Sharing Our Burdens
A Service of Holy Communion for the Third Sunday after Pentecost
July 3, 2011

Song of Solomon 2:8-13, Zechariah 9:9-12, Psalm 145:8-14, Romans 7:15-25a, Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 

Call 

One:	God is gracious and merciful
All:		God’s bounty is love.

One:	We are all God’s beloved
All:		We listen for God’s voice.

One:	Leaping upon mountains, bounding over hills
All:		Gazing through the lattice, we look and seek God’s face.

Gathering Prayer

Each paragraph could be read by a different voice.

In the stillness of the morning, 
in the calm of the night, 
in the hush and the pulse of all that surrounds us, 
we call on you, O God.  

We call on you knowing that you have already met us here.  
We call on you believing that you have already brought us here.  
We call on you knowing that you will carry us, we who carry so much.  

Silence

And so we take this moment to pause and to praise you; 
leaning back into your open arms, 
inclining our ears to hear your voice as it moves amongst us, 
opening our eyes to behold your grace in every surrounding face.  

You are present to us, O God.  
Help us to be present to you, 
through our Savior Jesus Christ, 
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

Confession

One: 	Friends in Christ:  I invite you to conjure your image of Jesus.  Can you see him?  
All:	The humble man who healed?  
The one who gave everything so freely?  
The one who cared and noticed and never turned his back?  

One:	Good people, 
we, 
you and I, 
were created by 
and in that very same image.  

We were created to follow that example:  
to be humble, to offer healing, 
to give abundantly, 
to care, to notice, 
to pay attention to the need that surrounds us.  

All:	At times, we follow Jesus.  
And, at times, we do not.  

In the stillness of this hour, 
God invites us to consider the ways in which we do 
– and do not – 
follow Jesus’ example.  

And, God invites us 
to invite God’s grace into our lives 
so that we can more closely follow Jesus’ lead, 
cleaning out everything within us that would 
function to get in God’s way.  

Let us do just that in the moments ahead:
 
Silence

Assurance of Pardon

One:	Friends in Christ, there is Good News for us all to hear – 
news so good that we should rise to hear it.  

The congregation is invited to rise.

One:	The God made known to us in Jesus Christ, 
the God to whom the Psalmist sings, 
the God whom generations praise and 
in whom the Spirit dwells 
is a good God, a gentle God who is 
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 

	God sees it all, and God loves us anyway.  
	God knows it all, and God forgives, anyway.  

All:		Through Christ, our sins are forgiven.  
Thanks be to God.

Invitation to Offering

(This invitation need not be printed in the bulletin.  It involves participation and a bit of call-and-response based on today’s Gospel.  One way to try this is to invite your congregation’s musician to compose a quick, two-line call and response verse and teach it to the congregation.  Or, you could skip song and just use the words.  Have fun with it and make it your own!)

Anyone who practices generosity can tell you that being generous is hard – until you do it.  
Take a look around the sanctuary and you will see people who give generously.  
You will also see people who are afraid to give abundantly, unsure of what it will mean, where it will go, what it will do to them.  

But…will you repeat after me?  
The yoke is easy/the yoke is easy
and the burden is light/the burden is light.

Here at church, we take gifts and we multiply them, 
knowing that your gift is stronger when it is matched 
with mine, and hers, and his, and that, together, 
we can pool our resources to serve the needs of this community and the world around us – from victims of disaster to the hungry and homeless in our midst – our gifts matter.  

Giving can be hard – until we do it.  Why?  

Because, quite simply, Christ calls us to give and to give abundantly.  
Giving is sharing, and that is how we carry Christ’s yoke.  
And Christ never asks us to do something that Christ doesn’t bless – 
Because… 
the yoke is easy/the yoke is easy 
and the burden is light/the burden is light.

We give, and by some miracle, our burdens are lightened.  

Dedication

Let us pray:  
O God, you invite us to share the load.  
Through these gifts, we see that your 
yoke is easy and your burden is light.  
Use them, with us, to your service.  
Multiply them, through us, for your use.  
Strengthen them, in us, to meet the needs of this weary world, 
until the day comes when every need is met.  
Through Christ, our Savior. Amen.

Holy Communion

Dialogue

May God be with you
And also with you.

Lift your hearts.
We lift them up to God.

Let us give thanks to the God we love.
We freely give God thanks and praise.  

Preface
It is right and fitting that we should with joy 
Give our thanks and praise to you, 
Holy and merciful God, 
Through Jesus Christ, our Savior.  

And so with all the voices that praise you
With the church around us and the heavenly host
We praise you, joining the ceaseless hymn:

Sanctus
	Holy, holy, holy…

Eucharistic Prayer

We bless you, Holy God.  
We bless and call upon your name; 
For your name is great and your majesty inspires us.  

You are the source of all that is:  
From the dawning of creation 
To the redemption of the world
You grant us freedom in love.

And so we recall that on the night of betrayal and desertion, 
Our brother Jesus took bread, broke and gave it to the disciples, saying:

The presider lifts the bread.

“This is my body, given for you.  
Do this for the remembrance of me.”  

The presider places the bread on the table.

And, in like manner, after supper, 
Jesus took the cup and after giving thanks give it to them saying,

The presider lifts the cup.

“This is the cup of the new covenant [in my blood]
poured out for you and for all people
for the forgiveness of sins.    
Do this, as often as you drink of it,
for the remembrance of me.”  

The presider places the cup on the table.

Holding the bread and the cup ever before us
We boldly claim, with joy:

Christ has died
Christ is risen
Christ will come again.  

And so we remember.  
We remember who we were born to be. 
We remember who we were born to serve.
We remember the One who was born and served
So that the world would never be the same,
So that the world could live in freedom.  

And so we pray.
We pray for the day when 
Healing and love reign without interruption,
When freedom is real for all,
When liberty touches everyone,
When joy is complete.

We pray.
We pray for your Spirit to move among us
And to bless these gifts of bread and cup before us.  

Draw us together as 
one with your church
one with your creation
one in you…

The presider may lift both the bread and the cup.

through Jesus Christ, 
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit
One God, now and forever.  
    Amen.  

The presider places the bread and cup on the table.  

Lord’s Prayer

At the conclusion of the prayer, the presider lifts the bread to break it.

Distribution

Post-Communion Prayer

For these gifts, O God, we thank you.  
For your grace, O God, we praise you.
For your love, O God, we adore you.  Amen.  

Benediction

God is here.  Amen?  Amen.
God brought us here.  Amen?  Amen.
God takes us home.  Amen? Amen.

And, may the peace of God almighty:  + Abba, Word, and Spirit, 
bless you now and always.  Amen?  Amen.  

Sharing Our Burdens:  A Service of Holy Communion for the Third Sunday after Pentecost was written by the Rev. Kaji R. Spellman, a United Church of Christ Pastor who serves as a pastor of Saint Peter's Lutheran Church in New York City.

Copyright 2011 Local Church Ministries, Congregational Vitality and Discipleship Ministry Team, United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, OH  44115-1100.  Permission granted to reproduce or adapt this material for use in services of worship or church education.  All publishing rights reserved.