For November 2, 2014 -- THe Healing of Naaman

CALL TO WORSHIP

Children of God! Gather in this place!

We come to worship with our brothers and sisters in faith.

Children of God! Come to break bread together!

We come to worship with friends new and old.

As we gather together to share the Word and the Meal we turn and greet friend and stranger with words and signs of peace

OPENING PRAYER

God of community, as we gather together,

open our hearts, our souls, our very beings to feel your presence.

God of community, as we break bread together,

remind us that those things which bring us together are more important than those which divide us.

God of community, we come as people who know brokenness in our lives,

remind us of the love which surrounds us, restoring wholeness, naming us as clean, bringing us back together in community.

God of community, when this time of worship is ended,

send us back out to share the Good News of the Christ who names us clean, the love which will never let us go.

This we pray in the name of Jesus, the one we call Christ. Amen.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND CLEANSING

God, you created the world and said “it is very good”.

So why are we so quick to find fault with each other and ourselves?

God you offer us cleansing in a way that is so simple we can hardly believe it.

So why do we have trouble hearing that we are clean and acceptable?

God for those times when we lose our way,

those times when our motives or our actions are less than pure, possibly even unclean.

we seek cleansing, we seek to reminded that we are accepted in the community,

even when we aren't sure it is possible.

God of life, God of Grace, God of Renewal,

for those times when we are less than we could be, for those times when we stray from the path of wisdom, for the times when we fail to live out the goodness inherent in our creation, forgive us

...time of silent prayer...

Jesus looked at the unclean in his world with pity and said “I do choose, be made clean”. Christ looks at us in our brokenness and offers us cleansing, renewal, and health. We are a forgiven, cleansed, and purified people.

Thanks be to God! Amen.

COMMISSIONING:

We have immersed ourselves in the river of God's Love.

We stand soaked in love, with the excess dripping off us.

We have eaten at God's table.

Fed in body and in soul, we go to share the Bread of Life with the world.

As those who have been reminded that in God's love we are made clean

We return to a world where too many are made to feel unclean, unaccepted, unlovable; called to remind them that they too are clean, accepted and loved.

We go in God's name, confident of God's love, living in God's grace.

Thanks be to God!