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CTW: the intersection of Enduring Love & Faithfulness

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Call to Worship

L: We come, so God might open our eyes,
P: that we may discover the wonders surrounding us;
that we may embrace the joy deep within us.
L: We gather, so Christ might widen our hearts,
P: that we may hear the sounds of brokenness around us;
that we may sing the melodies of hope.
L: We are here, so the Spirit might teach us the ways of humility,
P: that we may walk that street named Enduring Love;
that we may wait at the corner called Faithfulness.

 

Submitted by Rev. Thom Shuman, author of Lectionary Liturgies.

Ash Wednesday litany

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One: Holy God, you are the One who creates,
who redeems, who sustains.
All: We give you thanks for all that you are
and all that you do.
One: You are love,
and those who abide in love abide in your presence.
All: Your love and justice are extravagant,
your grace amazing,
your peace beyond understanding.

(hymn, scripture reading)
All (sung): Kyrie Eleison

One: We forget that we are created in your image
We act as if we are undeserving of your love
All: Your steadfast love endures forever.
One: We limit your love
by choosing who we think is worthy;
by refusing to share;
by choosing judgment rather than love.
All: Your steadfast love endures forever.
One: We define what love is and looks like
You love us unconditionally…forgive our conditions.
All: Your steadfast love endures forever.
~silence~

All (sung): Kyrie Eleison

One: You call us to a new way of life,
to come and see and hear and know and be transformed.
All: I don’t always want to be renewed—change is hard.
I am comfortable the way things are.
It’s easier to follow my way than to seek your way.
One: You call us to a new way of life,
a way of grace, peace, love, and justice.
All: I turn my eyes away from people in need.
I turn my heart away from people
with whom I disagree.
I turn my mind away
from ideas that make me uncomfortable.
~silence~

All (sung): Kyrie Eleison

One: You call us to pray and work
for your kingdom to come on earth.
All: We turn our eyes from a dying creation,
ignoring your call to care.
We turn our hearts toward instant gratification
at the expense of the people
and the planet you have created.
We turn our minds toward easy answers,
rather than sitting with your mystery.
We turn our ears toward the loudest voices
rather than your voice in the silence and the silenced.
We turn inward to save our institutions
instead of heeding your call to go out.
~silence~

All (sung): Kyrie Eleison

Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, Ridgefield Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church, Crystal Lake IL. inspired by the seeds gathered from the LiturgyLink Ash Wednesday brainstorming session.

Liturgy Link Does Ash Wednesday

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Many of you know that LiturgyLink began as an idea tossed around at Unconference and then developed on Twitter…and then funded by the S3 Project at Columbia Seminary (thanks to the Lilly Endowment). Well, the original four liturgylinkers were all together at Columbia last week and we decided we would try to write an Ash Wednesday prayer together.

The first thing you need to know about us is that we all serve in very very different churches, ranging from an urban congregation with 25 people in worship to Southern small-city churches, to a suburban midwestern church with over 200 people in worship. To say we have different contexts and different expectations for this kind of special service would be an understatement. After an hour of discussion (some of it heated) we realized that at least one of us was looking to write a long prayer that could be the backbone of the entire service, another was looking for something about the length of an average Sunday’s prayer of confession. One of us was hoping to focus on the otherness of God, while one wanted to focus on the closeness of God. Etc.

You can see where this is going, right?

We know that everyone who stops by here has a unique worship context–and that means you have something unique to contribute! We hope you use what is useful here, and we hope you’ll offer your creativity, even if that comes in the form of one word, or one phrase that you haven’t developed yet but might spark the imagination of someone else. In that spirit, we offer you what we did manage to put together–a list of phrases and ideas that we didn’t end up putting into one prayer that would work for all of us. But we suspect these phrases will appear in each of our prayers as we finish them up this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

Take these seeds (posted after the break!), add your own in the comments, and let’s see what this might grow into!

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Sunday’s Coming: working toward February 26

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Lent is upon us. This week we’ll enter the journey, some of us, on Ash Wednesday. We’ll come face to face with mortality and sin, then turn our faces and our lives back toward God, seeking a new relationship with God, God’s people, and God’s world. Throughout Lent we continue seeking both the truth of our own lives and the Truth of God’s desire for us…and this Sunday is the first time we get to explore that fully.

So maybe you’ll be working with God’s rainbow covenant. Maybe, along with the psalmist, you’ll be pleading “Teach me your ways.” Maybe you’ll be contemplating Paul’s call to Be prepared to suffer for doing good, and connecting baptism and the Flood… or maybe you’ll enter the season with the traditional story of Jesus’ baptism, and you’ll follow him out into the wilderness.

Do you have a theme for the whole season, or will you work week by week? Are you planning to follow one set of readings (all old testament, all psalms, all gospel, etc) throughout the five Sundays, or are you mixing it up? Are you following the lectionary or working on a series off-lectionary? Share your ideas in the comments!

Perhaps you have just one word or one phrase so far…if you put that in the comments, you can inspire others and we can begin bouncing ideas around. Who knows, we may even end up with a brand new piece of liturgy we can share!

Ash Wednesday prayer–guide us

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O God, we seek you out this evening with timid hearts, knowing that this night begins our journey into the darkness and towards the cross. Help us to welcome your guidance on this path and to remember that we cannot travel it alone. Keep our walk straight and true with the strength and courage of your Spirit.
As our focus turns towards your sacrifice for us, may we too make sacrifices for others in ways that show your love for the world, as demonstrated in the death and resurrection of your Son.
Be present with us now tonight and throughout this season of Lent that we may follow you faithfully to Jerusalem and view with new eyes the wonders of your love seen as a heavy cross and an empty tomb. Amen.

(would work especially well to follow this prayer with the hymn “What Wondrous Love is This”)

Submitted by Rev. Rebecca Page Lesley, Suffolk Presbyterian Church, Suffolk , VA