Call to Worship

(inspired by Isaiah 65: 17-25)

Leader: Celebrate and rejoice, all you people of Christ,

Women: For the Lord our God is doing a new thing!

Men: The old order is gone,

All: everything is new!

Leader: Illness, disease and crying and mourning,

Women: shall be as a distant memory!

Men: Hatred and war shall cease from the earth,

All: For Christ has risen! Death is defeated!

Hallelujah! Jesus lives!

Hallelujah! Amen.

From Worship Resource Archive; reposted on re:Worship, https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2013/04/call-to-worship-everything-is-new.html.

In the New Jerusalem

(May be read responsively, as a meditation, or unison as a call to worship or prayer)

One day in the New Jerusalem
We shall all walk in peace.
There shall be joy, unspeakable joy.
No longer shall there be weeping or wailing
Nor shall we bury our daughters and sons prematurely
In the New Jerusalem.
We will not labor in vain.
No more shall we plant and not eat of the fruit of our hands
No more shall we build only to have another inhabit our dwelling
No more shall we be oppressed because of class, color, or gender
In the New Jerusalem.
Our enemies will be our friends.
Rise up children of the Most High God,
See what is to come!
Hold this promise in your heart
We shall toil and not see the benefits for a while
But one day, God shall come for us
And bring us to the new city
Where we may rest from our present angst
And find true communion with the Creator and all creation.

Sharletta M. Green, The Africana Worship Book for Year C (Discipleship Resources, 2008), 52.

Prayer of Confession (Isaiah 65, Luke 21)

O God, we are more like the vision in Luke
than the vision of Isaiah.
We see wars, hatred, and violence everywhere,
yet despair of ever stopping them.
We see oppression and injustice and persecution,
but fail to raise our voices in prophetic protest.
We have become a pessimistic people.
Help us believe—really believe—
in Isaiah’s vision of the peaceable kin-dom,
in your promise of a new heaven and new earth.
Let your cry be our cry:
“They shall not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain.” Amen.

Words of Assurance (Isaiah 12)

God is our strength and our salvation.
God’s anger is turned away,
and in its place, we find comfort,
steadfast love, and forgiveness.
With this hope, we can draw water
from the wells of salvation
with joy and thanksgiving.

Passing the Peace of Christ (Isaiah 65)

Sisters and brothers, we are part of the new heaven and new earth. In God’s love, we can reach across the differences that divide us. Greet one another in this spirit of reconciliation and peace.

Joanne Carlson Brown, “Worship Elements: November 13, 2022,” Ministry Matters, https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/4387/worship-elements-november-13-2022.

Benediction (Isaiah 65, Luke 21)

Go forth into a world that needs new visions.
Bring the message of hope and love,
of justice and peace, to all you meet.
Live the dream. Make it reality.
Celebrate endings and new beginnings,
challenges and promises.
Live the new creation. Amen.

Joanne Carlson Brown, “Worship Elements: November 13, 2022,” Ministry Matters, https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/4387/worship-elements-november-17-2019.