UCC Identity

Called as a Gift (Mark 1:14-20)

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Now is the time for God’s kingdom here on earth.
Gracious God, we ask for your help in making this so.
We ask that you change our hearts
so that we can change our lives as well as
the lives of those around us.
Open our hearts to your teachings,
and inspire us to follow you.
Fill our hearts with your peace,
but don’t make us complacent.
Mend our broken hearts, damaged by the world around us,
and keep us from becoming cynical.

Now is the time for God’s kingdom here on earth.
We trust in that good news as we gather here each week.
Help us to share the good news with others
by using the gifts you have given to us.
Encourage us to recognize our gifts and
the gifts we see in others.
Remind us our gifts have value
and help us to recognize their worth.
Call on us to use those gifts freely without fear.
Give us the strength and wisdom to use our gifts
to speak for the voiceless,
to lift up the fallen,
to see the plans you have set in place for us,
and to listen for the needs of those around us.
You have called us together to be a family of your believers.
As a family, we support one another and
we ask that you be with those among us who need your healing grace.
We name ____.
As a family, we celebrate our joys and rejoice with one another.
We lift up ___.

You have called us here to this sacred place.
You have given us priceless gifts and talents.
You have loved us and shown us your grace and your mercy.
And now it is time to make this world your kingdom.
We take the first step in our call by using the words that you have taught us, “Our Father..”

Joyful for Your Gifts (2 Corinthians 8:1-15)

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Lord, because we have come to know you, we are a joyful people.
Because we have come to know you, we are a thankful people.
And because we have come to know you, we are a blessed people.

We shout with joy and lift up your praises to the world.
As we know joy in your teachings,
we ask that you help us share that joy with others.

We thank you for the many gifts you have bestowed upon us.
As we celebrate these gifts,
we ask that you help us use those gifts to make this world
your heaven on earth.

We thank you for the grace you have shared with us.
As we feel your grace upon us,
we ask that you help us become agents of change and
forgiveness in this world.

We know we are your children and that we are deeply loved by you.
As we feel your love,
we ask that you help us share that love with others,
with those we know and with those we will come to know.

As we support those among us,
we ask that you be with our brothers and sisters in need of your healing touch. We name ___.

Holy Spirit, come to us.
Holy Spirit, blow through this holy place and sweep away our fears,
our hesitations, and our selfishness.
Come to us and open our eyes so that we can see God’s plan before us.
Open our hearts so that we want to do more in Christ’s name.
Open our hands so that we share freely with others.
Open our ears so that we hear the needs of others.
Holy Spirit, give us the strength and courage to support those among us.
We ask that you be with your Church, here in this holy place,
and with the wider Church.
As Luther transformed the church 500 years ago,
we ask that you give us the strength to truly be your disciples
as we seek change, justice and peace.

As your disciples, we lift up the words your son taught us,
“Our Father….”

Delight In God (Matthew 11:25-30)

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Lord, don’t make us too wise to see you.
Make us, instead, like the little child who lifts up his or her arms
to their parent knowing they will be picked up and carried.
We ask that you help us carry our burdens and
yet we know we don’t always give them up willingly.
Sometimes we allow our burdens
to define us,
to contain us,
to protect us or
to separate us.
Remind us to be as a child.
Help us to give up our burdens and find our peace in you.

Lord, don’t make us too wise to see you.
Make us, instead, like the little child who lifts up his or her arms
to their parent knowing they will be quickly embraced.
As your children, we know we are loved by you.
We know that we are to act together in community
and to love one another.
Help us remove the barriers between ourselves.
Take us back to the time of the early church
when your followers worked together to support one another,
and to protect one another.
We ask that you be with those among us who need your healing grace.
We name __.
Remind us to be as a child.
Help us to freely share our love and concern with one another.

Lord, don’t make us too wise to see you.
Make us, instead, like the little child who lifts up his or her arms
to their parent knowing they will always be forgiven.
As the forgiven people, we ask that you remind us to also
forgive those who may have wronged us.
Help us to forgive, to lessen the burden of those who may have wronged us.
Encourage us to seek reconciliation, to work towards understanding,
and to work towards justice and peace for all.
We are your children, deeply loved and uniquely cherished.
Help us to feel your presence in our lives.
Help us to share your love with others.

Lord, give us the wisdom we need to truly see you.
Give us the wisdom we need to truly give up our burdens to you.
Be with us, share rest with us, grant us peace.
Make us like a child, open our hearts to you,
and as we use the words your Son taught us, bless us with your peace,
“Our Father…”

Let Us Achieve New Heights as Followers of Christ (Acts 1:6-14)

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Gracious God
Sometimes the world and its problems seem to be too much for us.
We may find ourselves waiting and unsure what to do.
Sometimes we ask you for signs of what will come,
forgetting that we are to act as your witnesses here on earth.

Jesus was taken into Heaven and until he returns, we ask,
Spirit, come to us and call us to action.

Remind us that you have given us all we need to act in your name,
to be your disciples here on earth.
Fill us with the courage we need to stand up for truth and justice.
Open our hearts with compassion for those in need.
Give us the wisdom to see your vision for this world and then
use our thoughts and energy to fulfill your plan here on earth.
Unclench our fists and replace anger and frustration
with a deep sense of peace.
Remind us that we are your children and that we are loved.

Jesus was taken into Heaven and until he returns, we ask,
Spirit, come to us and call us to action.

We are your disciples now.
Help us to be like the disciples of the early church.
Help us to feel your interaction as we pray and
help us to see you in the ordinary moments of our lives.
As we experience the joy in your teachings,
help us to share that joy with others.
Use us to bring peace to this world, one person at a time.
As we support one another, we ask that you be with those among us
who are in pain or in need of healing. We name ___
We ask that you help us become better students of your teachings,
better disciples in this world.

Jesus was taken into Heaven and until he returns, we ask,
Spirit, come to us and call us to action.

As the disciples devoted themselves to prayer, we use the same words,
the words that Jesus taught them, “Our Father…”

**Words in bold can be said by congregation

An Everlasting Covenant (Isaiah 55:1-9)

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We often dream of a world of plenty,
a world where we have won the lottery,
a world where our wishes will come true.
We compare ourselves to others and
can be jealous of what we don’t have.
We forget that the happiness
about a new possession is a temporary mood.
We forget that the newest electronic gadget
will be out of date next month.

Help us, Creator God, to recognize the gifts you have given us.
You have given us an earth full of wonders,
lands of plenty and bodies of fresh water.
Creator God, help us to respect the gift of the earth,
the animals and the natural resources.
You have given us a society in which we live and people to interact with,
to learn from and to grow with.
Creator God, help us to respect one another and
to seek justice and peace for all.
You have given us free will and the ability to learn from our past.
Creator God, help us to see our past clearly,
to recognize where we have made mistakes or redefined history,
and help us to make a better future for our children.
You have given us your Son to share your teachings and your plans with us.
Creator God, help us to understand those teachings and encourage us
to follow in His path.

Most importantly, remind us that this is a material world.
A material world does not last and possessions become a burden to maintain.
Free us from that burden, Lord.
Remind us to go through this world unencumbered by things.
Focus our attention on your teachings, Lord.
Remind us to share the resources of this earth with others.
Remind us to treat each other with respect and caring.
Remind us to be aware of the choices we make and how they impact others.

You have given us the ever living water of your truth.
We celebrate those truths and teachings here in this sacred place
and in our daily lives.
As your followers, we support one another, but we ask that you be with ___.
And as we seek out a closer relationship with you, we use the words you taught us,
“Our Father…”

UCC Identity

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Prayers marked with the category UCC Identity were used in a series after Pentacost in 2015. Each week was spent on a sentence in the UCC graphic of Be The Church. Our children and youth created their own banner over the ten week series with their own symbols representing each of the concepts below.  The youth presented a topic during the children’s sermon each week.

BeTheChurch-VerticalBanner-3

Your Healing Touch (Mark 7:24-37)

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God of light and love,
We confess that even when we think we are treating people fairly,
our actions may be tainted by our biases and by our interpretations.
Overwhelmed by the world and desiring privacy,
it can be easy for us to turn a cold eye to the needs of those around us.
It can be easy for us to judge others and blame them for their situation.
Fill our lives with your light, illuminate the shadows of our lives,
and show us what we are not seeing clearly.
Let your light show us the grays in our life,
those spaces where the decisions are not always black and white
and then let your love help us to make the right decision.
As you fill us with your love and light, remind us that we are loved
and heal us as you healed others.
Let the energy of your love fill us with every breath we take.

We gather here in this sacred place.
For the next few minutes, be with us as we sit quietly
and we ask for your healing touch,
for ourselves,
for those that we love, and
for those that we know of but may never meet.
As we breathe in, we feel the energy of your love,
drawn into ourselves,
touching every part of us,
healing what is broken and in pain.
As we breath out, we feel ourselves expanding,
expanding out to unite with one another,
becoming one with each other,
here in this sacred place.

God of light and love,
Open our hearts with your love, help us to share our love and our lives
with people who are not always first in our minds.
Your son showed us this love and compassion when he helped the
Syrophoenican woman, a person some would call an enemy.
As your children, we are loved deeply and uniquely cherished.
Help us to see your face in those that we meet and
help us to extend your gift of healing to others.
We may not be able to cast away their demons,
but we can lend our ears to hear their stories,
we can lend our hands to help pick them up,
and we can use our voices to stand up for them.
Your son came to us in love and
taught us how to truly care for your creation.
And in love, he taught us the words we use today,
“Our Father…”

Are We Acting as Your Followers? (Mark 8:27-38)

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Who do we say that you are?
What brings us here each week?
Where do we see you touching our lives?
When are we most like you?
How do we show that we are your followers?

Do we ever really think about these questions?
Open our eyes, Creator God, to your love and to our answers.
You sent your Son to us, as one of us, but also as part of you.
Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
separate but yet connected.
Sharing your Son with us was sharing your love with us
in the physical form.
Do we see your Son as love? as a teacher? as a prophet?
as a Savior?

We come here every week to this sacred place.
What brings us to this place, to this family of believers?

Open our hearts to your desires.
Help us to work together as your church
to fulfill your plan.
Help us to discern your plan for Church of the Apostles.

As your children, we know you are with us always.
Creator God, you see us as we are and how you would like us to be.
Open our eyes to the times
that you have tried to coax us to follow your teachings more closely.
Open our eyes to the times
that you have supported us in our times of crisis.
As we support each other, we know that you are with us and
we ask that you be with ___ in particular.

We are your children, Lord, and we try to follow your teachings.
As we look at our daily lives, open our eyes to when we are acting in ways
that are most like you.
Use us to fulfill your plan here on earth.
Remind us that we are your followers and it is up to us
to speak for those without a voice,
to listen for the unspoken needs,
to shelter the refugee,
to feed the hungry,
to teach those who cannot read,
and to love the discarded.
As we look at our personal lives, when are we acting most like you?
When are we acting as your disciples, your followers?

Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was.
Remind us every day who Jesus was and why we follow him.
And as we remember, we use the words he taught us,
“Our Father…”

We Are Connected (Mark 12:38-44)

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Gracious God, we may not want to admit it,
but we are more like the scribe than the widow.
We dress our children in the latest fashions and
upgrade to the newest iPhone.
But we don’t think about the child who may be working
in those factories overseas to give us our latest gadgets
and our athletic wear.
We say we want to protect the environment,
but our constant need for energy depletes the rain forest
and poisons the water.
We put our needs before the needs of others.

Help us to be more aware, Lord.
Help us to see how we are connected with one another,
with nature, and with you, Lord.
Help us to see how our private and our public choices
impact each other, impact our world,
and impact our relationship with you, our Creator.
Help us to remember we affect people we will never know
and will never see.
Help us to put ourselves in someone’s story,
to hear their circumstances without judgment
and to see your image in their face.

Creator God, you created a world that contains all we need.
Remind us that our gifts and treasures are not a reflection of our faith,
but more a reflection on the circumstance of our birth
and our ability to make our way in a material world.
As your disciples shared their gifts and talents with the early church,
so too, are we to share with each other.
Help us to see the inequities of this world
and give us the strength to stand up for justice and peace.
Use us to fulfill your plan here on earth.
Fill our hearts with the desire to follow the examples of your Son, Jesus.

Remind us that being a church does not only mean gathering together
in this sacred place.
Being a church means taking our message out to the world,
in deeds more than in words,
showing others your love and your grace.
Help us to be more like the Widow,
give us the strength to give ourselves freely to each other,
without fear, and without doubt.

We know that you are with us always.
And, we know that faith alone does not guarantee us a pain-free life,
but we know that with your presence, and with the help of each other,
we can be supported and comforted in this world.
We ask for your healing presence for those among us who need it the most.
We name ___

As the widow, we come to this sacred place, and together,
we use the words that your son taught us:
“Our Father…”

God of Creation (Genesis 1:1-28)

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Creator God, in our darkest moments,
we know that the sun will rise in the morning from the east
and set in the west.
We have witnessed the beauty of those sunrises,
have marveled at the vast numbers of stars in the sky in the dark of night,
and have been humbled at least once in our lives
by the majesty of the world you have given us.
The world you have given to us is full of what we need
with more than enough for all of us.
Remind us not to take more than our fair share.

We have witnessed the beauty of the world you have given to us.
We have also witnessed the harm that we have caused your world.
We remember the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico,
the Kuwait oil fires from the Iraq war, the dead zone within the Chesapeake Bay,
Three Mile Island, the damage done to third world countries who have
the minerals or natural products that we want and far too many other examples to name.
Remind us that as you made the world, you created us, in your image.
Creator God, help us to act as your images here on earth.
As you have nurtured us, give us the wisdom and guidance
to nurture our earth, the world you have given to us.

God of the sunrise and the sunset, you are with us always.
We find you in the noise of the crashing waves against the shore and
we find you in the stillness of the darkest night.
We find you in the beauty of a bee dancing against a flower and
in the morning dew sparkling on a spider web.
We marvel at your creation as we look at the face of a newborn baby
and we recognize the cycle of life as we say good bye to those we love.
In today’s modern world, we can live our lives seemingly disconnected with nature.
Remind us that our lives are intertwined with nature
and that our actions impact your world directly.

Created in your image, we know that we are your children, Lord.
We are to support one another and work to fulfill your plan here on earth.
As we are to nurture the earth, we are also to nurture each other.
We know that you are with us always, and
we ask that you be with those among us who need you the most.
We name ___

As the God of Creation, you are with us every moment of every day.
Help us to feel your presence with us and within us.
Remind us to celebrate the simple pleasures of the world around us.
Remind us to value all aspects of nature.
And, as members of your creation, hear us as we lift our voices to you,
using the words your Son taught us,
“Our Father…”