Sixth Sunday After Epiphany
Worship
Lectionary Worship Aids
Series VI, Cycle A
Object:
Words Of Assurance
Christ, the Light of the World, is a saving light, for he reveals the means of forgiveness.
Pastoral Prayer
O God, whose Spirit searches all things, and whose love bears all things, encourage us to draw near to you in sincerity and in truth. Save us from a worship of the lips while our hearts are far away. Save us from the useless labor of attempting to conceal ourselves from you, for you search and know our hearts.
Enable us to lay aside all those cloaks and disguises which we wear in the light of day, and here to bare ourselves, with all our weakness and failures and sin, before your sight.
We thank you, O God, for making yourself and your love so real to us. There are many concrete ways that we see you and know you. But the most real way is when we know you in other people. Thank you for the people we know who are authentic and whose love is the real thing. Most of all we think of Christ. How could you become more real to us? You became a man. You loved as we love, felt the burdens of poverty and sorrow, and even faced a real death like we face. How far you have gone to make yourself real to us! How thankful we are!
Thank you, too, for our friends, who are sometimes painfully honest, for their advice has often been good and their evaluations have often been just.
Thank you even for problems which seem to have no solution, for these have caused us to draw on spiritual reserves which might otherwise have gone untapped. For all these things we thank you and praise you.
Upon the altars of our intercession we lay our anxious concern for this storm-tossed world. We are burdened by the tumult and bloodthirstiness of the nations. Ours is the sin, O God, the sin of all of us, that violence stalks the earth. Before it is too late, we beseech you, bring the people to penitence and the rulers of the people to wisdom, that in the day of our opportunity we may choose light not darkness, law not slaughter, brotherhood not enmity, peace and not war.
We offer our prayers in the name and Spirit of Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Benediction
Leave this place with a profound sense of the presence of God. May this awareness give you boldness in your service, peace in your relationships, humility in your successes, and hope in your failures. May the blessing of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit accompany you always. Amen.
Christ, the Light of the World, is a saving light, for he reveals the means of forgiveness.
Pastoral Prayer
O God, whose Spirit searches all things, and whose love bears all things, encourage us to draw near to you in sincerity and in truth. Save us from a worship of the lips while our hearts are far away. Save us from the useless labor of attempting to conceal ourselves from you, for you search and know our hearts.
Enable us to lay aside all those cloaks and disguises which we wear in the light of day, and here to bare ourselves, with all our weakness and failures and sin, before your sight.
We thank you, O God, for making yourself and your love so real to us. There are many concrete ways that we see you and know you. But the most real way is when we know you in other people. Thank you for the people we know who are authentic and whose love is the real thing. Most of all we think of Christ. How could you become more real to us? You became a man. You loved as we love, felt the burdens of poverty and sorrow, and even faced a real death like we face. How far you have gone to make yourself real to us! How thankful we are!
Thank you, too, for our friends, who are sometimes painfully honest, for their advice has often been good and their evaluations have often been just.
Thank you even for problems which seem to have no solution, for these have caused us to draw on spiritual reserves which might otherwise have gone untapped. For all these things we thank you and praise you.
Upon the altars of our intercession we lay our anxious concern for this storm-tossed world. We are burdened by the tumult and bloodthirstiness of the nations. Ours is the sin, O God, the sin of all of us, that violence stalks the earth. Before it is too late, we beseech you, bring the people to penitence and the rulers of the people to wisdom, that in the day of our opportunity we may choose light not darkness, law not slaughter, brotherhood not enmity, peace and not war.
We offer our prayers in the name and Spirit of Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Benediction
Leave this place with a profound sense of the presence of God. May this awareness give you boldness in your service, peace in your relationships, humility in your successes, and hope in your failures. May the blessing of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit accompany you always. Amen.
