Liturgy, Reflection & Benediction 2025.03.30

Liturgy

God of Sarah and Rebekah, Rachel and Leah,
you are the God of our ancestors in the faith.
But you are Lord
of both the old and the new.
While we sleep, you refill your mercies
so we wake to fresh stores in the morning:
our wrongdoing washed clean,
the possibility
that we may love and be loved
stretching out again before us.
Some days we can only see that history,
like a cycle of despair,
is repeating drearily before us.
You invite us to celebrate
the unrepeatable gift
of a life, a day, a moment.
We praise you for the love
that revels in our growth,
that rejoices in each change of our minds
that makes new connections,
forms new understanding,
and reveals your dynamic nature ever more clearly.
In the name of the Divine
whose Spirit took on Christ’s human form
to give Her people fullness of life:
Amen.
(Vox Prayer Team)

Scripture

17 If anyone belongs to Christ, then they are made new. The old things have gone; everything is made new! 18 All this is from God. Through Christ, God made peace between us and themself. And God gave us the work of bringing everyone into peace with God. 19 I mean that God was in Christ, making peace between the world and themself. In Christ, God did not hold the world guilty of its sins. And they gave us this message of peace. 20 So we have been sent to speak for Christ. It is as if God is calling to you through us. We speak for Christ when we beg you to be at peace with God.  -2 Corinthians 5:17-20

Homily & Reflection

Podcast: New Creation

• How am I still being made new (i.e. growing)?
• How can I be my unique self while being unified with my community?
• Is there a way in which I can invite people I know to join me in making peace and others and God?

Benediction

Thank you, God, that we do not walk this road alone,
but that this journey through the world
is one that you ordained that we should take
in each other’s good company.
Lord, make us ever mindful of one another.
Make us creative in the ways we labor,
so that our prayer and friendship, teaching and learning,
conversation and silence
will be new acts
of an old faithfulness,
to you and to this beloved community.
Thank you, God, for the mercy and the beauty
incarnated in the words and acts of your people,
extended toward one another.
It is no accident that we were born in the same age,
and that our stories have intertwined
in this time and in this place.
Let us therefore go forth and steward one another’s stories.
Let us leave from here together as vessels of mercy
and as stewards
of the vast and wild beauty of our Creator.
By your Spirit, O Christ, make us faithful
as we go out to labor in the diverse fields
to which you have assigned us,
working toward that new-made world
that is yet promised
and that has already begun.
In the name of our God,
our Christ,
and our Spirit:
a Trinity making us,
and all things,
new.
Amen.
(adapted from Every Moment Holy, “A Liturgy for Leavings”)

[Photo by Jacob Wilner]