REsources for May 17, 2020 -- Easter 6A during COVID-19

CALL TO WORSHIP

We. are not alone, we live in God’s world.

We meet God daily, we feel God’s peace around and within us.

We give thanks for God’s presence as we worship this morning.

Opening PRAYER

Peace-giving God, you promise that you will not leave us alone.

As we pause for worship this week, fill us, we pray, with your presence.

As we live through this time of turmoil and anxiety, remind us that we are not alone;

refresh our souls with the peace that passes understanding,

and help us love each other as we have been loved.

We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, as we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit. Amen.

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you

God we could use some peace these days.

Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

But our hearts are troubled. We are anxious. We are afraid.

As we listen to the news around us we get worried. Sometimes it is hard to trust that we are not alone.

I will not leave you orphaned

We want to trust that you are there, that we can have peaceful hearts.

God move in our hearts, remind us that we are not alone, that you are with us.

When we think we have lost the way bring us back to the path.

When we feel forsaken wrap us in love.

When we feel guilt, offer us grace and mercy and forgiveness.

because I live, you also will live

In the Risen Christ God offers all of us New Life.

In and through Christ God offers the promise that we will never be left alone.

Through Christ God grants us peace that stills the storms of our hearts.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

COMMISSIONING:

From across the ages Jesus speaks to us saying:

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

And so we go out into the world knowing that we are not alone.

We go out to love the world that God loves.

While our hearts may sometimes be troubled and we may sometimes be afraid,

God is with us, we will not be forgotten.

May God’s peace be with us. Amen.

Resources for April 19, 2020 -- Easter 2 in the Midst of COVID-19

CALL TO WORSHIP
Whether gathered in a room full of friends or alone in our own homes God is with us.
God calls us to open our hearts and souls to God’s presence.
Gathered in the name of the Risen Christ we pause to worship.

OPENING PRAYER
God a week ago we remembered the old story of an empty tomb.
A week ago you shattered the power of death.
But the world doesn’t seem all that different today.
As we share more of the old story, as we pray, as we sing, as we reflect,
move in our hearts, help us see the possibilities of a world where Resurrection is a reality.
And then lead us to live as different people, people who know that Life wins.
Even when we may be doubtful, Life still wins. Amen.

PRAYER OF DOUBT AND FAITH

God of Easter, it is easy to doubt.

It is easy to be skeptical.

It is easy to wonder what the truth actually is.

It can be harder to hope for the best.

It can be harder to believe in something we can not see.

It can be harder to accept things that don’t match our expectations or experiences.

And yet you call us to be people of faith and trust.

Give us the freedom to ask our questions,

so that our faith can grow.

Give us the openness of heart and mind that allows for new understandings,

and stretches us to see the world in new ways.

God of surprises and challenges, God made known in the Risen Christ

you meet us in our doubts and in our faith,

and for that we are truly thankful. Amen

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

God of life and death and life beyond death,

in this Easter season we sing songs of praise and wonder for life that defeats death.

As the seasons turn toward spring, as the snow is replaced with grass and soil,

bringing the promise of new growth and life,

we give thanks for all that makes life full and abundant:

for family and friends who share our lives, our care, our celebration – even if from a distance...

for fresh green shoots pushing their way out of frozen soil...

for deer making their way through our urban jungle...

for food on our tables, and roofs over our heads...

for the ability to stay at home, the resources to keep clean and safe...

for these and many other things we give thanks to you, Gracious God.

At the same time, Source of Life and Love,

we pause to remember those near and far who are struggling today:

those for whom staying at home is not a possibility as they head to their jobs and worry..

those who look for their next meal, those who fret over how to make rent...

those who worry about a loved one’s physical, mental, spiritual or emotional health...

those who worry about their own physical, mental, spiritual or emotional health...

those who feel they are just treading water, fighting to keep above the waves...

God of love, may all those who struggle know that they are not alone.

We pray in the name of the Risen Christ as we share the words he once taught his closest friends...

COMMISSIONING:
We have paused our lives for a time of worship.
As we go into the rest our day and the rest of our week, we carry our doubts and our faith,
our questions and our answers, our wariness and our trust,
and we use all of them to try and determine how God would have us live and love.
In all of it, God: Parent, Risen Christ, and Holy Spirit, is with us.
Thanks be to God. Amen

Prayer For and Assurance of Grace for JAnuary 26, 2020 -- Epiphany 3A

God of Grace, in Jesus of Nazareth you meet us face to face.

And then you invite us to follow a different path.

God of Grace, you see us, you know us, our strengths, our weaknesses, our shortcomings.

And still you invite us to join in the re-creation of the world.

God of Grace, we try to respond to the invitation, to join in the task

And sometimes it goes well, and sometimes it fails.

God of Grace, forgive our mis-steps, lead us on the new path, guide us in the task.

And our life will never be the same again.

In Christ God offers us New Life and Good News. We are forgiven and invited to live as citizens of the Kingdom.

With praise and thanks we share the Good News. And our life will never be the same again. Amen

Christmas Prayer (2019)

Story-telling God, tonight we gathered together to tell the old old story.

Tonight we listen for angels and shepherds and a baby’s cry.

Tonight we look to the old story and ask that you would be born in us again this year.

Tonight, this year, God, we listen for the story of PEACE

Peace in a world so given to conflict.

All year we have heard the stories of the ways things go badly.

This night, and in the year to come, open our ears to the other stories,

the stories of the kind and good things people have done and are doing for each other.

And in hearing those stories may we be re-committed to our own acts of kindness,

the small ways we can make “Peace on earth, Goodwill to all” a reality.

Tonight, this year, God, we listen for the story of HOPE

Hope in a world that gives us so many reasons to despair.

Tell us, we pray, the stories that lie beyond the despair.

When the world falls apart at the seams,

remind us that you are there as we stand in the wreckage,

helping us to pick up the broken pieces.

Open our hearts to feel your presence,

open our souls to the possibility of new hope, new life.

Tonight, this year, God, we listen for the story of JOY

Joy in a world where so many struggle and grieve.

Life does not always go as we had planned,

some days it feels like life never goes as we had planned.

Help us find the possibility of joy both on the good days and the bad.

When the bad news makes us depressed, show us the Good News hiding in the shadows,

and let that Good News fill our heart with joy again.

Tonight, this year, God, we listen for the story of LOVE

Love in a world so full of fear and hatred.

You would have us act lovingly to friend and family and enemy.

In a world where love is so sorely needed, help us all take the risk to live.

Show us the drama of love enacted in our community.

Help us bear the wounds and scars that may come with being vulnerable, open and loving.

And when love seems too hard,

help us remember that we can love others because we are loved with a love that will not let us go.

As we gaze at the baby in the manger,

may we see Your amazing love for the world shining across the miles and centuries.

And may that love fill our own hearts to overflowing.

This year, this night, God, we listen for the story of CHRIST

The story of You coming to share our lives.

The story of You coming to change our world.

The story of love and hope, of peace and joy.

A story that happened a long time ago in a place far away,

a story that happens in this very place this very day.

Help us, God, to hear the story, help us, God, to welcome the baby,

Help us, God, to live into the new world that Christmas brings.

We pray in the name of the Baby who lies in the manger.

Joy to the World! The Lord is Come!

So Be It! AMEN

For December 22, Advent 4, Love

Opening PRAYER

God of love, we can hardly wait!

Soon the Babe will be born, soon it will be Christmas!

As we remember the story, help us remember the core of the story:

that we are loved, that we are to love each other

In this hour together speak to our hearts,

help us know how to be people of love, and then help us do it.

We pray in the name of the Baby whose birth draws nigh, who will later teach his friends to pray saying...

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE

God you don’t ask us to be perfect,

and for that we give thanks.

But God you do ask that we offer of ourselves for the good of others,

living lives of love for those who cross our past.

When we share we get changed, the love leaves a, scar, a mark we carry for ever after.

And sometimes we are afraid of that change, and so we keep to ourselves, trying to avoid the scars

But then we open up, we let others in, we take the risk.

And find that we are blessed in ways we never expected.

God of love, you don’t ask us to be perfect.

You ask us to be loving, you help us to be loving. And there we see your face and grace. Amen.

Christ Candle Responses for Epiphany and the Sundays following

LIGHTING THE CHRIST CANDLE

The Magi followed a star leading them to the Light of the World

The candle flame reminds us that the Light of the World is in our midst

Gathered as people who are drawn to the light, we centre ourselves for worship.

Resources for Advent (Seasonal theme Stories of the Season)

CALL TO WORSHIP
We are all part of a story, or a number of stories.

And so we come to remember the stories. 
As children we listened to stories read by adults. 
As adults we tell stories to each other to help find meaning in the world. 
In this place we are reminded how our stories intersect with The Story. 
And we trust that the story will push us to be people of ________ 
Gathered together for worship, we greet our neighbours with words and signs of peace.

COMMISSIONING:

Here today we have heard a story

Maybe a new one, maybe one we heard before.

Now we go out to live as people who are a part of The Story of faith

Sharing the ______ of the season with those we meet.

Go out trusting that God The Source of the Story, Christ the Storyteller, and The Spirit who inspires us to spin our own stories is with you as the story of faith and life continues to unfold.

Amen.