Online Worship for May 3, 2020

Welcome to Church of the Holy Cross’s live streaming worship service for May 3rd, 2020. Feel free to follow the service text by scrolling down, or you may download and print the service in PDF format from this link.

A Note on Communion

This is the week for us to celebrate Holy Communion. We invite you to prepare some bread and some juice ahead of time. The type does not matter much – it can be sliced bread or English muffins; it can be grape juice or passion/orange/guava. Have it near you when the service begins on Sunday morning. Although we can not be physically present to one another in this meal, let us trust in the blessings of God to come to us wherever we are and nourish us in body, mind, and spirit.

Online Worship: May 3, 2020

Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Pastor

WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD

Welcome                                                                                 Rev. Eric Anderson

Prelude: The little Shepherd from Children’s Corner– Debussy 
Kanako Okita

Call to Worship based on Acts 2:42-47
In the early days of the Christian Church, many of the believers in Jerusalem sold goods and possessions for the benefit of their neighbors in the Christian community. They went to worship at the temple, then returned home to gather with other Christians, breaking bread and praying. Today we break bread separately, in many places. We break different varieties of bread. We may even break our bread at different times of day. We do so united by our faith in Christ; we do so sharing glad and generous hearts. Come, one and all, no matter where and no matter when: Let us worship our God.

Opening Prayer based on John 10:1-10
Leader: Let us pray:
All: We turn to you, O Christ, the Good Shepherd, to care for your people. We turn to you, O Christ, the Good Shepherd, to speak to your people. We turn to you, O Christ, the Good Shepherd, to open the gates of your heart. We turn to you, O Christ, the Good Shepherd, to summon us through your gates and welcome us home. Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
    for his name’s sake.

 Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
    I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff—
    they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
Surelygoodness and mercyshall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    my whole life long.

Story and Meditation                                                             Cup Overflowing

Prayer                                                                                     Rev. Eric Anderson

Offering Call and Dedication
We are not sending ushers through the neighborhoods of Hilo to collect your gifts this morning, or any morning. We invite you to send your offering to support the spiritual, emotional, and physical ministries of this church in this time. Please mail your gifts to us at Church of the Holy Cross, 440 West Lanikaula Street, Hilo, Hawai’i 96720.

Please pray with me:
Thank you, Holy Shepherd, for the grace of overflowing cups. Thank you, Holy Shepherd, for the comfort of your presence. Thank you, Holy Shepherd, for our ability to share our lives with you. Thank you, Holy Shepherd, that we may share these gifts with you. Accept them, we pray, and bless them in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Music: God is My Shepherd                                                    Eric Anderson
                                                                                                Doug Albertson

Invitation
For Holy Communion this morning,
we sanctify our time and many tables
for a sacrament never confined
to sanctuaries or precious surfaces
carved with “Do this in Remembrance of Me,”
but always following
wherever one of God’s precious children,
like a sheep astray,
is lost or needs guiding.

Christ is our shepherd.
In the loneliest lockdown,
we do not want for companionship.

In crowded families,
distance-learning and never catching breath,
we find an inner source of still waters.

In the soul-stretching days
of health care and emergency professionals,
decision-makers for others,
and essential workers with daily risk,
we meet a restorer of souls.

In the paths of tight-eousness —
assisted living, correctional facility, shelter,
immigration detention, nursing home,
housing for those who are simply poor —
we find a leader, a staff to lean on,
a rod that points a new way.

Christ leads us not around it,
but through the valley of the shadow —

and turns to us, as Jesus did when he came through
the walls of a locked room
in the afternoon of resurrection,
said, “Peace be with you,”
and then asked if they had anything
to give him to eat.

Give the gentle Shepherd who is the Risen Christ
your bread, your cup, and your heart.

Prayer of Consecration
Leader: We have bread and cup and heart. Our church community is dispersed in distance but we are one in Christ. In your many kitchens and living rooms, rest your hands lightly upon these elements which we set aside today to be a sacrament. Let us ask God’s blessing upon them and upon us and upon those who are in our prayers this morning.

Unison:
Gentle Host, you prepare a table before us in the threatening presence of virus. You anoint our hearts, bless our bread, and make our cups overflow. Surely as we shelter in place we find both the goodness of community and mercy to those most vulnerable. Now and all the days of our lives we claim that this house — these many houses where we dwell and also our precious church building — are, indeed, the house of God.

Send your Spirit of life and love, power and blessing upon your children who are staying at home so that this Bread may be broken and gathered in love and this Cup poured out to give hope to all. Risen Christ, live in us, that we may live in you. Breathe in us, that we may breathe in you. Amen.

Words of Remembering
Leader: We remember the sharing of bread in many places: wilderness manna, tents and caves of shepherds, Abigail’s saddle bags, the lunch of a small boy, the fish of the disciples, and the loaf of Emmaus. And we remember that Paul the apostle wrote letters to congregations throughout places we now call Greece, Turkey, and Macedonia, and they were the first “remote” worship resources, including these Communion words sent to the church at Corinth:

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.

Sharing of the Elements
Leader: Let us in our many places receive the gift of God, the Bread of Heaven.
Unison: We are one in Christ in the bread we share.
Leader: Let us in our many places receive the gift of God, the Cup of Blessing.
Unison: We are one in Christ in the cup we share.

Prayer of Thanksgiving
Leader: Let us pray in thanksgiving for this meal of grace, rejoicing that, in the holy dispersion of virtual worship, we claim the risen Christ’s love is not limited by buildings made with human hands nor contained in human ceremonies, and celebrating the shepherding of God that carries us into the unknown, to listen and to follow, to lead and to be led, to feed and to be fed.

Unison: (May be sung or spoken)

Savior, like a shepherd lead us, much we need your tender care.
In your pleasant pastures feed us for our use your folds prepare.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hear your children when we pray.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hear your children when we pray.

Iesu no ke Kahuhipa, Kahuhipa maika`i e
Eia makou ka `ohana, Ke ho`olohe a hahai
E aloha, e aloha, Alaka`i a hanai mai
E aloha, e aloha, Alaka`i a hanai mai. Amen.

(William Bradbury, Laiana translator Lorenzo Lyons)

Benediction:                                                                            Rev. Eric Anderson

The communion liturgy is adapted from “Holy Communion Liturgy for May 3, 2020, often called Good Shepherd Sunday” by Maren Tirabassi, published at Giftsinopenhands.wordpress.com.