Order of Service / Baptism of the Lord / January 18, 2026

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

Welcome & Land Acknowledgement

Lighting the Christ Candle

Call to Worship

One: God calls you to ministry in the world.

  All: We are truly thankful.

One: God calls you beloved, God’s own children.

  All: We are truly thankful.

One: God calls you to worship here with your siblings in faith.

All: We are truly thankful.

One: In gratitude, let us worship.

*Stephen Ernst. Gathering ACE 2025/26. Page 39.

Opening Prayer

*Opening Hymn Come, Let Us Sing of a Wonderful Love (#574 VU)

Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison)

Loving God, we know we are not perfect. Some days we struggle to be kind and faithful. We forget your way and choose our own. Forgive us when we fail to love. Remind us of our baptism and your deep love for us. Lead us back to your presence, and renew us to live with hope and compassion. In silence now, we offer our personal prayers of confession. (a time of silent confession) Amen.

Words of Assurance

One: God’s love is stronger than our weakness, and God’s mercy is new each day.

All: We are forgiven. We are held in love.

One: In the waters of baptism, we are named and claimed as God’s beloved.

  All: We are renewed in grace and guided by the Spirit.

One: God restores our hearts and calls us to walk in hope and compassion.

  All: Thanks be to God! Amen.

Announcements and Minute for Mission

<Remembering Our Baptism>

Profession of Our Faith (Unison)

Before conscious thought or action on our part,

we are born into the brokenness of this world.

Before conscious thought or action on our part,

we are surrounded by God’s redeeming love.

Baptism by water in the name of the Holy Trinity

is the means by which we are received, at any age,

into the covenanted community of the church.

It is the ritual that signifies our rebirth in faith

and cleansing by the power of God.

Baptism signifies the nurturing, sustaining,

and transforming power of God’s love

and our grateful response to that grace.

*from A Song of Faith (2006)

Vows to Remember

One: Long promised, long hoped for, God's chosen one comes to the Jordan River to be baptized.

  All: John recognizes the supreme worth of Jesus and wishes Jesus would baptize him instead.

One: Jesus seeks solidarity with those on the riverbank and finds that solidarity in baptism by John.

  All: In baptism, he experiences God's anointing and a commissioning to freely begin God's work.

One: Do you recognize the significance of this baptism?

  All: We come to the riverbank with heavy hearts and our burdens are lifted. We come to the riverbank with questions and doubts, and our fears are faced. We come to the riverbank unsure of the way ahead, and we are encouraged to begin the journey, a just and compassionate journey. We come to the riverbank feeling our humanity, and we find confidence as those within the faith community.

One: You will rejoice as you renew your vows of baptism. You will rejoice as you commit to be baptized.

  All: We will rejoice. Thanks be to God! Amen.

Prayer of Thanksgiving and the Pouring of Water

Gracious and Holy God, we bless you for the gift of life, and, within it, the gift of water. Over its unshaped promise your Spirit hovered at creation. By water, comes the growth of the earth. Through water, you led the children of Israel to freedom. In the waters of the Jordan your Child Jesus was baptized. Now may your Spirit be upon us and what we do, that this water may be a sign for all of new life in Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen

 

< Come to the Baptismal Font for the Practice of Blessing>

 

Vows to Make

One: The moment of baptism for Jesus was the recognition that he was chosen:

  All: chosen to teach, chosen to serve faithfully, chosen to be in community, chosen to create a disciple family, chosen to advance justice and equality, chosen for his time, chosen for our time.

One: Jesus is God's chosen one.

  All: Reflecting on Jesus' call and commissioning to his vocation, we are called to recall our own vocation and to work out how that calling will be lived out, at home, at school, in our work situation, and in our social groups.

One: Bless us, Loving God.

  All: We have a calling to respond to, and we are ready! Amen.

Prayer for Illumination

Proclaiming the Scriptures

1 Corinthians 1:1-9 I thank God for you.

Psalm 40:1-11 (VU p. 764) I waited patiently for God.

John 1:29-34 Jesus is the beloved child of God.

This is the Good News from the Bible.

  Thanks be to God.

Anthem

Sermon

*Hymn Christ, When for Us You Were Baptized (#99 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)
Mysterious, Calling God, you reach out to us and call us to use the gifts we have been given, as your beloved children, for the good of others and as blessing in this world. We are called to love others: with acts of kindness, with time spent together, with acts of generosity, with listening and welcoming spirits. We are called to love others, not considering whether we like them or not. We are called to do this because you are love, O God. Help us to be one of your expressions of love in the world. Amen.

*Beth W Johnston. Gathering ACE 2025/26. Page 41.

Prayers of the People and Lord’s Prayer

*Closing Hymn Forth in Your Name, O Christ (#416 VU | vs. 1,4,5)

*Commissioning

One: We go from here to live out our baptism.

  All: Let the waters of creation lift us up and give us strength.

One: May God fill us with hope. May Christ give us the courage to make change. May the Spirit lead us on the path of peace.

All: We go in peace to love and serve the world.

*Commissioning Song Walk with Me (#649VU|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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