58B - Sunday 26B — 60B - Sunday 28B
See also my post from 2012, 2018, 2021
WE GATHER WHERE GOD ALREADY IS (from Psalm 26)
Gracious God,
you have brought us from the rest of the night,
to the light of this day,
to the guiding light of your eternal presence.
Caring God,
we gather to hear the sound of your praise.
We come from the busy-ness of our daily lives
which is sometimes messy as well.
Creating God,
we gather in this place where your glory dwells.
You have been with us in the sticky bits and the smooth,
even when we have felt too burdened or busy to notice.
Sustaining God,
we gather to worship you.
We come to be renewed in your lovingkindness
and strengthened by your faithfulness.
Amen
OFFERING
God, through whose goodness
we have these gifts to share;
accept and use the offerings of our hearts
and our hands
that they may be used
in ways that embody your compassion. Amen.
A CREATIVE MOMENT – Psalm 26:
As the psalmist pleads his case to God, we are invited to imagine, and perhaps depict in posters/photographs/overhead projections, examples of God’s steadfast love (v.2), wondrous deeds (v.7) and glory (v.8).
A second group of images might depict the evil-doers and wicked (v.5), the blood-thirst (9), the evil-doers and bribes (v.10).
Add a third group: images of the great congregation – your congregation, the wider church, and “so great a cloud of witnesses” – in action in the community, living in the tension between the glory of God and the human circumstance of which we capable.
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
(A prayer to gather the spoken and silent concerns/joys/thanks expressed by the congregation and lead into a more structured Intercession with connection to the lections for the day. Sometimes this prayer borrows lightly from other sources e.g. Uniting in Worship 2 or publications of the Iona Community.)
By your Holy Spirit, O God,
warm the lives of those we name
on our lips and in our silence;
celebrate with those open to your abundance;
bring comfort to those among us and around us
who are hurting;
those whose troubles are known only to you;
and encouragement to those for whom the light of life
grows dim.
(The Prayers of the People continue)
Looking for contemporary music and song resources?
Try David MacGregor’s Together to Celebrate
Or metrical psalms? Try Dale A. Schoening’s Sing the Psalms
| HYMN SUGGESTIONS FOR SUNDAY 27B | |
| All my hope in God is founded | TIS 560 |
| All things bright and beautiful | TIS 135 |
| Now thank we all our God, | TIS 106 |
| Thank you for giving me the morning | TIS 162 |
| What shall I do my God to love | TIS 122 |
| When morning gilds the skies | TIS 227 |
| Ye gates, lift up your heads on high | TIS 12 |
| Your hand O God has guided | TIS 456 |
| Job 1:1; 2:1-10 | |
| How firm a foundation, you people of God | TIS 578 |
| O for a heart to praise my God | TIS 568 |
| Rejoice in God’s saints | TIS 470 |
| What God ordains is always good | TIS 109 |
| Psalm 26 | |
| God you touch the earth with beauty | TIS 610 |
| Here in this place, new light is streaming | TIS 474 |
| I set the Lord before my eyes | TIS 673 |
| Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12 | |
| A man there lived in Galilee | TIS 235 |
| Christ is the world’s light | TIS 246 |
| Give me the wings of faith to rise | TIS 438 |
| God has spoken to his people, Hallelujah | TIS 636 |
| Holy Spirit, ever dwelling | TIS 410 |
| I know that my redeemer lives | TIS 376 |
| In great thanksgiving, O love divine | TIS 632 |
| Join all the glorious names | TIS 205 |
| Man more than man | TIS 355 |
| My song is love unknown | TIS 341 |
| Now to the Lord a noble song | TIS 113 |
| Praise and thanksgiving, Father, we offer | TIS 627 |
| Praise our God, the great creator | TIS 165 |
| Praise to the living God | TIS 102 |
| Rejoice, the Lord is king | TIS 216 |
| Spirit divine, attend our prayers | TIS 406 |
| The head that once was crowned with thorns | TIS 378 |
| To us a child of royal birth | TIS 308 |
| Mark 10:2-16 | |
| As man and woman we were made | TIS 645 |
| Dearest Jesus, we are here | TIS 480 |
| Happy the home that welcomes you, Lord Jesus | TIS 581 |
| Jesus’ hands were kind hands | TIS 236 |
| Love divine all loves excelling | TIS 217 |
| Wash, O God, our sons and daughters | TIS 493 |
| Your love, O God, has called us here | TIS 664 |