Matthew 2:1-12 & The Epiphany Insurrection Prayer
Epiphany is stronger
Than insurrection
That was the point
Herods
So be frightened
Our path will continue to be
A different way
Lit by the Star of Peace
Your sneakiness & violent ways
Are no match for our God
Thank Sweet Baby Jesus
Amen
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
Signs of God: Baptism/Holy Spirit
Call to Worship
Praise to Our God, it is Good to praise our God who Gracious
God heals the broken-hearted, and binds up their wounds
God determines the number of the stars, and gives them their names, our God is abundant in power, and has an understanding beyond measure.
Come let us praise our glorious God!
Call to Confession: God we confess that we are tired and in need of the nourishment you promise. Please give us that nourishment today. Let that living water flow from our hearts as promised we pray.
Assurance of Pardon: Hear and Know God is here with us, sustaining us. Know the good news In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.
Prayer of the Day/Dedicaiton: Jesus you promise that the living water, the Holy Spirt, will come from your followers hearts, help that to happen today and everyday we pray. Amen.
Children: Holy Spirit talk about all the meanings of the Holy Spirit: Wind, Water, Fire, Inspiration, Breath. Talk about which image might be their favorite and why. Discuss how Jesus talks about how their is a piece of the Holy Spirit in every single human being to help comfort, sustain and inspire us, and that’s what today’s story is about!
Hymn: I’ve Got Peace Like a River, Breathe On Me Breath of God, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Out of Deep Unordered Water, Stand Up and Bless the Lord
If you find my work useful, please consider giving to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing https://gofund.me/70a114f9. It is a “working theologian’s” doctorate where I preach, write and share my work with the world all at the same time. If your church uses my work extensively and could use a receipt email me at katyandtheword at gmail and let me know!
Food for the Hungry
Call to Worship
I will bless the Lord at all times
Come bless the Lord with me
Jesus says, I am the everlasting bread of life
Come, let us praise God who gives us life
Prayer of Confession: God, I confess that I hunger to be nourished. There are times I truly need to taste and see that the Lord is good, because I am stumbling and falling, because the world is full of so many not good things. Save us, please we pray. Show us the good.
Assurance of Pardon Hear the good news, God is good all the time, an so we know the Gospel truth In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.
Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God let us go into the world knowing you want every single person to be fed. Let us all work to make that happen today and everyday we pray. Amen.
Hymns: Here I Am Lord, O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go, O Jesus I Have Promised, O Jesus I Have Promised,
Children: https://www.ted.com/talks/peter_reinhart_the_art_and_craft_of_bread?language=en
Writing https://gofund.me/70a114f9. It is a “working theologian’s” doctorate where I preach, write and share my work with the world all at the same time. If your church uses my work extensively and could use a receipt email me at katyandtheword at gmail and let me know!
Call to Worship
God we long to be Healed
We sorrow in the sickness in the world
God we gather together to pray
Come let us pray for one another to God
Prayer of Confession: God we confess that we would prefer instant solutions to our problems. We would like for everyone to be instantly healed of their illnesses. Remind us to take responsibility, to do the work, and to hold fast to praying for one another and to not lose hope. Help us when we lose hope or are tired. Encourage us and surround us with support when we are worn out we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Hear the Good News: Jesus loves us and supports us, loving us into wholeness every time: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven
Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God please heal us in the ways that we need to be healed, that are perhaps beyond our human understanding, and bind us together so that we can continue to love and support one another in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Hymns: I love the Lord Who Heard My Cry, There is a Balm in Gilead, Lord I Want to Be a Christian In My Heart, Lift High the Cross, Love Divine All Love Excelling
With Children: Talk about ALL the ways of healing: physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, intellectual, relational, natural (earth), individual, communal. Discuss how the healing Jesus has promised is way more than just one kind of healing and how fixated humans are upon primarily physical and then secondarily mental healing and how we might work towards other kinds of healing.
If you find my work useful, please consider giving to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing https://gofund.me/70a114f9. It is a “working theologian’s” doctorate where I preach, write and share my work with the world all at the same time. If your church uses my work extensively and could use a receipt email me at katyandtheword at gmail and let me know!
Signs of God: Jesus Meets You Where You Are
Call to Worship
Come as You are
Jesus will meet you
Come all you who thirst
For God will provide you the waters of everlasting life
Call to Confession: God, I confess that sometimes I am like the woman at the well. Not knowing what it is I am thirsty for, but knowing that I am in need of more, thirsty for something. Please help me when I am lonely or unsatisfied. Provide me with that which I really need, so I am not distracted by wants or wishes, but may instead focus in on that which is really important I pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon. Jesus promises salvation to all who ask, know the good news: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.
Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God help us to follow the ways of grace, so that we might further journey on the path that we need to take we pray in the Holy Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Hymns: What a Friend We Have in Jesus, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, We Meet You O Christ, Help Us Accept Each Other, More Love to Thee O Christ, They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love
With Children: Talk about how Samaria and Israel were fighting siblings: Very similar but had different customs and so they wouldn’t talk to one another so it was very unusual for Jesus to talk to anyone from Samaria, much less a woman. Indicate how Jesus meets everyone where they are–by a well, up a tree, eventually on a cross. Discuss all the funny places Jesus might meet people if he was walking around today
Signs of God: Love and Rebirth (We Belong to God)
Call to Worship
God you know us and love us
Thanks be to God
Who do we belong to?
We belong to God, Our Father
Come let us praise God
We will praise our God together.
Call to Confession: God I know that nothing is hidden from you, and yet sometimes I confess that sometimes I pretend that it is. Sometimes I worry that what I carry is too big to be forgiven. I forget that you promise always to forgive. Remind me that your forgiveness is rooted in love, I pray. Amen
Assurance of Pardon: Remember that God loves us, and know the truth: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.
Prayer of Dedication/Day: God help us to show the world that we are Christians first and foremost by our actions and love we pray. Amen.
If you find my work useful, please consider giving to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing https://gofund.me/70a114f9. It is a “working theologian’s” doctorate where I preach, write and share my work with the world all at the same time. If your church uses my work extensively and could use a receipt email me at katyandtheword at gmail and let me know!
Hymns; To God Be the Glory, Amazing Grace, Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty, Our Father’s Love Begotten, Blessed Assurance Jesus is Mine, Jesus Thy Boundless Love to Me
With Children: Talk about Baptism, discuss why we don’t use last names because we are baptized into God’s family, discussed how we are “born again” in this way
Writing https://gofund.me/70a114f9. It is a “working theologian’s” doctorate where I preach, write and share my work with the world all at the same time. If your church uses my work extensively and could use a receipt email me at katyandtheword at gmail and let me know!
Signs of God
January 9th Wedding at Cana: Hospitality as Ministry
January 16th Jesus Cleanses the Temple: Making a Sanctuary
January 23 Nicodemus: Love and Rebirth (We belong to God)
January 30th Woman at the Well: Jesus Meets You Where You Are
February 6th Healing Stories: Healing
February 13 Bread of Life: Food for the Hungry
Feb 20 Living Water: Baptism/Holy Spirit
Feb 27 The Man Born Blind
If you find my work useful, please consider giving to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing https://gofund.me/70a114f9. It is a “working theologian’s” doctorate where I preach, write and share my work with the world all at the same time. If your church uses my work extensively and could use a receipt email me at katyandtheword at gmail and let me know!
Signs of God: Making Sanctuary
Call to Worship
God you make this a sanctuary for us
Giving bread to the hungry, Rest for the weary
Surely those who look, will find God
Come, let us build a house of justice and sanctuary for God
Confession: God we confess that we often confuse peace with being subdued or quiet. We forget that true sanctuary means a place to not just feel but be safe. Help us to be safe with one another we pray. Help us to build your sanctuary, we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon. God’s peace is from everlasting to everlasting, know the good news: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.
Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God’s mercies are renewed every morning. God’s mercies never come to an end. Let us go into the world renewed by God. Amen.
Hymns: Be Thou My Vision, Room at the Table, Great is Thy Faithfulness, Because He Lives, Worthy is The Lamb,
With Children: Chalk and Eraser Board Jesus can cleanse you every single time you make a mistake. Jesus wants you to keep trying!
If you find my work useful, please consider giving to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing https://gofund.me/70a114f9. It is a “working theologian’s” doctorate where I preach, write and share my work with the world all at the same time. If your church uses my work extensively and could use a receipt email me at katyandtheword at gmail and let me know!
God the whole world is sick
No one is safe anymore–
there is no sanctuary.
You know that we are a world in desperate need of healing.
God I don’t want to live in a world
where healthcare is on the bottom of the to do list
Where people aren on the bottom of the to do list.
And God, I want to scream like John the Baptist:
You brood of vipers, you idiots, you fools!
Turn around! Change!
Don’t you want to be on Side that has already won?!?*
Don’t you know there is another way to win?
One where we don’t fight over scraps,
but we care for everyone?
One where we don’t say, “Did they have any pre-exisitng conditions”
but instead we say “don’t worry we will protect, you, and feed you, and care for you!”
And like John the Baptist, and Desmond Tutu, and bell hooks and so many others–
I want to hold you accountable,
because in the end,
God wants us all to heal.
At the end of the long day of work,
When the sun sets and we look around to see who has healed–from hunger and racism and every single kind of bigotry, and Covid
I want to be there, and I want to see you there too.
I want to party with you in the Kin-dom.
God almighty knows it.
God you know we need this healing–
teach us how to hold each other accountable
without screaming or shaming one another,
teach us grace and forgiveness and reconciliation.
Teach us I pray,
because Lord knows, we could all use a party right now.
Amen.
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
*This is a question that the great Healer Archbishop Desmond Tutu used to reconcile and convert and people (with way less anger I’m sure than it is used here).
Signs of God: Hospitality as Ministry
Call to Worship
God we gather here to celebrate your miracles
We thirst for your good news
Jesus we are ready for all you have to provide for us
Come let us do as Jesus Christ says! Come let us worship God!
Call to Confession: God we confess that sometimes we are not ready to party people into the kingdom of God. Especially not right now. We are busy, and worried, and scared. Now does not seem the right time. But you are the God of hospitality in all times and places Teach us how to share what we have, especially the good news of God’s love we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Hear the Good news; God’s love is overflowing, Know the truth: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Amen.
Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God, send us into the world, filled up with the Good News of Jesus Christ, affirmed by God and and ready to do ministry we pray. Amen.
Hymns: Great is Thy Faithfulness, There’s a Widenss to God’s Mercy, Amazing Grace,
Mary’s Affirmation: Wedding at Cana Prayer
If you find my work useful, please consider giving to my Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing https://gofund.me/70a114f9. It is a “working theologian’s” doctorate where I preach, write and share my work with the world all at the same time. If your church uses my work extensively and could use a receipt email me at katyandtheword at gmail and let me know!
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