Here are materials for worship on the 4th Sunday after Pentecost, Year A. If you'd like to recite this along with the podcast, click here to stream that.
Call to Worship Psalm 89 Adapted
One: I will sing of your steadfast love, O LORD, forever; All: with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations. One: I declare that your steadfast love is established for ever; All: your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.
One: Let the heavens praise your wonders, O LORD, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones. All: For who in the skies can be compared to the LORD? One: Who among the heavenly beings is like the LORD?
All: Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; One: steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. All: Happy are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O LORD, in the light of your countenance. One: We exult in your name all day long, and extol your righteousness. All: For our shield belongs to the LORD, our LORD is the LORD of Israel.
One: In this Living God it is as we now proclaim
in greeting one another, “The peace of the LORD be with you.”
All: And also with you.
One: Let us pray.
Prayer of Invocation and Confession
Faithful God, in whom we live and move and have our being, we gather in your grace and your grandeur, rejoicing that you are behind us and before us: you hem us in and there is nowhere we could go that is beyond your abounding. Though our faith might be small and brittle, your faithfulness is reliable and resilient; though our desire to dwell in your midst might be fickle and capricious, your desire for us timeless and eternal. Though we cannot gather in our buildings for worship, we can as ever gather in the shelter of your presence, the tent of your creating.
Grant that the spanning story of your creating and redeeming and walking with us might be the only and true sanctuary we need. Help us to find our home in this story; help us to find our kin among this people. Free of us from the many and terrible gods of the world, which demand our loyalty or tempt our devotion, which mislead us into blind alleys or misguide us into death-dealing dynamics. Free us indeed to follow you, to listen for your voice of hope and salvation, to attend to your promise which is for all creation. Strengthen us and make us wise to discern your speaking so to understand your will as to how best to live by your love and justice. This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
