PAlm Sunday 2025

PRAYER FOR THE JOURNEY AHEAD
Parades are exciting, hope is exciting, we like to cheer and wave
God we are quick to join in on the exciting stuff.
But beyond the parade, in the hard work of changing the world, that is less exciting.
God help us to stay around when the cheers die down and the heat and pressure start to rise.
We follow Jesus into the city, we join the crowds along the roadside.
Give us the courage to stay committed as Jesus challenges the comfortable and familiar ways we know.
Or if the heat and pressure get too much, if our anxiety and fear win out.
Help us find the way back after we have taken time to be afraid, lead us back out of our hiding places, help us live into the love that casts out fear.
God as we walk through this week of triumph, challenge, defeat and disaster,
Open our eyes to see the new dawn that awaits, the promise of light shining over the horizon. Amen.

For March 23, 2025 -- LEnt 3C

CALL TO WORSHIP
When the days drew near for him to be taken up Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51)
Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to he fellow disciples “Let us also go, that we may die with him.(John 11:16)
Throughout this Lenten season we travel with Jesus to Jerusalem, daring to face what lies ahead.
Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters! Incline your ear and come, listen so that you may live
We seek God where They may be found, we call upon Them while They are near
Come to sing, to pray, to celebrate God’s presence! Let us worship together...

OPENING PRAYER
Gardening God, you have planted us in this place and time.
Help us to grow, to be fruitful, feed us with things that sustain and satisfy, help us drink deep of the water of life.
In this time together this morning,
open our ears, our hearts, our souls to receive your life-giving word, dig around us and feed our roots.
Then lead us back out in joy, let us go forth with peace,
as we join in the songs of praise of the world around us.
We pray in Jesus’ name as we remember words he once taught his friends...

For March 16, 2025 --Lent 2C

PRAYER FOR & ASSURANCE OF GRACE
God, you invite us to follow your Way, you offer us a whole new future.
But sometimes the promise takes so long to come true that we start to doubt
Sometimes we make back-up plans in case the promise somehow fails.
And again you come to us, calling us to be people of hope, to trust in the promise.
Help us to trust, help us to be people of hope.
God of the promise, there are days when we feel alone, surrounded by people who are out to get us,
There are days when we feel like lone voices sharing a different vision in a wilderness of opposing voices
There are days when it is easy to lose heart.
God of grace, when we lose heart, when we doubt the promise, when we fall back to our own plans,
Forgive our weakness, remove our anxiety and despair, renew us to trust and hope.
From the witness of the ancient writers we hear these words of assurance: (Psalm 27 1, 13-14)

The Lord is my light and my salvation;  whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?...
I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;  be strong, and let your heart take courage;  wait for the Lord!

In that confidence we will be people of trust and hope. Thanks be to God. Amen.

For February 23, 2025 -- Epiphany 7C

PRAYER FOR & ASSURANCE OF GRACE
Source of life and love, you challenge us to love and serve each other.
And we commit ourselves to do that.
Source of life and love, you challenge us to go further, to love and serve those who mistreat us.
That is harder, but we commit ourselves to try our best.
Source of life and love, you challenge us to avoid judging each other.
Help us offer forgiveness, forgiveness that runs over.
Source of life and love, in your grace help us grow in faith hope and love.
Help us learn from our successes and failures, help us treat others as we would be treated, help us love and serve our friends and our enemies as we strive to follow The Way of Jesus.
God, who is our source of life and love, does challenge us to go beyond the simple, to go the extra mile in love. The same God shows us grace and mercy when that extra step feels just too much. In grace God picks us back up and helps us try again, offering forgiveness that runs over whatever measure we might use.
Thanks be to God! Hallelujah! Amen.

For January 26 2025, working with 1 Corinthians 13 (reading for Epiphany 4C)

CALL TO WORSHIP
Beloved Children of God, why are you here?
We are here to listen for God’s voice, reminding us that we are loved.
Beloved Children of God, why have you come?
We responded to God’s invitation to come together to grow in faith, hope and love.
Beloved Children of God, let us sing and pray and listen, let us celebrate God’s presence in our midst
We open ourselves to let God fill our hearts and souls as we worship together.

OPENING PRAYER
God of love, as we gather together this morning,
move in our hearts and minds, renew us, remind us of the love that fills the world.
Gift-giving God, in our time together this morning,
help us see the abiding gifts of faith hope and love in the world around us.
And when we move out of our gathering this morning,
empower us to carry the greatest gift, love, to everyone we meet.
We pray in the name of Jesus, who reminds us of the power of love, and encourages us to pray saying...

PRAYER FOR & ASSURANCE OF GRACE
Gift-giver, you call us to seek for the greater gifts in life.
Things like faith, hope, and love.
In grace you offer us these gifts in abundance, and ask that we use them for the common good.
Help us avoid the temptation to use the gifts you give only to build ourselves up.
As we continue to seek the greatest gift,
help us show that we are people shaped and guided by love,
help us put aside childish ways as we mature in faith and love.
Gracious, loving God, we thank you for the gifts you give.
Help us use them for the benefit of the world you love. Amen.

COMMISSIONING
Beloved Children of God, as you go out from this place:
Commit yourselves to be people of love,
be patient and kind, not arrogant or rude,
rejoice in the truth, hope in all things.
We go to be people of love,
we go to carrying faith hope and love, things that abide,
we go to share the greatest gift with the world.
Beloved Children of God, as you go out from this place:
Trust that God who loves the world deeply,
Christ, Love Incarnate,
and the Holy Spirit, who pushes us to act lovingly,
is with you each and every day.
Thanks be to God! Alleluia! Amen

Call To Worship For Baptism of Jesus Sunday

In the beginning, the Spirit of God moved over the primordial waters
as God spoke Creation into being
At the Jordan, as Jesus emerged from the water, the Spirit descended as a dove
as God affirmed Jesus as Beloved, as one we should listen to.
Here, in this place, God’s Spirit invites us to gather,
that we would be renewed, filled with the Holy Spirit, as God reminds us who and whose we are.
Let us sing and pray together as God moves within this community.

A Christmas Prayer for 2024

God who meets us where we are and offers Hope

when we read the daily news it is too easy to give in to despair.
Open our eyes and souls this year to see the other stories,

the ones that don’t make the headlines,

the ones that reveal that there is hope for the future.

God of hope, help us live as a hopeful people.

God of Peace, of a transformed world,

the angels sang about Peace on Earth, Good will to all,

There is such a lack of peace in the world today.

People and countries are in turmoil, lives are turned upside down.

Help us find the places of peace in our world this year.

Help us to work for peace in all the circles of our lives.

God who leads us to the springs of Joy,

sometimes joy is easy, sometimes joy is hard.

When joy seems far away remind us that we are not alone.

As we sing the carols and remember how you chose to live among us,

as one of us,

help us find the joy that comes from trusting that you are with us.

God who is Love, who loves the world, who fills our hearts to overflowing,

as followers of Jesus you challenge us to be people known by our love.

There is so much anger and distrust and division in the world around us.

Move in our hearts to meet that anger and division with a different heart.

Help us act lovingly toward all we meet, loving others as you love us.

God of Christmas, of angel song and the story of Good News to all,

as we remember and retell the story this year,

may the truth of the gift sink into our hearts and souls.

Remind us, we pray that you continue to share our lives.

Remind us that hope, peace joy and love continue to fill the world around us.

Help us join in the angel song, help us share the Good News,

may the promise of the Baby in the manger lead us into the New Year as a transformed people.

Amen