Pastor: The Lord has been our dwelling place throughout all generations.
People: In the Lord, we have lived and in the Lord, we die.
Pastor: The Lord, God, is from everlasting to everlasting,
People: from before the mountains were born until the end of time.
Pastor: God was there when we were formed from the dust,
People: and God is there when we return to it.
Pastor: Throughout our life, we are blessed to see the wonders God has wrought.
People: Even as we stand at the end of life, let us celebrate and be thankful for the blessing of our days and for the one who gave us life.
INVOCATION –
Holy One, You grant us each day, each moment, each breath. Let us rejoice and be thankful. Let us count our days like the gathering of precious stones. Stopping to deeply appreciate each one that comes our way. May we never take the gift of life for granted. We give you thanks today for life itself and for your presence in it. AMEN
NOTE: All rights reserved. Permission granted for use in educational or religious settings with attribution.
A wonderful offering of birdseed offered after a memorial service in memory of Brian Smith who loved the out of doors and especially the birds.
People: we ground ourselves in the hope of our creator.
Pastor: When nations are in an uproar and kingdoms totter,
People: we receive our strength and courage from the one who created all.
Pastor: Come let us find our sacred center as we worship God together.
Invocation
Holy One, We’re gathered here a little unbalanced. The world feels askew. We’re gathered here a little imbalanced. We feel a little askew. Meet us here and give us insight so that we can navigate this world in a way pleasing to you and to the benefit of all. AMEN
Pastoral Prayer
Holy One,
As we tear down the walls of our heart and stretch the limits of our compassion,
we seek to hold in our prayer those who we often overlook or ignore.
We pray for those who we have never seen: our neighbors far away.
We pray for those who are most different from us by language, culture, or faith.
We pray for those who we walk by daily, but perhaps do not notice – – –
the person who serves us coffee,
the one who rings us out at the grocery store or packs our groceries.
We pray for the bank teller and the telemarketer.
We pray for the farmer who seeded our dinner into the ground
and the truck driver who brought it near to us.
We pray for those who line our roads and empty our garbage cans.
We pray for the librarian and news broadcaster on the radio.
We pray for those who often go unseen – – –
the 911 dispatcher,
the night clerk at the 24 hour convenience store,
the school custodian,
the cleaning people in our office.
God, there are so many that escape our notice,
but we know they do not go out of your vision or care.
May you continue to pour your love upon them
and may you help us to stop and see and listen to their trouble or tragedy.
Let us remember our connection to the whole.
We also, O God, have those who we do know that we wish to lift up. Hear now their names:
<have people speak names aloud popcorn style>
Be with them in their time of need. Embrace them in your constant grace. Grant them the peace of recognizing your presence.
We pray all of this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together saying:
The Lord’s Prayer that is used in your setting.
Unison Prayer of Dedication
Generous God, Take these gifts that have been gathered. Bless them and return them into a wanting world. May these financial gifts be just one way that we seek to co-create with you. AMEN
All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for use for educational or religious purposes with attribution.
Pastor: We come to you, O Lord, imperfect, but hungry.
People: We trust in your steadfast love and take hope in your abundant mercy.
Pastor: We turn to you, O Lord, recognizing that too often we turn away.
People: We trust that indeed you are merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in compassion and lovingkindness.
Pastor: We desire, O Lord, your wisdom in our inmost heart.
People: We open ourselves to you.
Invocation
Creator, Meet us here. Meet us now. Walk with us on our Lenten Journey.Continue to create us and form us in your likeness. Let our very being act as an offering to you. AMEN
Unison Prayer of Blessing for Communion
Holy Spirit, we invite you here into our midst. Bless this bread and this juice that in receiving it, we might know you better. In drinking and eating, we might see more clearly. In being filled, we might also become more hungry. AMEN
Unison Prayer of Thanksgiving for Communion
Unison Prayer of Thanksgiving: (DMA – shared)
Holy One, you accept us as we are. You invite us to your table. You make space for all. Your gracious love astounds us. It humbles us. We pray that we might live lives worthy of your generosity. Receive our thanksgiving and our praise. AMEN
All Rights Reserved. Permission for educational or religious use with attribution.
Moutaintop God, Your glory astounds us. We are in awe of all that you have done. The child who came to us just weeks ago now takes his place between Moses and Elijah. Help us to bear the light and not look away. Help us to be the light. Let us take momentary refuge here so that we too are changed; and then push us back into the world and the work you set before us. AMEN
Prayer of Illumination
Pastor: God is Holy, God is beyond what we can know, beyond what we can see, beyond what we can understand; and yet, we look, we listen, we try to comprehend.
People: God, let us see you if only but a glimpse.Let us hear you if only but a whisper.Let us understand you, if only in our heart. AMEN
All rights reserved. Permission given for use in an educational or religious setting with attribution.
The front door before renovations at the First Congregational Church of Brimfield, UCC. -July 1, 2021
Call to Worship
Pastor: In times when we feel like giving up,
People: come to us anew.
Pastor: In moments when we are lost or confused,
People: illuminate your path that we might see where to tread.
Pastor: In times of trouble,
People: protect us and give us refuge.
Pastor: When we are arrogant, believing in only our way,
People: humble us that we may remember our interconnectedness with you and with each other.
Pastor: You sent your son that we might all live,
so let us open our eyes and our hearts that we might learn and live as he did.
Assurance of Pardon
God of Grace,
Pour your love upon this world.
Mend the torn.
Heal the broken.
Weave us together.
Remind us that we are your children, loved, beloved, and forgiven.
Invitation to share:
God as we think of seeing things in new ways, let us not think of what we are necessarily giving to God, but recognize what we are withholding. Help us to notice those areas that our heart is still full of plaque and needing to be cleansed. Relax our grip on personal security and help us trust on the care of one another. Remind us of the widow, who thought not of her own needs, but gave out of faith all that she had, making way for a new way to be birthed.
May we make space by giving out of joy and faith
And not reserving out of fear.
Let us be a part of a new economy of love and thanksgiving.
Prayer of Dedication
Holy One,
As we have opened our hearts to you,
refill us with even more generosity.
Give us new eyes to see potential where others see lack.
Give us new hearts to embrace creative solutions to problems.
Give us new hands to be the helpers the world needs.
Let us honor all you have done for us,
by doing the same for our siblings. AMEN
All Rights Reserved for liturgy above. Permission given for use in educational or religious settings with attribution.
L: Let us honor the one who is, was, and ever will be.
ALL: AMEN
Invocation
Holy and steadfast God,
You stand beside me each step I take and yet I look past you, over you, and around you. I act as if I am an island floating on the open sea. In our time today, open me to seeing, noticing, and appreciating the many ways you seek to make yourself known and the many ways in which we are interconnected with our siblings and the earth itself. Give me eyes to see and ears to hear your constant and consistent presence. AMEN
You are welcome to use both within a religious or educational setting with citation. All Rights Reserved.
Sometimes it can be a challenge to write liturgy from week to week, so sometimes I need to look elsewhere for inspiration. Sometimes I find liturgy that others have written that I can use (I especially appreciate https://re-worship.blogspot.com/ ). Other times, I reach into the Biblical text, especially the Psalter. Because the Psalms were originally sung, the liturgy gathered from the Psalms practically writes itself. Here, for example, is the Call to Worship and Invocation that I am using this week, which is drawn from Psalm 18. One Psalm can often be the inspiration for a multitude of prayers, litanies, and the like. The Psalms are like a well that is fed by an unending aquafer.
Call to Worship
Pastor: In the Lord I take refuge.
People: God is my deliverer.
Pastor: God is my rock and my fortress.
People: God is my safe place.
Pastor: In the Lord, I put my hope and my trust.
People: God is my protector.
ALL: I will praise God forever more.
Invocation
O God, my protector, you are with me in all that I do: from my waking to my sleeping. You watch over me and seek to guide me. Today, in this time, wake me up so that I may witness your work and begin to see the world around me with more clarity. AMEN
An extra special resource as it pertains to Psalmody is Richard Bruxvoort Cooligan’s Psalm Immersion. His musical creations from the Psalms can be used as background for meditation, for musical prayer responses, or for deepening your perspective on a specific psalm. I encourage you to check his work out.
NOTE: You are welcome to use the liturgy in worship or educational settings. Please cite the origin sources.
Today, I finally packed away the final Christmas ornaments (except the one I said I would keep out to remember Jesus’ birth throughout the year), Epiphany is in full force, and I’m in full Lenten planning phase.
The Christmas ornament that I held out from my birth-father and his wife.
I try to finish my planning within my blocked out planning time, but this season, it just didn’t pan out. I continue to fill in the blanks, but I have gotten pretty far and should be ready long before March 5th.
Here is a glimpse into the overall theme:
And here is a Call to Worship and Invocation from the series:
CALL TO WORSHIP (based on Psalm 51 & 103 – DMA)
Pastor: We come to you, O Lord, imperfect, but hungry.
People: We trust in your steadfast love and take hope in your abundant mercy.
Pastor: We turn to you, O Lord, recognizing that too often we turn away.
People: We trust that indeed you are merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in compassion and lovingkindness.
Pastor: We desire, O Lord, your wisdom in our inmost heart.
People: We open ourselves to you.
INVOCATION (DMA)
Creator, Meet us here. Meet us now. Walk with us on our Lenten Journey.Continue to create us and form us in your likeness. Let our very being act as an offering to you. AMEN
If you are a pastor, what are you considering for this Lenten season?
If you are not a pastor, what would you hope to hear in church this spring?
NOTE: If you ever would like a template that I’ve created, please just ask. I’m happy to share. If you would like to use a prayer, piece of liturgy, or poem for educational or religious reason, please just cite me as the author.
This Sunday we are holding an Economic Justice Sunday as we kick-off our drive for our mission trip to Maine this summer to repair houses through MATE.
For that worship service, here is a Call to Worship and an Invocation:
CALL TO WORSHIP – Based Psalm 69
Pastor: Save us, O God. The water is up to our neck.
People: We are sinking with nowhere to place our feet.
Pastor: The water is deep
People: and our voice is being drowned out in the tumult.
Pastor: Hear, O God, our cumulative cries.
People: Respond to those in peril and send angels to their sides.
Pastor: If we are among the troubled, bring us peace and justice.
People: If we are among those already in peace, bring us purpose and perspective.
INVOCATION: –
Holy One, In our time together this morning, press open our hearts to the pain and pressures of life that others are bearing. Let us hear the cries of those being overwhelmed by the world around them. Shake us from complacency. Move us to action. Forgive us when we justify inequity. Inspire us to act as your emissaries in this world, and let us become a part of your healing balm. Be with us as we are awakened to and reminded of the harsh realities that exist in world today. AMEN
