Monday, March 9, 2009

For March 15, 2009, 3rd Sunday of Lent --Consumption -- Cultural Contagion

CALL TO WORSHIP
Can you hear it?
What?
That little whisper in the wind.
Yes, it draws us together. It brings us to this place to share God’s presence with each other.
Let us listen to the whisper, let us worship together, let us pray…

OPENING PRAYER
Gracious God, as we come together in this place we bring with us the dis-ease that comes from living in a troubled world. In this time together re-awaken in our hearts a hope for what could be. Remind us what really counts. Lead us to the cure for our dis-ease. We pray this in the name of Jesus, who taught his friends to pray the words that now we sing…

PRAYER OF CONFESSION/ASSURANCE OF PARDON
God of health and wholeness, we come here as people who have been infected.
We confess that we have become ill, that we suffer from the desire to have more and more.
We acknowledge that we have been given much, that we have acquired many things
Looking at all out gadgets, gizmos and what-ya-ma-call-its it is hard to believe we look for the next new thing.
And yet we have accepted the messages around us,
And in accepting those messages we have caught the dis-ease of our time, we have caught consumption.
Help us find the cure to this condition.
Help us bring the cure to the community around us.
Gift giver God, in the silence of our hearts we confess those times we have not been satisfied with the gifts you have given us
…time of silent prayer…
God’s desire for God’s people is health and wholeness. God offers us the path out of our dis-ease. That path begins by embracing the great and wondrous truth that we are loved and forgiven.
Thanks be to God! Amen.

OFFERING PRAYER
God who has gifted us with such amazing abundance,
here we step out of the desire to get and choose to give instead.
We give out of our abundance so that others may know abundance of their own.
May these gifts enrich the world around us. May the act of giving awaken in our hearts a vision of what is possible in the world. Amen.

COMMISSIONING AND BENEDICTION
We came together as people seeking to follow The Way
And now we go out into the world following the same path
As followers of God’s Path we carry with us a message of hope and challenge
We go with the message that our dis-ease can be cured, our consumption need not be terminal.
And we walk secure in the knowledge that God the Gift-Giver is with us always and all-ways. Amen.

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