Texts: Acts 17:22-31; Psalm 66:8-20; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John
14:15-21
Call to
Worship
Come to worship,
people of God, with praises on your lips.
Even when
we are feeling isolated and fearful,
we can glorify the One who holds our hands
in our loneliness.
Come into the
presence of the One who makes holy
every place, every space, holy and sacred.
Even where
we continue to stay safe in our homes,
the doors of grace are flung wide open for us.
Come and hear the
stories of the One who loves you.
In living
rooms, on laptops and devices,
We will sing our songs and tell those tales
of the
peace and of the hope which is ours.
Prayer of
the Day
When it does not
seem
to matter to many,
Creator God,
we will dare to
be your people,
to love
those the world
would have us reject,
to be just
in the face
of every reason to be cruel,
to be
unafraid
of whatever awaits us.
When all the odds
seem
stacked against
us, Jesus our Savior,
we still dare to
live as
your sisters and
brothers,
serving
others
even from the safety of our homes,
sharing in
the burdens
of our neighbors,
refusing
to leave the lonely
orphaned with no hope.
When the props
are knocked
out from under us
by fears and worries, Faithful Spirit,
we dare to
breathe
joy upon
those
caught in the net of hopeless,
peace into
all
the quavering hearts around us,
wonder for
all those
who look for you but do not see.
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 has not abandoned 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 must tell you, God who knows us better than we think, how easy it is to put
our trust in those who offer easy fixes, quick solutions, cures and tests and false
hope in these days. it is easier to
believe the glib words of politicians, the conspiracies of all the theorists,
rather than to those who are rational and based in science. All too
easily, we can buy into the notion that the economy is more important than
safety, that jobs matter more than the lives of the most vulnerable, that our
so-called rights trump the need to be a community of compassion and grace.
Forgive us, God of mercy. You are not found in political rhetoric, 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. Amen.
Silence is
kept
Assurance
of Pardon
Despite
everything we do, God loves us. This is grace, pure and simple. This grace is why, when everything says we
should not, we can dare to hope.
We will
witness to this grace with every breath we take, with every gift we offer, with
every word we share with others. Thanks be to God, we are forgiven.
Amen.
Prayer of
Dedication/Offering
Abandoned by
hope, forsaken by others, left behind by those who said they loved them - there
are orphans all around us, Holy God. May the gifts we offer be a home, a
family, a rest, a respite for them and all the others around us. This we
ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Great
Prayer of Thanksgiving
May the God who
knows us be with you.
And with
you.
Lift your hearts
to the One who will not leave you stranded.
We offer
ourselves to God who is always with us.
Bless God, all
you who love the Lord.
We sing
praises to the One who loves us.
You
gathered that orphan, chaos,
into your heart,
God of wonder,
and with a simple
Word created a family:
with horses munching meadow grasses,
birds
gliding gently on summer winds,
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:
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 you 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 last stop,
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:
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 of 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, with 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
Wherever you are,
continue to speak of what God has done.
We will
remind everyone that, despite everything, God loves us.
Wherever you find
yourself, continue to sing of what God is doing.
We will
rejoice that God has not left us orphaned,
but makes
us one with everyone around us.
Whenever you can,
continue to imagine what God will do.
We will
witness to that hope which seems to distant,
yet is as
close to us as our hearts.
© 2020 Thom M. Shuman
