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Where Life and Worship Intersect

2/28/2018 0 Comments

Prayer of Confession, Lent 3B

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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

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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.
​
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2/23/2018 0 Comments

Prayers of the People, Lent 2B

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​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.
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2/21/2018 0 Comments

Prayer of Confession, Lent 2B

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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.
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2/21/2018 0 Comments

Call to Worship, Lent 2B

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​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!
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2/16/2018 0 Comments

Prayers of the People, Lent 1B

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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.
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2/13/2018 0 Comments

Prayers of Confession, Lent 1B

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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.
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2/12/2018 0 Comments

Call to Worship, Lent 1B

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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.
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2/9/2018 0 Comments

Prayers of the People, Transfiguration B

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​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.
0 Comments

2/7/2018 0 Comments

Call to Worship, Transfiguration B

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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 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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    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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