Worship Words for 5 July: I Don’t Do What I Want Edition

Looking for liturgical language that suits this moment in our world — a world of pandemic, uprising against individual and systemic racism, virtual gathering, and so much more? Here we offer some…feel free to use as is, to adapt, or to use for inspiration for your own. If you use these in written materials, please credit the author. If you use them in online worship, there’s no need for verbal attribution but if you post the video and it’s possible to mention the author in the video description, please do.

Litany for the beginning of a digital worship service by Julia Seymour

We are gathered together by the Holy Spirit and the gifts of technology.
Though the technology may fail, the Spirit will not.
Those who are drawn together by the Spirit’s power can never truly be apart.
They cannot be separated from the love of God or from one another.
May we experience the peace and consolation of the Spirit today in our time together.
May we be stirred, like the waters at the beginning, into a new creation.
May we praise and pray to our God, who is faithful and loving in all times and places. Amen.

Confession based on Romans 7:15-25a by Julia Seymour
This confession can be read with one voice or responsively between two readers.

God of all knowledge and all love, you know my heart.
I feel things that I wish I did not feel.
God of all knowledge and all love, you know my thoughts.
I think things that I wish I did not think.
God of all knowledge and all love, you know my deeds.
I do things that I wish I did not do.
God of all knowledge and all love, you know my omissions.
I avoid things that I wish I did not avoid.
God of all knowledge and all love, you know the depths of our despair.
We do not live as we ought in response to your grace and mercy.
Our imperfections lead us to despair and we lament the brokenness to which we have contributed in our own selves, in our close community, in the church, and in the world.
Receive our prayer of repentance.
God of all knowledge and all love, help us to live in new and healing ways.
Grant peace to our spirits and wholeness in Christ to our lives for your glory. Amen.

Katy Stenta offers a communion liturgy that can be used for online or drive-in worship:

Gathering
For all those who are near in our hearts, we pray that you gather us together.
Gather us in your name, so that we might be church today
Send your Holy Spirit between us, near and far so that we might bless one another
Come let us hear how the Gospel disperses over all the earth.

Prayer of the Day: Lord Jesus, we are thankful for your presence here as we continue to commit to caring for one another as a community. Teach us all the ways we can connect with one another. Remind us that the seeds we sow in love count, and that you increase the harvest by twofold, fourfold and tenfold. Help us to see our efforts are not in vain we pray. Amen.

Blessing the Elements:  Lord Jesus you came to us as a fully human being—one who wept and got dirty and probably even scraped his knee. You spent time walking the sandy roads and eating simple meals of fish and loaves with the poorest of people. You who healed with breath and dirt and spit, is it any wonder that you blessed the most common of foods of the time. Today we ask your Holy Spirit to come and bless our common foods, and to transform them in all of their variety, into communion. For just as we are varied as your people, so too do our food and drinks vary. Show us the beauty in this variety and sing all the differing notes of our lives into one harmony of communion we pray (as Christ Jesus taught us..)

Prayer after communion: Lord we give thanks for this meal together, and pray that it nourishes us in ways we’ve never imagined. Help the taste of your love to stay in our mouths as we go into the world, we pray.

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If you have written words for online worship that you are willing to share, please send us an email: revgalblogpals at gmail dot com.