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Where Life and Worship Intersect

12/27/2019 0 Comments

Prayers of the People, C1A

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​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

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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~
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12/24/2019 0 Comments

Call to Worship, C1A

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​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.
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12/20/2019 0 Comments

Prayers of the People, Advent 4A

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​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.
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12/18/2019 0 Comments

Prayer of Confession, Advent 4A

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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~
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12/17/2019 0 Comments

Call to Worship, Advent 4A

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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.
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12/14/2019 0 Comments

Prayers of the People, Advent 3A

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​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.
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12/12/2019 0 Comments

Prayer of Confession, A3A

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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.

0 Comments

12/10/2019 0 Comments

Call to Worship, Advent 3A

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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!
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12/6/2019 0 Comments

Prayers of the People, A2A

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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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    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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