leadinginworship

Congregational Prayer for Joys and Fears

Thank you, God, for the joy of today.
It is still morning, and yet so many good things have come our way:
the joy of shelter, the joy of clean water coming out of taps,
the joy of food on the table.
Thank you for friends who understand us,
and the joy of meeting new friends.
Thank you that we are here in church, body and spirit,
thank you for the joy of worshipping you, our Creator.
And in the midst of joys, in all honesty
we admit that we come with fears.
Some of us have fears about new beginnings;
new schools, new relationships, new jobs.
We don’t know how we’ll do or how we’ll feel—
we are nervous and want things to go well.
There are fears about health:
aches and pains that won’t go away,
symptoms that are unexplained,
treatments that we hope will be effective.
Some of us have financial fears:
will we find work, or is our work secure,
how will we pay these bills,
have we saved enough for the future?
And then there is the fear of loneliness
that strikes us all at some points--
we fear that we won’t find people to love,
or that we’ll lose the people we do love.
God of hope, thank you that you are with us in all our fears,
and that you bring joy even in the midst of them.
Thank you for your faithfulness through time,
for the ways you have been there for us in the past,
and that nothing can separate us from your love.

Help us this week to have compassion for those who fear:
for those who are fleeing bombs and bullets,
for those who face governments that are oppressive,
for those who cannot worship openly, but must meet in secret.
In our own community, there are people who live with the fear of violence.
Help us to be people of refuge, who offer help and support,
and who go the extra mile when we see people in need.
Forgive us for the times we have been too wrapped up
in our own fears and joys to truly see our neighbour.
Help us this week to embrace joyful living,
being mindful of the gift of each day,
remembering our Saviour Jesus Christ
who lives in us and through us.  Amen

Candle of Joy Third Advent Prayer

God, giver of joy,
thank you for the open sweet gaze of babies,
for the irrepressible giggles of toddlers,
and for the sight of preschoolers holding hands as they play.
Thank you that we are made for joy
and that advent reminds us of this.
Help us wait in hopeful anticipation for this gift of joy--
an incongruous Saviour, the Prince of Peace
come down to us as a baby in diapers.
Jesus, give joy this week even to those who are suffering:
joy in the midst of illness, through a keen sense of your presence,
joy in the midst of grief, through an awareness of love deeper than death,
joy in the midst of anxiety, through sudden fleeting moments of beauty.
We are waiting for joy in a world that is often bleak and cheerless.
There is always something bothering us, a shadow.
Evil flourishes, and it blights lives and communities.
And we help it flourish—
we confess our own selfishness, hoarding things for ourselves,
or our own racism, our own fear of the other, fear of the stranger.
Around the world you know the suffering we inflict on each other.
Thank you for that even in this barren earth,
you cause joy to bubble up.
In joy, help us lavish generosity at Christmas;
not just on those we love, but generosity to charities, and to those in need.
Help us lavish forgiveness on those who’ve hurt us.
We long for the joy of relationships renewed and restored
All this joy to the world is from you,
radiating out from a Saviour who is Christ the Lord.
We join our hearts together this morning in joyful praise:
Glory to God in the Highest!  Gloria! Amen

Joy to the World

Joy may be like a fountain,
but it has no on/off switch.
We can’t manufacture joy
or produce it on demand.
Running after joy is
like running after the wind;
you can’t catch it.
Joy is wild and treasured,
like a rare shy bird
that suddenly appears.
It can be fleeting,
or its presence can rest with you,
like a benediction,
for days and months.
It shows up in the strangest places,
and just as quickly disappears.
The moment you try to hold it,
it flees away.
I held the hand of a dying man
all morning
and spent the afternoon
visiting a newborn baby.
Holding that little one’s hand,
my tears kept coming and coming.
Was that joy, or something like it?
In our Good Friday world,
where death is our constant companion,
God holds out a hand
with surprisingly little fingers.
God with us.

Guided Silent Prayer

We come to God each week with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.
This morning I will lead you in a guided silent prayer.
Even though each of us prays in our own hearts,
our prayers are not solitary
when we join together as the people of God,
praying as one in many voices.

God,
creation is so much with us,
sights, sounds, tastes, fragrances;
we pause to give thanks for something
in nature that gave us joy this week.   [PAUSE]

You have brought people into our lives,
we pause to give thanks
for an experience of joy or peace with others
we had this week.  [PAUSE]

We ask forgiveness for a time this week
where we have disturbed or destroyed
the peace of another person.
We pray for someone
who is on our hearts,
who we know is in need of joy.  [PAUSE]

We pray for a place
in the world that is on our hearts
that needs your peace. [PAUSE]

God of grace,
thank you for hearing our prayers
and answering them.  Amen

Joyful Offering Prayer

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:7: God loves a cheerful giver,
Eugene Peterson in his translation of the Bible says,
“God loves it when the giver delights in the giving.”
Let's pray together:

God of grace,
it is our delight and our devotion
to give these gifts to you.
All we are and all we have
are yours alone.
Accept this joyful offering
as a token of our abiding love:
use it to bring peace, justice
and comfort to all the world, Amen.

Psalm 98 Call to Worship

Our call to worship is from Psalm 98:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
   break forth into joyous song and sing praises. 
Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
   with the lyre and the sound of melody. 
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
   make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. 
Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
   the world and those who live in it. 
Let the floods clap their hands;
   let the hills sing together for joy 
at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming
   to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
   and the peoples with equity. [verses 4-9]

Here we are Lord!
We come into your house this morning
praising your faithfulness,
giving thanks for your mercy,
seeking your joy.
Thank you for creating us
and giving us life and breath today.
Thank you for your son Jesus Christ, our Saviour
and for the Holy Spirit
whose presence here
unites us as your people.
Fill us with your peace today. Amen.

Golden

The gold band stays the same,
a bit warped maybe,
the edges worn down,
some scratches.
Still hugging my ring finger
since the day
you put it there
round about an age ago.
Like your love,
still surrounding me
these many years,
still holding me
still cherishing me
still honouring me.
Thank you for being
a man of your word,
steady through all these seasons.
A partner is hard to describe,
our roots entwined so tight;
so many comings and goings
but always there’s a home
when you walk in the room.
Your voice, your laugh,
your walk are still a magnet
drawing my eyes in any crowd.
You are a good companion;
thoughtful, intelligent, funny
(you laugh at almost all my jokes).
You’ve worked hard to support us.
We’ve held our babies, raised them,
and reveled together
as we’ve watched them launch.
Sick or healthy,
through every up and down,
from east to west,
you’ve been my faithful friend.
So much behind us,
(we are rich in the Memory Bank)
who knows what’s before us.
I hope that God will gift us
with many more anniversaries
which we will ring in
with deep smiles and thankfulness
for a family, our family,
a happy golden life together.

Wholly Yours Responsive Call to Worship

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory. [Isaiah 6:3 NRSV]
The Lord of hosts is with us.
Let us lift up our hearts!
We lift them up to the Lord!
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God!
It is a good and joyful thing to give God thanks and praise!
Let us pray:
Holy God,
we come together as your people
searching for sacred space,
longing to be cherished,
craving a real connection.
In this hour of worship
let thankfulness sink deep
and joy spring up.
We lift our hearts and souls and minds
to the God of our creation,
for we are wholly yours
now and forever. Amen.

God of great wonders offering prayer

God of great wonders,
we join with you in the joy of giving.
You give us life and breath,
you fill the world with beauty,
our hands with bounty,
and our hearts with the desire to give.
Accept these gifts, and ourselves in your service.
Amen. 

 

A fruitful day

God, let this be a fruitful day!
Open our eyes to beauty.
Tune our ears to harmony.
The fragrance of your love
permeating every moment.
The touch of your hand
guiding all we do.
Tasting the delight of your presence
in the sweet ripeness of joy.

Praying on a Windy Day

On this wind-swept day

my prayer is a kite

rising from outstretched arms

stringing taut and fast

up with sailing clouds

up with soaring hawks

my kite swoops

in the high blue

writing thank-you

thank-you.

The Final Hour

The family sits on either side of the bed.

The reedy rhythm raises her chest

slightly up, slightly down.

The quiet breathing slows, pauses,

resumes again, shallower now.

Life seeps away as night deepens.

Death dawns, gentle as silence.

This was the final hour.

 

Around the bed

life gathers and pools

in tears and words

as they tell her story,

the quality of her presence

in dear specific moments,

crowding one upon another

as memories kindle memories.

Each story saying one thing:

“She loved deeply,

she was deeply loved.”

This love illuminates their faces,

eyes brilliant as diamonds

against the black windows of night.

Hours pass and finally the words slow

and they sit in silence.

Standing, they kiss the cold brow

and say their good-byes--

we leave sharing smiles of wonder

that sorrow could produce

such a rich harvest of joy,

even in this final hour.