A Pastoral Gathering Prayer: We assemble in this sacred room, Lord, your voice through prophet Jeremiah inspiring within us strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow: “I will place over my people shepherds who care for them. Then they will no longer be afraid or dread harm, for their shepherds will do what is just and right in the land.” Thank you for the unmatched privilege of shepherding the beloved University Baptist Church family across three decades of covenant labor and hope, as together we have sought to do what is just and right. On this Christ the King Sunday, we echo the confessional cry of the early church: “Jesus is Lord!” Amen.*(Inspired by Jeremiah 23 and all the UBC saints present and past whose spirits inhabit this sanctuary)
Call to Worship:
Bless the Lord God of Israel, who has come to help and deliver God’s people.
God has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of servant David.
Just as God said through the holy prophets long ago,
God has shown mercy, remembering the holy covenant made to our ancestor Abraham.
God has rescued us from the power of our enemies so we could serve without fear.
God’s prophet will go before the Lord to prepare his way.
Because of God’s deep compassion, the dawn from heaven will break upon us,
To give light to those sitting in darkness and guide us on the path of peace. (From Luke 1, The Common English Bible)
Morning Prayer: Thank you, God , for the glimpse afforded us on Christ the King Sunday of Jesus’ cruciform agony, mirroring your suffering love for us. We reject the cynical crowd who taunted our writhing Galilean Lord on the cross, he who had come to them by the lakeside as one unknown, calling out then as now “Follow me.” Whether we be wise or simple, may we obey him as he reveals himself in the toils, conflicts and sufferings which we pass through in his fellowship. Help us, as an unspeakable mystery, learn in our own experience who he is, for we pray as he taught us, saying … *(Inspired by Luke 23 and the wisdom of Albert Schweitzer)
Prayer of Confession: Forgive us, Lord, for all the ways we disappoint you. Sometimes we are little angels, sometimes little demons. One minute we are the thief on the cross beside Jesus who taunted him by demanding “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” The next minute we’re the other criminal, pleading “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Most days, we’re a strange mixture of both: “Please be the One you say you are, Jesus. Remember and save us.” Have mercy when we’re too confused to say anything at all. Amen.*(Inspired by Luke 23)
Assurance of Pardon: There is good news for anyone who admits to being “a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction, taking every wrong direction on your lonesome way back home.” We are all deeply flawed, consistently prone toward inconsistency, a big ol’ mess of conflicted, enlightened self-interest. No one understands that like Jesus, no one ever cared for us like Jesus, there’s no other friend so kind as he. Better than that, no one else can offer what he offered the repentant thief: “I assure you that today you will be with me in paradise.” As for the unrepentant thief in all of us, Jesus has the final word: “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” Thanks be to God for such a King!*(Inspired by Luke 23, the poetry of Kris Kristofferson and the lyrics of itinerant hymnist/evangelist Charles Weigle)
Thought for a Christ the King Sunday:”How good it is to center down, to sit quietly and see one’s self pass by. Something deep within hungers and thirsts for the still moment and the resting lull.” - Howard Thurman, pastor, college dean, civil rights activist