leadinginworship

Journey of Love Prayer

Holy Spirit,
we need your presence here on planet earth.
Jesus walked the streets of Jerusalem,
it is there he was crucified.
Today many still suffer in that same city.
Racism and oppression are rampant;
a giant dividing wall of hostility runs near it.
Jerusalem struggles to find the things that make for peace.
We need your Spirit to shine there in dark places,
and to offer hope for those who are mired in hopelessness.
Raise up peacemakers who reject hatred,
whose integrity can inspire loyalty,
whose wisdom can chart a path for peace.

Here, closer to home, in our village [town/city/region]
we call on your spirit to fill this congregation with love.
Help us to wash the feet of our community,
going the second mile, giving the cup of cold water.
Help our churches to be loving,
reaching out to all we meet.
Holy Spirit, guide us in our finances,
to wisely use the resources you’ve given us,
to plant fruitful seeds for your kingdom.
Where there is division between churches of different kinds,
heal us with your uniting presence.
Help our churches to be communities where we live in peace,
not the peace of differences pushed under the rug,
but the peace of discussion and dialogue and mutual respect.
Shape us into people of prayer,
whose first thought in the morning is praise,
whose watchword is kindness,
and whose last thought at night is peace, the deep peace of God.
We ask this all, in the name of our Saviour Jesus,
who through his lifelong journey of love
showed us God’s kingdom come,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Amen

The Church United

For centuries and millennia
the church divided.
In fragments,
polarized, incensed
and with bees in their bonnets,
Christian denounced Christian,
sending one another to hell,
or to their graves,
quoting scripture or creed
as the occasion demanded.
Or not.

For centuries and millennia,
churches worked in silos
of their own theological making,
ignoring each other completely,
repeating, “I’m not listening, I’m not listening,”
as songs of praise to God
drifted in through windows
that someone forgot to close.
Or not.

This year, to everyone’s surprise,
the Spirit rolls down Church Street
like an ice cream truck
playing its good news song.
Jesus, like a holy pied piper
who cannot be resisted,
pulls the children of God outside.
With no walls between them,
they meet one another’s eyes,
all lined up smiling,
waiting for God.

Grace Raining

Jesus help us live in peace,
even as we go to pieces.
The body of the redeemed
pulled apart by faithfulness,
yanked by righteousness,
clawed by holiness.
Ecclesial politics as a blood sport.
We stand our ground grandly,
confident of its moral highness.
“They’ve lost the way,”
“They don’t care,”
“We are following Jesus,”
echo back and forth
from every side.
We lay our stones boldly
on the foundation of Jesus Christ,
watching carefully so we can kick away
the rubble laid by other hands.
Fingers point, posture threatens,
raised fists poised to strike,
construction slows for the cataclysm.
The world lines up for the feature presentation;
a bloody good show titled
“Apostasy Returns: The Final Battle”.
Things are just heating up
when the first drops fall.
Where did that cloud come from?
No one was looking for it.
The drops are light at first,
running down our cheeks
like tears from heaven.
Rivulets running down us,
running down them,
pooling at our feet.
And then comes the deluge,
a torrent from above
that finally makes us shut our mouths.
We grope our way off the battlefield
unsure whose hands we’re grasping
in the wet dark.
We walk right by some guy
with outstretched arms,
an anonymous prophet
standing like Elijah
raining grace upon us

Congregational Prayer for Christian Unity

God of grace:
Thank you for Alberta, our beautiful province,
land of prairie and boreal forest, rolling hills and  towering mountains.
Thank you for our connection to this land,
our favourite spots and places, where we seek out beauty and peace.
Thank you for Alberta’s connection to the rest of Canada,
its connection to our continent, its oceans,
for the atmosphere we share with the whole world,
for the deep heat of the earth’s core
that is the base of every country on earth.
Thank you for the unity of the world,
even as we love certain parts of it,
and feel its separateness acutely. 

In the same way, thank you for your church.
Thank you for the particularity
of our Mennonite Brethren congregation here in Lendrum,
the people, our community, our faith.
Thank you for every other Christian church in Edmonton today,
worshipping in so many ways, using so many rituals, and so many languages.
Thank you for churches in Belgium, Botswana, Bolivia, Bulgaria and Burma…
Christians praising the name of Jesus
in cathedrals, basilicas and small church buildings,
in open air services and house churches.
Thank you for our place in the whole body of Christ. 

Forgive us, God, for our short sightedness,
our parochialism, our obliviousness to the richness of your body,
even here in Edmonton, let alone the whole world.
Open our minds to the wideness of your family,
the love you have for all peoples,
and the broadness of your plan for salvation.
Thank you for Jesus, who showed us the way,
through his inclusiveness and his sacrificial love.

Today like people in churches around the world, we come with petitions;
we have grieving people among us, we need your comfort here.
We have sick people among us, in mind and body, we need your healing here.
We have despairing people among us, we need your hope here.
We long for your Spirit’s power;
empower us to be a community that offers comfort,
that encourages healing, that lives in your hope.
And now, we join together with churches around the world,
as we pray the prayer you taught us to pray:  Our Father...

The whole score

God breathes and the world answers in a symphony of faithfulness.
Songs of services in chapels, halls and tabernacles,
arias of councils and conferences and conventions,
oratorios of missions and campaigns and committees.
The devoted bursting forth in a hundred million hymns,
harmonious, dissonant, raucous and serene.
The voice of the church exhaling its devotion,
praising Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer and Friend.
Angel voices and the saintly crowd of witnesses
hum along as God’s kingdom call echoes in the world. 

For so long we’ve tuned into only one part, ours,
examining it, analyzing it to the nth degree,
arguing over our notes, perfecting them, enjoying them.
We know our part by heart,
we sing it lustily.
Then one day God turns the page
and we glimpse the whole score,
infinitely intricate,
more voices than you can shake a stick at,
unclouded, unconcealed, unconstrained.
God the great scorekeeper nods
as we suddenly hear the age-old chorus,
the melody of grace in stereophonic surroundsound.
It’s there for those who have ears to hear.