Here are worship materials for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost.
* Call to Worship Ephesians 4:1-16 Adapted
One: I beg you, let’s lead a life worthy of the calling to which we’ve been called:
All: with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
One: making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
All: There is one body and one Spirit,
just as we’ve been called to the one hope of our calling,
One: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,
who is above all and through all and in all.
All: But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
One: Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;
he gave gifts to his people.”
All: The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists;
One: some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ,
All: until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
One: We must no longer be children,
tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine,
All: set adrift by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.
One: But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body.
All: We must be joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped,
each part is working properly as promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
One: We begin this now, in our worship and our greeting one another,
“The peace of Christ be with you.”
All: And also with you.
Prayer of Invocation (in unison)
Loving God, open our hearts to your presence at this time, cleansing our minds of all anxious thoughts and bringing us to that promised place of peace.
For only here might we, in safety and assurance, confess that we have sinned against you: we have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. Forgive us then, as you already have done; and grant that such forgiveness will soften our hearts that we might be forgiving when sinned against, that we might be gracious when met with hard-heartedness, that we might be a blessing as we are so blessed, that we might be your people and your church.
We pray this—unified but not uniform—in the faith, and for the sake, of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the glory of your Name. Amen.