Welcome

Opening Litany[1]:
Siblings in Christ, what hopes do you bring to worship?
We bring hope for health and wholeness.

What afflictions do you bring to worship?
Physical pain?
From illness and injury.

Emotional pain?
    From sad and scary life situations. 

Mental pain?
    From dis-ease of many kinds.

With all of these afflictions, it’s a miracle that any of us have made it to worship this morning!
But where else would we be? 
We yearn to know God’s powerful love and to know that wholeness is possible.

In today’s gospel, a person with an “afflicting spirit” interrupts Jesus
and Jesus frees him.

And where does the miracle of his story and our stories begin?
When we bring all of who we are
—hopeful, afflicted, bold—
 into relationship with the Divine.

So come, let us enter this sanctuary with our whole selves
—hopeful, afflicted and bold—

Come, let us worship!

Confession and Forgiveness:
Blessed be the holy Trinity, + One God, whose voice is upon the waters, whose mercy is poured out upon all people, whose goodness cascades over all creation.
Amen.

Let us confess our sin, trusting in the abundant grace of God.

Silence is kept for reflection.

Holy God,
you search and know us.  You are acquainted with all our ways.  We confess that our hearts are burdened by sin – our own sins and the broken systems that bind us.  We turn inward, failing to follow your outward way of love.  We distrust those who are not like us.  We exploit the earth and its resources and fail to consider generations to come.  Forgive us, gracious God, for all we have done and left undone.  Even before the words are on our tongues, you know them; receive them in our divine mercy.  Amen.

How vast is God’s grace! Through the power and promise of + Christ Jesus, our sins are washed away and we are claimed as God’s own beloved. Indeed, we are forgiven. In the wake of God’s forgiveness, we are called to be the beloved community living out Christ’s justice and the Spirit’s reconciling peace.
Amen.

Prayer of the Day:
Let us pray.
Compassionate God, you gather the whole universe into your radiant presence and continually reveal your Son as our Savior. Bring wholeness to all that is broken and speak truth to us in our confusion, that all creation will see and know your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Amen.

First Reading: Deuteronomy 18:15-20
¹⁵The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. ¹⁶This is what you requested of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: “If I hear the voice of the LORD my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.” ¹⁷Then the LORD replied to me: “They are right in what they have said. ¹⁸I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. ¹⁹Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable. ²⁰But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak—that prophet shall die.”

The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Gospel: Mark 1:21-28
This is the Holy Gospel according to Mark, the 1st chapter.
Glory to you, O Lord.

²¹They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. ²²They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. ²³Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, ²⁴and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” ²⁵But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” ²⁶And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. ²⁷They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” ²⁸At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.

Children’s Sermon

Sermon

Hymn of the Day

Apostle’s Creed:
Let us confess our faith using the Apostle’s Creed:
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.*
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

Prayers of Intercession:
Guided by Christ made known to the nations, let us offer our prayers for the church, the world, and all people in need.

Prayers continue with each petition ending:

. . . let us pray.
Have mercy, O God.

Merciful God, hear the prayers of your people, spoken or silent, for the sake of the one who dwells among us, your Son, Jesus Christ our Savior.
Amen.

Sharing of the Peace

Announcements

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https://tithe.ly/give_new/www/#/tithely/give-one-time/468062

Sending Litany[2]:
God comes into a world filled with uncertainties and darkness.  
God seeks out the voids of belief and conviction.  

God embraces the wounded and broken.
God knocks down the walls of division and strife.

God is the candle shining in the darkness of our days.
God is the light of our lives.

God is the one who makes all things new.
Praise be to God, now and forevermore!

Lord’s Prayer:
Gathered into one by the Holy Spirit, let us pray as Jesus taught us saying:
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 trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
forever and ever. Amen.

Benediction:
God the creator strengthen you;
Jesus the beloved fill you;
And the Holy Spirit the comforter + keep you in peace.
Amen.

Dismissal:
Go in peace. Be the light of Christ!
Thanks be to God!

 

Prayer Requests:
Gladys Fawcett,  family and friends of Pete Shearer, Tom Burns, Megan Brodsky, family and friends of Bob Berger, Shirley Hauck-Troxell, Ryan Caris, family and friends of Frank Danowsky, Gretchen Becker, Deb Fern, Kay Keister, Annette Baker, Courtney Price, Cami Zimmerman, Helen Barsh,  Jamie, Matt Koch, Bob Keifer, Peg Swinehart.

 

Portions reprinted from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, copyright 2006.  Used by permission of Augsburg Fortress, license #SBL09796L.  Music reprinted from the ELW, by permission of OneLicense, license #A712349.  Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.   Used by permission.

 

[1] Adapted from Holy, Whole-y One: Service Prayers for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, written by the Rev. Dr. Ginny Brown Daniel, pastor of Plymouth United Church, UCC, in Spring, Texas.  Posted on the United Church of Christ’s Worship Ways website.

[2] Based on materials by Peter K. Perry, and posted on Richard Fairchild’s Kir-shalom website.