Worship Prayer for July 23

CENTERING PRAYER - God of yesterday and tomorrow:  Always you startle us into new

understandings just when we think we have it all sorted out.  Startle us again.  Break open our preconceptions and confound our pat answers, that we might be gifted with new vision.  Praise be to you, Holy One.  Amen

  

  

CALL TO WORSHIP

We are not here because we have found God, but because God has found us.

         God has called us to accept the cost and discover the joy of discipleship.

God’s promise is of forgiveness of sin and fullness of grace, courage to work for justice in the face of evil, power to make peace, hope against hope that God’s promises will be fulfilled.

         Blessing and honor, glory and power, be unto God, now and forever.

   PRAYER OF CONFESSION                                    

O God, who is life and hope and newness:  We confess that it is easier to be lazy than to be lively; that it is more comfortable to take our ease than to be on the growing edge; that it is safer to make rules than to wrestle with the complexities of relationships.  Be gentle with us, yet firm.  Be gracious toward our failings, yet relenting in your call to wholeness.  This we pray through the one who accepts, forgives, and challenges us into life in all its wholeness.  Amen.

   SCRIPTURE                                                                                   Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43