The Gathering
First Presbyterian Church-Edenton
October 19, 2025-19th Sunday after Pentecost
Rev. Clayton Brooks-video
The Gathering
Tolling of the Hour
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to worship at First Presbyterian Church.
This is the day the Lord has made—let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Whether you come every week or are joining us for the first time,
we gather as one family in Christ, welcomed by God’s grace and peace.
Together, let us open our hearts to the Spirit and worship God with joy.
Announcements
Visitors, please fill out the connection card in the bulletin so we can send you a note.
* Indicates, please stand.
(Listen quietly as we enter into worship with the opening prayer and a prelude)
Opening Prayer
Merciful God,
you know the sound of our hearts breaking.
You know what it is to lose what we love,
to wonder if the joy will ever return.
In our despair, remind us that you are near—
that your tears mingle with ours,
and your promise still whispers beneath the sorrow.
Meet us here, O God.
Hold us in your mercy until hope takes root again.
In the name of the One who wept and yet rose to new life,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Prelude
(Please stand in body or spirit for the responsive call to worship)
*Call to Worship
By the rivers of Babylon, God’s people wept and remembered what was lost.
We, too, know the ache of longing, the weight of sorrow.
In the ruins and the silence, God still hears the cries of the broken.
Even when hope feels distant, God’s mercy does not let go.
Come, people of God, bring your grief, your questions, your pain.
We come to seek the One who meets us in our despair and sings over us songs of healing and grace.
(Please remain standing for our opening hymn number 686, God of Our Life)
*Hymn God of Our Life GTG#686
(Please be seated)
Call to Confession and Silent Prayers of Confession
When the world feels heavy and our hearts grow numb,
God still invites us to draw near.
Confession is not only about naming what we have done wrong, it is a space to be honest about our weariness, our doubts, and the ache that sits deep within us.
Here, before the God whose mercy is steadfast, we are free to set down what burdens us
and to rest in grace that will not let us go.
Let us come honestly before God, first in silence, and then together using the prayer printed in your bulletin.
Prayer of Confession
God of mercy, we confess that despair comes too easily to us.
When life feels uncertain, we lose sight of your promises. When sorrow lingers, we stop praying. When we cannot see a way forward, we forget that you are already there.
Forgive us, Lord, for the times we have turned away: from you, from one another, from hope itself.
Remind us that your love endures even in exile, your faithfulness reaches even into the rubble, and your compassion never runs dry.
Renew us by your Spirit, that we might live not in despair, but in the quiet confidence of your grace.
Through Christ our Redeemer, we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the good news:
Even in lament, God’s love does not let go.
Even in despair, mercy makes its home among us.
God gathers up our broken pieces and breathes new life where hope has faded.
Friends, believe the good news of the gospel:
In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven and made whole. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Passing of the Peace
Since God has forgiven us in Christ, let us forgive one another. The passing of the peace is a sign of that forgiveness and blessing to each other. Come let us offer a sign of peace to one another.
Then, let us stand together as we sing our congregational response. The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, And also with you.
Congregational Response There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy GTG#435 v.1
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, like the wideness of the sea.
There’s kindness in God’s justice, which is more than liberty.
There is no place where earth’s sorrows are more felt than up in heaven.
There is no place where earth’s failings have such kindly judgment given.
The Word
(You may be seated and join me as I pray)
Prayer of Illumination
God of all our days, when we open your Word, we open our hearts to a world that feels both beautiful and broken.
Speak to us through the laments of your people, through the tears of exiles and the cries of the weary,
until we recognize our own stories in theirs.
By your Spirit, help us hear not only the sorrow, but the stubborn thread of hope woven through it.
May your Word comfort, confront, and call us again to trust in your unfailing love. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Scripture Psalm 137
Word in Music
Scripture Lamentations 5
Sermon "To Live in Despair" Rev. Clayton Brooks
*Hymn We Cannot Measure How You Heal GTG #797
(Let us remain standing as we affirm our faith using the words printed in the bulletin. Together we boldy proclaim.)
Affirmation of Faith Apostles Creed
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.
(Please be seated.)
Prayers of the People and Lord’s Prayer
There are times when words come easily when joy spills over and praise feels natural.
And there are other times, like now, when the best we can offer is a sigh, a silence, or a tear.
But the good news is this:
God hears it all.
Every whisper of pain,
every quiet plea for hope,
every prayer we cannot quite form.
So with trust that even our broken hallelujahs are enough, let us turn to God in prayer.
God of all compassion, you have heard the cries of your people through every age.
You have walked with the exiled and comforted the brokenhearted. You have not turned away from the sound of lament and you do not turn away from ours.
We pray for those who live in despair today—for the lonely, the sick, the grieving, and those for whom each new day feels heavy to bear. Surround them with your mercy, O God; give them companions on the journey and small signs of your nearness along the way.
We pray for communities uprooted by violence, for nations torn by war, for those displaced from homes they love. Bring shelter to the weary and peace to the restless. Remind us that your heart breaks wherever injustice reigns.
We pray for your church in every place— for those who preach, sing, serve, and pray
in faith that feels worn thin. Let your Spirit breathe courage into weary hearts, that we might keep bearing witness to the light that still shines in the darkness.
We pray for our own hearts, O God—for the places within us where hope has gone quiet.
Meet us there, not with easy answers, but with your steady presence.
Teach us that lament is not the absence of faith, but the path that leads us back to you.
Gather all our prayers, spoken and silent, as we pray together the prayer Jesus taught us:
Our Father…
The Sending
Offering
Even when joy feels distant, God is still at work among us.
When we give, we join that quiet work—turning sorrow into service,
grief into generosity, and despair into the beginnings of hope.
Let us offer our gifts to the One who gathers up every fragment
and makes all things new. Let us give of our tithes and offerings.
*Doxology
Prayer of Dedication
Steadfast God, we offer these gifts not as signs of certainty,
but as acts of trust. Take what we bring: our time, our prayers, our offerings, and use them to mend what is broken, to comfort those who mourn, and to plant hope where despair has taken root. Through Christ, our companion in every sorrow, we pray. Amen.
*Hymn There’s a Balm in Gilead GTG #792
(Let us say together God’s invitation to a life of Christian discipleship)
*Charge and Blessing
Go now into a world that knows both beauty and brokenness.
We go, carrying both sorrow and hope.
When the ache of despair feels too heavy to name,
God’s heart aches with us.
When you cannot yet sing the Lord’s song,
May the Spirit hum it for you until your voice returns.
When all you can do is weep,
Know that Christ weeps beside you.
And when a glimmer of light begins to rise again,
May we have the courage to follow it home.
Go in the love that never lets you go— the grace that meets you in the dark,
and the Spirit that will not stop breathing life into weary souls.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
(Please be seated. Respectful clapping is an appropriate way to end this service of worship)
Postlude