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12/27/2019 0 Comments Prayers of the People, C1A You sent your son to live among your people
wearing skin, knowing well the kind of hell that dwells without, within. You knew that fear and greed and jealousy would drive him -- like others -- to live as refugee in a country not his own, yet there you provided security among the foreign humanity until such time as peace meant he and his earthly family could return home. Today your children cry from cages, and their parents from prison cells, for rescue from the violence that threatens to destroy. Like Joseph, they are running from people who are gunning to take into slavery -- or murder -- their helpless girls and boys. Hear our prayers for mercy, God! Hear the cries of despair! Open wide your arms of love that grace dispels all fear. Across the earth, grief is birthed that cannot be consoled as mothers wail and fathers rail against systems out of control. For comfort and compassion, for safety and for peace, for violence to end and for the innocent to be released, hear our fervent prayers, O God, and change our stony hearts that Love may make its home here and a fresh new era start.
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12/26/2019 0 Comments Prayer of Confession, C1A Call to Confession
(Our) feet run to evil, and (we) are swift to shed innocent blood; (our) thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in (our) highways. (Isaiah 59:7, paraphrased) Let us confess our sin before God and seek God's mercy. Prayer of Confession God, forgive us: we are an angry people, jealous of your favor and greedy with our blessings. We do not want to share power, Lord. We do not want to acknowledge your presence in the other living among us. Instead, we seek to to undermine, to threaten, and to destroy. What is it within us that elicits such hatred? When did our hearts turn to stone? When did we become the evil we claim to deplore? Forgive us, we pray. Cleanse us from sin, and stir in us a spirit of openness and of love. Teach us the wisdom of the magi, that we might discern the ways in which you call us to be protectors of the innocent all over the world. Assurance of God's Grace For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17) By the grace of God made known in 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~ 12/24/2019 0 Comments Call to Worship, C1A You who are fleeing danger,
and you who have found safety, you are welcome in the circle of grace. You who are angry and you who are protectors, you are welcome in the circle of grace. You who are comforted, and you who are inconsolable, you are welcome in the circle of grace. May you find here a community of neighbors and strangers alike who are willing to walk the extra mile with you in the name of Christ. 12/20/2019 0 Comments Prayers of the People, Advent 4A God of Mystery,
you looked with favor upon a woman born of humble circumstance and chose her to bear your Son to the world. Hear the cries of women everywhere, whose past has dictated their present and threatens their futures. Open the ears of men around the world to hear the songs of justice sung by mothers, desperate for righteousness to reign for the world in which their children live in the hope of freedom. Send your messengers to speak words of comfort, healing, and grace, to those who are feeling betrayed abandoned, and alone ... to those who fear the worst and those who are living it. Make your presence known to us, we pray, in dreams and visions, in thoughtful conversation and patient listening, in pondering and in a peace that passes all understanding. Grant that we may be transformed into a people of patient perseverance as we seek to live according to your Word, living and relevant in every time and place. 12/18/2019 0 Comments Prayer of Confession, Advent 4A Call to Confession
God exalted Jesus at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. (Acts 5:31) Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace, confessing our sins together knowing that God came to live among us as an act of salvation. Prayer of Confession, Advent 4A We are an impetuous people, O God. We are quick to rush to judgment, ready to throw even those we love to the wolves. Our fervor to abandon the stranger in our midst is even greater ... like our eagerness to judge the character flaws in our neighbors. Probably because they reflect our own to us in less than complimentary ways. We are slow to consider the ways in which you might be moving to among us, reluctant to participate in your transformation of the world you created, fearful of the responsibility that comes with answering your call. Forgive us, we pray. Soften our hearts, and help us to be guided by the example Joseph set when he refused to subject Mary to public disgrace. Teach us how to be loving and patient and kind. Always. Assurance of God's Grace But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth God's Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children of God. (Galatians 4:4-5) 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~ 12/17/2019 0 Comments Call to Worship, Advent 4A Do not be afraid, you who find your lives upended,
you whose futures feel tenuous at best. Do not be afraid, you who have decisions to make, you who are feeling alone and anguished and betrayed. Do not be afraid, for God is with you. God will guide you. Do not be afraid. Come and worship. 12/14/2019 0 Comments Prayers of the People, Advent 3A Spirit God,
you love us so much you came into the world as flesh and blood, just as you promised through the prophets of old. Incarnate among us, you brought love and light, healing and wholeness, mercy and compassion, justice and righteousness, forgiveness and grace. As we journey toward the manger this Advent season, looking for you to make yourself known in the darkest corners of our lives, in the angriest mobs, in the poorest of neighborhoods, in the most corrupt of our systems, in our brokenness and in our pain, we beg you to come to us ... and to your people of every shape and color and gender and orientation, in every culture and every practice, in prison cells and refugee camps, in congressional meeting halls and student classrooms, in hospital rooms and funeral parlors, in low-income housing as well as palaces ... and speak to us of hope. Embolden us to speak truth to power that those who suffer needlessly may suffer no more. Teach us to be peacemakers, we pray. Open our ears to listen to the voices of those who have been sent to prepare the way of the Lord, and fan into flame the spark of joy you breathed into us in the beginning when all of creation was declared good. 12/12/2019 0 Comments Prayer of Confession, A3A Call to Confession
Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you. (Isaiah 35:4-6) Let us confess our sin before God, and seek God's mercy. Prayer of Confession, A3A We claim to be your disciples, to follow you, to be your people, yet with John we ask, "Are you the One we've been expecting, or are you still coming?" We see your acts of mercy, your extravagant grace. Your miracles surround us, yet we have to have them pointed out to us, because we have closed our own eyes to the truth of your presence among us. Our ears are still closed to your Word, our spirits still dead. Forgive us, we pray. Help us reevaluate our expectations. Cleanse us from the sin that distorts our perceptions. Stand us on our feet and give voice to our experience of your presence in our midst that the world might know that you are the One who has come and is still coming, who is present with us in Spirit even as you have been present with us as the God Incarnate, Word-made-flesh. Assurance of God's Grace Through the prophet Isaiah, God said to God's people, "I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness." (Isaiah 42:6-7) In Christ, God has kept God's promise. In Jesus' name, 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. 12/10/2019 0 Comments Call to Worship, Advent 3A The one for whom we have been waiting
has already come: Those who were blind are able to see. Those who were crippled are walking. People with skin diseases are cleansed. Those who were deaf now hear. Those who were dead are raised up. The poor have good news proclaimed to them. Thanks be to God! 12/6/2019 0 Comments Prayers of the People, A2A The wilderness is lonely, O God,
and your people are longing to see you. In anticipation, we follow the path to Bethlehem, listening to the prophets and crying out for change. Encircle your children with protection, we pray, from those intent on harm, from those armed with anger, from those spewing hatred, from those screaming lies, from those seeking to destroy. Embolden your prophets, we pray, to speak truth to power, to call for justice in the face of injustice, to free those enslaved by greed, to comfort the grieving, to call us all to a new way of being. As we journey toward Christmas, open our hearts to receive the light of your love incarnate in your Son, Jesus, humbly born of those whom we would turn away. Open our eyes to see Christ in each person we meet along the road, remembering that each one is traversing their own wilderness on the way to Bethlehem as well. |
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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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