Psalm 46:1, and
God, you are with us in the smiling days of May
and in the bitter winds of February.
You are with us in sunshine and storm,
on the mountaintop and in the valley.
You are with us when the earth shakes,
when the waters rise,
when the fire consumes.
In this hour of worship
help us hear your still small voice
after the whirlwind. Amen.
Jesus invites us to this table.
He comes to the table with humility;
he is a Saviour who washes our feet.
Jesus invites the people without power
and the people with power to sit side by side,
students in the school of love.
The table is wide and expansive,
encompassing the whole world;
we eat today with people from Indonesia, Ireland and Iraq,
from Kenya, Cuba and China.
We join with the cloud of witnesses who have come before us,
to share this holy meal
and learn of the great love God has for us.
God of hope, we need your presence here,
because sometimes hope is in short supply.
We’ve been dealing with this pandemic for a year,
and we are so very tired of this all.
Thank you that scientists were able to develop vaccines in short order
and we celebrate that some people have had their shots already.
We need your help with this vaccine rollout to make it fair,
so that the most needy get it soonest.
We pray for countries where no vaccines are available,
On our journey through the year,
we give you thanks for this springtime season:
the heady aroma of millions of blossoms bursting around us,
the excited hum of busy bees doing your work,
the breathtaking beauty of green, so welcome to our eyes.
You are a great God, the painter of incredible landscapes
that we pass through each and every day.
We come to you today at many different stages of our faith journey.
Some of us are wondering, should we make a commitment to you?
For some of us, baptism happened last year, for others decades ago.
Thank you for your faithfulness in our lives….
God, you great Searcher of our hearts,
is this the place where remorse begins?
You know our lives through and through.
You’ve seen the wrongs we try to hide,
the wrongs we dare to do in plain sight
and the wrongs we don’t even notice.
As we pause in the awareness of your gaze on us,
is this the place where repentance begins?
Go into your week
knowing that the God of all care
will keep you safe from harm,
that the Spirit of care will fill your hearts,
and that Jesus himself
will walk by your side. Amen
God, make us truly faithful; body and soul.
Faithful to your love, your trust in us;
sticking close to you through thick and thin.
Faithful to those dear to us,
putting their needs first.
Faithful to our partners, if we have them,
loving their flesh as our own.
Faithful to the stranger,
honouring their humanity.
Faithful to the hungry and hurting,
sharing food and comfort.
We confess our unfaithfulness:
Remember your angels and their glorias,
their promise of “on earth peace”?
God Almighty, we are wondering what is going on.
Jesus was wonderful, and yes, in my heart there lives a melody,
but honestly, things are getting out of hand.
We need an intervention.
Hatred growing, prejudice spewing, greed hoarding, and
tick tick tick goes the doomsday clock and
drip drip drip goes the great Antarctic shelf.
What are we to do with all these new babies
hopeful and fresh faced, looking at us expectantly?
When it’s time to hand it over, what have we got?
The sun slides to the horizon
and our thoughts slide to you,
God of heaven and earth.
As the shadows lengthen,
we rest our weary bodies.
Let the peace of the evening
fill us as we pray.
Thank you for all that we experienced today:
moments of energy and engagement,
moments of inactivity and quietness,
I am a Mennonite pastor currently teaching theology at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario. I’ve served congregations in Ontario and most recently, Alberta.
I love to write and to lead worship! If you are finding my writing helpful, I would love to hear from you! Feel free to use or adapt the material here, it is all written by me. If printing material, please credit “Copyright Carol Penner www.leadinginworship.com” (and say whether you modified it). If publishing, please contact me for permission. Contact me at carol@leadinginworship.com
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