
Shared at the Bread For Your Journey gathering on July, 30, 2009 of By The Way an emerging community listening + exploring faith together in Nashua, NH.
http://www.bythewaynashua.blogspot.com/
Opening Prayer
O God you created us, you saved us, and you sustain us in our daily journey. Help us this evening to stop, to rest, and to be in your presence. As we pause and breathe deeply in you, we give you thanks for this day and time together. For what else do we give God thanks….? We also come burdened and tired from the busyness and distractions of our daily lives, we ask for rest and renewal this evening. For what else do we want to ask God for…? Open our hearts and ears to you O God; to the unity you call us to, to the peace you call us to, to see and use the gifts you have given each of us. Grant us humility, gentleness, and patience to bear with one another and all we encounter along the way in love. Amen.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ephesians%204:1-16&version=65
1-3In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.
4-6You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.
7-13But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is,
He climbed the high mountain,
He captured the enemy and seized the booty,
He handed it all out in gifts to the people.
Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.
14-16No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.
Prayer Offering
O God our teacher and guide along the way, you gather us as one body and one Spirit… one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism… as one God, Mother and Father of all; unite us in our diversity. Bind us together as we serve you, our neighbors and each other. Thank you for the gifts and instruction you give in your Word. Make our uniqueness and variety our strength. Amen.
http://everydayliturgy.com/blogs/thomas/wont-you-be-my-neighbor
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