This is part of the worship series,
"Worship Resources for Eastertide”
Easter Sunday | Eastertide 2 | Eastertide 3
Eastertide 4 | Eastertide 5 | Eastertide 6
Ascension Day | Eastertide 7
For those who may be looking for resources for the beginning of worship during Eastertide—the season after Easter—consider the following resources based on the texts from the Revised Common Lectionary, year B, but adaptable to any context. As I read through the lectionary readings for this season, many of them centered around love: God’s love for us and the call of Christ’s followers to love each other. Thus, that refrain echoes throughout these resources. Another theme that began with Mark’s account of the women at the tomb is that of doubt and faith and how closely the two reside in each of us.
Title IMAGE: JESUS MAFA. Jesus appears at Emmaus from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48275 [retrieved April 2, 2024]. Original source: http://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr (contact page: https://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr/contact).
NOTES
- A downloadable copy of all of the openings of worship from Easter through Ascension can be found in the resource section below.
- All material not written by the author is indicated and can be used in worship setting without additional permission. Please do include all copyright notices when using the material and add the following when utilizing the newly written material or referencing the resource as a whole: —Joyce Borger © 2024 ReformedWorship.org, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Used by permission.
- *Congregation is invited to stand in body or spirit.
Ascension Day
God's Greeting*
Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed!
Christ has ascended!
Christ has ascended, alleluia!
Our ascended Lord greets us with these words:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ,
through the working of the Holy Spirit.
Opening Words*
In celebration of Christ’s ascension let us offer our praise using the words of Psalm 47:
Clap your hands, all you nations;
shout to God with cries of joy.
For the Lord Most High is awesome,
the great King over all the earth.
He subdued nations under us,
peoples under our feet.
He chose our inheritance for us,
the pride of Jacob, whom he loved.
God has ascended amid shouts of joy,
the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets.
Sing praises to God,
sing praises;
sing praises to our King,
sing praises.
For God is the King of all the earth;
sing to him a psalm of praise.
God reigns over the nations;
God is seated on his holy throne.
The nobles of the nations assemble
as the people of the God of Abraham,
for the kings of the earth belong to God;
he is greatly exalted.
—Psalm 47 NIV
Song of Praise:
“Psalm 47: Nations, Clap Your Hands” Psalter Hymnal 1987
“Crown Him with Many Crowns” Bridges and Thring
“Jesus is Lord” Chua
Call to Confession
While we claim to celebrate the ascension of our Lord,
the way we live proclaims our lack of faith
in his power to deal with the world.
Let us confess the incongruity
between our faith and practice.
Let us pray.
—Reformed Worship 11:22 © 2026 ReformedWorship.org
Prayer of Confession
We come, O Lord,
on this day of glory to confess our lack of trust.
While we sing of your lordship over all creation,
we have too often acted as though you are powerless
in the face of today’s events.
Help us to live with confidence in your presence today
and in hope for life with you forever. Amen.
—Reformed Worship 11:22 © 2026 ReformedWorship.org
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the good news of the gospel:
God, who is rich in mercy,
out of the great love with which he loved us
even when we were dead through our trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ—
by grace you have been saved—
and raised us up with him
and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
so that in the ages to come
he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace
in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
In Christ, by God’s grace, we are saved.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!
—based on Ephesians 2:4–7 NRSV
Revised Common Lectionary
Year B: Easter—Ascension Day
