Day 1105: Sunday, March 26, 2023

May the Peace and Power of the Holy Spirit, untie, unravel and unbind the unhealthy cords that bind you!

Let's get ready to celebrate today at Knox in person or on ZOOM:

Celebrate with us starting at 3:45 (or earlier to hear the lovely music)

For our Sisters and Brothers on ZOOM: You are invited to communion - please have bread and wine or fruit juice or water to take part.

Please join us TODAY (Sunday, March 26, 2023) for our community celebration:

In Person at Knox Presbyterian / Thanksgiving Lutheran

1650 W 3rd St, 95401, Santa Rosa

Or Join us on Zoom by using this link and passcode:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5193158573

Passcode: 1234

Or use the Meeting ID

Meeting ID: 519 315 8573

Passcode: 1234

One tap mobile (for joining by phone)

+16699006833,,5193158573# US (San Jose)

+16694449171,,5193158573# US

Here are the files in WORD and PDF formats to download and print

Emmaus Community Celebration at Knox Presbyterian

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Preparations:• A Notice will be posted on the outside doors explaining that if people wish to visit, visit outside; and enter the sanctuary in silence. Music Lux Aeterna will be playing.

• Place potluck items in kitchen or on the tables in the hallway.

• When everyone has entered sanctuary and has been seated, Victoria will ring singing bowl three times and begin explanation of our ritual; she and Marcie will model ritual.

Victoria Once all persons have completed the binding, please sit in silence until the first reading.

Linda: First Reading: Ezekiel 37: 12-14

Thus says our gracious God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am God when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, your God, have spoken and I will do it.

David: Gospel: John 11: 1-45

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, in the village of Mary and her sister Martha. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." But when Jesus heard it, he said, "This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God's glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” And then Jesus stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?" Jesus answered, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him." The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right." Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us now go to him.”

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home.

Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world." When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.

When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone.

And Jesus looked upwards and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

Post gospel song: “Rise Up Lazarus”

Victoria: Shared Homily

Questions for Homily:

-What are the things that bind us?

-What are the tombs we find ourselves in?

-What is it that has to occur to help us come alive again?

Marcie

As we consider our needs and the needs of the world, what do we bring to the table this evening?

We gather all these prayers and intentions, those spoken and those left unspoken, bring them to our hearts, and offer them to be held by the God in our community.

Eucharistic Prayer

Victoria

You have filled us, and all creation, with your blessing

and fed us with your constant love;

you have redeemed us

and knit us into one body.

Through your Spirit, you replenish us

and call us to the fullness of life.

Marcie

On the night before he died, Jesus was at table with his friends.

He took bread, gave thanks to you, broke it, and gave it to his friends saying,

All

“This is my body, broken for you.”

Victoria

As supper was ending, Jesus took the cup of wine.

Again he gave thanks to you, gave it to his friends and said,

All: “This cup is the new covenant of my lifeblood shed for you and for all.

And as often as you do this, Do this in remembrance of me.”

Marcie

Now gathered at your table,

we offer to you our gifts of bread and wine,

and ourselves, a living sacrifice.

Pour out your Spirit upon all these gifts that

they and we may be the Body and Blood of Christ.

Breathe your Spirit over the whole earth and make us your new creation.

Victoria

In the fullness of time bring us with all your saints from every tribe and language, from every people and nation to feast at the banquet prepared from the foundation of the world.

Marcie and Victoria (holding up the bread and wine)

For, it is “Through Him, With Him, In Him,

In the Unity of the Holy Spirit,

all glory and honor is yours

Forever and Ever.

Victoria Now together, as one community, we offer to you O God,

our prayer, in the name of your beloved son and our brother, Jesus:

All: Our Mother, Our Father Holy and blessed is your true name.

We pray for your reign of peace to come. We pray that your good will be done.

Let heaven and earth become one. Give us this day the bread we need.

Give it to those who have none.

Let forgiveness flow like a river between us, from each one to each one.

Lead us to holy innocence beyond the evil of our days.

Come swiftly Mother, Father, come.

For yours is the power and the glory and the mercy:

Forever your name is All in One.

Kiss of Peace: Victoria

invites community to form new groups of two and explains ritual process of unbinding, to be done during the kiss of peace.

David puts up Slide for Ritual at Kiss of Peace with these words:

And Jesus said: “Unbind him (her), and let him (her) go.” May the Peace and Power of the Holy Spirit, untie, unravel and unbind the unhealthy cords that bind you,

our communities and our world.

May the cords of love, and ministry blossom and be the stole you wear.

Peace Be With You

Invitation to Communion

Victoria Everyone is welcome at this table.

Our God, whom the universe cannot contain is present to us in this bread.

Our God, who redeems us and calls us by name, now meets us in this cup.

So, come, Beloved Friends, and take this bread, drink this wine,

In them, God comes to us, so that we may come to God.

Communion (all partake of communion)

Marcie and Victoria: Marcie will offer bread and Victoria will follow with wine for dipping.

Communion Song: “Holy Darkness” (Mystic Harmony) 5:26

Post Communion Meditation - poem by Jan Richardson

Marcie: Lazarus Blessing by Jan Richardson

The secret of this blessing is that it is written on the back of what binds you.

To read this blessing, you must take hold of the end of what confines you,

Must begin to tug at the edge of what wraps you round.

It may take long and long for its length to fall away,

For the words of this blessing to unwind in folds about your feet.

By then you will no longer need them.

By then this blessing will have pressed itself into your waking flesh, will have traveled every vein until it comes to rest inside the chambers of your heart that beats to the rhythm of benediction and the cadence of release.

Victoria / All: Group Closing Blessing:

David will put Closing Blessing slide up as we all read the closing blessing together.

David / All Announcements