Call to Worship God, we long for you to be with us God be with us God we can almost taste your presence Come let us celebrate the Prince of Peace Coming
Call to Confession: God knows us and loves us. Come let us confess ourselves to God.
Confession: God, sometimes it is hard to believe that you are with us. We confess that we are often more like Joseph than Mary. Ready to set things aside quietly, ready to avoid scandal, ready to believe to take the easiest path. Maybe Joseph was too ready to think that he was alone in the world. God remind us we are not alone, especially when we feel that way we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: God is for us. No matter what. No heights nor depths nor angels nor demons can get between us or God, so we know and proclaim the truth: In Jesus Christ we are Forgiven.
Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Love is love. God is with us not matter what. May we carry that in our pocket wherever we go we pray. Amen.
Hymns: Love that Wilt Not Let Me Go, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, God of Peace: To Silent Night,
With Children: Beauty and The Beast (probably any but check what happens to the sisters), Talk about how God transformed God’s very Self into a human being to be God with us, to turn us into even better versions of human–like Beauty loves the Beast
Please Support my Writing, I am Funding some of my Doctorate in Creative Writing as a Public Theologianthrough donations https://gofund.me/554d36e3 Thank you to all those who have donated, I have successfully completed 2 years thanks to your support.
If you want a document version of this entire series for easy viewing and formatting just email me at Katyandtheword at gmail and title it Narrative Lectionary and I will be happy to send it to you.
If you would like to support my work, please give to my gofundme for my D. Min in Creative Writing or in an exciting new prospect become a Patron for only $3 a month!
Call to Confession: Come let us confess our Hope in God
Confession: God, we confess that sometimes it is hard to hope for rainbows. We do not believe that every storm will run out of rain, we have trouble remembering that you are not a violent God when people who call themselves Christians scream hate. Stop their hate, Protect us, and help us to see the rainbow we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Nothing Can Separate you from the Love of Christ: Not height nor depth nor floods nor hate. Know the truth and affirm it to one another: In Jesus Christ we are always beloved and always forgiven. Amen.
Prayer of Dedication: God, let us be proud of you as the rainbow God, and stand proud that before we knew, you knew the full meaning of the rainbow. Thank you. Amen.
Sept 18
Be assured you are all children of God
We are Stardust
You sparkle with the promise of God
We are Stardust
You are the promise of Abraham
We are Stardust, Praise be to God, the Creator of Stars!
Call to Confession: Come, let us confess and sparkle to God
Prayer of Confession: God, we confess that we sparkle and glitter, but sometimes it does not feel like we are wonderfully and fiercely made. Help us when we forget. Show us the stars. Remind us that we are beautiful and everything we do counts, just like every star in the sky counts. Amen
Assurance of Pardon: You loved us into being, just as when you created the magnificent heavens, so we know the truth: In Jesus Christ we are always beloved and always forgiven. Amen.
Prayer of Dedication: God, remind us that like stars, our sparkles count. Help us to glitter we pray. Amen.
Call to Worship God you anoint the outside The outcast from their family: the queer, gay, nonbinary, lesbian, ace—you will go with them on their journey to find a home.
God, you promise to be with them, no matter what
God be with us
Imprisoned, Abused, Lied about, False witness, You promise, You will still be our God
God be with us
There are no empty footsteps in the Sand for Joseph, You will still be in our dreams, you promise
God, be with us today.
Call to Confession: God, let us confess and be our full selves with ourselves today.
Confession: God, we confess that it is hard to be our full selves. We are ignored, mocked, sold into slavery, imprisoned and abused. We confess that even though you know what we go through, we feel ashamed, less, alone. Help us when we are broken. Remind us that we do not need to be forgiven for who we are—that Joseph wore women’s clothes and ran away from sex with a woman way before Jesus was even born, and was beloved, by his father, his brother, the King and you. May safe spaces be formed for all people we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Jesus longs for this to be a safe space of forgiveness for all, though we may not have achieved that yet, know that one thing is always true: In Jesus Christ we are always beloved and always forgiven. Amen.
Prayer of Dedication: Let us go into the world our full selves, proud, loud and beloved children of God. Amen.
Call to Confession: Come let us rest with God today
Prayer of Confession: God, we confess that it is hard to believe that you would part the ocean for me. Don’t I complain too much? Is it not too much work? Are you sure that I am worth it? Yet I look at the complaints of the Hebrews, and am reassured that you want not only to rescue me, but to listen to my worries and complaints. Help me when I am troubled an in trouble I pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: God longs whisper the good news to you, so let us whisper it to one another and be reassured of its truth: In Jesus Christ we are always beloved and always forgiven. Amen.
Prayer of Dedication: God extend your protection into the world with us as we go we pray. Amen.
God let us hear your commands as promises of hope, not hammers or laws
Come, let us feel God’s grace
Call to Confession: Let us confess ourselves to the Graciousness of God
Prayer of Confession: God, you know I don’t like rules—they are weapons of hurt instead of tools of justice. We humans cannot be trusted with them. Grace is but a trickle in my life, and I am still looking for that cup overflowing you promised. I confess, the moment you lift me up on Eagle’s Wings will not be too soon. Please help us to lift each other up, and to treat each other with the grace we long for. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: God is full of grace, your forgiveness has already been made complete as soon as you confessed yourself. Now we get the opportunity to practice that grace together and say: In Jesus Christ we are always beloved and always forgiven. Amen.
Prayer of Dedication: God, give us grace as we go. Send it on the wings of your Holy Spirit, touch it to our brows we pray. Amen.
God, you are fully God, today, tomorrow and everyday
Come, let us renew our relationship with God.
Call to Confession: It is good to be with God, come let us be present with God today
Confession: God, we confess that sometimes its a lot to be our full selves. It takes time and work to integrate who we are, with the mystery of who you are. Does anyone ever have a full handle on that? Please help us to do this as a community, so that we might have a fuller and richer perspective of your Godhood we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: God is our God, no matter what, so we know the truth: In Jesus Christ we are always beloved and always forgiven. Amen.
Prayer of Dedication: God please help us to renew our relationship with you and with ourselves as often as we need to so that we might fully know who we are and who you are as we go about the world. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ who was somehow fully God and fully human. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: God longs to wrap you under her wing and assure you that you are safe and forgiven, so know the good news: In Jesus Christ we are always beloved and always forgiven. Amen.
If you want a document version of this entire series for easy viewing and formatting just email me at Katyandtheword at gmail and title it Narrative Lectionary and I will be happy to send it to you.
If you would like to support my work, please give to my gofundme for my D. Min in Creative Writing or in an exciting new prospect become a Patron for only $3 a month!
God, how majestic is your name in all of the earth.
When I look at your heavens, thew work of you fingers: the moon and the stars. I think, what are human beings that you are mindful of them?
Yet you have put us a little lower than you, and crowned us we glory and honor!
O God, how majestic is your name in all of the earth.
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Romans 5:1-5
Prayer of Confession: God, we confess that we do not always feel that your wisdom is present. We confess that this lack makes it hard to practice grace, that suffering seems abundant, and endurance lacking. We confess that we do not always find hope. Send us your Holy Spirit to supply whatever it is we need we pray. Amen. . (Silent Confession). Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Christ advocates for us, always, so we know the truth: In Jesus Christ you are Forgiven
Prayer of Dedication (based of Proverbs 8:30-31): Remind us that your wisdom delights in us, daily, rejoicing in the inhabited world, and in humanity. Send us into the world holding tight to that we pray. Amen.
Hymns: Immortal Invisible God Only Wise, God of the Sparrow, God of the Ages Whose Almighty Hand, Great God We Sing That Mighty Hand, When in Our Music God is Glorified, God who stretched the spangled heavens
Children: Compare and Contrast what God considers “Power” (serving, love, creating things) to human Power (money, politics, popularity)
(take a nail, and gather in silence, feel free to hold the nail throughout confession; we will be nailing our sins to the cross)
Call to Worship
L The Lord be with you.
P And also with you
1. PRAYER MATTHEW 26:36
Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
2. HE NAIL OF STUMBLING John 18:5-7
So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Here is the man!’ When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, ‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.’ The Jews answered him, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.’
(Silent Meditation & Extinguishing of Candles)
Were you there when they crucified the Lord (x2)
oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble,
Were you there when they crucified the Lord?
3.THE NAIL OF BETRAYAL John 18:2-3
Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. So the soldiers, their officer, and the Jewish police arrested Jesus and bound him.
4. THE NAIL OF DENIAL John 18: 12, 17-18,25-27
Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. The woman said to Peter, ‘You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They asked him, ‘You are not also one of his disciples, are you?’ He denied it and said, ‘I am not.’ One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, ‘Did I not see you in the garden with him?’ Again Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.
5. THE NAIL OF CRUELTY John 19: 16-17,
Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha.
(Silent Meditation & Extinguishing of Candles)
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree (x2)
oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble,
Were you there when they nailed him the the tree?
6. RESPONSIVE READING: THE PROMISE OF MERCY Psalm 22:1-5a
We know what it is like to cry out, as the psalmist did
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried, and were saved.
Lift up your hearts
We lift them up to the Lord
7. RESPONSE:ACT OF CONFESSION
Lift up your hearts
We lift our hearts to the Lord
You are invited to have your sins nailed to the cross
(In our congregation all nails are handed to the pastor and in silence they are nailed to the cross)
(Silent Meditation & Extinguishing of Candles)
Were you there when they laid him in the Tomb (x2)
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble
Were you there when they laid him in the Tomb?
8. COMMUNION
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God
It is right to give our thanks and praise…(God we thank you that even tonight you can send your Holy Spirit on these elements, that we can remember that on the night that Jesus was betrayed, just before he has crucified. He took bread, he gave thanks and he broke it and he shared it among all who were there saying this is my body broken for me do this in remembrance of me. When they were finished fellowshipping with one another in the same way he took the cup and as he poured he said, this is the cup of the New Covenant spilled for you. Whenever you eat this bread and you drink this cup you proclaim my death until I come again. Come let us proclaim the death of Jesus Christ, together we pray. Amen)
9.DARKJohn 18:28-30
After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
The Lord is the stronghold of my life, whom shall I fear?
One thing I seek, to live in the house of the Lord forever.
Come, let us seek the Lord together.
Prayer of Confession: God I confess that I worry that my body is not perfect, or I am not perfect, because I have sinned. Too often I buy into the myth of health and wealth. I think that you reward those who do not sin with perfection. Yet you remind us, again, and again, that isn’t how grace works. You remind us that every single body works differently, and we are beloved, and forgiven no matter what. Glorify us exactly as we are we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon:Remind us that your forgiveness is unconditional, tell us the truth: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Amen.
Prayer of Dedication/Day: God, remind us that you bless our very mundane bodies with the very simple dirt and mud of the earth, knowing that our bodies are limited, we are also blessed. Bless us today we pray. Amen.
With Children: Talk about the Olympics and the reality about the amazingness and very real limits of our bodies and how each of our bodies are so very different and yet so very beautiful and how each and every one of us are somehow made in the image of God, including those of us with disabilities, discuss how Jesus had holes in his arms and ankles after the crucifixion. Discourage ableism. Glorify all bodies.
Hymns: Here I am Lord, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, Amazing Grace,
katyandtheword 
