Responsive Reading for Power

Exodus 15:2, 11, 17-18; Deuteronomy 8:18; Colossians 1:15-18; Acts 1:8; Isaiah 10:12-13; Isaiah 40:29

Pastor: The LORD is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him (Exodus 15:2 NRSV).

Congregation: Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders (Exodus 15:11 NRSV)?

Pastor: You brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your own possession (Exodus 15:17a NRSV),

Congregation: The place, O LORD, that you made your abode, the sanctuary, O LORD, that your hands have established (Exodus 15:17b NRSV).

Pastor: The LORD will reign forever and ever (Exodus 15:18 NRSV).

Congregation: But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today (Deuteronomy 8:18 NRSV).

Pastor: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created (Colossians 1:15-16a NRSV),

Congregation: Things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him (Colossians 1:16b NRSV).

Pastor: He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything (Colossians 1:17-18 NRSV).

Congregation: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8 NRSV).

Pastor: It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens (Isaiah 10:12 NRSV).

Congregation: When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. (Isaiah 10:13a NRSV).

Pastor: He makes lightnings for the rain, and he brings out the wind from his storehouses (Isaiah 10:13b NRSV).

All: He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless (Isaiah 40:29 NRSV).