Here are some worship pieces I wrote for this coming Sunday.  As always, you are welcome to use them as written or in an adapted form for your own worshiping community. 

Call to Worship (based on Psalm 22, Matthew 16:21-28)

We come to worship this morning from different places.
O God, do not be far from us.
We come to worship this morning for different reasons.
O God, do not be far from us.
We experience the presence of the Spirit in different ways.
O God, do not be far from us.
We hear Jesus’ words with different ears.
O God, do not be far from us.
“Deny yourselves.”
O God, do not be far from us.
“Take up your cross.”
O God, do not be far from us.
“Follow me.”
O God, we thank you for drawing near to us in this place, in our lives. Amen.

Prayer of Confession  (Matthew 16:21-28)

God, we humble ourselves now in confession:

We want to be followers of Jesus, but we do not always want to follow Jesus.
We don’t even want to listen when the conversation turns toward darkness and death.
We prefer to indulge ourselves.
We are eager to put down our crosses.
We cling tightly to our lives.
We grasp at worldly rewards.

Holy and loving God, forgive all of our thoughts and actions that would protect us from the path of Christ.

Assurance of Pardon (from I Corinthians 1:9-14)

I pray that God will fill you with the knowledge of God’s will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please God in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to God’s glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience.

Friends, hear now the Good News: God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of Christ Jesus, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Amen.