GATHERING
ENTRANCE
REFLECTION
The days are surely coming, God says, when I will make a new covenant with my people. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand out of the land of Egypt…I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other "Know God" for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. -Jeremiah 31:33-34
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Incarnate Hope of all creation,
strengthen us and judge us faithful
and appoint us to your service.
People: May the grace of the Holy Spirit overflow for us
with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Leader: The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to heal the broken.
All: Incarnate Hope of all the broken,
write your law upon our hearts,
that, as your holy, risen Body
we may become incarnate hope to all the world.
INVOCATION
HYMN
WORD FOR THE CHILDREN
SILENCE
RESPONSIVE READING
Leader: Holy Mystery, take the separate strands of our lives.
Weave them in and out
as we seek to become part of you.
People: "Come follow me" you say.
"Trust me" you say "and your days
will weave together into the greater cloth of life.
Leader: What a tapestry of hope you weave,
calling us beyond our perceived limitations,
surprising us with miracles of new patterns of being.
People: "Die and rise" you say.
Every day is an opportunity to be born again
and to bring your hope to the world.
Leader: Out of our pain you weave hope.
Out of separate strands you weave a living fabric.
All: Out of our many parts you weave a whole,
a living breathing Body of Christ.
SILENCE
PRAYERS
COMMON CONFESSION
Leader: We clutch our tiny shreds of faith in our fists
shoved firmly into our pockets.
People: Answer me when I call!
Leader: We clutch our ragged bits of faith suspiciously –
we don’t want to lose them.
People: Hear me when I cry out to you!
Leader: We clutch our tattered faith, fearing that once it is gone,
we will be without hope,
cast adrift, out of luck.
All: Accept my threadbare faith
INDIVIDUAL PRAYERS OF CONFESSION
ASSURANCE
Leader: The Holy One loosens our grip.
Our God nudges our hands out of our pockets.
By God’s grace, our stiff fingers uncurl,
to grow,
to shimmer,
to pulse,
to explode into the air
like a thousand red birds.
All: Amen
PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION
LORD’S PRAYER
All: Our Father-Mother in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours,
now and for ever. Amen.
HYMN
THE WORD
SCRIPTURE
SERMON
SILENT REFLECTION
OFFERING
SHARED REFLECTIONS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
HYMN
BENEDICTION
Leader: Eternal one,
remind us that your vision is always at work in all creation.
Heal us, that we may be pathways of healing.
Bless us, that we may be blessing in your world.
Pour out your love on us,
that we may be lovers of all creation.
Weave us ever more tightly into the Body of Christ,
that we may be incarnate hope for the world.
All: Amen.
Call adapted from 1Timothy 1:12-17
Responsive reading adapted from the Litany from the Recommitment Liturgy 1994
Confession and Assurance based on Psalm 4 and "Like a Thousand Red Birds" by Phil Porter.
Benediction adapted from "Being Present" in Growing Our Life Together, by Sonya Dyer
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.
