These are worship materials for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost. To listen to a podcast version of the sermon, click here.
Call to Worship Psalm 146 Adapted
One: Praise the Lord!
All: Praise the Lord, O my soul!
One: I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
All: I will sing praises to my God all my life long.
One: Let’s not put our trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.
All: When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish.
One: Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob—
All: —whose hope is in the Lord their God,
One: —who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them;
All: —who keeps faith forever;
O
ne: —who executes justice for the oppressed;
All: —who gives food to the hungry.
One: The Lord sets the prisoners free!
All: The Lord opens the eyes of the blind!
One: The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down.
All: The Lord loves the righteous—those who are, those who aim.
One: As people of this aim, we now can truly say in greeting one another,
“The peace of the Lord be with you.”
All: And also with you.
Prayer of Invocation (in unison)
Gracious God, bless our worship with your presence, and bless our hearts with faith. We pray from a world that often bewilders us. We pray as a people who mean to be good and to do what’s right. Yet so often being good isn’t so clear as to how; so often our doing what’s right ends in unintended consequences. So often what we intend is not what we effect.
Save us from this misbegotten state. Grant us your grace that, where our action fails to reach righteousness, we might repose in your good will yet being done. Fill us with your Holy Spirit that we might trust you as always good and just, and still us when we become overzealous or self-righteous. Forgive us that we’re more confident in ourselves than in you; forgive us our willfulness, our pride, our impatience. Make our hearts humble, and our judgment gentle and wise. Free us from divisive thinking that would work in the world so to separate, divide, condemn.
We pray this in Jesus’ name, he who would have us rest assured of your working in all things for good toward an end that is redemption for all in glory eternal with you. Amen.
