Sunday Service:
Holy Eucharist
at 9:30 am
Child care is available
Church of Our
Saviour
191 Flanagan Way (Rt 153) Secaucus, NJ 07094
Tel: 201-863-1449
Fax: 201-863-1474
Mark A. Lewis, Vicar MLewis@secaucus.org
Dorothy Fowlkes
Pastoral Associate
This page revised 17
Feb 08
http://www.secaucus.org/
oursaviour
The Church of
Our Saviour
in the Town of Secaucus, New Jersey
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Worship for
the Lord's Day
The Day
of Pentecost (A)
Whitsunday
11 May 2008
Holy Eucharist - 9:30 am
O
God, on this
day you taught
the hearts of your faithful people by sending them the light
of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have
right judgment in all things, and to rejoice in your many
gifts. We ask this with confidence in your love.
Amen.
Today's
Lessons
Acts 2:1-13 / Psalm
104:25-32
I Corinthians 12:4-13 / John 20:19-23
Today's
Hymns
225
- Hail thee, festival day
516
- Come down, O Love divine
509
- Spirit divine, attend our prayers
665
- All my hope on God is founded
A reading
from
the Acts of the Apostles 2:1-13
The events you will hear about today led directly to the formation of the Church. The twelve are gathered in Jerusalem to observe the Pentecost, a Jewish feast falling 50 days after Passover. It is about a month since the risen Christ appeared to them. They have a shared mystical experience -- tongues of fire that convey the Holy Spirit and lead them to speak in various languages, a phenomenon different from the speaking in tongues in Paul's communities, where a sort of ecstatic gibberish is interpreted by another worshiper -- a form to be found today in some evangelical congregations. -- Arthur Cash
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power."
All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?"
But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
(To be read by Eleanor Reuther)
Psalm 104:25-32 Benedic, anima mea
O LORD, how manifold are your works!
in wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Yonder is the great and wide
sea
with its living things too many to number,
creatures both small and great.
There move the ships,
and there is that Leviathan,
which you have made for the sport of it.
All of them look to you
to give them their food in due season.
You give it to them; they gather
it;
you open your hand, and they are filled with good things.
You hide your face, and they are
terrified;
you take away their breath,
and they die and return to their dust.
You send forth your Spirit, and
they are created;
and so you renew the face of the earth.
May the glory of the LORD endure
for ever;
may the LORD rejoice in all his works.
(To be read by Edna Mondadori)
An artistic reflection on the Psalm by Australian liturgical artist Susan Daily
A reading
from Paul's First Letter
to the Corinthians 12:4-13
In several letters Paul talks about "the Body of Christ." Sometimes he means the Church Universal, but here he seems to mean a particular community, such as that he is addressing at Corinth. Spiritual gifts, though disparate and individual, constitute one Body. No doubt Paul would look upon the community of the Church of Our Saviour as another manifestation of the Body of Christ, though I am not sure his list of spiritual gifts tallies exactly with ours. -- Arthur Cash
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-- and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
(To be read by Eleanor Reuther)
The
Gospel According to
John 20:19-23
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
(To be read by Dorothy Fowlkes)
The Prayers of the People will
be led by Jo Ann Namendorf
Comments on the Readings
The prefaces to the lessons (above) are composed each week by a literature scholar at Columbia University, Professor Arthur Cash, for use at St. Peter's Church in Chelsea, New York City. Professor Cash has generously offered their use to our congregation.
The Diocese of Montreal additionally offers an attractive and useful guide to the lectionary readings (including the Psalm and Gospel). Because it comes from of the Anglican Church of Canada which follows the Revised Common Lectionary, the readings sometimes may vary from those of the Episcopal Church, but it still can be most helpful. Link
The image above has been
made available by The
Franciscan Brothers of the White Cross, in Spain.
The Sunday Bulletin Link
Reflections on Sermons
Mark Lewis's
sermons have been interpreted for reading on the internet.
They are indexed at the bottom of the Sunday
page.
Link
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