Sunday, August 10, 2025
NInth Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 12:32-40 | "Dressed for Action"

Call to Worship (Inspired by Psalm 50)
One:  The mighty one, God the Holy One, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Many: Out of the kindom, the perfection of beauty, the splendor of creation, the wonder of ages, God shines forth.
One:  The mighty one, God the Holy One, speaks and calls to the heavens above and to the earth in order to judge the people.
Many: Out of justice and righteousness, God shines forth.
One:  The mighty one, God the Holy One, speaks and receives our thanksgiving, honor, and praise.
Many: Out of our witness, worship, and testimony, God shines forth.

Invocation
Wonderful God, set your kindom before us anew. Dwell with us as we bring our songs and prayers, our hopes and hesitations, our faith and our disbelief before you. Demonstrate your kindom to us and through our time of gathering so that we may be firm and steadfast in love and action to make your way known. Reveal the path you trail before us so that we may follow you clearly with distraction or detour. May your Spirit enliven, challenge, and guide us in all things and for all days. Amen.

Prayer for Transformation and New Life
O God, our hands are full and stained with the fruit of devastation and despair.  We lament a world filled with genocide and war even as we acknowledge our complicity and inaction with rampant evil in the world. Too often, we benefit from our neighbor's suffering and remain complacent and compliant when the cost of loving our neighbor seems to address illusions of safety and security. Move us to action. Arm us with hearts bursting with love. Equip us as agents of the kindom's peace. Assure us that when we seek forgiveness through our actions as well as our words, your grace will meet us. Amen.

Words of Grace
Beloved, in Isaiah 50:23, the Voice declares, "Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me; to those who go the right way, I will show the salvation of God." Though the cost of discipleship may be exacting and sacrificial, the grace of God strengthens, sustains, and encourages. Receive the power of the Sovereign One to act according to God's will and to advance the kindom on earth, in community, and in life.  
 
Invitation to Generosity
We honor Creator by offering our gifts of service, action, compassion, financial and material resources, and energy to the continuing ministry of the Body of Christ. Let us give with divinely-inspired and empowered generosity trusting God to provide for all needs, individually and collectively.

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Dedication
Generous God, as we bring our gifts, we ask for you to receive them and endow us with wisdom and discernment to be good stewards of your abundant blessings. Amen.

Benediction 
Go, clothed for compassion
Attired with joy
Covered by peace
And dressed for action
Knowing that the God who knit you together
Goes with you
In strength, gentleness, and power

Dressed for Action: Service Prayers for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost was written by the Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology for the United Church of Christ.