Call to Worship Adapted from Rev. Quentin Chin

Leader: Siblings in Christ, if you lift your net and it is empty, come here!
All: We’ll cast it out again into Christ’s abundance.

Leader: If you open your eyes but do not recognize the Holy One, come here!
All: We’ll find the Risen Christ here among us.

Leader: If your life is filled with mourning, come here!
All: Christ is leading a dance of joy.

Leader: Come here, siblings in Christ!
All: To give blessing and honor and glory to God! Amen

Song – For Your Beauty

Prayer of Confession

Merciful God,
You call us to turn away from behaviours and attitudes that belong to the darkness,
to live honest and transparent lives as children of the light.
We confess the times when we have failed,
giving in to our darker thoughts and desires;
and acting in ways that did not bring honour to Your name.

Lord, in Your mercy, forgive us.
Teach us how to live as children of the light.

You call us love one another,
to put the needs and interests of those around us above our own;
to love others as deeply as we have been loved by You.
We confess the times when we have failed,
allowing our own desires and interests to take precedence
over the needs of others.

Lord, in Your mercy, forgive us.
Teach us how to love as we have been loved.

You call us to deal honourably with one another,
even those who have hurt or offended us;
to work through our disagreements with love and integrity,
and so to build up the Body of Christ.
We confess the times when we have failed,
finding it easier to simply walk away from hurtful relationships,
or to talk behind people’s backs rather than to their faces.

Lord, in Your mercy, forgive us.
Teach us how to live with love and integrity.

Give us hunger to know You more,
so that we may do Your will
and walk in Your ways,
to the glory of Your name. Amen.

Assurance of Forgiveness

Song – No Longer a Slave

Scripture Reading- John 21:15-19 (ESV)

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,

16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Sermon

Communion

In John’s gospel, Jesus states:

“I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Today, we participate in a sacred meal. Jesus invites us to the table, whether online or onsite, we celebrate this great mystery.

The Lord Jesus, on the night of his arrest, took bread, and after giving thanks to God, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying: Take, eat.
This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way he took the cup, saying:This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it,
do this in remembrance of me.

Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the saving death of the risen Lord, until he comes. Amen

Song – I Love You Lord + Exalt Thee

Poem of Reflection by William Loader

The blame forgotten,
shame covered,
Peter leapt into the sea.
Where tears once drowned hope
and denials became despair and self loathing,
now eyes had seen that figure on the shore,
that body once strung across the stained wood of execution.

A revived fishing business,
the dull depression of remembered cowardice,
of failed courage,
bad dreams of abandonment,
a deep sea of pain,
now splashed with new hope.

Peter would make it to the shore.

He is risen.
Peter is risen from the dead.
Three times denied.
Three times invited to love again
by him who three times prayed his own despair
and, three times mocked ‘mid three crosses,
in three days rose to resurrect Peter.

Peter made it to the shore.

Others made it to the shore.
They ate together,
a fellowship of grace and rehabilitation,
of forgiveness and hope,
a symbol of the persistence of divine love,
also for you and me.