AN AGAPE FEAST FOR OUR
JOURNEY
ENTER IN SILENCE (lights off)
SONG: Morning Has Broken
LEADER:
Good Morning! It is indeed a good morning! It's
God's morning! It is GOOD!
It is another day on the journey! We have awakened....
we have washed the sleep from our eyes... loosened the
stiffness in our body… We are refreshed… we
smell the food...the coffee…we know its time to
break the fast.
What a privilege to break the fast with an agape
meal… a love feast!
READER 1:
Agape - the Greek word for love.
An Agape meal - a love feast of the early
Christians
A time for sharing nourishment of food for the
body,
A time for thanking God,
A time for prayers, songs, and scripture for the
soul
and a time for an offering of money for God's mission
in the world.
READER 2:
We have journeyed from many places gathered here
for sharing and
listening to one another...
We have gathered together for healing... to be
renewed,
We will soon be preparing for the journey into God's
world.
We are ready to be fed.
Many years ago near the Sea of Galilee, it was a
similar setting. Jesus needed to be renewed.... BUT there
were sick to be healed, crowds of people had gathered,
stories were to be told, there was preparation for the
journey
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 14: 14-21
READER 3:
What a miracle! Yet a mundane miracle...
stretching food to feed a crowd! Women do it all the
time!
It was a miracle! But more was going on than the
abundance of food to satisfy hunger and tiredness....
it was an agape meal distributed with divine
compassion.
The miracle was also the willingness to share out of
what was at hand… God created a world where there is
more than enough for all, if people will share with
willingness of heart and mind.
The miracle is… in Jesus all person's needs are
supplied. "My God will supply every need of yours, even
in the desert places of this life." Philippians 4:19
LEADER:
On the table are fives loaves and two fishes.
Let each table select a server to come to the table now.
Take some bread and fish pass it around the table. Let
each person take a portion, but do not eat yet.
Servers, come now to the table.
(Two people lift up the trays with loaves and fish
and let the Servers take portions from the trays, back to
their table. When all have been served, continue with the
prayer.)
Hold the bread and fish in your hand.... and let's
thank our Lord.
Loving God, Giver of all gifts, bless this food of
bread and fishes. May it nourish our bodies and give us
strength to carry out your plan for peace and life.
Amen.
Now... take the fish and bread in your hand and feed
it to your neighbor. This is an agape feast...where the
body is refreshed with food and the spirit is renewed to
overflowing because of the grace we experience as people
of faith.
Share the feast with your neighbor! Experience the
grace of God!
SONG: For Those Tears I Died, Hymns for the
Family of God
Pub: Paragon Associates Nashville, Tennessee
LEADER:
As you shared the fish and the bread, you
believed that you too would eat.... that your neighbor
would share… there was no guarantee.
The amount of the food was small… PERHAPS you
would have nothing to eat.
BUT, in faith you knew there would be enough, you
shared what you had.
It is in such sharing that we discover that Christ is
in our neighbor.... in our churches in our society....
Christ is in our midst to share the agape feast for our
journey.
The meal is ready!
The fast has been broken!
Christ is among us!
Let everyone come to the table...for food...for
drink.
Let the agape feast begin!
BREAKFAST
LEADER:
We have been strengthened with food for our
bodies for our journey.
A miracle of abundance....
of abundant food …
of abundant grace in ordinary food....
We hear another story of Jesus sharing a meal and
opening the eyes of the one with whom he shared the
bread.
SCRIPTURE: Luke 24: 28-35 (share the setting of
the story before reading)
READER 1:
The Emmaus story reminds us that Christ is seen
in the ordinary....
in the breaking of the bread....
in sharing....
in listening....
in caring....
in risking....
ordinary daily events in all our ordinary daily
lives.
READER 2:
Two ordinary people, receiving great joy in
really seeing Jesus, hasten on the journey to share the
Good News.
Their eyes were opened - BUT -they couldn't clearly
see UNTIL they shared the joy with someone else.
Your eyes...my eyes...have been opened.... we want to
see clearly, really see Jesus.
BUT...who will be on our ordinary journey of life?
With whom can we share? Where can we find Jesus?
SONG: Jesus, Where can we find you in the World
Today?
Songs for the Journey, Augsburg/Fortress
READER 3:
Our eyes are opened!
You do enable us to see you in the world.
We can see you in the homeless… those without
shelter…
READER 1:
We can hear you in the cries of the
oppressed… cries for justice to roll like water.
READER 2:
We can feel you in the arms of children.... our
children, our grandchildren, our nieces and nephews....
our orphans, our abandoned children.
We can taste you in the rice and beans as we share
meals with our sisters and brothers in the refugee camps
in El Salvador.
READER 1:
We can touch you in the sick.... the dying....
those in pain.... those who mourn.
READER 2
We can listen to you as our sisters and brothers
live their faith amid the struggle for human rights in
Capetown, Johannesburg, and in the bush in South Africa.
READER 3:
We can feel your presence with the people who
search for freedom in the elections in Namibia
READER 1:
We know you in freedom as walls fall in Germany
LEADER:
WE CAN INDEED SHARE CHRIST WITH OUR SISTERS,
BROTHERS, AND CHILDREN IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD, IN OUR
CHURCHES, IN THE WORLD!
We can share out of what we have....
abundant food....
abundant worldly goods....
abundant grace among us.
Out of our abundance we share in faith that even our
abundance will be multiplied as loaves and fishes in the
world.
Our offering this morning will be for our sisters and
brothers who have experienced natural disasters…
_________________.
As the disciples gathered the abundance after the
meal, we will gather the abundance of our offerings.
After you give your offering, gather in a circle
around the room for our Prayer of Thanksgiving.
OFFERING
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING (each paragraph read by
another voice, dispersed around the circle)
God of miracles and wonderful surprises, we give
thanks that we may come together in this circle of life
to share in the abundance of your good earth.
We acknowledge we have not always shared out of our
abundance. We have had so many loaves that we have had to
freeze some while our neighbors had none. We have hoarded
our bread and fish while your children have starved.
Forgive us, O' God.
Often our eyes have been closed to the miracles in our
midst. Forgive us when we fail to see Christ in the
ordinary and in our extraordinary neighbor.
As living beings we recognize that we are a part of
one another, freed by you to share in love with all your
children everywhere.
May we be responsible in our stewardship, joyous in
our giving and loving in all that we do.
Continue to surprise us with your miracles, God.
Multiply our 'work, our energy, our offerings and our
sharing that we might be as loaves and fishes throughout
the land.
Continue to prepare us for our journeys into the
world.... help us to be miracles to ALL your children. In
the name of the miracle in us all, let the people say
AMEN! AMEN!!!!
SONG: Bind Us Together
W. Jeanne Rapp
Conference of Presidents
11/89
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