PRELUDE/ENTRANCE
GREETING/ANNOUNCEMENTS
*OPENING SONG
“Come, we that love the Lord" UMH 733
*CALL TO WORSHIP
(inspired by Isaiah 65: 17-25)
Liturgist: Celebrate and rejoice, all you people of Christ.
People: For the Lord our God is doing a new thing! The old order is gone.
All: Everything is new!
Liturgist: Illness, disease and crying and mourning.
People: Shall be as a distant memory! Hatred and war shall cease from the earth, for Christ has risen! Death is defeated!
Liturgist: Hallelujah! Jesus lives!
ALL: Hallelujah! Amen. From Worship Resource Archive; reposted on re:Worship, https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2013/04/call-to-worship-everything-is-new.html.
OPENING PRAYER
Almighty and everlasting God, One day in the New Jerusalem we shall all walk in peace. There shall be joy, unspeakable joy. No longer shall there be weeping or wailing nor shall we bury our daughters and sons prematurely in the New Jerusalem. We will not labor in vain. No more shall we plant and not eat of the fruit of our hands. No more shall we build only to have another inhabit our dwelling. No more shall we be oppressed because of class, color, or gender in the New Jerusalem. Our enemies will be our friends. Rise up children of the Most High God. See what is to come! Hold this promise in your heart. We shall toil and not see the benefits for a while but one day, God shall come for us and bring us to the new city where we may rest from our present angst and find true communion with the Creator and all creation.
Sharletta M. Green, The Africana Worship Book for Year C (Discipleship Resources, 2008), 52.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
SHARING GOD’S PEACE
GOD SIGHTINGS
PRAYER FOR COMFORT AND HEALING
THE LORD’S PRAYER
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
A TIME FOR CHILDREN
SPECIAL MUSIC
FIRST SCRIPTURE 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
*SECOND SCRIPTURE Luke 21: 5-19
MESSAGE
RESPONSE TO THE WORD
*SONG OF RESPONSE
“Soon and Very Soon” UMH 706
*OFFERING OF OURSELVES
*”The Apostles’ Creed” UMH 881
*DOXOLOGY UMH 95
*PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
SENDING FORTH
*SONG OF DISMISSAL
“Stand By Me" UMH 512
*BENEDICTION
*PEACE
“God Be with You till We Meet Again” UMH 672
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