Sunday, June 8, 2025
Day of Pentecost
John 14:8-17, 25-27 | "Truth, Trouble, and Fear"

Call to Worship (Inspired by Acts 2:1 and Psalm 104)
One:.When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
Many: We join for worship online and onsight, in real time and sometimes days later, and yet, 
One: The Holy One sends forth the Spirit.
Many: Who unites us, connects us, and forms us as a community. 
One: We were created in spirit and in truth, wonderfully and fearfully, in the image of Holy Love. 
Many:  God renews the face of the earth and the cosmos, this faith community and the church.
One: May the glory of God the Fire endure forever!
Many: Bless the Holy One, oh my soul. Praise God!

Invocation
Spirit of Unity, you knit us together with all of our connections and distinctions. You make us one and yet unique. We gather to hear your voice and to attune ourselves to the language of the other, to celebrate the diversity of your creation and to immerse ourselves in compassionate care, to give you glory and to recognize the gift of community. May our hearts be opened and our lips declare your praise. Inhabit our worship with your abiding presence and inflame us with your love. Amen.

Prayer  for Transformation and New Life
Spirit of God Amen, fall fresh on us. Let your refining fire bring impurities to the surface for the fullness of who we are to shine through. Forgive us for the ways we allow our diversity to be a reason for divisiveness and exclusion rather than a celebration of your wondrous work in us. Enable us to overcome and eradicate the barriers that we create in the name of our convenience and comfort that push your beloved to the margins. Awaken in us a desire to know and share space with neighbor, enemy, and kin. Amen. 

Words of Grace
Beloved of God, you have not received a spirit of fear, divisiveness, animus, or hate. Receive the true gift of God—the spirit of adoption—that binds us together as one and unique, connected and distinct, unified yet not uniform. The Spirit of God delights in you as the individual you are and are becoming as a co-heir with Christ of the kindom as well as in the global human community that declares the creative breadth of the Holy One's creative acts and surpassing love. 
 
Invitation to Generosity
The Spirit of God has been poured out on us. For the gifts of God, we give thanks. For the grace of God, we extend our trust. For the love of God, we bring forth the gifts we have to give. May our offerings of time, talent, and treasure ignite and unite this community for the hope of the world around us, near and far. 

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Dedication
Spirit of the Living God, receive our gifts as tangible expressions of our belonging to your church and our commitment to the ministry begun in Christ and continued through this faith community. Magnify them in miraculous ways, and make our generosity a demonstration of the love you have given us and we return to the world you love. Amen. 

Benediction
Go, united as living testimonies of the Source of all love, the Embodiment of divine power, and the Spirit of truth and wisdom.
Go, in the assurance that the same flame that ignited the early disciples burns alive in the church today. 
Go, with glad hearts and courage, as the Advocate guides and with the peace Christ provides. 

Truth, Trouble, and Fear: Service Prayers for the Day of Pentecost was written by the Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology for the United Church of Christ.