Year C, First Sunday After Pentecost
First Sunday After Pentecost :: Green ::Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31:: Psalm 8 :: Romans 5:1-5:: John 16:12-15
Call to Worship (Responsive)
Adapted from Psalm 8`
L: O LORD, our LORD, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
P: You have set your glory above the heavens.
L: When we look to the heavens and the works of your hands,
P: Who are mere mortals that you are mindful of us?
L: Yet you have made us a little lower than you, O God,
P: You have given us dominion over the work of your hands.
L: O LORD, Our LORD:
P: How majestic is your name in all the earth!
Invocation:
Almighty and Everlasting God, who was, and is, and is to come; we come into your sanctuary to sing your praises and offer our prayers. We come seeking wisdom: the wisdom created at the beginning of your works. We come seeking the love of your Son, whom you sent to redeem us. We come hoping to be representative of the human race in which you delight. Guide our worship and our work so that we might become reminders to others of the creative love and wisdom you have put to work in the world through us. We offer these prayers in the name of God, the faithfulness of the Holy Spirit, and the love of Christ.
Stewardship Moment:
In 2012, Marissa and Geoff Mitchell launched a new church in Oswego, Illinois. Oswego is a Western Suburb of Chicago, which is rapidly changing and growing. The Mitchells felt God’s call to go to Oswego from a very large, prominent, secure church pastorate and start something new. When they did so, they promised themselves that they would not count statistics like attendance and membership; they only count baptisms. Since September of last year, there have been 25. There are already five more waiting for next baptismal service. At big life Community Church in Oswego, when people are asked to give, they are asked to do so because giving creates new believers in the form of new baptisms. Big life is a part of the Disciples movement, which is making a real difference in its community. When we give to support new churches, we share in each and every one of those baptisms. We will now receive our tithes, offerings, and our special Pentecost Offerings which help make these baptisms possible.
Offertory Prayer:
O God who makes all things possible, we come to you bearing our gifts. We bring them out of our sense of what else is possible through your Spirit. Pour out your Holy Spirit again, and bless these gifts. Use these gifts to spread your Good News, so that others may come to know the everlasting joy of life in the Spirit, which comes through belief in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Communion Meditation:
Did you ever notice the first word in Romans chapter five is “Therefore”? When I read that, it makes me wonder what that word is there for. In this case, it is there to remind us that we are “justified” in coming to this table because God has made us that way through the death and resurrection of Jesus. “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.” (Rom. 5:1-2b)
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