Tuesday, January 15, 2019

To Go with Mark 2:13-22

CALL TO WORSHIP
The God who was present at Creation,
calls us to gather together.
The God who continues to create and re-create,
invites us to worship
As we open ourselves to worship, we greet each other with words and signs of Christ’s peace.

Opening PRAYER
God of life, as a new week begins,
we gather together to sing and pray and listen.
God of renewal, as a new week begins,
we open our eyes and ears to see and hear what you are doing in our midst.
God of wholeness, as a new week begins,
we ask for healing, we seek the courage to follow where you lead us.
God made known in Christ, we pray in His name, sharing words he taught so long ago...

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE
God you continue to invite us to see the new thing you are doing
but if we are honest, we don’t always do new things well.
In the life, death, and resurrection of Christ you transform the world,
but transformation may be uncomfortable, and so we sometimes work against it,
and so we try to contain the new in old containers
But still God you persist in the new thing,
revealing the promise of New Life, challenging us to try out new containers,
God who is doing a new thing, when we are unwilling to follow the new path,
open our eyes and hearts, move us beyond protection of old understandings, lead us to see where you are pointing.
God of Grace,
forgive our stubbornness and unwillingness to change,
forgive our willingness to strike back against the new simply because it is not what we have always done,
forgive our periodic blindness to what you are doing in our midst
God is doing a New Thing to share the old message of Love. Where we resist, God is patient and coaxing. God forgives us and calls us to try again. God opens our eyes to see what God is up to.
Thanks be to God! Amen.

COMMISSIONING:
Jesus meets us where we are and calls us to follow
Healing our dis-ease and making us whole.
Jesus brings new life and new possibilities
Pushing us to put away the old boxes which are no longer useful.
AS people of faith we step out into a new way of seeing the world,
Following where Jesus leads us, proclaiming the Good News of healing and wholeness.
Go with God: who has created and is creating
who is made known in Jesus, the Word-Made-Flesh
Who works in us and others by the Spirit