Liturgy

Lord God, make us pilgrims throughout these forty days.
Lead us through discipline to discipleship.
Jesus, remember us when you come into your kingdom.

We offer you our prayers this day:
For your church around the world,
we ask for new life.
For all who carry out ministries in your church,
we ask for grace and wisdom.

For people who have accepted spiritual disciplines,
we ask for inspiration and perseverance.
For this troubled and warring world,
we ask for peace.

For those who can not believe,
we ask for your faithful love.
For people who suffer and sorrow,
we ask for your healing peace.

God of compassion,
we thank you that you look upon our lives
with love and understanding,
and that you desire for all to have new life in Jesus Christ.

By your Spirit, strengthen our souls to be steadfast
in Christ’s service.

We pray in the name of the Father,
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Congregational Prayer

In prayer, let us confess to God as a community.

Lord of our hearts, God of our lives, hear our prayers:
the sighs, the cries, the joys of our deepest thoughts.

We share all our thoughts with you, O God,
knowing that you hear and answer us,
providing us with what is best.
Come, O God, and hear us now.

Lord of all, source of health and healing,
we come to you with worries, concerns, fears, wrongs, and sins.

We seek your compassion,
turning over to you all that separates us from you,
God of our hectic busyness and petty obsessions,
God of our secrecies and our defeats.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.

We pray to you, our God in community, holy in One.
Amen.

— written by Lisa Frenz

Reflection

Do we embrace the rescue of God?
How do our lives reflect our answer to Jesus’ question of whether we’ll follow him?

Benediction

May you depart knowing the invitation of God, to move
from comfort to insecurity,
from what we know to what we have yet to discover,

from where we have been to where we have yet to go,
from safety to a place of risk.

Go in the name of Jesus, our Christ,
who said ‘follow me’ without saying where he was going,
just promising transformation and relationship
with the Triune God along the way.

Live this week, praising the name
of the Father, of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Go in peace and live the church.
See you throughout the week.

[Photo by M/TB/ZM/L @ Flickr]