Here are worship materials for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany.
Call to Worship Psalm 139 Adapted
One: O Lord, you have searched us and known us.
All: You know when we sit down and when we rise up;
you discern our thoughts from far away.
One: You search out our journeys and places of rest,
and are acquainted with all our ways.
All: Even before a word is on our tongues, O Lord, you know it completely.
One: You hem us in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon us.
All: Such knowledge is too wonderful for us; it is so high that we cannot attain it.
One: For it was you who formed our inward parts;
you knit us together in our mothers’ wombs.
All: Our frames were not hidden from you, when we were being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
One: Your eyes beheld our unformed substance.
All: In your book were written all the days that were formed for us,
when none of us as yet existed.
One: We praise you, for we are each fearfully and wonderfully made.
All: Wonderful are your works; that we know very well.
One: How weighty to us are your thoughts, O God!
All: How vast is the sum of them!
One: We try to count them—they are more than the sand!
All: We come to the end—we are still with you.
One: So may it be as we proclaim to one another, “The peace of God be with you.”
All: And also with you.
Prayer of Confession (in unison)
Gathering God, call us and commission us for the doing of Your good will, the living out of Your love. We pray this knowing that many other voices call us, many other agendas beckon us to follow. Grant that our devotion might find its origin and aim in You.
Grant us also the faith that your truth can withstand our scrutiny. We can examine Your ways of expressing truth to us, study and probe Your way of enlightening our thinking. You, who comes to us in mystery, can withstand our demystifying. Indeed, our skepticism might be our most powerful tool for striking upon true faith.
Bless us, then, to spend this hour together coming to clear terms of what you call us to follow, and whether it is worthy of our devotion. Bless us that there is no secret here, just the open appeal of love, reality, and truth.
All this we pray, made bold in your son, Jesus Christ, and made powerful by your Holy Spirit, who together search us, know us, love us, and call us to speak of and live out our deep faith and high hope. Amen.
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