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2/28/2018 0 Comments Prayer of Confession, Lent 3B Call to Confession
All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Let us confess our sin before God and seek God's mercy. Prayer of Confession When God made the covenant with God's people through Moses, promising to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, God gave God's people guidelines for living in community together. These guidelines describe the ways in which we are called to love: to love God and to love one another. But we have failed and continue to fail to do either. Loving requires sacrifice, and we do not want to make sacrifices for another ... those we know, let alone those we do not. Loving requires commitment, and we do not want to commit ... commitment requires effort, and we tend to focus our energy elsewhere. Forgive us,we pray, and inspire in us a desire in us to love as we are loved, unconditionally, sacrificially, and with our whole hearts and minds and strength. Amen 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, removing 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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2/27/2018 0 Comments Call to Worship, Lent 4B From the ordinary tasks of our every day lives
God calls us, just as God called the Israelites wandering in the wilderness so very long ago, to hear the Word of God. Come, God calls, and enter anew into relationship with the Covenant-Maker and with one another; come and give thought to what it means to live in community before returning to your world, transformed. 2/23/2018 0 Comments Prayers of the People, Lent 2B Almighty God,
Your grieving children cry out from under their desk tops, fearful and trembling, and from paved streets, in solidarity, and from their graves ... some green and some still wet from tears. Is this how it feels to be blessed? Cowering in fear? Imprisoned in classrooms? Ridiculed by lawmakers? Condescended to instead of supported, comforted, uplifted, and protected? Where is your covenant now, God? Where is your blessing? Where, Almighty God, Covenant-Maker, Blessing-Giver, are you? We long to hear your voice, to feel your presence in our grief and in our shock and in our fear. Come close, we pray. Your children need you. Reassure us of your promise to be our God. Reassure us, so we might reassure one another, that you are here ... that you are listening ... that you are acting in and through your people, in and through your children, whose fierce courage is greater than any adult leader. Embolden your people, we pray, to speak truth to power, to listen to opposing viewpoints, to value life ahead of privilege, to choose love over fear, and courage when confronted with choice. In the name of all that is holy, Almighty God, be present with your people according to your everlasting covenant. Amen. 2/21/2018 0 Comments Prayer of Confession, Lent 2B Call to Confession
God calls us to righteousness, but we continually fail to live according to God's call. We demand justice we refuse to help create. We are arrogant and rude. Justice, kindness, and humility are not even in our vernacular. Let us confess our sin before God and seek God's mercy. Prayer of Confession "Walk before me, and be blameless," God said to Abram and Sarai. "Walk before me, and be blameless," God says to every woman, man, and child. "Walk before me, and be blameless," yet our walk is rarely that for we are complicit in the world's wickedness and our feeble attempts at righteousness fall severely flat. We do not deserve God's blessings yet God is faithful still, renew our wayward hearts, we pray and reform our errant will that we might walk before you and be blameless in your sight, holding one another as you hold us, in holiness and light. Assurance of God's Grace While we were still sinners, God sent God's Son to take on our sinfulness -- the righteous for the unrighteous. 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. 2/21/2018 0 Comments Call to Worship, Lent 2B God Almighty speaks to us.
God Almighty calls us each by name. God Almighty is faithful to every one of us the same. God Almighty blesses us. God Almighty is true. God Almighty loves us God loves me, and God loves you. Then let us worship God alone, in faithfulness and hope, for God Almighty has kept God's word! We are ever in God's scope! 2/16/2018 0 Comments Prayers of the People, Lent 1B Covenant-Maker,
Your people are scattered across the earth in ones and also in twos, in multiple numbers and genders and a variety of hues, and many have survived floods of epic proportions: floods of nature's making and of economic disaster, floods that left us trembling ... shaking ... and floods that sent us running after everything that is lost, but many others are drowning. Your creatures are crawling and flying and walking and crying longing to be safe from those who do not understand the responsibility of dominion, so extinction becomes ever more real as stewardship of choices loses its appeal, and the carelessness of humankind leaves all God's creatures in a bind. All that you created and called, "good": all manner of galaxies, stars, vegetation and food are in your loving care, but pollution threatens all of it -- water ... soil ... air, and human decision contributes to their destruction. Word of God, speak creation into being again each new morning. Spirit, hover over the waters and breathe new life into every living being according to your covenant that all your created order will live abundantly in the gracious promise found in the newness of your everlasting love. Amen. 2/13/2018 0 Comments Prayers of Confession, Lent 1B Call to Confession
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Let us confess our sin before God, and seek God's mercy. Prayer of Confession Heirs of the promise, we are. Recipients of the covenant. Each one. Every living creature across the earth. But we live as if we are the chosen, the beloved, the favorites. We live as if everything we see belongs to us: air and water, moon and stars and planets, land and vegetation, creatures, and humans. We live as if we own it all ... as if we should. Yet you do not destroy us, God. You keep your covenant with us from generation to generation in spite of our incessant greed. Your love is beyond imagination. Lord, we are not worthy. We are not worthy. Assurance of God's Grace While we were still sinners, God sent God's only Son that whosoever believeth in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. 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. 2/12/2018 0 Comments Call to Worship, Lent 1B ecause God has remembered
God's everlasting covenant with God's people, and with every living creature, that God will never again destroy the earth we gather to worship our covenant-keeping God. Because our God is faithful and keeps God's covenant with God's people and with every living creature from generation to generation, we gather to worship our covenant-keeping God. Because God remembers, and re-members, the often broken Body of the One through whom all covenant promises are kept, we gather to worship our covenant-keeping God.  God of the Whirlwind,
We wake in early morning hours to swirling stories that dramatize the news, and we squint through tired eyes to find you in the midst of what ensues. Our spirits long for teachers who will walk alongside, who will share the breadth of their experience of you, and who will guide. The day is long and everywhere -- on street corners and in Facebook pages -- doom and gloom are prophesied by dime store prophets and self-appointed sages. Your people mourn the passing of the familiar, and putting one foot in front of the other, we cry out, "Where is God?" We cannot see your compassion in government or your mercy in the blowing storms or your love in your people or your peace where there is war, but we stand and watch in fervent hope that in doing so, we will catch a glimpse of you to help us cope. Cover us in grace, we pray, and embolden us to speak that at day's end -- when we report in -- we can say with confidence we were not weak. Amen.  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 before God and seek God's mercy. Prayer of Confession God of Mercy, hear our prayer for we have failed to dare to live the lives you gave us wrapped in love. Instead, we squander moments when we could have bravely spoken, then we lost our opportunity to say what should have been said. In timidity and fear we crouched, losing what we hold dear because we did not trust your presence, because we did not trust your essence within us. Forgive us, Lord, and make us bold, granting courage as to prophets of old. Encourage us along our way that we might reflect your light, we pray. 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, removing it as far as the east is from the west and 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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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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