Perhaps the recurring theme could be the growth of the community of faith as we walk the discipleship path. Perhaps the emphasis of the worship team could be in enlarging the vision of how the community includes and gathers in; how the constituency of the community of faith is multihued, multi-tongued, multi- equipped and multi-generational. When the Word draws near, we begin to reflect the image of the kin-dom as a whole. Who is missing from our fellowship? Who have we ignored, or forgotten, or given up on?

Words of Greeting/Call to Prayer

L: The Spirit of God gave the universe birth.
P: The Spirit of God delivered the world.
L: Our God is the first; our God is the last.
P: No other god declares the word of creation.
L: Yet this same God invites us, saying, “Do not be afraid!”
P: Worship the One who banishes fear, who comforts the trembling and quickens the faint! Worship the One whose creation is renewed and whose creatures are never forsaken!

From https://lifeinliturgy.wordpress.com/2014/07/29/pentecost-9a-proper-14a-aug-10/

Congregational Prayer

Lord If It’s You …

Lord, it it’s you, we need to hear from you

When we are alone
When we go away to pray
When we have little faith
When we are battered by the waves
When the wind is against us
When we get in the boat
When we’re terrified by our ghosts
When we seek you on the mountain
When we cry out in fear
When we start walking on water
When we begin to sink
When we are far from land

Lord, if it’s you,
speak to us
calm our fears
calm our storms
Strengthen our resolve
Remind us who you are
Walk to us
Call to us
Save us
Reach out your hand and catch us
Quiet the wind around us.

Lord, if it’s you, we worship you for “Truly you are the Son of God.”

(Tony Peterson, The Africana Worship Book: Year A, Discipleship Resources, 2006, p. 91.)

Collect of the Day

Matthew 14:22-33

In our chaotic turbulence, O God,
you come to us
as on the seething, heaving of the sea.
Call us to come, O God,
that in our constancy,
our eyes upon the Lord,
we come unto your presence,
laden with all latent joy.