Call to Worship – July 12, 2015
When God created the human race, He created us in families. Much of who we are is determined by what we were taught as young children and as youth. In our adulthood, most of us establish families of our own. Today we seek the blessing of God as we contemplate the life of David’s family long ago and of our own families today. Therefore let us, with confidence, worship the God who established the original and most important of genuine family values.
Pastoral Prayer
O Lord, our Lord, Thou hast created the universe and all that is within it, and the Earth, and all that is within it. We marvel at the breadth and depth of Thy creative purposes, and how all creation is interconnected. We who live on this island realize what a special place it is, if only because on every summer day there are thousands of people who have come here to enjoy nature in its glory, which we may so easily take for granted. It is good to be alive, Lord God, and it is good to be alive in this particular place. For that blessing we give Thee thanks and praise.
We confess before Thee that far too often we do indeed take things for granted: the community in which we live, the relationships we have, the nature of the nation of which we are citizens, the relative opulence of our lives compared to billions of other people in the world. When we stop to ponder how blessed we are, we realize that ultimately it is Thy grace which has given us all that we have, and therefore we thank Thee. Help us in our lives to reflect our gratitude to Thee in how we choose to live among everyone around us.
We pray for people who this day are in particular need of Thy healing goodness: for the mentally ill, who constantly face ostracism and misunderstanding; for prisoners, who have justly or unjustly been incarcerated for long periods of time; for the homeless, who are forced each day to wonder where they shall sleep that night; for the unemployed, who constantly seek work and are unable to find it. Especially on this day we pray for all families who are having serious disputes with one another, and cannot seem to discover the key to restoring their relationships in a healthy and productive manner. Bless everyone in every need by the power of Thy presence among us. These things we pray in the name of Jesus, now joining in prayer as he taught his disciples, saying, Our Father….