63B - All Saints Day — 65B - Sunday 32B
See also my post from 2012, 2018, 2021, 2024
PSALM 146 (Prayer of Adoration)
Praise the LORD.
With the very core of my being, every part of my life
I want to bless you, O God.
I want to celebrate my God with music and song while I live.
There is nothing to be gained by putting all my trust in the powerful people:
when their breath leaves them, they return to the dust,
and their clever plans crumble with them.
But the person who looks to the God of Jacob for help,
ah, how fortunate.
Like this person I want to put my hope in the LORD,
the God who made the heavens and the earth, the sea,
and everything in them;
who maintains a kindness that endures for ever;
who brings about justice for those trampled by society,
and gives food to those hungry for dignity, love and self-worth;
who breaks the shackles of those imprisoned by hopelessness, circumstance or habit;
who enables the blind to see again,
to see life in all its fullness;
who raises up those bent over by the burden of life;
who loves the upright;
who cares for those separated from their home culture;
who helps the fatherless and the widow,
but who brings ruin to the way of the wicked.
The LORD shall reign for ever;
our God, generation after generation.
Hallelujah!!
OFFERING
Gracious and eternal God,
to whom we turn in every need;
receive the gifts we offer,
our lives and the symbols of our living
that, inspired by your holy Spirit
we may love you,
heart, soul, mind and strength
and our neighbour,
to your glory and praise.
In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen.
A CREATIVE MOMENT
(a) Ruth 1:1-18
Over the next three weeks the readings from the Hebrew Scriptures are concerned with women (Naomi and Hannah) who have no future in that they have no children. Each deals with that situation in a different way. Children are born; Obed the grandfather of David, and Samuel who annoints David king. Invite the congregation to create a mural over the coming weeks on a length of newsprint depicting aspects of these narratives which culminate in the fourth week (Reign of Christ Sunday; Christ the King) with the last words of David, in which he mentions the everlasting covenant made with him by God. Ruth’s love for Naomi, expressed in her oath to journey, live and die with her, and her preparedness to ensure Naomi’s future, and her own, offer a connection with the reading from Mark today.
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
(A prayer to gather the spoken and silent concerns/joys/thanks expressed by the congregation and lead into a more structured Intercession with connection to the lections for the day. Sometimes this prayer borrows lightly from other sources e.g. Uniting in Worship 2 or publications of the Iona Community.)
God of Rachel, Rebekah and Ruth,
healer and giver of life and wholeness;
rejoice with those who rejoice and give thanks today
strengthen the weak, the lonely, the displaced,
watch over the stranger
and uphold the orphan and the widow.
Pour out your Spirit
on all who are weighed down with grief,
and those whose troubles are known only to you;
that all may know your peace.
(The Prayers of the People continue)
(b) Mark 12:28-34
As a community of faith, how do we express our love of God and neighbour? This might be an opportunity to illustrate those ways with a mural created by the congregation. This might activity might also give the opportunity to creatively think about new possibilities.
Intercessions andother prayers could be illustrated with projected images of the ways we love God and our neighbour.
What do the limitations to our expressions of love for neighbour have to say about our love of self?
(c) Brainstorm and/or explore the lives of the “saints” and faithful servants (ancient and modern) in the history of the church who gave up everything in love of God and neighbour.
Looking for contemporary music and song resources?
Try David MacGregor’s Together to Celebrate
| HYMN SUGGESTIONS FOR SUNDAY 31B |
|
| All people that on earth do dwell, | TIS 59 |
| Christ is our cornerstone | TIS 433 |
| Lord in the strength of grace | TIS 483 |
| Rejoice in God’s saints, today and all days | TIS 470 |
| Ruth 1:1-18 |
|
| Brother, sister, let me serve you | TIS 650 |
| By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered | TIS 617 |
| God! when human bonds are broken | TIS 683 |
| How shall I sing to God? | TIS 667 |
| PSALM 146 |
|
| Fill my whole life, O Lord my God | TIS 596 |
| I’ll praise my maker while I’ve breath | TIS 90 |
| Let all the world in every corner sing | TIS 105 |
| O for a thousand tongues to sing | TIS 210 |
| When morning gilds the skies | TIS 227 |
| Hebrews 9:11-14 |
|
| All go to God when they are sorely placed | TIS 240 |
| Come now, everlasting Spirit | TIS 509 |
| Glory be to Jesus | TIS 344 |
| Hail Redeemer, King divine | TIS 237 |
| No weight of gold or silver | TIS 249 |
| Strengthen for service, Lord , the hands | TIS 496 |
| They that believe and are baptised | TIS 479 |
| We give immortal praise | TIS 118 |
| Mark 12:28-34 |
|
| Come, let us to the Lord our God | TIS 577 |
| Fill thou my life, O Lord, my God | TIS 596 |
| King of glory, king ofpeace | TIS 201 |
| Kneels at the feet of his friends | TIS 640 |
| Love is his word, love is his way | TIS 534 |
| One God, one living God, | TIS 742 |
| Sing praise to the Lord! Praise him in the height | TIS 96 |
| The law of Christ alone can set us free | TIS 630 |
| When I needed a neighbour, were you there | TIS 629 |
| Where there is charity and love | TIS 434 |