A Service of Morning Prayer

for Sunday May 3rd, 2020

 

Hymn:

All Creatures of our God and King 

 

All creatures of our God and King,

lift up your voices let us sing

alleluia, alleluia!

Bright burning sun with golden beams,

pale silver moon that gently gleams,

alleluia, alleluia,

alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

Great rushing winds and breezes soft,

you clouds that ride the heavens aloft,

O sing now, alleluia!

Fair rising morn, with praise rejoice,

stars nightly shining, find a voice,

alleluia, alleluia

alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

Swift flowing water, pure and clear,

make music for your Lord to hear,

alleluia, alleluia!

Fire so intense and fiercely bright,

you give to us both warmth and light,

alleluia, alleluia

alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

Earth ever fertile, day by day

Unfold your blessings on our way,

O sing now, alleluia!

All flowers and fruit that in you grow,

God’s glory let them also show;

Alleluia, alleluia

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

 

All you with mercy in your heart,

Forgiving others, take your part,

alleluia, alleluia,

All you that pain and sorrow bear,

Sing praise and cast on God your care:

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

And even you, most gentle death,

Waiting to hush our final breath,

O sing now, alleluia!

You lead back home the child of God,

For Christ our Lord that way has trod;

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

 

Let all things their Creator bless,

and worship God in humbleness,

Alleluia, alleluia!

Praise, God the Father, praise the Son,

and praise the Spirit, Three in one,

Alleluia, alleluia

alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

 

Alleluia! Christ is risen.

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

 

May his grace and peace be with you.

May he fill our hearts with joy.

 

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Alleluia!

O Come, let us worship.

 

Psalm 23

 

Response: The Lord is risen Indeed, alleluia!

 

1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.

 

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;

 

3 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.

 

4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff– they comfort me.

 

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

 

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long.

 

 

A reading from Acts 2:42-47

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

 

43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.

 

44 All who believed were together and had all things in common;

 

45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.

 

46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts,

 

47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

The word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

 

I Come With Joy

I come with joy a child of God, forgiven, loved, and free, the life of Jesus to recall, in love laid down for me

 

I come with Christians, far and near, to find, as all are fed, the new community of love in Christ’s communion bread.

 

As Christ breaks bread and bids us share, each proud division ends. The love that made us makes us one, and strangers now are friends.

 

The spirit of the risen Christ, unseen, but ever near, is in such friendship better known, alive among us here.

 

Together met, together bound, by all that God has done, we’ll go with joy, to give the world the love that makes us one.

 

 

A reading from 1 Peter 2:19-25

19 For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly.

 

20 If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval.

 

21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.

 

22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

 

23 When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.

 

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

 

25 For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

The word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

 

Breathe on Me, Breath of God

 

Breathe on me, breath of God; fill me with life a-new, that I may love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, breath of God, until my heart is pure, until my will is one with thine to do and to endure

Breathe on me, breath of God, till I am wholly thine, until this earthly part of me glows with thy fire divine.

Breathe on me, breath of God: so shall I never die, but live with thee the perfect life of thine eternity.

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John

Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ

 

John 10:1-10

1 Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.

 

2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

 

3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

 

4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

 

5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

 

6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

 

7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.

 

8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them.

 

9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.

 

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

The Gospel of Christ.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

Sermon

Let us pray: in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

“Jesus came that we may have life, and have it abundantly.” – John 10:10

 

Good Morning. I would like to start by saying how very pleased I am to be beginning this new chapter of the life of St Peters. It will be an adventure for all of us. I’m already more than half in love with this parish, and I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting half of you yet! It is an honour and a delight to be your new Rector and so long as we remember that Christ goes before us – calling us by name – I am sure that good things are on the horizon.

 

I was talking with a young woman the other day. She is beautiful and kind and scary smart. And we were talking about the pandemic – this pandemic – about social distancing and how unfair and classist –  her words – our response to it has been.

 

She told me about a radio show she was listening to – I wish I could cite the source but I can’t — all we have is her word for it – her testimony – she was telling me how the host was reading out which bus routes were still busy. Which one’s weren’t taking quarantine seriously. And how she was appalled to find that with very little research it was easy to see why.

 

These bus routes travel through lower socio-economic neighbourhoods. I think the announcer was talking about Toronto but I can’t be sure.

 

The people on those buses are people who don’t have the savings necessary to stay home. People whose jobs cannot be done from home.

 

And this – naturally lead this young woman to questions of theodicy – questions about how God can possibly be good when the world is so unfair.

 

She was appalled at the lack of compassion and the public shaming that was making a difficult situation worse for people who were doing their best.

 

And she was asking questions, questions like:

• What can it possibly mean that Jesus came that we may have life, and have it abundantly – when it looks like that only applies to a few of us.

 

It was a great question – like I said this girl is scary smart.

 

But, like all great questions it leads us not to a concise, clear, one and done answer but instead to more questions.

 

Because if Jesus is our Shepherd – which all of our readings this morning proclaim boldly and beautifully – then shouldn’t we be able to hear His voice just a little more clearly in these difficult times?

 

Shouldn’t we all be seeing more of the goodness and mercy that should be following us all the days of our lives and less of the shadow of the valley of death?

 

Still, I wonder if that is the key. If that – right there – is the gate – I mean our Gospel this morning makes it clear that Jesus is the gate – but that is precisely what I mean.

 

Because, what if like Jesus – who came in an unexpected way – Jesus who was not who we were expecting in a messiah – maybe in that same way, the goodness and the mercy that IS following us all the days of our lives looks a little different than we expected.

 

Maybe abundant life looks a little different than we expect.

 

Maybe it looks like a God that walks with us through the shadow of the valley of death – with all of us – regardless of socio-economic status or any markers of the world that seek to separate and categorize us as different from each other.

 

What if, regardless of all those false hierarchies that make it so much easier to ignore each other, what if the Shepherd is still calling us by name?

 

I’d say – and I will say – confidently – that He is.

 

Even now when the unfairness of the world seems so profound.

 

Even now when people are hurting.

 

Even now when people are dying.

 

He is our Good Shepherd.

 

He goes before us

 

And He is calling us by name –

 

To follow Him.

Amen.

Go Light Your World- Kathy Troccoli

 

There is a candle in every soul

Some brightly burning, some dark and cold

There is a Spirit who brings fire

Ignites a candle and makes His home

 

Carry your candle, run to the darkness

Seek out the hopeless, confused and torn

Hold out your candle for all to see it

Take your candle, and go light your world

Take your candle, and go light your world

 

Frustrated brother, see how he’s tried to

Light his own candle some other way

See now your sister, she’s been robbed and lied to

Still holds a candle without a flame

 

We are a family whose hearts are blazing

So let’s raise our candles and light up the sky

Praying to our Father, in the name of Jesus

Make us a beacon in darkest times

 

 

Affirmation of Faith (The Apostle’s Creed)

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

 

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

 

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Prayers

In joy and hope let us pray to the source of all life, saying, “Hear us, Lord of glory!”

That our risen Saviour may fill us with the joy of his holy and life-giving resurrection, let us pray to the Lord.

Hear us, Lord of glory!

That isolated and persecuted churches may find fresh strength in the Easter gospel, let us pray to the Lord.

Hear us, Lord of glory!

That he may grant us humility to be subject to one another in Christian love, let us pray to the Lord.

Hear us, Lord of glory!

That he may provide for those who lack food, work, or shelter, let us pray to the Lord.

Hear us, Lord of glory!

That by his power wars and famine may cease through all the earth, let us pray to the Lord.

Hear us, Lord of glory!

That he may reveal the light of his presence to the sick, the weak, and the dying, that they may be comforted and strengthened, let us pray to the Lord.

Hear us, Lord of glory!

That he may send the fire of the Holy Spirit upon his people, that we may bear faithful witness to his resurrection, let us pray to the Lord.

Hear us, Lord of glory!

Collect

O God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, make us perfect in every good work to do your will, and work in us that which is well-pleasing in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

And now, as our Saviour Christ has taught us, we are bold to say,

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, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness

Praise the one who breaks the darkness with a liberating light.

Praise the one who frees the prisoners, turning blindness into sight.

Praise the one who preached the gospel, healing every dread disease,

Calming storms and feeding thousands with the very bread of peace.

 

Praise the one who blessed the children with a strong yet gentle word.

Praise the one who drove out demons with a piercing two-edged sword.

Praise the one who brings cool water to the dessert’s burning sand.

From this well comes living water quenching thirst in every land.

 

Praise the one true love incarnate: Christ who suffered in our place.

Jesus died and rose for many that we may know God by grace.

Let us sing for joy and gladness, seeing what our God has done.

Praise the one redeeming glory, praise the One who makes us one.

 

 

 

 

The Dismissal

Let us bless the Lord.

Thanks be to God. Alleluia

May the God of peace enable us to do his will in every kind of goodness, working in us what pleases him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Alleluia!