Here’s an opening litany/call to worship for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany. It was written by Rev. Dr. Ginny Brown Daniel, and posted on the United Church of Christ’s Worship Ways website.
Opening Litany
(inspired by Mark 1:21-28)
Brothers and sisters in Christ,
what hopes do you bring to worship?
We bring hope for health and wholeness.
What afflictions do you bring to worship?
Physical pain?
From illness and injury.
Emotional pain?
From sad and scary life situations.
Mental pain?
From dis-ease of many kinds.
With all of these afflictions,
it’s a miracle that any of us have made it to worship this morning!
But where else would we be?
We yearn to know God’s powerful love
and to know that wholeness is possible.
In today’s gospel, a person with an “afflicting spirit” * interrupts Jesus
and Jesus frees him.
And where does the miracle of his story and our stories begin?
When we bring all of who we are
—hopeful, afflicted, bold—
into relationship with the Divine.
So come, let us enter this sanctuary with our whole selves
—hopeful, afflicted and bold—
Come, let us worship!
— taken from Holy, Whole-y One: Service Prayers for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, written by the Rev. Dr. Ginny Brown Daniel, pastor of Plymouth United Church, UCC, in Spring, Texas. Posted on the United Church of Christ’s Worship Ways website. Visit there for other good lectionary-based worship resources.
For more worship resources for January 29, 2012 (the fourth Sunday after Epiphany), click on Epiphany 4B in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page.
For more calls to worship on this blog, click on Calls to worship in the list of “Labels” at the lower right, or see the Call to Worship Index at the upper right.
