SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Worship
LECTIONARY WORSHIP AIDS
Series III
* CALL TO WORSHIP (responsively)
How awesome is God most high,
great sovereign over all the earth!
Christ has gone up with shouts of acclamation
to the right hand of the throne of the eternal.
Let us acclaim our God with shouts of joy,
praising Monarch and Prince with psalms and fanfares.
* PRAYER OF CONFESSION
God invisible in majesty, God incognito in the world, namesharing
God, how could we know you more fully than as you have revealed
yourself in the One who came into the world but has ascended
again into the holiest place. We need to be consecrated by the
truth, since we are too ready to compromise it rather than be
treated as strange, as Jesus often was. Forgive us if we have
been ashamed to confess the name of Christ and denied the power
of that name to cleanse us from the defilement of sin and to keep
us from further exposure to the evil One who would lead us
astray. Deliver us from evil through the power of the Spirit
imparted to us in Christ's name. Amen.
* DECLARATION OF GOD'S FORGIVENESS
Hear the Good News! God loved us by sending his Son as the
remedy for the defilement of our sins. Friends, believe the Good
News. In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.
* EXHORTATION
If God thus loved us, dear friends, we in turn are bound to love
one another.
* PRAYER OF THE DAY
Holy and powerful Parent, while we are still in the world, remind
us of the power of the name you share with us through Jesus
Christ, so that, truly honoring that name by our behavior, we may
be kept from the evil one and come at last to your presence no
stranger to your love and grace. Amen.
* PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
God, loving and inseparable; Son of God, loving and sendable;
Spirit of God, loving and impartable; we have come to know and
believe the love
which you have for us. We are grateful for the love we share in
the family of Jesus Christ, as his brothers and sisters. Your
love is being brought to perfection within us through our need to
seek and grant forgiveness, through our search for the full and
true meaning of your Word, in the struggle to understand one
another and overcome misunderstanding. For all experiences of
growth and every increased capacity to love as you love, we
express our thanksgiving. For every discovery of new kinship in
the Spirit, we rejoice with great joy, as your family continues
to grow locally and internationally. All praise to you, all-
loving God. Amen.
* PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Eternal Parent, as you sent your Son into the world to show your
love, send us also from this place to where our witness to the
truth will also be an expression of your love, through Jesus
Christ our Savior. Amen.
* PSALM 1
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
How awesome is God most high,
great sovereign over all the earth!
Christ has gone up with shouts of acclamation
to the right hand of the throne of the eternal.
Let us acclaim our God with shouts of joy,
praising Monarch and Prince with psalms and fanfares.
* PRAYER OF CONFESSION
God invisible in majesty, God incognito in the world, namesharing
God, how could we know you more fully than as you have revealed
yourself in the One who came into the world but has ascended
again into the holiest place. We need to be consecrated by the
truth, since we are too ready to compromise it rather than be
treated as strange, as Jesus often was. Forgive us if we have
been ashamed to confess the name of Christ and denied the power
of that name to cleanse us from the defilement of sin and to keep
us from further exposure to the evil One who would lead us
astray. Deliver us from evil through the power of the Spirit
imparted to us in Christ's name. Amen.
* DECLARATION OF GOD'S FORGIVENESS
Hear the Good News! God loved us by sending his Son as the
remedy for the defilement of our sins. Friends, believe the Good
News. In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.
* EXHORTATION
If God thus loved us, dear friends, we in turn are bound to love
one another.
* PRAYER OF THE DAY
Holy and powerful Parent, while we are still in the world, remind
us of the power of the name you share with us through Jesus
Christ, so that, truly honoring that name by our behavior, we may
be kept from the evil one and come at last to your presence no
stranger to your love and grace. Amen.
* PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
God, loving and inseparable; Son of God, loving and sendable;
Spirit of God, loving and impartable; we have come to know and
believe the love
which you have for us. We are grateful for the love we share in
the family of Jesus Christ, as his brothers and sisters. Your
love is being brought to perfection within us through our need to
seek and grant forgiveness, through our search for the full and
true meaning of your Word, in the struggle to understand one
another and overcome misunderstanding. For all experiences of
growth and every increased capacity to love as you love, we
express our thanksgiving. For every discovery of new kinship in
the Spirit, we rejoice with great joy, as your family continues
to grow locally and internationally. All praise to you, all-
loving God. Amen.
* PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Eternal Parent, as you sent your Son into the world to show your
love, send us also from this place to where our witness to the
truth will also be an expression of your love, through Jesus
Christ our Savior. Amen.
* PSALM 1
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
