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1/31/2018 0 Comments Prayer of Confession, Epiphany 5B Call to Confession
In our struggle to survive, we fail to live the life of abundance God intends for God's children. We fail to live out the belief that God is sovereign and cares about the smallest details of our lives. Let us confess our sin before God and seek God's mercy. Prayer of Confession We are weary. Our bodies are weary. Our minds are weary. Our souls are weary. We are exhausted by the discord among leaders, by the pressures of society, by the abuse of power and the silence that has kept us isolated. Forgive us for failing to rely on you, failing to look to you for strength not just to endure but to prosper! Forgive us for failing to take the time to spend in your presence where our strength can be renewed. Forgive us, we pray, and remind us whose we are. Assurance of God's Grace "Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." In the name of our Redeemer and Friend, we are forgiven, and restored to wholeness. Thanks be to God! Since we have been forgiven in Christ, let us also forgive one another. The peace of Christ be with you. Please extend the peace of Christ to all whom you encounter this day.
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1/30/2018 0 Comments Call to Worship, E5B From the beginning of creation
to its ending, God is God. Through the chaos of exile to restoration, God is God. When everything we have known is no longer familiar, God is God. When everything we have believed is turned upside down, God is God. Let us worship God who strengthens us in every time and place and give thanks for God's faithfulness. 1/24/2018 0 Comments Prayer of Confession, E4B Call to Confession
If we say we are without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Let us then confess our sin and seek God's mercy. Prayer of Confession Lost in the wilderness, we tremble in fear: fearful that we will not survive, so we start to bargain our way into new associations with power, selling ourselves and our community for our own security; fearful of change, we sabotage efforts towards justice for our neighbor because we cannot envision a world in which power and abundance are shared by all. Forgive us, we pray, and open our minds to a new way of being, to a your radical leadership raised up from among us. Quell our fears, and empower us to stand with courage in the face of uncertainty, and speak truth. Assurance of God's Grace God has promised that when we confess our sin, God who is faithful and just, will forgive us our sin and remove it as far as the east is from the west, remembering it no more. In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God. Since God has forgiven us in Christ, let us also forgive one another. The peace of Christ be with you. Please extend the peace of Christ to all whom you encounter this day. 1/23/2018 0 Comments Call to Worship, Epiphany 4B In the chaos of the earthquake,
where nature rages against itself and earth is shattered, God is present. In the wrangling of leaders where authority is negotiated while lives hang in the balance, God is present. In the uncertainty of illness and the pain of grief where hope is tenuous and heart pain is real, God is present. From the proclamations of the faithful, God's Word goes out to the ends of the earth and with it, reassurance: God is present. Let us worship our omnipresent God. 1/19/2018 0 Comments Prayers of the People, Epiphany 3B God of Mercy,
you are everywhere. You are in Nineveh and in the U.S. Congress, though sometimes, it is hard for us to see you. God of compassion, you are everywhere. You are in Haiti and in Africa, and in the diversity of our homeland, though sometimes, we deny you. God of love, you are everywhere. You are shouting for justice in the streets, and demanding welcome for the stranger, and wearing black for the ones who have been oppressed by those in positions of power. God of comfort, you are everywhere. You are strengthening the grieving in Montecito, where mud slides have claimed homes and family members, and in Arizona, where serial killings have left communities fearful, and in the airports, where deported humans have had to say goodbye to their spouses and children. God of healing, you are everywhere. You are nursing the ill in doctor's offices and health care centers, and in the court room where the abused face their abuser. God of grace, you are everywhere. Pour out your grace upon your people everywhere you are. May your love reign. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. 1/17/2018 0 Comments Prayer of Confession, Epiphany 3B Call to Confession
God has promised that if at any time God declares concerning a nation or a kingdom, that God will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which God has spoken, turns from its evil, God will relent of the disaster that God intended to do to it. Let us confess our sin, and turn from our evil ways. Prayer of Confession The words we speak hurt our sisters and brothers, but we speak them anyway and then deny it, our miserable souls self-focused. We refuse to acknowledge our own implicitness in the gathering gloom that settles in the souls of the marginalized and misaligned. We make assumptions about guilt and innocence, about motivation and intent, without facts in evidence and fan our anger into flame without taking time to learn the truth, to listen and to seek to understand. Forgive us, we pray. Pull us out of our egocentricity and lead us to repentance that we may be learn the language of love and grace and speak it fluently from the heart. Assurance of God's Grace “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” We return to the Lord our God, for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and God relents over disaster. In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God! Since God has forgiven us in Christ, let us also forgive one another. The peace of Christ be with you. Please extend the peace of Christ to all whom you encounter this day. 1/16/2018 2 Comments Call to Worship, Epiphany 3B Every day God calls to us, "Proclaim the Good News!"
We are called to walk the paved streets and asphalt alleys, to tell the story of God's people to the poor and lonely, the destitute and despairing, the fierce and to the fearful. Every day God calls us to come together in community to hear again the stories of redemption, salvation history retold and celebrated, that we may be properly equipped when called to tell the story on the city bus or in the workplace break room. Every day God calls us, and today is no different. Come from your hiding places, and present yourselves before the Lord, willing servants ready to serve, according to the Will of God. 1/12/2018 0 Comments Prayers of the People, Epiphany 2B We know a man
who cannot do what he came here to do because of the color of his skin, because of his religious affiliation, because of the place from which he came. We know him, and he is one of us. We know a woman who struggles to speak her truth because she fears retribution, because she feels isolated or ashamed, because she does not know to whom she can speak it. We know her, and she is one of us. We know a child who longs to be free from the bullying behavior of peers and authority figures and societal norms. We know that child, and that child is one of us. We know a human who boldly lives authentically, and who aches for acceptance, and yearns to be called "beloved." We know that human, and that human is one of us. We know one who is hurting, grieving, sinking, striving; one for whom answers are slow and vague and sometimes despairing. We know one, and that one is one of us. We know a Savior, a gentle, inclusive, merciful, loving Redeemer, who welcomes and empowers and protects and accepts and heals and comforts and strengthens. We know a Savior, and we call upon him now. Amen. 1/10/2018 0 Comments Prayer of Confession, Epiphany 2B Call to Confession
Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! If we present ourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, we are slaves of the one whom we obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. Let us then confess our sin before God and earnestly seek God's grace. Prayer of Confession Withhold visions of you, if you wish, withhold holy encounters, Holiest of Holies, but do not withhold your grace. Your grace breathes life into our living, hope into each new day. Unmerited favor is the one and only reason we can stand. We fail to see because we fail to look at what is before us, under our noses. We do not want to see what we have created, what we have borne, what we have allowed, so we turn a blind eye and many fall victim to our choosing. We fail to recognize your voice because we fail to practice listening. We are too busy, too distracted, too consumed with other voices including our own, so when you speak, we do not know it is you. Speak to us now of life-giving grace, so that when we lie down and when we rise, when we come and when we go, we will know we are alive because of you. Assurance of God's Grace In God's rich mercy, and out of God's great love for us, has made us alive together with Christ, even though we were dead through our sins. By grace we have been saved. Thanks be to God! Since God has forgiven us in Christ, let us also forgive one another. The peace of Christ be with you. Please extend the peace of Christ to all whom you encounter this day. 1/9/2018 0 Comments Call to Worship, Epiphany 2B If your sight
has dimmed and you can no longer see the path, be still and wait for God. If your ears hear but your mind cannot comprehend the words, be still and wait for God. If suddenly you have forgotten the voice that led you here, or if you never knew it, be still and worship. God is in the stillness. |
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