Order of Worship

This is the day that the Lord has made

Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Announcements and Life Together

Call to Worship

In the beginning, God created the world, and God blessed it:

“It is good.”

In the beginning, God created light, and God blessed it:

“It is good.”

In the beginning, God created life, and God blessed it:

“It is good.”

Since the beginning, God has not stopped creating,

calling us closer to all that is good.

Prayer of Praise

O Lord our God, we give you thanks for the faith, hope, and love you give to us

through the blessing of our baptism— claiming us as your beloved children,

calling us to the path of discipleship, revealing to us the light of your glory.

By the power of your Holy Spirit, poured out upon us in baptism,

help us to follow you with faith, to trust in you with hope,

and to serve you with love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Call to Confession

Nothing can be hidden from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth,

whose wisdom is endless, whose mercy is great. -Isaiah 40:27–28

Prayer of Confession

God whose spirit moved over the waters, you have washed us in your mercy,

claimed us as your own, bound us in community,

and called us to lives of baptismal grace.

Forgive us, O God, for we have not lived as if we were your baptized people.

We stumble over opportunities for forgiveness.

We prioritize our own selfish interests. We are slow to disrupt the status quo,

even when it means ignoring our neighbors’ suffering.

Forgive us, O God, and by your forgiveness, lead us back to your waters of transformation.

Assurance of Grace

Trust in God and be renewed!

So that we may rise up to fly like eagles,

run and not be weary, walk and not grow faint.

In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven!

Thanks be to God.

Children’s Message

Prayer of Illumination

Scripture Reading

Genesis 1:1-5  (NRSV)

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

This is the word of the Lord. 

Thanks be to God.

Second Scripture

Mark 1: 4- 11 (NRSV)

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Sermon

The Revelation

Rev. Kim Smith-Stanley

Prayers of the People

Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts,

as we forgive our debtors;

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Amen.

Offering and The Doxology

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Benediction

Let all God’s people say…

Alleluia, Amen.

Passing of the peace