For those who have just completed Year D, perhaps this will help ease you back into Year B. ...
Isaiah 64:1-9
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Mark 13:24-37
In Preparation for Worship
We look to you in our eager longing.
Come to us, Immanuel.
We await your revealing,
your enthronement in our hearts to reign over us,
your return to this world to restore creation.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
Call to Worship
God is faithful! Come together and wait for the advent of the Lord.
We lack nothing for the vigil. We keep watch and wait.
Stay awake! For you do not know when the Lord will return.
With signs in the heavens,
with power and glory, Christ will come.
Take heart! By the grace of God you have been blessed.
We will endure to the end, that we may be found blameless
when Jesus Christ comes again.
Opening Prayer
Eternal God, who comes to us in different forms and at different times,
we await your coming again: Let the heavens be opened!
Let every creature on earth behold your grandeur and your glory!
We anticipate your arrival with worship in our hearts,
with eager, expectant eyes, and with lives ready to be changed
by your holy presence among us.
Call to Confession
Scripture tells us that we have all become unclean and our sin, like the wind,
blows us away. Sin happens when we fail to call upon the name of the Lord,
when we fail to reach for God and take hold. Let us seek the Lord’s face,
confess our sin, and ask for deliverance.
Prayer of Confession
O God, you are the great artisan,
shaping us like clay pots, fulfilling your purpose in us.
Yet we resist your will, refusing to take the shape which you intend for us.
We are stubborn when we should surrender to your design,
and we are passive when we should take righteous action.
Forgive our disobedience, and strengthen us in faith.
Refresh us for the task of waiting on you and for you.
Declaration of Forgiveness
Scripture assures us that we are called by none other than God
to share in the life of Jesus Christ our Lord, and, we are told,
God keeps faith.
To the extent that we take seriously God’s will for us to live in Christ,
and faithfully seek to do so, surely we need not sin again.
Therefore, live into Christ in faith, knowing that your sins are
absolved through Christ, by Christ, and in Christ.
Presentation of Tithes and Offerings
The time has come to place our gifts at the Lord’s disposal.
At the end, Christ will gather in all of the chosen ones.
For now, let us offer up, for God’s in-gathering,
our hearts and our minds, along with our gifts,
trusting that the Lord will make use of the fruit of our life
together for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom,
which will soon come in glory.
Prayer of Dedication
God of faith, Christ of glory, Spirit of growth, there is so much work to be done.
None of it will happen without you:
you to inspire the vision, you to light the way,
you to catch desire on fire in our hearts.
May these gifts become yours again,
that you would lay a foundation of hope with them,
for the redemption of the world through the coming of your kingdom.
A Responsive Blessing
We live in a time of waiting.
We are as servants who wait upon God, the master.
We are as parents awaiting the coming of
the glorious and holy Christ child.
We are as disciples,
awaiting the coming of the promised Spirit.
Go. Your waiting will not be in vain.
Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!
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