Today is the first day of spring! You can look for a few signs of new life in the world around us. Another kind of new life: tomorrow (March 21st) is the International Day for the Elimination of Racism.
Hymn. As Comes the Breath of Spring #373
Prayer: O God, with Lent we approach the springtime of the year when the face of the earth is renewed and life emerges out of death.
We pray that this season of Lent may be a veritable springtime for our souls, so that our lives, quickened by the breath of the Spirit and warmed by the sunshine of your love, may bear abundant fruit and be made radiant with the beauty of holiness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ( a prayer by Frank Colquhoun and published in Contemporary Parish Prayers)
Scripture Lessons: Isaiah 55:1-11
Psalm 63:1-8 p.781VU
Luke 13:1-9
Meditation
Prayer: Our Lord, who is in us here on earth, holy is your name in the hungry who share their bread and their song.
Your Kingdom come, which is a generous land that flows with milk and honey.
Let us do your will, standing up when all are sitting down, and raising our voice when all are silent.
You are giving us our daily bread in the song of the bird and the miracle of the corn.
Forgive us for keeping silent in the face of injustice, and for burying our dreams, for not sharing bread and wine, love and the land, among us, now.
Don’t let us fall into the temptation of shutting the door through fear; of resigning ourselves to hunger and injustice; of taking up the same arms as the enemy.
Give us the perseverance and the solidarity to look for love, even if the path has not yet been trodden, even if we fall; so we shall have known your kingdom which is being built forever and ever. Amen. ( a prayer and meditation based on the Lord’s Prayer from Central America, shortened. Published in Bread of Tomorrow, edited by Janet Morley.)
Hymn I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say #626
This afternoon in Howick we will be celebrating the sacrament of baptism with the Johnson-Tolhurst family. We will Gwendolyn Tolhurst into the family of God and the church of Jesus Christ.
If you wish to make a donation to support the people and refugees of Ukraine, you can do so through the United Church. This can be done through the United Church’s secure death nation page, from its website, united-church.ca; or by phone with a credit card to 1-800-268-3781 or with a cheque by mail to the United Church of Canada, Philanthropy Unit-Emergency Response, 3250 Bloor St West, Suite 200, Toronto, On, M8X 2Y4.
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