Easter 7B

THE SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
		A Prepared Meditation That May Be Used As A Bead and A Prayer, Or Anyway That Is Meaningful To You
		Theme: Jesus prays for those who follow that they may be one in God and one in loving service to the world.
		CROSS	Open our lips and we will declare your praise. O God, come quickly to help us. Make haste, O God, to deliver us. Glory be to God Most High. Blessed is God and blessed is God's Kin-Dom, now and forevermore.
		INVITATORY	Creator and Sovereign of all, open our hearts that the Spirit of the Risen Christ of glory may enter, and bring us rejoicing to your holy mountain, where you live and reign, now and forever. Amen.
		CRUCIFORM	Mighty God, in whom we know the power of redemption, you stand among us in the shadows of our time. As we move through every sorrow and trial of this life, uphold us with knowledge of the final morning when in the glorious presence of your risen One, we will share in the resurrection, redeemed and restored to the fullness of life and forever freed to be your people. Amen.
		WEEK 1	Acts 1. 15-26 ♦ In those days Peter stood up among the believers—together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons—and said, “Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus—for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” ♦ Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. ♦ This became known to all the residents of Jerusalem so that the field was called in their language Hakeldama, that is, Field of Blood. “For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his homestead become desolate, and let there be no one to live in it; ♦ So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.” ♦ So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. ♦ Then they prayed and said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” ♦ And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was added to the eleven apostles.
		CRUCIFORM	Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal, have mercy on us. Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal, have mercy on us. Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal, grant us your peace.
		WEEK 2	Psalm 1 ♦ Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; ♦ but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. ♦ They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. ♦ In all that they do, they prosper. ♦ The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. ♦ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; ♦ for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
		CRUCIFORM	Glory be to God, the Blessed Trinity, who created and is creating, who redeemed and is redeeming, who reconciled and is reconciling, everything that was and is and is to come—unto God-Self—world without end. Amen.
		WEEK 3	1 John 5. 9-13 ♦ If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to the Beloved and Begotten One. ♦ Those who believe in the Beloved and Begotten of God have the testimony in their hearts. ♦ Those who do not believe in God have made of God a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning the Beloved and Begotten One. ♦ And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in the Beloved and Begotten One. ♦ Whoever has the Beloved and Begotten One, has life. ♦ Whoever does not have the Beloved and Begotten One of God does not have life. ♦ I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
		CRUCIFORM	Holy, holy, holy One, God of power and might. Heaven and earth are filled with your glory. Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Christ. Hosanna in the highest!
		WEEK 4	John 17. 6-19 ♦ ”I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ♦ Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. ♦ I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. ♦ And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy God, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. ♦ While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost so that the scripture might be fulfilled. ♦ But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. ♦ They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
		CRUCIFORM	O God, your Beloved and Begotten One remained with his disciples after his resurrection, teaching them to love all people as neighbors. As his disciples in this age, we offer our prayers on behalf of the universe in which we are privileged to live and our neighbors with whom we share it. Open our hearts to your power moving around us and between us and within us, until your glory is revealed in our love of both friend and enemy, in communities transformed by justice and compassion, and in the healing of all that is broken. Amen.
		INVITATORY	Blessing in a Time of Violence Which is to say      this blessing  is always. Which is to say      there is no place           this blessing                does not long                       to cry out                           in lament                to weep its words           in sorrow      to scream its lines in sacred rage. Which is to say      there is no day           this blessing ceases                     to whisper                 into the ear           of the dying      the despairing, the terrified. Which is to say      there is no moment           this blessing refuses           to sing itself                into the heart                     of the hated                          and the hateful                     the victim                and the victimizer           with every last      ounce of hope it has.      Which is to say           there is none                that can stop it                     none that can                          halt its course                      none that will                still its cadence           none that will      delay its rising none that can keep it      from springing forth           from the mouths of us                who hope                     from the hands of us                          who act                     from the hearts of us                who love           from the feet of us      who will not cease our stubborn, aching      marching, marching           until this blessing                has spoken                     its final word                          until this blessing                     has breathed                its benediction           in every place      in every tongue: Peace. Peace. Peace. —Jan Richardson
		CROSS	Now unto the One that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of God's glory with exceeding joy, to the only God—Immortal, Invisible, and Wise—be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.