Commons Church

View Original

Sunday Liturgy

CALL TO WORSHIP
Psalm 91

MUSIC
Curated by Clinton Siebert
We Praise You by Bethel Music
Be Thou My Vision, hymn arrangement
Never Walk Alone by Hillsong
Holy Forever by Chris Tomlin

ANCIENT PRAYER FROM THE IONA COMMUNITY IN SCOTLAND
With by Scott Wall

In just a couple of weeks, we will begin a new cycle of the Christian calendar. Our tradition has long kept time by inviting us to the high points of Jesus’ life - his birth, his death and resurrection. And, our tradition has always observed passing seasons, drawing our attention to how the Divine shows up in the fabric of our daily rhythms…

So, as this season nears its end and we anticipate Advent around the corner, I invite you to hear and hold prayerful words adapted from the Iona Community in Scotland — Ancient words sourced from mystics and pilgrims to help you attend to this moment now.

Let us pray.

God —
You keep us waiting.
You, the God of all time,
Teach us to wait
For the right time in which to discover
Who we are, where we must go,
Who will be with us, and what we must do.
So we thank you for this waiting time.

You keep us looking.
You, the God of all space,
Teach us to look in the right and wrong places
For signs of hope,
For those who are hopeless,
For visions of a better world which will appear
Among the disappointments of this world we know.
So we thank you for this looking time.

You keep us loving.
You, the God whose name is love,
Teach us to be like you.
To love the loveless and the unlovely;
To love without jealousy or design or threat;
And, most difficult of all,
To love ourselves.
So we thank you for this loving time.

Keep us,
Through hard questions with no easy answers;
Through failing where we hoped to succeed…
Through moments when we feel lost.
Kept through Jesus Christ, our hope,
Amen.