The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost | Proper 11
July 17, 2022
“Summer Fruit”

Call to Worship
One: Let us gather in spirit and truth to worship the Holy One!
Many: We come as green olive trees, fragrant with life and vibrancy.
One: Let us praise the God who reveals, questions, and listens.
Many: We come as green olive trees, ripe with possibilities.
One: Let us give thanks for God’s abiding and faithful love. 
Many: We come as green olive trees, proclaiming the goodness of God and creation..

Invocation
Divine Gardener, we need your care and nurture. Fertilize our soil and our souls. Plant seeds of wisdom, inspiration, and discernment. Prune us today for more abundance tomorrow. Refresh us with living water. Revive us again. Amen.

Prayer for Transformation and New Life
Creator, we seek the transformative power of your grace that chastens, convicts, and challenges us to change. Make us new in the pruning of bitterness and resentment, jealousy and comparison, apathy and indifference. Liberally water us in grace that we would bear fruit. Amen.

Words of Grace
Pruning makes way for flourishing. Transformation and new life wait for us on the other side of the process of growth. Through it all, God is with us.

Invitation to Generosity
Colossians 1:18 reminds us that Jesus is the head of the church and first in all things. May we place Christ first as we share the gifts we have been given. 

Prayer of Dedication and Thanksgiving
Alpha and Omega, may these gifts meet the needs before us, the community around us, and the call within us.  Amen.

Benediction
As you go, make known the wonders of God, share the hope of God, and spread the love of God. The grace of God will sustain and guide you. The glory of God will propel you. Amen.

Summer Fruit: Service Prayers for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost were written by Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology, United Church of Christ.

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