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Hymn GTG #306, “Blessed Be the Tie that Binds”
Hymn GTG #340, “This Is My Song”
Hymn GTG #300, “We Are One in the Spirit”
Call to Worship (based on Ruth 1:11-17)
Leader: God has gathered us together as family.
People: Not a family born of blood or geography, but of the heart.
Leader: Like Naomi, we want what’s best for each other.
People: Like Ruth, we refuse to let each other stand alone.
Leader: God has given us to one another as a gift.
People: Let us worship the one who binds us together in love.
Call to Confession (based on Ruth 1:6)
Leader: Naomi returned to her homeland because she had heard that the Lord had remembered God’s people and provided for them. Let us likewise return to the home that we find in the Lord’s embrace and boldly confess our sins, certain that God will remember us and provide for us the mercy that we seek.
Popcorn Prayer of Confession (based on Ruth 1:16-17)
People: Holy God, you created us to live in harmony with one another, yet we are forever inventing new ways to divide ourselves up. Help us to follow the example of your daughter Ruth, who refused to let anything but love define her family. Teach us how to cherish what is unique about ourselves while also recognizing our inescapable connection to each of our human siblings. In your mercy, hear our prayers…
Hymn GTG #300, “We Are One in the Spirit”
Call to Worship (based on Ruth 1:11-17)
Leader: God has gathered us together as family.
People: Not a family born of blood or geography, but of the heart.
Leader: Like Naomi, we want what’s best for each other.
People: Like Ruth, we refuse to let each other stand alone.
Leader: God has given us to one another as a gift.
People: Let us worship the one who binds us together in love.
Call to Confession (based on Ruth 1:6)
Leader: Naomi returned to her homeland because she had heard that the Lord had remembered God’s people and provided for them. Let us likewise return to the home that we find in the Lord’s embrace and boldly confess our sins, certain that God will remember us and provide for us the mercy that we seek.
Popcorn Prayer of Confession (based on Ruth 1:16-17)
You are invited to speak a word or short phrase that describes a personal or collective sin of which you repent and seek forgiveness.
When the gathered community is finished sharing, we pray together:
People: Holy God, you created us to live in harmony with one another, yet we are forever inventing new ways to divide ourselves up. Help us to follow the example of your daughter Ruth, who refused to let anything but love define her family. Teach us how to cherish what is unique about ourselves while also recognizing our inescapable connection to each of our human siblings. In your mercy, hear our prayers…
(Silent prayers of personal confession)
Declaration of Forgiveness (based on Ruth 1:16)
Leader: Ruth’s faithfulness to Naomi is like the Lord’s faithfulness to us: wherever we go, God will go; wherever we stay, God will stay. The Lord chooses to be with us in our highs and lows, in the good times and the bad, in our righteousness and our sin. Hear the Good News: In Jesus the Christ, we are all forgiven!
People: Thanks be to God!
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