Call to Worship & Opening Prayer
O God of this present moment and all of Eternity,
You call us again and again; you love us
As your dearest children.
Today as we remember those who have gone before us,
Transform our prayer and sorrow into praise and singing
Of your steadfast love for all the saints in the past and today.
Let your steadfast love, O God, extend to the heavens
And to us and to the next generation among us,
our angels and small saints. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
O God, the Life and Resurrection,
We confess that we forget the assurance of your resurrection is here,
from the moment of our gathering in the sanctuary,
… At the foot of the empty cross…
Forgive us when we do not celebrate each given day as a fresh new day,
When we diminish our blessings,
When our pain and the pain of others are not held in our prayers
When our wounds aren’t stretched out to the balm of your love. Amen.
Assurance of God’s Grace
Hear what the scripture says to us (Psalm 36): “Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens. … How precious is your steadfast love, O God! … O Continue your steadfast love.”
Our delight comes from beyond ourselves, from a love beyond our comprehension, greater than us in every way.
May you be filled with joy and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
May your spirit be renewed to sing anew of God’s love and glory
and of the happiness of living in God’s world. Amen.
Children's Time (Who are God's Saints?)
Good morning, my friends!
I heard that you had a great time last week, showing your Super Selves and how you use your powers to do good for yourself and others! That’s great!
Each Sunday is special, because we celebrate our new life in Jesus. Some Sundays even have special names because they mark special times in the life of the church. This Sunday’s name is All Saints Sunday.
Today, we remember those people in our church family who died in the past year. We are sad that they have died, but we rejoice that we had the blessing of knowing them and receiving God’s love from them.
Do you have anyone in your hearts and prayers that you remember and want us to remember now with you? What do you like to remember most about them?
Today I would like to ask us to remember Agnes Turner, Fran Darling, John Usher, Doug Ormond who is the grandfather of Hannah and Ruby, Gordon Humphries, and John Irving of our church family.
(As I show the power point picture slides of them....)
God calls them all “God’s saints.” As God’s family, we believe that God is with us in our friendship with all of the saints. Who are God’s saints?
(As I show the power point picture slides of our church members having happy time with one another, our children, etc.)
God calls everyone who spends their lives doing good for God ‘saints’. So we can be and we ARE God’s saints. All who live in God’s love are God’s saints.
Will you pray with me?
Dear God, thank you for loving us as your little saints. We are happy when you call us your children, your students, your saints. Let us always remember who we are and whose we are. Amen.
Tips for writing Prayers from my editor
I would like you to try an experiment - after you've written the prayers, read them out loud. Don't listen to the words, but the shapes the words make in the air around you. Maybe pretend that they're not words, but music.
One thing about poetry is that the way the words sound is just as important as the way the words look - while you're reading, the words convert to sounds in your head - when you're reading out loud, the shape of the words, their roundness or sharpness, their length and brevity, become really important.
When I edit your prayers, I'm not just looking at the words - I'm listening to them in my head, trying to balance out the short spiky words with round rolling ones. Also, I'm trying to arrange the words in a way that helps both the flow of ideas and the verbal flow - that people can apprehend the meaning easily and speak the words easily, as well.
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