• Who We Are
    • Who We Are
    • Mission
    • History
    • General Synod
    • Leadership and Ministry
    • Staff
    • United Church of Christ Board
  • What We Believe
    • What We Believe
    • Worship Ways
    • Daily Devotional
  • What We Do
    • What We Do
    • Office of the General Minister & President
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
  • News
  • Church Finder
  • Donate Now
  • Search
UCC Logo United Church of Christ
  • Church Finder
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Store
  • Frontline Faith Portal
  • Donate Now
  • Search
  • Who We Are
    • Column
      • About
        • Mission
        • Constitution and Bylaws
        • History
          • UCC Archives
        • UCC Brand Guidelines
        • General Synod
          • Synod 33 Worship Videos
          • Past General Synods
        • Abuse Prevention
    • Column
      • Structure
        • Conferences
        • Affiliated Ministries
          • The Pension Boards
          • Cornerstone Fund
          • Insurance Board
          • The Council for Health and Human Services Ministries
          • Church Building & Loan Fund
          • Convergence
    • Column
      • Team
        • Elected Officers
        • Staff
        • United Church of Christ Board
          • Board Minutes
        • Office of General Counsel
        • UCCOSSN
    • Column
      • Career Opportunities
      • Annual Reports
  • What We Believe
    • Column
      • Worship
        • Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ – La Declaración de Fe de la Iglesia Unida de Cristo
        • Worship Ways
        • Daily Devotional
        • Sermon Seeds
  • How We Serve
    • Column
      • Office of the General Minister & President
        • Welcome to Human Resources
          • Employee Relations Resources
        • Center for Analytics, Research & Development and Data (CARDD)
          • General CARDD FAQs
          • About The Center for Analytics, Research & Development, and Data (CARDD)
          • Authorized Minister Opt Out
          • Access UCC
          • Archived Reports
          • Assessment Resources
          • Information Policies and Requests
          • Faith Communities Today (FACT) Survey
          • MissionInsite
          • Statistics and Reports
          • Vital Signs and Statistics Blog
          • Data Hub FAQs
          • Data Hub
          • Yearbook and Directory
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Justice
          • Faithful Action Ministries
            • Environmental Justice Ministries
            • Economic Justice
            • Racial Justice
          • Office of Public Policy & Advocacy in Washington D.C.
            • Justice and Peace Action Network
            • Our Faith Our Vote
            • Justice Training Resources
            • Action Center
          • Health and Wholeness Advocacy
            • Disabilities and Mental Health Justice
            • Encuentros Latinx
            • UCC HIV & AIDS Network-UCAN
            • LGBTQ Ministries
            • Our Whole Lives
            • Overdose and Drug Use Ministries
            • Scouting
            • Wellness Ministries
          • The Pilgrim Press & Stillspeaking Publications
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Local Church
          • The Faith Education, Innovation and Formation (Faith INFO)Team
            • Weekly Seeds
            • Youth & Young Adults
          • Worship Resources
            • Worship Ways
            • Sermon Seeds
            • Synod 33 Worship Videos
            • Music and Liturgical Arts
          • Stewardship & Generosity Resources
          • Ministerial Excellence, Support & Authorization (MESA)
            • History, Polity, and Theology
            • Search and Call
            • Ministerial Profiles
            • Ministry Opportunities
            • Manual on Ministry
    • Column
      • Wider Church Ministries
        • Global Ministries
        • Global H.O.P.E.
          • Volunteer Ministries
          • Refugee and Migration Ministries
          • Disaster Ministries
          • Recovering Hope
        • Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations
  • Resources
  • News
    • Column
      • News
        • United Church of Christ News
    • Column
      • Columns
        • Witness for Justice
        • Into the Mystic
        • Getting to the Root of It
        • The Pollinator: UCC Environmental Justice Blog
        • UCC Roots
        • Encounters at the Well
        • Reflexiones
    • Column
      • Upcoming Events
        • Webinars
      • Subscriptions at the United Church of Christ
      • Changes & Deaths
  • Giving
    • Column
      • Donate Now
      • Ways to Give
        • Giving Tuesday
        • General Synod 2021 Thursday in Black Offering
        • General Synod 2021 Racial Justice Offering
        • Disaster Ministries: How to Give
        • Our Church’s Wider Mission
          • Our Church’s Wider Mission Basic Support
          • Strengthen the Church
          • One Great Hour of Sharing
          • Neighbors in Need
          • Christmas Fund
          • 5 for 5
    • Column
      • Ways We Give
        • Scholarships & Grants

  • Home
  • Worship Ways
  • Shockley, Madison
  • Lent 3 – March 7, 2021

Lent 3 – March 7, 2021

Amistad Sunday*
Service Prayers for Third Sunday in Lent
March 7, 2021

Exodus 20:1-17;         Psalm 19; 1     Corinthians 1:18-25;   John 2:13-22

Since Congregations are returning to “in-person” services at different paces, Worship Ways for will be edited for online use. “Rubrics” for virtual services will be noted in red; take and adapt as you need!

CALL TO COMMUNITY
Leader should speak the lines of the people, along with the Leader’s lines
One: Our lips sing praise and our whole selves rejoice
in the God who makes us free.
All: Out loud but muted
We gather, recognizing that not all human beings
have known this freedom.

One: The divine will was made known in Eden and in Egypt;
in Gettysburg and in Cape Town.
All: Out loud but muted
Born in freedom, redeemed from slavery,
our destiny in Christ is liberty.

INVOCATION
Thankful are we for all the blessings of this life;
love, freedom, bounty and beauty.
The joy we know is beyond our words to speak.
We can only image the suffering and pain of human slaves,
past and present, which yearn from the depths of their souls
to know the freedom we enjoy.
We celebrate this day the heritage we have in the cause of human freedom.
We celebrate this day our spiritual ancestors
who worked for the freedom of the Mendi people on the slave ship, Amistad.
May that ship, like the cross, remind us of the ever present possibility of human evil.
And may that ship, like the cross, remind us of the power of divine love.
May we, through divine love,
shed the false, un-neighborly, covetous and dishonorable desires
of the lives we sometimes live
and keep the commandments and walk in the way that brings life. Amen.

CONFESSION
In this season of Lent we reflect on those things
that lead us away from the life we desire.
We focus on whatever we do that oppresses and enslaves others
who, like us, are created in the image of the divine.
And now we seek the grace that frees us to live in faithfulness to holy love. Amen

ASSURANCE OF PARDON
The God of who brought the Israelites out of Egypt,
is the power that frees us from our sin.
Live in the grace of God’s love
as you walk in the way of Jesus
and surely you shall find mercy at the end of that road. Amen.

SCRIPTURE, SERMON, PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Notes for the worship planners in 2021:
Consider a simple message or even an interactive Bible Study that engages people with the Scriptures for today, and for the theme chosen by the United Church of Christ for Lent 3: Amistad Sunday. The Commandments, a meditation on the Wisdom of God’s will in seeming foolishness, the story of Jesus cleansing the Temple are all powerful comments on justice, freedom and human dignity which much to offer us in these days.

For the Prayers of the People, you might use a bidding prayer (“God, we pray today for those who are sick, including ….”) and encourage folk to type in their prayers using Zoom chat or Facebook Live; allow for more time in silence for those prayers to be typed and read. Consider a collective response at the end of each bidding prayer.
o A caution regarding prayers of the People online: Folks gathered in-person often recount a lot of detail in their prayers concerning other members or family (“Elderly Name, living alone, experiencing isolation…” In a private, in-person gathering, this information may be safe, but online, it can expose vulnerable people to harm, since we can’t control who will join the gathering or access it later online. Invite people to be prudent in offering prayers: “For First name only, in need of healing”; “For First name only, comfort in grief” etc.
Encourage people to contact the pastor directly with news of those needed extra pastoral care.

OFFERING INVITATION
Our tokens offered here
are but symbols of our lives of sacrifice lived every day.
May we give ourselves to the world as a holy offering acceptable to you,
O God, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

DEDICATION
All: out loud but muted
Receive these gifts, Holy One,
sanctify them by your Spirit.
Drive away any ill motives
and accept, we pray, our humble offering. Amen.

BENEDICTION
Go into the world without fear,
knowing that the weakness of the Holy is stronger than every human power.
Live free!
And the God who brought the Israelites out of Egypt,
the God who freed the Mendi from slavery,
will be your strength and your power. Amen.

*The Amistad incident: Important moment in the history of the U.S. and the United Church of Christ. In 1839, 55 Africans who had been captured in the slave trade struck out for their freedom while being transported out of Havana, Cuba, on a schooner called La Amistad. The captives successfully took over the ship and ordered the crew to sail back to Africa, but weeks later the ship ended up far north, at the tip of Long Island, New York. U.S. officials boarded the ship, arrested the captives and jailed them in Connecticut. There they were befriended by Christian abolitionists, many belonging to churches that are now part of the United Church of Christ. The abolitionists hired lawyers, including former President John Quincy Adams, to appeal the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declared the captives free in 1841. This abolitionist victory helped create momentum for the formation in 1846 of the American Missionary Association. This interracial agency’s work in education, discipleship and justice eventually became part of the national mission structure of the UCC which continues to this day.

Amistad Sunday: Service Prayers for the Third Sunday in Lent, was written by the Rev. Madison Shockley, pastor of Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Carlsbad, CA and a member of the board of directors of ProgressiveChristianity.org.

Copyright 2021 Justice and Local Church Ministries, Faith INFO Ministry Team, United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115-1100. Permission granted to reproduce or adapt this material for use in services of worship or church education. All publishing rights reserved.

Download the RTFDownload
  • Column
    • Local Church and Conference Resource Directory
    • Mission
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • General Synod Resolutions
  • Column
    • Contact
    • News
    • Store

Content on ucc.org is copyrighted by the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and may be only shared according to the guidelines outlined here.

1300 E. 9th Street, Suite 1100
Cleveland, Ohio 44114

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Subscribe on YouTube

Donate Now


UCC Crest
© United Church of Christ 2023. Privacy Policy.
Crafted by Cornershop Creative