Prayer As We Gather: Just when we want to run away, Lord, emotional fatigue fueled by political chaos nibbling at our sanity and weakening our resolve, our weary spirits longing to flee the tasks to which you have set us, prophet Jeremiah’s sobering demand for resilience jolts us back to our vocation as your children: “Cultivate your gardens, establish families, pray, promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you.” May this holy hour find us honing the tools required to tend your garden, so we might bloom where we are planted. Amen.*(Inspired by Jeremiah 29)
Call to Worship:
Shout joyfully, sing praises to God’s glory!
Come and see God’s awesome deeds.
God rules with power forever,
Keeps a good eye on the nations.
But you, God, have tested us, refined us like silver,
Trapped us in a net, laid burdens on our backs,
Let other people run right over our heads.
But you brought us out to freedom! (from Psalm 66, The Common English Bible)
Morning Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for common criminal Paul, imprisoned-but-unbowed apostle enduring everything for the sake of lonely pilgrims yet unborn, wayfaring strangers such as we, longing for deliverance through Jesus’ cruciform incarnation of your unconditional love. As our nation groans under relentless assaults upon human freedom, the rule of law and the dignity your immigrant children, we take heart in Paul’s defiant cry: “God’s word cannot be imprisoned; if we endure, we will also prevail together, so present yourself to God as a tried-and-true worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, but interprets the message of truth correctly.” So here we are, Lord, present and accounted for, ready to enlist in service to the Galilean who taught us to pray, saying …*(Inspired by 2 Timothy 2)
Prayer of Confession: Forgive us, Lord, for morphing Jesus’ ministry-action summons – the Way - into a sedentary spectator destination we call church. We long for low-demand miracles, citing Jesus’ healing of the ten lepers, neglecting the unsettling truth that they were cleansed on their way to the priests, not as the result of any priestly religious ritual. We conveniently ignore the uncomfortable fact that only one of the ten, a despised Samaritan considered a half-breed by his Jewish fellow lepers, returned to offer thankful praise, prompting Jesus’ stinging retort: “No one returned to praise God except this foreigner?” We marvel at the obvious appreciative joy so often displayed by immigrants earning subsistence wages, even as we whine at our minor daily inconveniences. Have mercy on our passive, consumerist distortions of the Gospel. Amen. (Inspired by Luke 17)
Assurance of Pardon: Take heart, for Jesus is still showing mercy, even in the face of our jaded, second-hand faith that reduces worship’s mystery to mere religious entertainment and quasi-magic God talk. Jesus offers us the same whimsical entreaty – “Go!” – he extended to the lepers, then patiently waits to see if we show obedience and gratitude for the healing he offers our split, splintered selves. Thanks be to God for the weekly Sabbath witness to Jesus’ offer of restoration to wholeness, available to any who are willing to act upon his basic invitation and receive his commendation: “Your faith has healed you.” *(Inspired by Luke 17)
Thought for a Sabbath Day: “Jesus has always been at the borders, at the threshold. Where are we? Is God calling us to cross a boundary in order to bring healing?” - Dennis Sanders, Disciples of Christ pastor, St. Paul, Minnesota