Worship Resources for
the Center for Faith and Giving
Pentecost +25
Psalm 123
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30
Call to Worship (inspired by 1 Thessalonians)
Leader: Friends, let’s take a deep breath in as we come to worship God!
(model a deep breath, or two!)People: The Spirit of God, the breath of God, binds us together.
Leader: In the beauty of this day, we’ve come to encourage one another,
and give thanks, for God intends for us to build each other up!
People: We’ve come, dressed in faith, love and hope,
looking to Jesus Christ to lead us into whole life.
Leader: Built up as many parts of the one body of Christ,
People: let us pray:
Opening Prayer
Good and Giving God, thank you for calling us into the Light of this day. Urge us on in this hour to claim our identity. We are gathered, eager to receive what you will provide through today’s preaching, teaching, and study. Open our hearts to hear your Good News, and grant us abundant energy to share that News in every encounter of our week. AMEN
Moment for Stewardship (in response to Matthew 25)
Matthew records the parable of the talents in Mt. 25. Designed to encourage the early Christians to engage in outreach to those who had not yet heard the Good News of Jesus, this parable gives us a thought for today as we prepare to share our morning offering.
Jesus tells how a man entrusted his property to his servants, and then left. (remember: a talent, here, is a significant sum of wealth, not the ability to play guitar or fry the best chicken).
Each servant decided what to do. The one trusted with the most reached out and doubled what he had been given. The one trusted with less, but still a significant amount, also reached out and doubled THAT entrusted amount.
How do you hear this parable?
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we’ve been entrusted with the Gospel. Until Jesus returns (or “While we live as followers of Christ”), we are charged with “stewarding” what belongs to Jesus but now entrusted to us. Here, we reach out to ____________ (feed the hungry? Welcome the stranger? Visit those in prison? Clothe those in need?…be specific with 1 or 2 ways this congregation is reaching out).
We’re investing what we’ve been given, building ways for the Good News to become manifest, in this part of the Realm of God. Your weekly financial support allows this to continue, along with the gifts of your time and your particular abilities.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
With joy, let us give thanks for the ways our giving and our sharing become one more verse in the scripture song of action and admiration:
“you see I’ve doubled what you left”, “well done, good and faithful servant”
Holy God, we give thanks for the ways we’re inspired by scripture to acts of care and compassion. Accept these tithes and offerings, and help us use them wisely and well, yearning to know we’re engaged in lives of “doing well” as your good and faith-full servants. AMEN
Invitation to Communion
Week by week we not only share the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts, but we share our lives as followers of the Way when we gather at this communion table.
We, who might ordinarily eat at a dining room table, snack at a take-out truck, or standing over the kitchen sink, gather around a table set with tiny tastes of juice and broken pieces of bread. These emblems become weekly vitamins, providing building blocks of life for our week of work and witness. With these gifts, we’re empowered for the lives to which we’re called as disciples: lives of action and reflection, lives of reaching out and not holding back.
Come to this table because you hunger and thirst for Jesus Power!
Come to this table because you’re eager to be “good and faithful servants”!
Come to this table because here you meet the One who lived, died and was raised to new life, whom we yearn to know more completely.
Come!