Communion

This morning, as we partake in Communion together, this will be an extended time of celebrating the Eucharist, the Lord’s supper – a time of reflecting on Christ’s death and resurrection. As we celebrate this morning, would you allow yourself the freedom, even put forth the effort to participate fully? Open yourself to the presence of our Heavenly Father, and to Christ His Son, and to His Holy Spirit. Invite and expect God to be here with us.

I ask that you resist the notion that Church rituals and prescribed means of worship are less spiritual, because they are not. God can and does move within what we call the sacraments or means of grace. Communion is a sacrament, something to be practiced regularly within the Body of Christ.

But what is a means of grace? A means of grace can be summed up in one word – conduit. These sacraments such as baptism and communion are outward signs and symbols, they are words and actions and events that help us experience, receive and understand God’s grace and love. And through these conduits of grace the Spirit of God can show up, heal, convict, speak, and teach …. But we must be participants, cooperating with the Spirit - opening ourselves to God.

Don’t take these means of grace, such as Communion lightly. Don’t think they are too ritualistic or too Catholic, for many of these prescribed methods of worship predate the New Testament. So please, participate in the reading, and in the prayer, and in the receiving of God’s grace.

Let us pray: Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name; through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ says:

Matthew 22:37–40 ESV

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Read with me:

Matthew 6:9–13 ESV

Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Minister: Let us give thanks to God for his manifold mercies. O God our Father, the fountain of all goodness, who has been gracious to us all the years of our lives: we give you thanks for your loving kindness which has filled our days and brought us to this time and place.

We praise your Holy Name.

All: You have given us life and reason and set us in a world which is bright with your beauty. You have comforted us with family and friends, and ministered to us through the hands and minds of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We praise your Holy Name.

Minister: You have set in our hearts a hunger for you, and given us your peace. You have redeemed us and called us to a high calling in Christ Jesus. You have given us a place in the fellowship of your Spirit and in the witness of your Church. We praise your Holy Name.

All: In darkness you have been light to us; in adversity and temptation a Rock of strength; in our joys the very spirit of joy; in our labors the all-sufficient reward. We praise your Holy Name.

Minister: You have remembered us when we have forgotten you, followed us even though we fled from you, met us with forgiveness when we turned back to you. For all your long-suffering and the abundance of your grace, we praise your Holy Name.

All: For these and all your mercies, known or unknown, remembered or forgotten, we praise your Holy Name.

Minister: Let us now examine ourselves before God, humbly confessing our sins and looking for his promised forgiveness, watching our hearts, lest by self-deceit we shut ourselves out from his presence.

O God our Father, who has set out the way of life for us in your beloved Son: we confess with shame our slowness to learn of Him, our reluctance to follow Him. You have spoken and called, and at times we have not listened; your beauty has shone forth and at times we have been blind;

you have stretched your hands to us through our fellow human beings and at times we have passed by. We have taken great benefits with little thanks; we have been unworthy of your changeless love. Have mercy upon us and forgive us, O Lord.

All: Nothing in my hands I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness; according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Minister: As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is God’s mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our transgressions from us. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Minister: If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Minister: Minister: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

All: Amen.

Minister: O Lord God, Holy Father, who has called us through Christ to be partakers in this gracious Covenant, we take upon ourselves with joy the yoke of obedience, and engage ourselves, for love of you, to seek and do your perfect will.

Minister: And as you have shown us Christ who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we will follow our Lord wherever he goes. We are no longer our own, but yours.

All: I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you or laid aside for you,

exalted for you or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty; let me have all things, let me have nothing; I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are mine, and I am yours. So be it. And the Covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.

Minister: It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. Therefore, we praise you, joining our voices

with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of heaven who forever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your Name:

All: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might; heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Take up the Elements

Minister: We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Recalling Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, we offer you these gifts.

Minister: Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of your Son, the holy food and drink of new and unending life in Christ. Sanctify us also that we may faithfully receive this holy Sacrament, and serve you in unity, constancy, and peace;

Minister: and at the last day bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom. All this we ask through your Son Jesus Christ: By him, and with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever.

All: Amen.

Wintringhams Administer the Elements

John 6:47–51 NIV

Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

John 6:53–58 NIV

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

Minister: Alleluia. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

All: Therefore, let us keep the feast. Alleluia.

Minister: The Gifts of God for the People of God. Take them in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on him in your hearts by faith, with thanksgiving. The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Receive these gifts of grace and may Christ be fully formed in you.

All: I receive these gifts of grace; may Christ be fully formed in me. Amen!

Minister: Almighty and ever living God, we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; and for assuring us in these holy mysteries that we are living members of the Body of your Son, and heirs of your eternal kingdom.

Therefore, we proclaim the mystery of faith, that:

All: Christ has come. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

Closing and Blessing

All: And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord. To the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.

Minister: Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, now and forever.

Minister: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

And all of God’s people said, “Amen.”