6:15 PM – Welcome, Logistics and Explanation of the Evening
WELCOME, LOGISTICS AND EXPLANATION OF THE EVENING
Welcome to Dinner Church and Prayers around the Cross at Treehouse! We are thrilled you are here. If it is new to you, not to worry! We will guide you through everything.
Things to know about your time with Treehouse…
You are welcome here and we are blessed by your presence!
Come and go as you need.
Restrooms are all-Gender and located in the hall to the right.
Communion: bread is gluten-free, wine (red) & white grape juice (clear) are available.
WELCOME TO THE TABLE
L: As we gather at this dinner table, we welcome one another to the community we share.
L: To long-time Lutherans, Christians from every tradition, and people new to the faith.
All: Welcome to the table
L: To all who have no church home, want to follow Christ, have doubts or do not believe.
All: Welcome to the table
L: To people of every age and size, color and culture, gender identity, sexual orientation, and marital status, ability, disability, and challenge.
All: Welcome to the table
L: To believers, non-believers, questioners, and questioning believers.
This is a place where you are welcome to: celebrate and struggle, rejoice and recover.
All: AMEN
Gathering
L: The Lord be with you!
All: And also with you.
L: Let us pray…
Opening Song – All Are Welcome
Let us build a house where love can dwell
and all can safely live,
a place where saints and children tell
how hearts learn to forgive.
Built of hopes and dreams and visions,
rock of faith and vault of grace;
here the love of Christ shall end divisions:
All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.
Let us build a house where love is found
in water, wine and wheat:
a banquet hall on holy ground
where peace and justice meet.
Here the love of God, through Jesus,
is revealed in time and space;
as we share in Christ the feast that frees us:
All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.
Text: Marty Haugen, b. 1950. Text © 1994 GIA Publications, Inc., 7404 S. Mason Ave., Chicago, IL 60638. www.giamusic.com. 800.442.3358. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Sharing of the Bread
L: The Lord be with you.
All: And also with you.
L: Lift up your hearts.
All: We lift them to the Lord.
L: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
All: It is right to give our thanks and praise.
L: Holy God, we give you thanks for your goodness and love made known in all creation. You have been faithful through every generation, guiding your people through water and wilderness and bringing us new life in Jesus Christ. In him, you meet us at this table, sharing our hunger, our hope, and our humanity.
All: Amen
In this meal is found the greatest promise we have of God’s mercy and forgiveness. Here God feeds us with the presence of Jesus Christ.
In the night in which he was betrayed,
our Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks,
broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying:
“Take and eat; this is my body, given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.”
And so tonight, we do the same. We take bread, broken for us, and share it with one another with those sacred words, “The body of Christ given for you.”
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Bread is passed to your neighbor, saying: “The body of Christ given for you.”
Communion Song – Eat This Bread
Let us break bread together on our knees;
let us break bread together on our knees.
When I fall on my knees,
with my face to the rising sun,
O Lord, have mercy on me.
Text: African American spiritual
Post-Bread Blessing
Be strengthened this night by the presence of Christ made known to you in the bread and in one another.
Amen.
We’ll spend the first part of our meal in conversation hearing about our week. You are invited to share stories from your highs and lows from the week as well as where you saw Jesus at work in our world.
6:45 PM – The Word
The Lord be with you
and also with you
Prayer
Let us Pray
Gracious God, your Word became flesh and lived among us. In this moment, speak again, in our hearts, through your Word, and in our love for one another. Through Christ, our light and our peace.
All: Amen.
Scripture Reading – Luke 24:13-34
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” “What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.” He said to them,
“How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
Reflection
7:00 PM – Table Discussion
- What stood out to you in the text, What made you wonder or question?
- How do you imagine the disciples were feeling? Why do you think they were kept from recognizing him?
- The Disciples said their hearts burned with in them. Take a minute to wonder about this feeling, is like a peaceful or exciting, loved, joy, hope?.
- When is a time you have had your “heart burning with in you”
- What are ways people today maybe miss seeing or recognizing Jesus today?
Sharing the Cup
As we return to the meal that Jesus shared with his disciples on the night he was betrayed, we imagine their hearts burning with in them. We give thanks and praise to God for sending Jesus to always be among us, especially in our darkest moments.
L: Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks,
and gave it for all to drink, saying:
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood,
shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin.
Do this for the remembrance of me.”
Lord’s Prayer
L: Gathered into one by the Holy Spirit, let us pray as Jesus taught us, remembering that in this prayer God sees and hears all that our hearts need and long for.
ALL:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
forever and ever. Amen.
And so tonight, we take the cup of wine, as our hearts burn with in us and we drink together, sharing those sacred words with one another, “The blood of Christ shed for you.”
Wine/Juice is passed to your neighbor, saying: “The blood of Christ shed for you.”
Communion Song
Let us drink wine together on our knees;
let us drink wine together on our knees.
When I fall on my knees,
with my face to the rising sun,
O Lord, have mercy on me.
Text: African American spiritual
Post-Wine Blessing
Now that you have tasted the goodness of God in bread and wine, let us be the body of Christ, blessed and broken for the
whole world. Amen.
7:30 Sending & Blessing
L: Receive this Blessings
May your work be worship, your rest be renewal, and your life a reflection of God’s grace. In the name of the God, Creator, + Son, and Holy Spirit.
All: Amen.
Sending Song – Go My Children
“Go, my children, with my blessing, never alone.
Waking, sleeping, I am with you, you are my own.
In my love’s baptismal river
I have made you mine forever.
Go, my children, with my blessing, you are my own.
“Go, my children, sins forgiven, at peace and pure.
Here you learned how much I love you, what I can cure.
Here you heard my dear Son’s story,
here you touched him, saw his glory.
Go, my children, sins forgiven, at peace and pure.
“Go, my children, fed and nourished, closer to me.
Grow in love and love by serving, joyful and free.
Here my Spirit’s power filled you,
here his tender comfort stilled you.
Go, my children, fed and nourished, joyful and free.
“I the Lord will bless and keep you, and give you peace.
I the Lord will smile upon you, and give you peace.
I the Lord will be your Father,
Savior, Comforter and Brother.
Go, my children, I will keep you, and give you peace.”
Text: Jaroslav J. Vajda, b. 1919
© 1983 Jaroslav J. Vajda
L: Go In Peace, Love ands Serve the Lord
All: Thanks be to God and Weeee Will!