Recommitment 2001: Blessed Be the Ties that Bind

Recommitment 2001: Blessed Be the Ties that Bind

 

Seekers Church

A Christian Community

In the Tradition of the Church of the Saviour

 

Recommitment 2001

Blessed Be the Ties that Bind

 

REFLECTION

There are certain hours which give a new heart and a new spirit.  They are hours when the veil between the spiritual and the material world seems to be rent and one knows that if all of life could be lived on the basis of what is seen in those moments, it would be closer to what God intended…….They are the times of reality in which to make a commitment — a commitment which will be lived out in the valleys, over long dry stretches when the vision is gone, but the memory alive nonetheless.

 Elizabeth O'Connor, Call to Commitment, p. 166.

PRELUDE

CALL TO WORSHIP

One:          We come together as the body of Christ,

 

Voice 1:     Remembering the paths we have traveled,

                  seeking signs of the way ahead.

 

One:          We look for God —

 

Voice 2:     In the mirror of the world around us,

                  through the window of silence within us,

                  in the songs and stories of those before us.

 

Unison:      Let us celebrate as a family of faith,

                  gathered in the name of the risen Christ.

 

INVOCATION

HYMN

CHILDREN’S WORD

SILENCE

LITANY OF COMMITMENT 

One:          When vision fails us, when the way is long and dusty,

                  we rely on our commitment to Seekers church and

                  to the God who sustains us.

 

Many:         We are committed to the inward

                  and the outward journey.

 

One:          Through prayer and outreach,

                  through peacemaking and activism,

                  we open our hearts and the world to God.

 

Many:         We are called to living out God’s word.

 

One:          In this place, we find love and conflict, joy and sorrow.

 

Many:         We commit to intimacy, even when it is painful.

 

One:          God has blessed us with an abundance of resources.

 

Many:         We will be generous in sharing what we have received.

 

One:          Commitment transforms promise into reality,

                  timidity into courage, pain into joy,

                  and intention into action.

 

All:             In the promise of transformation,

                  we bring our selves to God and

                  to this community once again.

 

SILENCE

PRAYERS

CONFESSION

 One:         Holy God, you call us to respond joyfully with our lives,

                  as your grace gives us freedom.

 

Many:         We confess that we often fail to live up to this call.

                  Instead, we grope painfully for meaning,

                  hurting from the awareness of our failures.

 

One:          You call us to be faithful witnesses,

                  to see with new hearts and new minds.

 

Many:         We confess that often our vision fails us.

                  Instead, our witness is a mask,

                  showing what we would like to be but are not.

 

All:             We confess our unwillingness to fulfill our commitment,

                  and ask for your affirmation of our journey in faith.

 

INDIVIDUAL CONFESSIONS

ASSURANCE

One:          God walks among us,

                  promising to know and understand our failures,

                  our forgetfulness, our foolishness.

 

                  In God's amazing radical freedom,

                  we are loved and forgiven.

 

                  We are free to love and forgive others.

 

CONTINUING PRAYERS

HYMN

THE WORD

  Scripture
  Sermon
  Silent Reflection

OFFERING

  Offertory Music
  Prayer of Dedication

SHARED REFLECTIONS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

HYMN

BENEDICTION

One:    Let your manner of life be worthy

            of the good news of Christ.

            Stand firm in one spirit with one mind,

            striving side by side for the faith of the Gospel.  Amen.

 

Recommitment for All Seekers

I am a Seeker.  I come today to affirm my relationship with this Christian community in the tradition of the Church of the Saviour, linked with the people of God through the ages.

 

As a member of this church, I will deepen my relationships in this local expression of the Body of Christ, sharing my gifts from God with others who worship with Seekers Church, and in the wider world.  I will:

  • Nurture my relationship with God and Seekers Church through spiritual disciplines;

  • Foster justice and be in solidarity with the poor;

  • Care for the whole of creation, including the natural environment;

  • Work for the end of all war, both public and private; and

  • Respond joyfully with my life, as the grace of God gives me freedom.