For Sunday March 20, 2016
Year C, Sixth Sunday in Lent
Palm Sunday with Easter SpecialOffering Stewardship Moment
Sixth Sunday in Lent :: Purple :: Isaiah 50:4-9a :: Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29 :: Philippians 2:5-11 :: Luke 19:28-40
Call to Worship(Responsive)
Adapted from Psalm 118
L: O give thanks to the LORD, forthe LORD is good
P: God’s steadfast loveendures forever.
L: Open the gates of righteousness,
P: That we may enter throughthem and give thanks to the LORD.
L: Blessed is the one who comes inthe name of the LORD.
P: Bind the festal processionwith branches.
L: Sing Hosanna to the LORD!
P: Hosanna! To the LORD!
Invocation:
We enter worship today O God withwaving palms and songs of joy. We enter as ones seeking to usher in yourreign. Prepare us O God for the suffering which comes. Enjoin ourcelebration with the rending of our hearts, for we know that which liesahead. As we celebrate our hope with joy, grant us a serious face aswell. As we come to worship you, guide our hearts and minds in spirit andin truth. Help us to feel the joy of your promise and the weight of yoursacrifice. Lead us we pray.
Stewardship Moment:
This week we come together asDisciples to remember and celebrate the Passion and Resurrection of theChrist. Together, we will experience the highest of highs and the lowestof lows. We will journey together through Gethsemane, Golgotha, and into Glory. This week we will remember and retell the Greatest Story ever told, OURstory. We will do this because we have learned it well and treasureit. We have learned the story because of our ancestors and our partnersin ministry. Most people are not members of only one congregation theirentire lives. Even if you are one of those fortunate few, your life hasbeen touched by Pastors who probably came from somewhere else, Elders andteachers who often came from somewhere else, and others from somewhere elsewhom you have gone to, read about, or heard about and it strengthened yourfaith walk. In today’s special offering, we lift up the ministries ofour General Church: our shared ministries. We lift up and supportMissionaries, and Men’s and Women’s Ministries. We lift up and supportclergy development, education, and support ministries. We lift up carefacilities and week of compassion. We lift up our life together,following the one who was lifted up, that Grace could abound. In additionto your regular tithes and offerings, please consider making a gift to theDisciples Easter Special Offering which supports so many ministries we dotogether.
Offertory Prayer:
Wonderful and Everlasting God, whohas brought us this far in our Lenten Journey, whom we count on to complete ourjourney in this holy week, we come to you offering our gifts. Multiplyand use them to strengthen the ministries of your church. Help us to befaithful in the use them, that we can spread your good news from our doorstepsto the ends of the earth. Amen.
Communion Meditation:
Jesus has arrived inJerusalem. The feast of the Passover is set. The very feast whichwe commemorate at this table is ready to go. The Passover feast was areminder to Israel of all God had done to claim and hold the people. Thatis still true for us today at this table. This week we will experienceagain the journey of Jesus from the gates of Jerusalem to the borrowedtomb. That journey travels through the table. As we come today toChrist’s table, let us do so in a spirit of remembrance for all God has done toclaim us and hold us.
All material copyright 2016 TheJubilee Fund, Inc., and appears on the site via a partnership agreement with the Center for Faith and Giving. Permission granted to reproduce and use any of theabove for Churches and Congregations to the glory of God without requirement ofcompensation or notification. Scripture Quotations from the NewRevised Standard Version. Online Scripture links a service of the Jean andAlexander Heard Divinity Library, of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN