Order of Service

ALL of ministry rests on the conviction that nothing, absolutely nothing, in our lives is outside the realm of God’s judgment and mercy. By hiding parts of our story, not only from our own consciousness but also from God’s eye, we claim a divine role for ourselves; we become judges of our own past and limit mercy to our own fears. Thus we disconnect ourselves not only from our own suffering but also from God’s suffering for us. The challenge of ministry is to help people in very concrete situations –- people with illnesses or in grief, people with physical or mental handicaps, people suffering from poverty or oppression, people caught in the complex networks of secular or religious institutions –- to see and experience their story as part of God’s ongoing redemptive work in the world. These insights and experiences heal precisely because they restore the broken connection between the world and God and create a new unity in which memories that formerly seemed only destructive are now reclaimed as part of a redemptive event.

Henri J.M. Nouwen

At this table we put aside every worldly separation based on culture, class, or other differences. Baptized, we no longer admit to distinctions based on age or sex or race or wealth. This communion is why all prejudice, all racism, all sexism, all deference to wealth and power must be banished from our parishes, our homes, and our lives. This communion is why we will not commit the world’s resources to an escalating arms race while the poor die. We cannot. Not when we have feasted here on the “body broken” and “blood poured out” for the life of the world.

Joseph Bernadin

THE TABLE PRAYER

We name you, Lord our God,

and we bless you now

on this day which you have given us.

We adore you,

overwhelmed or serene,

alienated or rebellious,

believing and not believing

at the same time.

You are a God of living people.

You were not ashamed to be our God,

eternal and faithful

in life and death,

in good times and in bad.

Surely, then, you would not go back

on your promise, your name,

and not show mercy to this dead person?

We ask you this

for the sake of Jesus Christ,

our brother, your beloved Son.

You called him and sent him

to go ahead of us to you.

He became man

and was tested in joy and suffering,

but clung to you.

He fulfilled everything that is human–

our life and death,

giving himself, heart and soul,

to this world.

For, on the night that he was delivered up,

he took bread into his hands

and raising his eyes to you,

God, his almighty Father,

he gave thanks

and broke the bread

and gave it to his friends

with the words:

Take and eat,

this is my body for you.

Do this in memory of me.

He also took the cup

and, giving thanks to you, said:

This cup is the new covenant in my blood

shed for you and for all mankind

so that sins may be forgiven.

Every time you drink this cup,

you will do it in memory of me.

So whenever we eat of this bread

and drink of this cup,

we proclaim the death of the Lord

until he comes.

Therefore, Lord our God,

we present this sign of our faith

and therefore we call to mind

the suffering of your Son.

We remember

that he was crucified and buried,

but above all we remember

that you saved him

from death, that abyss,

and that he became for us

a name above all other names,

a man of peace,

living with you

and praying for us,

a man who will come

to make all things new.

Then there will be no more sorrow

and no more death.

Then he will call all of us,

the living and the dead,

by our names

on the day that you have appointed.

We ask you, Lord our God,

give us all the power of his life,

your Holy Spirit,

so that we may,

with hope and resolution,

continue on the way of life

and hold on to each other,

taking care that not one of your people

is lost.

Through Jesus and with him and in him,

may we find you

and, near to you,

those who have gone ahead of us.

May we see you

and speak with you, God,

as one person speaks with another.

We ask and implore you

to grant us this

now and for ever.

Amen.

Let us pray

to God our Father

with the words

that Jesus has given us:

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us,

and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

Amen.

A meal celebrated in prospect of the coming reign of God must give rise to a new social vision grounded in the promise of the kingdom. Such a vision challenges the status quo in society and the prevailing set of economic and social relationships. Sharing in a community meal anticipates a just sharing of all the gifts of creation in justice and love. It must give rise to a new set of relationships in society that reflect that vision. The community that celebrates the eucharist in prospect of the kingdom must ask itself whether its tablesharing in the eucharist is reflected in a just sharing of the gifts of the earth or whether some are deprived of the means of life because others hoard the world’s goods for their own advantage. Eucharistic participation must lead first of all to a new social vision, then to a critique of our existing society in the light of that vision, and finally to advocacy for the poor and disadvantaged members of society and to social change. The community gathered around the table of the Lord must be prepared to have its entire common life in the world placed under both judgment and grace.

William R. Crockett