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12-Feb-23 (Matthew 5:21-37)

This week's gospel reading is all about ways we should treat each other. It's not always easy. Sometimes even the people that gather around the table with us aren't the easiest to love. I know because I'm one of them.
Yet there it is: Part of the way we show that we love God and are thankful for the love God has shown to us is to show that same love to each other.
It's going to take effort. It will probably take some time to get it right. So let's get started.
Let us pray.

Prayer:

God who loves us, often in spite of ourselves, we thank you for Jesus, who taught us and showed us how to love each other. We thank you especially that he showed us that our own sinfulness would not stand in the way of your love. We thank you that he was obedient to you in showing that love all the way to the cross. We also thank you for these symbols, the bread and cup, that remind us that he gave his life in the service of that love.
As we take the bread and cup, fill us with that same Spirt that guided him, that we might share your love with each other and with all in the way he did.
In the name of Jesus, our Risen Lord, Amen.