Call to Worship:

We gather this morning to worship; to worship our Lord.
We gather in this place of sanctuary, of comfort, of peace, of freedom, knowing that not all our brothers and sisters in Christ are in safe and warm places.  We gather this morning with full stomachs and change in our pockets, knowing that God’s abundance is not shared equitably.  We gather to worship, knowing that justice reigns for some, but not all.  We gather to worship this morning, praying that God’s will be done, and that God’s kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven. Amen.

Opening Prayer:

When we fish alone, our nets are empty.
When we cast our nets with Christ, we find abundance.
When we fish alone, our nets become ripped.
When we cast our nets with Christ, we experience wholeness.
When we profess our love for Jesus
We are called to feed God’s sheep.
We when listen to God’s voice
Jesus shows himself in the face of the other.

Invitation to Confession:

We are people of worth and value.
When we honestly acknowledge how we fall short of the God’s glory,
there is a possibility of transformation.
Let us pray, putting our trust in the accepting grace of Christ.
Adapted from CGP 0H004

Prayer of Confession:

Creator God, you have made each of us in your image,
and yet we fail to reflect your love and justice.
You have created everyone in your image,
and yet we don’t treat everyone as a precious reflection of you.
We see some people as valued treasures,
and others as lost causes.
We invest our time, money, and hopes in some,
while we squander the great potential of others.
Open our eyes, we pray, to see that everyone
is made in your image and belongs to you.
Help us to love, protect, and nurture all your children.
We pray these things
in the name of the One who came to us as a child.  Amen.
Adapted from CGP 19I004

Prayer for Mercy:

Gentle God, mend our broken lives;
restore, revive, repair.
Recreate us in your image.
Renew your creation.
CGP 17J002

Optional Kyrie VU #945 or #947

Assurance of Pardon:

God is the love that over and around us lies;
the grace that is totally unearned;
and the healing that makes the earth whole.
Give thanks to God; we are forgiven!  Amen.
CGP 17K002

Children’s Time:

1. Thinking outside the box:  Ask the children to make two rows of four giving them nine pennies and tell them they have to use all of them.  Answer, put one penny on top of another.  Discuss how God calls us to think and act in ways that may be different from how we’re using to thinking and acting.
2. Face of Christ:  Put a flat mirror in a box with flaps that you can close.  Talk about how you have something of amazing value in the box.  Peak into it, smiling.  When one of the children ask to see what’s in the box, ask them not to share with the others just yet.  Then show each child individually, repeating that you can see something of amazing value in the box, a miracle of God’s creation and the face of Christ.  Finally, when all the children have looked, show a few of the ‘older’ members.  Then take the mirror out of the box, show it to the congregation (slowly panning so they can all see it), repeating what you’ve said to the children.
3. Retell the Gospel story in your own words.  And the children “I wonder…” questions (e.g. I wonder how Peter felt when Jesus asked three times if he loved him?  I wonder how it felt when the disciple recognized Jesus?).

Invitation to Offering

Giving is not an obligation.  Giving is not a duty.  Giving is a time of blessing for each of us.  Giving is how we celebrate our love for God and our commitment to God’s work in the world.

Offertory Prayer:

Lord, we give thanks for the abundance and blessings in our lives, and for the opportunity to share a portion of what we have to do your work in the world.  May these gifts be used to extend your liberating reign.
With them, we offer our varied ministries and gifts, that each of us may be part of your answer to the cries of the world.  Amen.
Adapted from CGP 16R001

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession

Creator God,
We give you thanks for the beauty of creation: trees blowing in the wind; hawks soaring against a clear blue sky; field mice rustling in the leaves; the moon hanging clear and bright in the night sky; the sound of water hitting the shoreline; Canada geese flying in their V-pattern.  So often we miss the glory of your creation and even go so far as to damage it.  Help us to live with respect in creation.  Help us to stop, if only for a moment, to gaze with wonder and awe at all you have made.

We give you thanks for the blessings of life: the arrival of a newborn baby; the look wonder in a child’s eye at a new discovery; the incredible restorative powers of our human bodies; the riches of experience of one who has walked this earth for many decades.  In our busy lives dear God, we hurry past the blessings right in front of us.  Slow us down enough that we might experience the blessings you give us and in so doing, ourselves be blessed.

Loving God, we give thanks for the blessings of community: the fellowship we feel when we gather; the love and care of those dear to us.  In a city with so many new arrivals, immigrants from far away places, we give thanks for the wonderful diversity.  At the same God, so many of those seeking a better life here in this wonderful country have left behind their community, their family, their friends, their support networks, their source of income.   We pray that they feel your support with them.  We also pray that our hearts be opened to understand the daily obstacles that they face, and that the Spirit move us to follow Jesus’ example of extending the boundaries of our communities to include those who have no community here.

Gracious God, in a world where wealth and power has so much say, we give you thanks for the voices that echo the words of Jesus: If you love me, feed my sheep.
We give thanks for those who remind governments, especially in the times of budget creation, to see all people as Jesus would see them.  We give thanks for those who have inspired us to seek justice in an often unjust world, such as those who work with governments to seek affordable housing, a better welfare system, a minimum wage that is also a living wage.  We know that we often fall short of our own expectations for ourselves and that we often ignore Jesus’ command “to feed his sheep.”  Forgive us God.  Remind us that we are your hands and feet in the world.  May your Holy Spirit renew in us the will to work for your justice and empower us to carry it through.

Compassionate God, we give thanks for the blessings of health and well-being.  While healthy, it is hard for us to imagine life any other way.  At the same time God, we know that there are many who are suffering loss: the loss of mental or physical health, the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, the loss of a dream.   Today we particularly pray for________________________________________________________________.
Hold them in your caring arms, help them to feel your comforting and healing presence.  God, we are your compassion and mercy in the world.  Guide us to give those who suffer the support and care they need.

We pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Lord’s Prayer (justice version) Source unknown
Our Father who always stands with the weak, the powerless, the poor, the abandoned, the sick, the aged . . . Who art in heaven where everything will be reversed, where the first will be last and the last will be first . . .Hallowed be thy namemay the reverence we give your name pull us out of the selfishness that prevents us from seeing the pain of our neighbour . . .Your kingdom comehelp us to create a world where we will do justice, love tenderly, and walk humbly with you and each other . . .Your will be done may the complete mutuality that characterizes your life flow through our veins so we may radiate equal love for all and your special love for the poor . . .On earth as it is in heaven so that the joy, graciousness, tenderness, and justice of heaven will show forth within all of our structures on earth . .. Give help us realize that we must give to the poor, not because they need it, but because our own health depends upon our giving to them . . .Us the truly plural us, including those who are very different than the narrow us . . .This day not tomorrow.  Do not let us push things off into some indefinite future so that we can continue to live justified lives in the face of injustice because we make good excuses for our inactivity . . .Our daily bread so that each person in the world may have enough.  Teach us to give from our sustenance and not just from our surplus . . . And forgive us our trespasses our blindness toward our neighbour, our self-preoccupation, our racism, our sexism, and our incurable propensity to worry only about ourselves and our own . . . As we forgive those who trespass against us those who victimize us, our imperfect parents and systems that wounded, cursed, and ignored us . . .And do not put us to the test do not judge us only by whether we have fed the hungry, given clothing to the naked, visited the sick, or tried to mend the systems that victimized the poor.  Spare us this test for none of us can stand before your gospel scrutiny.  Give us, instead, more days to mend our ways, our selfishness, and our systems . . .But deliver us from evil that is, from the blindness that lets us continue to participate in anonymous systems within which we need not see who gets less as we get more.  Amen."

Commissioning & Blessing:

Go into God’s world.
Go into God’s world with your eyes and heart and hands open.
Go into God’s world seeking beauty and justice and peace.
Go, knowing that it is God’s world.

May the peace and compassion of Christ surround you;
the love and abundance of God enfold you;
may the Holy Spirit be with you and guide you,
this day, and for all the days in which we pray for God’s kingdom to come.

Community Ministries Sunday suggested Hymns Selection for April 18th

Psalm 30

1. MV 156 ‘Dance with the Spirit’

Gospel John 21

1. VU 595 ‘We are Pilgrims’ (The servant song)
2. VU 701 ‘What Does the Lord Require You’
3. VU 563 ‘Jesus You have come to the Lakeshore’
4. VU 567 ‘Will You Come and Follow Me’
5. VU 509 ‘I the Lord of Sea and Sky’ (Here I am Lord)
6. VU 710 ‘ Shall We Gather at the River’
7. MV 113  ‘Jesus saw Them Fishing’
8. MV 209 ‘Go Make a Difference’

Acts 9

• VU 603 ‘In Loving Partnership We Come’
• MV 161 ‘I Have Called You by Your Name’