What Can I Do?

Good Morning and Welcome to Worship! Worship is often the first place that new people come into contact with this growing community of faith. And so, if you are joining us for the first time, I say to you what is said every Sunday: You are welcome here. Here is a place where all are welcome. For such is the love of God for God’s Very Good Creation.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise God, all creatures here below; praise God above, ye Heav'nly host: praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Holy God, we try to fix and fasten you, but you will not be stayed. You are love in motion: always breathing us into being, calling us to serve, sustaining us in the wilderness. Come to us as the morning breaks. Soften what has grown dry and brittle in our hearts until we turn to you with abandon, for we pray in the way of Jesus and through the Spirit that gives us life. Amen.

Cantor Sings

We are on a journey of becoming and we do not fully know how to pray. Yet the Spirit helps us in our weakness and intercedes with sights too deep for words. Therefore, let us offer our prayers, confident that the Spirit prays in us according to God’s will.

Holy God, you have blessed us with understanding and the ability to choose the good; give to all leaders and people a vision of your world made whole, the wisdom to pursue it, and the will to accomplish it. You have given your world the gift of love to transform our suffering into healing and restoration. Be with all who suffer hardship, distress, or need, and help us to honor you by serving together, as we grow in the way of compassion and mercy.

Jesus shows us the way to live our life in you, and so we keep coming—because we want to live. Receive us now in our frailty, our complacency, and our desire.

We pray for your creation the world over, that we would be seed and yeast where life has grown barren and heavy. May the life we discover in you bind us to each other and to the world that you have deemed your very good creation, for no need is beyond the strength of your call when we are gathered in your name, and no child is expendable.

Jesus shows us the way to live our life in you, and so we keep coming—because we want to live. Receive us now in our frailty, our complacency, and our desire.

We pray for friends and strangers in the grip of addiction. Make us able companions for each other, and bless us with work that bears fruit.

Jesus shows us the way to live our life in you, and so we keep coming—because we want to live. Receive us now in our frailty, our complacency, and our desire.

We pray for unsettled economies and those whose needs are overlooked in the choices of the powerful. May we, who know privilege, bear our responsibilities with open hearts and open hands.

Jesus shows us the way to live our life in you, and so we keep coming—because we want to live. Receive us now in our frailty, our complacency, and our desire.

We pray for all who stand at the threshold of life: for your children who are soon to be born and your children who are soon to go home.

Jesus shows us the way to live our life in you, and so we keep coming—because we want to live. Receive us now in our frailty, our complacency, and our desire.

We give thanks for new faces to love, ideas to ponder, work to do — and we marvel at the sturdy friendships and persistent memories that sustain us when the way is difficult. May each be a reminder of your love and your provision.

Jesus shows us the way to live our life in you, and so we keep coming—because we want to live. Receive us now in our frailty, our complacency, and our desire.

We thank you for the gift of song — for notes that speak when words fail. Give strength to leaders who call forth the best from us and invite us to breathe together.

Jesus shows us the way to live our life in you, and so we keep coming—because we want to live. Receive us now in our frailty, our complacency, and our desire.

Holy One, keep calling us into the world — your beloved kindom — as seed and yeast and treasure. Equip each of us for the challenges we will face until we learn to worship in the most unlikely places, for you are the source of our song and the well from which we pray, wherever we are planted.

By the power of your Spirit we make our prayer today. Amen.

Enlightening God, you have given us a dream of your world made whole, a heavenly realm that is here in heart and hand, and is ours to choose each day. May our smallest acts of love when transformed in you Spirit, grow abundantly into a realm of flourishing for all. Amen.

God’s Love in Christ Jesus ³¹ What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? ³³ Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is to condemn? It is Christ who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. ³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? ³⁶ As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 The Parable of the Mustard Seed ³¹ He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; ³² it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” The Parable of the Yeast ³³ He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.” Three Parables ⁴⁴ “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and reburied; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. ⁴⁵ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; ⁴⁶ on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. ⁴⁷ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; ⁴⁸ when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. ⁴⁹ So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰ and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Treasures New and Old ⁵¹ “Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” ⁵² And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

No matter how many times we read it, mustard does not grow up to become a tree. How does this metaphor move us definitively out of reading the Bible literally? When we embrace the greater complexity of the Scriptures, how does this greater complexity inform our faith journey and the task of establishing the Kindom of God? Mustard grows with wild and reckless abandon. Mustard is one of those plants that is a crop in some fields and a weed in others. How does the nature of mustard inform your sense of place and purpose?

The kindom of heaven is like a mustard seed; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. Let us offer our gifts this day with grateful and expectant hearts for the kindom of heaven is here and can be in hand. Amen.

Holy One, receive these offerings as you receive our lives. Gather our false starts and uncertain efforts, our generosity and our reluctance. Enliven us with your breath and make your purposes known, that our lives might show forth your glory, for we pray in the name of Jesus and by the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Siblings of Christ and Children of God, go — as seed and yeast, willing to give yourself completely to the larger purposes of God. Go — as fisher folk and treasure seekers, pouring out your days in search of hidden grace. And may God, who knows your heart, continue to lead you into life that you may serve with abandon and joy. Amen.