Amended from: Gathering For Worship - Patterns and Prayers for Community Disciples

INVITATION TO THE TABLE

Who can we turn to Father, when we fail you constantly? When our sin, and the sin of the world overwhelms our soul. Give us confidence, that when we repent, You will forgive us and You will bring healing to Your people through Your son Jesus Christ. We can turn to you!

Who can we turn to Jesus, in a world full of suffering? You send us to broken and weary hearted. Those who weep, those whose burdens are heavy, those who yearn for an end to famine, war and illness. We can turn to you!

Who can we turn to Holy Spirit, when we are weary of doing good? We long for creation to be restored in Christ. You anoint us, Your people, to be suffer with those who suffer, cry with those who cry and long with an everlasting hope for the second coming of Christ. We can turn to you!

Prayers of Confession

Let us spend a few moments now confessing before God our sins. I invite you to bring your own failings before God but also to stand in the gap for God’s people around the world for when we have fallen short of God expectations.

You may want to sit in silence, or you may want to write a prayer of lament. Let us pause together.

The Story

On the night on which Jesus was betrayed, he sat at supper with his disciples. While they were eating, he took a piece of bread, said a blessing, broke it, and gave it to them with the words,

‘This is my body. It is for you. Do this to remember me.’

Later, he took a cup of wine, saying,

‘This cup is God’s new covenant, sealed with my blood. Drink from it, all of you, to remember me’.

So now, following Jesus’ example and command, we take this bread and this wine, the ordinary things of the world which Christ will make special. And as he said a prayer before sharing, let us do so too.

THANKSGIVING

Let us Pray

For when we were nothing, you made us something. When we lost our way or turned away, you did not abandon us.

Lord Jesus, as we come to share the richness of your table, we cannot forget the rawness of the earth.

We cannot take bread and forget those who are hungry.We cannot take bread and forget those who have lost loved ones because of COVID19. Lord, put our prosperity at the service of the poor.

We cannot take wine and forget those who are thirsty, or the weary people who cry out for justice. We cannot take the wine and forget those who’ve had their breathe taken away. Lord, put our fullness at the service of the empty.

We cannot hear your words of peace and forget the world at war or, if not at war, then preparing for it. Show us quickly, Lord, how to turn weapons into welcome signs and the lust for power and privilege into a desire for peace.

We cannot celebrate the feast of your family and forget our divisions. We are one in spirit, but not in fact. History and hurt still dismember us. Lord, heal our world in every brokenness. Amen.

SHARING THE BREAD

Taking and breaking the bread

Among friends, gathered round a table, Jesus took bread, broke it and said,

‘This is my body, broken for you’. 

SHARING THE WINE

Taking the cup of wine

And later he took the cup of wine and said,

‘This cup is the new covenant sealed by my blood. Whenever you drink it. Do this in memory of me.’ 

WORDS OF ACCLAMATION AND PRAYER

Glory be to you, Christ Jesus. The one who unbinds us from our sins.

You have wiped our tears through Your resurrection. We await Your second coming. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.