PRAYERS FOR WORSHIP February 1, 2015
Greeting
The chains of sin are broken,
Our faith is not in vain.
Our most extravagant hopes are legitimate.
Our greatest loves are certain.
Our deepest wounds are healed.
Jesus saves!
Penitential Prayer
Lord, we confess that we often cry out
in dismay,
“Look what the world has come to!”
and less often sing out in delight,
“Look what has come to the world!”
Lord, how often we forget that the greatest discovery of our life is that we have a Savior.
Lord, forgive our forgetfulness.
Blessing
A Christian person is the most free person of all, and subject to no one;
A Christian person is the most dutiful person of all, and subject to everyone.
PRAYERS FOR WORSHIP February 8, 2015
Greeting
Jesus is accessible — He listens!
Jesus is approachable — He understands!
Jesus is embraceable — He loves!
Because Jesus cares,
He is with us now:
listening
understanding,
loving,
healing!
Penitential Prayer
Lord, we confess our contribution to one of the fundamental ills of our time: the lack of human access, people-to-people access.
Perhaps there has never been an Age when one-to-one contact has been so difficult to achieve;
students attempting to reach teachers, and
teachers their students;
patients their doctors;
clients their lawyers;
consumers their producers;
tenants their landlords;
citizens their representatives;
children their parents.
Lord, we have played a part in creating a dehumanizing atmosphere in which we seem to be forever standing in the wrong line.
And even the right line seems to lead us not so much to warm, fleshy human beings as to that mysterious, impersonal, untouchable, inaccessible force people constantly refer to as “they.”
For these failures in human contact and for our own individual lack of approachability and accessibility, have mercy on us, our Heavenly Father!
Blessing
“Jesus Christ … Son of God … was not alternately ‘Yes’ and ‘No’: He was never anything but ‘Yes’”
Go, and follow His example;
“Yes!” to the Father’s Will;
“Yes!” to the Son’s example;
“Yes!” to the Spirit of Love;
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” to one another!
PRAYERS FOR WORSHIP February 15, 2015
Greeting
We rejoice in the Presence of our Blessed Bridegroom who exhorts us to reject the evil that is known and to embrace His New Life
without fear of the unknown.
Penitential Prayer
Heavenly Father,
Jesus has come as Your sign of a new creation — yet we continue to look at Your truth through a rear-view mirror.
In the Apostle Paul’s words, “The old has passed away, behold, the new has come!”
The Gospel Truth is that we are asked to trust in the Lord completely and absolutely — yet we continue to view the Gospel as a supermarket where you pick and choose what pleases you most.
Jesus teaches us that our Gospel hope points toward history’s fulfillment in the Kingdom of God — yet we continue to persist in a hope pointing toward history’s fulfillment in some more “practical” way.
Father, for our refusal to offer those who are suffering even a cup of cold water, we ask Your merciful forgiveness!
Blessing
Go, in anticipation of the day “When every knee shall bend and every tongue confess
that ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’!”
Go, and make ready for the time when the whole world will be joined in the jubilee of the Beloved Community.
PRAYERS FOR WORSHIP February 22, 2015
Greeting
During this season of Lent
Let us follow our Lord Jesus Christ –
past the street corners of conflict,
up the mountain of glory,
through the garden of prayer,
beside the hill of agony,
through the darkness of the tomb,
to the life of triumph and joy.
During this season of Lent,
let us follow our Lord Jesus Christ.
Penitential Prayer
During this time of the year, in which we consider the sufferings of the Lord on our behalf, we become sensitive to how unworthy we are.
May this year’s observance of Lent make us very much aware of our helplessness and of our complete dependence upon God’s Love for our salvation.
Lord, forgive our stubborn unawareness.
Blessing
Go forth from this place in humility,
knowing it was for you Christ suffered,
knowing it was for you He died in hope,
knowing it was for you He lives.