Worship Resources for
the Center for Faith and Giving
Second Sunday after Pentecost
Call to Worship (in response to Galatians 3:23-29)
Leader: Come! Let’s celebrate our connection to God, through Jesus, the Christ.
People: Yes! We are all children of God! This is our truth.
Leader: As many as have been baptized into Christ have been clothed with our Lord, Jesus Christ.
People: No longer are we divided by gender, age, race, language; we are ONE in Christ!
Leader: We belong to Christ,
People: We give thanks because we are heirs of God’s love!
(Consider singing “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” Chalice Hymnal # 517.)
Opening Prayer
Almighty God, we offer you our prayer and praise this morning,
grateful for the love which you pour out on each and on all your beloved children.
Fill us once more with your Spirit, that we might celebrate the inheritance you provide for us.
Open our hearts, our minds and our spirits even as we open our hands to receive your gifts in worship today.
AMEN
Moment for Stewardship (inspired by Luke 8:26-39)
Luke’s Gospel includes many stories of Jesus healing men and women. In Luke 8, we hear the story of the man afflicted with demons – today we might consider him someone with severe mental illness. Because of his affliction, he was sent to live in a graveyard. When Jesus met this man, he immediately cast out the demons (unclean spirits). Then Jesus listened to the spirits and gave them permission to inhabit a herd of swine rather than be consigned to the abyss. Jesus sat with the healed man and heard he wanted to follow Jesus. Instead, Jesus told the man, “Return home and tell everyone what God has done for you.”
I wonder how you would respond to that assignment? What do you say God has done for you?
Your answer to that question may push you to a response of gratitude.
Today may our offering time let our grateful hearts lead us to offer ourselves back to God.
Will you offer a gift of time? Of talent? Of your financial resources?
All the above?
(You might sing, have a soloist sing, or the choir share Chalice Hymnal #528, “Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart.”)
Prayer of Thanksgiving
God of all good gifts,
We offer ourselves in these quiet moments, grateful for what we receive from you each day.
Please receive our gifts of gratitude, help us use them wisely, and strengthen our desire to share
more and more of all you provide to build up your realm on earth, as it is in heaven. AMEN
Invitation to Communion
Fear challenges most of us, at least on occasion.
And we understand fear makes most of us respond by freezing, fighting or fleeing.
In the Luke 8 text, Jesus faced up to the fear of the unclean spirits and the crowd who came to see what happened to the “crazy” man and to the swine.
One way we can face up to fear is to gather at this Table. Here we gather in community.
Here we remember and give thanks for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ.
Here we take in these tiny morsels of bread and a thimbleful of juice,
only to find it is a feast which gives us strength to stand up to the fears which threaten us.
Come! You are welcome at this meal.
Come! In these emblems may you find courage to face up to the fears around and within.
Here may you be filled with a vision of all God intends for you, for us, and for God’s whole cosmos.