This is part of the worship series,
"Rooted and Established in Love”
Introduction
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4—World Communion Sunday
Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8—All Saints /Reformation Sunday
Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12—Christ the King Sunday
Week 4: The Justice Tree (World Communion Sunday)
Scripture: Judges 4
Faith Practice: Community, Unity, and Solidarity
Reflection: What does it mean to be united in Christ with people around the world whom you’ve never met? What does it mean to be united in Christ with people in your own community, some of whom you might not agree with? What does it mean to be united in Christ with people of different socioeconomic categories, cultural backgrounds, races, or genders?
Call to Confession
On this World Communion Sunday, we are cognizant that there are many around the world—many of our brothers and sisters in Christ—who are on the margins. They gather around the table to celebrate, but some do so in fear of persecution. Some do so with true physical hunger plaguing their bodies so their “feast at the table of the Lord” is only something that is hoped for and longed for. In our broken world, God gathers us all: the marginalized, the powerful, the weak, the strong, the broken, and those seemingly put together. God gathers us together as God’s one church, as brothers and sisters, which means that when they suffer, we suffer with them. So we turn to the Lord in prayer—for them, for us, for all—asking for forgiveness where it is needed and for grace that can always be found.
—Kathryn Roelofs © 2025 ReformedWorship.org, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
We grieve that the church,
which shares one Spirit, one faith, one hope,
and spans all time, place, race, and language,
has become a broken communion in a broken world.
When we struggle
for the truth of the gospel
and for the righteousness God demands,
we pray for wisdom and courage.
When our pride or blindness
hinders the unity of God’s household,
we seek forgiveness.
—Our World Belongs to God, para. 40, © 2008, Christian Reformed Church in North America, Grand Rapids MI. www.crcna.org. Used by permission.
Let us pray for the world that God so dearly loves.
Let us pray for the troubles and the sufferings of the world.
Prayer of Confession
Sung Prayer: “Pelas dores deste mundo / For the Troubles” Neto
Spoken Prayer: Lord, we pray for your kingdom to come. While we see glimpses of that kingdom that is already before us, we long for the day when your kingdom and your reign will be complete and all will acknowledge your rule and praise your name.
Lord, we pray for your kingdom to come in areas of our world that so desperately need your grace. We pray for all who are on the margins: for those without adequate food and water; for those who have been affected by natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, and flooding.
Lord, we pray for your kingdom to come and your peace to reign in areas of conflict: for the fear of nuclear development in North Korea; for the ever present tensions in the Middle East; for terrorist attacks and constant clashes of power. We pray for all the people who live in the shadow of these conflicts, people whose very lives are destroyed because of them.
Lord, we pray for your kingdom to come to a world so rich in resources, yet so unfairly distributed; for a world so beautiful, yet cared for so poorly, with waste and little care for creation.
Lord, we pray for your kingdom to come to our country: to our government, to our leaders and local officials, to our schools, to our cities and our farmlands.
Lord, we pray for your kingdom to come to our city, a hub of political power where many important decisions are made daily that affect not only the city and the country, but the world; a city that struggles with inequality and poverty, a city that needs you.
Lord, we pray for your kingdom to come to our own lives, with whatever we face: financial struggle, illness, depression, lack of enthusiasm for our work, boredom, major life transitions, parenting, “adulting,” grieving.
For all these things and more, we pray for peace, the blessed peace that comes from seeking justice in your world for all the people you love so dearly.
—Kathryn Roelofs © 2025 ReformedWorship.org, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Sung Prayer: “Pelas dores deste mundo / For the Troubles” Neto
Assurance of Pardon
Poem: “And the Table Will Be Wide,” Jan Richardson
Communion
Revised Common Lectionary
Year A: Season after Pentecost—Proper 28 (33)
