GATHERING MUSIC

“Sacred the Body” – M. Miller

CALL TO WORSHIP

Grace Losso Modla

Leader: Spring is about to break forth!
All: In all the land, new life is happening!
Leader: Feel the wonder and power of God’s creative energy
All: Feel the awe and joy of God’s love for us.
Leader: Let us worship God with a full sense of joy and expectation.
All: Let us open our hearts, our spirits, our souls, to God’s lavish love. Amen.

SONG

“Stand By Me” – Charles Tindley

SCRIPTURE – Isaiah 43:16-21

16 Thus says God,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,
17 who brings out chariot and horse,
army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
18 Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.
19 I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
20 The wild animals will honor me,
the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
21 the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.

MESSAGE

Traci West

PRAYER OF THE DAY

Tonya Jackson

Gracious God; loving God in whom we live and move and have our being, it is a fertile time in which we are living, a time of uncertainty when our faith is tried and our fear is easily provoked. Be with us in uncertain times.

You have promised us a new thing. God, we need it. May the new thing be a new faith in our hearts, a new lightness in our being, a new reconciliation where our relationships are breached, a new trust that a way will be found through the wilderness, a new joy at the abundance of life wonders.

May we find the courage to allow those things to die which are not serving, and the heart to create space for the new things coming.

O God, may the new thing you are doing, be wrought in each of us, in our hearts, our minds, our spirits. Amen.

BLESSING

Traci West

SENDING FORTH SONG

“Hope Will Not Fail” – M. Miller

---

Worship Notes:
The Call to Worship is adapted from Rev. Nancy C. Townley.
The Prayer of the Day is adapted from the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship website, http://uuchristian.org/isaiah-43-16-21.