Great God, Your Love Has Called Us (ELW 358, focus on verse 1)
1 Great God, your love has called us here,
as we, by love, for love were made.
Your living likeness still we bear,
though marred, dishonored, disobeyed.
We come, with all our heart and mind
your call to hear, your love to find.
2 We come with self-inflicted pains
of broken trust and chosen wrong,
half-free, half-bound by inner chains,
by social forces swept along,
by pow’rs and systems close confined,
yet seeking hope for humankind.
3 Great God, in Christ you call our name
and then receive us as your own,
not through some merit, right, or claim,
but by your gracious love alone.
We strain to glimpse your mercy seat
and find you kneeling at our feet.
4 Then take the towel, and break the bread,
and humble us, and call us friends.
Suffer and serve till all are fed,
and show how grandly love intends
to work till all creation sings,
to fill all worlds, to crown all things.
5 Great God, in Christ you set us free
your life to live, your joy to share.
Give us your Spirit’s liberty
to turn from guilt and dull despair,
and offer all that faith can do
while love is making all things new.
Reprinted under OneLicense.net #A730924
Devotion
“Great God, your love has called us here.” In those words our hymn joins the readings of this week in placing us to stand in the presence of God. What do we do when Holiness comes close? Caught up in the struggles of daily life, it’s easy to forget that we have been created in love, by love, and for love. Wrapped up in ourselves and in the heartless measures of the world, it is so easy for us to lose sight of our God-given identity and calling. But God continues to see us as reflections of God’s own divine image, and calls us as ones restored by Christ for loving service in the world. You can trust that God’s grace is sure; God’s grace is for you. Each of us can know that our trust is revealed in our humble willingness to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Prayer
Holy God, Creator of all, you are beyond all we can imagine, and you are as close as our very breath. Surprise us with your holiness, present in our ordinary lives. Fill us with joy and help us to love others as you first love us. Amen.