Year C, Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
Fifth Sunday After Pentecost :: Green :: I Kings 19:1-15a :: Psalm 42 and 43 :: Galatians 3:23-29:: Luke 8:26-39
Call to Worship (Responsive)
Adapted from Psalm 43
L: Why are we cast down?
P: Why are our souls disquieted within us?
L: Hope in God;
P: Our souls shall again praise our help and our God.
L: O God, send out your light and your truth;
P: Let them lead us, O God.
L: Then we shall go to the altar of God with exceeding joy;
P: And we will praise you, O God!
Invocation:
We come O God in wonder, seeking to hear your voice. We wonder from where it will come. Shall we hear your voice in the roar of a mighty wind? Will you come with the fury of an earthquake? Will you come by fire which consumes not? Or like you did with Elijah at Mt. Horeb, will you come in the moments of silence? However your voice may be heard, O God, we pray that we will be blessed in hearing your voice today. Speak to us in the songs of praise, guide us through your word, and help us with the words of our leaders. Speak, O God, for we your faithful are listening.
Stewardship Moment:
In the latter part of Luke chapter eight, Jesus is one busy Savior! He calms a storm; heals a bleeding woman; restores a girl to life; and casts out a legion of demons from one very troubled man in the Gerasenes. As a church, we would consider it a banner day if we achieved just one of those things. Yet every day, EVERY day, through the empowerment of your tithes and offerings, we do offer healing prayers, we help people recover from storms and find calm in their lives, we help people recover from addictions and disease. In short, we are sources of God’s miracles. Let us now receive the tithes and offerings which help make miracles happen.
Offertory Prayer:
Almighty, wonderful, compassionate, and gracious God; we come bringing our tithes and offerings, and we do so with a prayer. Use these gifts, O God, to make miracles happen: to provide healing prayers, calming relief, and recovery. Bless these gifts and all who have brought them to do your work. Amen.
Communion Meditation:
Welcome to your communion table. Did that surprise you? I know that you know that we generally refer to the table as Christ’s table; and we should. But Paul reminds us that “all who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ . . . and if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” So as heirs of the promise, and ones who are clothed in Christ, it is no longer simply Christ’s table, but will one day be yours. So welcome to your table, where the living God awaits.
All material copyright 2013 The Jubilee Fund, Inc. Permission granted to reproduce and use any of the above for Churches and Congregations to the glory of God without requirement of compensation or notification.