Worship Prayers Feb. 18

CENTERING PRAYER:  God of ancient covenants, your steadfast love and faithfulness are still new every morning.  I thank you that I can begin this day in the confidence of your abiding love and unending mercy.  Help me to treat others—family, friends, coworkers, classmates, and even strangers—with love and mercy in our encounters today.  When I disappoint or am discordant, help me to show love to others.  Open my eyes to the places, people, and circumstances in which your kingdom has come near.  I pray in the name of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, my Savior.  Amen.

  

CALL TO WORSHIP

From water to wilderness:

        God’s covenant continues; God’s kingdom comes near.

On stone and in hearts:

        God’s covenant continues; God’s kingdom comes near.

From the ancestor of nations to the Son lifted up:

        God’s covenant continues; God’s kingdom comes near.

We follow Jesus on the Lenten path,

        for where he is, we would be also.

Come! Let us worship our God together.

   PRAYER OF CONFESSION

God of mercy, we begin this Lenten season in confession.  We do not live according to your ways, but according to our own.  We condone violence, participate in systems of injustice, and use power to our own advantage at the expense of others.  Forgive us, we pray, when we are tempted to follow paths other than those you set before us.

Teach us your commandments; help us to turn from evil in its many guises, and turn us toward your kingdom drawing near.  In covenantal love, remember us, we pray, and be for us, once more and always, an ark of safety and new life.  In Christ’s name we continue to pray.  (Silent Confession)

   PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.  Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.  Amen.

[Prayer requests may be given to one of the pastors before the service.]

   AFFIRMATION OF FAITH - Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.  I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.  Amen.

  

SCRIPTURE READING                                                              Mark 1:9-15