Teaching the Good News and Praying the Gospel
May 1st
May 8th
Consider John 3:16-17
May 15th
May 22
May 29
June 5th
Teaching the Good News and Praying the Gospel
May 1st
May 8th
Consider John 3:16-17
May 15th
May 22
May 29
June 5th
April 17th Resurrection: Hope Seeing Resurrected Jesus
Call to Worship
Christ is Risen
He is Risen indeed
The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone
Look the Lord’s doing wondrous things before our eyes
This is the day that the Lord has made
Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Call to Confession: God sees us exactly as we are and loves us, so come let us confess ourselves to God.
Confession: Jesus, we confess that sometimes we are blinded by tears or turned away, and it is hard to recognize you. We confess that all too often we do not practice or believe in the power of resurrection, so it sneaks by us. Forgive us, teach us to see the seeds you are planting, for you are, after all, the original gardener, and help us to co-create and tend the seeds of resurrection so that they grow, we pray in the name of the resurrection Jesus. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Christ is risen, so you are forgiven. Know the truth: In Jesus Christ we are Forgiven.
Prayer of the Day/Dedication: We are an Easter people, a Resurrection People, let us name it and claim it we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Please support my writing: Katy’s Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing at Pittsburgh Seminary.
For Word versions of the Liturgy email me at Katyandtheword at gmail
Holy Week: Praying Our Way Through (Also good for Palm Sunday)
Palm Sunday: Waiting for the Stones
Maundy Thursday: Washing the Dust, Existential Crises: Love One Another?, Broken for You
At the Table: Not I, Lord
In the Garden of Gethsemane: A Socially Distanced Prayer
Good Friday: Friday is not “Good,” Essential Workers at the Cross, Denial and Grace in Crises,
Holy Saturday: Pausing for Grief (Slides Version here) , Living in the In Between, Holy Saturday: A Confession (I didn’t really want more time to do nothing)
Easter: Masks a Prayer, Can You Hear Easter (the Good News), Say Nothing Easter, My God is the God of Emptiness (Empty Tombs)
Masks (are Holy): Ending with Easter
Pentecost: Stuck in a Room
Narrative Lectionary: Luke Lent Cycle Prayers and Resources
Please feel free to use/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
Topical Prayer: God, we are all the characters int he story. The women who find the stone rolled away, and are terrified of the angel, the disciples who do not believe the resurrection to be true, Peter who runs to see it all only to be left with the wrappings from the tomb. As we experience this story, let us embrace the amazement and perplexity of the events. They are truly beyond human ken. Though that is uncomfortable, let us sit with the wonder that Easter is we pray. Amen.
Journey to Resurrection
April 4
Resurrection
Resurrection of Our Lord
Luke 24:1-12: http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=476536856
Psalm 118: 17, 21-24: http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=476536876
Call to Worship:
God, I thank you that you have become my salvation
Look! The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone
This is the day that the Lord has made!
Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Christ is risen!
Christ is risen, indeed, alleluia.
Invitation: Let all who are astonished by the resurrection confess themselves to God.
Confession: God we confess that we too are perplexed by the resurrection. How did it happen? Is it real? Did it truly happen to save us all? Help us in our confusion and questions. Give us the courage to ask about the things we don’t know and the wisdom to let some things be mysterious. Help us to be a resurrection people, ready to go out and proclaim the mystery and the truth of God’s love to all we meet. In the name of your risen son Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Christ is alive! Risen to forgive all sins. Let us tell the truth: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.
Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God we are in great need of alleluias! Let us go into Easter with full hearts and dripping with grace we pray.
Communion Prayer: Lord Jesus, it is a great honor to celebrate your death once again. This time in the midst of the very resurrection you promised. You remind us that we cannot have resurrection without death. Comfort us as we mourn your death, and enable us to celebrate your life all within this meal. Send you Holy Spirit to dance upon our tongues and give us a foretaste of the feast in heaven, with all the saints that were and are and will be we pray. Amen.
Hymns: Christ is Alive!, Come Ye Faithful Raise the Strain, The Day of Resurrection!, Thine is the Glory, Jesus Christ is Risen Today!,
Taize: Laudate Dominum: Sing, Praise and Bless the Lord, Peoples, Nations, Alleluia!
For the Complete List of Narrative Lectionary Lent Resources can be found here including a way to receive a doc copy
Jesus went to heaven, and the disciples would have liked to have stayed there.
Looking at the heavens.
Just like the transfiguration.
Let’s move in, we are ready for heaven.
Or at least we can spend all the time with the pure ones, the disciples, the ones in the know.
And Jesus said, don’t worry I’m going to send you to the ends of the earth, don’t worry I’m going to give you a million Easters, 2,000 years to learn; 2,000 years of grace.
Talk about a grace period for one’s debts.
Many weeks and Sunday for Easter to unfold into your hearts, and your children’s hearts and your children’s children’s children’s house.
I’m going to give you time to learn how to be community.
I’m going to leave you with my one commandment, love one another.
Stop looking at heaven, the answer isn’ there.
Look to earth, to the relationships.
Remember: Easter didn’t happen in one day. It started at dawn with a few women and slowly unfolded. Next the disciples were stuck in a room for 50 days til Pentecost. Then Pentecost Easter started to be shared with the public. We have been unfurling Easter for the 2,000 years since. Every Sunday is a piece of Easter, Easter, the resurrection, the promise that Christ will return is still taking place today. Easter never was a one day event. That’s why Mark ends so abruptly, it was the beginning.
April 19th: Acts 1 and Mark 6 You Shall Be My Witness/Acts(ion)
Bulletin & Sermonby Dr. Barb Hedges-Goettl
I Want Answers: Confession about the God I want & the Grace I Need
Grief: Missing the Big & Small Things
Looking to Heaven (for answers)
Apr. 26, 2020
Peter Heals in Jerusalem Prayers: Call to Confession, etc
Bulletin & Sermon by Dr. Barb Hedges-Goettl
Prayer:Healing Touch
Prayer/Meditation: Standing in the Breach
May 3, 2020
With Ref to Amos 5:24
May 10th, 2020
May 17th, 2020
Faith, Hope, and Love: Resources, Commentaries and Prayers by Rev. Dr. Barbara Hedges-Goettl
1 Corinthians 13: Rewritten for the Pandemic
Mother’s Day Confession Prayer
Mother’s Day Litany Prayer (in light of the pandemic)
May 24, 2020
May 31, 2020
Pentecost
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Remember: Easter didn’t happen in one day. It started at dawn with a few women and slowly unfolded. Next the disciples were stuck in a room for 50 days til Pentecost. Then Pentecost Easter started to be shared with the public. We have been unfurling Easter for the 2,000 years since. Every Sunday is a piece of Easter, Easter, the resurrection, the promise that Christ will return is still taking place today. Easter never was a one day event. That’s why Mark ends so abruptly, it was the beginning.
Can you hear Easter?
It’s ringing in the stilled bells, the empty chapels, creeping up with the quiet growth of spring
It’s on the lips of exhausted doctors and nurses—too tired to murmur
It’s in the silent wave between neighbors, keeping too far away to talk, but close enough for company
It’s in the silent hug between family members stuck together; where entire conversations flow through the body
It’s on the breath of the sick, in that place between waking and sleeping
It’s in the angel’s nod of greeting to the women, the absence of guards and the rolling away of the stone
If s a stone rolls away and nobody hears it; does it make a sound?
It booms like the rise thunderous sun, bedecked in glory, shining out the news wordless in its proclamation
Can you hear Easter?