Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

January 31, 2010

1. Drawn to the light of Christ, made bold in the waters of our baptism, and touched by the spirit of God, we lift up our prayers in confidence that God 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. God of gracious love, sustain and guide your church and all its leaders. In particular we pray this morning for our national bishop, Susan, and our Synodical Bishop, Gerhardt. Protect them and their families from discouragement and disappointment. May they and all our leaders continue to be courageous voices as they seek to lead our church in its mission to all of God's children.

Lord, in your love: HEAR OUR PRAYER.

3. God of refreshing love, sustain and guide this congregation and all who gather together in this place. Fill us with a sense of purpose and passion for our individual ministries--be they in our homes, our workplaces or in our church.

Lord, in your love: HEAR OUR PRAYER.

4. Lord we pray the blessings of your sustaining and guiding Spirit on our neighboring congregations and on our sister congregations. In particular this morning we pray for Faith Lutheran Church in Kelowna and their interim pastor, Alfred Meier; and for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in North Vancouver and their interim pastor, Kim Staus. May all faith communities and all ministries be beacons of faith, love and hope in this troubled world.

Lord, in your love: HEAR OUR PRAYER.

5. God of abundant love, sustain and guide the nations and the leaders of the world. Where there is strife and destruction, bring the miracle of reconciliation and reconstruction. Help all to see the reflection of your face even in the face of enemies. Where new leaders and new workers are needed for the work of healing, may someone today be hearing your call to serve.

Lord, in your love: HEAR OUR PRAYER.

6. God of creative love, sustain the world you made. Create in us respect for the things you have made. In years to come, may the children be proud and not disappointed in our efforts to protect the world you have entrusted to our care.

Lord, in your love: HEAR OUR PRAYER.

7. God of healing love, sustain those who are poor, homeless or hungry. Through our letters, our votes and our ministries, may they recognize in us their persistent and energetic advocate. Sustain those we know who are hurting, anxious, tired, sick or suffering, especially those we name aloud or quietly in our heart at this time…

May all know your healing and caring presence, and may they know it through our persistent and untiring care.

Lord, in your love: HEAR OUR PRAYER.

8. We give you thanks for your blessings which sustain us daily:

- 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 prophets in our time who encourage, prod even offend us with their impatience at our blindness to the need for action;

- we thank you for your Spirit that surprises us with your call to follow you;

- 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 your sustaining grace.

Lord, in your love: HEAR OUR PRAYER.

9. God of redeeming love, sustain those who grieve as you have sustained all the saints who now sit at your table in heaven. Nourish and encourage us with your grace until we are reunited at your table with those we have known and those we will come to know and to love.

Lord, in your love: HEAR OUR PRAYER.

10. 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 13:1-13

13If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Luke 4:21-30

21Then he began to say to them, 'Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.' 22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, 'Is not this Joseph's son?' 23He said to them, 'Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, "Doctor, cure yourself!" And you will say, "Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum." ' 24And he said, 'Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's home town. 25But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.' 28When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.