Taizé Worship
Welcome to worship at Treehouse. Tonight we will worship in the style of the Taize Community in France, an ecumenical monastic community committed to peace. This style of worship is quiet and contemplative, with a “grand silence” in the middle for your own prayer, meditation, or reflection. Allow your spirits to settle into the mystery and stillness of this worship. God welcomes you here tonight.
Kyrie eleison
Christ our Peace
Take, Oh, Take Me As I Am
Deep Peace – Psalmody
Reading Deuteronomy 18:15-20
15 The Lord your God will raise up a prophet like me from your community, from your fellow Israelites. He’s the one you must listen to. 16 That’s exactly what you requested from the Lord your God at Horeb, on the day of the assembly, when you said, “I can’t listen to the Lord my God’s voice anymore or look at this great fire any longer. I don’t want to die!” 17 The Lord said to me: What they’ve said is right. 18 I’ll raise up a prophet for them from among their fellow Israelites—one just like you. I’ll put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. 19 I myself will hold accountable anyone who doesn’t listen to my words, which that prophet will speak in my name. 20 However, any prophet who arrogantly speaks a word in my name that I haven’t commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods—that prophet must die.
Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled
Reading Mark 1:21-28
21 Jesus and his followers went into Capernaum. Immediately on the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and started teaching. 22 The people were amazed by his teaching, for he was teaching them with authority, not like the legal experts. 23 Suddenly, there in the synagogue, a person with an evil spirit screamed, 24 “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. You are the holy one from God.” 25 “Silence!” Jesus said, speaking harshly to the demon. “Come out of him!” 26 The unclean spirit shook him and screamed, then it came out. 27 Everyone was shaken and questioned among themselves, “What’s this? A new teaching with authority! He even commands unclean spirits and they obey him!” 28 Right away the news about him spread throughout the entire region of Galilee.
The Grand Silence
You are invited to enter into a time of silence, prayer, and contemplation. If you are unsure how to do this, you might a) try speaking to God as if speaking to a friend; b) quiet your mind by slowly repeat a phrase from one of the songs or readings from tonight; or c) allow your mind to wander back over your day, asking yourself where you felt most full of life and where you felt most drained, then considering how God was present in both of those experiences.
Prayers
Most holy Friend, Savior of those who call on you, please give us more of the compassion and authority of Jesus. Embolden us to heal the multiple diseases that afflict humanity and drive out the demons that afflict our contemporary world. Hear us, O God. Response
Send your agents to lands that lie under darkness and oppression; where government is corrupt, justice is rare, abuse is endemic, and the weak and the poor have nowhere to turn for hope. Please increase the spiritual authority of the Red Cross, Amnesty, and Christian World Service, to more adequately become your ready channels of compassion, justice, practical aid, reconciliation and peace. Hear us, O God. Response
Send your messengers to situations where diseases like Aids are reaping a grim harvest. Especially we pray for the afflicted nations of Africa and Asia. Please give authority to people of disciplined compassion, to provide pharmaceutical help, nursing care, and better health education that will drive out the demons of superstition and fatalism. Hear us, O God. Response
Send your servants into places where food is scarce and crops are poor. Please strengthen the authority of those local leaders and outside advisers, who seek to empower the people to conserve water, dig new wells, plant trees, grow new food crops, farm fish, start new cottage industries, and obtain better prices for their goods. Hear us, O God. Response
Send your human angels of mercy into situations, both here and abroad, where there is neglect, illness, sorrow, frustration and anger. Please give some of the compassionate authority of Jesus to chaplains in hospitals and prisons, to nurses and ambulance offices, physicians and surgeons, social workers and foster parents, police officers and counsellors. Hear us, O God. Response
Send your gifts of comfort and great joy among the many congregations of your church. May more of the spiritual authority of Jesus empower every ordinary church member, and the wisdom and compassion of Christ enlarge the ministries of lay leaders and ordained pastors. By the grace of Christ, may our deeds more adequately match our creeds, and our love expand to embrace those misfits who appear lonely and unlovable. Hear us, O God. Response
God, our most holy Friend, in your mercy may we go from strength to strength in things of the spirit, and become the lovers and the agents of that holy awe which is the beginning of true wisdom. Response
Communion Song
Final Prayer –
Go forth……
replenished by the grace and mercy of God,…
blessed by the healing love of Jesus,…
energized by the limitless power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Final song – Laudate omnes gentes
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