We held virtual worship on Sunday, February 28, 2021 at 10AM! You may watch a recording on Facebook by clicking here, or you may watch below.
Quote for Reflection:
I have sung my songs of mirth; I have hung my head & cried
You have been ever faithful; I’m the one who left your side
All the days I have wasted
chasing down the winds of empty praise
And all the times I have lost
searching for riches in abandoned mines
My heart is restless; it finds no peace
I was made for you
~Brooks Williams (after Augustine)~
WELCOME
CALL TO WORSHIP
Sometimes our belief is confident,
Like a child on a dance floor—
Unashamed and wildly genuine.
Sometimes our belief is distant,
Flickering and calling out to us
Like a lighthouse on the sea.
Sometimes our belief shows up as passion,
Guiding the way we vote, shop, give, live, trust, and hope.
Sometimes our belief is like a shadow—
Faith stitched to our heels, unmovable, unloseable,
A gift for winding journeys.
Sometimes our belief exists like growing pains.
We step forward. We fall back.
But again and again,
Jesus invites us to listen,
To grow, and to take another step.
We gather today for another step of growing, listening, believing,
as we worship you, O God
OPENING TO GOD
CALL TO CONFESSION
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Listening God,
Take what is closed in us and open it.
Take what is distracted in us and settle it.
Take what is hurting in us and hold it.
Take any and all parts of us that create distance from you.
For we are like Peter, O God.
We argue what we don’t know. We fear what we cannot see.
And we almost always speak sooner than we listen.
So open us, settle us, hold us, and forgive us.
We long to hear you more clearly.
We long to know you more fully.
With hope we pray,
And with gratitude we confess.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Siblings in Christ,
We confess with gratitude because we know that God already has heard and forgiven us.
No matter what we have done or left undone, we are held in God’s hand.
So rest in this good news:
God invites us in.
God meets us where we are.
God hears our prayers.
God forgives us.
Thanks be to God for a love like that.
YOUNG PEOPLE’S MESSAGE Danielle Sturgeon & family
GOSPEL Mark 8:27-35 Will Skolochenko
Then he and the disciples set out for the villages around Caesarea Philippi. One the way, Jesus asked his disciples this question: “Who do people say that I am?”
The replied, “Some say John the Baptizer; others, Elijah; still others, one of the prophets.”
“And you,” he went on to ask, “who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Anointed One!” But Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about him.
Then Jesus began to teach them that the Bar Nasha/Son of Man/Human One had to suffer much, be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and religious scholars, be put to death, and rise again three days later. Jesus said these things quite openly.
Peter then took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this, Jesus turned around and, eyeing the disciples, reprimanded Peter: “Get out of my sight, you Satan! You are judging by human standards rather than by God’s!”
Jesus summoned the crowd and the disciples and said, “If you wish to come after me, you must deny your very self, take up your cross and follow in my footsteps. If you would save your life, you’ll lose it, but if you lose your life for my sake and for the sake of the good news, you’ll save it.”
REFLECTION Lost & Found Barb & Mitchell
AGAIN & AGAIN: WE’RE CALLED TO LISTEN Mark and Laurie Klinedinst
MUSIC Ombra mai fu & Grace Music & photos by Kathryn Parker
PRAYER FOR THE WEEK Blessing in the Round Eve Thorsen
This blessing
cannot help it;
it’s the way
it was designed.
Lay it down
and it rises again.
Release it
and it returns.
Give it away
and it makes a path
back to you.
There is no explaining
how it delights
in reappearing
when you have ceased
to hold it,
no hiding the sly smile
it wears
when it shows up
at your door,
no mistaking the wonder
when it circles back around
just at the moment
you thought you had
spent it completely,
had poured it out
with abandon
where you saw
the deepest thirst for it,
had put it entirely
in the hands
of those desperate
in their hunger.
But here it is,
the perfect circle of it
pressing into your hand
that curls around it
and then lets go,
receiving
and releasing
and receiving again,
like the breath
that does not belong to us
but sets us in motion.
~Jan Richardson
SHARING PRAYERS & LORD’S PRAYER
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
ANNOUNCEMENTS
LENT BENEDICTION
As you leave this space,
May your mouth speak of God’s goodness.
May your arms hold those in need.
May your feet walk toward justice.
May your heart trust its worth.
May your soul dance in God’s grace.
And may this be your rhythm—
Again and again and again,
Until God’s promised day.
In the name of the Lover, the Beloved, and Love itself,
Go with courage, go with heart, go in peace.
Amen.
POSTLUDE Hymn music & photos
by Kathryn Parker
Liturgy (except Blessing in the Round) by Sarah Are | A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org
