For June 4, 2023 -- 1st Sunday after Pentecost

CALL TO WORSHIP (uses lines from A New Creed)
We gather as those who have been called
called to be the church:
to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in creation,
to love and serve others
to seek justice and resist evil.
God has called us together as followers of Christ
called us to share the Good News of Jesus, crucified and risen.
We gather as those who have been called,
opening our hearts and souls to God’s presence,
may we be refreshed and energized by this time together

OPENING PRAYER
Source of Life, in the beginning you spoke into the chaos,
causing light and life to erupt and fill the earth.
God who feeds our bodies and our souls, as we join our hearts in worship,
as we share prayers and songs and loaf and cup,
move within around and among us,
empower us to live out the tasks you place in our keeping.
God who calls us to be the church,
may we leave this place today ready to share your hope, to proclaim your love, to be the church in the world.
We pray in the name of Jesus, who invites us to and serves us at the table of faith. Amen

 

PRAYER FOR & ASSURANCE OF GRACE (uses language drawn from A Song of Faith)
God who is Holy Mystery and Wholly Love,
made in your image, we yearn for fulfillment that is life in you.
And yet we live in a broken world.
We are touched, shaped by that brokenness
and we lament that it leads us from your hope for who we could be.
God who invites us to join in the song of the church,
a community of broken but hopeful believers,
we know that the church has not always lived up to what it could be.
So we join our voices with many other voices,
asking for grace and forgiveness,
asking that the Holy Spirit would reorient us, as individuals and as a community,
to live into who we could be, to be a blessing to your creation.
God of Grace, we open ourselves to your grace.
That we would be renewed and refreshed as we follow The Way of Jesus. Amen.

COMMISSIONING
We are called to be the church
We sing the song of a renewed church, a renewed world, a healed creation.
We have been fed, we have been loved, we have been called.
We go into the world God loves to be the church, to share the Good News, to bring hope and love to all we meet
As you go may the Holy Mystery who is Wholly Love, made known as:
the One who has created and is creating, as Jesus the Word made flesh and as the Spirit who works and through us always;
walk and sing and dance with you.
Today, tomorrow and forevermore.