a community creating for the relentless return of Sunday
L: Pilgrims, we are invited to journey through
this season of Lent
P: towards the One who calls us each by a new name.
L: Disciples, we walk with Jesus wherever he leads us,
P: pulling our fears, our doubts, our longings behind us.
L: Believers, we seek to trust the God who always
surprises us,
P: whose promises take on flesh and blood
in the good news called Jesus.
Submitted by Rev Thom Shuman, author of Lectionary Liturgies.
You call us to love you with all our heart, all our mind, all our strength.
But sometimes we aren’t even sure what that means.
What are you looking for?
What are we looking for?
We search for many things, but miss you in our midst.
We listen to many things, but do not hear your voice.
We forget to look to you, and even when we look, our vision is clouded.
Clear the chaos within us, O God,
that we may focus on you.
We will seek you with our whole hearts.
Amen.
Submitted by the Rev. Teri Peterson, Ridgefield Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church, Crystal Lake IL.
One Sunday into Lent, how are things going? How was worship yesterday? Was the atmosphere what you hoped? Did the liturgy work well with the music and the proclamation?
What are you thinking for this week? We have the name-changing covenant to work with this week, and of course the different kind of name-changing conversation between Jesus and Peter. Paul reminds us to have faith in the promise (after all, Abraham was “as good as dead” and he believed…). The psalm reminds us to praise the God who keeps his promise (to borrow a phrase from a John Bell hymn titled “God it Was”)–the promise will endure so long that those yet unborn will also hear it.
What word or phrase will is catching your imagination this week? What image or word is to be the seed of your liturgical expression? Put those ideas–even if they’re just a word, just three words, or a whole prayer!–in the comments so we can create together!
Prayer of the Day
How you love us, God of rainbow promises!
Like a mother who teaches her son
the steps for his first dance,
like the father who goes out
with his daughter after work
so she can learn how to drive,
you love us that much and more.
How you offer yourself to us, Brother of the beloved!
You gather us up in your arms,
simply to hear our deepest hopes;
you reach out your scarred hands
to gently wipe our fears away;
you stain a cross with your blood,
so we might washed clean in the tears
pouring down God’s face.
How you share yourself with us, journey’s Spirit!
You bathe our wearied souls
in the cooling waters of baptism;
you wipe the dust of the wilderness
out of our eyes so we can see the kingdom;
you teach us those ancient ways
which offer new life for each of us.
God in Community, Holy in One,
be with us in this Lenten season,
even as we pray, saying,
Our Father . . .
Submitted by Rev. Thom Shuman, author of Lectionary Liturgies.
You call us to love you with all our heart, all our mind, all our strength.
But so often we are worried and distracted by many things.
We forget your love and your call to love,
and we begin to think it is about us—
about our image, about doing it right,
about being the best, about getting what we want.
We forget to look to you, and even when we look, our vision is clouded.
Clear the chaos within us, O God,
that we may focus on you.
We will seek you with our whole hearts.
Amen.
Submitted by the Rev. Teri Peterson, Ridgefield Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church, Crystal Lake IL.
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