An Instructed Eucharist for
St. Clement’s Episcopal Church
Prepared by the Reverend Joy
Caires and Dr. Mark Stahura, Music Director
Adapted for Proper 27A
Prior to the invitation to
silence, announcements will include the following,
It is said that praying shapes believing--yet, it is hard to know what we are believing if we do not understand what we are praying. So, in partnership with today’s emphasis on Christian
formation, we will be exploring our liturgy in order that a deeper understanding of our liturgy might give us a deeper understanding of how our liturgy helps us to hear God's call to us. Every week, our principal
act of worship as a church offers us an opportunity to engage in formation—the
transformative learning that helps deepens our awareness of God and helps us to
discern what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in the world today. This
instructed Eucharist will take the place of the sermon.
Let us begin with silence...
Procession and opening hymn
The opening hymn, acclamation and the prayer we call the collect
of the day, are intended to unite us as a worshipping body centering ourselves
on God in Christ. Through music and prayer, we give witness to what it means to
be one body, led by one spirit, and answering to one hope in God’s call to us.
Voices blend, and we set our intention to the work of
transformation as we pray together the collect for purity.
A collect is a prayer that frames our intentions and gathers us
together. The collect for purity has
begun services in our traditions since 1549 and it reminds us that we are here
to be transformed by God.
Another collect, the Collect for the Day, prepares us for
hearing God’s Word, using ideas that we will hear in the readings that
follow. Today’s collect is striking in
its insistence that God in Jesus came to destroy the work of evil in this
world. If you recall, in our baptismal covenant, we too commit ourselves to
this work of overthrowing the powers of evil at work in the world around us. I
invite you to consider the issues confronting us in our world, especially that
of gun violence, in light of this commitment.
Silence…
Prayers written long ago can be a powerful reminder to our
calling in the world in the here and the now.
You will notice, that as we continue through the liturgy, we
quite literally MOVE! We are invited to use our physical posture to reinforce
our prayers—and these postures, depending upon when they are employed, can
convey respect, humility, penitence, and celebration as we give praise to God.
That said, at this time, I ask you to stand as you are able.
At this time we continue with the
Opening Acclamation--through the Collect of the Day
As members of the Episcopal Church, and participants in the
Anglican Communion, scripture, tradition and reason are the tools we use to
understand what it means to follow Christ within our own context.
Scripture is a vital component of our Sunday liturgies and, over
the course of a three-year cycle, we hear the majority of the Bible proclaimed
within the context of our worship. Our readings typically include a reading
from Hebrew scriptures, the Epistles (an epistle is a letter) and a Gospel
reading.
Our worship is shaped by the Book of Common Prayer which
provides the liturgical framework for our Sunday observances. An important part
of our tradition includes congregational singing. The Psalms were intended to
be sung – the word “psalm” means ‘song’ in Hebrew – and we continue this
centuries’ old tradition today, using several different musical styles.
After the second reading, we sing a hymn that captures some of
the themes of that reading. In Episcopal liturgy of all kinds, music helps to
reinforce scripture’s meaning with memorable tunes and beautiful words.
Having touched on the role of scripture and tradition, we come
to reason. As we hear scripture, and participate in the traditions of our
Church we are invited to use reason to further our understanding of God’s call
to us in the here and the now.
We continue with the proclamation of
Scripture, next portion of instruction begins after the Gospel.
I understand my task as the preacher to be that of exploring the
readings in depth and creating what I think of as a “bridge” between the
context in which these passages were written and our own context. The opening
prayer which I use to begin sermons is intended to remind us that God is very
much a part of our understanding of scripture and that a sermon isn’t just
about what the preacher says, but about what our hearts understand.
Today, in my pairing of scripture with our tradition and my
reason I heard the prophet giving voice to God’s sharp rebuke for those who pray,
worship, and make offerings, without pursuing justice and righteousness. I
heard within our Gospel an encouragement to keep ready, to prepare ourselves
for the full in-breaking of God’s love, even when (perhaps especially when)
that in-breaking seems far away and too much to hope for. It exhorts us to
maintain our hope so that we can be ready to shine Christ’s light. This is an
active state of readiness, not passive, and we are to be participants in the
coming of Christ by shining the light of justice and righteousness into the
world.
The Nicene Creed follows the sermon. Created at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD the
creed was the church’s official response to fourth century heresies! It symbolizes the unity of the church and
details the story of the Holy Trinity revealed in the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
Much of our worship is meant to move us beyond sole concern with
our individual state and into an awareness and concern for the entirety of the
Body of Christ of which we are part. The
Prayers of the People are meant to be OF THE PEOPLE. By juxtaposing our prayers for the church and
the world with our own individual prayers we locate our prayers within the
context of a world that is broken and deeply in need of healing.
And, with the awareness that the world is broken, we are also
called to own our own brokenness with the public confession of our sins. The confession acknowledges not only our
personal sinfulness, but the evils which are “done on our behalf”. By offering this time of corporate confession
and absolution, we make clear that we are all broken, we are all sinful and
that even in this broken state, we are freely given the love and grace of God. Confession
entails a commitment to be different and God blesses our effort to transform
ourselves.
This is the point in the service where we move from the Word to
Holy Communion. A move that hinges on an
act of reconciliation—the passing of the peace. As we pass the peace – we
participate in an ancient Christian practice suggested by St. Paul in 1
Corinthians 16:20. Being at peace with each other is a Christian
obligation. We are invited to be at
peace not simply with those around us, but also with all those we have
encountered in the last week. We should
use this opportunity to resolve to work harder to be at peace with those we
find difficult.
In addition, it is important to bring the peace of the Lord to
all those in our past who hurt us. It is
so easy for us to live with unresolved hurt – but in the symbolism of touching
the hands of others, you are invited to release the pain and hurt that is part
of the past. This moment of peacemaking
comes immediately before the offertory (the moment when we give of ourselves to
God). In the 5th chapter of
Matthew, Jesus instructs us to make sure we are at peace with those around us
before bringing our gifts to God.
After shaking hands, the priest will take a sentence from
Scripture and invite us to offer back to God what God has so generously give
us. God has given us time, talents, and
treasures, which we should give back to God.
It is an opportunity to make sure that we are not allowing “things” to
dominate our lives. It is an opportunity
to reflect on what we are doing for God.
Let us continue our journey and stand, as able, saying the words
of the Nicene Creed
We affirm our faith with the creed,
instruction continues after the passing of the peace.
The prayer that the priest will read is called the “Great
Thanksgiving” – the word “Eucharist” literally means thanksgiving. We are going to be invited to respond with
gratitude for the love and grace that God has bestowed on humanity. This prayer starts with the “Sursum Corda”,
lift up your hearts, a dialogue that can be understood to be symbolic of the
journey our hearts are invited to take towards God. The dialogue between the priest and the
people continues through the prayer.
And, in our reference to the “saints and angels”, we are reminded that
we are part of a body that surpasses time and encompasses the entirety of the
church.
The prayer moves from a sense of gratitude for creation and the
incarnation, to the redemption made possible by Christ. As we echo the actions of Christ in this
re-enactment of the Last Supper that forms the essence of our Holy Communion,
we remember the act of love in which Christ gave himself for us. And at the epiclesis (which means
“invocation”), the priest asks God (the Creator of everything that is) to send
the Holy Spirit (the aspect of God that makes God present to us now) to enable
the Divine Word (the Son) to interpenetrate the elements of bread and wine so
that they are to us the “body and blood of Christ.” This is a miracle. Don’t ask me exactly how
or what is happening—this is a a miracle, it is holy mystery. However, what we
do know is that God is providing us with a resource to enable us to live
differently – to live as God intended.
During the communion rite we sing twice more. First, we sing the
Sanctus, a direct quote from the Bible, specifically Isaiah 6:3, in which the
prophet narrates what the angels sing around God’s throne: “Holy, holy, holy
Lord, God of power and might”. Joined to this text is another piece of
scripture. As Jesus was riding a colt into Jerusalem people spread palms and
cloaks in his path and said, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord.”
Out of joy and without fear, we can utter the prayer that Jesus
taught his disciples. Then the priest
breaks the consecrated bread, a symbol of how brokenness can be the key to
life.
After the priest breaks the bread, we sing a “fraction anthem” acknowledging
the symbolism of the bread as Christ's body, broken for us and feeding us
still, today.
Then we come forward to receive.
At this time, I invite you to listen and pray as the choir makes
an offering of music to God and our community.
The anthem through the entirety of the
Great Thanksgiving. Instruction resumes before the post-communion prayer.
The post communion hymn is a prayer of thanksgiving and
petition. We give thanks but also
request the strength to do God’s work in the world. We make it clear that what we have done in
here matters “out there”. The priest offers
us a blessing, continuing the pronouncement of God’s presence in our lives and
our labors. The dismissal continues this
theme, as it literally commissions us for ministry in the world. Having prayed, heard scripture, offered our
gifts, received the body and blood of Christ, and been blessed, we sing another
hymn as we carry the cross out from our presence and into the world beyond our
walls. This hymn, like the others, reflects the ideas from scripture that have
permeated worship today.
The post-communion prayer through the
dismissal
Highly recommended resources
used for the compilation of this instructed Eucharist
Liturgical Life
Principles: How Episcopal Worship Can Lead to Healthy and Authentic Living by Ian S. Markham
Praying Shapes
Believing: Theological Commentary on The Book of Common Prayer, by Leonel L.
Mitchell
Holy Things: A
Liturgical Theology, by Gordon W. Lathrop
