commissioning and benediction – back out into the world

submitted by Gord Waldie, St. Paul’s United Church, Grande Prairie, Alberta

Our time of worship concludes, we go back out into the world.
Here we have met the God who chooses to make us clean.
And, having been healed, what is our response?
We share the love of God with all we meet, for they too have been made clean.
As you go to live and serve, go with the sure knowledge that the God who washes and heals us all will go with you.
Always and all ways.
May God bless and keep you this day and forevermore.
Amen.

prayer of confession and assurance of pardon – wash and be clean

submitted by Gord Waldie, St. Paul’s United Church, Grande Prairie, Alberta

God of grace, you call us to wash and be clean,
but we are proud.
You offer us a simple solution to our dis-ease,
but we think we are important enough for wonders and grand acts.
In those times when our pride blocks our sight of your graciousness,
wash the scales from our eyes, that we may see.
For those times we grow too sure of our own importance,
forgive us.
…time of silent prayer…
Here is Good News! God is willing to cleanse us from our pride, our blindness, our stubborn insistence on having things “our way”. Through God’s grace we are washed and forgiven.
Thanks be to God! Hallelujah! Amen. 

call to worship and prayer of approach – why have you come?

submitted by Gord Waldie, St. Paul’s United Church, Grande Prairie, Alberta

Call to Worship

People of God! Why have you come?
We have come to celebrate God’s healing presence among us.
Servants of God! Why have you come?
We have come to be refreshed, to be renewed, to be sent out.
Children of God! Why have you come?
We have come to worship together.
Then let us do so with joy and gladness.

Prayer of Approach

Gracious God, once again you have called us together in this place.
Here we open our hearts and lives before you, here we seek to hear Your life-giving Word.
God in this time of song and prayer and speech,
open our very souls to receive your challenge, open our wills to accept your instruction. Turn our mourning into dancing, replace our sackcloths with garments of joy.
And when our time of worship is ended,
lead us back out into the world to share the Good News with the world around us.
We pray in the name of the One who brought Your healing love, Jesus of Nazareth.
Amen.