Kenilworth Union Church Prayer helps us to embrace God s eternal promise November 6, 2018, 12:15 p.m. How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, Your God reigns. - Isaiah 52:7 Opening Response David Adam Leader: Blessed are you, Lord our God, All: for in you and your love we share with the saints in glory. Leader: For all the saints who have gone before us and revealed your love. All: for those in weakness who have revealed your power, Leader: for those who challenge us by their deeds, All: we give you thanks and praise. Opening Psalm Psalm 24, responsively The earth is the LORD s and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants too. Because God is the one who established it on the seas; God set it firmly on the waters. Who can ascend the LORD s mountain? Who can stand in his holy sanctuary? Only the one with clean hands and a pure heart; the one who hasn t made false promises, the one who hasn t sworn dishonestly. That kind of person receives blessings from the LORD and righteousness from the God who saves. And that s how things are with the generation that seeks him that seeks the face of Jacob s God. Selah Mighty gates: lift up your heads! Ancient doors: rise up high! So the glorious king can enter! Who is this glorious king? The LORD strong and powerful! The LORD powerful in battle! Mighty gates: lift up your heads! Ancient doors: rise up high! So the glorious king can enter! Who is this glorious king?
Scripture Reading Revelation 21:1 6a Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look! God s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new! Then he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. He said to me: It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. A Connected Church Craig R. Koester, edited This vision from Revelation twice uses the word "pass away." It is used for the passing away of a world (21:1) and then for the passing away of all the first or former things (21:4). "Pass away" in our ordinary speech means death. As we call to mind the family members and friends who have passed away--in the past year, the past decade, the past generation--we also gain a sense of a world that is passing away. When the people who are closest to us pass away, a part of our world passes away. Death does this. We assume that things "pass away" when death comes, but in Revelation these words have the opposite sense: things "pass away" when death goes away. In Revelation's upside-down world, saying that the first or former things have passed away means: "Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more" (21:4). The first heaven and earth that pass away (21:1) constitute the world in which death was operative. To take death out of the picture is to bring about a new world. A new world. Revelation's vision of the future encompasses human beings and the world itself. The God who created the world holds out a future for the world and for the people who belong to it. Throughout Revelation, God is identified as the Creator. To speak of the future in terms of a new creation in 21:1-6 does not deny the value of the first creation. Rather, it affirms that creation is what God does. The use of language from the prophets in this climactic vision of Revelation underscores the integrity of God. What God has spoken, God will do. There is integrity between God's speech and action. Revelation's vision for the future does not rely on an optimistic reading of the
present. Sin, evil, and death all call the future into question. Yet the prophets and the author of Revelation bring a word of hope into the present by affirming that the God who has created all things is the same God who brings all things to their completion. Death is real for those whom God has created. Yet in Christ, there is also the promise of resurrection--and resurrection is a new act of creation. Resurrection is the promise of a new existence, a transformed existence. This is also what John envisions for the world itself. Death affects all of us and the world to which we belong. Yet death is not final. In his restless will to redeem, God holds out the promise of making us and our world new. In God, the future holds the promise of life. Prayers of the People and Prayer for Communion Lector: The Lord be with you. People: And also with you. Lector: Lift up your hearts. People: We lift them to the Lord. Lector: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. People: It is right to give our thanks and praise. Lord God, help us to take comfort in your promises of a new creation and an intimate life with you. Expand our trust in your perfect plan for each of us individually and for the world. Use your Spirit to deepen our faith in you. Now, Lord, we come to you with particular prayers on our heart which we lift up to you in this time of silence: (90 seconds of silence). Today we pray for our beloved ministers, Bill, Jo and Katie. We give you thanks for the ways they bless our congregation with their individual personalities and gifts. We ask that you guide and protect them and provide grace and peace in their lives as they serve their families and this church. We pray for those who have made our congregation their church home. Prompt us to connect with each other and support one another. With that purpose in our hearts, we now pray for members of our church: Greg & Hailey Underwood, Bob & Susan Underwood, Frank & Caroline Urbahns, Marsha Urbahns, Kim Urban, Vivian Vahlberg & Rick Gordon, Thomas Van Benschoten, Nancy Van Deuren, Helen Van Duzer, Kate van Dyke, Jon & Amy Van Gorp, Greg & Sarah Van Schaack, Geoffrey & Elizabeth Vance, Frank VanderPloeg, Nathan Vanderploeg, Jack & Judy Vandeveld, John & Bonnie Vasilion, Chris & Angie Veber, Jon & Sally Veeder, David &
Heather VerMeulen, and Alex & Joan Vesselinovitch Finally, God who welcomes all in love, let us pray for the concerns of those in need. We ask that you make your presence and comfort know to those in our midst who are hurting.. Loving God, through your goodness we have this bread and cup to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. May we know your presence in the sharing of this bread and wine, remembering Jesus sacrifice. God, we come to the table broken and in need of healing, and we receive your forgiveness, resting in your promise that you make us whole. Made one in Christ, and one with each other, we offer these gifts and with them ourselves, a single, holy, living sacrifice. Bless us and these gifts of bread and cup to your glory. We submit ourselves and our lives to you; we recognize you as our only source of salvation. And hear us as we pray as Jesus taught us, saying: 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. Amen. Words of Institution Sharing of the Bread and Cup Tear off a generous portion of bread, dip it in the cup and partake. Prayer for the Day Revised Common Lectionary Prayers O Father of lights, from whose word of truth we have been born as first fruits of your creatures; make us quick to listen and slow to speak, that the word implanted in us may take root to nourish all our living, and that we may be blessed in our doing and fruitful in action. Amen. Blessing Revised Common Lectionary Prayers Source of all being, beginning and end,
we praise you for those who have served you faithfully. For the sake of Jesus Christ, replenish our hope in your eternal kingdom, that we may have life in all its fullness, unfettered by the fear of death. Amen.