Liturgy
Gracious God,
we gather to remember and to give thanks
for the love we have received from you
and from those who love you.
We give thanks for those who love and care for us,
giving us a place of belonging, valuing us for who we are.
We give thanks for the valuable people
that surround us here today
for gifts that are shown here in this church
and in our community.
We give thanks for those who speak and those who do,
for those who dream and those who find ways
of bringing the dreams alive,
for those who write and those who play,
those who make and those who clean up,
for those who are always before us
and those we sometimes forget.
We give you thanks that we are this group of people,
able to offer our own abilities and insight.
Holy God, like your only Son, Christ Jesus,
show us new ways we can serve,
new ways that we may be a sign of your goodness
to all we meet.
For the gifts we have received
and the opportunity to give in return,
we thank you, oh God.
We pray in the name of the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Reflection
How can you be an integral building stone of the Vox community?
How will you partner in generosity and neighborhoods season?
Do you feel called to your vocation?
How can you pastor the people you live with and work with in this coming week?
Benediction
We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promises.
We lay foundations
that need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects
beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything
and there is a sense of liberation
in realizing that.
You enables us to do something
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,
a step along the way,
an opportunity for your grace
to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results
but that is the difference
between you, the master builder and the worker.
We are the workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets
of a future not our own.
We are your hands and your feet
in the world,
and we will go and build your church
in the name of you, the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Go and live the church. See you throughout the week.
[Photo by s’kat @ Flickr]