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Community Universalist Church

Daily Office

Morning · Tuesday, 30 November 2027 · Advent

We hear God’s CALL TO WORSHIP in Revelation 19:6–7

I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, and like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunders, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns! Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let us give the glory to him.”

We listen in silence for God’s still small voice, CENTERING ourselves, becoming aware of God’s presence within us and around us

We respond to God with ADORATION using the words of Jonathan Edwards

Almighty God, all true virtue consists, at its root and in its essence, in you. For you are not only infinitely greater and more excellent than all other being, but you are the head of the whole system of existence; the foundation and fountain of all being and all beauty; the one from whom everything is perfectly derived, and on whom everything is most absolutely and perfectly dependent; the one from whom, through whom, and to whom belongs all being and all perfection; whose own being and beauty is the sum and fullness of all existence and excellence — far more than the sun is the source and fullness of all the light and brightness of the day. Amen.

We hear God’s CALL TO REPENTANCE in Lamentations 3:22–23, 31, 33, 40

It is because of the Lord’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed,
    because his compassion doesn’t fail.
They are new every morning.
    Great is your faithfulness.

For the Lord will not cast off forever.
For he does not afflict willingly,
    nor grieve the children of men.

Let us search and try our ways,
    and turn again to the Lord.

We respond with CONFESSION using the words of Thomas Cranmer in the Book of Common Prayer (1552)

Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us. But you, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore those who are repentant, according to your promises declared to mankind, in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of your holy name. Amen.

We hear God’s teaching for our lives in THE READING OF THE LAW in Leviticus 19:13

You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him.

The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.

We PRAISE God in the INVITATORY PSALM, the VenitePsalm 95:1–7 · Venite, exultemus

1O come, let us sing to the Lord; *
let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.

2Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, *
and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.

3For the Lord is a great God, *
and a great King above all gods.

4In his hand are all the corners of the earth, *
and the strength of the hills is his also.

5The sea is his, and he made it; *
and his hands prepared the dry land.

6O come, let us worship and bow down, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

7For he is the Lord our God, *
and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

Gloria Patri

Glory be to the Father
    and to the Son
    and to the Holy Spirit:
As it was in the beginning,
    is now and ever shall be,
    world without end.
Amen.

We PRAISE God in THE PSALM OF THE DAYPsalm 80:7–14 · Qui regis Israel

7Restore us, O God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

8You have brought a vine out of Egypt; *
you cast out the nations and planted it. .

9You prepared the ground for it; *
it took root and filled the land.

10The mountains were covered by its shadow *
and the towering cedar trees by its boughs.

11You stretched out its tendrils to the Sea *
and its branches to the River.

12Why have you broken down its wall, *
so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes?

13The wild boar of the forest has ravaged it, *
and the beasts of the field have grazed upon it.

14Turn now, O God of hosts, look down from heaven; behold and tend this vine; *
preserve what your right hand has planted.

We pray a PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION in words from the Universalist “Gospel Liturgy”

Father of all, through your holy word you granted us the light of life. May the Scriptures be opened to our thoughts so our hearts may burn within us, and when it is towards evening and the time of day is far spent, may Christ continue to abide with us by faith, so that the night may be radiant with the promise of a morning without clouds.

We hear God speaking to us in THE READING for the dayIsaiah 5:1–7

Tuesday, 30 November 2027 · Advent

1Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard.
    My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
2He dug it up,
    gathered out its stones,
    planted it with the choicest vine,
    built a tower in the middle of it,
    and also cut out a wine press in it.
He looked for it to yield grapes,
    but it yielded wild grapes.

3“Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
    please judge between me and my vineyard.
4What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?
    Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
5Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
    I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up.
    I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.
6I will lay it a wasteland.
    It won’t be pruned or hoed,
    but it will grow briers and thorns.
    I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”
7For the vineyard of the LORD of Armies is the house of Israel,
    and the men of Judah his pleasant plant.
    He looked for justice, but behold, oppression,
    for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.

World English Bible. Or read it at Bible Gateway in the NRSV: Isaiah 5:1–7 · the short form, Isaiah 5:1–4.

We REFLECT in silence

We greet the day with THE SONG OF ZECHARIAH, the Benedictus Luke 1:68–79

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
    he has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior,
    born of the house of his servant David.
Through his holy prophets he promised of old,
that he would save us from our enemies,
    from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers
    and to remember his holy covenant.
This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham,
    to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
Free to worship him without fear,
    holy and righteous in his sight
    all the days of our life.

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High,
    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
To give his people knowledge of salvation
    by the forgiveness of their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God
    the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
    and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

We pray the LORD’S PRAYER as Jesus taught his disciples, in those words which are most meaningful to us

Our [ Father / Mother / Creator ] in heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our [ trespasses / sins ]
as we forgive those who [ trespass / sin ] against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.

We pray a PRAYER OF INTERCESSION in the words of the Book of Common Prayer

Almighty God, the fountain of wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking; we ask you to have compassion upon our weaknesses; and those things, which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask, grant to give us for the worthiness of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

We silently pray PERSONAL PRAYER

Followed by

Amen.

We pray a PRAYER FOR UNITY OF ALL PEOPLE

God, you have made of one blood all nations of the earth, and your will is that all your children should be gathered into one family of love: break down, we pray you, the walls that divide us; deliver us from hardness of heart and from contempt for those who differ from us; and hasten the time when all shall dwell together in that peace which passes understanding, knowing you as Father and one another as brothers and sisters; through Jesus Christ our Lord, in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but all are one. Amen.

We pray a PRAYER OF GENERAL THANKSGIVING in the words of Hubert Louis Simpson

We thank you for the good things of this life: for food and clothing and shelter; for work to do and zest in the doing of it. We thank you for the perpetual touch of the divine in life, for the image of yourself in the human soul; for the vigor of youth, the wisdom of age, and for all the lessons of experience; the steps by which we climb to higher things; for the courage of the brave, the indignation of the righteous, the kindness of the thoughtful, and all that makes us human and keeps us Godlike.

Amen.

A concluding BENEDICTION or blessing Numbers 6:24–26

The Lord bless us and keep us;
the Lord make his face to shine upon us,
and be gracious to us;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon us,
and give us peace.

Amen.