The Cost of the Way

June 21, 2026

Opening Prayer

Note to leader: invite the congregation to settle into stillness before beginning this prayer.

God of the journey,
we come to you from many roads—
some of us weary, some of us restless,
some carrying burdens we don’t yet have words for.

You meet us here,
not demanding arrival,
but offering presence.
You call us by name.

We gather in this hour
to hear what following might cost,
to consider what we fear,
and what, in your mercy, we might become.

Still the noise of our week.
Settle us into this moment.
Open us to your word
and to one another.

Through Jesus Christ, who walks ahead
and walks beside us.
Amen.

Call to Worship

Based on Psalm 69
selected verses

We cry out from the depths,
and the waters rise around us.
Save us, O God, for the floods have reached our necks.

We sink in the mire where there is no foothold.
We are weary with our calling out.
Answer us, O Lord, in the steadfast love that never fails.

The world scorns those who trust in you.
Zeal for your house consumes us.
Let not the flood sweep over us, nor the deep swallow us whole.

Do not hide your face from those who call.
Turn to us in your abundant mercy.
Draw near to us and redeem us; set us free from all that threatens.

Let the heavens and the earth praise you.
Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad.
For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah.

Come, let us worship the God who hears our cry.

Hymn of Praise

Will You Come and Follow Me, GTG #726

Grace Spoken

Hear the good news:
Before we confess,
God has already named us beloved.
Before we turn,
Christ has already claimed us as his own.

In baptism, we died with Christ.
In baptism, we rise with him to new life.

The old fears no longer define us.
The old powers no longer control us.

Christ has broken sin’s hold.
Christ has set us free.

God’s grace goes before us.
God’s love will never let us go.

Trusting in God’s grace and mercy, let us confess our sins and brokenness together.

Responding to God’s Grace

Unison Prayer of Confession

God who calls us to follow,
we confess we have counted the cost
and chosen comfort instead.
We have spoken courage in worship
but lived fear in the world.

We have clung to security,
hoarded what we could lose,
and turned away from Your way
when it threatened what we valued most.
We have feared rejection more than we loved truth.

We have been silent when You commanded speech,
cautious when You demanded boldness,
and lukewarm when You asked for fire.
Forgive us for picking up crosses we could carry easily
and leaving the real ones behind.

(A time of silent prayer)

Through Jesus Christ, who held nothing back,
forgive and free us.
Amen.

Sharing the Peace of Christ

An Embodied Sign of God’s Grace in Christ Jesus

Friends, we have been reminded that God’s grace extends to all. We have confessed our sins, knowing that we have been forgiven and freed to follow the costly way of Christ without fear.

In this spirit, let us share the peace of Christ.

The peace of Christ be with you.

And also with you.

(Share Christ’s peace in ways fitting to your community.)

The Written Word

A Reading from the Hebrew Scriptures

From the Epistles

Gospel Reading

A Reading from the Psalms

Psalm 69 — Scripture text will be inserted here via the Scripture plugin.

The Cost of the Way

Hymn of Reflection

Take Up Your Cross, the Savior Said, GTG #718

Affirmation of Faith

Spoken together.

We believe in God,
who knows the cost of creation,
who calls us into a way that leads through death to life.

We believe in Jesus Christ,
who did not fear those who destroy the body,
who trusts us with his mission even when the way is hard.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,
who names us beloved before the world names us anything else,
who gives us courage to speak what we have heard in secret.

We believe that nothing—
not fear, not division, not even death—
can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

We trust that what we lose for his sake,
we will find again,
transformed and whole.

Amen.

Prayers of the People

Holy God,
you call us to follow the way of Christ, no matter the cost.

For this world you love so fiercely,
where fear drives nations to build walls instead of bridges,
where the powerful silence the prophets among us,
where profit matters more than people—
give us courage to speak truth,
to choose what is right over what is easy.
In your mercy,
hear our prayer and make us brave.
(pause)

For places torn by violence and greed,
for communities where the hungry are ignored,
for lands where children know only war—
stir up voices that will not be silenced,
raise up leaders who count the cost and follow anyway.
In your mercy,
hear our prayer and make us brave.
(pause)

For teachers and preachers, parents and poets,
for all who shape the minds and hearts of others—
when the work is hard and the opposition fierce,
when speaking your word brings scorn instead of praise,
sustain them with your Spirit’s fire.
In your mercy,
hear our prayer and make us brave.
(pause)

For our own lives, scattered and conflicted,
for the ways we keep one foot in your kingdom
and one foot in the world’s approval—
forgive our hedging, our careful discipleship,
our fear of what following might demand.
In your mercy,
hear our prayer and make us brave.
(pause)

For those who suffer because they have been faithful,
for refugees fleeing persecution,
for whistleblowers and truth-tellers,
for all who have lost family or fortune or freedom
because they would not bow to what is false—
uphold them, honor them, vindicate them.
In your mercy,
hear our prayer and make us brave.
(pause)

For those the world does not see:
the undocumented afraid to speak,
the imprisoned without advocates,
the sick who cannot afford healing—
open our eyes to their witness,
move us to stand beside them.
In your mercy,
hear our prayer and make us brave.
(pause)

For this community gathered in your name,
for the choices we will face this week,
for the moments when following Christ will cost us something—
bind us together in love,
remind us we do not walk alone.
In your mercy,
hear our prayer and make us brave.
(pause)

(A time of silent prayer)

God of the prophets and apostles,
God of all who have walked the narrow way,
receive these prayers
and shape us into people who follow freely,
who fear you more than we fear anything else,
who find our lives by losing them in love.
Amen.

We pray together, saying:
(The Lord’s Prayer is prayed in the words familiar to the community.)

Hymn of Sending

O God in Whom All Life Begins, GTG #308

Sending

Go now into a world
that demands your silence—
and speak the truth you have been given.

Go bearing the weight
of what it costs to follow,
knowing Christ has already paid the price.

Go unafraid of what can harm the body
but cannot touch the soul—
for you are held in hands that will not let you fall.

Go naming what you value:
not comfort, not safety,
but the kingdom breaking in.

Go taking up your cross—
not as burden but as banner,
not as punishment but as purpose.

And may the God who sees each sparrow
and numbers every hair,
the Christ who walked this costly way before you
and calls you still to follow,
and the Spirit who gives you words to speak
when fear would silence you,
go with you now and always.

Amen.

Reflections for Later

Sharing God’s Word Together

For Newcomers

If you’re new here—or if you’ve been coming a while and still feel new—welcome. We’re glad you’re here. Today’s service included some pretty intense language: Jesus talking about families divided, about crosses, about losing your life to find it. That’s a lot. If you came looking for something comforting or easy, you might have gotten more than you bargained for.

Here’s what we want you to know: Jesus isn’t trying to make things harder. He’s naming what’s already true. Following him—really following, not just agreeing with nice ideas—changes things. It changes what you’re willing to risk, what you hold onto, who you listen to. That can feel frightening. But it’s also where real freedom starts. Not the freedom to do whatever you want, but the freedom to become who you actually are, underneath all the expectations and fears and carefully managed versions of yourself.

You don’t have to sign up for all of that today. You don’t have to believe it, or even understand it yet. But you’re allowed to wonder. You’re allowed to sit with the questions that Jesus raises—about what’s worth your life, about what God is asking of you, about whether there’s something truer and deeper calling to you. The gospel claims that God is already near, already at work in you, even before you decide anything about it. Especially before.

So take your time. Keep coming if it helps. Keep wondering. We’ll be here.

For Those Rooted in This Community

You’ve heard these words before. You know the shape of Jesus’ warning about losing one’s life to find it. You’ve sung the hymns, repeated the promises, walked the path long enough to know its turns. And that familiarity is both gift and danger. Because somewhere along the way, it becomes possible to affirm the cost of discipleship in theory while quietly renegotiating it in practice—to speak the language of the cross while arranging our lives to avoid its weight.

The disciples who first heard these words had not yet learned to domesticate them. They didn’t have centuries of commentary to soften the edges or a tradition of faithful interpretation to make the unbearable sayable. They simply heard: following me will cost you what you love most. For those of us rooted in this community, the question is not whether we believe this. We do. The question is whether we still let it unsettle us—whether we still allow Jesus to name what we’re clinging to, what we’re protecting, what we’ve decided is too precious to lose.

Maybe the cost for you isn’t family or safety in the way it was for those first disciples. Maybe it’s reputation. Control. The comfort of being right. The version of your life you spent decades building and now can’t imagine releasing. Jesus doesn’t ask us to lose these things because he’s indifferent to our loves. He asks because he knows what happens when our loves grow smaller than his love—when we begin to fear the wrong things, value the wrong things, protect the wrong things.

What are you still negotiating with Jesus? What have you quietly decided is off-limits, non-negotiable, too costly to place in his hands?

For Churches Without a Pastor

The disciples Jesus sent out in Matthew 10 weren’t credentialed professionals. They were learners who’d been watching and listening, then told to go speak and act in his name. Today’s reading reminds us that following Christ has never been the work of one appointed leader — it’s always been the calling of the whole community. When there’s no single voice at the front, the Spirit doesn’t wait for someone to arrive. The Spirit moves among you, in the questions you ask together, the prayers you speak aloud, the meals you share, the hard conversations you don’t avoid. The cost of discipleship doesn’t decrease when a pastor leaves. If anything, it becomes more visible — because now the work falls to everyone, which is closer to what Jesus intended anyway.

You have what you need: each other, the Word read and wrestled with, two thousand years of saints who also wondered if they were doing it right, and the promise that Christ is present when two or three gather. That doesn’t mean this season isn’t hard. It means you’re not alone in it, and you’re not failing because you feel the weight. The Spirit has always worked best in communities that know they can’t do this on their own. Keep showing up. Keep asking the questions. Keep trusting that God is here, not waiting somewhere else for you to get it together first.

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Rights and Use

© Church Commons. 2026

Written by Rev. Matthew J. Skolnik unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

These materials may be used and adapted for worship and educational purposes within Christian communities. They may not be sold or redistributed for commercial purposes without permission.

Resource Details

Date: June 21, 2026

Scripture: Jeremiah 20:7–13

Theme: The Cost of the Way (Psalm 69, Jeremiah 20:7–13, Romans 6:1–11, Matthew 10:24–39)

Lectionary: RCL Year A

Scripture on this page is from The Shared Word Translation (SWT), an ongoing translation project within ChurchCommons.org.