Call to Worship: Good morning friends.  There is grain of the fields here this morning, there is salt of the earth, there is leavening and shortening, and milk.  There is opportunity to work together to create a wee feast, praying our prayers for the church and the world into the bread of communion.  There is the Holy Spirit present and moving and indwelling.  Let us awaken our spirits to the gift of this moment as we light the Christ candle…

Introduction to World Wide Communion

This day is celebrated in many denominations, as World Wide Communion Sunday.  It is a day, when despite differences in tradition, liturgy, emphasis – on God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, on songs of praise or works of compassion, on holy contemplation and retreat, or civil disobedience for the sake of justice, the disciples of Jesus Christ, gather to re-enact and to embody what we call the Lord’s Supper, or Mass, or Communion.   This day, perhaps more than any other, Christians around the world are

symbolically gathered at a common table.  Our hymns today, although chosen from one book, hint at the different traditions that have blessed the wider church.  “Before I Take the Body of My Lord,” comes to us from Iona Community in Scotland, and we will read the verses responsively as our prayer of reconciliation…

Let us Bake Bread Together…  

** At this point in the service, the whole congregation moved to the back of the sanctuary and made baking powder biscuits together.  There were five stations set up, including a gluten free station, where folks gathered to blend in the ingredients, add their prayers, and cut out biscuits for cooking.  (Pictures were taken and will be posted when Rev. Juanita gets a little more tech savvy).

While the biscuits baked… we reflected on the gospel in Luke 17 where the disciples said to Jesus, “Increase our faith.”  He says they’ve got enough faith, they just have to use it. Faith is their job.  In fact, he goes on to tell a story that basically says, “Being a community that forgives and has faith, is what we are about.  How easy is that to hear?  Together we examined these questions in the bulletin about this reading from Luke 17.  Where do you long for attention and acknowledgement of what you are doing?  Where are you content to work quietly without notice?

And from the 2^nd letter to Timothy we read where Paul encourages Timothy in the faith found in his mother and grandmother.  So we examined the questions: Who shaped your faith in God?  What do you value most in your faith?  To whom might you pass on a spiritual legacy? 

 Congregational members spoke as they felt moved to, and we were all richer for having shared this experience together.  During the distribution of the communion elements, a big tray of still warm, freshly baked biscuits were passed around, as were small glasses of juice.  We formed a circle and shared in the common feast together.