Third Sunday of Easter
May 1st, 2022ª 10am
We open our hearts to the presence of God and worship together.
CHORAL INTROIT:
We are here this day to share God's love. We have come with burdens and cares, For within this place, we are bound as one In this fellowship we share.
CALL TO WORSHIP:
Sing praises to God, O you saints of God. Give thanks to God’s holy name.
Praise God for the joyous gift of a new day. Thank God for healing and ever-present help.
Extol the one who lifts us up from defeat. Praise the one who upholds us when we are discouraged.
God sees and hears our weeping. God lifts our souls from the pit of despair.
Give thanks to God who turns mourning into dancing. Praise God who hears our cries and answers our prayers.
We have cried to you in our need, O God. We believe you are working to make us whole.
HYMN: When Morning Gilds the Skies # 86 https://youtu.be/gT7Kh88CrL4
PRAYER OF INVOCATION
Holy One, Provider, and Our ever-present help. In our emptiness, you remind us of your presence. In your abundance, you remind us you are here. With a love that conquers death, you remind us we are yours Holy! Holy! Holy! are you our God. We give you all our thanks and praise.
We give you thanks for this new day, for the promise of a new springtime for our souls. We thank you for the peace and security we know within our walls and for the blessing of those who sustain us in times of trouble. Help us, Holy One, to open wide the eyes of our hearts and recognize you in our midst. Help us to hear your voice and sense your touch. May the reality of your amazing grace and your love for us nurture our beings so that the soil of our souls gives rise to blooms of new life and thoughts that transform all anxiety into peace. Bless us and refresh us in this time, dear Lord. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen.
A TIME OF PRAYER:
- Pastoral Prayer
We turn to you afresh with our needs and supplications. Holy One of all creation, of all our days, continue to inspire and fill us. So often we are ensnared by our insular living and concerns of our own life and the worries of our time that we miss your blessing in the living of our days. We seek to recognize your abundance within us, in deed and action, in sorrow and pain, in resurrection faith..
We give you thanks, O God, for your perpetual presence and saving power. Yet we ask of the gift of holy vision so that we may experience the fullness of your grace as we await the promise of new days filled again with light, laughter, and the fullness of your love shining bright in our hearts. Gracious God, come and heal us. Rescue us from peril, and let your beauty be known and shown in us, through us, and around us.
Be with our world in need, with those who suffer and those who serve. Bless us, our families, our loved ones, and our earth so in need of your grace. Help us all to embrace the true living faith and hope that sustains and strengthens...
- Silent Prayer
- Lord's Prayer:
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 debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, the glory, now and forever. Amen.
SCRIPTURE LESSONS:
-Acts 9.1-6 NT Page 111
-Psalm 30 Hymnal Page 639
-Revelation 5.11-14 NT Page 220
-John 21.1-12 NT Page 101
SERMON: “Catching Breakfast with God”
"Come have breakfast." It's one of my favorite lines in scripture. It's also particularly nice that the reading comes to us on a communion Sunday. The Eucharistic connection is all the more easier to see.
I'm pretty sure I've never been out fishing all night. I have, however, been at a beach at dawn. Now that I'm older, those days have been pretty much only been on an Easter morning. Seaside, or even riverside, at dawn can be quite special. One week, many years ago, my mom dropped me off at Robert Moses beach and I hiked from there to Watch Hill, on the other end of Fire Island. I slept four nights on the beach. The early mornings, cool even in summer, were rather magical. It was just the seagulls and I in the early light, but there was also a clear presence of God. Of course, it would have been great if God had a little fire going and some coffee and breakfast, but that never happened. But still, as I cleared the blur from the eyes, the sunrise itself was enough of an invitation to start the day with a bit of breakfast with God, even without the fixings.
While musing on this lesson, it led me to contemplate taking a cup of coffee and going for an early morning ride to the beach on day. I might well do that. But I think it would have to be alone. I'm not much for company as I sip my coffee. I like the quiet of the mornings, where I can be alone with my thoughts, my prayers, my God. Even when I'm not at the beach, but rather at home, in the office with the sun just rising to stream some bright rays through the window, that early morning quiet time with my coffee always finds me catching breakfast with God.
But then comes work, and people. I find it hard to carry that sense of presence into the day. Although we're taught to see Jesus in other people, to really do so with the eyes of faith, especially when we're in the work mode, takes some doing.
In that light, I'm not surprised the disciples didn't recognize Jesus on the beach. They were still focused on making a catch. It wasn't until the net was full that one of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, recognized the Lord. Then by announcing it, he helped Peter to see. The rest, too, would soon catch on. But that took a closer look.
Christian author Julie Manhan tells this story. There once was a little boy who wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with Twinkies and a six-pack of root beer and he started his journey. When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman. She was sitting in the park just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase.
He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered her a Twinkie. She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a root beer. Once again she smiled at him. The boy was delighted! They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.
As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was and got up to leave, but before he had gone more than a few steps he turned around, ran back to the old woman and gave her a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever. When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?" He replied, "I had lunch with God." But before his mother could respond, he added, "You know what? She's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen."
Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home. Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face and he asked, "Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?" She replied, "I ate Twinkies in the park with God." But before her son responded, she added," You know, he's much younger than I expected."
Although the account isn't of breakfast, it could be. It's still about a sustaining presence that comes with recognizing God in one's moments and carrying it with you. It also carries that important not of having eyes to see God not only when one is alone, sipping coffee (or root beer), but when one is the company of others.
Catching breakfast with God should be an everyday event, and it should be a meal that sustains with life-giving presence so that we are led to recognize God even in the company of others around us. May God grace us with eyes to see even as we take up God's invitation to "Come, have breakfast."
HYMN: You Have Come to the Lakeshore https://youtu.be/CH8O8QeGprk
PASTORAL BENEDICTION
