Worship resources for:
6th Sunday after Pentecost — Ordinary Time 14 (July 4, 2021)
Lectionary Texts
In 2 Samuel 5. 1-5, 9-10 David is anointed king of the united northern and southern kingdoms of Israel.
Psalm 48 describes the “City of God” on Mt. Zion as an image of God’s strength and glory.
In 2 Corinthians 12. 2-10 Paul speaks of “someone” (himself) who experienced intense visions (being “caught up into heaven” and revelations). In order to keep him from being prideful, God inflicted on Paul a “thorn in the flesh”—some kind of difficulty or handicap (we don’t know what it was). He asked for God to remove it, but learned that his power was not in his own flawlessness, but in God’s grace. “Power is made perfect in weakness.”
In Mark 6.1-13 Jesus tries to teach and heal in his home town but people believe he is nothing more than the builder’s son. Because of their unreceptiveness, they experience no teachings or miracles. He then sends out his disciples to carry on his ministry of proclaiming, healing and blessing.
Call to Worship
1.
God, you are among us.
Open our eyes to see you.
You are doing miracles every day.
Open our hearts to receive you.
You empower us to do miracles, too.
Open our hands to serve you.
In gratitude and trust, we worship you.
2.
God of grace, you perform miracles , though we do not often see them
Help us to look and to see, to trust and to receive.
Give us faith, that we may be open to your truth and your grace;
make us worthy vessels of your love to all the world.
Our power is nothing, but your power is infinite;
our abilities come and go but your ability is eternal.
Help us to trust in your power alone, O God.
Come, Holy Spirit, and transform us by your grace. Alleluia!
Collect / Prayer of the Day
1.
Gracious God, you are here today. You are not far off. You are here. In this place. This moment. This breath. We come to be present for you, you who are infinitely present for us. Open our hearts to you. Grant us a listening faith, a trusting and seeking and receiving faith. By your Spirit, open us to your grace. Amen.
2.
Gracious God, Jesus sent out his disciples to preach and to heal. We are among those whom he sends in your name, and in the power of your Spirit. But we cannot preach unless we know your good news. We cannot heal unless we know your power. Speak to us, heal our hearts, and fill us with your grace, so that we can faithfully bear witness to your Word in the name of Christ. Amen.
3.
Holy God, prophets may lack honor in their hometown, but we ask you to make your home in our hearts anyway. Help us to honor your Word and not take it for granted. Move us to hear the freshness of your Spirit within words that may be familiar. Help us to honor you by paying attention to how you speak to us today. Teach us to respond to your call, so that we may be ever more faithful disciples. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Readings
from Psalm 78, adapted [Stanza breaks are appropriate places for sung responses.]
Listen, O people, to this teaching;
pay attention to these words of truth!
We will tell a story that is rich with meaning,
and utter sayings with truth hidden in them,
an ancient story that we have heard,
because it is a story about us.
We will not hide these stories from our children,
but tell them to the next generation:
the glorious deeds of God, and God’s power,
and the wonders that God has wrought.
God made this promise to Israel,
and commanded them to pass it on from generation to generation
so that they would set their hope in God alone,
and never forget God’s grace.
In the sight of their ancestors—
in your own memory—God worked miracles in Egypt.
God divided the sea and led them through it,
making the waters to stand like a heap.
God led them by a cloud in the daytime,
and all the night with a fiery light.
God split the rocks in the wilderness,
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep,
made streams to come out of the rock,
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
Yet they tested God in their hearts,
by demanding the food that they craved.
They spoke against God, saying:
“Yes, God, you struck the rock
so that water gushed out and torrents overflowed.
But can you spread a table in the wilderness?
Can you give bread, and provide meat for your people?”
Response / Creed / Affirmation
We give our hearts to God, Creator of all that is and all that is to come, who is creating in each moment. We open our hearts and minds to God’s grace and presence in all things.
We follow Jesus, our teacher and healer. We are open to God’s grace and power in him. For he was open to God’s leading, and so he gave himself in love. He was killed by fear but raised by love, and still is present with power and truth.
We live by the Holy Spirit, God’s presence in us and an all things: the power that unites us as the Church, the Body of Christ, and that enables us to trust resurrection and to live with mindfulness and forgiveness, and to serve God in love for the sake of the healing of the world. We trust that this power in us is made perfect in our weakness: not in our own strength or ability, but in our reliance upon God’s grace. For these blessings we give God thanks, and we devote our lives.
Listening Prayer
(suitable as a Collect, preparation for hearing scriptures, or invitation to intercessions)
Gracious God, we remember those who received no miracles because they were not willing. We surrender our superior knowledge, and the resistance of what we know. We open ourselves to the mystery of your Word and the miracle of your grace. Speak to us, touch us, and change us. Amen.
Prayer of Dedication / Sending
1.
Gracious God, we give you these gifts as symbols of our lives. Receive them with love, bless them with grace, and use them according to your will. Send us into the world to share your love and to do your will for the sake of the transformation of the world, in the name and the Spirit of Christ. Amen.
2.
Gracious God, we give you these gifts as symbols of our lives. Receive them with love, bless them with grace, and use them according to your will. Bless us that we might serve you faithfully, not because of our great powers or abilities, but by our openness to your grace. Use your power through us, so that by our ministry you might transform the world into your blessed Realm. Amen
Prayer after Communion
1.
Gracious God, we thank you for this mystery in which you have given yourself to us. You gather us into your Empire of Grace, uniting us with all people Send us into the world to bear witness to our unity, to work for justice, to embody your grace, in the name and the Spirit of Christ, who with you reigns over all nations forever. Amen.
2.
Gracious God, we thank you for this mystery in which you have given yourself to us. As Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to his beloved, so take us, bless us, break us, and give us to the world; that by your grace in us you may bless all the world, in the name of Christ. Amen.
Suggested Songs
Before My Eyes
Words: Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Tune: For the Beauty of the Earth)
Prophets plainly speak your Word, but are silenced and not heard.
Miracles will pass us by, hidden by the jaundiced eye.
Spirit, help me realize: you are here before my eyes.
Acts of courage, though unseen; in forgiveness hearts washed clean;
deeds of love, though they are small: most miraculous of all!
Spirit, help me realize: you are here before my eyes.
How the outcast choose to live, how the poor in spirit give,
how the ones we ostracize give gifts we don’t recognize!
Spirit, help me realize: you are here before my eyes.
Letting expectations go, humbly knowing I don’t know,
blessing what the moment brings, finding grace in humble things:
Spirit, help me realize: you are here before my eyes.
Help me seek the truth today, set aside what others say,
speak your Word and trust your grace— miracles will then take place!