Epiphany 2A – January 15
Epiphany 2A
Second Sunday after Epiphany
January 15, 2023
“Be Called”
Call to Worship (with gratitude to Ruth Moody and the Wailin’ Jennys)
Leader: There are no words for what this testimony means
only the wonder at how it feels like grace.
Assembly: We celebrate the prophets and visionaries;
in story and song, we awaken to the sound of one voice.
Leader: There is no way to know what this following will take
only the hope that it is leading us deeper into the heart of love.
Assembly: We cherish the risk-takers and the tide-turners:
in prayer and praise, we witness to the sound of voices two.
Leader: There is no telling when the struggle will end,
only the faith in a future we cannot yet behold.
Assembly: We become the movement and the liberation:
in worship and wrestling, we create the sound of all of us.
Prayer of Invocation
To the revelation and the wonder, open us.
With the vision and the possibility, convict us.
For the recognizing and the following, equip us.
In the struggle and the seeking, be with us.
Holy One, manifest your love, make your justice known
in and among us. Amen.
Prayer for Transformation and New Life
In this moment of stillness,
feel for the rhythm of your own pulse
listen to the cadence of your own breath.
[pause]
When we lose touch with our own flourishing,
Holy One, forgive us, reconnect us.
In this moment of stillness,
feel for the rhythm of another one’s pulse
listen to the cadence of another one’s breath
[pause]
When we lose touch with the celebrations and struggles of our neighbors,
Holy One, forgive us, reconnect us.
In this moment of stillness,
feel for the rhythm of the pulse of justice for all
listen to the cadence of the breath of love
[pause]
When we lose touch with our collective liberation,
Holy One, forgive us, reconnect us.
Words of Grace
Leader: Thrill and rejoice, people of God:
God’s grace and love meet us at every turn,
no matter where our journeys lead.
Assembly: Praise God who gives us each the chance
to be epiphanies of redeeming love and liberating justice.
Invitation to Generosity
There can be no flourishing for some of us without liberation for all of us. Our offering gives us the opportunity to invest in our collective liberation. May our giving be a revelation of God’s love, made known and being made known in our midst.
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Dedication (with quotes from Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution by Martin Luther King, Jr.)
“All life is interrelated” – Praise!
“We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality” – Praise!
“We are tied in a single garment of destiny” – Praise!
Use our gifts to empower us to lean into this reality and this calling,
more and more fully,
until we become the salvation we are dreaming of.
May it be so. Amen.
Benediction
What are you seeking?
What are you looking for?
Deep down, what do you need?
Deep down, what do we need?
[Note: You could invite participants to turn to one another and share in a word or a phrase their responses to these questions as a practice of building our capacity for collective liberation. After a few moments of sharing, you could call folks back together and return to the rest of the blessing, saying Beloved ones of the Holy One, this seeking is the blessing… Alternatively, you could do this same practice as a response to the sermon earlier in the service and just return rhetorically to the questions as part of the Benediction, as above.]
This seeking is the blessing.
This looking is the calling.
This needing is the epiphany.
So let us go forth to continue to discover how we become liberation
together.
Amen.
Be Called: Service Prayers for the Second Sunday after Epiphany were written by Dr. Sharon R. Fennema, Join the Movement Curator, United Church of Christ.
