May 9

With our pastor out of town, I ended up talking a lot more than usual. I did the call to worship along with leading communion for the first time. We also read the Celtic Creed together. I have a love/hate relationship with creeds. On one hand, they help us to be joined in common belief. On the other hand, especially the later creeds are imbued with political overtones and lose some of their poetic beauty because they are trying to make sure that no "heresies" get perpetuated. I love the Celtic Creed because it's simple and trinitarian, and is a beautiful piece of poetry, a standard to which we should hold all of our liturgical statements. It's reproduced below.

Reign In Us (Starfield)

Confession

God,

We speak often of community,
and invite you to create it,
but we often don't know
if we want what we ask for.

We do not fully understand
what this community will look like,
who will be here,
how their uniqueness
will interact with our own,
how we will change each other.

We confess it is hard for us
to be willing to give up
the comfort of what we know
for the uncertainty of
what you are doing.

But we also confess
that we do not want the alternative
of shutting the door on
any of your children.

Forgive us for our small thinking,
and help us to embrace
what you are calling us to become.

Come, Lord Jesus.
Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

(I John 1)
This is the message we have heard from God
and proclaim to you,
that God is light and in God there is no darkness at all.
If we walk in the light, as God is in the light,
we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Sanctuary (Eugene Kim)

Communion: Reading of Celtic Creed:

We believe in God above us,
maker and sustainer of all life,

of sun and moon,
of water and earth,

of male and female.

We believe in God beside us,

Jesus Christ,
the word made flesh,
born of a woman,
servant of the poor,
tortured and nailed to a tree.
A man of sorrows,
he died forseaken.

He descendend into the earth
to the place of death.
On the third day
he rose from the tomb.
He ascended into heaven,
to be everywhere present,

and His kingdom will come on earth.

We believe in God within us,

the Holy Spirit of Pentecostal fire,
life-giving breath of the Church,

Spirit of healing and forgiveness,

source of resurrection and of eternal life.

Communion: There's A Table (Lynn DeShazo)

The Benediction (Timothy James Meaney)