Welcome to ROOTS at home for adults
Worship-at-home resources to help you read and reflect on this week's Bible passages
ROOTS is a partnership of denominations and other Christian organisations and has been publishing lectionary-based worship resources online and in print since 2002.
Copyright
You are welcome to copy this material for use in your own resources e.g. printed sheets or web pages including audio/video recordings. If you do so, please include this acknowledgement to ROOTS:
© ROOTS for Churches Ltd (www.rootsontheweb.com) 2002-2020.
Reproduced with permission.
Opening prayer
In your love we trust, creator God:
your love for your world;
your love for each one of us;
your love that invites us
to love others, to love ourselves, and to love you.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
receive our love now, and our thanks.
Amen.
Gathering activity: He abides in you
In the Gospel, Jesus describes the power of love abiding in those who love God. Go round the house looking for evidence of the outworking of God’s love – anywhere, locally or the other side of the world. You could be inspired by books, pictures, photos or posters; or by objects and possession (e.g. by who made them or where they come from).
Use mobile phones to take photographs and, if there's more than one of you in your household, send the images to one person to collate into an electronic ‘collage of loving activity’.
Come together to review this collage.
This week's Live your faith sheet
(Bible notes, prayers, a picture and questions for reflection, a live your faith action)
Activities
Extreme loving
This is a group exercise based on ‘extreme ironing’, where participants do the mundane task of ironing in extreme places.
Invite those present to dream up suggestions of ‘extreme loving’. Perhaps they have stories of extreme loving to share e.g.
- NHS workers in the current crisis who have continued to care, to the point – in some cases – of losing their lives
- the little girl who had her long beautiful hair cut off to make a wig for her cousin who had cancer.
We cannot rate these stories in the style of reality TV shows; we can only listen.
God loves us and enjoys us
When Julian of Norwich (born 1342) saw the plague devastate her community, she became a hermit. She was the first woman (as far as we know) to write a book in English – it was about her visions of Christ.
Consider some of her words: ‘God loves us and enjoys us, and so he wills that we love him and enjoy him…he is our clothing. In his love he wraps and holds us.’
Decorate a chair with lots of beautiful fabric as you reflect on Julian’s words.
A loving activity
Learn the sign for love: crossed hands over the chest.
Practise using signs to say ‘I love you’ to one another (point to self, love sign, point to the other).
Read a simple version of John 14.21 – something like this: ‘If you love me, keep my commandments. Those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and show myself to them.’ – and sign the word ‘love’ each time it occurs.
Prayers
A prayer of praise and thanksgiving
God of truth,
as we give thanks for all we know of your love,
we praise you for all we are yet to learn.
As we give thanks for all you reveal in Scripture,
we praise you for all we are yet to discover.
As we give thanks for the presence of Christ within us,
we praise you for all the ways we have yet to grow.
As we give thanks for the gift of prayer,
we praise you for all the ways in which we are yet to be changed.
For all we know, and for all we do not yet know,
we praise you, in the name of Jesus,
and in the power of the Spirit.
Amen.
A way into prayer - Something precious
Hold out your hands as if you are about to receive something precious.
Imagine that you are holding the world there to keep it safe.
Pray for the world, particularly those in the world who do not feel safe and those parts of the world where it is not safe.
In the laughter of so-called friends who make fun of me…
In the anguish of a love rejected…
Lord, send your Spirit, your Comforter.
I will not leave you desolate… I will come to you.
In the anger of a row at evening…
In the sarcasm of a mocking teacher…
Lord, send your Spirit, your Comforter.
I will not leave you desolate… I will come to you.
In the helplessness of being dragged along by the crowd…
In the fury of a temper that cuts me from the ones I love…
Lord, send your Spirit, your Comforter.
I will not leave you desolate… I will come to you.
In the darkness of my abandonment by God….
In the loneliness of my forsaken soul at night…
Lord, send your Spirit, your Comforter.
I will not leave you desolate… I will come to you.
In the self doubt of my own worth…
In the resentment of hopes that are dashed…
Lord, send your Spirit, your Comforter.
I will not leave you desolate… I will come to you.
In the torture of seeing the suffering of others…
In the tragedy of the injustice of the world…
Lord, send your Spirit, your Comforter.
I will not leave you desolate… I will come to you.
A personal prayer
Gracious God,
there are times when I do not give a good account
of the hope within me.
Forgive me, strengthen me,
uphold me,
and lead me beyond my fear into new life with you.
Amen.
Listen and sing
Preview songs on YouTube, buy online and download.
Are we not one, Young oceans on Suddenly (or the nuclear sunburst of the truth revealed)
Intermission, Lucy Grimble on Intermission
One way, Hillsong united on With hearts as one
Traditional hymn(s): Come down, O love divine
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- In conversation with the Scriptures
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- A range of adaptable prayers and activities
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