INVITATION TO PRAYER
It has become a prayer practice in some churches to give people a star word on Epiphany Sunday…
We trust that God uses multiple ways to guide and speak to us. These words offer us a way to actively seek and reflect upon God’s presence among us, both in the moment and as we consider what has taken place in the year now past. And finally, this practice may invite us into a new practice of reflection and review that can be a powerful way to connect with God.
So in just a moment, you will be invited to select a star word. Consider this a guiding word for the year ahead. We invite you to remember your star word often, seeking the ways God might be moving through the meanings and definitions the word contains. However, as we prepare our hearts and minds for this centering moment, let us pray. . .
PRAYER OF THE PEOPLE
Ever-present God, our traveling companion,
We follow every path in search of you.
Sometimes we run as fast as we can, taking every shortcut like a child eager to arrive at the promised destination.
Sometimes we find ourselves wandering, unsure of whether we’re following the trail or forging our own way.
Sometimes we just need to lie down and stare up at the stars, resting before we set out once again.
Wherever we are, we know you are right beside us.
Today we lift up to you our family, friends, and community members who are traveling difficult roads.
Surround them with your loving presence, and remind them that they are not alone.
Strengthen us to travel alongside them. Let us bring hope, peace, joy, and love where it’s needed most.
Shine a light in the darkness so we can find our way to you.
Holy God, we follow every path in search of you.
And yet, you are already here.
You have been with us all along, leaving breadcrumbs of grace.
Let these stars remind us to seek you out in even the most unexpected places.
Guide us, invite us, challenge us in the year ahead, and remind us that we are yours, your beloved, whom you have claimed, redeemed, and called good.
We ask all these things in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray.
INSTRUcTIONS FOR REcEIVING
Option (stars in baskets, passed through the rows): Our ushers will pass baskets through the rows. We invite you to draw out a star word, without looking at it first, and then pass the basket to your neighbor. As you do, you may say to one another, “May Christ’s light guide you.”
Friends, we have been following every road to God, but God is already here. Thanks be to God.
Let us take a moment to reflect upon these words in new ways and to imagine how they may have resonance in our own lives…Pause.
CLOSING PRAYER
Holy God who lights our way,
We thank you for this moment of respite along the journey,
a moment to be filled with good things,
reminded of our belovedness,
and sent out to be your hands and feet in the world.
Though we’d often prefer a straightforward, step-by-step plan for our lives, you’ve instead given us an invitation to wander, to seek,
to take a different road, to be guided by a star.
May these star words be a map to you,
guiding us to look under every rock and around every corner,
seeking you out everywhere, because everywhere is exactly where you are. And next year, when the road leads back to this very place,
may we find that you were with us every step of the way.
With hope we pray, amen.