Pentecost begins with a rush–the rushing, life-giving wind of God’s Spirit. Yet, this extraordinary life in the Holy Spirit is in fact the ordinary experience of Christians. The Church year season of Pentecost recognizes that God’s Spirit breathes into us life-giving gifts to meet the tasks of each day. Pentecost is a time to centre our lives more deeply in what God has given us and made of us. Now, we reflect on whom God calls us to be, how to be God’s people in the world. This extraordinary gift of Word and Spirit joined to the ordinary times of our lives will refresh, renew, restore, and recreate us and all God’s creation..
The Season of Creation
Immersion In Living Water
INVITATION AND WELCOME
We ARE INVITED AND REMINDED
OF God’s faithful promiseS
GATHERING SONGs
Shall We Gather at the River
1. Shall we gather at the river, where bright angel feet have trod,
with its crystal tide forever flowing by the throne of God?
Refrain:
Yes, we’ll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river;
gather with the saints at the river that flows by the throne of God.
2. On the margin if the river, washing up its silver spray,
we will walk and worship ever, all the happy golden day.
Refrain:
3. Ere we reach the shining river, lay we every burden down;
grace our spirits will deliver, and provide a robe and crown.
Refrain:
4. Soon we’ll reach the shining river, soon our pilgrimage will cease;
soon our happy hearts will quiver with the melody of peace.
Refrain:
Blessed Assurance
1. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.
Refrain:
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long:
this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
2. Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
angels descending bring from aboveechoes of mercy, whispers of love.
Refrain:
3. Perfect submission, all is at rest; I in my Savior am happy and blest,
watching and waiting, looking above, filled with his goodness, lost in his love.
Refrain:
INVITATION AND WELCOME
We ARE INVITED AND REMINDED
OF God’s faithful promiseS
Biblical text for this Season of Creation: “Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. […] Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” (Ezek 47:9,12)
Pastor: In the beginning, the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. And God called them good.
People: Come Holy Spirit and cleanse the waters.
Pastor: The prophet saw a river flowing from the Temple, and wherever the river flowed, everything lived.
People: Come Holy Spirit and renew the face of the Earth.
Pastor: Jesus cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me… Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”
People: Come, Holy Spirit and heal your people.
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Thanksgiving for the Waters
Pastor: Almighty and ever living God, we thank you for your love in all creation, and especially for your gift of water to sustain and cleanse all life. Christ is the living water, cleansing, refreshing, and making all things new. So now we offer our thanks for the waters that bring beauty to all that we enjoy, the wild places, the bush, the mountains, coast and the sea. We give thanks and praise for all good lands, for the trees and pastures, for our plentiful crops, and for the living water that quenches them. (Adapted from Anglican Aotearoa NZ Prayer Book)
People: We praise you for giving us life through water, and for all waters everywhere. We especially praise you for the waters who sustain us in this part of our common home. We give you thanks, O God, for in the beginning you created us in your image and placed us in a well-watered garden. In the desert, you promised pools of water for the parched, and you gave your people water from the rock. When we did not know the way, you sent the Good Shepherd to lead us to still waters. At the cross, you washed us from Jesus’ wounded side, and on this day, you shower us again with the water of life. You bathe us in your forgiveness, grace, and love. You satisfy all who thirst, and give us the life only you can give. (Adapted from All Creation Sings, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)
CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION
We remember our baptisms, confess our faithlessness,
and hear God’s faithful promise of forgiveness
Pastor: We look upon your creation, O God, and we grieve.
Gracious and compassionate God,…
People: We are heavy with the weight of global heating
species extinction
air pollution
storms raging
countries flooding
people and animals dying.
We come before you knowing that you invite us to bring all of who we are to you: not just our praise and thanksgiving, but also our tears,our anger, our complacency, our fears and our anxieties, our guilt and our complicity.
Forgive us this day, O God, as we confess to you our failure to be the caretakers of your good creation.
(Adapted and amended fromAct Fast: Spiritual Practices for a Climate in Crisis)
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Pastor: God’s mercy flows like living water. The love of God, incarnate in Jesus who spoke to troubled waters, forgives us and calms our hearts so that justice may flow to all the dry places in our lives. In the name of Christ, may this grace free us to follow and proclaim the good news of the healing of all creation.
People: Amen.
Softly and Tenderly
1. Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
calling for you and for me.
See on the portals he’s waiting and watching,
watching for you and for me.
Refrain:
“Come home, come home!
You who are weary, come home.”
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
calling, “O sinner, come home!”
2. Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not his mercies,
mercies for you and for me?
Refrain:
3. Oh, for the wonderful love he has promised,
promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned, he has mercy and pardon,
pardon for you and for me.
Refrain:
GATHERING
WE RESPOND TO GOD’S CALL WITH PRAISE AND PRAYER,
AND PREPARE TO HEAR GOD’S WORD OF LIFE
GREETING
Pastor: Sisters and brothers, you have been called to freedom in Christ.
People: Let us live in that freedom and be lead by God’s Spirit.
Pastor: The grace given to us in Christ Jesus, the rich presence of the Holy Spirit living in us, and the power of God who calls us with a holy calling be with you all.
People: And also with you.
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PRAYER OF THE DAY
Pastor: Let us pray.
People: O Lord God, enliven and preserve your church with your perpetual mercy. Without your help, we mortals will fail; remove far from us everything that is harmful, and lead us toward all that gives life and salvation, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
Blessing of Backpacks
WORD
THE CHURCH HEARS THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD ACTING
IN THIS AND EVERY TIME AND PLACE
FIRST READING
Ezekiel 33:7-11
7 So you, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8 If I say to the wicked, “O wicked ones, you shall surely die,” and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand. 9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.
10 Now you, mortal, say to the house of Israel: Thus you have said: “Our transgressions and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?” 11 Say to them: As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?
PSALMODY
I Saw The Light
1. I wandered so aimless, life filled with sin; I wouldn’t ask my dear Savior in. Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night; Praise the Lord, I saw the Light!
Chorus: I saw the light, I saw the light. No more darkness; no more night.
Now I’m so happy no sorrow in sight. Praise the Lord, I saw the light!
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2. Just like a blind man I wandered alone, Worries and fears I claimed for my own. Then like the blind man that Jesus gave back his sight; Praise the Lord, I saw the light!
Chorus:
3. I was a fool to wander astray, For straight is the gate and narrow is the way.
Now I have traded the wrong for the right;Praise the Lord, I saw the light!
Chorus:
SECOND READING
Romans 13:8-14
8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is already the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; 12 the night is far gone; the day is near. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; 13 let us walk decently as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in illicit sex and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
THE GOSPEL
Pastor: The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the eighteenth chapter.
People: Glory to you, O Lord.
Matthew 18: 15-20 15 “If your brother or sister sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If you are listened to, you have regained that one. 16 But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If that person refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Pastor: The Gospel of the Lord.
People: Praise to you, O Christ.
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SERMON
HYMN OF THE DAY
Just A Closer Walk With Thee
Refrain: Just a closer walk with thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea;
daily walking close to thee,
let it be, dear Lord, let it be.
1. I am weak but thou art strong;
Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
I’ll be satisfied as long
as I walk let me walk ,close to thee.
Refrain:
2. Through this world of toil and snares,
if I falter, Lord, who cares?
Who with me my burden shares?
None but thee, dear Lord, none but thee.
Refrain:
3. When my feeble life is o’er,
time for me will be no more;
guide me gently, safely o’er
to thy kingdom shore, to thy shore.
Refrain:
AN AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
Pastor: Let us confess our faith in the God who is creating us, redeeming us, and sustaining us.
People: We believe in God, who creates all things,who embraces all things, who celebrates all things, who is present in every part of the fabric of creation. We believe in God as the source of all life, who baptizes this planet with living water.
We believe in Jesus Christ, seen in the suffering one, the poor one, the malnourished one, the climate refugee – who loves and cares for this world and suffers with it.
And we believe in Jesus Christ, the seed of life, ho came to reconcile and renew this world and everything in it.
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We believe in the Holy Spirit, the breath of God, who moves with God and who moves among and with us today.
We believe in everlasting life in God. And we believe in the hope that one day God will put an end to deathand all destructive forces. (
Lutheran Theological College, South India,adapted)
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE OF FAITH
[The congregational response after each petition is: “RENEW YOUR WHOLE CREATION.”]
Pastor: Freed by Christ and led by the Spirit, let us pray in hope to our God of life for the Church, the world, and the needs of all people everywhere, saying, “Come, Holy Spirit,” and responding, “Renew your whole creation.”
Petitioner: Faithful God, remove human bigotry, racism, ethnic and religious discrimination, and intolerance from our community and from among the peoples and nations of the world and replace all hard-heartedness with justice, peace, dignity and respect for the neighbour. Make us your agents of reconciliation. Come, Holy Spirit…
Petitioner: Faithful God, we give thanks for the gift of creation, that we and all who praise you as the Creator might more ardently cherish its wonders. May all that we do in industry, farming, business, education, homemaking, in all our labours and leisure honour the earth in all seasons. Come, Holy Spirit…
Petitioner: Loving God, you have called us to hear the cries of the world, to speak where silence must be broken, to comfort when terror threatens, to be peacemakers where there is war and violence, to love when confronted with hatred, and to take risks when we are afraid. Work in us your vision and power. Come, Holy Spirit…
Pastor: God of healing, your are the source of life and health. Send your comfort and care upon all who are suffering, sick, lonely, abused, depressed, making difficult life decisions, caring for the elderly, or grieving. We remember especially those who we name in our hearts before you …. Surround them with care and bring them to wholeness and peace. Come, Holy Spirit…
Petitioner: Good and gracious God, grant teachers the gift of joy and insight, and students the gift of diligence and openness at the beginning of this school year, that all may grow in what is good and honest and true. Support all who teach and all who learn, that together we may know and follow your ways. Come, Holy Spirit…
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Petitioner: Sustaining God, as we celebrate Labour Day instill in the hearts of all humanity joys in our daily labours, that the fruits of such efforts will raise up people with a passion for serving the needs of others through their work and bring about justice, peace, and well-being for all. Come, Holy Spirit…
Petitioner: God of mission, we await the continued outpouring of the Spirit’s gifts upon Trinity Lutheran, Resurrection, St. David’s/Trinity and King of Glory. Make us bold in sharing the hope and joy of our baptismal inheritance that together in ministry we may best discern how to love and to serve for the sake of the Gospel. Come, Holy Spirit…
Pastor: Empowering God, your gracious Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. Keep us in the faith, call, gather, and enlighten us with your Word, search our hearts and renew our lives to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our living Lord.
People: Amen.
What A Friend We Have In Jesus
1. What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry eve’rything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit; oh, what needless pain we bear –
all because we do not carry ev’rything to God in prayer!
2. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged – take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our ev’ry weakness – take it to the Lord in prayer.
3. Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge – take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer.
In his arms he’ll take and shield you; you will find a solace there.
THANKSGIVING
THE COMMUNITY PRAISES GOD FOR THE GRACIOUS GIFTS OF
CREATION AND THE SAVING DEEDS OF JESUS CHRIST
THE GREETING AND SHARING OF PEACE
Pastor: The peace of Christ be with you always.
People: And also with you.
(The congregation greets one another with a gesture of peace, using these or similar words: “Christ’s peace be with you.”)
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THE OFFERING
(We worship God with the offering of our selves, our time, our talents, and our possessions.)
OFFERTORY SONG
(The Offertory Song is sung during the collection and as the offerings are brought forward.)
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
1. What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Chorus:
Leaning, leaning,
Safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
2. O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
O how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Chorus:
3. What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Chorus:
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
People: Creator of all,
we praise you for the gift of life
and for the faith that unites us in care for our common home.
Through your resurrection,
you have made us people of hope.
With hope-filled hearts, may we come together as one family,
to labor for your peace—
a shalom where all your creatures
may dwell in safety,
and rest in quiet places.
With thankful hearts, we pray.
Amen.
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THE LORD’S PRAYER
Pastor: Let us pray with confidence in the words our Saviour gave us:
People: Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those
who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours,
now and forever. Amen.
SENDING
ALL RECEIVE THE BLESSING OF GOD, LEAVE IN PEACE,
AND ARE SENT OUT TO SERVE
BENEDICTION
Pastor: May the God who sprung water from a rock, quenching the thirst of those who wandered in fear, spare us from the drought of a senseless life.
May the God who flows from the wells of salvation, and who is Living Water to the foreigner, the stranger, and the unknown, keep us in peace.
May the God who rolls on like a river, changing the course of the world with streams of righteousness that guide the Church’s vessel in this world, empower us to work for transformation.
And may the blessing of our merciful God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, keep us and preserve us in eternal life. (Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil)
People: Amen.
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SENDING SONG
How Great Thou Art
1. O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the works they hands hath made, I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder, thy pow’r throughout the universe displayed;
Refrain:
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee, how great thou art! How great thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee, How great thou art! How great thou art!
2. When through the woods and forest glades I wander,I hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees; when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze;
Refrain:
3. But when I think that God, his Son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in, that on the cross my burden gladly bearinghe bled and died to take away my sin;
Refrain:
4 When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation, and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim, “My God, how great thou art!”
Refrain:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
DISMISSAL
Pastor: Go from here not as owners of our living waters,
but as those who share the water with all creatures.
Go from here, not as owners of creation,
but as those who live in a caring, respectful relationship with creation.
Go from here to celebrate life’s goodness.
Work for the new world that resides in the promise of Christ, the promise of love and abundant life for all of God’s creation.
Go in peace, renewed and prepared by God to care for all creation.
People: Thanks be to God
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