Worship Service at Church of the Dawntreader Thursday May 23, 2013 10:00 a.m. SLT
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
    Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™
    Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
    www.zondervan.com
"New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989,
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved." Designated by the initials, (NRSV).

Invocation:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen
Confession and Absolution
We come before you, our Loving Father, Mother God, confessing most of all our need of you.
We confess that we have not always acknowledged just how much we depend on you.
We confess that we have not always loved you with all our heart, soul and mind.
We have not always loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We ask that you will forgive us and grant us your strength to conform more fully to your loving will for us.
We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen.
In obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is my privilege to declare to you and to myself, the entire
forgiveness of all our sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Prayer of the Day
Let us pray.
God of heaven and earth, before the foundation of the universe and the beginning of time you are the triune God:
Author of creation, eternal Word of salvation, life-giving Spirit of wisdom.
Guide us to all truth by your Spirit, that we may proclaim all that Christ has revealed and rejoice in the glory he shares with us.
Glory and praise to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever.
Amen

First Lesson: Proverbs 8: 1 - 4, 22 - 31 (NRSV)
1 Does not wisdom call,
and does not understanding raise her voice?
2 On the heights, beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
3 beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
4 "To you, O people, I call,
and my cry is to all that live.
22 The LORD created me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of long ago.
23 Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24 When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth--
26 when he had not yet made earth and fields,
or the world's first bits of soil.
27 When he established the heavens, I was there,
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28 when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
29 when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30 then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
31 rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race.
Here ends the First Lesson

Psalm 8 (NRSV)
1 O LORD, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Second Lesson: Romans 5: 1 - 5 (NRSV)
1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Here ends the Second Lesson.

Gospel Lesson: John 16: 12 - 15 (NRSV)
12 [Jesus said,] "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth;
for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
14 He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Here end the Readings from Holy Scripture.

 - Sermon -

This week on the church's calendar is the celebration of the Holy Trinity.
The faith of the Christian church
is built on the idea of a love relationship at the heart of all being.
One way of approaching this understanding
has been to picture God from eternity
thinking a perfect thought of God's own self.
That perfect thought is a reflection of God,
begotten of God from all eternity,
and that perfect thought - reflection of God is the
Second person of the Holy Trinity, God the Son,
who became flesh in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
From eternity, the Father and the Son have loved one another
with a perfect love,
and that perfect love is the Third person of the Trinity,
God the Holy Spirit.
The concept, the doctrine, of the Trinity
is the least we can say about God
based on our experience of God, based on the stories of our relationship with God
as recorded in the Bible
and as we experience the presence of God in our lives of faith.
The Holy Trinity is not the last word;
it is simply the least that we can say.
In light of our understanding of God's ongoing work in Creation,
in light of the coming of Christ among us to save us from despair,
and in light of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit,
leading us to faith in Jesus and sustaining our faith,
we can only stand in awe
and confess by faith
that God is One and God is three Persons,
the Holy Trinity.
We may as well not try to prove the doctrine of the Trinity
on the basis of Scripture,
for it simply is not there.
Certainly there are many very powerful hints.
My favorite is the Song of Creation.
In the opening verses,
we are told that God created the Heavens and the Earth,
that the Spirit of God moved over the face of the Deep,
and that God called all things into being
by His Word
when He said, "Let there be light,"
and there was a big bang (!)
and the universes came into being.
There we see the Holy Trinity at the very beginning.
God the Creator is God the Father,
the Spirit of God, the One Who moved over the face of the waters is the Holy Spirit,
and God's Word, through Whom all things were made, is God the Son.
Likewise, the doctrine of the Trinity is implied in our Gospel lesson.
There, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ is speaking.
He calls our attention to the Father and the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit guides us into all the truth of Christ.
All that the Father has belongs also to the Son.
Here is the implication of both oneness and absolute equality
that would eventually become parts of the church's doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
The doctrine is not the important thing.
Our experience of God is what really matters.
The Father - Mother is our Creator whom we praise for calling us and all the worlds into being.
All the beauty we see around us comes from the Father's loving hands and the Mother's loving heart.
Even the beauty we find in Second Life has God as its ultimate source:
Our minds and our imagination come from God, and our creativity reflects the mind, heart and hands of our Creator.
We are made in God's own image, male and female, with the ability to create beauty,
and so what we create is truly a creation of God as well.
The Son of God, our Lord Jesus, is God Who became one of us to bring us home to our true and eternal family.
He is our Savior Who lives in us to remake us in His own image
and to enable us to be our true selves.
The Holy Spirit is the source of our life.
Every breath we take is the sustenance made possible by the Spirit of God.
As our First Lesson speaks of the Wisdom of God,
so the Holy Spirit is the Holy Wisdom that creates faith in our hearts.
Our breath is breathed into our bodies by the Holy Spirit.
Our faith is breathed into our souls by the same Holy Spirit
to bring us into eternal life.
The words with which we open our worship services here at Dawntreader
reflect our experience of faith,
the experience that leads us to speak in terms of the Holy Trinity:
The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God,
and the Communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all.
In these words,
the Holy Trinity is invoked,
not only by name,
but by the Love
which each person of the Holy Trinity
brings into our lives of faith
and experience of God's presence.
Grace, that love which we can never deserve,
comes to us through our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God,
the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.
It is based on the Love of God the Father,
the First Person of the Holy Trinity,
from which God created us
and because of which God sent His Son
to live and die as one of us
to bring us back to Him.
The Communion of the Holy Spirit
is none other than the community of believers,
the church,
the people of God,
drawn together by the common experience
of the presence of God in our lives
as we live them every day.
The recognition of God's presence with us
and the trust that engenders
is made possible by the presence and work
of the Holy Spirit in us and among us.
The Christian community exists
because the Holy Spirit has created it,
and the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity.
One God, three persons, are in a perfect love relationship with each other,
the ultimate Holy Family,
and they are our family, too!
God is our Father and Mother,
in my own mind represented as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit,
and God is our Brother,
our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who became one of us
to bring us home.
Our hymn for today celebrates the One True God,
Whom we Christians recognize
in the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity.
I will always associate this hymn with Trinity Sunday, and maybe you do too.
Please feel free to sing it along with me.

1. Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

2. Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
Who was, and is, and evermore shall be.

3. Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye made blind by sin Thy glory may not see;
Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.

4. Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, holy, holy; merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

Amen.

Prayer of the People
Please type your spontaneous petitions in chat.
Each prepared petition is intended to remind us of the things we need to pray about,
so a brief pause will be provided for us to pray our own petitions,
either sharing them in the chat window
or praying them in our own hearts.

Loving God, we pray for each other, for those who depend upon us for prayer, and for all people according to their needs.
We ask that your healing power may prevail in our lives.
We pray that those in positions of public trust may be worthy of that trust as they act as stewards of power and wealth
for the benefit of all.
We pray that conflicts may be resolved in the context of relationships,
so that violence of thought word and deed may be diminished all through our world.
We ask your blessing for all who bear witness to the Gospel, so that relationships with you may be deepened for all people.
All these things, and whatever else you see that we need, we ask that you will grant for the sake of your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whose name we pray.
Amen.
Our Lord's Prayer
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 sins as we forgive those who sin 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.
Benediction
May the Lord bless us and keep us.
May the Lord make His face to shine upon us and be gracious to us.
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, and give us peace.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen +

Worship Service at Church of the Dawntreader Thursday May 16, 2013 10:00 a.m. SLT
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
    Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™
    Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
    www.zondervan.com
"New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989,
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved." Designated by the initials, (NRSV).

Invocation:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen
Confession and Absolution
We come before you, our Loving Father, Mother God, confessing most of all our need of you.
We confess that we have not always acknowledged just how much we depend on you.
We confess that we have not always loved you with all our heart, soul and mind.
We have not always loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We ask that you will forgive us and grant us your strength to conform more fully to your loving will for us.
We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen.
In obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is my privilege to declare to you and to myself, the entire
forgiveness of all our sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Prayer of the Day
Let us pray.
God our creator, the resurrection of your Son offers life to all the peoples of earth.
By your Holy Spirit, kindle in us the fire of your love, empowering our lives for service and our tongues for praise,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen

First Lesson: Acts 2: 1 - 21 (NRSV)
1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
9 Par'thians, Medes, E'lamites, and residents of Mesopota'mia, Judea and Cappado'cia, Pon'tus and Asia,
10 Phryg'ia and Pamphyl'ia, Egypt and the parts of Lib'ya belonging to Cyre'ne, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
11 Cre'tans and A'rabs--in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power."
12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?"
13 But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them,
"Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.
15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.
16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Jo'el:
17 "In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'
Here ends the First Lesson

Psalm 104 (NRSV)
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul.
O LORD my God, you are very great.
24 O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
25 Yonder is the sea, great and wide,
creeping things innumerable are there,
living things both small and great.
26 There go the ships,
and Levi'athan that you formed to sport in it.
27 These all look to you
to give them their food in due season;
28 when you give to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
30 When you send forth your spirit, they are created;
and you renew the face of the ground.
31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD rejoice in his works--
32 who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke.
33 I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the LORD.
35 Bless the LORD, O my soul.
Praise the LORD!
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 12:3-13 (NIV)
3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,”
and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
 4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.
5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom,
to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
9 to another faith by the same Spirit,
to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy,
to another distinguishing between spirits,
to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,
and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit,
and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
 12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts,
but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.
13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body —
whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free —
and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Here ends the Second Lesson.

Gospel Lesson: John 14: 8 - 17, 23 - 27 (NRSV)
8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied."
9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, "Show us the Father'?
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.
12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these,
because I am going to the Father.
13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.
17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.
You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
23 Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them,
and we will come to them and make our home with them.
24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.
25 "I have said these things to you while I am still with you.
26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything,
and remind you of all that I have said to you.
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
Here end the Readings from Holy Scripture.

 - Sermon -

This week marks the birthday of the Christian church.
Next Sunday is Pentecost,
the 50th day after Easter,
and the anniversary of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
that marked the beginning of the explosion of faith
in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah,
the Son of God,
the Incarnate Word of God
and the Savior of the world.
Our faith in Him is made possible
purely and simply by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit,
there would be no faith in Jesus our Lord.
The words of our Second Lesson are patently obvious:
No one speaking by the Spirit of God can pronounce a curse on Jesus.
Less obvious, but equally true,
no one can say, "Jesus is Lord,"
apart from the agency of the Holy Spirit.
Of course, the Holy Spirit did not come to our world for the first time
on the day of Pentecost.
The Holy Spirit was present and a Participant
in the act of Creation.
In Genesis 1:2, we read, "The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." (NIV)
What wonderfully poetic words!
I sometimes find myself arguing with people that the account of Creation is a poem,
but soon I'm going to give up on that.
If one cannot see the poetry in Genesis 1,
nothing I can say can reveal it to him or her.
Hovering over the water is a wonderfully descriptive phrase,
evoking the tender care of a Mother Who has given birth to the offspring that She loves.
Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote one of the greatest poems of the English language,

"God's Grandeur:"
"The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
        It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
        It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
        And all is seared with trade; Bleared, smeared with toil;
        And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
        There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
        Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
        World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings."

Here, Hopkins echoes that first chapter of Genesis,
reminding us of the Divine Mother of us all,
the Holy Spirit of God,
Whose tender care enables our every breath
until She receives our human spirits back to her loving Breast,
where we will be loved and perfectly tended through all eternity.
We know this by Her own inspiration,
and we are able to trust it
because She calls for our trust
by the power of her love.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was unique
because the Spirit was poured out on all humanity
in a new way
for the first time ever.
Because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God,
She is our Creator.
Because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and of His Resurrection,
She is also our Redeemer.
Again, we know this by faith,
by the witness of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts,
and this is the new thing for all humanity.
In the context of the very early Christian sermon,
preached by St. Peter himself,
recorded in our First Lesson,
the words of the Prophet Joel are given a whole new meaning:
"I will pour out my Spirit on all people."
In other words, the words of Joel were fulfilled
by the events of Pentecost
and the birth of the Christian church.
The church, created by word and sacrament,
is the means by which the Spirit of God chooses to work in the world,
but it is certainly not the only means.
Every word spoken by any person
reflecting even the tiniest mustard seed of faith
is made possible by the Holy Spirit's work.
Every opportunity that God can find
to show love for any person who needs God's loving care
is an opportunity for the Holy Spirit's work.
For you and me right now,
the Holy Spirit is at work,
comforting our hearts with loving care
and deepening and strengthening our faith and trust in God.
As we breathe,
the Holy Spirit is at work,
giving us life,
and that free gift of grace will never come to an end.
From ancient times, a sequence hymn was sung for Pentecost
as part of the liturgy of the church.
That hymn in its ancient form has survived many liturgical reforms,
and I want to share it with you today.
It is in plainsong,
but it is not too hard to sing,
so please feel free to sing or hum along with me,
and pay special attention to the words,
which are themselves a powerful teaching
about the presence and work of the Holy Spirit
in the life of all people.
The hymn is known as Veni Creator, or Come Creator,
usually translated, "Come, Holy Spirit"

1. Creator Spirit, heav'nly dove, descend upon us from above;
with graces manifold restore your creatures as they were before.

2. To you, the Comforter, we cry; to you, the gift of God most high.
true fount of life, the fire of love, the soul's anointing from above.

3. In you, with graces sevenfold, we God's almighty hand behold;
while you with tongues of fire proclaim to all the world God's holy name.

4. Your light to every sense impart, and shed your love in every heart;
your own unfailing might supply to strengthen our infirmity.

5. Keep far from us our cruel foe, and peace from your own hand bestow;
upheld by you, our strength and guide, no evil can our steps betide.

6. Teach us to know the Father, Son, and you, of both, to be but one;
that through the ages all along your praise may be our endless song.

7. Praise to your eternal merit,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Amen.

Prayer of the People
Please type your spontaneous petitions in chat.
Each prepared petition is intended to remind us of the things we need to pray about,
so a brief pause will be provided for us to pray our own petitions,
either sharing them in the chat window
or praying them in our own hearts.

Loving God, we pray for each other, for those who depend upon us for prayer, and for all people according to their needs.
We ask that your healing power may prevail in our lives.
We pray that those in positions of public trust may be worthy of that trust as they act as stewards of power and wealth
for the benefit of all.
We pray that conflicts may be resolved in the context of relationships,
so that violence of thought word and deed may be diminished all through our world.
We ask your blessing for all who bear witness to the Gospel, so that relationships with you may be deepened for all people.
All these things, and whatever else you see that we need, we ask that you will grant for the sake of your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whose name we pray.
Amen.
Our Lord's Prayer
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 sins as we forgive those who sin 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.
Benediction
May the Lord bless us and keep us.
May the Lord make His face to shine upon us and be gracious to us.
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, and give us peace.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen +

"The Good News of No Religion"

Reformers seek to encourage spirituality within their faith. Their followers often start new religions.

In the United States today,
the fastest growing group,
in terms of religious preference,
is the "Nones" -
that is,
those who state that they have no preference.
At least, it is the group that appears to be growing faster than any religious preference in particular.
Many of the traditional churches find this to be a very disturbing phenomenon,
and for some of the more conservative groups,
it may even be a sign of the end times.
Personally, I find it very encouraging.
I believe that if there is a God, and if God is anything at all like the picture I have of Her,
God is very pleased about this situation, too.
You see, God is not in the religion business!
That is one of the revelations from the movie, _Oh, God!_
starring George Burns as God
and John Denver as his present day prophet.
What I want to talk about and contemplate today
is the spiritual reality
that stands under and behind all religions and religious persuasions.
I want to talk about the spiritual leaders who have brought this reality to the attention of people,
and I want us to consider the ways in which religious movements have been based on human spirituality,
but all too often religious institutions have worked more for their rules and their own survival
than for the human spirituality that we all need.
I want to note, in more than passing on this Mothers' Day,
that many of us learned our spirituality from our mothers.
All human life is mediated through human procreation.
We were all born of woman.
Our understanding of the divine begins with the divine feminine,
even if we have come out of patriarchal religious traditions and institutions.
Christians have special devotion to Mary, the Mother of God.
Hindus and Buddhists have goddesses.
Judaism has the Binah (God's feminine wisdom)
and the Shekinah (God's grammatically feminine shining glory dwelling among the people).
Islam has the verses, now tragically labeled Satanic,
which directed the Muslims to continue the worship of the divine feminine in the form of the Three Goddesses in the Ka'aba.
Acceptance of the divine feminine seems to be a universal need of human spirituality,
and its revival in our time can be seen in many places and many ways.
The ordination of women to ministry is an expression of feminine spirituality
in our own Unitarian Universalist faith community
as well as many others.
The very strong reactions against it in more conservative and traditionalist religious organizations
is a sign for us
that the revival of veneration of the divine feminine
really may be a threat to patriarchal religious expression.
So I say,
Happy Mothers' Day
to all the human women here today,
to all of us because we are all born of woman,
and most of all
to our divine Mother,
the Goddess,
Mother Nature,
Mother Earth,
whatever name we may choose to give Her,
for the unconditional love in Her divine heart
is the source of life
and the food for our deepest spiritual hunger.
Again, Happy Mothers' Day to us all,
and to the Divine Mother of us all!
The sad story of the suppression of Her divine worship in Islam
is instructive for our purposes today.
I will tell the story as I understand it.
Please bear with me,
and don't hold me to a standard of strict historical accuracy.
More and more we are realizing that such accuracy is not really possible, anyway,
and a story's meaning is more important than its details.
Muhammad was epileptic.
He had grand mal seizures which were poorly understood in his time.
Following many of his seizures,
he was certain that God has spoken to him.
Beginning with his beloved wife, Khadijah,
people began to believe in him as a true prophet of God.
His words from God were memorized verbatim by his followers
and recited in their gatherings.
The word Qur'an means recitation.
Many of the recitations were directly concerned with the immediate life situation of the believers.
One of the situations addressed a lot was the opposition to his prophecy
by Muhammad's own tribe,
the Quraysh.
They controlled Mecca and the traditional pagan pilgrimages there.
Muhammad received a revelation that the three goddesses of Mecca were still to be venerated,
and their intercession was to be sought.
That revelation was included in the recitations of the Muslims in some places for as long as 200 years.
Muhammad offered a reform of the traditional religion of Arabia
that still met the needs of the people
and the traditions of the holy city of his tribe.
After his death, it was deemed important to universalize the text of the Qur'an,
and the leaders of the Muslim community, most notably Omar,
began the task of producing a written form of the Qur'an in Arabic
that would be the standard text
of a new religion.
Omar used many of the principles of textual criticism still in use today
to decide which oral traditions, which recitations, were authentic.
The written edition of the Qur'an produced under Omar's leadership
is the one in universal use among Muslims to this day.
One of the recitations deemed unworthy for inclusion, and now known as the Satanic Verses
(not to be confused with the contemporary novel by Salman Rushdie!)
was the revelation concerning the Three Goddesses.
What is instructive to us
is that the supposed founder of a new religion, Muhammad,
offered a renewal of spirituality
that was consolidated into a religion
by the leaders among his followers.
This is a recurring pattern in human spirituality.
Krishna had Arjuna.
Buddha had his followers in many different countries who adopted Buddhist philosophy but kept their traditional religions.
Moses had Aaron, his brother, who spoke for him in many different situations.
Jesus of Nazareth had Paul of Tarsus, and there lies the pattern that has most affected all of us.
It goes on and on to this very day.
Martin Luther had Philip Melanchthon.
Joseph Smith had Brigham Young.
Each of these examples would make a fascinating study in its own right,
but for today I want to spend a few minutes thinking about Jesus and Paul.
Clearly, from the Gospel record itself,
Jesus was a reformer of rabbinic Judaism.
He was closest to the Pharisees, the political and religious party of his time
most like the Democrats of our own time.
He thought the Pharisees went too far in many ways,
but he preached and taught mostly in their synagogues,
and he was most angered by their mistakes and excesses,
much the way religious people of all times become most aggravated by their disagreements with those who are most like themselves.
Many if not most of the reforms he sought were eventually incorporated into the prevailing form of Judaism that we know to this day.
Among his followers was his own brother, James,
who was clearly, again by the New Testament's own account,
the leader of the Jesus movement in its earliest years.
If James had continued to be the recognized leader,
the movement that became known as Christianity would probably have remained a form of Judaism,
recognized by the Roman Empire,
but never adopted by it.
The one who called himself the last and least of the Apostles,
Paul of Tarsus,
made the Jesus movement into a new religion.
He did not seek only the reforms of Pharasaic Judaism that Jesus had sought.
He made Christianity into a religion about Jesus,
with Jesus as its divine central figure,
according to the Pauline letters, second only to God Himself.
Paul's task as an Apostle
was to take the message of Jesus to the Gentiles, the non-Jews,
and his program was phenomenally successful.
The problem is
that his program converted the Jesus movement
into something that Jesus himself would not have recognized,
something by which he would have actually been appalled.
The idea of worshipping him
was something he forbade over and over.
The Gospel account was profoundly affected by Paul and his teachings,
but there were enough oral traditions about Jesus in circulation
that a well rounded portrait emerges,
for the believer, a real person who becomes a part of everyday life.
That real person spoke many messages that the world needs to hear to this day.
He said nothing about many things that some of his followers emphasize in our political discourse:
Nothing about abortion or gay marriage, nothing about property rights or patriotism
can be found in his teachings.
He said a great deal about social justice and the needs of the poor.
He spoke about the importance of caring and love in every community.
His emphasis was always on the rights of the vulnerable.
The pattern of a spiritual leader
seeking to reform the religious traditions of his own people
is clear in the case of Jesus.
Equally, one of his followers making that reform into a new religion
is also part of the pattern.
In many cases,
the new religion is far more successful than the old one.
The stories we are aware of in any case
are the success stories.
Human history does record some failures,
but their stories are usually told by those who prevailed against them.
That is one of many grains of salt that we need to use
as we study the stories of the development of human spirituality as we have received them.
I hope you can see the pattern I'm talking about in terms of human spirituality versus religion.
Our brains are hard wired to see patterns and to believe in those patterns
whether the patterns are there in objective reality or not.
Our brains are also hard wired to believe in God or gods,
regardless of the realities or lack thereof.
Our own Unitarian Universalist faith seeks to find meaning and hope
in any and every religious tradition among our sisters and brothers of the human family.
We have some unique advantages in our time.
We offer no particular religion for people to adopt.
We are sometimes called the "almost church".
It is possible that we may appeal especially to the "nones" - those who claim to have no religious preference.
If we are able to communicate clearly who we are and what we offer,
we are poised to join the fastest growing spiritual movements in all of human history.
People always need to feed their spiritual lives.
In good times and bad,
we all need something to believe in.
As Unitarian Universalists, we offer the good news of no religion,
yet a rich and fullfilling spiritual life
within caring spiritual communities.
Considering the history of religions,
we do need to be careful.
It would be possible to see our spiritual movement
become a new religion of no religion.
There is precedent for that to happen, after all.
Marx and Engels developed a method of sociological, political and economic analysis that has never been equalled.
They had a follower who made their method into a religion:
Lenin established an orthodoxy that ruled Russia and her clients for over 70 years.
The religion of Communism became one of the most powerful and brutally enforced systems of doctrine in history.
I have no fear that Unitarian Universalism would or could follow such a path,
but there are forms of non-religion in our time
that are so strongly anti-religion
that they could become like a religion themselves.
So the good news of no religion
is for us both a source of hope
and a warning.
Our hope is to bring spirituality without the trappings of religion.
It is a deep need of our time,
and we are uniquely able to meet the need.
At the same time,
we need to be aware that we are not better as an almost church
than the churches of more traditional faiths that surround us.
We bear witness to tolerance and acceptance,
and we are not alone.
Many churches in our time
place more emphasis on caring for people
than enforcing their doctrines.
Many people in more traditional churches
are likewise people of good will,
and we will find sisters and brothers who will work with us toward a better day among them,
whether they become Unitarian Universalists or not.
Best of all,
we bring hope to all kinds of people
because we welcome them all into our spiritual communities.
Atheists, agnostics, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Pagans, and many others are represented in our churches,
and we all learn from each other.
Accepting people from all religions
means promoting none of them,
and that may be the best news of all.
Amen.
Blessed be.
So mote it be.

Worship Service at Church of the Dawntreader Thursday May 9, 2013 10:00 a.m. SLT
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
    Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™
    Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
    www.zondervan.com
"New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989,
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved." Designated by the initials, (NRSV).

Invocation:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen
Confession and Absolution
We come before you, our Loving Father, Mother God, confessing most of all our need of you.
We confess that we have not always acknowledged just how much we depend on you.
We confess that we have not always loved you with all our heart, soul and mind.
We have not always loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We ask that you will forgive us and grant us your strength to conform more fully to your loving will for us.
We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen.
In obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is my privilege to declare to you and to myself, the entire
forgiveness of all our sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Prayer of the Day
Let us pray.
O God, form the minds of your faithful people into your one will.
Make us love what you command and desire what you promise, that, amid all the changes of this world,
our hearts may be fixed where true joy is found, your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen

First Lesson: Acts 16: 16 - 34 (NRSV)
16 One day, as we were going to the place of prayer,
we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling.
17 While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, "These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation."
18 She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit,
"I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And it came out that very hour.
19 But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone,
they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.
20 When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, "These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews
21 and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe."
22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods.
23 After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely.
24 Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
26 Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken;
and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened.
27 When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself,
since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped.
28 But Paul shouted in a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here."
29 The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
30 Then he brought them outside and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31 They answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."
32 They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
33 At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay.
34 He brought them up into the house and set food before them;
and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.
Here ends the First Lesson

Psalm 97 (NRSV)
1 The LORD is king! Let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!
2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him,
and consumes his adversaries on every side.
4 His lightnings light up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness;
and all the peoples behold his glory.
7 All worshipers of images are put to shame,
those who make their boast in worthless idols;
all gods bow down before him.
8 Zion hears and is glad,
and the towns of Judah rejoice,
because of your judgments, O God.
9 For you, O LORD, are most high over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.
10 The LORD loves those who hate evil;
he guards the lives of his faithful;
he rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light dawns for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name!
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Second Lesson: Revelation 22: 12 - 14, 16 - 17, 20 - 21 (NRSV)
12 "See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone's work.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.
16 "It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches.
I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star."
17 The Spirit and the bride say, "Come."
And let everyone who hears say, "Come."
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
20 The one who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon."
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
Here ends the Second Lesson.

Gospel Lesson: John 17: 20 - 26 (NRSV)
20 "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,
21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us,
so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,
23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one,
so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am,
to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 "Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me.
26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."
Here end the Readings from Holy Scripture.

 - Sermon -

Our Gospel lesson for this week is a portion of the High Priestly Prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This prayer is a glimpse into His loving heart.
He is praying not only for His beloved disciples,
but also for all of us who will come to believe in Him through their testimony.
The central prayer that He prays
is that we may all be one.
If we only look around us at the world in which we live,
we will not see a lot of oneness among the followers of Jesus,
to say the least.
There are divisions over every fine point of doctrine.
There are divisions over politics.
There are divisions over matters of human opinion.
The most ridiculous division I ever heard of
was over the sign of the cross.
After moving the hand from the head to the solar plexus,
do we move it first to the left shoulder, or to the right?
That will determine if we move the hand in the sign of the cross from right to left or from left to right.
Western Christians move from left to right.
Eastern Christians move from right to left.
Wars were found over this difference!
The second most ridiculous division I am aware of
has to do with racial and ethnic difference.
To this day,
the most divided hour in countries where Christian churches are common
is the hour of Sunday morning worship.
Churches are severely segregated by language and ethnicity
as well as race.
Sadly, I even heard (on NPR) of a church in the southern United States
where a woman of Hispanic origin was so ostracised
that the members of the church near her
refused to pass the peace to her
at the time to do so in their worship service.
She was heartbroken, and I have no doubt that our Lord Jesus was even more heartbroken.
Another story is also important to remember in this regard:
At the time of the Boer wars in South Africa,
a young east Asian Indian man by the name of Mohandas Ghandi was an ambulance driver.
He was deeply moved by the story of Jesus and His teachings as presented in the Gospels.
He went to a Reformed church in South Africa to learn more.
He was turned away at the door because he was the wrong race.
He said that the followers of Jesus had gone so far astray from His teachings
that he wanted no part of their churches.
He went on to be regarded as the greatest national and religious teacher of modern times in India.
We know him as Mahatma Ghandi, the Great Soul,
and the division of Christians
means to this day
that millions of people in India who believe in Jesus,
in part because of Ghandi's testimony,
are not baptized
and so are not members of Christ's church.
What are we to make of all this?
Is the prayer of our Lord a failure?
Absolutely not!
He prayed that we may be one,
and we are one,
whether we like it or not.
We do not live up to it,
but the truth is
that we are all members of Him.
Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ
is a member of His body,
regardless of participation in any particular church,
and regardless of any other ethnic, racial or political considerations.
The same Christ lives in us.
So we who belong to Him
belong also to each other.
His prayer is the truth of God.
We are one in Christ.
I read a post on Facebook this morning that summarizes the truth spoken in our Lord's High Priestly Prayer:
"Humanity is like the fingers on a hand.
Each one is different.
But we are all connected as ONE."
We can choose to live in that oneness or not,
but we are truly one in Him,
now and for all eternity.
Amen.

Prayer of the People
Please type your spontaneous petitions in chat.
Each prepared petition is intended to remind us of the things we need to pray about,
so a brief pause will be provided for us to pray our own petitions,
either sharing them in the chat window
or praying them in our own hearts.

Loving God, we pray for each other, for those who depend upon us for prayer, and for all people according to their needs.
We ask that your healing power may prevail in our lives.
We pray that those in positions of public trust may be worthy of that trust as they act as stewards of power and wealth
for the benefit of all.
We pray that conflicts may be resolved in the context of relationships,
so that violence of thought word and deed may be diminished all through our world.
We ask your blessing for all who bear witness to the Gospel, so that relationships with you may be deepened for all people.
All these things, and whatever else you see that we need, we ask that you will grant for the sake of your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whose name we pray.
Amen.
Our Lord's Prayer
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 sins as we forgive those who sin 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.
Benediction
May the Lord bless us and keep us.
May the Lord make His face to shine upon us and be gracious to us.
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, and give us peace.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen +

Worship Service at Church of the Dawntreader Thursday May 2, 2013 10:00 a.m. SLT
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
    Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™
    Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
    www.zondervan.com
"New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989,
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved." Designated by the initials, (NRSV).

Invocation:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen
Confession and Absolution
We come before you, our Loving Father, Mother God, confessing most of all our need of you.
We confess that we have not always acknowledged just how much we depend on you.
We confess that we have not always loved you with all our heart, soul and mind.
We have not always loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We ask that you will forgive us and grant us your strength to conform more fully to your loving will for us.
We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen.
In obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is my privilege to declare to you and to myself, the entire
forgiveness of all our sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Prayer of the Day
Let us pray.
Bountiful God, you gather your people into your realm, and you promise us food from your tree of life.
Nourish us with your word, that empowered by your Spirit we may love one another and the world you have made,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen

First Lesson: Acts 15: 1 - 2, 22 - 29 (NRSV)
1 Then certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers,
"Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved."
2 And after Paul and Bar'nabas had no small dissension and debate with them,
Paul and Bar'nabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders.
22 Then the apostles and the elders, with the consent of the whole church,
decided to choose men from among their members and to send them to An'tioch with Paul and Bar'nabas.
They sent Judas called Barsab'bas, and Silas, leaders among the brothers,
23 with the following letter: "The brothers, both the apostles and the elders,
to the believers of Gentile origin in An'tioch and Syria and Cili'cia, greetings.
24 Since we have heard that certain persons who have gone out from us,
though with no instructions from us, have said things to disturb you and have unsettled your minds,
25 we have decided unanimously to choose representatives and send them to you, along with our beloved Bar'nabas and Paul,
26 who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.
27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth.
28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials:
29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication.
If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell."
Here ends the First Lesson

Psalm 67 (NRSV)
1 May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us, [Se'lah]
2 that your way may be known upon earth,
your saving power among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide the nations upon earth. [Se'lah]
5 Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
6 The earth has yielded its increase;
God, our God, has blessed us.
7 May God continue to bless us;
let all the ends of the earth revere him.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Second Lesson: Revelation 21: 10 - 14, 22 - 22: 5 (NRSV)
10 And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.
 11 It has the glory of God and a radiance like a very rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It has a great,
high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates are inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of the Israelites; 13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city has twelve foundations, and on them are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

22 I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.
25 Its gates will never be shut by day--and there will be no night there.
26 People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
27 But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood,
but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.
22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
2 through the middle of the street of the city.
On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month;
and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
3 Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it,
and his servants will worship him;
4 they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
5 And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun,
for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
Here ends the Second Lesson.

Gospel Lesson: John 14: 23 - 29 (NRSV)
23 Jesus answered him [Judas, not Iscariot], "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them,
and we will come to them and make our home with them.
24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.
25 "I have said these things to you while I am still with you.
26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything,
and remind you of all that I have said to you.
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
28 You heard me say to you, "I am going away, and I am coming to you.'
If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.
29 And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.
Here end the Readings from Holy Scripture.

 - Sermon -

In this week's Gospel lesson we learn about the peace of Christ
and the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Comforter.
The two realities are closely connected.
God's peace brings us the assurance that we are loved no matter what.
The power of the Holy Spirit enables us to believe that assurance.
Christ is the source of life to all who believe.
He is God living in us,
and there is no greater peace.
His peace is not like our thoughts of peace.
It is much more than the absence of conflict.
It is a much more powerful force than violence or war or conflict or any of the things we think can contradict it.
In fact, the peace of God has no equal.
Nothing can stand beside it.
If the peace of God is in your heart,
nothing can separate you from the love of God
which has been revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is more than believing any doctrine or idea about God or Christ.
The peace of God is far greater even than tranquility.
It can produce tranquility,
but it can also bring a calm in the midst of a storm.
Think of the picture of Jesus calming a storm for His disciples.
He is the calm center around which an entire universe can rage,
but it cannot touch Him.
He is the source of being,
so of course, He can remain calm no matter what is happening around Him - or even to Him.
After all, this is the Man who said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing,"
about those who were crucifying Him!
He died in agony on the cross,
asking God why He had forsaken Him,
yet in His heart of hearts,
He was at peace,
at rest,
in the Father's love,
for He died forsaken for love of us.
He died, not with those words on His lips,
but, according to John,
saying, "It is finished."
What was finished?
The work of our redemption was finished and complete.
Now His peace can rule in our hearts,
even when we do not feel it!
His peace is infinitely more than a feeling.
It is the reality of God's love,
and it will inevitably overflow to touch every part of our lives
and the lives of people around us.
The world may not even recognize the peace that Christ gives us,
because, as He said,
He does not give as the world gives.
His gifts are not returnable,
and they are given freely, without any conditions at all.
Think of that!
God's peace is yours.
You may not even know what it is,
you may not know how to ask for it.
But it is His gift to you.
It may result in peace of mind.
Sometimes it does not.
But it is peace from God and with God.
It is reconciliation itself,
and it brings a peace that no conflict or pain or anything else in all of creation can destroy.
God's peace is His gift to you and me right now and forever,
and in the safety of His peace,
He will bring us home at last
to be with Him forever
in that place of eternal peace
described so vividly for us in our Second Lesson.
There grow the trees along the river that flows through the City of God,
and the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations.
That is the peace of God.
Here we know it imperfectly.
There, we will know it and live it perfectly forever and ever.
Amen.

Prayer of the People
Please type your spontaneous petitions in chat.
Each prepared petition is intended to remind us of the things we need to pray about,
so a brief pause will be provided for us to pray our own petitions,
either sharing them in the chat window
or praying them in our own hearts.

Loving God, we pray for each other, for those who depend upon us for prayer, and for all people according to their needs.
We ask that your healing power may prevail in our lives.
We pray that those in positions of public trust may be worthy of that trust as they act as stewards of power and wealth
for the benefit of all.
We pray that conflicts may be resolved in the context of relationships,
so that violence of thought word and deed may be diminished all through our world.
We ask your blessing for all who bear witness to the Gospel, so that relationships with you may be deepened for all people.
All these things, and whatever else you see that we need, we ask that you will grant for the sake of your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whose name we pray.
Amen.
Our Lord's Prayer
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 sins as we forgive those who sin 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.
Benediction
May the Lord bless us and keep us.
May the Lord make His face to shine upon us and be gracious to us.
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, and give us peace.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen +