Scripturally Based Service Resources (Epiphany 6C)

Epiphany 6C

Call to Worship (a meditation on 1 Corinthians 15:12-20)

L: God has promised a new day!
P: And it is here!
L: God has promised new life!
P: And God raised Jesus from the dead to transform our lives forever!
L: Let us praise our God for giving us this day and for gathering us to worship and serve together in Jesus' name.
P: God is good and gracious. In Christ God always loves us. Praise God!

Prayer of Confession (adapted from Jeremiah 17:5-10)

O God, who tests the mind and searches the heart, forgive me when I am thoughtless in the face of great need; and have mercy on me when I my heart is hardened to the suffering of others. Too often I have trusted in what mortals say and have not believed your words. I have listened to politicians and purveyors of worldly wisdom and have forgotten your love, your justice, and your truth. No wonder I feel like a shrub in the desert, forcing my soul to live in parched places. Make me like the tree planted by the water that is not afraid when heat comes. Try me and know my heart, search me and know my thoughts. Transform me by your grace so that I may live rejoicing in your love. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon (adapted from Psalm 1)

L: Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread; but they delight in God.
P: We know that when we love as God loves, we become like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves to not whither. Our loving helps God’s love to prosper in an abundance of justice, righteousness and joy.
L: God forgives those whose hearts are set on loving and doing what is right. In Christ we are set free from the burden of our wrongdoing to fully receive God’s love.
P: Thanks be to God!

A Litany of Confession and Pardon (adapted from Luke 6:17-30)

L: Jesus said, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
P: Even our enemies, even those who would do us harm, even those who hate us? How can we do this?
L: Jesus said, “How happy you will be when people hate you, exclude you, say nasty things about you because you are my follower.”
P: God forgive us when we choose the easy wrong over the hard right, and help us to rejoice in your Will and Way.
L: Jesus said, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
P: Even those who ask me for my livelihood, for that which is near and dear to me, even the coat off my back?
L: Yes, even the coat off your back, even tax money for the poor. For God blesses the poor and wants those of us who have to provide for those of us who have not.
P: God forgive us when we repay your abundance with scarcity, your generosity with miserliness; and help us love others as you have loved us – freely, completely, and eternally.
L: God does forgive us: especially when we do justice for the poor and feed the hungry with good things; when we forgive our enemies and ourselves for our mutual hatred; when we look at the blessings that we have received not as our birthright to hoard but as a legacy to share.
P: We trust that God does forgive whenever we do to others as we would have them do to us. Amen.