Texts: Acts 17:22-31; Psalm 66:8-20; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21
Call
to Worship
L: Come to worship, people of God,
with praises on your
lips.
P: We glorify the One who
holds our hands when we slip.
L:
Come into the presence of the One
who calls us into this sacred
space.
P: Where the doors to grace
are thrown open so all may
enter.
L: Come and hear the stories
of the One who loves you.
P:
We will tell of the joy and of the love,
of the peace and of the hope
which is ours.
Prayer of the Day
When it doesn't seem
to do any
good, Creator God,
we dare to be your people,
to love those the
world
would have us reject;
to be just in the
face
of every reason to mistreat;
to be
unafraid
of whatever awaits us.
When all the odds
seem
stacked against, Jesus our Savior,
we dare to live as
your sisters
and brothers,
serving others
with our hands and
hearts;
sharing in the burdens
of our world;
refusing to leave justice
orphaned with no hope.
When the
wind seems to be
knocked out of us
by the blows of life, Eternal
Companion,
we dare to breathe
joy upon those
caught in
the net of hopelessness;
peace into all
the broken places
around us;
wonder for all those
who have lost sight of
you.
In you, we dare to live and breathe and be,
God in Community,
Holy in One,
even as we pray as we are taught,
(The Lord's
Prayer)
Call to Reconciliation
What is our hope? Simply put, it is
that God
does not give up on us. With such good news,
we can dare to
bring our prayers to the One who
will not cast aside our words or our
hearts.
Please join me as we pray together, saying,
Unison Prayer for
Forgiveness
We admit, Knowing God, that from plastic cards
to
websites, from handheld devices to stock options,
we are surrounded by a
variety of gods who demand
our worship. We can all too easily believe that
work
is our life, that wealth is the reason for our being,
and that
success is the very air we breathe.
Forgive us, God of mercy. You are
not found in a
computer chip, but in the child who holds our hand.
You are
not a simple tweet, but the Word that can
transform our very lives. You are
not a disembodied,
constantly recalculating voice, but the One who
calls
us to life, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
Silence is
kept
Assurance of Pardon
L; Despite everything we do, God loves us.
This
grace is why we can dare to hope.
P: We will witness to this hope in
every word we
speak to every person we meet. Thanks be to
God, we are
forgiven. Amen.
Great Prayer of Thanksgiving
L: May the God who
knows us be with you.
P: And also with you.
L: Lift your hearts to the
One who will not leave you stranded.
P: We offer ourselves to God who is
always with us.
L: Bless God, all you who love the Lord.
P: We sing
praises to the One who loves us.
You gathered up that orphan,
chaos,
into your heart, God of wonder,
and with a simple Word created a
family:
with horses munching meadow grasses;
of birds gliding
gently on summer winds;
of snails, snakes, and tree-climbing
squirrels.
Gathering up handfuls of dirt, you shaped us,
and with a simple
breath, gave us life
so we might be with you in wonder,
but we
crawled out of our strollers
and toddled off after temptation.
You
did not panic, but sent prophets
to come to us and show us the way,
but the smoke of our offerings to sin
kept us from seeing
them.
Refusing to leave us as orphans,
you sent your Child to us
to
reveal your true Self.
With those who praise you every day,
with those
who have lost all hope,
we would bring our songs to you:
P: Holy,
holy, holy are you, God our joy.
All creation pays their vows to
you.
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is the One who is our
salvation.
Hosanna in the highest!
You cannot be contained by any
human
imagining or endeavor, for your are the Holy God,
and your Son,
Jesus Christ, is our hope in life.
When we could have been left
as orphans
in sin's foster home,
he came to reveal himself
as our brother,
our sister,
our mother, our father.
When despair threatened
to
take away all our strength,
he came to plant hope
deep within
us.
When we thought death
was our final destination,
he came to
show us
the Resurrection Way home.
As we remember the grace with
which he loved us,
as we welcome the Comforter he sent to us,
we proclaim
that mystery which is faith:
P: Christ died, doing what was right for
us;
Christ was raised by the One who was in him;
Christ will
come, just as the hope within us
witnesses to us.
As your
Spirit of truth comes in these moments
to transform the bread and the
cup
and those gathered around the Table,
you show us how much you love
us.
As we are strengthened by the broken Bread,
you would send us
to plant hope in all the places
where pessimism has taken
root;
to help love stand on the corners
where hate's gangs
hang out.
As you nourish us with the Cup,
you would have us
take
peace into the
warzones on human hearts;
bring healing
to
all the broken ones around us.
And when we gather around
that Table of love,
with our sisters and brothers, our enemies and
friends
seated side by side, as we pass grace to one another,
we will join
in forever singing your praises,
as we celebrate your being in us as we are
in you,
God in Community, Holy in One. Amen.
Blessing
L: Go from
this place, speaking of what God has done.
P: We will remind everyone that,
despite everything,
God loves us.
L: Go from this place, singing of
what God is doing.
P: We will rejoice that God has not left us
orphaned,
but makes us one with everyone around us.
L: Go from this
place, imagining what God will do.
P: We will witness to that hope which
seems to distant,
yet is as close to us as our hearts.
© 2014
Thom M. Shuman