GREETING (adapted from Psalm 89:26)
You, Almighty One, are our Father, our God, and the Rock of our salvation.
Your steadfast love is forever, and your covenant is everlasting.
Reveal to us your will, so we may worship you with our time in this world.
Hold us to your covenant, where all our blessing and hope lies.
Use our worship to form us as the steadfast covenant-keepers that you desire,
and let our faithful witness draw others to their salvation in you.
HYMN 386 “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown”
PSALM 38
PRAYER
(Think back to the beginning of this day. Start there, and mentally walk through the day again, while you thank God for the day's blessings and God's continuous work of love. Confess and repent of those times when you forgot, ignored or rebelled against God. Continue to pray with your personal prayer list.)
SCRIPTURE LESSON
(Choose a passage of scripture to read. It can be a chapter, a paragraph, or a particular story. Daily lectionaries are available online or in print that assign a lesson each day from the gospels, epistles, Old Testament and psalms on a three-year cycle. Or you can create a plan to read a book of the Bible, or the whole Bible. Then follow the steps below.)
Read a passage of scripture. Read it out loud, very slowly and carefully as if for the first time. Continue reading until a word, phrase or sentence captures your attention. Stop there to repeat the word, phrase or sentence over and over, listening to it deeply in your heart.
Reflect on why the passage got your attention. Consider the area of your life to which this may apply. Is God saying something to you in this passage? Take time to listen carefully to whatever God may be saying to you.
Respond to God in prayer (or with journaling, music, art or whatever you choose) about what you have heard. Ask questions. Open yourself to God’s will for you.
Rest in God’s company. Be still and quiet. Move beyond thinking, practicing interior silence. Let yourself be open to God’s presence. Savor this moment with God.
PRAYER
God of Abraham and God of Isaac, long ago you made a covenant with Jacob.
You said his offspring would be like “the dust of the earth,”
and that they would spread abroad,
out to the west
and to the east
and to the north
and to the south;
and that “all the families of the earth”
would be blessed by Jacob and his myriad, itinerate offspring.
And that is a covenant you have fulfilled in so many ways and so many places.
In one of those offspring, Jesus Christ, you saved the world.
Jesus’ disciples, Jacob’s spiritual offspring,
spread everywhere,
living their faith,
sharing good news,
and serving you.
The love you planted in them bore fruit,
as they traveled everywhere working great wonders for you.
In their desire to heal, they built hospitals and modern medical practices.
To teach, they built schools, universities and great libraries.
To care for the needy they built orphanages,
fought infanticide,
abolished slavery,
elevated women,
and supported labor.
They spotlighted the sanctity of human life,
and raised the moral standards in people’s everyday lives.
Jacob’s spiritual offspring laid the foundations for scientific discovery.
They fought some discoveries that challenged their faith,
but ultimately they realized that our Creator
needs no protection
from any truth.
For you, our God,
are truth’s source.
Jacob’s offspring gave dignity to individuals,
and provided democracy its nursery and early education.
And we dare not ignore how many people have been transformed by Christ,
through his love and the love of his many faithful disciples.
May we thank you for our own transformation?
You have saved us
and transformed us
and blessed us too!
We thank you, God,
especially for the covenant you made so long ago. Amen.
SILENCE AND COMMITMENT
(Pause to reflect and listen. Work to push out of your mind any distracting or irrelevant thoughts. Concentrate your thoughts on the words of the hymns and choruses you have sung, the prayers you have spoken and the scriptures you have read. Be aware of what you are feeling. Listen for anything that God might be saying to you in this time you have spent together. As God responds to your prayer-time, seek guidance for how you can best respond to God’s will. Then commit to serving God’s will for you.)
HYMN 515 “Out of the Depths I Cry to You”
CLOSING PRAYER
You have made a number of covenants with your people, God.
But what is a covenant really – a contract, an agreement, a promise?
When you make a covenant with someone it is more than these.
Your covenants have always been full and unique because they are:
a surprise, with you initiating the whole arrangement for blessing us;
an unbalanced gift, in that we receive more than we can ever return;
a steadfast bond binding you to people you have chosen for covenant;
an alliance of you and your chosen people to work for all that is good;
a relationship with people who are privileged to enjoy your company;
your pledge, your understanding, your commitment to those chosen.
When you make a covenant, you are absolutely, always faithful.
On the other hand, we absolutely, always fail to keep faith with you.
But we can sleep soundly because Christ has kept faith for us,
and tomorrow we begin again in a covenant that still stands in love.
Amen.
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
