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| Lorraine Sharpe Meyer ARCWP(in white with stole) presides at a Easter Sunrise Liturgy in Florida |
GATHERING
Presider: We gather
in the belief that God’s Spirit, Who has energized all the galaxies and gives
life to the smallest of creatures, to dinosaurs and dogs, to redwoods and
radishes, to children, women and men, Who was seen most clearly in Jesus, is
here with us now.
All: We give thanks for the ways God’s Spirit is
seen in who we are and what we do
Presider: We are
grateful that God’s gift of forgiveness is always waiting for us
All: And we pray that we, will always be ready to
forgive as God does.
Presider: Our loving
God, you are mother and father to us.
You fill us and act as us as we care for each other. We know you hear our prayer as we strive to
be one with you, with Jesus our model, with each other and with all those who
have come to eternal life before us and those who will follow us.
All: Amen
Reading 1: 1John
2:6-10 This is how you know you are in
God: if you say you abide in Christ, you ought to live the same kind of life as
Christ. Dear friends, this is not a new commandment that I am writing to tell
you but an old commandment, one that you were given from the beginning…Those
who love their neighbors are living in the light and need not be afraid of
stumbling.
Psalm: 55: All: All the trees in the countryside will clap
their hands for joy
As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my
ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts. All…
As the rain and snow come down and water the earth, making
it fertile, giving seed to the sower and bread for food, so will My word be; it
will carry out My will achieving the end for which I sent it. All…
And you will go out joyfully and be led out in peace; the
mountains and hills will break into cries of joy and all the trees in the
countryside will clap their hands. They will stain as a memorial to God; an
everlasting sign never to be destroyed. All…
This is the day that
God has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
Gospel: Luke 24: 13-32
Homily Starter: (approximately) I chose this resurrection
because, unlike some of the others that are like “ta-dah, I am risen,” this
story, written 60-70 years after Jesus death, tells us what next? How are
Christians to live out the resurrection?
All: Discussion
CREED:
energy of God, is
expressed in all of creation and fills the earth. I believe that the beauty of
a blade of grass or a rock, the strength of wind or wave, the warmth of sun and
furnace, the love and intelligence of woman, man and child is God’s way of
expressing beauty, strength, warmth, love and intelligence.
I believe that Jesus
is our most understandable expression of God’s extension into the world. I
believe Jesus when he said, “Greater things than I have done, you will do,”
that he intended our humanity to continue awakening, becoming more inclusive
respecting and uplifting the innate dignity of us all.
I believe that God is
present with all, and that like Jesus we
are called to exclude no one when we celebrate eucharist or share the fruit of
the earth and of our lives.
GENERAL INTERCESSIONS
1. That we have been given the gift of knowing Jesus, his
life, resurrection and knowing that we share his life and resurrection with him
and each other…Loving God,
All: We are grateful
2.
PREPARATION OF GIFTS
(Alternate leading
each prayer)
1.
Blessed
are you gracious God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread
and wine to offer. You have called us to be your co-creators.
2.
We
thank you for the universe, for all the wonderful diversity and beauty of life
around us and in us.
3.
We thank you for our freedom, for the dreams
of the young and the visions of the elders.
4.
We
praise you for your call to build the earth into a community of love rooted in
justice.
5.
You
have placed confidence in us, for you have made us and you know that we are
good. In joy we join all creation as we say:
All: Holy, holy, holy God; we rejoice that heaven and earth are full of
your glory.
Presider: When Jesus lived among
us he challenged us to know you, God as parent, and taught us not to be afraid.
He told us to forgive and showed us the strength of compassionate love. He promised that the Spirit Who filled him
would live in this world also, as us, and that, as bearers of his Spirit, we
would do greater things than he did.
All: We ask that you send your Holy Spirit afresh upon us and our gifts
that, like Jesus we may become for the world, the Body and blood of the Christ,
who invites us all to be one with you.
Presider: On the night before he
died, Jesus gathered for the Seder supper with the people closest to him. Like
the least of the household servants, he washed their tired and dusty feet and
said, “do this as I have done.”
All: Back at the table, he took the Passover bread, gave thanks, broke
the bread and offered it to them saying, “take and eat this all of you. When
you share your bread with one another, when you live your lives committed to
one another, when you become bread for each other as I have done, do it in
memory or me.”
(Presider breaks the bread and
passes it for all to break and eat in silence.)
Presider: When dinner was over,
Jesus took the cup of fellowship and passed it to all those present. He said,
All: “Take and drink from this
all of you. This wine is a sign of my covenant with you. Like my blood which will
be poured out for you, so should you be committed to each other, be poured out
for each other, continuing this sign in memory of me.”
(the wine is shared) After a pause
Presider: We have shared the deep
reality of universal communion, the bread and cup of life and love.
Alternate:
In thanksgiving for the power of this Eucharistic meal, we pray that
Your Spirit may open our hearts, that we be receptive as You invite us into the
fullness of life.
In union with all people living and dead, we unite our thoughts and
prayers, asking wisdom and courage:
-to discern your call to us in the circumstances or our daily lives,
-to confront pain and suffering with justice
-to take risks in being creative and proactive on behalf of the poor
and marginalized,
-to love all people beyond the labels of race, creed, gender,
nationality and age
-to be alert to Your Spirit calling us to participate in the wonderful
work of co-creation.
All: We pledge to give generously of ourselves, the life that has been
generously given to us, so that one day bread may be on every table. Then Jesus
will truly be risen.
All: (extend hands in mutual blessing) May our gracious God bless all
gathered here as we minister to one another and to all. Amen
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