As you arrive in worship and find a place in a pew, use prayer to center your thoughts and spirit. As the Prelude begins, quiet your voice and soul. With music and prayer let us move from ‘getting to church’ to ‘being the church’ as we worship together.
Prayer of Confession
Gracious God, as we prepare today to receive the Holy Communion of our Lord Jesus Christ, help us to discern the mystery of this most Holy Sacrament. Unite us ever more deeply with Christ’s suffering that we may also be united ever more deeply with him in his resurrection power. Draw us closer to him and to each other in the fullness of his grace and love. Lord and Savior, your table is set for us so that we might remember your death until you come again and so that we might be nourished and comforted and grow in grace. Grant that as we receive your most precious body and blood that we might indeed be strengthened in our faith and that your people might be one as you and the Father and the Spirit are one, for it is in your name that we pray. Amen.
Recognition of Graduates
Readings
New Testament Lesson: I Corinthians 11: 23-26 NRSV
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Gospel Lesson: John 17: 20-26 NRSV
”I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Hymns
- No. 455 – All Creatures of Our God and King
- No. 510 – Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts
- No. 371 – Lift High the Cross
Sermon
“Celestial Communion” – Rev. Scott G. Loomer