Liturgy: Second Sunday After Epiphany, Mark 2:13-22 (January 14, 2024)

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Hymns:

Hymn GTG #415, “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy”

Hymn GTG #616, “Our God Is an Awesome God”

Hymn GTG #309, “Come, Great God of All the Ages”


*Call to Worship (Mark 2:17, 19)

Leader: Jesus ate with tax collectors, proclaiming,
People: “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do.”
Leader: Jesus encouraged his followers to eat their fill, insisting,
People: “The wedding guests can’t fast while the groom is with them.”
Leader: Jesus recognizes that salvation is not “one-size-fits-all.”
People: Let us worship the one who sees and loves us for who we are.


Call to Confession (based on Mark 2:17)

Leader: Jesus came to call sinners, just like Levi, just like his disciples, just like us. Let us confess our sins in the confidence that Christ’s call is, indeed, for us, too.


Popcorn Prayer of Confession (based on Mark 2:19)

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: O Holy Bridegroom, we should be feasting and celebrating in your presence. Instead, we nitpick and complain, finding fault when we should be focusing on joy. Help us remember that you have decreed a time for every season and embrace each season as it comes. Guide us in living a nuanced faith that follows where you lead. In your mercy, hear our prayers…

(Silent prayers of personal confession)

Declaration of Forgiveness (based on Mark 2:14)

Leader: We do not need to be perfect to follow Jesus; we simply need to be willing to go. Hear this good news: in Christ, we have been called, and we have been forgiven!
People: Thanks be to God!