Prayer as We Gather: God of new beginnings, we submit our lives this holy hour to Jesus’ radical sifting, recalling John the baptizer’s vision of a coming Messiah, shovel in hand, mucking out the threshing areas to receive fresh wheat and remove old husks. Prepare our hearts for your Spirit’s fire, sweeping away the husks of every comfortable addiction cluttering our being. Descend upon our hearts as you did during Jesus’ baptism, your voice assuring us we also are your beloved children in whom you find happiness. Amen.*(Mitchell Simpson, inspired by Luke 3)
Call to Worship:
Give to the Lord the glory due his name!
Bow down to the Lord in holy splendor!
The Lord’s voice is strong;
The Lord’s voice is majestic.
The Lord’s voice shakes the wilderness,
Strips the forests bare.
The Lord sits enthroned, king forever!
Let the Lord bless all people with peace! (from Psalm 29, the Common English Bible)
Morning Prayer: Lord, we are sobered by the account in Acts of disciples Peter and John journeying to Samaria to pray over new believers “because Holy Spirit had not yet fallen on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Perhaps many of us, raised in the safe, predictable confines of cultural Christianity, have only been baptized, never truly transformed by Holy Spirit. Perhaps that would explain why so many church members show so little evidence of Jesus’ imprint upon their lives. Perhaps that makes you sad. Perhaps it’s not too late for us to change. Come, Holy Spirit, as you once came with startling, dove-like, swift unpredictability upon the Galilean carpenter who taught us to pray, saying …*(Mitchell Simpson, inspired by Acts 8)
Prayer of Confession: Your imperative, O Lord, relayed with Isaiah’s classic verve, fails to convince our weary hearts: “Don’t fear, when you pass through the waters, for I have redeemed you, called you by name; you are mine.” But we do fear, Lord, as the swirling waters of cultural chaos and political dysfunction rise to sinister depths around us. Most days, we can’t seem to hear you calling our name. Most days, dread compels us toward despair, mocking your claim that we are yours. Rather, we shudder in the cold grasp of some unearthly power distinctly not you. We want to believe your promises, Lord. We want to hold on to hope. Help us where belief and hope fail us. Amen.*(Mitchell Simpson, inspired by Isaiah 43)
Assurance of Pardon: Take heart, for I have good news. God is not through with you or me, not done calling us by the ineffable names by which we were summoned before our birth. Take time, allow God to draw near in the silence, and you may yet hear the undimmed, caressing tone bidding us all toward unassailable truth: “You are precious in my eyes. You are honored. I love you, and I am with you always. Don’t be afraid.” Thanks be to God, for all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.*(Mitchell Simpson, inspired by Isaiah 43 and 14th century female English mystic, Julian of Norwich)
Thought for an Epiphany Sunday: “Go where your best prayers take you.” - Frederick Buechner, theologian