CALL TO WORSHIP (responsive)
L: I am the One who gives you life. Forever shall I be your God, and you shall be my people.
P: And if we have no royal blood, but sweat each day for bread?
L: I will be parent to your child; your child shall be my own.
P: And if our skin be a different shade, or our speech a stranger’s tongue?
L: I will be parent to your child; your child shall be my own.
P: If our body be afflicted, or our spirit be distressed?
L: I will be parent to your child; your child shall be my own.
P: If we die while yet alive, or slip beyond the door of death?
L: I will be parent to your child; your child shall be my own.
P: You are the One who gives us life; you are the One who gives us hope.
A: Forever shall you be our God, and we shall be your people!
CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER
O Great Revealer, we come seeking visions. We come desiring dreams. Grant our wish: wave before us one branch of paradise lost, and we shall see in its leaf our life regained. Or conjure up a carpenter whose hands are as rough as the bark of a tree, and we shall behold in his face our salvation. Lift us, we plead, in a flight not of fancy, but of faith; not that we might boast of your presence, but that we might know your forgiveness.