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Year C

confession: caught up

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Call to Confession
There are many ways to get out of relationship with God, and when we do life can feel like a set of tires with all the air gone out of them. We are flat and friendless, limp and lifeless, lost and loveless. Our loving God wants to hear from us, wherever we are stuck on the side of the road. Let us confess the things standing between our hearts and God’s mercy as we pray together.
Prayer of Confession (Unison)
Gracious God, forgive us. We get caught up in the demands of the world and forget You. We run out of time to pray. We convince ourselves we know what is best. We doubt that You care about the details of our lives. We break down where we could build up. We forget You love us. We do not remember You can bring new life even when it seems all hope is gone. Forgive us for the ways we have broken our ties to You.
Silent Prayers of Confession
Words of Assurance (Responsive):
Minister: Sisters and Brothers in Christ, hear the Good News: all is forgiven.
ALL: Our loving God has heard our prayers.
Minister: We who felt dead are now alive in God’s grace and mercy.
ALL: We thank God for it.
Submitted by Rev. Martha Spong.

communion: sing a new song

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Invitation to the Table

Friends, this is the joyful feast of the people of God!
They will come from east and west and north and south
and sit at table together in the kingdom of God,
ready to share the great feast of the new creation
and to sing new songs of praise forevermore.

So come to this table of plenty.
Bring your gifts of new life and your new songs of praise and thanksgiving.
Gather here and share this feast,
for Christ himself is our host.

Great Prayer of Thanksgiving

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

Glorious God,
it is right to give you thanks and praise,
to sing new songs of thanksgiving
for your endless mercy and amazing grace.
From age to age, you have been with us.
You made the heavens and the earth
and rule over all the nations.
You create all things and guide us into your ways.
Even when we go astray, you call us back,
showing us the fullness of life in you
and giving us new songs of praise for each and every day,
most of all in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Born of humble estate,
Jesus lived for us and among us,
healing the sick,
easing the burdens of your people,
and teaching us the new song of your kingdom.
He showed his love for all your children
in his death at the hands of the authorities of the day.
Yet when you raised him to new life,
you sealed the promise of the new creation for all your people.
For this incredible gift of life,
we raise our new songs of joyous praise.

And so we give you thanks for this holy meal
where we remember Jesus’ death
and proclaim his new life.
By this bread and cup, strengthen us for the life of faith,
that we might sing your new song in this place and in this world
and invite others to join in
until we share this feast with you in the kingdom of God.

Eternal God,
as we wait and watch and work for your kingdom to come,
strengthen us to sing your new song.
Guide us from this table
to sing your praise each and every day.
Open the ears and minds and hearts of those who will hear,
that they too might join in this new song of praise now,
even as we trust that all creation will soon gather
to feast and sing in the joy of your eternal kingdom.

Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all glory and honor are yours, almighty God,
now and forever. Alleluia! Amen.

 

Inspired by Psalm 96. Submitted by Rev. Andy James, First Presbyterian Church, Whitestone, NY.

prayers of the people: deliver us and set us free

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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…

submitted by Stephen Fearing, student at Columbia Theological Seminary

illumination: you knew us

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Holy God,
you knew us before we knew ourselves.
You consecrate us even now to be your servants.
Create in us hearts worthy to be your prophets
that we might go where you send us,
and speak the Word that you give us.
Through the power of your Holy Spirit,
place your words upon our lips
and your grace upon our hearts
so that we might pluck up and pull down,
destroy and overthrow,
build and plant,
as you, alone, have commanded. Amen.
inspired by Jeremiah 1:4-10, the Old Testament lectionary passage for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany (year C)
submitted by Stephen Fearing, student at Columbia Theological Seminary

confession: Love

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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.