This week’s sermon is a bit different than usual. For Reign of Christ / Christ the King Sunday this year (the final Sunday of the church year), I adapted a worship service outline from Pr. Melissa Woeppel that I’d saved years ago walking through the church calendar year. I’m including most of the service in this post, including the song selections from the hymnal, the readings, and the sermon bits for each season (parts of which are original, parts of which are adapted from Pr. Woeppel’s outline).
Today’s Scripture readings are Luke 3:1-6, Luke 2:1-7, Isaiah 60:1-5, John 12:12-16, Mark 15:15b-20, 37-39, 46-47; John 20:11-18, Acts 2:1-4, Luke 10:29-37, and Matthew 25:31-40
Here’s the livestream from Christ the King (which has a few different songs led by the band) and audio I re-recorded for the podcast of just the Scripture readings and sermon bits.
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WELCOME
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it! It is good to be here with you this morning. Welcome to worship, and especially welcome to any newcomers joining us this morning or worshiping with us online. We’re so glad to have you here with us.
As you might have noticed from the many hymn numbers on the board, we’re using a unique order of worship today that I’m calling “Reign of Christ Sunday Service of Lessons and Hymns of the Church Year.”
Today is Reign of Christ or Christ the King Sunday, the final Sunday in the church year, and over the last year, we have been on a journey together as a community of faith. We heard the good news of God’s love for the world revealed in Jesus Christ Sunday after Sunday, season after season.
We have followed in the steps of Jesus as he took on flesh, as he healed and restored, as he taught and envisioned a new reign of the kingdom of God. We followed, too, as he was arrested and crucified, executed by the religious authorities and Roman government who were threatened by the vision of life he offered. And we rejoiced as he rose again, breaking the power of death.
We have celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit and reflected on what it means to be a disciple of the Christ. Today is the last Sunday of that journey for this year.
Today, before we enter the new rhythms of another church year and hear these stories anew, we pause to remember that the kingdom of God is a present reality in our lives. And we look forward to the future when God’s kingdom is fulfilled, when the world will once again fully reflect its Creator.
Living in this in-between, in this now-and-not-yet, we will look back and look forward as we reflect on the transforming power of God at work among us and in our world.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Let us pray…Eternal Creator,
In the fullness of time, you stepped into history, entering into the world you made. Year after year, you write your story in our lives and on our hearts. Lead us as your people to give you thanks and praise in all seasons, that the whole world may know your love, through Jesus Christ our Savior and King, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
ADVENT
The church year begins with the season of Advent, represented by the color blue. Specifically, it’s intended to be the color of twilight, the deep blue color of the sky in the moments before the sun comes up in the morning. Advent is the time right before the dawn of the light. It’s the moment of anticipation before the light breaks into the world, before Jesus is born at Christmas.
This is a season of both longing for God to enter our broken world, and a season of preparation as we know the good news of God’s birth among us in Jesus. Last year, during these four weeks, we wondered, “How does a weary world rejoice?” and we explored how connection, amazement, and sharing stories of hope give us strength despite our weariness.
Advent holds in tension the coming of Jesus two millennia ago, and the reality that we are still waiting for God’s full reign, the second coming. The candle flickers, and we know the hope of our king’s imminent arrival. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, and dwell among us.
READING: Luke 3:1-6
HYMN: ELW #254 Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
CHRISTMAS
In the season of Christmas our liturgical colors change to white and gold, a celebration of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, who is fully human and fully God. God’s light dawns in our world, the first and most important gift of Christmas.
Christmas Day is both the culmination of Advent’s waiting, and the beginning of twelve days of celebration as we rejoice in the gift of our Savior and the daily rebirth of grace in our own lives. Our king is born!
READING: Luke 2:1-7
HYMN: ELW #292 Love Has Come (vv. 1,3)
EPIPHANY & TRANSFIGURATION
Epiphany means “to make known,” and in the season of Epiphany we remember the ways and events through which God is revealed through Jesus Christ. The colors of Epiphany are usually white and gold, the colors of celebration, newness, and hope that mark the most sacred days of the church year.
We remember the worship of the Magi, one of the first indications that Jesus came for all people, of all nations, of all races, and that the work of God in the world would not be limited to only a few. We hear of Jesus’ baptism, as God’s voice affirms his identity, then a few weeks later, white and gold are again used to mark Transfiguration Sunday, a grand revealing of Jesus’ glory to his disciples as he begins his journey toward Jerusalem.
READING: Isaiah 60:1-5
HYMN: ELW #314 Arise, Your Light Has Come
LENT & HOLY WEEK
Lent begins with a somber reminder of our own mortality as we receive a cross of ashes on our heads on Ash Wednesday. This year in particular, Ash Wednesday coincided with Valentine’s day, and we spoke of God’s ultimate love for God’s people, a love that endures beyond our return to dust.
Then for forty days of Lent, the color is purple as we pace the length of Jesus’ three years of ministry. We relearn the faces and names of people who, like you and me, were sometimes faithful and sometimes missed the point entirely.
This season calls us to stop and examine our own lives, humbling ourselves before our God.
Lent culminates in Holy Week. Beginning with Palm Sunday and the joyful entry of Israel’s Messiah-King into Jerusalem, the week continues with Jesus celebrating the Passover meal with his friends, offering his own body and blood for the redemption of the world. And yet the world continues to reject him, as the crowds yell for his crucifixion on Good Friday. As this world clings to its lust for violence, our King lays down his life to show us another way. He takes the sins of the world into himself, putting them to death on the cross.
READING: John 12:12-16
HYMN: ACS #928 Pave the Way with Branches
COMMUNION
COMMUNION HYMN: ELW #487 What Feast of Love
READING: Mark 15:15b-20, 37-39, 46-47
HYMN: ELW #353 Were You There (vv. 1, 5)
EASTER
Morning dawns and Mary Magdalene weeps at the tomb until she is told the good news “Jesus is not dead! He has risen!” That good news echoes down through the centuries as Christians around the world joyfully cry out “Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed!” year after year on the highest and holiest day of the Christian calendar.
Easter lilies adorn the sanctuary, the colors change to white and gold to portray the risen, living Christ. Three days before we buried our beloved Jesus; today Jesus lives! The fifty days of Easter ring with the new life and new hope the risen Christ brings to us, to our world, and to all creation. We experience anew the freedom, joy, and life that is our heritage as the people of God.
READING: John 20:11-18
HYMN: ELW #377 Alleluia! Jesus Is Risen (vv. 1, 2)
PENTECOST
Red, the color of flames, brings us to Pentecost. We remember the great rushing wind and the dancing flames like fire that are signs of the Holy Spirit at work. The coming of the Holy Spirit sends Jesus’ followers out into the streets, telling everyone about the good news in ways that all could understand. On Pentecost, we remember the ways the Spirit is still at work stirring us up and sending us out into the world to share God’s love and life.
READING: Acts 2:1-4 (Leslie / Stephanie)
HYMN: ELW #400 God of Tempest, God of Whirlwind (vv. 1, 4)
PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH
ORDINARY TIME
The Sundays between Pentecost and Advent where there are no Holy Days are known as “Ordinary Time.” Green symbolizes this season of growth and renewal as we hear hear again the good news, we are instructed in the ways of the world and the kingdom, and we are shown the vision of the church and our responsibility within it.
Our primary focuses during this season were our call to Christian unity in a divided world, and the importance of prayer as we grow in relationship with God. Children learned in Vacation Bible School, Sunday School and service trips, we worshiped in the park and even the grocery store, and we sought to love our neighbors through quilts, gloves and hats, and sandwiches.
Ordinary? Yes, but it is through the ordinary lives of ordinary people that God’s reign is made known. It is through the ordinary things of bread and wine, water and word that God brings living water to a thirsty world. In the ordinary rhythms of life, through birth and death and everything in-between, God is at work.
READING: Luke 10:29-37
HYMN: ELW #712 Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service (vv. 1, 4)
OFFERING
CHRIST THE KING / REIGN OF CHRIST
Christ the King (or Reign of Christ) is new by the standards of church holidays, added just under a century ago. The concern at the time was about growing secularism and ultra-nationalism, and this day is intended to remind us that our allegiance to the church supersedes any other allegiances we have. That’s a message as relevant today as ever before.
Christ’s kingdom extends beyond national borders, and his authority is above any other king or ruler. We are citizens of this world, but our home is in God’s kingdom.
In the end, it is Christ Jesus who reigns supreme, and our ultimate end is to worship him. In this world, we live out that worship by serving our neighbor in Jesus’ name, not out of fear or obligation, but out of gratitude for the life Jesus offers us. And in serving our neighbors, we serve our King.
READING: Matthew 25:31-40
BENEDICTION
HYMN: ELW #855 Crown Him with Many Crowns (vv. 1, 4 & 5)
SENDING