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.