For Proper 8C

OPENING PRAYER

God, we are here.

Here to pray, here to visit, here to re-connect.

God we are here.

Here to be refreshed, here to be challenged, here to be sent out.

God we are here.

In the time that we are here prepare us for the week that is to come, empower us to be people who live Your love.

This we pray in the name and spirit of the one who taught us about Your love and Your way, the one who taught his friends to pray together saying...

  

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE

By their fruits they shall be known...

Apple or orange, healthy or poisonous, tasty or sour.

By their fruits they shall be known...

So what are we? We strive to be the good fruit that builds up the body.

You are what you eat...

Life-Giving God, help us to tend and pay attention to the good fruits around us, to take them in so that they would change and flow through us.

You are what you eat...

Feed us with the fruits of the spirit, and remind us that they are what we need – even when it would be so much more tempting to sneak something that looks so much more tasty.

God is the one who feeds us. God is the one who prepares us for life. God's grace allows us to learn what is wholesome and what is not. God is the gardener, helping us to produce sweet, healthy, fruit.

Thanks be to God who gives us growth. Amen.

COMMISSIONING:

What is the purpose of the fruit tree?

To produce fruit.

What is the purpose of the fruit of the tree?

To feed others, to carry the seed to other places.

You are the fruit of God's Tree of Life!

So we go out to feed others, to carry the seed of God's love into new places where it can grow to full flower.

As you share in this task remember that God who plants, who waters, who gives the growth is with you always.

Thanks be to God the Gardener!

For Proper 7C

CALL TO WORSHIP

In the midst of the noisiness of the city, the noisiness of life,

we hunger for a time of peace and quiet.

The God who speaks in grandiose thunder, and also in stillness, has called us together,

we have come together to worship, to be refreshed, to engage the God of noise and silence.

OPENING PRAYER

God, once again we have gathered in this place;

once again we are here to explore how you are active in our lives.

In this time of worship, this time of pause from the world,

move among and within us, speak to us in speech and song and silence.

And as we prepare to go back out into the world,

help us carry the confidence that we are not alone, even if we can not hear Your voice we are not alone. Amen.

COMMISSIONING:

Our worship comes to a close, our service and ministry continue.

We go out from here to share the love of God with all those we meet.

And as we go, we take hope and courage and strength;

from the knowledge that God is with us always.

Sometimes in noise and flash and grandeur,

and sometimes in the still small silence.

Thanks be to God.

For Proper 6C

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE (based on Psalm 32)

Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

God of Grace, we come before you as people who stumble on the path, people who miss the mark from time to time.

Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

God of Grace we rejoice in the promise of forgiveness, of release from the bondage of guilt, of the slate being wiped clean

Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

God of Grace, trusting in your grace we lay our lives – the victories and the defeats – in your lap.

Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to you; at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them.

...time of silent prayer...

Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

We are loved, we are welcomed home, we are forgiven. Thanks be to the God of Grace! Hallelujah!

A summer Prayer for Grace

God of gentle rains and warm sun, God who encourages growth;

we are creatures who sometimes grow quickly, and sometimes get stuck.

God of freedom, of liberation, of binding ropes being cut;

we are bound in ways we don't always understand or recognize.

God of exodus and exile and homecoming, God who calls us to leave where we are and come home;

help us to have the courage to make the journey and to trust in the path.

God of health and healing, God who wants us to be made whole;

we come as people who are wounded in body and in spirit, people who seek healing.

God who has laid out a way for us to live, who has given us rules for living in community;

we come as people who sometimes go astray, people who stretch the rules.

God of Grace, we come as people who live through that Grace.

And so we praise you for the growth, we rejoice in being set free, we dance along the path that leads us home, we give thanks for the healing we have received, we relax in the knowledge that we are forgiven and we live as people of Grace. Amen.

For Proper 5C -- Particularly to go with Psalm 146

PRAYER FOR AND ASSURANCE OF GRACE

In God we trust...

or at least we try to. But sometimes it seems so hard.

In God we trust...

you know it would be easier if we saw clear signs that there was a plan. Or at least were sure things would go the way we want.

In God we trust?

Well to be honest we find it a lot more tempting to trust in ourselves and maybe the people around us ...

“Do not put your trust in mortals in whom there is no help”

Yes we know, we trust and we get burnt. So do we rely only on ourselves?

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God

In God we trust. God, for those times we find it hard to trust...

Forgive and strengthen us we pray...

...time of silent prayer...

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God,

who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever;

In God WE Trust! God is steadfast and helps us grow in wisdom. Hallelujah!

Prayer for & Assurance of Grace

Singer-God, you call us to join in the song of life,

but we are unsure of the melody, or convinced we can't carry a tune in a bucket.

Sometimes you call us to carry the melody, sometimes to harmonize,

and sometimes our inability to harmonize or blend results in cacophony and dis-chord

And sometimes you call us to stop and listen and appreciate the music,

but in our busy-ness we are sure we have no time to “waste” with such things.

God of classical symphonies, of chest-thumping power rock, of twanging steel guitars...

help us to appreciate the music of Life, Your music, however it comes to our ears.

God of old-time Gospel, God of new-fangled praise songs, God of monastic chant, for the times when we don't hear or enjoy or sing Your music because it doesn't match our expectations or understanding of what that music should be:

forgive us, open our ears, help us to sing...

...time of silence...

The Singer calls us to sing joyfully. The Song-writer gives us the tune and challenges us to give it our all. Even when we hit a sour note from time to time, the tune continues and we keep singing.

Thanks be to God! Hallelujah!

Prayer for and Assurance of Grace

God of Easter, in the Resurrection you invite us to embrace death and new life.

But we are afraid of the uncertainties in that cycle.

God of Pentecost, you fill us with Spirit and ignite a flame of hope in our hearts.

And we hesitate, unsure how to handle that wind and heat.

God of Grace, you challenge us to live in such a way that the world is transformed by our lives.

But in the end we are hesitant to take risks, we are unclear where You are calling us to go.

God of Love, you have commanded us to live love to neighbours, enemies, friends and family.

For those times when we have left the Love out of our actions forgive us and strengthen us to choose differently next time...

...time of silent prayer...

The God of the Empty Tomb, the God of Pentecost's wind and fire, the God who calls us to be more than we are, is a God of Grace and Mercy. Where we miss the mark God offers forgiveness and helps us find the wisdom to learn and grow in faith.

Thanks be to God! Hallelujah! Amen