Liturgical Resources For Sunday March 24, 2013
Year C, Sixth Sunday in Lent
Palm Sunday with Easter Special Offering 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, for the LORD is good
P: God’s steadfast love endures forever.
L: Open the gates of righteousness,
P: That we may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD.
L: Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD.
P: Bind the festal procession with branches.
L: Sing Hosanna to the LORD!
P: Hosanna! To the LORD!
Invocation:
We enter worship today O God with waving palms and songs of joy. We enter as ones seeking to usher in your reign. Prepare us O God for the suffering which comes. Enjoin our celebration with the rending of our hearts, for we know that which lies ahead. As we celebrate our hope with joy, grant us a serious face as well. As we come to worship you, guide our hearts and minds in spirit and in truth. Help us to feel the joy of your promise and the weight of your sacrifice. Lead us we pray.
Stewardship Moment:
This week we come together as Disciples to remember and celebrate the Passion and Resurrection of the Christ. Together, we will experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. We will journey together through Gethsemane, Golgotha, and into Glory. This week we will remember and retell the Greatest Story ever told, OUR story. We will do this because we have learned it well and treasure it. We have learned the story because of our ancestors and our partners in ministry. Most people are not members of only one congregation their entire lives. Even if you are one of those fortunate few, your life has been touched by Pastors who probably came from somewhere else, Elders and teachers who often came from somewhere else, and others from somewhere else whom you have gone to, read about, or heard about and it strengthened your faith walk. In today’s special offering, we lift up the ministries of our General Church: our shared ministries. We lift up and support Missionaries, and Men’s and Women’s Ministries. We lift up and support clergy development, education, and support ministries. We lift up care facilities and week of compassion. We lift up our life together, following the one who was lifted up, that Grace could abound. In addition to your regular tithes and offerings, please consider making a gift to the Disciples Easter Special Offering which supports so many ministries we do together.
Offertory Prayer:
Wonderful and Everlasting God, who has brought us this far in our Lenten Journey, whom we count on to complete our journey in this holy week, we come to you offering our gifts. Multiply and use them to strengthen the ministries of your church. Help us to be faithful in the use them, that we can spread your good news from our doorsteps to the ends of the earth. Amen.
Communion Meditation:
Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem. The feast of the Passover is set. The very feast which we commemorate at this table is ready to go. The Passover feast was a reminder to Israel of all God had done to claim and hold the people. That is still true for us today at this table. This week we will experience again the journey of Jesus from the gates of Jerusalem to the borrowed tomb. That journey travels through the table. As we come today to Christ’s table, let us do so in a spirit of remembrance for all God has done to claim us and hold us.
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