For Sunday, September 11, 2016
Year C, Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost
Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost :: Green ::
Exodus 32:7-14 :: Psalm 51:1-10 :: 1 Timothy 1:12-17 :: Luke 15:1-10
Call to Worship (Responsive)
Adapted from Psalm 51
L: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
P: According to your abundant mercy, blot out our transgressions.
L: Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
P: Cleanse us from our sins.
L: You desire truth in the inward being;
P: Teach us wisdom in our secret hearts.
L: Create in me a clean heart, O God,
P: and put a new and right spirit within each of us.
Invocation:
O God of mercy and grace, we come today confessing that we can be a hard headed and stiff necked people. We come confessing that we stray from your will and seek our own paths. Yet, we have come. Accept our sacrifice of time and priority as a testament to our love and devotion to you. Burn not with wrath, but wrap us love and grace. Fill us with your Spirit as we seek to worship you alone in beauty and truth. We ask it all in the name of the one you sent, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Stewardship Moment:
Luke tells us the stories of the lost sheep and the woman and the lost coin in his fifteenth chapter. You remember the woman with the ten silver coins, who lights a lamp and sweeps the house until she finds the coin, right? I used to wonder about the urgency in seeking that coin. Then I started to imagine it was Saturday night, and that coin represented her tithe. I imagine her worrying about disappointing God if she does not find that coin. That makes me hope I would search with the same urgency to bring my full tithe to the Lord. We will now receive our tithes and offerings.
Offertory Prayer:
Receive our gifts O God, knowing that none of them is a surprise to you, for you are the original giver. You have blessed us with all we have, and we return but a token. Bless these gifts, and those who will make decisions about how they will next be put to use. Guide them in wisdom and truth that your reign on earth may increase through these tithes and offerings. We bring them in the name of Christ, by his grace, and for his sake. Amen.
Communion Meditation:
How many of us have thought of ourselves in the same way Paul does: as the foremost of sinners? I would guess most of us have had times where we have felt that lowly. Then Sunday comes. We come to the table and are reminded yet again of the love and grace which is poured out to us here. We are cleansed and renewed to go out and try again. No matter your sin, you are welcome here to experience yet again the blessings of Jesus Christ our Savior.
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Scripture Quotations from the New Revised Standard Version. Online Scripture links a service of the Jean and Alexander Heard Divinity Library, of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN