**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.
Introduction to the day
Easter
initiates a new day. It anticipates a new heaven and a new earth. The risen
Christ is making all things new. In the mystery of holy baptism God has made
new people of us. Today Jesus invites us to see everyone in a new light – through
the lens of love.
Thanksgiving For Baptism
Alleluia!
Christ is risen.
Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!
In the waters of baptism,
we
have passed over from death to life with Jesus Christ,
and
we are a new creation.
For
this saving mystery, and for this water, let us bless God,
who
was, who is, and who is to come.
We
thank you, God, for your river of life,
flowing
freely from your throne:
through
the earth,
through
the city,
through
every living thing.
You
rescued Noah and his family from the flood;
You
opened wide the sea for the Israelites.
Now
in these waters you flood us with mercy,
and
our sin is drowned forever.
You
open the gate of righteousness
and
we pass safely through.
In
Jesus Christ, you calm and trouble the waters.
You
nourish us and enclose us in safety.
You
call us forth and send us out.
In
lush and barren places, you are with us.
You
have become our salvation.
Now
breathe upon this water
and
awaken your church once more.
Claim
us again as your beloved and holy people.
Quench
our thirst; cleanse our hearts; wipe away every tear.
To
you, our Beginning and our End,
our
Shepherd and Lamb,
be
honor, glory, praise, and thanksgiving,
now
and forever.
Amen.
Gathering Song – Thine Is the Glory (ELW #376)
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
Prayer of the Day
The
Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let
us pray.
O Lord God, you teach us that
without love, our actions gain nothing. Pour into our hearts your most
excellent gift of love, that, made alive by your Spirit, we may know goodness
and peace, through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior 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 11:1-18
Now the apostles and the
brothers and sisters who were in Judea heard that the gentiles had also
accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised
believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat
with them?” Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, “I
was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was
something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four
corners, and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed
animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice
saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord,
for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But a second time
the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call
profane.’ This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to
heaven. At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the
house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a
distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we
entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his
house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will
give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ And as
I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the
beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John
baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then
God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” When they heard this, they were
silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the
gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Psalm 148
Praise
the Lord!
Praise
the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
Praise
him, all his angels;
praise him, all his host!
Praise
him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars!
Praise
him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the heavens!
Let
them praise the name of the Lord,
for he commanded and they were created.
He
established them forever and ever;
he fixed their bounds, which cannot be
passed.
Praise
the Lord from the earth,
you sea monsters and all deeps,
fire
and hail, snow and frost,
stormy wind fulfilling his command!
Mountains
and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
Wild
animals and all cattle,
creeping things and flying birds!
Kings
of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth!
Young
men and women alike,
old and young together!
Let
them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his glory is above earth and heaven.
He
has raised up a horn for his people,
praise for all his faithful,
for the people of Israel who are close to
him.
Praise
the Lord!
A
reading from the Book of Revelation 21:1-6
Then I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the
sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a
loud voice from the throne saying,
“See, the home of God is
among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with
them and be their God;
he will wipe every tear from
their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain
will be no more,
for the first things have
passed away.”
And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
The
word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Gospel
Acclamation
The
Lord be with you.
And
also with you.
The
Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John 13:31-35
Glory to you, O Lord.
When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The
Gospel of the Christ.
Praise to you, O Christ.
Sermon
May only truth be spoken, and truth received. Amen.
Before
we talk about today’s lesson from Acts 11, I want to back track to Acts 10, the
conversion of Cornelius, a centurion in the Roman Army.
Cornelius
was devout and feared God, what he would have called the Jewish God. Although
he had not adopted the Jewish religion. In other words, he had not undergone
circumcision, he practiced the acts of Jewish piety such as almsgiving and
prayer.
One
day, Cornelius had a vision of an angel who told him to send for Peter. Being a
fearful follower of God, he did as he was told.
In
the meantime, Peter was having his own visions about all kinds of animals being
lowered down on a white sheet, about being told by God to kill and eat these
animals, and a declaration from God that “What God has made clean, you must not
call profane.” (10:15)
Peter’s
vision came to him three times, and while he was still trying to figure out
what it all meant, Cornelius’ men appeared and told him they were there to take
Peter to Cornelius.
Deciding
that his vision and Cornelius’ vision were likely related, Peter agreed to see
Cornelius and so off he went with these men back to Caesarea.
Cornelius
was not alone when Peter arrived. Hearing that Peter was coming, a whole group
of people gathered. Cornelius said that “all of us are here in the presence of
God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say.” (10:33)
Both
Peter and Cornelius knew that it was unlawful for a Jewish person to be in the
company of a Gentile, but they both believed they had visions from God telling
them this meeting was something destined by God.
So
Peter began to speak. And while he did, “the Holy Spirit fell upon all who
heard the word.” (10:44)
The
circumcised were surprised to hear the uncircumcised “speaking in tongues and
extolling God.” (10:46)
Acts
10 ends with Peter asking the question, “Can anyone withhold the water for
baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”
(10:47) He then proceeds to baptize anyone who desires it, no matter who they
are.
What
we heard today in Acts 11 was Peter defending his decision to “the apostles and
the believers” (11:1) who had stayed in Judea while Peter was away, and who had
now heard that Gentiles accepted the word of God and had been baptized.
Peter
recounted the story and the visions, both his and Cornelius’. And then he began
his defense.
He
said, “I saw the spirit come on them while I spoke, just like the spirit came
on us! If then God gave them the same gift that God gave us when we believed in
Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” (11:17)
In
other words, God is asking us to be completely inclusive, so who are we to question?
Such
words reminds that the heart of reconciliation is about embodying God’s vision
of the communion of saints. The church is to be the community that God
envisions, not one we create.
We
heard a similar theme last week from Revelation, describing a picture of community
as “a great multitude, from every tribe, nation, people, and language.” (7:9)
The
community of faith is a multiethnic, multilingual, and multinational. Everyone
is represented, and all stand before the God’s throne, serving in the heavenly
temple.
One
must ask: If God accepts people from every tribe, nation, and language, or
identity, who are we to assume that another is not welcome?
Everyone
is different and God wants, desires, needs diversity. It is human nature to
want to be with those who are similar to us. But, through Cornelius and Peter, God
is reminding that God’s grace and love is available for everyone.
God
shows no favoritism for one human being other another.
God
created the world and all living and life-giving things in it and God will
disrupt and interrupt the boundaries humans construct.
Peter
interprets God’s disruption of his biased thinking as the Spirit teaching him
not to make distinctions “between us and them”. (Acts 11:12)
We
need God to disrupt our biased thinking. An “us and them” mentality haunts our
human sensibilities.
The
only way we begin to put an end to making distinctions between “them” and “us”
is to learn to recognize and admit our biases and their impact on human
relationships.
We
need to allow our biases and stereotypes to be checked. It is imperative that
we engage with others different from ourselves, in more than superficial ways.
The
best way we can do that is to hear each others’ stories. We need to make the
time to sit with those different from ourselves, especially those hurt by the
church, and hear their stories.
A
couple of weeks ago, I was in Prince Albert, SK to attend the Provincial Synod
of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert’s Land. Most of the time was spent
doing church business, but a big part of the meeting centred around
reconciliation.
We
were there to hear stories. The Archbishop of Canterbury was there to hear stories.
And
hear stories we did. Very strong, and powerful, and emotional stories. Stories
about pain and suffering, about grace and love, and about forgiveness and repentance.
Repentance
can only truly occur if we listen to the stories of those we have wronged,
allowing them to affect us. Repentance is about being vulnerable enough to be
moved by another.
The
vision of the heavenly community calls us to reconciliation because it calls us
into relationship.
We
simply cannot embody reconciliation if we refuse to receive another in
Christian love. This means there can be no limitations placed on the other, no
caveats to the relationship.
It
also means that reconciliation must be more than words. Reconciliation is to be
a way of life, a way that shines with the love and grace of Jesus.
Jesus
teaches Christians to love our neighbors, to seek to live in community with
them. Having been reconciled to God, through Christ, we are given this ministry
to embody.
This
demands we hold to the daring belief that the outstretched arm of Jesus extends
toward the other just as much as it extends to us.
In
an era of considerable inter-religious and anti-humanitarian conflict, the
health and well-being of our communities and peace with justice around the
globe depend on relationship, repentance, and renewal.
May
we discover anew everyday the wide wonders of God’s great creation and all the
mysteries of all the people whom we encounter in our neighborhoods and in our
churches and across the world.
As Peter says, “Who are we to hinder God?”
Amen.
Hymn
of the Day – Christ
Is Alive! Let Christians Sing (ELW #389)
Nicene
Creed
Let us confess our faith 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
Set free from captivity to sin and death, we pray to the God of resurrection for the church, people in need, and all of creation.
Loving God, lead us to follow
your Spirit, rather than our own prejudices or desires, as the church cares for
one another. Open us to perceive your gifts in those we least expect.
God, in your
mercy,
hear our prayer.
Inspire us to praise you
through the beauty and majesty of the natural world around us. Urge us toward
more deliberate care of the world you have made.
God, in your
mercy,
hear our prayer.
Humble the rulers of nations
before your splendor. Direct them to the people who need their attention most,
and turn them from the temptation to hoard wealth or power.
God, in your
mercy,
hear our prayer.
Hasten to dwell among those
who are in pain or distress. As Christ enters our deepest suffering, remain
with those experiencing despair and great need.
God, in your
mercy,
hear our prayer.
Place holy love at the center
of all our relationships and communities. By your love heal us, convict us, and
renew us. Bring an end to racism in our churches and communities. Let everyone
know your goodness by the love we show one another.
God, in your
mercy,
hear our prayer.
Give us a place in the
diverse company of your beloved saints. Teach us the value of each person’s
identity, and bless us with a shared identity as your children, kindred of
Christ.
God, in your
mercy,
hear our prayer.
In your mercy, O
God, respond to these prayers, and renew us by your life-giving Spirit; through
Jesus Christ, our Saviour.
Amen.
Peace
The peace of Christ be with
you always.
And also with you.
Offering Hymn – Now the Green
Blade Rises (ELW #379)
Offering
Prayer
Let us pray.
Living
God,
you gather the wolf and the lamb to feed together in your peaceable reign, and you welcome us all at your table. Reach out to us through this meal, and show us your wounded and risen body, that we may be nourished and believe in Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Amen.
Great Thanksgiving
Dialogue
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the
Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Preface
It is indeed right, our duty
and our joy,
that we should at all times
and in all places
give thanks and praise to
you, almighty and merciful God,
for the glorious resurrection
of our Savior Jesus Christ,
the true Paschal Lamb who
gave himself to take away our sin;
who in dying has destroyed
death,
and in rising has brought us
to eternal life.
And so, with Mary Magdalene
and Peter and all the witnesses of the resurrection,
with earth and sea and all
their creatures,
and with angels and
archangels, cherubim and seraphim,
we praise your name and join their unending hymn:
Holy,
Holy, Holy
Thanksgiving
at the Table
Holy, living, and loving God,
we praise you for
creating the heavens and the earth.
We bless you for bringing
Noah and his family through the waters of the flood,
for freeing your
people Israel from the bonds of slavery,
and for sending
your Son to be our Redeemer.
We give you thanks for Jesus
who, living among
us,
healed the sick,
fed the hungry,
and with a love
stronger than death,
gave his life for
others.
In the night in which he was
betrayed,
our Lord Jesus
took bread, and gave thanks;
broke it, and gave
it to his disciples, saying:
Take and eat; this
is my body, given for you.
Do this for the remembrance
of me.
Again, after supper, he took
the cup, gave thanks,
and gave it for
all to drink, saying:
This cup is the
new covenant in my blood,
shed for you and
for all people for the forgiveness of sin.
Do this for the remembrance
of me.
Remembering, therefore,
his life-giving
death and glorious resurrection,
we await your
promised life for all this dying world.
Breathe your Spirit on us and
on this bread and cup:
carry us in your
arms from death to life,
that we may live
as your chosen ones,
clothed in the
righteousness of Christ.
Through him all glory and
honor is yours,
Almighty Father,
with the Holy Spirit,
in your holy
Church,
both now and
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.
Invitation to Communion
This is the
table of Christ. It is made ready for those who love him, and for those who
want to love him more. Come, whether you have much faith or little, have tried
to follow, or are afraid that you have failed. Come. Because it is Christ's
will that those who want to meet him, might meet him here. These are the gifts
of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
Share in the Eucharist.
Table Blessing
The body and blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ strengthen you and
Keep you in his grace.
Amen.
Prayer After Communion
As we have feasted around the table, let us pray.
We give you thanks, generous God,
for in this bread and cup
we have tasted the new heaven and earth
where hunger and thirst are no more.
Send us from this table as witnesses to the resurrection,
that through our lives, all may know life in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Blessing
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your
hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ
our Lord: and the blessing of the Holy and Undivided Trinity be with you and
remain with you always, in ☩ God, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Sending Song – This Joyful Eastertide (ELW #391)
Dismissal
Alleluia! Christ is risen.
Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Go in peace. Tell what God has done.
Thanks be to God.
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