Texts:
Jeremiah 31:7-14; Psalm 147:12-20; Ephesians 1:3-14; John 1:1-18
Call to Worship
Here in this
place, now in these moments,
we gather to
meet our God,
whose Word runs sprints
through the rough streets of our lives.
Here in
these people, now with shared cares and prayers,
we hope to
see our God,
who transfigures our shadows into light,
who transforms our grief into gratitude.
Here in our
silence, now in our songs,
we long to
know our God,
who gathers us in from every far place,
who melts our frozen hearts with love.
Prayer of the Day
God of
winter and spring,
God of
summer and fall:
You come to
offer us
every
spiritual blessing imaginable
(and those
we never expect):
our loneliness joined with others
into a community of wonder;
our despair transformed into hope;
our death resurrected into new life.
Powerful
Word of God,
by Your
weakness
You teach us
humility;
Changeless
Word,
Your
steadfast love fills our emptiness;
Creative
Word,
You take us
by the hand
to lead us
out of our self-imposed exiles
to new life
in Your kingdom.
Holy Spirit,
the warmth
of Your grace
loosens our
fear-wedged souls;
the
durability of Your peace
enables us
to risk all on God;
the
vulnerability of your compassion
opens our
eyes to the One
who keeps us
safe and brings us home.
In grief and
joy, in every season of life,
we can lift
our prayers to you,
God in
Community, Holy in One,
even as we
pray as we have been taught, saying,
(The Lord’s Prayer)
Call to Reconciliation
We have gone
places we should have avoided; we have wandered the wrong streets; we have
spoken those words we cannot take back; we have squandered our inheritance from
God. Let us confess all those ways we have not been God’s children, as we pray
together,
Unison Prayer for Forgiveness
God who has chosen us before we ever
were, we confess how we have heard Your Word, but not allowed that grace and
truth to transform us.
Offered life, we choose death;
furnished hope, we cling tightly to our despair;
extended fellowship, we walk in our loneliness;
granted peace, we idolize power and might;
offered forgiveness, we are convinced we can save ourselves.
Forgive us, God of promises. The mark of being Your people is seeing how
completely dependent we are on You: for life, for hope, for love. All these, and more, You give to us in your
Word of Truth and Your Child of grace, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Silence is kept
Assurance of Pardon
This is
God’s good news: wherever we have wandered, God gathers us up and brings us
home; whatever we have done, God forgives us; whoever we are, we are God’s
child, enveloped in God’s love.
Blessed be our God, who gives us voices
to sing our joy and who sets our feet dancing in praise. We are forgiven! Amen.
Prayer of Dedication/Offering
We not only
have spiritual blessings, but tangible ones as well. So, we pray that you will gather up these
gifts we offer and will transform them into food for the hungry, hope for the
despairing, healing for the broken, and peace for those who are torn apart by
war and fear. This we pray in the name
of Jesus. Amen.
Great Prayer of Thanksgiving
May the God
of all new things be with you.
May God fill you with newness.
Let us lift
our hearts to the One who touches us with ever-new love.
We open them to God, who gathers us in
this place.
We have
received the good news that grace was born in Bethlehem.
We will sing songs of joy and wonder to
One who is with us in these moments.
Your Spirit
blew through chaos, Speaking God,
and Your
Word tamed its havoc as
horses galloped through meadows,
beavers built homes in rivers and lakes,
rain fell softly up mountaintops.
In those
moments, You chose us to be your children,
Heirs of all
the goodness You desire for us.
Singing to
us in Eden’s morning,
You invited
us to glorify You forever,
but we walked into the shadows of the world,
leaving our music behind.
Yet You
persisted in Your plan
for us, knowing
that
where no life is anticipated,
where no future is seen,
where no hope is expected,
it is there
You gather us up
and carry us
into Your kingdom.
Therefore,
with angelic choirs of every region,
with the
shepherds who caroled a refugee family,
with those
who came home from exile singing,
we lift our
voices in joy and gladness:
Holy, holy, holy are You, ever-blessing
God.
All creation joins in showering praise
upon You.
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is the One who was born to bring
us grace and truth.
Hosanna in the highest!
You alone
are holy, God of Bethlehem,
and You are
Father of Jesus,
Bearer of
grace and Singer of truth.
When we lost
our voices in exile,
You sent Your Word to teach us
new hymns of joy and praise.
When our
ears were stuffed
with the
lies of the world,
Jesus came, speaking Your truth.
When we were
marked for death,
He came running to us,
defeating sin and death,
marking us
as Your own
with the
kiss of the Holy Spirit.
As we come
to this Table in remembrance,
as we speak
of his birth, life, death, and resurrection,
we proclaim
that faith which is so mysterious,
as well as
the One in whom we set our hope.
The Word of creation was silenced on the
cross;
in resurrection love, the Word became
the promise of redemption;
at the right time, the Word of love will
come to lead us home.
In these
moments, and in these people,
may Your
Spirit come to fill us
with the
bread of righteousness and the cup of hope.
Flow through
us, we pray, like living waters
so we might
be a river of reconciliation.
Grant us
Your peace,
so we might
share it with others;
set our hope
on Christ,
so we might
bring that same hope
to our
neighborhoods and communities.
Then gather
us,
no longer
broken but made whole,
no longer
exiles, but citizens of the Kingdom,
no longer
strangers, but brothers and sisters of Christ,
around the
Table of peace and life,
where we
will forever praise You,
God in
Community, Holy in One. Amen.
Sending
Let us go,
remembering the gift of the Word.
We will go to sing of the good news to a
silent world.
Let us go,
filled with the gifts of the bread and the cup.
We will go to feed the emptiness of
those around us.
Let us go
with the gifts of the water and the oil.
We will go to anoint all brokenness with
the peace of God.
© 2015 Thom
M. Shuman
