Liturgy
God, your mercy and love astounds us. We
continually struggle to grasp the idea of
unconditional love, all the while, asking to
experience your love and grace more fully.
Today, we offer our lives afresh.
Enable us to see where you are
active and to be used by you.
When life is hard may we learn to praise you.
When life is busy may we learn to praise you.
In the noise and in the calm, may our lives be
worship to you.
When we are often tempted by this world,
when we are tempted to be our own light,
and when our failures overwhelm our being,
may your word be our shield.
Your will is good, perfect and pleasing.
Let us see where you have been faithful
in the past, and help us trust and follow
you with our future.
We worship and pray
in the name of the Father,
of the Risen Son
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Community Confession
Lord Jesus, we are in need of forgiveness.
We see ourselves like your disciple, Peter,
reverting back to old ways of living, instead
of realizing your hope instilled in our hearts.
Lord, save us from ourselves.
We continue to live in the same patterns
of failure, expecting different results.
Lord, save us from doing too much.
We preoccupy ourselves every day,
unaware of your invitation to join you
with a meal and to be in your presence.
Lord, save us from doing too little.
We say we love you, and yet so
often we neglect those around us.
Lord, save us from ourselves.
Help us to hear and respond
when you say, “Follow me.”
Lord, hear our prayers,
and we pray to our God
in community, holy in One.
Amen.
(Rev. Nathan Decker)
Sermon and Reflection
Sermon Podcast 4.10.16 -Taste of Resurrection
What are some expectations that we’ve had but are not what is reality right now?
What season in your life and relationship with God is ending or has ended so that you can experience new things?
Who are those in our lives where forgiveness will allow us to practice the importance of relationship over rightness?
Benediction
Christ asks if we love him.
If we say yes, he says;
“Then care for one another.”
This is our opportunity to make a
difference, to live lovingly on the
frontiers of his bright new world.
We can not promise to do it perfectly, but we
can strive,relying on his abundant wisdom
to take our small love, and fit it into the
larger pattern of good for all creation.
May God bless the world in which you
move, and bless your home and friends.
May God bless the eyes with which you see,
and bless the ears with which you listen.
May God bless the way you use your hands,
and bless the way you employ your tongues,
for our God has invited us into his story.
So go forth, proclaiming
the love of the Father,
of the Risen Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Go in peace and live the church.
See you throughout the week.