2 April 2019

Gathering Music

“God’s Eye is on the Sparrow”

Call to Prayer

One:
We are chased and overtaken
Not by trials whose flames burn our feet
Or troubles that pull us into the depths
But by each new blessing You send
We are pursued by joy and faithfulness
We are arrested by mercy and balance

Many:
Is this not your way, Lord?
Is this not your name, God?

One:
Possessions possessed us, titles distracted
And yesterday’s memories tempted us

Many:
With stationary comforts, our senses numbed
but you brought us back to life again

Song

“Lord Listen to Your Children Praying”

Prayers of the People

O God, who makes all things new,
new stars, new dust, new life;
take our hearts,
every hardened edge and measured beat,
and create something new in us.

We need your newness, God,
the rough parts of us made smooth;
the stagnant, stirred;
the stuck, freed;
the unkind, forgiven.

And then, by the power of your Spirit,
May we be turned toward Love again.
Amen.

Reading

Genesis 8:6-12 (NRSV)

6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; 9 but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; 11 and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more.