a community creating for the relentless return of Sunday
One: Come those who thirst for living water.
PRAYER OF AWARENESS AND RECONCILIATION
God of all creation, following your path is not easy. It seems to us that you never take the easy way – indeed, your Way is always surprising. Forgive us our blind stumbling, and guide us back to your path. Call out to us, as you have to our ancestors in the faith. When we see you, do not run up ahead, but enfold us in your arms, even if just for a moment. O Dearest God – even when we are turned away from you, we yearn for your love and peace.
A time of silence for reflection and prayer
KYRIE
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
When we read in the scriptures that heaven opened, and God spoke to Jesus, “You are my beloved child, with whom I am well pleased,” it is good for us to hear these words as though God were speaking them to us, too. Because we are God’s beloved children – and God has sent Christ into the world that we might experience eternal life, eternal love, and eternal peace. Let us follow the Way ever more closely, knowing that God loves us dearly with every step we take.
One: You, Lord, are Alpha and Omega—beginning and end.
But in between sometimes it feels like we are on our own,
and then the illusion of control is so seductive.
All: Forgive us when we try to control you, insisting that your will must match ours.
For we confess that we do not like the unknown,
so we fill that void with shoulds and musts we expect both you and others to obey.
We’d rather keep the door closed with certainty than risk opening to changed life.
We’d rather be bound up in our own beliefs than risk being set free by love, for love.
~silence~
One: Open wide the door of life, O God,
All: and give us courage to walk through.
Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, the Presbyterian Church of Palatine, IL
One: God calls old and young, tall and short, insider and outsider.
All: God calls beautiful and plain, beginner and expert, silly and serious.
One: God calls rich and poor, left right and center, faithful and doubting.
All: God calls into the heart, not based on appearance or circumstance.
One: God calls…listen, can you hear?
Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, the Presbyterian Church of Palatine, IL
recent comments