Prayer as We Gather: In this holy hour, Lord, revive within us Isaiah’s faithful refusal to ”keep silent or sit still until righteousness shine out like a light.” Infuse us with your spirit, so we might refuse to be shushed by bureaucratic ignorance or intimidated by hateful speech in high places. May UBC continue to be a safe haven for free-thinking followers of Jesus, a harbor where the unmarked paths of religious liberty are better than a known way, a voice in the wilderness speaking truth to the sinister powers threatening academic freedom in our university community, so we may earn the prophet’s assurance that “the Lord delights in you, your God will rejoice because of you.” Amen.*(Mitchell Simpson/UNC Class of ‘72, inspired by Isaiah 62)
Call to Worship:
Your loyal love, Lord, extends to the skies.
Your justice is like the deepest sea.
Your faithful love is priceless, God!
Humanity finds refuge in the shadow of your wings.
Within you is the spring of life.
In your light, we see light. (from Psalm 36)
Morning Prayer: Thank you, God, for your boundless patience and sense of humor, as when you worked your miraculous mischief through Jesus at a humble peasant wedding in Cana, silencing his hovering mother’s intrusive counsel and salvaging a young couple’s honor by allowing the wine to continue flowing. This candid snapshot of Jesus’ stubborn compassion for the poor reminds us that his earliest critics were members of his own family, a bitter truth still lived out among us when we dare put Jesus first in our lives, often at the price of offending entrenched family prejudices and inflaming smoldering family secrets. Grant us the gracious audacity of our Galilean Lord, who never mistook tradition for truth, and who taught us to pray, saying …*(Mitchell Simpson, inspired by John 2)
Prayer of Confession: Forgive us, Lord, for ignoring apostle Paul’s jarring claim that your Holy Spirit chooses, one person at a time, what spiritual gifts each of us will receive. No wonder so many of us have a vague, persistent sense of being unsettled, ill at ease. We have avoided being still and quiet long enough to listen for your gentle voice of guidance amidst the clamor of our lives. We have fled from what would truly bring our hearts joy, blinded by the bright lights of the marketplace, with its false gods of endless competition and its empty markers of status and success. Even worse, we have misappropriated your intent that spiritual gifts be used for the common good, co-opting them instead as vehicles of ego-boosting self-promotion. Have mercy on us for kidnapping these good gifts for our own purposes. Amen.*(Mitchell Simpson, inspired by 1 Corinthians 12)
Assurance of Pardon: Take heart and smile, for Cana’s wedding offers us more good news than reprimand. Mother Mary, chastened by her charismatic son’s rebuff, rallies to reply as ought we all to Jesus’ commands: “Do whatever he tells you.” Her repentant obedience is matched by the headwaiter’s pungent aside to the groom: “You kept the good wine until the last,” an unwitting metaphor for how we all should each day save our most tender mercies and deepest affection for the life partners with whom God has blessed us, not squandering our best selves and kindest smiles throughout the day upon people who will never understand us like those who know us best and love us in spite of ourselves. Thanks be to God for that very small number of people we can trust to put up with us no matter what!*(Mitchell Simpson, inspired by John 2)
Thought for a Sabbath Day: “Nothing worth doing can be accomplished in a single lifetime; therefore, we are saved by hope.” - Reinhold Neibuhr, American Protestant theologian