May 18, 2025
Easter 5C

John 13:31-35 | Looking for Love

Opening Meditation
"There will be no tidy checklists of 'things your congregation can do for disabled folx.' Our shifting bodies necessitate shifting strategies.  Disability justice organizing happens in non-linear time. We wait for each other. We make sure each other's bodyminds are provided for. We act like we want each other in the room...On the program...In the pulpit...Beyond the pulpit...What we have is this moment.  What we have is each other.  What we must do is dismantle ableism in our personal lives and public initiatives.  And in order to do that, we must be clear on the insidious nature of ableism, learn the context of disability movement-making, and come to embrace the power of community/collective care.”
Jade Perry “Come as You Are: Possibilities for Dreaming Disability Justice in Congregational Contexts” in Building Up a New World: Congregational Organizing for Transformative Impact, 82.

Call to Worship
Leader:	More than kind or charitable, or even humane
this Love that calls us
takes on flesh and bone and vulnerability
Assembly:	we gather here to practice Love’s solidarity, 
rising up in the valleys and shadows of death. 
Leader:	More than nice, or agreeable, or even polite
this Love that forms us
risks siding with the last and the least
Assembly:	we come together to become Love’s liberation
building collective power to resist injustice.
Leader:	More than tolerant or accepting, or even affirming
this Love that guides us
opens to new stories of harm and new visions of flourishing
Assembly:	we join together to embody Love’s accountability
laying down our defenses to grow beyond the edges of our knowing.

Leader:	More than peaceful or unifying, or even friendly
this Love that compels us
dares to imagine beyond empire
Assembly:	we worship to remember Love’s future
praying, praising, and protesting until Love’s kindom comes. 

Invocation
Inhale: Open our hearts. 
Exhale: Love, dwell among us. 

Invocation Alternative/Spiritual Practice: Centering Prayer
Leader:	 Take a moment to choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to open to God’s resurrecting presence and action within. You could use words like: love, glory, enfleshed, embody, freedom, liberation

Take a few deep breaths and let your bodymindspirit settle into prayer.  In the silence, call to mind the sacred word you chose.  If other thoughts interrupt, return gently to your sacred word. Notice what the Holy may be offering you in this moment.

[Hold silence for 2-3 minutes]

With gratitude for the presence of God’s resurrecting spirit in and among us, and acting through us, we offer our prayers.  Amen. 

Prayer for Transformation and New Life
Love beyond all knowing, 
we recognize how deeply limited our understanding of love is,
how often we fail to recognize Love’s true practice and meaning,
how much the powers and principalities of this world co-opt the idea of “love” 
for death-dealing purposes. 
In the silence of our hearts, 
let us call to awareness the misunderstandings of love that have shaped us as individuals. 
[time for silent reflection]
For the ways we have wounded your Love, 
O God, forgive us.  
In the presence of God and each other, 
let us name aloud the misunderstandings of love that shape us as a community. 
[time for prayers offered aloud]
For the ways we have wounded your Love, 
O God, forgive us.  
 
Words of Grace
Leader:	Let your spirit receive this assurance: 
in all these things we are more than forgiven through the One who loved us. 
Assembly:	Therefore, we are convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 
nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation 
will be able to separate us from the love of God 
in Christ Jesus our Redeemer.
Thanks be to God. 

Embodied Practice
As Jesus-followers, we lean heavily on what some would call a "love ethic" as the root of all of our work for justice.  We are quick to claim our efforts to follow Jesus' commandment to love one another as the root of why we do what we do in the struggle for justice.  But rarely do we speak or think about the real, complex, multifaceted ways that love manifests itself in our real lives and communities.  We don't often challenge ourselves to wonder about and be accountable to what love means concretely in practice.  This week we suggest that one way that loving one another manifests in congregational organizing is in our mutual practices of and commitments to disability justice.  
As a practice of Love, today we are invited simply to notice how our worship space and activities embody love for particular bodies and ways of being in the world.  
In the stillness of the next few moments, take some time to consider these questions:     
•	Whose bodies, minds, and spirits do your pews or chairs love? 
•	Whose bodies, minds, and spirits do your pulpit or platform love? 
•	Whose bodies, minds, and spirits do your hymnals or song lyrics love? 
•	Whose bodies, minds, and spirits do your communion practices or prayers love? 
•	Whose bodies, minds, and spirits does your sanctuary love? 

With each noticing, offer a tender touch or a kind thought to a part of your body that is unloved in the world, in your community, in your sanctuary, in your own spirit. 
Take a moment to imagine what a more expansively loving pew, pulpit, hymnal, prayer, sanctuary, etc. might be. 

Invitation to Generosity
When Jesus said, just as I have loved you, you should also love one another, 
I think he meant, 
Love like twelve years of bleeding stopped by one touch
Love like let the one who is without sin, cast the first stone
Love like let the children come to me
Love like 5000 people fed by bits and pieces and collective care
Love like tables turned and injustice resisted
Love like feet washed and meals shared
This is the love we are called to continue embodying in our world. 
Through our offerings, let us love as Jesus loves us.  

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Dedication
Let Love be our offering.
Let Love be our giving.  
Let Love be our dedication. 
Let Love be our calling. 
Let Love be our thanksgiving. 
Let Love be our prayer. 
Amen. 

Benediction
People of Love, 
as you go from this place, 
let love be what blesses you, 
love that is not nice
or polite, 
but knows how to sing
in the midst of despair
how to rise up 
in the midst of death
how to hold fast
in the midst of chaos
Let love be the blessing you share, 
love that is not tolerant
or charitable 
but knows how to care
when all seems hopeless
how to listen
when others are silenced
how to come alongside
when no one else will.
People of Love, 
let love be your blessing, 
this day and every day
until glory comes. 

“Building Up a New World – Looking for Love” Service Prayers for Easter 5C was written by Dr. Sharon R. Fennema, who serves as Join the Movement toward Racial Justice Curator with UCC National Ministries.