Words for Worship

Is Jesus speaking as one with authority, or is he challenging Sabbath practices? Or are you somewhere else entirely. Wherever you are, at whatever stage you are in preparation, you are welcome to use/adapt these words from the RevGalBlogPals community for worship or personal devotion time. If you use them in printed materials, please note the author and revgalblogpals.org. If you use them in online worship and it is possible to give credit in video descriptions, that is sufficient (no need for verbal attribution). Thanks!

Call to Worship – Deborah Roof

One: Today is the day that our LORD has made!

Many: Let us rejoice and be glad!

One: The Sabbath is God’s special day; and every day is special!

Many: May God be found today and every day!

One: God’s law of love out-defines and out-performs all human law.

Many: May we be governed by love not law; may we be more loving than all else.

Invocation

Holy One, We have a tendency to make up rules and say that You must care because we created them for You. Over time, those rules begin to rule us and Your steadfast love and compassion are no where to be find. Meet us here in this time of prayer and praise and remind us once again that your Covenant of Love sealed in your gift of life everlasting, then seals us to a behavior that is also loving above all else. Amen.

Let us worship God!

Prayer of Confession, alludes to Psalm 111, I Cor. 8:1-13, Mark 1:21-28 – Kathy Swaar

“I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,” the Psalmist writes,
but we confess, Holy One, our hearts feel far from whole.
Each day is filled with its own joys and sorrows,
each moment beautiful and terrible by turn.

Caught up in the thorny questions of our time,
our attention is pulled in a hundred different directions.
Uncertainty dogs our steps; the sheer number and depth
of needs threatens to overwhelm.

Powerless in the face of so much suffering,
fearful that no matter what or how much we do it will never be enough,
we’re tempted to withdraw—from you, from those around us, from ourselves, from life.

Silence the million things clamoring for our attention, Sacred Presence,
that our hearts and minds may rest in you.
Remind us that our times are in your hands, and
ever mindful of your covenant relationship,
your provision is abundant, your Word trustworthy.

Forgive us, free us, and raise us up, Author of Life,
that we may stand firmly in your love, and with boldness
proclaim your Word of grace and mercy to all the world.

A PRAYER OF RECONCILIATION – Kathy Mia Kolwey

Reconcile our hearts into Your Love, Holy God.
For things we’ve done and for things left undone.
Reconcile our Epiphanies into Your Light
For all the places shaded by our brokenness and need.
Reconcile our hope into Your Word,
For all of our doubts and fears are real.
Reconcile our fragmented lives into Your Wholeness
For we long to be made complete in Your Mercy.
In the name of the Reconciler and the Advocate, we pray.
Amen.

While not strictly ‘words,’ I learned about the Lumo Project a few weeks ago, they have incredible videos to use for worship and study, freely available on YouTube. Here is one of the gospel of Mark in the RCL for this week.

I love this video about the ending of Sabbath, in the middle of the noise of everyday life!

This audio track is of my Music Director singing Prayers in the Stillness, we sang it every week during Advent, it’s a piece from Worship Design Studio

Act for good – Sarah Agnew
1 Corinthians 8:1–13

Go into the world to love,
building each other up,
by choosing to act for their good,
which is, after all, for yours also.

May God be your ground of being,
Source of Life, Source of Wisdom,
Source of Love. Amen.

His voice calls us home
Mark 1:14–28

Jesus spoke and I listened,
I knew this stranger at
once; Jesus spoke,
and I followed, trust implicit
and strange; Jesus
spoke and I left my home,
was home as I had never
been before; Jesus spoke,
teaching wisdom to open hearts
and ears and minds;
Jesus spoke to the spirits
of disease and they fell
silent, obeyed; Jesus spoke
and amazed all who heard
him, as he spoke, we
listened and followed this stranger
who brought us home.

We stand in awe
Psalm 111

Praise Holy One!
My whole heart bursts
with thanks and praise,
my heart joined with the heart
of the family of Holy One.

We delight together
in the works of the Divine;
we see the beauty, the honour!
The splendour of Holy One
endures forever!

We see the mercy, receive the grace,
and tell of it all throughout the world.
We eat the food Holy One provides,
we treasure the promises kept by the Divine.

We trust in the promises,
the hands that are faithful and just;
we treasure the teaching of Wisdom,
which leads us to life fulfilled.

We praise the Name, the Holy Name,
though we cannot speak it and live.
We stand in awe of Holy One,
and find the beginning of wisdom.

We practice, we trust, we seek Holy One,
and we join in the song of praise
that will never end.
Praise Holy One!
Amen.

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