Tag Archives: Epiphany Liturgy

Worship Service for Epiphany 5A

05 Wednesday Feb 2020

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Call to Worship
One: As the sun climbs from the horizon
Many: God’s presence endures with us.
One: As the clouds mask the sun’s warming presence,
Many: God’s presence remains with us.
One: As the sun drifts back to the horizon,
Many: God’s presence lingers with us.
One: As light rests until morning,
Many: God’s presence persists with us.

Invocation
Gleaming God-
No matter how cold the winds whip around us,
No matter how chilly stares and words may appear,
No matter how frigid our despairing hearts,
Your light warms our souls and melts our cynicism.

Divine Brilliance-
May your morning light encourage us to walk your way.
May your rays of sun reach us from behind the clouds
And encourage us in these weeks of winter.  Amen.

Prayer of Reconciliation
Holy God, Holy Light who abides within our souls,
We have hoarded the light-
thinking we will spend it on a rainy day.

We have stashed the light far away from our neighbors.
We worry: Would they steal our light from our souls?
Would we have enough illumination when the clouds roll back in?

Through your eternal, inspirational light, encourage us to share the light with our neighbors.
May this light feed the hungry, house the homeless, care for the sick.
May this light draw us closer to one another.
May we become people moved by the brilliance of Christ.  Amen.

Assurance of Grace
Like the sun each morning at daybreak,
God’s grace renews our spirits,
energizing us to start fresh in each moment.
Live in the bright, excitement of this grace!  Amen!

Invitation to Offering
Like a flame spreading from one candle to the next, we, too, are encouraged to share light and love with our neighbors and church. We give because God has given us much.  We love because God’s love is overflowing.  In this time and place, may we give our treasures so that God’s love and light can be experienced by all.

Prayer of Dedication
Gleaming God, with these offerings, may our neighbors experience your love.  With these treasures, may the world know your light and continue to pass your brilliant hope to all.  Amen.

Benediction (Based on Isaiah 58)
May your light break forth like the dawn.
May your gloom be like the noonday.
May God guide each of us continually
So that we live as bright, watered gardens
Where water and light never fail.  Amen.

“Illuminate Your Winter” Worship Service

08 Friday Feb 2019

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The idea for this worship service was brought to me at my last congregation by a retired pastor.  As the days are often extremely gloomy and cold in January and February, this is a time to remind ourselves that God’s steadfast presence is near.  For many of our siblings in faith, seasonal affective disorder is a struggle because of the dreary, chilly winter days.  This worship service is to recognize that there are things that obstruct us from seeing God’s brilliance, and we are called to carry light even on gloomy winter days.

This is also an opportunity to look at darkness as something beautiful.  While we are recognizing gloomy, cloudy, cold days as difficult, we recognize the night sky and darkness as glorious and a gift from God.

Ideas for Scripture texts:

Isaiah 60:1-5, Matthew 5:14-16, John 1:1-9

 

Call to Worship
One: In this space, God’s glow surrounds us.
Many: In this place, God’s glimmer brightens the surrounding gloom.
One: We yearn to see the radiance from the sun’s company.
Many: We hope to see the moon’s glow accompanying us until the morn.
One: Winter’s malaise will not last long.
Many: Arise, friends.  For God’s warmth endures forever.

Invocation
Holy Radiance, Holy Spirit, in our seasons when gloom invades our skies, may your mirthful glow shine brightly.  As brisk winds monopolize our air, may your welcoming breezes nudge us to comfort and serve our world.  Help us to seek you beyond thick layers of clouds.  Encourage us to steer our neighbors to see you in the short days of winter and the long nights of summer.  Amen.

Prayer of Reconciliation
One: God of breezy nights and dreary days, we hoard Divine Brilliance for ourselves – even when we have been reminded that to love our neighbors means to spread light into the world.

All: Without thinking, we cast shadows across the earth.  Shift our perspectives so that we avoid becoming obstacles to God’s gleam.  May we become carriers of light instead of  barriers to God’s glow.  Amen.

Assurance of Grace
One: God will always share Divine Beauty with us.  God will call us to find splendor in darkness and magnificence in daylight as both are where God abides.  God will continue to ask us to share radiance and joy with our neighbors.  God gives us second chances, calling us again and again to be channels of love and warmth.

All:  Amen!  Thanks be to God!

Call to Offering
Holy Radiance, you fill our hearts with levity and our souls with joy.  Even in the seasons that appear gloomy, your steadfast presence kindles our spirits, sustaining us until the new season approaches.  In our gratitude for love and light, we share our gifts and our luminosity with our world.  Loving God, let us take these moments to share our treasures and reflect on how we share your Divine Glow with our world.

Prayer of Dedication
We look to you for what we need, God of Love.  We ask that you continue to fill our hearts with your Divine Glow.  Ignite our spirits so that we can pass along your radiance with our world.  We pray all of this with hearts of hope.  Amen.

Benediction
One: In seasons of despair, God’s Glow will warm our hearts.
In seasons of hopelessness, Christ’s Light will spark our minds.
In seasons of gloom, Holy Radiance will sustain our souls.

As clouds droop low and shadows stretch, let us carry Divine Illumination into our world!  Amen!

All: Amen!

Epiphany 3C Prayers

24 Thursday Jan 2019

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Call to Worship
One: Here we worship as one Body of Christ
Many: Here we worship as many different parts.
One: We minister as unique beings
Many: And yet, we care because we are in covenant with one another.
One: Connected by the same spirit, we strive to know one another.
Many: Connected as the one Body of Christ, we work to understand each other’s lives.

Invocation
One: Spirit of Creation, through you our entire universe came into being.  With you, our beautiful, complex bodies developed.  Through you, rich life-giving nutrients travel throughout our circulatory system.  With you, organs work together to present optimal health for humans.

Many: As we reflect on our physical composition, help us to see that each organ and each cell plays an important role in our health.  Direct us to claim that each atom in the Body of Christ has a role in the health of humanity.  Move us to celebrate the diversity of each cell and the connective tissue binding our souls.  Amen.

Prayer of Reconciliation
One: Divine Designer, we often expect uniformity in our faith – even when we are each uniquely created by you, God.  But even in our demand for uniformity, we forget our bonds to all other people and creation here on earth.

All: More often than we think, we neglect the great connection between God, neighbor, creation, and ourselves.  Sweep away our biases, God.  Heal our torn connections.  Inspire us to develop a world filled with healthy joints and synapses which will build relationships and communications.  Amen.

Assurance of Grace
One: God, the Great Healer, will mend our torn souls and wounded hearts.  God will call us to repair ripped connections as God desires for us to be whole.  With gratitude, we seek ways in which we can heal our world.  Amen!

All: Amen!  Thanks be to God!

Prayers written by Rev. Michelle L. Torigian.  Permission given to use these prayers with attribution.