Call to Worship

One voice: Jesus is in our midst. Jesus, our healer, deliverer, and friend, is here.
Many voices: We have heard so many good things about him, but we long
to meet him, to encounter him ourselves.

One voice: Call out to him, and do not be silent. Like Bartimaeus, shout to him and do not allow anyone to silence your voice. Cry out and tell Jesus what you need!
Many voices: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us! We need a touch from you! Touch me; touch us in our need, which we lift right now in our hearts!

One Voice: In this time of worship, celebrate God’s goodness! In this time celebration of worship, know that Jesus touched your place of need. Hallelujah! Amen!

Adapted from Lillian C. Smith, The Africana Worship Book, Year B (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2007), 72.

Prayer for the Day

Lord God, our Provider.
We worship you as the one who meets our needs,
who grants our daily bread,
who restores our humanity.

We worship you as the God who knows human need from experience,
who knows want, and thirst and humiliation.

And we worship you as your people,
in a world where wealth is mixed with poverty;
where we have all we need, but don’t know how to share.
Where want, and hunger and thirst and humiliation are hidden
from those with the power to offer challenge and bring change.

So, open our hearts.
Not only that we learn sad facts about the world.
But that we may feel our place in this world, as your people.
Where there is need,
teach us to learn where our wealth lies and help us to give.
Where there is injustice,
teach us to learn the causes and help us to fight.
Where there is brokenness,
teach us to learn of our own brokenness and help us to bring wholeness.

Help us to look to you,
that we neither remain ignorant of the world,
nor lose ourselves in despair at its brokenness.

Show us how to worship you,
the crucified God,
the risen God,
the God who provides.

Help us to carry our cross,
to accept your gift of new life,
to bring that gift to others.

Adapted from the Baptist Union of Great Britain website. http://www.baptist.org.uk/. Re-posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2015/09/prayer-open-our-eyes.html.

Prayer of Confession

When we want to be a church ever-reforming,
yet cling to comfortable ways:
Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!

When we want to honor your “still speaking voice,”
but are fearful of insights which challenge old assumptions:
Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!

When we want to live into Jesus’ dream of oneness,
but fail to listen to voices of difference:
Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!

Words of Assurance

Take heart, get up; Jesus is calling to us!
We trust in the one who has guided the church for two millennia.
Through Christ, God forgives us our failings,
and continues to call us into a community of mutual love and forgiveness.
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
Glory to God! Amen.

Adapted from Rev. Bonnie Tarwater, posted on the United Church of Christ’s Worship Ways website. http://www.ucc.org/worship/worship-ways/. Re-posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2012/10/prayer-of-confession-have-mercy.html.

Benediction

Beloved, go now in the blessing of Christ’s mercy. May God grant you persistence to cry out for help, an open heart to notice the cries of others, and the courage to listen and lend a loving hand to neighbors known and unknown. Amen.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, July 2024.