We hear God’s CALL TO WORSHIP in Psalm 66:7–8
Bless our God, you peoples;
make the voice of his praise to be heard;
who holds our souls in life,
and will not allow our feet to slip.
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 following the words of the Universalist “Hymns of the Spirit”
Let us adore the ever-living God, and render praise to the One who spread out the heavens and established the earth, whose glory is revealed in the heavens above and whose greatness is manifest throughout the world. He is our God; there is no other. We bow the head and bend the knee and magnify the King of kings, the Holy One, praised be he.
We hear God’s CALL TO REPENTANCE in Revelation 3:17, 20
You say ‘I am rich and have grown rich, and I want for nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked!
I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in, and will feast with them, and they will feast with me.
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 Micah 6:6–8
With what should I come before the Lord?
Bow myself before the God on high?
Should I come before him with burnt-offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
With ten thousand streams of oil?
Should I give him my firstborn son for my guilt,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
The Lord has told you what is good,
what he demands of you:
Only to do justice and love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God.
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 139:10–17 · Domine, probasti
10If I say, “Surely the darkness will cover me, *
and the light around me turn to night,”
11Darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day; *
darkness and light to you are both alike.
12For you yourself created my inmost parts; *
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
13I will thank you because I am marvelously made; *
your works are wonderful, and I know it well.
14My body was not hidden from you, *
while I was being made in secret *
and woven in the depths of the earth.
15Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb; all of them were written in your book; *
they were fashioned day by day, *
when as yet there was none of them.
16How deep I find your thoughts, O God! *
how great is the sum of them!
17If I were to count them, they would be more in number than the sand; *
to count them all, my life span would need to be like yours.
We pray a PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION in the words of George Herbert
O, make your Word a swift Word,
passing from the ear to the heart,
from the heart to the life and conversation;
that, as the rain returns not empty,
so neither may your Word,
but accomplish that for which it is given. Amen.
We hear God speaking to us in THE READING for the dayIsaiah 49:1–13
Saturday, 11 December 2027 · Advent
1Listen, islands, to me.
Listen, you peoples, from afar:
the LORD has called me from the womb;
from the inside of my mother, he has mentioned my name.
2He has made my mouth like a sharp sword.
He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand.
He has made me a polished shaft.
He has kept me close in his quiver.
3He said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4But I said, “I have laboured in vain.
I have spent my strength in vain for nothing;
yet surely the justice due to me is with the LORD,
and my reward with my God.”
5Now the LORD, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
says to bring Jacob again to him,
and to gather Israel to him,
for I am honourable in the LORD’s eyes,
and my God has become my strength.
6Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and to restore the preserved of Israel.
I will also give you as a light to the nations,
that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”
7The LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One,
says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers:
“Kings shall see and rise up,
princes, and they shall worship,
because of the LORD who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
8The LORD says, “I have answered you in an acceptable time.
I have helped you in a day of salvation.
I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of the people,
to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage,
9saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’;
to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’
“They shall feed along the paths,
and their pasture shall be on all treeless heights.
10They shall not hunger nor thirst;
neither shall the heat nor sun strike them,
for he who has mercy on them will lead them.
He will guide them by springs of water.
11I will make all my mountains a road,
and my highways shall be exalted.
12Behold, these shall come from afar,
and behold, these from the north and from the west,
and these from the land of Sinim.”
13Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth!
Break out into singing, mountains!
For the LORD has comforted his people,
and will have compassion on his afflicted.
World English Bible. Or read it at Bible Gateway in the NRSV: Isaiah 49:1–13 · the short form, Isaiah 49:5–6.
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 John Bradford
Let your mighty hand and outstretched arm, Lord,
be still our defense;
your mercy and loving kindness in Jesus Christ your dear Son,
our salvation;
your true and holy Word,
our instruction;
your grace and Holy Spirit,
our comfort and consolation
unto the end, and in the end.
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 Hugh Cameron
For the life which you have given and preserved,
the world in which we dwell,
and the hope of everlasting blessedness,
we thank you, O God.
For the pains and distresses which have moulded us as clay is moulded by the potter,
and for the consolations which so often like springs in the desert have refreshed our weariness,
we thank you, O God.
For comfort and help in sorrow,
in pain,
in bereavement,
and when flesh and heart failed,
we thank you, O God.
For the warnings of your spirit speaking to our spirits when the sky was bright and all people spoke well of us,
we thank you, O God.
For the life and doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ,
for his love and sacrifice,
for his boundless compassion,
and for the glorious company of those who have followed him in weakness unto victory,
we thank you, O God.
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.