Service of the Word, September 12, 2013

I had the opportunity to assist for Dr. Skinner, professor of New Testament, in chapel this week.  This is the order of service, with the prayers of intercession I wrote.

Service of the Word

Opening Hymn:  Open Your Ears, O Faithful People  - ELW #519

Prayer to Receive the Word
Gracious God, we ask your blessing as we listen to the words of the scriptures. May they touch our hearts and lead us to a life of love, mercy and service, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Scripture:  Luke 15:1-10

Sermon by Professor Matt Skinner

Prayers of Intercession

With the whole world that longs for the sight of God, let us pray.

We pray for the church, for all people and places who turn to You for comfort.  Give us strength to take seriously this mission to which we are called:  to the proclamation of good news to your people who are lost.

We pray for your creation, beautiful and broken.  Give us grace to be servants and co-creators with you, to live lives worthy of the world you have made.

We remember all those around the world who suffer because of injustice, war, and the sinfulness of others.  We pray for all of us who seek power, not to serve you or care for others but to glorify ourselves, that your grace and mercy might find us and turn our hearts.  We pray for our soldiers, for our veterans, for all those who have protected us.  Especially we pray for those who have lost something in combat:  their health, their strength, their family, their fellow servants, their hope, their heart, their lives.  We turn to you in the hope of their restoration, and we hold out our hands that you might make us a home for those who are lost.

We pray for our own tax collectors and sinners:  for all those pushed to the edges of society, rejected by their people and their church, and reviled by those in power.  We remember how you came to seek the lost, how your diligence and compassion led you time and time again into the midst of the unwanted, and how such love led you to the cross.  Give us that same love, that we might care not for ourselves but for the rescue of the lost in our midst.

We remember all those who suffer in body, in mind, and in spirit; for those who struggle with mental illness and addiction; for those who linger in hospitals and waiting rooms, hoping for good news or clear results.  We pray especially for Rebecca Mehl Gamble, journeying in Malaysia, as she recovers from illness, and for Jennifer Anderson Koenig, alumna and former campus pastor at Saint Olaf College, as she faces a continuing struggle with brain cancer.  Give them strength, and surround them with our love and prayer.

Holy God, you are beautiful.  You are grace.  You are love.  You are compassion.  You are a woman of patient commitment and hard work, seeking out the lost and setting us free.  In our joy at seeing you, we lift up our prayers and hopes, and we trust in your love.
Amen.
Amen.

Benediction

Sending Hymn:  "The Lord Now Sends Us Forth"  (ELW #538)

Prayers of the People, chapel service June 13, 2012

Ezekiel 17: 22-24  (NRSV)

Thus says the Lord God: I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of a cedar; I will set it out. I will break off a tender one from the topmost of its young twigs; I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it, in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar. Under it every kind of bird will live; in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind. All the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord. I bring low the high tree, I make high the low tree; I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I the Lord have spoken; I will accomplish it.

Psalm 92: 1-4, 12-15  (ELW)

It is a good thing to give thanks | to the LORD, 
to sing praise to your name, | O Most High;
to herald your love | in the morning
and your faithful- | ness at night;
on the psaltery, and | on the lyre,
and to the melody | of the harp.
For you have made me glad by your | acts, O LORD;
and I shout for joy because of the works | of your hands.
The righteous shall flourish | like a palm tree,
and shall spread abroad like a ce- | dar of Lebanon.
Those who are planted in the house | of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts | of our God;
they shall still bear fruit | in old age;
they shall be | green and succulent;
that they may show how up- | right the LORD is,
my rock, in whom there is | no injustice.

Mark 4:26-34  (NRSV)

He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.” 

He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” 

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

Hymn of the day:  ELW 637, "Holy God, Holy and Glorious"

Holy God, holy and glorious, glory most sublime,
You come as one among us into human time,
And we behold your glory. 

Holy God, holy and powerful, power without peer,
You bend to us in weakness; emptied, you draw near,
And we behold your power.

Holy God, holy and beautiful, beauty unsurpassed,
You are despised, rejected; scorned, you hold us fast,
And we behold your beauty. 

Holy God, holy and only wise, wisdom of great price,
You choose the way of folly:  God the crucified,
And we behold your wisdom. 

Holy God, holy and living one, life that never ends,
You show your love by dying, dying for your friends,
And we behold you living.

Prayers of the people:

Drawing together in the love of Christ, let us pray for the world, the church, all those in need, and all of God's creation.

Holy God, holy and beautiful,
in whom we love and move and have our being:
sow in us seeds of love and compassion,
that we might look at each other and see children of God,
that we might look at ourselves and see your beauty in us.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Holy God, holy and living,
one who knows the grief of change, of decay, and of death:
sow in us seeds of hope and peace,
that we might bear your strength to all who need it,
that through us you might grant rest to all the world.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Holy God, holy and glorious,
who grants growth in due season:
sow in us seeds of justice and mercy,
that our roots may be deep in your love
and our branches may make a safe space for all to find shelter,
especially those throughout the world who suffer war and oppression,
especially those in Syria, Pakistan, and Israel/Palestine.
Make our fruits flourish, that through you we might feed the world.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Whatever else you see that we need, we ask of you O God, our Lord, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.