Category: Lent: Finding the Way to Jerusalem

Lent 1 Prayers

Journeying Past Our Neighbors 

February 21st

Lent 1

Good Samaritan

Luke 10:25-42

Psalm 15

Call to Worship:

God you call us to love

We would like to abide in your tent God.

You call us to our neighbors and our neighborhood. Because you are present here, too. 

Let us praise the God who is in our neighborhood.

Invitation: Come let us confess our full selves to the Lord.

Prayer of Confession: God, we confess that although we strive for love, we do not always achieve it. We catch ourselves gossiping or slandering others, we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are too worried about who is going to get in first, to help those who are last. Help us to be like the good Samaritan, to take the time and energy to help all those in need without prejudice or malice. Embolden us to do what is right, we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon: God promises that we can dwell with God’s very self on the holy hill. Through grace, is space in God’s neighborhood. Those we can tell one another the good news: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Amen. 

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Lord, help us to face and see our neighbors: black, brown, white, immigrant, disabled, our LGBTQIA neighbors. Let us embrace those who vote, pray or live differently. For each individual is fully human and beloved by God. Help us to love them we pray. amen. 

Communion Prayer; Lord come and bless this food of the people and this cup of the people that we might taste and see the kindom in our neighbor’s eyes and be nourished to start the work of the kindom in our own neighborhood—knowing that we are all seen and loved in the eyes of God let us start to celebrate it here, today, by taking communion together. 

Hymns: Kum ba Yah, Jesu Jesu Fill Us with Your Love, Somebody’s Knocking at Your Door 

Taize: Let All who are Thirsty Come

Ash Wednesday Prayers

Journeying towards Death

February 17th

Ash Wednesday

Jesus Turns to Jerusalem

Luke 9:51-62

Psalm 5:7-8:

Call to Worship

Who can follow you to Jerusalem Jesus?

Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head

God, may we each find a sanctuary space today.

Let us begin the journey to Jerusalem with Jesus Christ today. 

The time for Lent and death stretches us before us.

Come let us walk with God today.

Invitation: God will give heed to our sighing, come let us bring our sighs to the Lord. 

Prayer of Confession: God our sighs are loud and our cries sound out. We feel trauma of these times. But we know, you long with us for our suffering to end. You do not delight in any wickedness. We confess that we do not know how to journey to Jerusalem with you. We are lost before the journey even begins. Help us to find the way we pray. Amen.  

Assurance of Pardon: God it is through the abundance of your steadfast love, I will enter your house. It is by the grace of God, that we can be assured of the truth: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. 

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Lord, let us experience the ashes with all that they entail. Let the be the beginning of our relenting: of power, of materialism, of individual achievement over the good of the community. Let us relent to Lent we pray. Amen. 

Communion Prayer: Holy Spirit, come and inspire us for this journey. When it feels like forty days in the desert: fortify us with your bread and your cup. Imbue this meal with your Holy Spirit so we can be nourished for the journey. Remind us that when we celebrate Christ’s death, we are also celebrating his life and his resurrection. Give us what we need for this journey through Lent we pray. Amen. 

Hymns: In the Garden, Come Thou Fount of Ever Blessing, What Wondrous Love Is This, 

Taize: Jesus, Remember Me

For the Complete List of Narrative Lectionary Lent Resources can be found here including a way to receive a doc copy