Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
Invitation
Christ’s table is for all who are weary
Christ’s table is for all who feel unprepared
Christ’s table is for all who are woke
Christ’s table is for all who are ready
Christ’s table is for all
So come, you who feel overwhelmed
Come, you who feel way behind
Come, you who feel smug
Come, all of you
Christ invites us all to this table
To find rest
To find hope
To find peace
To find joy
All wrapped up in the gift of Christ - for all today.
Narrative
In Jesus, God was born among us
Born into a particular time and place
Sent to a special nation
In Jesus God is born among us
Born for every time and place
Sent to every nation
Jesus countered political unrest
with a message of hope
Jesus met violence and resistance
with words and actions that spelled out Peace
Jesus waded through expectations
and showed the way to real life and relationship with God and one another
People didn’t get him then
We don’t get him now
Yet, the night before he died, he gathered with his friends
Friends who misunderstood
Friends who misinterpreted his words
Friends who would run away when the going got tough
He gathered them around and fed them bread and wine, symbols of love in action
And he asked them to do the same, in remembrance of him.
Today we share this bread and wine set before us at Christ’s table here and we give God thanks.
Prayer of thanksgiving
God we thank you today for gathering us around your table.
You know we often don’t get you, we often misinterpret you and, when things get tough, we run away.
Yet you invite us here and sit with us.
You make us part of your kingdom.
And you continue to reveal to us what it means to be your disciples today, in these times.
In these times of political turmoil.
In these times of violence and unrest.
In these times when we will pin our hopes on almost anything that promises false hope.
In these times, O Lord, you remind us that your kingdom is already here and you invite all who are weary, all who are hurting, all who are fearful, all who are running away, the displaced, the dispossessed, the refugee, victims of violence and war and earthquake and famine. Those forced to abandon all that they know and find no love in their neighbour.
So God, as we share here, we bring with us all those who are overlooked or rejected, all who have been abandoned or exploited. We bring our neighbours and ask that you will show us how to be all
that you created us to be, your children who love God and share our freedom and abundance with all who do not look like us as well as those who do.
God, at this table, confront and challenge, comfort and cajole, convict and compel us to follow you into all the world sowing seeds of peace and joy and hope in this season and in every season.
God send your Holy Spirit on us and upon these gifts we now share so that we may be filled and we may go and feed the world.
Fraction
On the night before he died, Jesus took bread, he broke it and shared it saying- This is my body, broken for you
Do this to remember me
He took the cup, declaring a new relationship made possible with God, for all
For all
For all.
We share with those gathered here, with those who have gone before and with those who have yet to find their way to Christ’s table.
We do this to remember him.
Prayer after Communion
Lord you have fed us crumbs of hope
May we go and multiply your gifts bringing hope to the world.
Lord you have given us a taste of new life
May we go and quench the thirst of all those who long for justice
As you came to bring light into the worlds darkness may we shine brightly with that light that darkness can not overcome and with love that cannot be snuffed out.
May we be prepared to see your alternative kingdom come disrupting the world’s power and ushering in your peace and hope and joy in this place and this time for all your children throughout the world
Starting here today.
In Jesus name.
Amen
Thanks! Used it!
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