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Where Life and Worship Intersect

1/31/2018 0 Comments

Prayer of Confession, Epiphany 5B

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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

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​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.
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1/24/2018 0 Comments

Prayer of Confession, E4B

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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.
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1/23/2018 0 Comments

Call to Worship, Epiphany 4B

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​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.
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1/19/2018 0 Comments

Prayers of the People, Epiphany 3B

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​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.
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1/17/2018 0 Comments

Prayer of Confession, Epiphany 3B

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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.
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1/16/2018 2 Comments

Call to Worship, Epiphany 3B

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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.
2 Comments

1/12/2018 0 Comments

Prayers of the People, Epiphany 2B

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​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.
0 Comments

1/10/2018 0 Comments

Prayer of Confession, Epiphany 2B

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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.
0 Comments

1/9/2018 0 Comments

Call to Worship, Epiphany 2B

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​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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    Author

    Julie served as a Commissioned Ruling Elder in a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation for thirteen years. She now absolutely delights in filling the pulpit for colleagues upon request, and looks forward to opportunities to do so. Her reformed perspective is sprinkled with humor and presented with authenticity, and she is open to creatively deconstructing worship as a means to helping congregants explore worship in transformational ways.

    Julie and her husband, Ray, are parents of three adult children, and grandparents of four energetic and imaginative little people. She is an introverted-with-enough-extrovert-balance-to-keep-her-social, perfectionistic-with-hopper-tendencies, time and goal-oriented, kaleidoscopic, and insatiably curious child of God.

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Julie participated in the 25th Seminar for Certified Zentangle(R) Teacher Training in June, 2019, trained by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. In addition to creating art as a personal spiritual practice, Julie also incorporates the Zentangle(R) method in Prayer Art Retreats in a variety of contexts, including church groups, friend gatherings, and at a local art gallery. Check out the Upcoming Events page for a calendar of events, or use the Contact Us page to inquire about scheduling an event with your group!
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