This opening of worship liturgy originally appeared in "Listening to the Prophets—Lent 2: Bloody Backs and Pulled-out Beards."
Responsive Reading from Isaiah 40
Comfort, comfort my people says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
A voice of one calling: In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people together will see it.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Prayer
God of all times and places, who makes our paths straight and our rugged places plain; in Jesus Christ, lifted up on the cross, you opened for us the path to eternal life. Grant that we may faithfully walk in your holy ways; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
—Marvin Hofman © 2023 ReformedWorship.org CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Song
“I Greet My Sure Redeemer” Smith
Revised Common Lectionary
Year B: Advent—Second Sunday of Advent
Year B: Epiphany—Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
