21st Century Worship Resources for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C

Gathering Meditation: "We All Be Gentiles Here"

We all be Gentiles here.
High-born and low-born
Teachers and store clerks
Welfare and engineers
Krumpers and blue collar
Gentiles all the same.

We all be Gentiles here.
We all be clean.

Call to Worship
(Based on Psalm 148)

Praise the Lord
You angels in disguise
Praise the Lord
You Shining Lights
Praise the Lord
Women's choir and men's chorus,
Young people and prayer groups
Praise the Lord
On street corners; in barber shops
Praise the Lord
On the courts and in the courts
Praise the Lord, for God's name alone is exalted!
Praise the Lord Forevermore

Prayer: "Our Eyes Are on the Future"
(Based on Revelation 21:1-16)

Lord, we look forward to the day when tears are gone,
when mourning and crying and pain
are distant memories,
when death is an impossibility.

Our lives are too full
of misery
and confusion;
joy and bliss flee far too soon.

Bless us, O God, to gather strength from the promise of your return.

Until the day
when all becomes new,
our eyes are on the future
as we wait patiently for your return. Amen.

Selections above are from The Africana Worship Book Year C . Used with permission.