Order of Service / Reign of Christ / November 23, 2025

*Gathering Hymn Morning Has Broken (VU #409)

Welcome & Land Acknowledgement

Lighting the Christ Candle

Call to Worship

One: Another year passes.

All: Things end and things begin.

One: Birth. Life. Death. Life beyond death.

  All: Nothing is constant!

One: Everything changes. Everything except this:

All: God’s love is with me. God’s love is with you. God’s love is with all creation.

One: And all creation is held safe in that love.

All: And all creation is transformed in that love.

One: Let us worship the God who loves us, yesterday, today, and forever.

*Richard Bott. Gathering Pentecost 2 2025. Page 49.

Opening Prayer

*Opening Hymn O Day of God, Draw Nigh (#688 VU)

Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison)

Holy God, you meet us in this place with grace that steadies our steps and gathers us into a community shaped by the reign of Christ. Yet we confess the hurts we carry, the mistakes we have made, and the ways we have fallen short of your call to love and justice. Renew us with your courage, that we may face a world that does not always understand your message of peace. Strengthen us to walk through the challenges before us with hope, compassion, and faith. In this quiet moment, help us open our hearts to you in silent prayer… (a time of silent confession) Amen.

Words of Assurance

One: When we lose our way or struggle to live our faith, God welcomes us back with compassion and hope.

All: We remember that we are created in the image of the Divine, held and renewed by God’s grace.

One: Let us walk together with courage, supporting one another as we follow Christ’s way.

All: Thanks be to God, who meets us with mercy and leads us into new life. Amen.

Announcements and Minute for Mission

Time for God’s Children (Hymn – Like a Rock, #92 MV)

Like a rock, like a rock, God is under our feet

Like the starry night sky, God is over our head

Like the sun on the horizon, God is ever before

Like the river runs to ocean, our home is in God evermore.

Proclaiming the Scriptures

Colossians 1:11-20 In Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

Luke 1:68-79 (VU p. 900) The song of Zechariah.

Luke 23:33-43 “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

This is the Good News from the Bible.

  Thanks be to God.

Anthem

Sermon

*Hymn One More Step Along the World I Go (#639 VU)

*Offering

*Offertory Hymn (#542 VU, We Give You But Your Own)

We give you but your own, whate’er the gift may be,

all that we have is yours alone, we give it gratefully.

*Offertory Prayer (Unison)
Loving God, these offerings are part of our response to your call. We also respond with other ways of supporting our church and community through visits and phone calls made, notes written, food delivered, and prayers on behalf of others. We ask that you bless these offerings and multiply them by your grace so that the work of this congregation may be accomplished to your glory. Amen.

*Beth W. Johnston. Gathering Pentecost 2 2025. Page 50.

Prayers of the People and Lord’s Prayer

*Closing Hymn We Are Pilgrims (#595 VU)

*Commissioning

One: As pilgrims on the way of Christ, let us go from this place ready to walk beside one another.

  All: We go to share each other’s joys and carry each other’s burdens in love.

One: Christ, our servant-king, calls us to offer open hands, listening hearts, and willing spirits.

All: We go to serve, to comfort, and to strengthen one another on the journey.

One: May the peace of Christ guide our steps and bind us together in hope.

  All: Thanks be to God, who sends us out as servants and companions on the path of Christ’s reign. Amen.

*Commissioning Song Peace Be with You (#215 MV)

Peace be with you, peace forever, peace be with you my friends.

Till we meet again, may God be with you. Peace, peace, peace.

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