We are gathered today on the occupied territory of the Sana and Tonkawa People who have stewarded this land for generations.
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.
Deep Peace
Laudate omnes gentes
Christ, Our Peace
Give us Lord a New Heart
Reading Revelation 1:4b-8
Grace and peace to you from the one who is and was and is coming, and from the seven spirits that are before God’s throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ—the faithful witness, the firstborn from among the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 who made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be glory and power forever and always. Amen. 7 Look, he is coming with the clouds! Every eye will see him, including those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. This is so. Amen. 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is and was and is coming, the Almighty.”
Reading John 18:33-37
33 Pilate went back into the palace. He summoned Jesus and asked, “Are you the king of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have others spoken to you about me?” 35 Pilate responded, “I’m not a Jew, am I? Your nation and its chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus replied, “My kingdom doesn’t originate from this world. If it did, my guards would fight so that I wouldn’t have been arrested by the Jewish leaders. My kingdom isn’t from here.” 37 “So you are a king?” Pilate said. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. I was born and came into the world for this reason: to testify to the truth. Whoever accepts the truth listens to my voice.”
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
Bless you Jesus Christ,
Father’s eternal Son,
One anointed in the Holy Spirit,
Creator and Sustainer and Redeemer of all things.
In unspeakable humility you crossed all worlds to become one with us,
and submitted yourself this day to be judged and beaten,
mocked and despised,
cursed and crucified by the human race,
embracing the hostility of sinners against you,
that you could reach us at our unspeakable worst,
thereby bringing all that you are with your Father in the Holy Spirit
together with all that we are in our terrible darkness and pain.
We betrayed and rejected you
and you formed them into the way of our adoption.
We despised and cursed you
and you formed them into the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Dying in the arms of our scorn you brought your life into our death,
your relationship with your Father into our miserable destitution,
your anointing in the Holy Spirit into our despair,
transforming Adam’s fall into the bosom of your Father
and the world of the Holy Spirit.
Bless you Jesus,
all honor and praise and glory to your unspeakable love.Amen.
Final Prayer –
God thank you for being with us in this wondering moment
where we stand poised between life and death,
filled to the brim with sorrow,
filled with thoughts of what has been
and what lies before us.
Thank you for the gift of life.
Thank you for our friend Jesus
who was a gift to the world,
a gift in each of our lives.
Comfort us even as we are shaken by the horror of these last hours.
Be our friend in this time of sorrow,
and sustain us in the days to come.
Now Jesus, may God bless you and keep you,
May the very face of God shine upon you, and be gracious to you,
May God’s presence embrace you and give you eternal peace. Amen.
Final song – If We Live
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