Tuesday, October 10, 2017

For October 22, 2017 -- the Call of Samuel

CALL TO WORSHIP
In the hustle and bustle of life we hear a whisper.
Urging us forward, challenging how we see the world.
In response to the whisper we gather with the community of faith.
Here we say “Speak God, your children are listening”
God has called us together
Here we seek to understand how God would have us live.
As we gather for worship we turn to the members of our faith family and greet each other with words and signs of Christ’s Peace.

OPENING PRAYER
Loving God, we open our hearts and souls to you.
In this time of worship whisper in our ears,
fill us with a Word to share with each other
and give us the courage to share that Word.
Then, we pray, lead us back into the world,
to share the promise of love, to share the vision of the Kingdom
We pray in the name of Jesus, the Word made flesh, who taught his friends to pray saying...

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
God we grow comfortable, and we seek rest.
But you continue to whisper in our ears.
We hear the whisper but we fail to understand what it is,
or we fail to help others know what they hear.
Then we wake up, we realize the truth and we listen.
But sometimes the words are hard, and we would rather pretend we did not hear them.
God of grace, God of wisdom,
open our ears to hear hard truths.
God of grace, God of wisdom, God who calls us to action,
give us the courage to share hard truths with the world around us.
God of grace, God who knows us deeply,
touch our hearts, calm our fears,
hear our confession for those times we choose not to listen and for those times we choose not to respond.
...time of silent prayer...
God is gracious and forgiving. God continues to call us until we respond. When we slip or miss the mark God calls us to learn and to try again. We are forgiven, and in God’s grace we are called forward.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

COMMISSIONING:
Our time of worship draws to a close
and we prepare to go back to our living and working and serving.
As you go, keep your ears open for the whisper,
where God’s voice intersects our daily life.
And when you hear it,
we commit ourselves to listen and to respond.
Go with God, who has created and is creating; with Jesus, the Word made flesh, who redeems and makes new; and with the Spirit who sustains and strengthens us
Always, wherever we go.