Call to Worship – Wandering and Wondering

Incarceration Sunday

Here is a Call to Worship, Invocation, and Prayer of the People from our Incarceration Sunday, when we consider the issues around incarceration and our prison system. This weekend we focused on a wonderful program in MA, called Partakers and the long standing relationships that can come from mentoring someone who is incarcerated.

Call to Worship (DMA)

Pastor: Jesus could have spent time only with the rich and the powerful;

People: instead, he knelt on bended knee.

Pastor: Jesus could have spent his time gathering prestige and power;

People: instead, Jesus sought out the troubled, the wayward, the lost, and the least.

Pastor: Jesus could have reached out for the crown of an earthly king;

People: instead, he lifted up the lowly.

Pastor: Jesus made straight the crooked path

People: and smoothed out the rough road.

Pastor: Jesus looked to the margins and welcomed all in.

ALL: Jesus reminded us that all are worthy of God’s love and redemption.

Invocation: (DMA)

Holy One of Grace and Mercy, We come before you to learn the way of Christ. We come before you to ask forgiveness for the times we wandered and stepped in front of our siblings in need. We come before you to offer praise and thanksgiving for all you are and all you have done. Meet us here in this time and place that we might, through community, get to know you more fully. AMEN

Prayer of the People (DMA)

Our prayer, O Lord, extends today beyond unexpected borders – not national borders, but borders that we create right here in our country: borders that come in the form of bars and borders that take the form of quiet exclusion.

We pray for the youth that are caught in juvenile courts. We pray that at least one adult will be able to get through to them. We pray that they might know their value and worth. We pray for their future and their safety.

We pray for the youth that get tried as adults, who are pressed up into a system that fails to take into account the psychology of development. We pray for their protection, for their ability to endure a harsh system, for their resilience.

We pray for the first time offender – for all the steps that brought them to this place. We pray for their future. We pray for the possibility of restorative justice that might allow them to reintegrate with the community.

We pray for the reoffender, for the many who do not see options or have alternate opportunities. We pray for a system that sometimes looks for the slip up. We pray for the challenges they face once the word “criminal” or “felon” is attached to their name.

We pray for the lifers – especially for those who have used the time well and done the work that needed to be done and yet are not eligible for release.

We pray for our criminal justice system which often puts more weight on retribution than on restoration and rehabilitation.

We pray for the families of those incarcerated and the challenges they face because their loved one is behind bars.

And of course, we pray for the victims and all who have been hurt and harmed.

May we work toward a world where pain and suffering are no more.

Lord, hear our prayer. We pray in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together saying: (Insert the Lord’s prayer as your church says it)

A Flexible Liturgy

Call to Worship – based on Psalm 19

Pastor: The law of the Lord is perfect;

People: it revives the soul.

Pastor: The decrees of the Lord are sure;

People: making the wise simple.

Pastor: The precepts of the Lord are right.

People: We rejoice in our hearts the ways of God.

Pastor: God’s ways are more precious than gold.

People: They are sweeter than honey dripping fresh from the honeycomb.

Invocation

Holy one, we seek to know you. Enlighten our eyes. Give hunger to our souls. Teach us and show us your ways. Let not just the words of your mouth and the meditations of our heart be acceptable to you, but let all that we do bring you honor and praise. Amen

Unison Prayer of Transformation

God of tangles and frayed edges, we lay ourselves before your seeking healing and wholeness. Patiently untangle our life. Hem our edges and mend the tears. See the beauty in our disarray and weave us even more fully into the wonder and beauty you imagined. Remind us that we are created by your hand and that your acts of creation do not end at our birth. Continue to act on us and in us. Let us become the masterpieces you imagine. AMEN

Assurance of Love

Pastor: God is always working on you, with you, and in you. You are a masterpiece in the making and you are beloved just as you are. Both are true. May you feel the love of God constantly around you, guiding you, sustaining you, and celebrating you.

Pastoral Prayer

Holy God,

Your children are crying. Hear their pain. Be attentive to their suffering. Recognize their fears. Hold them in their anxiety.

Search each person’ heart for that which they are holding onto.

Today, we hold all of humanity. We hold the young and the old and everyone in between. We hold those that live next door, those that live on the other side of the world and everyone in between. We pray for the care of all. We pray for their needs to be met. We pray for not only their survival but for their flourishing.

May warfare be quelled.

May food be plentiful.

May education be available.

May water be clean and the air fresh.

May kindness and compassion, love and care, infuse all.

We pray this for all;

And we pray specifically today for . . .

We pray all of this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together saying . . .

Lord’s Prayer

Prayer of Illumination

Holy and Gracious God,

You have gifted us with language. You gave us letters that we could combine to make words. Words that we could combine to make sentences. Sentences that we can put together to tell stories. Stories which get built up and retold to create our culture. As we hear our story today, let us hear at all levels. What did this story mean? What might it mean now? What can it mean in the future? Bless our hearing. Bless our understanding. AMEN

Prayer of Dedication

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Adonai. You have poured on us abundant blessings. We recognize that what we return is but a portion of what we received. We are so grateful for all that you have done; so receive these gifts as a token of our gratitude and a sign of our appreciation. As we give here in these plates, we give also through our lives. Accept it all with the honor with which it was given. AMEN

CALL TO WORSHIP (based on Psalm 104)

Pastor: Bless the Lord, O my soul.

People: The Lord is great, clothed with honor and majesty and wrapped in light as with a garment.

Pastor: The Lord has stretched the heavens like a tent across all the earth.

People: God has set the earth on its foundations.

Pastor: and created all that is within, and upon, and around this earth.

People: Every bird and every tree, every blade of grass, every mountain, every rock, every spring bursting forth with water, God has made all things.

Pastor: God made the moon and the sun. God set the seasons into motion.

People: God made the darkness and light.

Pastor: God made humanity

People: and blew air into our very lungs.

Pastor: God is the creator and the redeemer of all.

People: God is our beginning and our end.

ALL: Bless the Lord, O our souls.

Lenten Liturgy

Call to Worship (based on Psalm 37 )

Pastor: Trust in the Lord.

People: We take delight in the Lord.

Pastor: Commit your way to the Lord.

People: We listen for the word of the Lord.

Pastor. Be still before the Lord.

People: We wait patiently for the Lord

Pastor: Our steps are made firm by the Lord.

People: The Lord holds us and leads us.

Invocation

Holy One, In a world that sometimes doesn’t know which way is up, be our center. Enter into our days. Enter into our heart. Enter into our lives. Teach us your ways and guide us in your paths so that we may discern how to live in this unbalanced but beautiful world. AMEN

Prayers to remember those who have died – Memorial Service for someone who enjoyed a long life

CALL TO WORSHIP – Psalm 90

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

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.

Call to Worship, et al

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

Call to Worship & Invocation

Prlude

Call to Worship (based on Psalm 138 )

L: We give you thanks, O Lord.

P: We give you thanks with our whole heart.

L: We give thanks for your steadfast love.

P: We give thanks for your abiding word.

L: We give thanks for your presence in our lives.

P: We give you thanks.

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

Psalm inspired liturgy

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.

Lenten Planning

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.

Economic Justice Sunday

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