Readings
Isaiah 6:1-8, (9-13)
In the year King Uzziah Dies, Isaiah has a vision of God’s glory in the temple, where he is cleansed and he responds to God’s call. Then God tells him to say to the people that they won’t learn or understand. When he asks how long this will be for, God answers that it will continue until the country is a wasteland, but that Israel’s stump will be a holy seed.
Psalm 138
The Psalmist praises God for God’s love and faithfulness, and God’s promises, declaring that all the kings of the earth will praise God, for God is great. In the Psalmist’s troubles God protects from enemies and will work out God’s plans for the Psalmist’s life.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Paul reminds the believers of the Good News that Jesus died, was buried, and was raised from the dead on the third day. He was seen by Peter, and the twelve, and by over 500 followers. He was also seen by Paul, who considers himself the least of the apostles. He declares that he is what he is by the grace of God.
Luke 5:1-11
Jesus preaches on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and when the crowds press in on him, he steps into a boat and asks Peter to put out from the shore a little. Then he tells Peter to go out and drop his nets to catch fish. Peter complains that the disciples have worked all night and caught nothing, but he agrees to go anyway. When they catch a great catch, Peter responds in repentance, and Jesus calls him to follow. So Peter, James and John leave their nets and follow Jesus.
(Summaries of Bible readings by John van de Laar, Sacredise)
Resources
Textweek
Singing from the Lectionary
Reflections on the readings by John van de Laar
Components of worship
(Scroll down for resources for this particular Sunday)
Acknowledgement of Land
Gathering
Prayer of thanksgiving
Prayer of confession/prayers of who we are
Words of Assurance
Prayer for Illumination
Readings
Prayers for others
Lord’s Prayer
Prayer of Dedication
Benediction and sending out
(Communion)
(Communion Hymns)
(Music)
Opening Prayer (based on Psalm 138)
We shall sing Your praise O God:
In a world where money counts
In a world where nasty things happen
In a world where power is abused
We shall sing Your praise O God:
Above the troubles of last week
Above the noise of the world
Above the boasts of the proud
We shall sing Your praise O God:
Even though we are few in number (if true!)
Even though we are weak and less than perfect
Even though we are easily discouraged
Because You care for the humble,
You love those who seek You
and because you have dealt with our sins in the person of Jesus Christ our Saviour, who loved us and gave himself for us,
who loves us today, who will love us for ever.
Far-seeing God,
You will do everything You have promised.
Graciously complete in us the work You have begun;
complete in our church the work which needs to be done; complete in our community the work Your kingdom requires
that those who share responsibility with us for the world around us may discover your promises and praise your name.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.
(Source: Rev Jock Stein, Church of Scotland)
Gathering
A call to worship is an invitation to gather
we regulars and we newcomers
we willing and we reluctant
we skeptics and we believers
We hear the invitation to gather
as one community in Christ
A call to worship is an invitation to gratitude
we thankful and we grumpy
we full of heart and we empty of hope
we bereft and we blessed
We hear the invitation to gratitude
as one community in Christ
A call to worship is an invitation to listen
we receptive and we closed off
we eager and we unwilling
we followers and we stragglers
We hear the invitation to listen
as one community in Christ
A call to worship is an invitation to give
we carefree and we calculating
we gracious and we cautious
we prosperous and we poor
We hear the invitation to offering
as one community in Christ
to be gathered by God as one body
to be grateful to God as beloved children
to listen to God as willing followers
to give to God as humble stewards
Let us bring our worship.
(Source: Craig Mitchell, Feb 2019, Prayers that Unite)
Prayer of Praise: Psalm 138
Hearts, full of praise for you;
voices, singing gratitude;
bodies, temples, turning to your faithfulness,
soaking in your love.
Your name shines through the dark world,
brightens everything.
My plea flies to you,
on Spirit’s groaning wings;
strength dives with me in sight,
lifts and carries my soul.
Your word pierces the clamouring world,
silence heard through everything.
Rulers will re-tune their song,
will join the chorus to your glory:
may they see their haughty selves,
the worthy lowly, through your eyes.
Your hand reaches through the tangled world,
clears a path through every thing.
Hearts are full of your true Love,
voices sing with joy;
bodies, temples, stand for you,
Holy, Sacred, One. Amen.
(Source: Sarah Agnew, Pray the Story)
Call to Worship(inspired by Psalm 138)
We gather to give thanks to you, O Lord,
with all our heart!
We will sing your praises before all creation,
and rejoice in your steadfast love!
You have created us O Lord, and made us for yourself.
In you we become everything you have made us to be!
(Source: Lectionary Sermons Archives)
Thanksgiving and Intercession
Lord God,
You have made so many things to bless human life –
houses and churches, water and boats, ideas and speech, music and art and craft, leadership and service, worship and work and play.
For all your good gifts, we praise and thank you.
In a world where good news is often unreported,
we thank you for good things that have happened this past week, and for answered prayer. We continue to bring our prayers before you, for our friends and neighbours… for our community… for our country.
We pray for those we have elected to govern.
Restrain or remove those who do ill,
encourage and empower those who do well, we pray.
(Name global, national and community leaders if you wish).
We give thanks for all who have led us wisely and well, and pray for our leaders today (name church leaders if you wish)
Guide them and guard them all, we pray.
You gave us Jesus to be our Saviour and friend,
to be a light to the world.
Thank You for his example, for his teaching, for his kindness, for his willingness to heal.
We remember all those troubled in body or mind, threatened by the enemies of well-being. Heal them and help them all, we pray.
We thank You for the wonder of the gospel
and for all who have borne witness to the resurrection.
We thank You for those who have touched our lives for good,
for all who care for us, for those who care with us about the good of humankind and who look with us for the fulfilment of your kingdom promises.
We bless you for the great company of saints who have gone before us and now delight in your presence. With them we honour and praise your holy name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and as they were taught to pray so do we say, Our Father … (Lord’s Prayer)
(Source: Rev Jock Stein, Church of Scotland)
A Hard, Deep Call to Obedience
You are the God who makes extravagant promises.
We relish your great promises of fidelity and presence and solidarity,
and we exude in them. Only to find out, always too late, that your promise always comes in the midst of a hard, deep call to obedience.
You are the God who calls people like us, and the long list of mothers and fathers before us, who trusted the promise enough to keep the call.
So we give you thanks that you are a calling God, who calls always to dangerous new places. We pray enough of your grace and mercy among us that we may be among those who believe your promises enough to respond to your call.
We pray in the one who embodied your promise and enacted your call, even Jesus. Amen.
(Source: Walter Brueggemann, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann, (Augsburg Fortress, 2003, p. 90)
Luke 5.1-11, a meditation
Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret,
and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God.
Is there a hunger in you that presses to hear the word of life?
Give it permission. Let it move you.
He saw two boats there at the shore of the lake.
He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon,
and asked him to put out a little way from the shore.
Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
How might God be asking to make use of your life?
In all your challenges, give thanks
that the Beloved is in the boat with you.
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,
“Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
Do you hear God inviting you to go deeper?
Where are those deep waters?
Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long
but have caught nothing.
Where do you experience discouragement, weariness, emptiness?
Imagine Jesus there. Imagine grace hidden there.
Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”
Have you ever done anything purely because God asked you to?
Are you willing to?
What might God be asking to you do?
When they had done this,
they caught a great many fish.
Imagine that you were to receive what you long for.
Imagine it is already there, beneath your vision.
They caught so many fish their nets were beginning to break.
Are there ways your success weighs you down?
Do your possessions swamp you?
So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them.
You are not in this alone.
Who is with you?
And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.
God’s overabundant grace can ruin your old life.
Let it be so.
When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying,
“Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
Do the abundant riches of God’s grace leave you feeling unworthy?
Get up.
Do you sense the gap between God’s grace and your living?
Rather than reject the grace, conform to it.
Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching people.”
This is not your work, but the work of God in you.
You are not the fisher; you are the bait.
Imagine what God can do through you.
When they had brought their boats to shore,
they left everything and followed him.
What do you need to let go of?
Remember you are not being sent off;
you are being invited to follow, to stay close.
(Source: Steve Garnaas-Holmes, Unfolding Light)
Holy Communion Liturgy
This communion liturgy is shared freely to churches that offer online worship and hybrid sanctuaries with some people at home and some people practicing distancing and caution in an indoor or outdoor setting. Feel free to use pieces of this service helpful to you, and abridge, adapt or add freely in ways that make this holy for your community. This liturgy is not dependent on the revised common lectionary but alludes to texts from Isaiah 6 and Luke 5 in ways that do not require reading those texts in the service.
Invitation to Communion
Who will come to this table …
to celebrate care in illness, comfort in sorrow,
healing beyond curing, peace in forgiveness,
hope in times of fear or threat?
Here we are. We will come.
Who will come to this table,
having abundance,
as culture defines it or your heart knows it,
and because you have discovered
your own generosity
and need to start giving?
Here we are. We will come.|
Who will come to this table,
willing to be welcomed,
even when that is awkward,
willing to be served,
not a server, or planner of the menu,
and willing to welcome
anybody, anybody, anybody
who sits beside you …
willing to offer welcome
even expecting it to be rejected,
and, if it is, offer again?
Here we are. We will come,
with our regrets and dreams of angels,
with our healed lips and lives.
Words of Remembering
Jesus of Nazareth came to the lakeshore,
borrowed a boat and reached out to people
by offering words to remember
and food to eat.
The words called them to follow
and the food was from deep places.
Jesus comes still to stormy waters
and food deserts,
to borrow the leaky rowboat
(we wish was more like a cruise ship)
that we call the church,
and use it to offer words
that change human lives,
and sustenance that saves them.
We remember that Jesus knew,
when it was the last Passover,
that only a few words were needed,
and the simplest meal prepared,
Jesus blessed, broke, poured, shared,
and whispered … “For You.”
Prayer of Consecration
Gentle Host, rest upon us as you rested upon wave and deep. Speak into our lives a Word made flesh. Send your Spirit of life and love, power and blessing upon your children that this bread may be broken and gathered in love and this cup poured out to give hope to all. Risen Christ, live in us, that we may live in you. Breathe in us, that we may breathe in you. amen.
Prayer of our Saviour … Amen
Sharing of the Elements
Let us join as one though we are in many places
and receive the gift of God, the bread of heaven.
We are one in Christ in the bread we share.
Let us with our many needs and many blessings,
receive the gift of God, the cup of blessing.
We are one in Christ in the cup we share.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Spirit of Christ, wrap your gentle presence around all whose bodies, spirits and hearts need healing or strength. Receive each of our personal commitments to go forth for you, and also borrow from this community of faith the ways to row out to all your children in the world. Amen.
(Source: Maren Tirabassi, Gifts in Open Hands)
