Call to Worship

Beloved, we gather to remember who we are, not who the world tells us to be.

We tell the story together of the day that all the earth awaits.

We recall the story of God’s people, how God has called us to live in peace and righteousness in a world full of conflict and twisted morality.

We tell the story together of the day that all the earth awaits.

We recount the story of our journey with God, the moments of God’s provision, God’s prodding, and God’s prophetic guidance.

We tell the story together of the day that all the earth awaits.

We gather to repent and return anew to God’s story that guides our lives to work for peace and flourishing for all God’s creation.

We gather to tell the story of the day that all the earth awaits. Thanks be to God! Amen.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, May 2025.

Prayer for the Day

Loving God,
be to us as a bulldozer of the spirit.
Clear your road in us;
clear a path through the detritus of possessions and obsessions.
Thrust aside our divided aims and devious games.
Topple the ramparts of pride and the doubts that deride.
Make a highway on which Christ may come
and take possession of the whole territory of our being.
To the glory of your name, we pray.
Amen!

Written by Bruce Prewer and posted on Bruce Prewer’s Home Page, http://www.bruceprewer.com/. Reposted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2012/11/opening-prayer-prepare-way.html.

Prayer of Confession

When our faith is rooted deeply in you, O God,
our lives reflect your kingdom values of justice and righteousness,
but sometimes our lives become so entangled with the values of the world,
that your values take second place.

Forgive us, O God,
and reconnect us to the Holy Spirit,
source of power and life.

Merciful God, strip our hearts and minds
of all that prevents our lives being firmly rooted in you.
May our lives bear fruit worthy of our faith in you,
as we watch and wait for your breaking into our world once more,
in the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.
Amen.

Assurance of Forgiveness

Blessed be the Lord our God, who does wondrous things (Psalm 72:8).
The most wondrous of all being God's entry into our world in Jesus Christ,
"not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."
"Those who believe in him are not condemned" (John 3:17,18).
Thanks be to God!

Posted on Jane Stranz’s Of Life, Laughter and Liturgy blog, http://stranzdocs.blogspot.ca/2007/12/advent-liturgy-for-visit-of-archbishop.html. Re-posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2013/11/confession-advent-2a.html.

Benediction

Advent people, go now in the blessing and inspiration of God to live God’s story wherever you go, that your lives may be an invitation to others to join in the journey to the day that all the earth awaits.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, May 2025.