Easter 6 If you Love Me

This service is in the format of the Anglican Church of Canada

The Book of Alternative Services is used throughout for the collect, prayer over the gifts, dismissal

Online resources have been credited accordingly

 The service and resources are for personal use only

My apologies the songs links had to be removed as blogger changed and would not give the link. I will figure out how to fix it you can find the suggested songs on YouTube

Sentence of the Day

If you love me, you will keep my word, and my Father will love you, and we will come to you. 

John 14.23

Hymn    Christ be our Light       © Bernadette Farrell 1993.

Longing for light, we wait in darkness.
Longing for truth, we turn to you.
Make us your own, your holy people,
light for the world to see.

Christ, be our light! Shine in our hearts.
Shine through the darkness.
Christ, be our light!
Shine in your church gathered today.

Longing for peace, our world is troubled.
Longing for hope, many despair.
Your word alone has pow’r to save us.
Make us your living voice.

Longing for food, many are hungry.
Longing for water, many still thirst.
Make us your bread, broken for others,
shared until all are fed.

Longing for shelter, many are homeless.
Longing for warmth, many are cold.
Make us your building, sheltering others,
walls made of living stone.

Many the gifts, many the people,
many the hearts that yearn to belong.
Let us be servants to one another,
making your kingdom come. 

Gathering   (based on Psalm 66)

It is about time that we stat making happy noises about God. Be bold about the proclamation and not be embarrassed to sing praises

We know from history all of the good works of God, of those who give witness and those who remind us of all that God constantly provides and does for us

Yes, we are tested, experience conflict, sorrow, pain

God uses these moments to help us find our inner strength, enabling us to carry on and we renew our promise to seek God in those times.

Are you seeking God? What things has God done for you?

God has accepted us despite our short comings and failures, listens when we cry out for help and responds.  We proclaim praise to God, God will love us forever.

As the scriptures are read, 

we allow God’s word to speak to us, and ponder its meaning in our lives.
Let us hear the words of scripture:

A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles                               17:22-31

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church           R: Thanks be to God

 Psalm 66:8-20

Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip. 

For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. 

You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs; you let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a spacious place. 

I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will pay you my vows, those that my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble. 

I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings, with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams; I will make an offering of bulls and goats.  

Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me. 

I cried aloud to him, and he was extolled with my tongue. 

If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. 

But truly God has listened; he has given heed to the words of my prayer. 

Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me.

 A Reading from the first letter of Peter                     3:13-22

Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church           R: Thanks be to God

Hymn       Deep Within          © David Haas

Refrain:       Deep within, I will plant my law,
                    not on stone, but in your heart.
                    Follow me; I will bring you back.
                    You will be my own, and I will be your God.

I will give you a new heart, a new spirit within you,
for I will be your strength.                                                 Refrain

Seek my face, and see your God,
for I will be your hope.                                                      Refrain

Return to me, with all your heart,
and I will bring you back.                                                  Refrain

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. John           14:15-21

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you." I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

The Gospel of Christ                     R: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

Reflective Questions:

What commandment of Jesus is most important to you?

How is the Holy Spirit active in your life?

Invitation to the offering

God loves us and provides all that we need in abundance.  We are called to love one another in truth and action. May our gifts reflect our trust in God's care and may our offering show our willingness to love one another.

Offering Hymn      What a Friend We Have in Jesus

What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer;
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In His arms He'll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.

Copyright: Lyrics © Original Writer and Publisher 

Prayer over the Gifts
God of glory, accept all we offer you this day, and bring us to that eternal city of love and light, where Christ is King. We ask this in his name. Amen

Hear, O Israel
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first and the great commandment.

The second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.

Prayers of Intercession

O God, who made the world and everything in it, we pray with one voice, proclaiming your presence to all the earth.


For skeptics and believers, For those who seek God at home, at work, in the streets, and in the pews: for Clergy, For all who search for life, come and listen:
And we will tell you what our God has done for us. 

We are alive in the spirit. We are saved through water. Because Christ lives, we also live.
For we too are God’s offspring.

For the leaders of the countries of the world, For employers, workers and volunteers; For those who set the course at home, at work, in the streets, and in the pews, For all who wield power, come and listen:
And we will tell you what our God has done for us.

We do not fear what others fear. We proclaim the hope that is in us. Because Christ lives, we also live.
For we too are God’s offspring.

For friends and lovers, for neighbors and strangers, For those who eat bread at home, at work, in the streets, and in the pews, For all who live in the world, come and listen:
And we will tell you what our God has done for us.

In God, we live and move and have our being. From God, we have life and breath and all things. Because Christ lives, we also live.
For we too are God’s offspring.

For the sick and troubled, for the fearful and alone, For those in pain at home, at work, in the streets, and in the pews, For all who suffer, come and listen:
And we will tell you what our God has done for us.

Our prayers are not rejected. Our souls are held in life. In truth, our God has heard us, and love is not withheld. Because Christ lives, we also live.
For we too are God’s offspring.

For those kept in memory, for those long forgotten, For all who ever took the breath of life at home, at work, in the streets, and in the pews, For the dead and those who mourn them, come and listen:
And we will tell you what our God has done for us.

We are blessed by your presence. We are filled with the Spirit. Because Christ lives, we also live.
For we too are God’s offspring.

God of heaven and earth, Companion in life, Spirit of truth, to you alone we turn our eyes and lift our hearts. Amen.

~ written by Margaret D. McGee, and posted on In the Courtyard. www.inthecourtyard.com

Collect
Merciful God, you have prepared for those who love you riches beyond imagination. Pour into our hearts such love toward you, that we, loving you above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

The Lord's Prayer
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.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Dismissal
Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God. Alleluia
May the God of peace enable us to do his will in every kind of goodness, working in us what pleases him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Hymn       The Trees of the Field

You shall go out with joy
And be led forth with peace
The mountains and the hills
Will break forth before you
There'll be shouts of joy,
And all the trees of the field
Will clap, will clap their hands

And all the trees of the field
Will clap their hands (Clap, Clap)

The trees of the field
Will clap their hands (Clap, Clap)

The trees of the field
Will clap their hands (Clap, Clap)

While you go out with joy

Love is the key.  

Joy is love singing.  

Peace is love resting.  

Long-suffering is love enduring.  

Kindness is love's touch. 

Goodness is love's character.  

Faithfulness is love's habit.  

Gentleness is love's self-forgetfulness.  

Self-control is love holding the reins. 

Donald Grey Barnhouse