Here are worship materials for the last Sunday of the Church year.
Call to Worship Psalm 95 Adapted
One: O come, let us sing to the Lord; All: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! One: Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; All let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! One: For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. All: In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. One: The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
All: O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! One: For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
All: O that today we might listen to his voice! One: O that today it might be so, which we proclaim in greeting one another,
“The peace of the Lord be with you.”
All: And also with you.
Prayer of Invocation and Confession In unison
Eternal God, sovereign of all for coming in Christ to be servant of all, on this last Sunday of the church year we rejoice that we have come to the end with you. We have walked with you in your way of healing and wholeness. We’ve been strengthened by your faithfulness, drawn in by your kindness, and made bold by your insistence upon justice and abounding love.
Now we look toward the world to come, where we hope we shall be; and we pray that we might live our hope starting now—a present practice that will be made perfect in your everlasting to everlasting.
For, to live at last and forever in the realm where you are king demands we start to live in that realm now—your kingship manifest in the breadlines of compassion, your lordship established in the food pantries where all find sustenance. If we refuse to search for you in prisons, in hospitals, in shelters, in places of need, we won’t find you. If we shut ourselves out of any place but our own fortresses, we won’t be subject to your grace.
So, you: search for us, we pray. You: win our hearts with your love that we might gladly enter your glory and serve in your name. You, our strange and surprising Lord! You, whose crown is magnanimity, whose worn scepter is wisdom, whose tattered robe is love, and whose simple throne is peace: be our king, now and forever. Amen.