Love Knows No Borders Covenant Liturgy

CALL TO WORSHIP
One: Let us gather within the covenant of Love
All: which connects us to God and to one another.
One: Let us gather to remember promises—
All: God’s promises to us and our promises to God.
One: Let us gather to remember God’s covenant extends first to the stranger and the refugee—
All: We remember that to welcome them is to welcome God.
One: Let us gather to worship God,
All: We worship as renewal, as restoration, as response and as challenge. Amen.

OPENING PRAYER
One: Holy God, we are always seeking your guidance our journey. We would like it if everything was spelled out so that we knew what to expect. We like boundaries and predictability. But that’s not the way life works. You remind us in the covenants of Deuteronomy that security is an ongoing process, born in relationship with you. Open our hearts today, and remind us of your awesome love which transcends any other border we may try to draw. Amen.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION
One: For the times when we have helped build up borders between people and communities.
All: Holy God, remind and restore us.
One: For the times when we have let complacency about our own circumstances take the place of advocacy for a just world for all,
All: Holy God, forgive and revive us.
One: For the times when we have let the appearance of faithfulness
stand in for truly faithful effort,
All: Holy God, heal and move us.
One: For the times when we have created burdens of injustice and unfairness for others to bear,
All: Holy God, challenge and renew us. Amen.

WORDS OF ASSURANCE
One: God’s covenant with us lasts beyond struggle, beyond fault, beyond shame, beyond illness, beyond violence and even beyond death. Love knows no borders. Remember that love, now. Let it wash over you and bring you peace. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING
Deuteronomy 10:12-22 (New Revised Standard Version)
So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it, yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today. Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen. Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons; and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in heaven.

OFFERTORY PRAYER
All: Gracious God, we are blessed by your covenants of love, and so we bring gifts of our resources and talents to share with your ministries of love in the world. Bless these offerings, so that they may sustain those most in need- immigrants, refugees, and those who have lost all hope. Draw us together in your covenant of blessing. Amen.

BENEDICTION
One: Because love knows no borders, we must carry God’s love out into the world where it is least expected. Go with the blessings of God’s love, so that all may share in extravagant welcome. Amen.

Written by Rev. Amber Neuroth