Worship Resources for
the Center for Faith and Giving
Lent 1
Genesis 9:8-17
Psalm 25:1-10
1 Peter 3:18-22
The 40 day season of Lent began with Ash Wednesday and runs until Easter Day (3/31). Traditionally observed as a season of penitence, Lent is often marked by fasting, praying and alms-giving (providing for the poor).
As a change, the Call to Worship in these Lenten resources will be in unison, followed by a unison opening prayer, including a moment of confession.
Call to Worship (adapted from Ps. 25)
We join our voices to call on the Lord in this hour of worship.
We trust in God.
We celebrate all the ways God leads us in the ways which are right.
Come! Let us worship this God of steadfast love and faithfulness!
Opening Prayer
God, full of mercy and steadfast love,
tune our hearts and steady our minds.
Help us pour our focused energy into worship, here and now.
Make us know your ways. Forgive our brokenness.
Set our feet onto your paths of steadfast love and faithfulness.
Restore us to wholeness, and to holiness, in this season of Lent,
even as we pray, grateful for your presence in each of us,
and in this very room. AMEN
Moment for Stewardship
In church history, the Sundays during the season of Lent are not days for fasting, but are each a “little Easter”. For anyone who has been stepping away (“giving up”) something particular for this season, Sundays might well be a time to step toward or “give to”.
If you’ve put away your phone for part of each day, use your phone today to call someone who would be surprised and pleased to hear from you.
If you’ve given up chocolate (or sugar), use today as a day to share your favorite sweet with someone who could use a treat.
If you’ve stepped away from eating out, buy a gift card and share it with someone who might NEVER be financially able to eat out.
And, if you’ve not usually participated in sharing your finances with this congregation, make this a day to stretch your giving muscle, and make a contribution – of your cash-on-hand, from your weekly paycheck, via our giving app, or of your accumulated resources with a check or an on-line contribution.
Make THIS day a giving day, remembering the angels who waited on Jesus in the wilderness long ago.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
With deep gratitude, Holy Giver of Life, we offer our gifts to you.
We joyfully recognize this day as a “little Easter”,
in anticipation of the day we’ll sing out our “Alleluia” song,
grateful for the ways you bring “yes” out of the “no” of our world
and a life of abundance out of the death of our greed and selfishness.
AMEN
Invitation to Communion
(adapted from June Goudey, The Feast of our Lives; Re-Imaging Redemption, Pilgrim Press, 2002)
Sundays in Lent are for feasting not fasting.
So come to this table with hope.
Come, too, with hearts ready to receive, for God’s gifts are now before us.
The Holy One is here, with us and before us.
Let us open our spirits as we come, giving thanks and praise to God.
Celebrate new life as we are fed by the bread of life
and filled by the fruit of the vine.
Come, eat willingly and joyfully, even as we sing:
(use “Take our Bread”, CH 413 or “Eat This Bread”, CH 414)
Prayer following communion
We thank you, Holy God,
for blessing these gifts, that they may fortify us for the journeys before us and for blessing us, that we may live from this day forth with generous and
expansive hearts.
Through these gifts of bread and cup may we become a community of your true justice, acting in your name in all we do and say. AMEN