June 1, 2025
The Seventh Sunday of Easter 
Luke 24:44-53 | “Opened Minds”

Call to Worship
One:  Creator, today we give you thanks
ALL:  for believing we can be born again.
One:  Creator, today we give you thanks
ALL:  for the diversity of which all of Your creation is birthed.
One:  Creator, today we give you thanks
ALL:  for the knowledge that we aren’t always right and for the capability to change.
One:  Creator, today we give you thanks
ALL:  for the desire to change structures and institutions that tell us community is less valuable than the individual.
One:  Creator, today we give you thanks
ALL:  for the positivity, resistance, and beauty in this some times ugly world.

Invocation
Creator, be with us as we live into all that is possible.  You sent us a human to show us the value and dignity and beauty of all people.  You created the change of seasons as a reminder of the beauty of our planet.  We were not made sinful by design as so many interpretations go – You created us in Your image with the capabilities of loving so vastly and so greatly that healing and reconciliation are possible. Amen.

Prayer for Transformation and New Life
Creator, we have been led astray by the systems that promote individuality, greed, absolutism, and patriarchy.  We know that you forgive us because You invite us into new birth again and again.  You invite us to embody new understandings of collectivity and new ways of acting in and towards the world – to be witness to the evils of patriarchy and supremacy and the politics of people and ask us instead, to give gratitude and love.  Be with us as we change to become more of what You ask us to be – joyful in the journey towards reparations and true Grace.

Words of Grace
We are indeed capable of opening our minds and our hearts and then to move in the world to live like Jesus had.  We are looking up and looking out so that we may love, repent, and forgive one another for we do indeed sense the image of You sprinkled throughout all of Creation.  

Invitation to Generosity
The ways in which we can give of ourselves are as vast as Creation on Mother Earth.  You’re now invited to give accordingly – to give knowing that what we do here matters in the bigger picture of the blessings that the Creator has accorded us.

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Dedication
We give thanks to you Creator, for the invitation to be alive in a world full of possibility with open minds and open hearts to live with great joy until we meet again.

Communion
All the parts of this shared meal together come from the Earth.
The seeds of grain grew with patience, tenderness and love.
They were then gathered and milled into a loaf to be shared communally.
The grapes used on this cup we also grown with patience, tenderness and love.
They were gathered by the hands of migrant workers and pressed into juice to be shared communally. 
We were reminded at the start of Lent this year that we, too, are from the Earth and that with patience, tenderness, and love we find ourselves here collectively willing to partake of elements that are meant to spark a new type of living in the world.
Creator be with us all.
Many: We remember
           the land from which we came
           Lift up your hearts
Many: We remember 
           the patience and tenderness needed
           Lift up our hearts
Many: We remember 
           the sacrifice You made to help us believe
           Lift up our hearts.
On the night Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread and asked the disciples to imagine it as both whole and broken, for in both states, it is a symbol of what was and yet still to come.  Take, eat, and remember.
He then took the cup asking the disciples to imagine what it feels like to be both empty and then full, for in both states, he shared that G-d is indeed with us.  Take, eat, and remember. 

Prayer #1:	
Praise to you Creator. 

For the gifts of Creation,
-the beauty of nature,
-the rains,
-the songs of the pollinating birds,
-the winds that carry the seeds.

Praise to you Creator.
For the gifts of our human existence,
through the hard and the good,
through the times we were wrong and the times we were right,
you never stop trying to heal us and demonstrate hope when it is needed most.
Praise to you Creator.
For the ability to believe in the finite and the infinite.
through our brokenness you invite us to be collected again,
And so here at this table, we remember.

Prayer #2:
Holy Creator, we find ourselves in this moment alongside others but really, it is just you and me – help me to live out the life Your son called me live – to be in embodied communion with you and one another.  I give you my glory and honor for they are Yours Almighty Creator, now and forever. Amen.

Sending
Through these shared rituals, we are shown what it is to be both whole and broken, and empty and full in order for us to embody the hope of abundant life in the presence of death and that we are not in this alone – that G-d came to help us better know what it is to be a healing community and a healed community. Amen.

Benediction
“Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift,” ― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
 
And so it is Beloveds, move forward this week knowing the many ways we are fed begin first with understanding that your breath is my breath and that your actions dictate my actions – tu eres mi otro yo – you are the other me. Amen, Ashe, and Ajo.

Opened Minds: Service Prayers for the Seventh Sunday of Easter was written by (Rev. ellie Hutchinson, who serves as the Minister for Congregational and Community Engagement for the United Church of Christ.