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Here are worship materials for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost. If you'd like to perform the liturgy, you can find an audio recording of it by clicking here.

John in Prison, Florence, 14th. c

Call to Worship Psalm 145 Adapted

Call to Worship Psalm 145 Adapted

One: The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

All: The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.

One: All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you.

All: We shall speak of the glory of your kingdom, and tell of your power.

One: We shall make known to all people your mighty deeds,

and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

All: Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

One: The Lord is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds.

All: The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down. 

One: In this way, it is as we now proclaim in greeting one another,

“The peace of the LORD be with you.”

All: And also with you.

One: Let us pray.

John the Baptist in Prison, ?.

Prayer of Invocation and Confession

Gracious God: grant that our religion might be light; grant that our practice might be joy. Fill us with such faith in you that the burden of being your people might as much levity as gravity, as much cause to celebrate, even lavishly, as to get to work and labor on.

The gospel call is a gift and responsibility Your vision and promise of justice are so compelling and urgent that we long for it now. It presses upon us and lands in our hearts as obligation, as imperative.

Yet to bear it this way, and this way only, is to deny your grace, to exalt ourselves as the world’s best hope, and to risk utter dispiritedness when what we long for we can’t fulfill.

Inspire us to work for the sake of your gospel and reassure us that the victory of this good news is ultimately yours to win. Strengthen us to manifest your good will in our midst, and comfort us with word that your good will is as done. Stir in us a longing for your justice, and help us to know that your justice begins and ends in joy.

We pray this in Jesus’ name and way—he whose work in the world was of the utmost importance, and whose joyful way of doing it brought its completion into a world yet incomplete. Our Christ was a man sorrows; our Christ was a man of joy. Help us so to be. Amen.

John Visited by Salome, Barbieri, Italy, 17th c.

Scripture & sermon text.

Scripture & sermon audio.

John Sends His Disciples, Lodi, Italy, 17th c.