Going on An Adventure Week 4

Pastoral Welcome

-mention communion being a part of service

Call to Worship

We need your presence on the long road, Lord.

The road between fear and hope,

the road between the place where all is lost

and the place of resurrection.

Like the disciples walking the road to Emmaus,

we are in need of your company!

Jesus, stand among us, in your risen power,

let this time of worship, be a hallowed hour.

Pastoral Prayer

We need your presence on the long road, Lord.

The road between fear and hope,

the road between the place where all is lost

and the place of resurrection.

Like the disciples walking the road to Emmaus,

we are in need of your company!

Jesus, stand among us, in your risen power,

let this time of worship, be a hallowed hour.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer

Our planet is fragile and so is the life that claims it as home.

We wonder how long we can simply take what we want

with little regard for what it costs your creation.

We wonder if the planet is crying out for relief

in the floods that are really tears;

the earthquakes that try and shake our consciousness;

the gales that blow sighs, too deep for words.

Renew and restore a vision of care for your creation.

Remind us to take what we need and no more.

Encourage us in a counter-cultural faithfulness

that is not about consumerism.

Spur us with new insight and deeper understanding

that we may live mindfully each day,

conscious of the impact of we do and fail to do.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer

Lord we pray for our local Christian communities, our churches and ecumenical groups; for those here present, and those who are absent from our assembly today. Lord, forgive us when we are indifferent to each other, and bring your healing to the wounds and divisions that keep us apart.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer

Merciful God,

we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart.

We have failed to be an obedient church.

We have not done your will,

We have broken your law,

We have rebelled against your love,

We have not loved our neighbors,

and we have not heard the cry of the needy.

Forgive us, we pray.

Free us for joyful obedience,

through Jesus Christ our Lour

We give thanks for the good news that unfolds in the world

as people dream your dreams, follow your nudging,

and seek you in the faces they meet each day.

Perhaps, O God, it is the only Transfiguration we really need.

For all those who are quiet witness to your love and way of life,

we give thanks, O God.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer

We give thanks for the good news that unfolds in the world

as people dream your dreams, follow your nudging,

and seek you in the faces they meet each day.

Perhaps, O God, it is the only Transfiguration we really need.

For all those who are quiet witness to your love and way of life,

we give thanks, O God.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer

God, we pray for ourselves—members of Your Body here on earth.

Break down the barriers that divide us from one another.

Unite us in our common allegiance to You as Lord and Saviour.

Grant us compassion and humility in our relationships.

Release the gifts You have given to each one,

so that in us and through us,

Your kingdom might come and Your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

We offer in this moment of silence all of those things to your care.

(about 10 seconds of silence)

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer

We pray that you would come alongside us and all those for whom we pray, that you would show us Jesus, the light of the world, the one who came (and who comes) to rid us of sin, to give us life and health and peace, peace that passes all understanding – not a temporary respite from trouble but the strength to overcome it and ultimately to receive life eternal.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer

Most holy God, to you all souls are precious; please take from our eyes the scales of prejudice or indifference, that we may increasingly share your awareness of the neglected and abused people, and do all we can to make your love real to them. We pray now in faith the prayer that your son taught us saying...

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 and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Amen.

Middle Chunk

Celebration - Blood drive went on successfully

Rhonda’s Small group challenge - i.e. stick around afterwards for the Sermon series small group!

Intro to Offertory

Putting the estimate of giving cards into the offering plate

Sermon

Tell the story

Tell the story when you return back home

The stories that we tell are the memories that we create

If I am with friends of mine that have known me for a long time I know the list of stories that we tell and retell

embellish perhaps

This is true in families as well

My parents have told me a number of stories about what I was like as a baby in adolescence

some of those stories go back so far that I wouldn’t be able to remember them if I

“We Section”

This is true of our faith as well

If you stick around a church enough you might get the privilege to hear someone re-tell the same story once again

We share our stories because God works in an through them

Shout out to the devotionals

I think about Kurt Gibson’s testimony and many others that have been shared

Our stories of faith start with the stories of scripture.....

Intro to scripture

Luke 24:28–35 NRSV

28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

When we experience God’s generosity our priorities change

Jesus is already with them - we think that Jesus is not with us

God knows us before we know God

prevenient grace evangelism

God is here already

Jesus was the host not the guest

The disciples were going to do one thing and then their direction got immediately flipped

They knew all of the right things, but it wasn’t until the tangible act of breaking of the bread that they knew who he was

Think about the moment when you realized someone was who they were under the mask

Maybe they recognized him because of the markings on his hands, perhaps it was the flood of memories that came back from the last supper, or perhaps it was because of the hospitality.

Link back to devotionals

Members of our church know that God is there long before God seems to show up in their stories

Telling the story magnifies generosity

because it’s an unnamed disciple we can put ourselves in the story

They initially returned just to tell the insiders

That could be a good starting point for us - testify of God’s goodness within our church before you testify of God’s goodness beyond our church

Witnessing and sharing our faith is something that some believers have a special calling for, but is nonetheless the calling of all believers

The primary theme is that we ought to pass on the story that we have received. The story that we received is not just "our own" story, but THE MAIN Story throughout all of history

Christ is made known through the breaking of the bread

Eating a meal and particularly the practice of hospitality was actually a big difference b/w "their world" and "our world"

It was in the act of communion that they recognized him

Through the tangible

Finances are a tangible expression of faithfulness

What he had "made known to them" as in it almost reads like what he revealed to them not what he taught them.

How he was made known to them, how he was known to them, how he was recognized by them - the root here is ginosko

Communion

*Open table speal*

THE GREAT THANKSGIVING

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

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

Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.

On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

When the supper was over, he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

(Pastor speaks.) And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.

Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father, now and forever. Amen.