Call to Worship

Leader: Beloved, God’s wisdom guides us to reflect, yes, but also to act. Will you be a people who act with wisdom?

All: We will respond to wisdom’s call with our actions.

Leader: God’s wisdom may call you to speak when it’s safer to be silent, to resist when it’s easier to back down. Will you be a people who act with wisdom?

All: We will respond to wisdom’s guidance wherever it takes us.

Leader: God’s wisdom may call us to accountability, to recognize and reconcile when we have missed the mark, and to hold others accountable when they do harm. Will you be a people who act with wisdom?

All: We will respond to wisdom’s counsel with humility and grace.

Leader: Beloved, this is the time, here and now and in every moment after, to live out God’s uncommon wisdom in the world.

All: We will follow the path of God’s love with wisdom as our guide. Amen.

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

Pastoral Prayer

Our Lord and our God, we thank you on this day for the many ways that you have spared our lives. We thank you for the days that some Esther interceded for us without our knowing it. Grandma Esther, Aunt Esther, or maybe even Uncle Esther worked in secret for our good, often risking jobs, reputation, or substance to give us a chance for life.

We thank you, O God, for making a way out of no way. We pray for anyone who feels like he or she is drowning in sin or in suffering today. Help that person to know that your promises are sure and that you are ever-present. Lift all of our heads above the raging waters and show us the dry ground on the horizon ahead.

Strengthen us, we pray for this week’s journey. Make us mindful of the weak and the weary and teach us how to bear one another’s burdens along the way. Remind us that we are a family of faith. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Adapted from Safiyah Fosua, The Africana Worship Book, Year B (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2007), 144.

Prayer of Confession

God of glory,
we confess that we have not sought your face.
We ignore the needs of the
poor and turn away from our own kin.
We allow the gospel to go stale,
and hide the light you have given.
Forgive us; give us grace.
By the renewing gifts of your Spirit
inspire and empower us again
to show the wonder of your love in Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Silent Confession)

Words of Assurance
(from Psalm 145:13-14, NRSV)

The LORD is faithful in all his words and gracious in all his deeds.
The LORD upholds all who
are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.
Know that you are forgiven and be at peace.
Thanks be to God! Amen.

Posted on the website of the First Presbyterian Church of Garland, Texas, http://www.fpcgarland.org/. Re-posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2014/01/prayer-of-confession-stale-gospel.html.

Benediction

May the holy wisdom of God
Guard your ways and guide your paths
May the living truth of God
Enlighten your hearts and open your minds
And may the living Spirit of God
Give you life, and life to the full!
Amen!

Posted on Literature & Liturgy at https://jesusscribbles.wordpress.com/. Re-posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2018/09/blessing-wisdom-of-god.html.