Order of Service / Third Sunday after Epiphany / January 21, 2024

 

*Gathering Hymn Arise, Your Light Is Come (#79 VU)

Welcome

Lighting the Christ Candle

Call to Worship

One: Let us give thanks to God.

  All: Let us join our whole selves in songs of praise.

ONE: Let us bring our hurts and concerns to God’s gentle love.

  All: Let us receive God’s word for our lives.

One: Let us commit our lives to live for God’s kingdom.

  All: Thanks be to God! We gather to worship.

*Frances Flook,. Gathering ACE 2023-2024, page 42.

Opening Prayer (Unison)

In a world filled with noise, you are a place of quiet, God. In a world filled with complexity, you are wisdom. In a world filled with brokenness and loss, you are the sturdy ground of our being. Through this time together, through the love of Christ, may the world be changed, and may all be made whole. Amen.

*Richard Bott,. Gathering ACE 2023-2024, page 43.

*Opening Hymn Fairest Lord Jesus (#341 VU)

Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison)

Gracious God, you uplift us and respond when we cry out for help. You offer renewal and eternal kindness. Yet we often lose focus on these truths. Instead we imagine your absence—and put ourselves at the centre. Forgive our selfishness, our egos, and our complaining. (a time of silent reflection) Amen.

*Elise Feltrin. Gathering ACE 2023-2024, page 44.

Words of Assurance

One: Despite the detours we take, God continues to turn our mourning into dancing and fills our hearts with joy.

  All: God puts songs of praise on our lips and reminds us once again that we are beloved, we are forgiven, we belong to God! For this, may we give thanks forever!

* Elise Feltrin. Gathering ACE 2023-2024, page 44.

Announcements and Minute for Mission

Time for God’s Children (You Are Holy, MV 45)

You are freedom, you show us the way. (x4)

You show us, you show us, you show us the way (x4)

Prayer for Illumination

Proclaiming the Scriptures

Jonah 3:1-5, 10 God calls Jonah

Psalm 62:5-12 (VU 779) Be still, my soul, and wait for God.

Mark 1:14-20 Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James, and John.

This is the Good News from the Bible.

  Thanks be to God.

Anthem

Sermon

*Hymn Jesus Calls Us (#562 VU)

*Offering

*Offertory Hymn (#540 VU | Grant Us, God, the Grace)

Grant us, God, the grace of giving, with a spirit large and free,

That ourselves and all our living we may offer faithfully.

*Offertory Prayer (Unison)

Grant that these gifts, O God, be used to extend and fulfill your ministry in this world, the same ministry to which we are called. Amen.

* Donnie Morrison. Gathering ACE 2023/2024. Page 48.

Prayers of the People and Lord’s Prayer

*Closing Hymn O Jesus, I Have Promised (#120 VU)

*Commissioning

One: The journey may be filled with detours and yield signs.

  All: The journey is often into the unknown and across uncharted waters.

One: May we each know God’s presence and blessings on all parts of the journey of life.

All: Thanks be to the God who never leaves us. Amen.

* Beth W Johnston. Gathering ACE 2023-2024, page 49.

*Commissioning Song Walk with Me (#649 VU | Refrain)

Walk with me, I will walk with you and build the land that God has planned where love shines through (x2)

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