The Order of Service: The Harvest Thanksgiving

10/5/17

The Harvest Thanksgiving - October 8, 2017

Thanksgiving 2017

This order of service is adapted from material found at Common Worship and in the Book of Alternative Services.

https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts.aspx

Hymn 262: Come Ye thankful People Come

The Gathering of the Community

A moment of silence for victims of war, bombings, mass shootings, and other forms of violence; and victims of floods and earthquakes.

Blessed are you, Lord God, King of the universe.

Your word brings on the dusk of evening.

Your wisdom creates both night and day.

You determine the cycles of time.

You arrange the succession of seasons

and establish the stars in their heavenly courses.

The Lord of hosts is your name.

Living and eternal God, rule over us always.

Blessed be the Lord, whose word makes evening fall.

Consider the birds of the air; they do not sow or gather into barns, yet our heavenly Father feeds them. Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they do not toil nor spin, yet even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Christ, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

How little faith we have. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

Matthew 6.26,28-30,33

Collect

Let us pray,

Creator of the fruitful earth, you made us stewards of all things. Give us grateful hearts for all your goodness, and steadfast wills to use your bounty well, that the whole human family, today and in generations to come, may with us give thanks for the riches of your creation. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.

Hymn 414: God of the Sparrow

The Proclamation of the Word

A Reading from The Book of Deuteronomy

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you. Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth." But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors as he is doing today. 8:7-18

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church

Thanks be to God

The Holy Gospel

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke

Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well." 17:11-19

The Gospel of Christ.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Sermon

The Bringing Forward of Symbols of the Harvest

Let us bring forward symbols of the harvest and groceries,

gifts that God has created and that sun and rain have nurtured.

Thanks be to God.

Bring forward the harvest of the cornfields,

the oats and the wheat, the rye and the barley.

Thanks be to God.

Bring forward the harvest of vegetables,

the potatoes and carrots, turnips and beet, peas and beans.

Thanks be to God.

Bring forward the harvest of trees and bushes,

pears and apples, berries and herbs.

Thanks be to God.

Bring forward the harvest of flowers,

the finest blooms from our gardens and our fields.

Thanks be to God.

Bring forward the grain and the grape,

for our Saviour took bread and wine to feed us with his body and his blood,

given and shed for the life of the world.

Let us feed on him by faith with thanksgiving.

Thanks be to God.

Hymn 502: Bring forth the Kingdom

During the hymn people are invited

to place symbols of the harvest and groceries.

The Prayers of the People

Let us give thanks to God, the God of all peoples of the earth.

For the colour and forms of your creation and our place within it, we bring our thanks, good Lord: