GATHERING
ENTRANCE
REFLECTION
"Not to flood darkness with light so that the darkness is destroyed, but to enter into darkness, mystery, so that it is experienced."
–Denise Levertov
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Resting here in the drowned world
we surrender to when we sleep,
People: we feel the dark river that flows
through every heart-beat,
the pulse of deep music.
Leader: In the heart of the world
All: we are called to be the Body of Christ.
INVOCATION
HYMN
WORD FOR THE CHILDREN
SILENCE
RESPONSIVE READING of the Psalm for the week
SILENCE
PRAYERS
COMMON CONFESSION
Leader: While diamonds and oil, dreams and new concertos
churn in the making dark,
we back away from the flash and shine
of sleek airplanes, of guns, knives, portfolios,
missiles, the afterglow of drugged hallucinations.
People: Evil in our time is massive and open,
done in broad daylight,
planned under harsh fluorescent lights,
Voice 1: Done on filmed battlefields and in our living rooms,
propelled by whatever science we can decipher
from the stunning beauty
of cells and microbes, planets and stars.
Voice 2: With all our old symbols of candles and torches,
with our little logos of lamps of learning,
since ancient times we have always been taught
to seek and pursue the light.
But sometimes now we shield our eyes
from all the glitter and glare,
All: And sometimes, God, we tremble in fear
of some blinding ray or nuclear flash of ultimate light
that could level to ashes
our creating and destroying of the world you gave us.
INDIVIDUAL PRAYERS OF CONFESSION
ASSURANCE
Leader: Now we rest for a moment
in the shadow of the Almighty,
embraced by God’s love.
PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION
JESUS PRAYER
All: O Birther! Father – Mother of the Cosmos
focus your light within us – make it useful.
Create your reign of unity now –
through our fiery hearts and willing hands.
Help us love beyond our ideals
and sprout acts of compassion for all creatures.
Animate the earth within us: we then
feel the Wisdom underneath supporting all.
Untangle the knots within
so that we can
mend our hearts’ simple ties to each other.
Don’t let surface things delude us,
but free us
from what holds us back from our true purpose.
Out of you, the astonishing fire,
returning light and sound to the cosmos.
Amen.
HYMN
THE WORD
SCRIPTURE
SERMON
SILENT REFLECTION
OFFERING
The first Sunday of each month we switch to a Comunion Liturgy
SHARED REFLECTIONS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
HYMN
BENEDICTION
Leader: Coming out of this dark, show us, O Holy One,
as for the first time, the rich glowings
of our different skins,
the eyes of the oppressed searching like beacons,
the flares of wonder
that play in the eyes of our children.
All: By way of darkness, seeing anew,
we pray to live again
in the wonder of the light of Christ. Amen.
Worship Resources:
Liturgy adapted with permission from "A Litany Prayer for Darkness in an Age of Glare"
by Rod Jellema.
Jesus Prayer from the original Aramaic translation by Neil Douglas-Klotz in "Prayers of the Cosmos"
Feel free to copy from these liturgies. We only ask that when substantial portions are abstracted or used in a written work, Seekers Church be credited, and that the URL be cited.
