Gathering
Uyai Mose (Come, All You People)
Uyai mose, tinamate Mwari.
Uyai mose, tinamate Mwari.
Uyai mose, tinamate Mwari.
Uyai mose zvino.
Come, all you people, come and praise your Maker.
Come, all you people, come and praise your Maker.
Come, all you people, come and praise your Maker.
Come now and worship the Lord.
Call to Worship
One: O God, we come to this place at your lavish invitation,
Many: Though we knock on the door–bearing our offerings of brokenness, shame, fear, pride, and pain–with hesitation. We knock on the door wondering if all that we are and all that we bring is enough.
One: Yet you welcome us in, with an embrace so loving that all of those things fall to the ground. You lead us to the table, seating us where we don’t “belong,” restoring the human dignity that the world, the government, and your church has stripped away.
Many: You set an abundant feast before us. You ask to hear our story. You remind us that you love us. You give us the gift of worth.
One: As you invited us…
Many: We shall invite the world.
Hymn
The Summons
Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown, will you let my name be known,
Will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?
Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean, and do such as this unseen,
And admit to what I mean in you and you in me?
Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around,
Through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?
Scripture
Luke 14:1, 7-14 (NRSV)
On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Homily
“To Be a Table Maker”
Rev. Taylor Bean, University Chaplain
Sung Response
The Summons (verse 5)
Lord, your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In your company I’ll go where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow in you and you in me.
Table Liturgy
One: The Lord be with you.
Many: And also with you.
One: Lift up your hearts.
Many: We lift them up to God.
One: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
Many: It is right to give our thanks and praise.
One: Blessed are you, our Alpha and our Omega, whose strong and loving arms encompass the universe, for with your eternal Word and Holy Spirit you are forever one God. Through your Word you created all things and called them good, and in you we live and move and have our being. When we fell into sin, you did not desert us. You made covenant with your people Israel and spoke through prophets and teachers. In Jesus Christ your Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.
And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn:
Many: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blest is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
One: Holy are you, and blessed is Jesus Christ, who called you Abba. As a parent tenderly gathers their children, you embraced a people as your own and filled them with a longing for a peace that would last and for a justice that would never fail. In Jesus’ suffering and death you took upon yourself our sin and death and destroyed their power for ever. You raised from the dead this same Jesus, who now reigns with you in glory, and poured upon us your Holy Spirit, making us the people of your new covenant.
On the night before meeting with death, Jesus took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to the disciples, and said: “Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
When the supper was over Jesus took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to the disciples, and said: “Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.”
And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving, as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith.
Many: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
One: Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts, that in the breaking of this bread and the drinking of this wine we may know the presence of the living Christ and be renewed as the body of Christ for the world, redeemed by Christ’s blood.
As the grain and grapes, once dispersed in the fields, are now united on this table in bread and wine, so may we and all your people be gathered from every time and place into the unity of your eternal household and feast at your table forever. Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, almighty and loving God, now and forever.
Many: Amen.
One: And now with the confidence of the children of God, let us pray …
Many: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kin-dom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kin-dom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Music During Communion
Come to the Table of Grace
Come to the table of grace. (2x)
This is God’s table; it’s not yours or mine.
Come to the table of grace.
Come to the table of peace (2x)
This is God’s table; it’s not yours or mine.
Come to the table of peace.
Come to the table of love. (2x)
This is God’s table; it’s not yours or mine.
Come to the table of love.
Come to the table of joy. (2x)
This is God’s table; it’s not yours or mine.
Come to the table of love.
Blessing
Rev. Taylor Bean, University Chaplain
Drew Theo Chapel 