Pentecost 1995: Catch the Wind — Called to a Prophetic Vocation

 

SEEKERS CHURCH

A Christian Community

In the Tradition of Church of the Saviour

Pentecost 1995

 

Catch the Wind — Called to a Prophetic Vocation

 

REFLECTION

 

Consider the divine spirit in the human soul.  This spirit is not easily satisfied.  It storms the firmament and scales the heavens trying to reach the Spirit that drives the heavens.  Because of this energy everything in the world grows green, flourishes, and bursts into leaf.  But the spirit is never satisfied.  It presses on deeper and deeper into the vortex, further and further into the whirlpool, the primary source in which the spirit has its origin.

 

                                                            Meister Eckhart, quoted by Matthew Fox,

The Reinvention of Work, pg 122.

 

PRELUDE

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

Leader:  A mighty wind is blowing!

 

People:  Tongues of fire dance!

 

Leader:  The gifts are given.

 

People:  The Spirit is present with us.

 

Unison:  Prophets, visionaries, dreamers!

Come worship with courage and with hope.

 

INVOCATION

 

HYMN

 

WORD FOR THE CHILDREN

SILENCE

 

LITANY

 Leader: A mighty wind is blowing in our land.

 

People:  Some say it is the Spirit come upon us;

  some say that chaos reigns.

 

Leader:  Our spirits long to fly,

  to answer God's prophetic call

    more deeply in our lives and work,

  and yet we cling to what we know.

 

People:  We feel the pressure of the Spirit in our faces,

  pushing backwards toward the Source.

 

Leader:  The Spirit flourishes in wilderness;

  we find it close at hand when we are lost.

 

Unison:  We move into the wilderness together,

  listening for the Spirit

  in the words we offer one another,

  and in the mighty wind.

 

SILENCE

 

PRAYERS

CONFESSION 

Leader:  Jesus said:  "The wind blows where it chooses,

  and you hear the sound of it,

  but you do not know where it comes from

    or where it goes.

So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

 

Voice 1: We confess to rigidity and practicality

  when we choose our work.

Let the wind teach us flexibility and mystery.

 

 

 

Leader:  We confess to being sensible and cautious

  when we name our call.

Let the wind teach us abandon and risk.

 

Voice 2: We confess that we clutch and grasp

  to keep a secure position.

Let the wind teach us generosity and loss.

 

Leader:  The wind blows where it chooses,

  and you hear the sound of it,

  but you do not know where it comes from,

    or where it goes.

 

INDIVIDUAL PRAYERS OF CONFESSION

 

ASSURANCE  (Leader)

 

People of the Spirit, take heart.

The wind that drives the heavens

  lifts us up triumphantly into God,

  fanning the spark of Soul that burns incessantly

    in each of us.

 

CONTINUING PRAYERS

 

HYMN

 

THE WORD

SCRIPTURE

SERMON

SILENT REFLECTION

 

OFFERING

OFFERTORY MUSIC

PRAYER OF DEDICATION

 

SHARED REFLECTIONS

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

HYMN

 

BENEDICTION 

Leader:  Living God, eternal Holy Spirit,

let your bright, intoxicating energy,

which fired those first disciples,

fall on us to turn the world again.

 

People:  Thanks be to God! 

 

Unison:  Amen.

 

WORSHIP SOURCES

Confession:  From John 3:8

Assurance:  Fox, The Revision of Work,  Pg 124.

Benediction:  New Zealand Prayer Book, pg 604