all we praise you for the gift of new life in Jesus Christ.

Shower us with your Spirit,

and renew our lives with your forgiveness, grace, and love.

To you be given honor and praise

through Jesus Christ our Lord

in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and forever.

Amen.

Gathering Song – O Holy Spirit, Enter In

Listen Here

Greeting

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God,

and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

And also with you.

Canticle Of Praise

Listen Here

Prayer Of The Day

Let us pray.

Almighty and ever-living God, you hold together all things in heaven and on earth. In your great mercy receive the prayers of all your children, and give to all the world the Spirit of your truth and peace, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

Word

God speaks to us in scripture reading, preaching, and song.

A Reading from the Book of Acts                                  17:22-31

In Athens, Paul faces the challenge of proclaiming the gospel to Greeks who know nothing of either Jewish or Christian tradition. He proclaims that the “unknown god” whom they worship is the true Lord of heaven and earth who will judge the world with justice through Jesus, whom God has raised from the dead.

Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,
 ‘For we too are his offspring.’
Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Psalm 66:8-20

Listen Here

 Bless our God, you peoples;
  let the sound of praise be heard.
 Our God has kept us among the living
  and has not allowed our feet to slip.
 For you, O God, have | tested us;
  you have tried us just as silver is tried.
 You brought us into the net;
  you laid heavy burdens up on our backs.
 You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water,
  but you brought us out into a place of refreshment.
 I will enter your house with burnt offerings
  and will pay you my vows
 those that I promised with my lips
  and spoke with my mouth when I was in trouble.
 I will offer you burnt offerings of fatlings with the smoke of rams;
  I will give you oxen and goats.
 Come and listen, all you who believe,
  and I will tell you what God has done for me.
 I called out to God with my mouth,
  and praised the Lord with my tongue.
 If I had cherished evil in my heart,
  the Lord would not have heard me;
 but in truth God has heard me
  and has attended to the sound of my prayer.
 Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer,
  nor withheld unfailing love from me.

A Reading from the First Letter of Peter                      3:13-22

The author of 1 Peter encourages Christians to remain faithful even in the face of defamation and persecution. In baptism we are made clean to act in accordance with what is right.

Who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia. Those who love me will keep my word, and my God will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Alleluia. (John 14:23)

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

The holy gospel according to John.                                 14:15-21

Glory to you, O Lord.

In final words to his disciples on the night of his arrest, Jesus encourages obedience to his commandments and speaks of the Spirit, who will be with them forever.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
  “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Guest preacher - National Lutheran Bishop Susan Johnson

   Grace to you and peace in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

It’s wonderful to be with you today in this way during this time of pandemic. Our national office is closed and I am working from home. It is easy to feel isolated and dislocated from the church that I am called to serve. And yet, I’ve joined in three different synod council meetings by Zoom, and I’ve joined congregations from each synod in worship. The synod bishops and I are meeting more frequently than ever. So are our national and synodical treasurers. In many ways I feel more connected to the church than ever before.

There is no doubt that the way we are being church is different in these times, and it may last for a lot longer thank any of us had anticipated… But there is also no doubt that we still are a church, called to follow the way of Jesus and participate in God’s mission to love and save the world. In today’s gospel lesson Jesus reminds us that if we love him, we need to keep his commandments, to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and love our neighbours as ourselves. 

If you are like me, then there are days when it seems pretty easy to follow this directive and there are days that is seems a lot harder. In this time of pandemic, it is easy to have days when I can get so anxious and worried that all I’m thinking of is myself. But there are other days where I am way more concerned with those who are working on the frontlines, for those who are mourning people who have died from COVID-19, for refugees living in camps with poor sanitary conditions, for homeless people in Canada, for those living on reserves with boil water advisories. And although I am not able to do very much directly to help, I increase my prayers and I increase my donations.


The wonderful thing is that Jesus does not just ask us to keep his commandments and then abandon us. Jesus promises not to leave us orphaned. In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus promises to send us an advocate, to help us and guide us in the ways of truth. This is, of course, the coming of the Holy Spirit that we will celebrate in two weeks on Pentecost.

Although today’s Gospel lesson comes before Jesus’ crucifixion and death, it is very similar to the messages of assurance that Jesus gives in his post-resurrection appearances. God is with us. Jesus is with us. The Spirit is with us. We are not alone. As Paul reminds us in the reading from Acts, in God we live and move and have our being.

In my lifetime, I have never experienced such a time as this. Prolonged isolation. Churches closed. The loss of many leisure activities. My work life totally restructured. For those who are working on the frontlines there is the real and present danger of getting sick or dying. For many people there have been loss of jobs, for many others great financial worries. We can keep in touch with loved ones by telephone or a number of electronic means, but it’s not the same as being together, or giving and receiving hugs.

There are two natural kinds of responses we can experience in such disorienting times. To feel the absence of God: To ask where God is. To blame God for the pandemic. To ask why our prayers and not being answered. Or there is the opposite response: To feel more closely the presence of God.


If you are in the former camp, I totally understand it. But please hear me that God is with you. However, I’m firmly in the latter camp. I’m finding with fewer options of things to do and with a much more regular daily rhythm to my life that it is easier to have a regular and increased prayer and devotional life. I’ve been choosing a hymn each day and writing a prayer to go along with the hymn and encouraging you to join me. I sing the hymn most days and post it on social media. During my singing and my praying, I am so aware of God’s presence. When I go out for my daily walk I have been so aware of God’s presence in wind, and snow, and flooding, and the slow greening of a late prairie spring. I am so aware of God’s presence with me when I get an unexpected call from a friend checking in on me. And in the smiles of grocery checkout clerks. In the kindness of people politely taking turns and keeping appropriate physical distancing measures.

My favourite prayer is “O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”


These are challenging times with unknown endings. But God is with us. Take courage in God’s presence and rest in God’s love. We may be changed, but our beloved church will come through this as well. 

Hymn Of The Day – Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart (ELW 800)

Listen Here

Nicene Creed

Let us confess the faith of our baptism as we say together the Nicene Creed.

We believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God,

eternally begotten of the Father,

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made,

of one Being with the Father;

through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation

he came down from heaven,

was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary

and became truly human.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;

he suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he rose again

in accordance with the scriptures;

he ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,

and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son,

who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,

who has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

We look for the resurrection of the dead,

and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Prayers Of Intercession

Uplifted by the promised hope of healing and resurrection, we join the people of God in all times and places in praying for the church, the world, and all who are in need.

Abiding God, you have revealed yourself to us in the form of your Son, Jesus Christ. Embolden your church, as your followers, to reveal your love to everyone in our speaking and in our living. Lord, in your mercy,

hear our prayer.

You are the creator of heaven and earth. Revitalize the health of oceans, rivers, lakes, springs, glaciers, and other bodies of water that give life to your creatures. Lord, in your mercy,

hear our prayer.

You call all people of the world your children. Judge the nations justly, show mercy to the oppressed, and speak truth to power through your prophets. Lord, in your mercy,

hear our prayer.

You come near to us when we are lost, and you hear our distress. We pray for those who suffer in any way. Lord, in your mercy,

hear our prayer.

Your commands are good and merciful. Give us courage to take hold of our baptismal promises to work for justice, advocate for the voiceless, and free the oppressed and imprisoned in body, mind, or spirit. Lord, in your mercy,

hear our prayer.

You remain with us always, O God, and your kingdom has no end. We remember the saints who have gone before us. Unite us forever in your final victory over death. Lord, in your mercy,

hear our prayer.

With bold confidence in your love, almighty God, we place all for whom we pray into your eternal care; through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Peace

The peace of Christ be with you always.

And also with you.

Offering Prayer

**Although not physically at our church buildings to share our offering together I would encourage you to set your offering of money aside so that it can be dropped off or placed in the church once services resume, to mail your offering to the church, or to make donations online. Please remember ministry is still taking place.

Let us pray.

Living and gracious God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ you have brought us out to a spacious place where we are called to live as those redeemed. Empower us by your Spirit to keep your commandments, that we may show forth your love with gentle word and reverent deed to all your people. Amen.

(Revised Common Lectionary Prayers)

Canticle Of Thanksgiving

Salvation belongs to our God

and to Christ the Lamb forever and ever.

Great and wonderful are your deeds,

O God of the universe;

just and true are your ways,

O Ruler of all the nations.

Who can fail to honor you, Lord,

and sing the glory of your name?

Salvation belongs to our God

and to Christ the Lamb forever and ever.

For you alone are the Holy One,

and blessed is the one

whose name is the Word of God.

All praise and thanks to you, holy God!

Salvation belongs to our God

and to Christ the Lamb forever and ever.

Thanksgiving For The Word

Let us pray.

Praise and thanks to you, holy God, for by your Word you made all things: you spoke light into darkness, called forth beauty from chaos, and brought life into being. For your Word of life, O God,

we give you thanks and praise.

By your Word you called your people Israel to tell of your wonderful gifts: freedom from captivity, water on the desert journey, a pathway home from exile, wisdom for life with you. For your Word of life, O God,

we give you thanks and praise.

Through Jesus, your Word made flesh, you speak to us and call us to witness: forgiveness through the cross, life to those entombed by death, the way of your self-giving love. For your Word of life, O God,

we give you thanks and praise.

Send your Spirit of truth, O God; rekindle your gifts within us: renew our faith, increase our hope, and deepen our love, for the sake of a world in need. Faithful to your Word, O God, draw near to all who call on you; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory forever.

Amen.

Lord’s Prayer

Gathered into one by the Holy Spirit, let us pray as Jesus taught us.

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those

who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial

and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power,

and the glory are yours,

now and forever. Amen.

Sending

God blesses us and sends us in mission to the world.

Blessing

The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord’s face shine on you with grace and mercy.

The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace.

Amen.

Sending Song – Come, Join the Dance of Trinity (ELW 412)

Listen Here

Dismissal

Go forth into the world to serve God with gladness; be of good courage; hold fast to that which is good; render to no one evil for evil; strengthen the fainthearted; support the weak; help the afflicted; honor all people; love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Thanks be to God.