Second Sunday after Epiphany

January 17, 2010

1. Drawn to the light of Christ, made bold in the waters of our baptism, and filled with your spirit, we lift up our prayers in confidence that God cares and listens to our prayers.

"Lord in your love," you are invited to respond, "HEAR OUR

PRAYER."

(Congregation may be invited to be seated for prayer.)

A brief silence

2. We give you thanks for the gift of your church, where we are fed and where we hear your proclaimed Word. Strengthen us with your Spirit so that we might be gifts to others. And when the church and its members test our faith and our love, renew in us your radical love for us and all your people.

Lord, in your love:

HEAR OUR PRAYER.

3. In this week of prayer for Christian Unity we give you thanks for all the ministries of your church and for all the communities of faith. We pray for our neighboring congregations and for our sister congregations. In particular we pray for Peace Lutheran in Fort St John and their pastor Kebede Dibaba; and for St Peter's Shared Ministry in Hudson's Hope and the ministers who serve them. Even as we enter the winter months, bind us together in the warmth of your love and your wisdom.

Lord, in your love:

HEAR OUR PRAYER.

4. We give you thanks for the world around us-for its sounds and its sights. Empower and equip us to care for our environment, and even to add to its beauty and its wonder through our personal creativity.

Lord, in your love: HEAR OUR PRAYER.

5. We give you thanks for our homes, for our communities and for all our friends. Bind us to our neighbors in this place and throughout the world, making us in word and in deed brothers and sisters to one another.

Lord, in your love: HEAR OUR PRAYER.

6. We give you thanks for your healing word. May that healing word touch the bodies, hearts and minds of all who are suffering or in need of any kind, especially those we name aloud or quietly in our heart at this time…

May your loving spirit give relief from their pain and their concerns, and may our loving action and our loving words be agents of your Spirit in this coming week.

Lord, in your love:

HEAR OUR PRAYER.

7. We give you thanks for all your blessings both earthly and spiritual that you give daily to all your people.

- We thank you for all who have the gift of another birthday or another anniversary, and for those who have known the gift of new life;

- we thank you for the gift of your Spirit;

- we thank you for the gift of wine along and the gift of friends that together share our joys and our needs;

- we name our special, personal reasons for thankfulness aloud or quietly in our heart at this time…

Lord God, continue to touch our hearts with the gift of daily gratitude.

Lord, in your love:

HEAR OUR PRAYER.

8. We give you thanks for the promised great feast you have prepared for us and for all the saints--those in the past and those in the present, those we have known and loved, and those we have yet to know and to love.

Lord, in your love:

HEAR OUR PRAYER.

9. Good and gracious God, we ask all these things and whatever else you see that we need with a sure and certain hope in your goodness and your love. AMEN.

1 Corinthians 2:1-11

2When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. 2For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 4My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

10these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God's except the Spirit of God.

John 2:1-11

2On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, 'They have no wine.' 4And Jesus said to her, 'Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.' 5His mother said to the servants, 'Do whatever he tells you.' 6Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7Jesus said to them, 'Fill the jars with water.' And they filled them up to the brim. 8He said to them, 'Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.' So they took it. 9When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom 10and said to him, 'Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.' 11Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.