April 17, 2011

Call to Worship (based on Psalm 118) 

O give thanks to the LORD, for God is good;

His steadfast love endures forever!

Let the people say,

“God’s steadfast love endures forever.”

Open the gates of righteousness,

and the righteous shall enter through them.

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD.

Hosanna in the highest!

The LORD is God,

and he has given us light.

You have taken the stone the builders rejected,

and you made it the cornerstone.

We shall give you thanks

because you have answered us and become our salvation.

This is the LORD’s doing.

It is marvelous in our eyes.

Pastoral Prayer

Lord, we watch and wait for you to come. We confess that we still think of your kingdom as grand and glorious when you have shown us time and time again that it comes to us in the humble, the obscure, and the small. Teach us your ways, O Lord. When we seek honor, show us how to humble ourselves. When we go ahead of you, remind us that we are to follow. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

God of glory, God of grace, we rejoice with humble hearts as we celebrate the condescension of the One who was your equal but left such glory for a while, to become human, in the lowliness of servitude, the pain of suffering, and the indignity of death. We raise our voices in exultation that you exalt the Christ again in raising him to the heights and bestowing on him the supreme name in the whole universe, announcing that Jesus the anointed is Lord. All glory be given to you, in praise of your vulnerability and your victory, one God, great in grace and great in glory. Amen.

Benediction

Go with God, walking faithfully into the darkness of this Holy Week.
Go with God, sharing the pain of our wounded world.
Go with God, watchfully waiting for the coming of God among us.
Go with God.