**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.
**NRSV translation used for the readings, unless otherwise stated.
**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
This Sunday’s image of how the risen Christ shares his life with us is
the image of the vine. Christ the vine and we the branches are alive in each
other, in the mystery of mutual abiding described in the gospel and the first
letter of John. Baptism makes us a part of Christ’s living and life-giving self
and makes us alive with Christ’s life. As the vine brings food to the branches,
Christ feeds us at his table. We are sent out to bear fruit for the life of the
world.
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.
God, who is rich in mercy, loved us even when we were dead in sin, and made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. In the name of ☩ Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. Almighty God strengthen you with power through the Holy Spirit, that Christ may live in your hearts through faith.
Amen.
Gathering Song – Lord of all Nations, Grant Me Grace (ELW #716)
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.
Prayer of the Day
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us pray.
O God, you give us your Son as the vine apart from whom we cannot live.
Nourish our life in his resurrection, that we may bear the fruit of love and
know the fullness of your joy, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
Readings
A reading from the Book of Acts 8:26-40
Then an angel of the Lord said to
Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from
Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now
there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the
Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to
worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the
prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and
join it.” So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He
asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless
someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the
passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the
slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied
him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom,
may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”
Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to
him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to
some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me
from being baptized?” He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them,
Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When
they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the
eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself
at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good
news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Psalm 22:25-31
From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will pay before
those who fear him.
The poor shall eat
and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord;
and all the families
of the nations
shall worship before him.
For dominion belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
To him, indeed, shall
all who sleep in the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the
dust,
and I shall live for him.
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be
told about the Lord,
and proclaim his
deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.
Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was
revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we
might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he
loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved,
since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever
seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in
us.
By this we know that we abide in him
and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do
testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides
in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we
have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in
love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in
this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so
are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out
fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached
perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love
God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love
a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not
seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love
their brothers and sisters also.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Children’s Message
(from sermon4kids.com)
What happens if
you try to turn on a lamp that isn’t plugged in?
It doesn’t
light up, right? You have to plug your lamp in to get it to work.
Jesus told His
disciples a story about a grapevine to help them understand why it’s important
to stay connected to Him. But He didn’t use a lamp. In His example there was a
grapevine.
A vine is a
plant with a lot of branches growing out from it. The branches have fruit on
them. So grapevines have grapes on them.
Think about a
branch that’s been broken off of a tree or a vine. What happens to it? It
withers up and dies. It can’t ever have fruit on it again; it’s not good for
anything except firewood.
Jesus said,
"I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me, you will
have much fruit, but apart from me, you can do nothing." Jesus wants us to
produce fruit. Good fruit, like kindness, generosity, and faithfulness. Most of
all, He wants us to love others as He has loved us.
But we can’t do
it on our own. Just as the lamp must be plugged in before its light can shine,
and just as the branches must be connected to the vine before they can produce
fruit, you and I must stay connected to Jesus to produce the good fruit that
God expects of us.
Gospel Acclamation
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John 15:1-8
Glory to you, O Lord.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
The gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O
Christ.
Sermon
May only truth be spoken and only truth
received. Amen.
The book of Acts is a continuation of the Gospel of Luke. Unlike the rest of the Christian Testament, which is very much about the theology of the fledgling Christian movement, the book of Acts follows the stories of the first disciples as they travel around telling the good news of Jesus Christ.
These disciples were a small community who were being heavily persecuted. The story of the conversion and baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch comes right after Stephen has been stoned to death for proclaiming Christ. This story begins a series of healing and conversion narratives. Right after today’s story, we read about the conversion of Saul who would become Paul.
The circle of resurrection light is widening fast. What began as a team of 12 is quickly becoming a team of many. The book of Acts is trying to explain the expansion of this new movement.
Backing up in chapter 8 a little bit, we are introduced to a little-known disciple named Philip. In verses 5 and 6, we hear of Philip’s call to be one of the first deacons: “Philip went down to a city in Samaria and began to preach Christ to them. The crowds were united by what they heard Philip say and the signs they saw him perform, and they gave him their undivided attention.”
In today’s story, Philip encounters a man in a chariot, a eunuch from Ethiopia who is coming home from
Jerusalem, someone wealthy enough to
ride in a chariot, educated enough to read Greek, devout enough to study the
prophet Isaiah, and humble enough to know that he cannot understand what he is
reading without help.
Eunuchs were typically a male castrated before puberty and would be seen as “safe among women”. As such they would be considered neither male nor female and could move easily between gendered spaces. A eunuch could spend their days guarding a King’s harem or work in close contact with a Queen without raising anyone’s eyebrows.
The strange thing about this particular man being on the road from Jerusalem is that, as a eunuch, he would not have been allowed to worship at the temple. Maybe he knew that when he went or maybe he’s now traveling home, feeling like he’s just been rejected from the church and from the worshipping community.
Despite this rejection, he is still wanting to connect with scripture and with God.
When Philip sees the Ethiopian man in the chariot, he runs up and sees that he is reading the book of Isaiah and so Philip asks, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The eunuch responds, “How can I unless someone guides me?”
They studied together the passage the man was examining. It is a couple of verses from Isaiah we know as the Suffering Servant Song (53:7-8).
The man asks Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”
I was listening to a podcast this week about today’s passage from Acts and I really enjoyed how the Reverend Jamie Howison out of st benedict’s table described the excitement Philip might have felt that day in the chariot.
Imagine that Philip gets really excited about the eunuch’s question, saying “I know this man of whom the prophet speaks! I know the lamb that Isaiah was talking about. I spent three years with him, listening to his stories and his teachings. I saw him sit with the downtrodden and heal the broken. I was there the night he was arrested. I was there the night he died. His broken and beaten body was put into a tomb. But then, on the third day, he arose from the dead, the stone rolled away and his body missing. I have seen him though, since his death. I have seen him alive, touched him, and dined with him. I watched as he was taken up to God.”
At this point, Philip would share with the eunuch that the spirit of God is around us and working through us, each and every one of us.
Philip is evangelizing about the good news of Jesus Christ and the eunuch, having just been rejected by the temple and with a desperate desire for a guide to God, is hanging on to every word.
He is so captivated by Philip’s testimony that, at the end, he says, “look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”
What is the eunuch actually asking when they say, “Is there anything preventing me from being baptized?”
Anything God says? Anything the church says? Anything you, Philip, will say?
Is there anything that prevents me from being baptized? Does my race prevent me? Does being a eunuch prevent me? Does anything about me prevent me from being baptized?
And Philip knows the law – he knows that this person shouldn’t be allowed to be part of the community. Being from Ethiopia, he is likely a gentile. He is also a eunuch, forever marked as an outsider as per Deuteronomy 23, forever ineligible to participate in the life and practices of Israel.
Philips’s response? He just gets into the water and baptizes him. This evangelist baptizes a gender non-conforming person who had been excluded from the worshipping life of the community. But after this moment he was allowed to go on his way rejoicing.
Now God will be seen where no one would have imagined or dared to look.
This passage from Philip reveals the “something new” that is happening with the Jesus movement. The old rules about who is in and who is out don’t exist anymore. They are being broken down, and the circle of inclusion is being drawn ever-wider.
By baptizing the Ethiopian, Philip is expanding the mission of the Jesus followers to the Gentiles long before it is embraced by the church itself. It won’t be until Acts 11 and the conversion of Cornelius (by Peter) that the church will acknowledge that “God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18).
By baptizing the eunuch, Philip is expanding the mission of Jesus to anyone who wants to be included.
Philip didn’t wait for permission, or to consult with Peter and the others. Philip didn’t deny the Ethiopian inclusion into the community of Jesus Christ because of his race or gender.
Philip heard what the spirit of God was saying to him and did what he knew was the right thing to do. He performed a radical act of inclusion that helped the circle of Jesus followers to expand in a surprising new way.
Being baptized, being included, causes the eunuch to rejoice, and church tradition tells us that their joy was so contagious that it became the seed of the church in Ethiopia.
Philip is a quiet disciple with a loud message for us. When someone asks the same question as the eunuch in our story, “What is there to prevent me from being baptized, from being included?” our answer should be the same as Philip’s. Whatever makes a person unique, these are not valid reasons to exclude them. The next time someone asks the eunuch’s question to you, you must say, “You are welcome here. All of you is welcome here. Bring all of who you are to this space and to God’s community.”
We, like Philip and the eunuch, are affirmed in the call to share the good news of the God of Israel revealed in Jesus without partiality or prejudice. Who are we to deny someone the joy of living a life in communion with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit?
Amen.
Hymn of the Day – Day of Arising (ELW #374)
Creed
Let us confess
the faith of our baptism, as we say 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
Alive in the risen Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, we bring our
prayers before God who promises to hear us and answer in steadfast love.
Silence
God of all fruitfulness, you abide in your church and your church abides in you. Cleanse us by your word and give yourself to the whole church on earth so that it bears fruit and witnesses to your love.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
You have created the heavens and the earth. As we wonder at the beauty of creation, may we seek vital connections among all that depends on the earth for life.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
You rule the nations with justice and love. Give the leaders of the earth assurance of your abiding presence, that they lead not by fear but with love for those they are called to serve.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
You have loved us so that we can love others. We pray for all in need of your love: those who are poor, lowly, outcast, weak, or fearful. Provide for the needs of all.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
You gather us with all the saints by the power of your Spirit. With them, may our hearts live forever in your keeping.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
Please take time to offer your own intercessions or to pray in silence.
In the hope of new life in Christ, we raise our prayers to you, trusting in your never-ending goodness and mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Peace
The peace of Christ be with you always.
And also with you.
Hymn of Thanksgiving – Lord of all Hopefulness (ELW #765)
**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.
Thanksgiving for the Word
Let us pray.
O God of justice and love, we give thanks to you that you illumine our
way through life with the words of your Son. Give us the light we need, awaken
us to the needs of others, and at the end bring all the world to your feast;
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, 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;
and 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.
Blessing
May our glorious God grant you a spirit of
wisdom to know and to love the risen Lord Jesus.
The God of life, Creator, ☩ Redeemer, and Sanctifier, bless you now and forever.
Amen.
Sending Song – Alle, Alle, Alleluia
Dismissal
Alleluia! Christ is risen.
Christ is risen
indeed. Alleluia!
Go in peace. Share the good news. Alleluia!
Thanks be to God. Alleluia!
