a community creating for the relentless return of Sunday
One: Renewing God, we come together in your presence
All: Wash us. Make us clean and new
One: Rejoicing God, we come together in your presence.
All: Fill us. Make us overflow with the joy of your presence.
Submitted by L. Elaine Hall, Bethelview/Valle Crucis United Methodist Churches, Boone, NC
One: Loving God, the world is full to the brim with your grace,
All: yet so often we see only what we do not have.
~silence~
One: Joyful God, you call us to glorify and enjoy you forever,
All: yet so often we insist that faith must be cut and dried, strait-laced, and serious.
~silence~
One: Calling God, you ask for obedience to your will,
All: yet so often we prefer our own way to yours.
~silence~
One: Forgive our faltering faith, O God.
All: Soften our hard hearts, unclench our grasping hands, and open our darkened eyes, that we may follow you into kingdom life. We pray in the name of Jesus the Christ, who makes all things new. Amen.
Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, the Presbyterian Church of Palatine, IL.
Let us pray to our God, saying,
Lord, in your righteousness, deliver us and set us free.
Holy God, you knew us before we took our first breath.
You uttered your living Word and brought forth light, love, and life.
You gathered us from the dust of the earth and called us your people.
You sent us into the world to proclaim your mighty and wondrous deeds.
You are with us even now as we continue our call.
Lord, in your righteousness, deliver us and set us free.
Mighty God, you have done great things; who is like you?
You alone are our rock of refuge.
You alone are our strong fortress.
You alone are our hope and in you alone is our trust.
Lord, in your righteousness, deliver us and set us free.
Merciful God, your love never ends.
We confess to you that we do not always share your love as we should.
Where you have called us to live as one body, we exist as divided members.
Where you have called us to give our Spirit-given gifts, we ignore your call.
Where you have called us to forgive, we have forgotten your mercy.
Lord, in your righteousness, deliver us and set us free.
Gracious God, do not be far from us!
Strengthen us that we might be givers of your grace and
may your steadfast love be known to all of your children.
Send your Holy Spirit to empower our hands to
clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and love all as you have first loved us.
Lord, in your righteousness, deliver us and set us free.
Loving God, hear today the prayers that we lift up to you.
Be with those of us who are [name of community].
Give us hearts of courage and songs of your grace
to tell others of your righteous acts and deeds of salvation.
Lord, in your righteousness, deliver us and set us free.
Abundant God, be with those of us that yearn for your restoration and healing.
Today, we ask your blessing upon [list names of those in need of healing].
We who are [name of community] also lift up to you those who we bring before you
with our lips or within our hearts…
Lord, in your righteousness, deliver us and set us free.
Faithful God, your power and your righteousness reach the heavens.
Hear us, your servants, as we follow you to the day when
faith, hope, and love will be upon the lips of all of us, your children.
These things we pray in the name of your Son who taught us to pray saying…
Call to Confession:
Whether we have the gift of beautiful speech, or the gift of understanding and knowledge, or the gift of faith or of generosity or of any other good thing—if we do not love, even our most precious talents are as nothing. And if we believe Love to be a only feeling or a thought, still we miss the Truth. Before God, with the people of God, let us confess the ways we have fallen short of God’s Love. Let us pray.
One: Love is patient and kind
All: and we are in a bit of a hurry…
One: Love does not insist on its own way
All: but really, God, my way is clearly best.
One: Love is not envious or resentful
All: and yet we hoard it as if there might not be enough.
One: Love is all these verbs—rejoices, bears, believes, hopes, endures—
All: but we are so tempted to confine it where we can understand and control, domesticating love into romance or intellect.
One: God is Love, and those who abide in Love abide in God.
silence
One: When we have not lived in your love, when we have insisted and hurt and believed ourselves to know fully even as we know only in part,
All: Forgive us, O God.
One: When we have thought, spoken, and acted in childish ways even as you call us to grow in your grace,
All: Forgive us, O God.
One: Draw us again into your embrace, that we may abide in faith, hope, and love.
All: Amen.
Assurance of Forgiveness:
Friends, hear this good news: Though now we see dimly, as through a tinted window, Love is clearing the way for us to know God just as fully as God knows us. We will live the good news: in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God! Amen.
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