Call to Worship

Even Now, Return to Me: A Litany Leading to Prayer

One: Even now, return to me, says God. Let the sirens in the streets rage; let the trumpet from the church house blow. Let those consumed with darkness, gloomy from bad fortunes know that:

Many: Even now, God says, return to me.

One: Let the abused and abusing hear, the defiant and disobedient revere. Let the sinner and the scornful draw near. Return from your ignorance, return from your injustice. Return from your apathy, return from your agony.

Many: Even now, God says, return to me.

One: Return from your selfishness, return from your greed. Return from your neglect, return out of your need.

Many: Even now, God says, return to me.

One: Return to me, with a clean heart. Return to me with fasting, weeping and mourning.

ALL: Return to me, God says, for I am gracious and merciful; I am slow to anger and full of steadfast love. Return to me, God says, for I am your God.

Written by Joseph W. Daniels, Jr., in The Africana Worship Book, Year B (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2007), 84.

Prayer for the Day

Creating God,
still Center of the world you have made,
we come to you in this season of turning and returning.
We do not know how to seek you with our whole hearts,
but we know you are our source and our destiny.
In the midst of life,
we return to you, we turn toward you.
We thank you that you receive even the broken heart,
the troubled conscience, the conflicted spirit.
Seeking you in secret, may we honor you in public,
through Jesus Christ, our path homeward to you. Amen.

Written by Ruth C. Duck, in Touch Holiness: Resources for Worship, Updated, ed. Ruth C. Duck and Maren C. Tirabassi (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2012), 63.

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Prayer of Confession

Confession is an act of trust. When we honestly name our sins, individual and corporate, to God, we trust that God receives our confession, because it is God’s grace that empowers us to recognize our sin and repent. So, let us join our voices in confessing our sin before God and one another:

Merciful God, we confess that too often we make choices about what we should and should not do based on what others will think of us. We seek the validation of family, friends, and even strangers instead of resting in our sacred worth and identity in you. And so, we travel the path of least resistance when we know that path does not align with yours.

Forgive us, God, when we perform for one another instead of living with integrity in you.

Merciful God, we confess that we place too much value on money, prestige, and influence. We live in a society that tells us we need more and more and more in order to live secure and satisfied lives, and we choose to live according to this lie to the detriment of ourselves and our neighbors.

Forgive us, God, when we treasure wealth, status, possessions, and power over and above contrition, humility, generosity, and mutuality.

Merciful God, we confess that we do not love you rightly. While we may love you with part of our lives, we do not love you as God with our whole lives. We resist your call to surrender our lives into your hands and to trust that you will care for us as individuals and as a community better than we could ever do on our own.

Forgive us, God, when we point our hearts toward selfish gain instead of the lasting worth of life with you.

Offer prayers of silent confession.

Receive this good news:
We love because God first loved us.
In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven.
In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven.

Repent and believe, for God’s grace empowers us live in the humility of the beautiful and freeing truth that God is God, and we are not.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, September 2023.

Benediction

What are your hands doing?
For there your heart will be.

Where do your feet take you?
For there your heart will be.

Where does your attention direct you?
For there your heart will be.

Go, now, to follow God with your hands, your feet, and your attention, that you may be blessed to find your heart—and your treasure—where God is. Amen.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, September 2023.