We’re experimenting with simplifying our tech set-up for our livestreaming, so if you are participating from home this week, you can follow along with the programme here – you’ll find all the readings and liturgies right here rather than on your screen and you can still engage with the chat via Facebook Live. (We’ll upload Sunday’s recording to YouTube afterwards). Let us now how this works for you!
Welcome/ Intro – Pete
Song – The Body
Verse 1
It’s Your breath that’s filling our lungs
And through our veins it’s Your blood that runs
It’s Your life that makes us alive
We are the body of ChristPre-chorus
So let our hearts beat with Your heartbeatChorus 1
Great things You have done
Greater things are yet to come
Fill us with Your glory we are Your body
Take our hands take our hearts
We surrender all we are
Fill us with Your glory we are Your bodyVerse 2
It’s Your love that’s making us one
One that moves as Your kingdom comes
Jesus let Your light make us shine
Shine like the body of ChristBridge
Stephen Curtis Chapman
Let Your kingdom come
Father let Your will be done (through us)
Song – I Need You To Survive
Verse
I need you, you need me
We’re all a part of God’s body
Stand with me, agree with me
We’re all a part of God’s body
It is God’s will that every need be supplied
You are important to me
I need you to survive
You are important to me
I need you to survive
Vamp
I pray for you, you pray for me
I love you, I need you to survive
I won’t harm you with words from my mouth
I love you, I need you to survive
It is God’s will that every need be supplied
You are important to me
I need you to survive
Question for Sharing (opportunity to respond in Facebook Live comments) (Pete)
When have you felt most alive?
Scripture Reading: Psalm 139 (Mark)
1 O Lord, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.
2 You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
3 You see me when I travel
and when I rest at home.
You know everything I do.
4 You know what I am going to say
even before I say it, Lord.
5 You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too great for me to understand!
7 I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave,[a] you are there.
9 If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
11 I could ask the darkness to hide me
and the light around me to become night—
12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
17 How precious are your thoughts about me,[b] O God.
They cannot be numbered!
18 I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me!
19 O God, if only you would destroy the wicked!
Get out of my life, you murderers!
20 They blaspheme you;
your enemies misuse your name.
21 O Lord, shouldn’t I hate those who hate you?
Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose you?
22 Yes, I hate them with total hatred,
for your enemies are my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
Reflection (10-15 minutes) – Sacred Embodiment & Incarnation – Naomi
Song – Sacred the Body
Verse 1
Sacred the body God has created,
Temple of Spirit that dwells deep inside.
Cherish each person; nurture creation.
Treat flesh as holy, that love may abide.
Verse 2
Bodies are varied, made in all sizes,
Pale, full of colour,
Both fragile and strong.
Holy the difference,
Gift of the Maker,
So let us honour each story and song
Verse 3
Love respects persons, bodies and boundaries.
Love does not batter, neglect or abuse.
Love touches gently, never coercing.
Love leaves the other with power to choose.
Verse 4
Holy of holies, God ever loving,
Make us your temples; indwell all we do.
May we be careful, tender and caring,
So may our bodies give honour to you.
Falling in Love with Bodies: A Spiritual Practice – <5 min – Danielle with Faith (breathing prayer by Stephanie Vos)
ONE: When we abandon our bodies to be absorbed in our screens,
ALL: We return by our breath. (inhale, exhale)
ONE: When our bodies are overwhelmed with fear and anxiety,
ALL: We take care with our breath. (inhale, exhale)
ONE: When our bodies fail and disappoint,
ALL: We take refuge in the calm of the breath. (inhale, exhale)
ONE: When we judge others and are judged by the appearance of our bodies, When we use bodies to justify “othering” our fellow beings,
ALL: We remember that we share the same breath. (inhale, exhale)
ONE: When we are consumed by thoughts of how we’d like to change our bodies,
ALL: We marvel at the steady perfection of the breath. (inhale, exhale)
ONE: When bodies are dismissed and degraded as unspiritual,
ALL: We celebrate the incarnate God whose lungs were filled with breath. (inhale, exhale)
ONE: When bodies are demonised for their hungers and longings,
ALL: We celebrate our capacity to delight and share breath. (inhale, exhale)
ONE: When bodies feel like burdens; when they feel irrelevant or broken,
ALL: We remember that our breath brings us back to ourselves; our breath unites us with all beings.
ONE: We value and celebrate bodies because God does—God who made bodies and said that they were good. Jesus inhabited a body; he knows what it’s like to swim in the sea, to smell freshly baked bread, to hug someone he loves dearly.
ALL: May our bodies be a blessing to us. May we use our bodies generously to bless the world.
ONE: The Spirit is our breath moving in, through, and between us. It gives us life, moment to moment, freely and abundantly. Because of our faith, we proclaim the brilliance and beauty of bodies as spiritual teachers and ask God’s help in remembering and reclaiming their wisdom and joy.
ALL: Through this embodied breath, this animating spirit, may we live and move and have our being. (inhale, exhale) Amen.
Short Communion Intro (Danielle) – Communion as a physical and spiritual act, open to all
Song – Come to the Table (Mark)
Verse 1
Come all proud come all greedy
Come all liars come all shamed
Come all wealthy come receive it
To the table come today
Verse 2
Come all broken come all needy
Come all poor and come all slaves
Come all rulers come be seated
Come all sinners come all saints
Chorus 1
Come to the table
from near and far
Come from the shadows
come out of the dark
There’s room at the table
we saved you a seat
Come to the banquet
come join in the feast
Verse 3
Every race every nation
Come all rebels come all gay
From the fringes come to Jesus
To a table full of grace
To the table come and stay
Chorus 2
Come to the table
come eat and drink
There’s no inner circle
come dine with the king
Recline at the table
come let down your guard
You’re never a stranger
just come as you are
Bridge
Come be whole come be loved
Come accepted come now come
Chorus 3
Prepared is the table
we’re ready to feast
The party is waiting
there’s more still to feed
The harvest is ready
go fill every seat
Go live out the mission
as a kingdom of priests
Communion (Danielle)
Jesus said: I am the bread of life. All who come to me shall not hunger, and all who believe in me shall not thirst.
With Christians around the world and throughout the centuries,
we gather around these symbols of bread and wine—simple elements
that speak of nourishment and transformation.
Let us pray.
Loving God, we thank you that you are as close to us as breath, that your love is constant and unfailing.
We thank you for all that sustains life, and especially for Jesus Christ,
who teaches us how to live out an ethic of justice and peace,
and for the promise of transformation made manifest in his life, death and resurrection.
We ask you to bless this bread and this cup.
Through this meal, make us the body of Christ,
that we may join with you in promoting the well-being of all creation. Amen.
We remember on the night when Jesus and the disciples had their last meal together,
Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, and gave it to the disciples,
saying “This is my body, which is given for you.
Take and eat it, and as often as you do, remember me.”
[Breaking of the bread/ Distribution or taking wafer from packet.]
In the symbol of the broken bread, we participate in the life of Christ
and dedicate ourselves to being his disciples.
In the same way he took the cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to the disciples, saying:
“Drink this, all of you.
This cup is the new covenant, poured out for you and for many
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.
[Pouring of the wine/ Distribution or opening of cup.]
In the symbol of the cup, we participate in the new life Christ brings.
Let us pray. We give thanks, loving God, that you have refreshed us at your table.
Strengthen our faith; increase our love for one another.
As we have been fed by the seed that became grain, and then became bread, may we go out into the world to plant seeds of justice, transformation, and hope. Amen.
Song You Are My Hands
Where is my life? My people are dying
This is not what I meant the world to be
Where is my love? My children are crying
So many hearts full of pain and misery
But I set you free so you would be a living sign
For all to see that I live, that I live.
I have no hands but yours, I live my life through you
The written word must be alive in you
I have no hands but yours, I’ve given all to you
You are my hands I live my life through you.
Where is the light? There is so much darkness
This is not what I meant the world to be
Where is your faith? These times won’t be hopeless
If you truly give your life to me
I’d show you how to love for me, show you how to live for me
Then you’d see, then you’d really see.
Where is my flock, my sheep are straying
Who’ll bring my children back to me?
Where is the Truth? What do you believe in?
Do you love me, do you really love me?
Will you feed my sheep for me, will you feed my lambs?
And tell of my love, tell of my love.
Closing Announcements (Danielle)
