Category: Worship Resources

February 26, 2023

Lectionary Texts

Genesis 2. 15-17, 3.1-7. Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil—not the tree of life.

Psalm 32. When we hide our sin it eats away at us; but when we confess it, God forgives us.

Romans 5. 12-19. Paul says that death rules over us because of our sin (since we are cut off from God, who is the source of life). But in Christ we are reconnected to God, and so we are given the gift of life. So just as our sin began with Adam, our salvation begins in Christ.

Matthew 4. 1-11. Jesus, in solitude in the desert, faces his temptations.

Preaching Thoughts

Genesis
The traditional interpretation is: “Adam and Eve disobeyed God and the punishment is death. Everyone inherits Original Sin and its death sentence—from which Jesus saves us.” That’s nice and neat but runs a little shallow for me. I’m wary of that story for a few reasons. One is that it characterizes our relationship with God in terms of God’s laws and our obedience or disobedience, rather than God’s grace despite our inconsistent trust of it. Another is that what’s “original” about sin is not, despite what Paul says, that it’s Adam’s fault (oh, wait; he blamed it on Eve, so it’s her fault); no, we can’t blame it on anybody. It’s not Adam, or Satan, but our own distrust of God’s grace. Another problem is that the story as presented, especially at the beginning of Lent, makes it sound like sin is the problem that Jesus came to solve. (He came to show us how to love, not destroy sin. “The lamb of God who takes way the sin of the world doesn’t eliminate sin: he engenders trust.) That story easily slides into the idea that Christianity completes Judaism, which is false and hurtful. (And also non Jesus-like. He was a Jew, remember.) Blaming Adam too easily leads to blaming Jews, and blaming women—and if anything, blaming is our sin. So I look for other meaning in the story than pinning original sin on Adam & Eve.

Notice there’s actually nothing about a “Fall” in the text. It describes a rift in our relationship with God, but it does not denote an “original sin” or a change in human nature, or a change in the relationship between God and us. (The story is never referred to again in the Hebrew Bible.) It is about our distrust of God, but even that is a mixed bag. In good Jewish rabbinic style Eve questioned the law. That’s not a bad thing. In fact she exercises discernment in seeing “that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise” (3.6). Good on you, Eve!

But obviously the story is also about a failure, a breakage. I think the mistake is eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (and instead of the tree of life!). Rather than receive life from God, we imagine we are able to judge good and evil on our own. We think we’re as wise as God. We don’t need God. We sever our relationship: it’s not just that we break a rule, but that we break trust. That’s where the trouble is. The Serpent is not some sneaky devil slithering around trying to make us do bad things. It’s all the voices that urge us to distrust God, and to think we can do this without grace, and that there’s ever anything more important than love. Where are the serpents in your life?

Still, God is gracious, providing clothing for the people who are now ashamed. The results of Adam & Eve’s offense is not exactly punishment but the outcome of their broken relationship with God and Creation: birth and life will involve pain and hard physical labor. We will live always in the throes of trying to both realize and ignore the truth that we are dust, and to dust we shall return.

God drives Adam and Eve from the garden not as punishment, but so they won’t try to eat of the tree of life (that’s what the angel guards in v. 24). We can’t just get life from a vending machine. We have to receive it daily, moment by moment, breath by breath, from God, in relationship with God, in the world, not in some Eden-bubble. And that’s what Lent is about: not beating ourselves up for being disobedient, but learning to trust.

Romans
Paul, who was trained as a religious lawyer, uses legal language of “trespass, judgment, condemnation and justification” to talk about our relationship with God. These are metaphors, not a literal reality. God is not enforcing laws and administering punishment. God is Love. Love, as Paul himself reminds us, makes no demands; it “does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful” (1 Cor. 13.5). Paul is getting at how in fact God’s grace sets us free from the legal restraints of demand-and-punishment; By God’s grace and forgiveness we are free to simply be God’s Beloved. Adam symbolizes the old way of thinking and living; Jesus offers us a new way of being. The key to Paul’s legal metaphor is the “free gift” of God’s grace. It doesn’t fit a legal framework, but springs us free!

When Paul says “sin came into the world through one man” this is metaphorical language. It doesn’t mean we inherit sin like a genetic disease. Sin is an aspect of human nature: a consequence of self-consciousness is the illusion of being an independent “self,” rather than part of God. This illusion of separateness is sin. It’s nobody’s fault. It’s just the downside of having an ego. But even as we cut ourselves off from God, God still stays connected. We are kids who run away and end up in jail; God is the parent who comes and rescues us and brings us home. Jesus is the one who shows up at the jail, who leads us out, who walks with us into our freedom, back into our belovedness.

Matthew
Jesus is not being tricked by some sneaky guy in a red suit. He’s facing his own inner temptations. And they’re the basic wants of the human ego: power, security, possessions, belonging, superiority—things we all crave. The temptations are graphic representations of the desires of the human ego—that part of our consciousness (that’s actually mostly subconscious) that keeps track of SELF. “Who am I? What’s me and what’s not-me? Where’s the boundary, and how do I keep it safe? What’s safe? How do I do what I need to do in the world? What power do I have? How do I belong in the world? Where do I fit in?” Each of us in our own way desire power: to affect the world around us, to turn stones into bread, to make things turn out the way we want. We desire security: safety, protection from harm, avoidance of pain, the fantasy of being able to make it through life unhurt, to fall off a cliff and be unharmed. We desire belonging: to fit in, to “own” our place, to be admired, to “possess” everything, to have all the kingdoms of the world.

These desires are not bad or evil. They’re part of the natural functioning of our egoic mind. Jesus experienced these things. Jesus’ triumph is not that he isn’t tempted, but that he knows he can only find security, power and belonging in God. Any effort to secure these for himself lead him away from God and away from authentic life. It’s as if he is back in the Garden and the serpent (within himself) says “You don’t need God,” and Jesus says, “Well, sometimes I sure feel that way, but it’s an illusion. I’m choosing God.” His replies to the devil say nothing about rules or “good and evil,” but about absolute trust and devotion to God, The victory is in choosing to trust God rather than blindly follow our egoic desires.

Lent is a season to confront how our desires for power, security, comfort, safety and belonging mislead us. And to continually practice turning again to God— turning now, in this moment, and again, and again, and again….

Call to Worship

1.
Leader: Creator God, maker of earth and provider of life,
All: You are our bread, and our strength.
Loving Christ, willing to love at the cost of your life,
you are our courage and our hope.
Holy Spirit, you give us a world to serve for you.
You are our love, our belonging, and our calling. We worship you.

2.
Leader: God of life, we do not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from your mouth
All: Feed us the Bread of Life, O God.
We do not need to test you; we only need to receive.
Help us God, to trust you deeply.
The things of this world and their splendor,
the pride and belonging promised by its kingdoms, are illusions.
We come to be shaped by your Word,
that we may serve you and you alone, in the name of Christ.
We thank you. We trust you. We worship you.

3.
Leader: Gentle God, we are searching.
All: We come out into the wilderness with Jesus to find you.
Loving Christ, we are tempted.
We come out into the wilderness with you to find our way.
Holy Spirit, we are yearning for life.
You lead us out into the wilderness to find life.
We come to worship, to be filled with your Spirit, and to be changed.
Grant us your blessing. Grant us your mercy. Grant us your grace. Amen.

4.
Leader: Eternal God, Fountain of Life, River of Blessing, we worship you.
All: We go with Jesus into the desert, and learn to thirst for you.
Humble Christ, Bread of Life, you journey toward the cross, steadfast in love and self-giving.
We walk with you in the shadows, and seek your hunger for justice.
Holy Spirit, Breath of Life, you sustain us in the wilderness as we journey toward freedom.
We walk in your strength, and draw our courage from you.
God of grace, receive us as we worship. Loving Christ, accompany us.
Holy Spirit, burn in us, and transform us by your grace. Amen.

5.
Leader: God is merciful and gracious,
        slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
All: God does not deal with us according tour sins,
        but forgives us and receives us as God’s beloved.
Come, let us walk in the light of God,
        that God may teach us God’s ways,
        and lead us in God’s paths.
Create a new heart in us, O God,
        and put within us a new and right spirit.
Come, Holy Spirit, and transform us by your grace.

Collect / Prayer of the Day

1.
God of mercy, as Jesus was led out into the desert in solitude for self-examination, lead us into a place of clarity and simplicity, that in this Lenten season we might see ourselves as you see us and open ourselves to your loving transformation. Speak to us, that we may hear, repent, and be changed. Amen.

2.
God of love, we are tempted by many things, many urges and voices and powers. Help us listen to you, trust you and serve you. As we hear your Word we return to you. Help us always to return to you, in the Spirit and the company of Christ. Amen.

3.
Loving God, Jesus went out into the wilderness to face his temptations. Help us go with him, to see ourselves clearly, to know your love for us, and to let ourselves be changed by your Spirit at work in us. We enter the desert silence to hear your grace. Jesus, help us listen. Amen.

4.
O God, our deliverer, you led Jesus in the wilderness, where he fasted and faced his temptations. Lead us now through the wild places in our own souls. Help us to know and to claim our deepest hunger for you. In the desert of silence, in the wilderness of our solitude, speak to us, God, for we are hungry for your Word and thirsty for your Spirit. Amen.

Prayer of Confession

1.
Pastor: The grace of God is with you.
Congregation: And also with you.
Trusting in God’s tender mercy, we open ourselves in honesty to God.
God of love, help us to see ourselves with the eyes of love,
to see what is in us that is loving,
and what is not loving.
God, we recall when we have been in harmony with you, or with life, and we give thanks. [silent prayer…]
We recall when we have been out of harmony, and we seek your grace. [silent prayer…]
God of mercy, in Christ you have shown us your grace.
Forgive us, heal us, and perfect your love in us.
…(Silent prayer … The word of grace)

2.
Pastor: The grace of God is with you.
Congregation: And also with you.
Trusting in God’s tender mercy, let us confess our sin to God with one another.
God of love, help us to see ourselves with the eyes of love,
to see all that is in us that is loving,
and all that is not loving.
We have failed to love, in what we have done and what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with all our heart, mind, soul and strength,
nor have we loved our neighbors as ourselves.
By the grace you show us in Christ,
gather us in your loving arms and have mercy on us;
heal us, forgive us, and perfect your love in us.
…(Silent prayer … The word of grace)

3.
Gracious God,
you love us so much more than we know,
more than our sin, which itself is more than we know.
Trusting in your grace,
we open our heart to you,
that we may see our self-centeredness,
and know your forgiveness.
Hold us in your gentle embrace,
that we may die and be reborn
in your perfect love.
Set us free by your grace
for we are broken, and we are beloved.

4.
…Gracious God, we confess our sin,
for our fears have overcome us,
and our desires have misled us,
and we have tried to live without you.
But you, and you alone, are our life.
Forgive our sin,
heal the desperation in our hearts,
and feed us with your Bread of Life,
that we may walk in your ways forever. Amen.

Listening Prayer

(suitable as a Collect, preparation for hearing scriptures, or invitation to prayer)

Into the dry places,
to the empty places,
to the fearful places
we come.
By your grace
we face where we are faint,
where we are broken,
and find there—there
in the wilderness
your grace,
our absolute belovedness.
Amen.

Readings

Psalm 32 — A Paraphrase
How blessed we are, that you forgive us so completely!
           When we’re honest, we know our sin,
           yet you treat us as if we have none.
When I tried to deny my brokenness
           the wound ate me up from within.
Then I got honest with myself.
           stopped trying to hide.
I confessed my waywardness to you,
           and you forgave me— you forgave me!
Therefore we have come to trust you deeply,
           and we offer prayer to you.
Even in this anxious flood
           the seething waters won’t reach us.
You are our hiding place, our safe place.
           You surround us with songs of deliverance.
Be glad in the Holy One and rejoice!
           Oh, sing for joy, you whose hearts have been saved!

Poetry

Temptations

What are your temptations?
Not sex and chocolate, OK?
Not beauty, not pleasure.

I mean the things that ruin you,
things that get in your way,
that lead you away from deep life.

What gets in the way of your perfect love?
What distorts your wisdom and vision?
What inhibits your kindness and courage?

Now. Remember when you fell in love?
You didn’t work at it, did you? It was a gift.
You bring the gift with you to the desert.

You’ll never vanquish your temptations.
You just have to remember the gift:
you already love God more than those things.

Eucharistic Prayer

1.
[After the introduction, the body of the prayer may be read responsively with the presiding leader(s) and congregation, or by the leader(s) alone.]

God is with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your heart.
We lift them up to God.
Let us give thanks to the Holy One, our God.
It is good and beautiful to give God our praise.

God, we give you thanks, for we live not by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from your mouth.

You create us in your image, claim us as your children,
and covenant with us to be our God.
In our hunger for life we stray, and seek blessing in fruitless places,
but you set us free from our inner demons and lead us back to life.
In our greed for power and yearning to belong we use other people,
but you judge the forces of injustice
and set all your children free from all that oppresses.
In hunger for your grace we turn to you, dependent,
and trusting in your grace we come, singing your praise with all Creation:

            [Sanctus, spoken or sung:]
        Holy, holy, holy One, God of power and might,
        heaven and earth are full of your glory.
        Hosanna in the highest.
        Blessed is the one who comes in the name of God.
        Hosanna in the highest.
               [or alternate version]

Blessed are all who come in your name,and blessed is Jesus, your Christ.
With courage he looked within; with clarity he saw himself;
with compassion he saw others, and loved them.
He fed and taught them; he gathered a community of grace and kinship;
and he established an empire of justice and mercy.
For resisting injustice he was crucified; but you raised him from the dead.

[The Blessing and Covenant…]

Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”
As often as we break this bread and share this cup
we remember his death and resurrection until he comes again.
Remembering these, your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving
as a living and holy sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of our faith:

             [Memorial Acclamation, spoken or sung:]
        Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
                     —or—
        Dying, Christ destroyed our death. Rising, Christ restores our life.
        Christ will come again in glory.
             [or alternative]

Pour out your Holy Spirit on these gifts of bread and cup,
that they may be for us the body and blood of Christ.
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us,
that we may be for the world the Body of Christ,
made clean by your Word, filled with your grace,
and set free to love, in the name of Christ.

     [Spoken or sung]
Amen.
______________

2.
[After the introduction, the body of the prayer may be read responsively with the presiding leader(s) and congregation, or by the leader(s) alone.]

God is with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your heart.
We lift them up to God.
Let us give thanks to the Holy One, our God.
It is good and beautiful to give God our praise.

Creator God, you provide abundantly for us:
earth and all living things, food and beauty,
love and forgiveness and life without cost.
You judge the forces of injustice,
set us free from all that oppresses,
and walk with us toward your new world.
Yet we are tempted to go away from you.
Jesus was tempted: “If you are the Son of God,
command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
But he relied on you alone, and proclaimed,
“One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
And so with all Creation we thank you for the Bread of Life.

            [Sanctus, spoken or sung:]
        Holy, holy, holy One, God of power and might,
        heaven and earth are full of your glory.
        Hosanna in the highest.
        Blessed is the one who comes in the name of God.
        Hosanna in the highest.
               [or alternate version]

Blessed are all who come in your name,
and blessed is Jesus, your Christ.
He loved and taught, healed the broken and fed the hungry.
For such love he was opposed, and was tempted to seek security:
“Throw yourself down and angels will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”
But he relied on you alone, and proclaimed,
“Do not put God to the test.”
And so he was crucified for the sake of love;
but on the third day you raised him from the dead.

[The Blessing and Covenant…]

Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”
As often as we break this bread and share this cup
we remember his death and resurrection until he comes again.
Remembering these, your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving
as a living and holy sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of our faith:
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on these gifts of bread and cup,
that they may be for us the body and blood of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us,
that we may be the Body of Christ, dead and raised
for service to you and to the world.
We are tempted to serve ourselves, as Jesus was tempted:
“The kingdoms of the world and their splendor I will give you.”
But he relied on you alone and proclaimed,
“Worship Yahweh your God, and serve only God.”
May this meal strengthen us to resist all temptation,
to repent and return to you, to rely on you alone,
and to proclaim your good news.
Bless us in this meal that we may serve you,
and serve the world for your sake.
All glory and honor is yours, loving and mighty God,
now and forever.

     [Spoken or sung]
Amen.

____________
* The Blessing and Covenant
[I usually don’t print the words. I want people to be looking at the bread, not their bulletins.]

On the night in which he gave himself for us
Jesus took bread, blessed it,. broke it, and gave it to his disciples,saying,
“Take and eat; this is my body.”
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup,
blessed it with thanks and gave it to them, saying,
“Drink of this, all of you. This is my blood,
poured out for you and for many, in a new Covenant,
which is the forgiveness of sin.”
As long as we break this bread and share this cup
we remember his death and resurrection, until he comes again.

Prayer of Dedication / Sending / after Communion

[Adapt as needed.]
1.
Gracious God, we thank you for (the mystery that you give yourself to us / this mystery in which you have given yourself to us.) We live not by bread alone but by your grace. Send us into the world, fed by your presence, to love all in the name and the Spirit of Christ. Amen.

2.
Gracious God, we thank you for (the mystery that you give yourself to us / this mystery in which you have given yourself to us.) May we trust in your abundant grace, and turn aside from every temptation, to serve you and serve the world in the name and Spirit of Christ.

3.
Gracious God, we thank you for (the mystery that you give yourself to us / this mystery in which you have given yourself to us.) You have fed our deepest hunger; you have saved us and brought us to new life. Send us into the world now, to share the Bread of Life with all who are hungry, in the name and the Spirit of Christ. Amen.

Suggested Songs

(Click on titles to view, and hear an audio clip, on the Music page)

Into the Darkness – (Original song)

Only the seed that has died and is buried lives to bear fruit, Jesus said.
Lead me then into the darkness and dying, so you can raise me up from the dead.
Jesus, help me die and rise.

All of my living, my loves and desires, all of the things that I cling to,
now I surrender to die and be buried. Raise me in following, serving you.
Jesus, help me die and rise.

Lead me to truth, and have mercy, and wash me dep in the dark of my being.
A spirit like bread that is taken and broken: this is the death that is freeing.
Jesus, help me die and rise.

Give me a clean heart, a heart poor in spirit, willing and steadfast and made new.
My life I lose; let your cross lift me up now. One joy restore to me: life in you.
Jesus, help me die and rise.


Return, My Soul (Tune: Finlandia)

Return, my soul, from all your hungry wandering,
your fearful search for comfort and control.
Let go my grasp of things apart from God,
for God alone can heal and hold my soul.
Return to God, for God alone will love me,
and give me life, and bless and make me whole.

Return, my soul, from all the things that dull me,
that soothe my sense, but leave my sin in place.
My broken heart, return from tricks and bargains;
turn to the One who meets me face to face.
Return to God. Each moment turn again;
receive unending love and life and grace.

February 22, 2023

Lectionary Texts

In Joel 2.1-2, 12-17 the prophet alerts us to the coming judgment of God—which will not be easy. We are called to fast and pray, and return to God. We plead for God to save us. But we don’t despair: God will give us what we need to worship and serve God faithfully (v. 14) We trust that God is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (13).

Psalm 51 is the quintessential penitential psalm, confessing sin that’s part of our human nature, seeking “truth in the inward being,” and opening ourselves for God to “create in us a clean heart and put a new and faithful spirit within us.”

In 2 Corinthians 5.20b – 6.10 Paul appeals to us to be reconciled to God. Paul says though Christ knew no sin God made Christ to “be sin” so that in Christ we might “be the righteousness of God.” Paul enumerates the ways a disciple may suffer for their faith, and still endure.

Matthew 6.1-6, 16-21 is part of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus instructs us in the traditional penitential disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (which is not just charitable giving but also working for justice). Jesus tells us to focus not on outer appearances but our inner relationship with God.

Preaching Thoughts

Joel. The prophet imagines the judgment God will pronounce (and enact) on Israel will be harsh, because of our sin. But. God is, after all, “ gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” (a creed repeated often in the Hebrew Bible—for instance Ex. 34.6; Num. 14.18; Neh. 9.17; Ps. 86.15, 103.8, 145.8…) The point of repentance is not to feel bad, but to open our hearts to God’s grace, which changes us. Repentance is a transformation that requires our both openness (“return to God”), and God’s grace (“God will leave a blessing”).

Psalm 51. Again, repentance is a conversation, and flow between us and God: we get honest about our brokenness with openness to God (“you desire truth in the inward being… wash me “); God responds with grace (“have mercy on me… wash me…let the bones you have crushed rejoice”), and the result is transformation (“put a new and right spirit within me”). (Readers of John Wesley will recognize his description of the prevenient, justifying and sanctifying nature of grace.)

2 Corinthians. Sloppy theology says Jesus’ Jesus’ sacrifice changes God’s mind about us: that because of the cross God decides to forgive us after all. But Paul doesn’t say God is reconciled to us; it’s the other way around: we are reconciled to God. Paul urges us to choose to enter into that relationship.
        “God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” God does not make Jesus sinful. But Jesus accepts our sin, and takes it into himself, physically suffering the effects of our sin. And God’s response is pure love and grace for Jesus—and for us! Even in the bull’s eye of our sin, Jesus, on behalf of God, forgives us. Even though we are out of harmony with God, we are given the gift of a harmonious relationship with God, which is righteousness. When we assent to that grace, when we allow ourselves to “be reconciled to God,” we become God’s faithfulness. In that sense Jesus takes on our sin so that we can take on his righteousness.

Matthew. In his discussion of prayer, fasting and almsgiving (or working for justice) Jesus tells us to focus on the inner reality, not the outward appearance. This echoes Joel (“Rend your hearts, not your clothing”) and Psalm 51 (“you desire truth in then inward being”). In all these spiritual practices the emphasis is not on our (outward) performance but our inner relationship with God. This passage is a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount, which we’ve been hearing in the lectionary, with its emphasis on trust in God’s grace, especially in the Beatitudes. Repentance isn’t a gloomy thing, but a joyful, hopeful, grateful reliance on God’s love and mercy.

Call to Worship

1.
One: The grace of the Beloved, Jesus Christ, be with you.
All: And also with you.
Bless the Holy One who forgives all our sins.
God’s mercy endures forever.

2.
Leader: O God, we come.
All: We are ashes, crying out.
We come, broken and in need.
We come, trusting and open-hearted,
We come, forgiven and welcome.
We come to be honest, to confess, to be ourselves.
We come to be received, to be blessed, to be anointed;
in the name and the mercy of Christ, we come.

3.
Leader: Beloved in Christ, we come at the invitation of the Gentle One.
All: And we are loved, and received with joy.
We come, broken and in need.
And we are healed.
We come, dust and ashes.
And we are filled with the Breath of Life.
God of grace, receive us, bless us,
and renew in us the gift of life. Amen.

Prayers

1.
Gentle God,
you created us in love and for love.
We are the pure light of your love, given flesh.
Your Spirit is our life; your breath is our breath.
Your love shines in us, the image of Christ,
and we are all being transformed into this image,
from one degree of glory to another.
But we deny your light and obscure your image.
Help us to see all that impedes your perfect love in us,
and to remove it, so that we may truly shine with your light.
In this Lenten season, help us to see, to repent,
and to be perfected in love,
in the grace of Jesus Christ. Amen.

2.
God, we turn to you, we who are made of the dust of the earth.
Receive us in our brokenness.
We turn to you, we who are made of the dust of stars.
Breathe your light into us once again.
Create in us a new heart, O God,
and put a new and right Spirit within us. Amen.

3.
Creator God, from stardust you have made us
and from the dust of death you raise us.
Your spirit alone breathes life in us.
Create new hearts in us, O God,
and put a new spirit within us,
that we may repent of our sin, be made new,
and live lives in harmony with your delight,
through Jesus Christ, the Beloved. Amen.

4.
God of love,
Jesus calls us to lives of love, trust, justice and compassion.
We want to be faithful, but our fears and desires interfere.

We want to trust in you, to rely wholly on your grace.
We want to be whole, to be true to the people you create us to be.
We want to be a healing presence and a source of grace.
But our fears and desires interfere.

We want to be kind to all, including our enemies.
We want to reach out to those who are in need,
and heal those who are hurting.
We want to be bold in doing justice.
We want to pass on to those who struggle
the way of living Jesus taught.
But our fears and desires interfere.

Forgive us. Heal our fears, re-direct our desires,
and give us the courage and compassion of your Spirit.

Create in us a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within us. Amen.

5.
Gracious God, you made us from the dust of the earth,
and breathed your Spirit into us to give us life.
The dust is the dust of stars.
You have made us from light,
and your Spirit blazes within us; your glory shines in us.
But we have veiled your glory, and lost sight of your light.
We have clung to the dust,
but not the light, the Spirit, the Life.
Renew your light in us this Lenten season.
May we again become true earthlings, pure stardust, living light.
Renew your Spirit within us, that we may live.
Amen.

6.
Most holy and merciful God,
to you and to one another we confess our sin. We have sinned in thought, word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven as you have forgiven us.
We have been untrue to the spirit of Christ. We have grieved you, and we are sorrowful.
Have mercy on us, O God.
Our unfaithfulness to you, our distrust, our neglect of your faithful grace, our failure to live wholly for you,
we confess to you, God.
Our unfaithfulness in prayer and worship, our failure to nurture the faith that is in us, our negligence of the Holy Spirit,
we confess to you, God.
Our self-indulgence and exploitation of others, our participation in injustice and oppression, and our failure to act or speak out, our love of worldly goods and comforts, our defense of our privilege, our pride and impatience, our envy and our quickness to judge and not to heal,
we confess to you, God.
Our waste and pollution of your creation, our blindness to the awe and beauty which you have given us,
we confess to you, God.
Accept our repentance, God, for the wrongs we have done. For our blindness to human need and suffering, and to your presence in the poor, for our indifference to injustice and cruelty, for our failure to love courageously,
accept our repentance, God.
For our judgments, fear, anger and all uncharitable thoughts toward others, for our prejudice and contempt of those who differ from us, for all that is hurtful that we have done,
accept our repentance, God.
Restore us, gracious God, for your mercy is great.
Hear us, O God,
for your grace is the source of our life. Amen.

Listening Prayer

(suitable as a Collect, preparation for hearing scriptures, or invitation to prayer)

God of grace,
my life is ashes.
Breathe your breath into that dust,
that I may be created anew,
and live by the grace
of your Spirit alone.

Suggested Songs

(Click on titles to view, and hear an audio clip, on the Music page)


See all songs with tags for Confession or Repentance; especially these:

Darkness (Tune: Tallis’ Canon or CONDITOR ALME)

The darkness is a covering
to hide the questions that I bring.
God bless me even in the night
to bring my love into the light.

The darkness is where fears may hide,
but help me, God, to look inside.
Give me the courage, Love,
to face my demons with your saving grace.

The darkness is a mystery,
the way that is unclear to me.
Yet God, you lead me by the hand
to journey toward a promised land.

The darkness is a place of rest,
where I may sleep and be your guest
until the rising of the sun.
I rest in you, O Loving One


God of Mercy (Original Song)

God of mercy, you forgive me,
may I myself forgive.
Now confessing, I ask your blessing.
By your grace I shall live.

God, heal my sin, brokenness deep within.
Too often I bear pain I make others share.
Set me free from what I have been.

God of mercy, you forgive me,
may I myself forgive.
Now confessing, I ask your blessing.
By your grace I shall live.

You are gentle with me; gentle I learn to be.
You touch me and heal; deep in my soul I feel
burdens gone, and I am free.

God of mercy, you forgive me,
may I myself forgive.
Now confessing, I ask your blessing.
By your grace I shall live.
By your grace I shall live.


God, we are broken (Tune: Be Thou My Vision)

God, we are broken, for all flesh is weak.
Grant us the healing and peace that we seek.
For all that pains us, beyond our control,
grant us your healing, our bodies made whole.

God, we are broken; our hearts are not one.
Sometimes it seems that our souls come undone.
Bring us renewal and calm in our soul.
Grant us your healing and make our hearts whole.

God, we are broken: for families and friends
suffer when love fails and faithfulness ends.
May your forgiveness and grace play its role.
Grant us your healing; make covenants whole.

God, we are broken, for many are poor,
and we ignore those who lie by our door.
God, may your justice like great rivers roll.
Grant us your healing; make all people whole.

God, we are broken for hate and all war
wound us so we are not free anymore.
Make us one people from pole to pole.
Grant us your healing, and make the world whole.


God, you have searched me (Tune Be Thou My Vision)

God, you have searched me; you know from within
all of my beauty, my wounds and my sin.
Deep in my heart—I’ve not spoken a word—
you know my soul, and my thoughts you have heard.

You who have made me and always are near,
help me to shed my illusion and fear.
Help me be truthful, and truthfully see,
humbly transparent to your grace in me.

Your loving presence within me each day
go with me, guide me, and show me your way.
Give me the eyes of your mercy and grace,
to walk in love in each moment, each place.


Into the Darkness (Original tune)

Only the seed that has died and is buried
lives to bear fruit, Jesus said.
Lead me then into the darkness and dying,
so you can raise me up from the dead.
Jesus, help me die and rise.

All of my living, my loves and desires,
all of the things that I cling to,
now I surrender to die and be buried.
Raise me in following, serving you.
Jesus, help me die and rise.

Lead me to truth and have mercy and wash me
deep in the dark of my being,
a spirit like bread that is taken and broken:
this is the death that is freeing.
Jesus, help me die and rise.

Give me a clean heart, a heart pure in spirit,
willing and steadfast and made new.
My life I lose; let your cross lift me up now.
One joy restore to me: life in you.
Jesus, help me die and rise.


Into the Light (Original tune)

God, I come into the light of your mercy and grace:
may I receive your forgiveness, your loving embrace.
You know my brokenness better than I, and my sin.
You love me perfectly, setting me free once again.

All of myself I now humbly bring into your light:
wash me, renew me, forgive me and set me aright.
God, I surrender myself to your life-giving love:
may I be born by your Spirit, anew, from above.

God, you have loved us so much that you even would give
Jesus, your Son, the Beloved, so that we would live.
Help us to live so we bring your good news into sight.
Help us to trust in your grace and come into the light.


Return, My Soul (Tune: Finlandia)

Return, my soul, from all your hungry wandering,
your fearful search for comfort and control.
Let go my grasp of things apart from God,
for God alone can heal and hold my soul.
Return to God, for God alone will love me,
and give me life, and bless and make me whole.

Return, my soul, from all the things that dull me,
that soothe my sense, but leave my sin in place.
My broken heart, return from tricks and bargains;
turn to the One who meets me face to face.
Return to God. Each moment turn again;
receive unending love and life and grace.

I turn, O God, to you who love with patience.
You walk beside me, though I cannot see.
You are my life in dry and weary deserts,
my spring of life that flows eternally.
I turn to you, from false desire and grasping,
and letting go, I find that you hold me.


Our Living Breath (Tune: Londonderry Air: “Oh Danny Boy”)

O Holy One, Creator of the stars of night,
whose dust we are, created with your light,
now breathe your spirit into us and give us life;
give us new hearts that beat with your delight.
Our dust and ashes, Lord, we give in faith to you.
Receive our lives, our sin, our wounds, our death;

and raise us up with Christ from death to life by grace.
Lord, may we be your love and you our living breath.


Set Me Free (Red Sea) (original song)

1. Forgive me, God of mercy, set me free. (Repeat)
Refrain: From slavery to the past, through the deep Read Sea,
lead me God of love. Set me free.

2. From anger and resentment, set me free… Refrain
3. From blaming and from judgment, set me free… Refrain
4. To be completely loving,set me free… Refrain

Lent is about giving stuff up and generally being miserable, right?

No. Lent is about returning to delight.

Lent invites us back into the loving arms of God. Lent is about confronting all the life-draining ways we seek cheap substitutes for God’s love and grace and mercy, and chucking them and turning to the Real Stuff. It’s about giving ourselves the gift of receiving the love we crave. No matter what we may “give up for Lent,” what we’re really giving up is the habit of withholding God’s love from ourselves by seeking it elsewhere. We give up junk to receive treasure. But, yeah, sometimes the giving up is hard. Because we’re addicted. But there’s life on the other side.

Sin

Sin is thinking (or acting as if) we’re on our own.

There’s only one thing, one Holy Being (which we nickname “God”), and we’re part of it. But we don’t get it. The part of our consciousness (actually mostly unconscious) that we call our ego is at work, as it should be, continually asking, “What’s me, and not me? How do I protect what’s me?” The trouble is, we believe it. We believe and act as if we’re our own little selves, individual physical units, contained in and defined by our bodies. (Paul calls this “living according to the flesh.”) This self-centeredness is sin. But God is infinite; there is nothing outside God. We are part of God. We are emanations of divine love, members of the Body of Christ, made one in the one Spirit. To trust this, to willingly be part of God, is what Paul calls “living in the Spirit.”

Our sinfulness doesn’t mean we’re “bad.” It means we’re afraid. It means we’re inherently self-centered. We don’t know how to trust God, and trust our belonging in God. We focus on the survival of our bodies and possessions and outward appearances, and not on the life of God within us. The only cure for separation is connection. The only cure for fear is love. The only cure for sin is grace.

Righteousness

Righteousness is being in harmony with God.

Sin is being out of tune. Righteousness is being in tune. It does not mean “being right.” In fact it’s the opposite. There are two religions in the world: the religion of being right and the religion of being in love. In the religion of being right you figure out how the universe works and play by those rules and succeed (defined as “righteousness”), or fail to get it right and suffer. The religion of being right is inherently selfish, inimical to love. In the religion of being in love you allow yourself to be loved as a gift, and in gratitude pass that love on to others because you’re all part of the same love. Righteousness is allowing yourself to be loved, and to become loving. The two religions are incompatible. If you follow all the rules sooner or later you’ll hurt somebody. And in the religion of being in love if you always do what is loving sooner or later you’ll break a rule, or fail to “get it right” for yourself, and suffer for it. You can’t practice both religions at the same time; we’re always choosing one or the other. Jesus quotes Hosea 6.6 (twice!) and says “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” (Mt. 9.13. See also Mt. 12.7).

The religion of being right is the religion of our sin. We don’t trust God’s love but instead believe we have to deserve God’s favor by being good enough. We achieve righteousness. Even our attempt to be righteous is sinful. Instead we’re invited to allow God, in love, to make us righteous, to bring us into harmony with God in loving mercy. Despite our waywardness, God, out of pure love not our merit, says, “We’re good.” God’s love makes us righteous.

Salvation

God’s love saves us from the life-sapping power of our own selfishness.

Because in our sin we cut ourselves off from life, seeking to ensure for ourselves the life that can come only from God, sin is death—that’s the bad news. But the good news is God gives us life anyway, life that can’t be taken from us—not even by sin or death. This is the gift of eternal life. We disconnect ourselves from God, but Gods stays connected anyway. This is not anything we can affect: we are unable to save ourselves from our own self-centeredness. It is a gift of pure grace.

Salvation doesn’t mean going to heaven after we die. Salvation means being rescued from the selfishness that destroys our lives—our distrust of God, our alienation from the divine breathing Spirit in us that is our our true and only source of life. God overcomes all this. It is not the result of our effort, but God’s grace. The “heaven” we go to is not the afterlife, but the paradise of being in harmony with God.

Repentance

Sin is being out of tune with God. Repentance is tuning up.

Repentance is listening to God so we can sing in tune. Even Jesus needed to listen; notice how often he goes off to pray. So we attend to the work of repentance: the work of turning from what diminishes life toward what restores life: turning away from sin, toward God. Repentance is not what we do to be saved, but what we do because we have been saved. Repentance is a three-fold process: being honest about our brokenness, opening ourselves to God’s grace, and allowing ourselves to be transformed. (Followers of John Wesley will recognize the prevenient, justifying and sanctifying nature of God’s grace.) With Jesus in the desert we face our temptations, the ways our desire for life get distorted into desire for power, security and belonging in sources other than God. We confront our ego and its fears and desires, our self-centeredness and its consequences; and practice letting go of those false fears and demands. We confess not only our individual sins but our collective sin, the systems of injustice that our sin produces and sustains. We acknowledge that we are dust in need of Spirit.

God’s response is not punishment, but grace. God’s judgment is not a verdict, but a prescription. When we fail to bear fruit fruit God does not punish us but gives us what we need to bear fruit (see Luke 13.1-9).

So our focus is not on our sin, but on God’s grace. For only God’s love cures the sickness that is our sin. Repentance is accepting the love we’ve been resisting, and giving God’s forgiveness a chance to sink in. We practice breathing-in God’s love.

And we invite and allow that grace to change us, to inhabit us, to rule us. Repentance is about turning to the divine life that is there inside us that we’ve been neglecting. When we let go of our self-contentedness and accept God’s love, our hearts are changed: we want to live in harmony with that love and grace. We allow ours old selves to die so God can re-create us, animated by the Spirit instead of our sin. We are re-born. This is the true nature of resurrection: not a comeback, but a complete new beginning.

Lent is a season of forty days of repentance and purification in preparation for Easter. We pray for the gift of repentance through fasting, prayer and works of love, that we may be healed and transformed according to the grace of God. Remembering that we are dust, and to dust we shall return, we place our trust in God alone for life. Beholding the cross of Christ, we enter into the mystery of our salvation. Giving our lives to God, we die and are raised to new life. Our guiding images in Lent are Jesus’ sojourn in the desert facing his temptations, and his journey toward the cross

Ashes

We are ashes (dust) plus Spirit. Remember that.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. The ashes represent the frailty of our faith—they are made from last year’s Palm Sunday palms. As with anything we loved but have lost, ashes represent the sorrow we feel upon facing our sinfulness, our regret over having hurt ourselves, our neighbor, God, and all Creation. (It may seem odd to speak of God being hurt, but that’s the very meaning of love—and the reality of the cross.) In the beginning God took dust up from the ground and breathed life (breath, spirit) into it, and it became a living human. We are dust and spirit. Of course what we see and touch seems most real to us, so we believe in the dust more than the Spirit. Ashes remind us that we are made of dust, dependent on God’s grace. And they remind us of our mortality. “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The future is not guaranteed: now is the time to let go of our illusions about ourselves (burning them to ashes) and to live the authentic life God has given us. Mindful that life is short and precious, we devote ourselves to using every moment we are given for the sake of love, to give and receive God’s grace while we can. We place ashes on ourselves as a sign that we are Creatures and God is Creator; that we are to die to sin, and that it is not our efforts, but God’s grace, that redeems us. Remembering that in Creation God formed a human from the dust of the ground and breathed life into it to create a living human, we present ourselves as dust to God, that God may breathe God’s Spirit into us and create us anew.
 

The Cross

What saves us is not Jesus’ suffering but his forgiveness.

The cross is the cost of love. In Jesus on the cross we see God’s suffering love in the face of our sin and violence. Jesus did not die “so that God could forgive us;” God forgave us already. Jesus died because we killed him. Jesus suffered the consequences of our sin, our injustice, but he did not “pay for our sins:” sin can’t be bought off. To say we have been “purchased with a price” doesn’t mean Jesus “bought” something. Our salvation is a gift, not a transaction—though it costs God. God did not arrange for Jesus to be killed; that was our doing. God didn’t “plan” the cross. Jesus didn’t set out to die; he set out to do justice, at any cost to himself. Jesus opposed unjust religious, political, economic and social systems of oppression—and the powerful struck back. In his death we see evil exposed. We see God as the victim of all injustice and oppression (“whatever you do to the least of these…”) And we see God’s love and forgiveness in the face of our evil. Jesus suffered our judgment, and brought God’s judgment in return: God’s absolute, eternal, infinite love and forgiveness.

Our sin is that we don’t trust God’s love, and think instead that we have to be good enough to deserve God’s favor. The crucifixion embodies our judgment that Jesus didn’t “get it right.” God’s judgment is mercy on one who didn’t get it right, because God’s way is to be loving, not to be right, or to demand that we get it right. God’s mercy overturns our judgment.

In the cross we see the scandal of God’s vulnerability with us. God doesn’t demand suffering; God suffers with us and even because of us—to stay with us. In the cross God lives out the reality of being in a body, with all the beauty and pain and even mortality that entails: such is the price of incarnation. God suffers with us. In the Cross God absorbs everything that separates us from God: our fear and violence, our shame, our judgment, and our death― and God embraces us, with nothing in between. In the cross we exercise the power of death and violence and God receives it and transforms it, overcoming even the power of death with love. Because Jesus trusts God absolutely, and serves God fully in the cause of justice and healing, he is not afraid to face violence. Having already given his life to God, Jesus enters into life that is infinite and can’t be taken from him (this, not the afterlife, is the meaning of eternal life). On Good Friday the Resurrected One was crucified.

To contemplate the cross is to behold our sin, God’s grace, and our calling all at once. To take up your cross is to willingly surrender your life to God, die to your old self, and allow yourself to be raised—re-created—as a new person, like dust that God breathes new life into. And to take up your cross is to be willing to suffer for the sake of love and justice.


Lament

The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken heart.

Lent is not only about repentance; it’s also a time to lament. The Ashes of Ash Wednesday evoke not only our sin and our mortality; they also speak of our sorrow. We are sorry for our sinfulness; and we are sorry for the suffering of the world. We join Jesus lamenting over Jerusalem. Repentance is never just a personal thing; it’s a communal movement. Our whole society needs to repent of our injustice. To begin, we need to lament, to let our hearts be broken by the suffering of the world, with Jesus weeping over Jerusalem (Lk. 19.41-42). It’s easier to make pronouncements about the world’s problems than to stand (or sit) with the people who suffer because of those problems. Let them have a voice in your confession and repentance: those who suffer because of racism, poverty, violence, sexism, heterosexism, consumerism, mass incarceration, the climate crisis, the assault on democracy… Of course the list goes on and on, and you don’t want your worship to be nothing but grievance. But don’t overlook our need to lament and grieve with those who are the crucified ones among us.


Lent: Living beyond death

The story of Lent is the salvation story. Salvation doesn’t mean going to heaven after we die. It means being rescued from the power of self-centeredness that rules our lives. Just as the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt, we are slaves to sin and death. Sin works in us in ways we can’t seem to control, and death creates bounds for our lives that we can’t escape. But just as Moses led the people out of slavery in Egypt, Jesus delivers us from slavery to our self-centeredness. In his death and resurrection we see the grace that sets us free from the power that sin and our fear of death have over us. Jesus leads us to life in Infinite Love.

During Lent the scripture lessons will take us through the unfolding of death and new life. We go with Jesus into the desert to face our temptations, and then onward toward the cross—which is really toward resurrection.
Year A: In the garden, Adam and Eve show us the power of our desires. With Nicodemus we ponder the mystery of being “born again.” Abram models what it’s like to allow God to change our lives. With the woman at the well we name our thirst for the water of eternal life “gushing up in us,” as miraculous (and dependable) as the water Moses strikes from the rock. With the man born blind we experience transformation so profound that others may not even recognize us. In the raising of Lazarus we behold Jesus’ willingness to walk with us through death to something on the other side, and God’s power to make our lives new. The dry bones will live again. By God’s grace, we learn to live the resurrection life. We are ready for Easter.
Year B: Jesus invites us to take up our cross: to be willing to suffer for the sake of love. He scourges the temple of the religion of being right (in offering sacrifices) and invites us to imagine a temple of love. We contemplate the wisdom of the “foolish” cross, acknowledging that God’s ways aren’t like ours. We give thanks for God’s judgment of light, that we’re saved by grace, as the Son of God is “lifted up” (that is, both exalted and crucified), Jesus reminds us that we are to die as seeds do so that we can bear fruit. By God’s grace, we learn to live the resurrection life. We are ready for Easter.
Year C: Jesus is warned that Herod wants to kill him, but, to paraphrase, “nevertheless he persisted.” In the parable of the fig tree he assures us of God’s grace, not to punish us, but to help us bear fruit. In the parable of the lost sons (they’re both lost; it’s the father who is prodigal, that is, overly generous) Jesus shows us a model of God’s grace. The parable asks us if we’re ready to receive grace despite our feelings we don’t deserve it, or our conviction we do. Mary Magdalene, anointing Jesus, prepares him and us for the cross, which is to prepare us for resurrection. We are ready for Easter.

The Eucharist in Lent
In my Methodist tradition we’re accustomed to celebrating communion once a month. There’s no theological reason for this. It’s just because three centuries ago the only ordained clergy who could preside over the sacrament was a circuit rider who was only in town once a month or so. For most of history, and still in many denominations, the Eucharist is a regular part of weekly worship. If you’re a member of the once-a-month club, I encourage you to consider offering communion weekly during Lent or Easter or both. The Eucharist speaks to Lent: it replicates the meal Jesus shared the day before he surrendered to the cross. It touches on Lenten themes like repentance, grace, transformation, and reconciliation. Of course it is a Resurrection meal— but resurrection is what draws us to the cross: the promise that when we give our lives in love God gives us new ones.

Music

See Eucharistic Responses for eleven sets of prayer responses (Sanctus, Memorial Acclamation and Amen) set to familiar hymn tunes appropriate for Lent. Two of them include Table Songs, hymns of invitation to the table.


Lent is also a season for the Kyrie: Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison. (“Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.”) See Kyrie, Six Versions, for the traditional words set to original tunes. Some are part of Eucharistic settings.

Click here to download this in a .doc format.

Baptism is a sacrament, a ritual in which God is present with us in the elements of our everyday life. Baptism is not something that we do, but something that we receive. It is a symbol of God’s Covenant with us, God’s relationship of steadfast love and committed faithfulness, sort of like a marriage. Baptism is a symbol expressing many aspects of God’s grace.

God, our Source. We are “born of water and the Spirit.” (John 3.5) The water of Baptism is the water of God’s womb. We receive our life and identity from God. God says to each of us, as God said to Jesus at his baptism, “You are my beloved child. With you I am well pleased” (Mt. 3.17). As with the waters of chaos at Creation, God’s water breaks and God gives us new birth as people of the Spirit (1 Pet. 1.3-5). We are born again (always) as beloved children of God, and God joyfully claims us as God’s Own (Mk. 1.11). We are made in the image of God — not that we physically “look” like God, since God is not visible, but as a living image, an appearance of God, a manifestation of God’s essence. That essence is love. Baptism proclaims that we are creatures of love, that love is the essence of who we are and why we live, that we belong to God, that we are divine, godly creatures, and that God delights in us.

Christ, our healing. God says, “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your sin” (Ezek. 32.25). In the Exodus story God led the slaves out of Egypt through the waters of Red Sea to freedom. Baptism is all about liberation from what oppresses us. It’s our human nature that we are afraid to trust God’s love, and so we become slaves to our self-centeredness. We call this self-centered fear “sin.” God forgives our self-centeredness, and all the sins that flow from it, and God also sets us free from it. God saves us from our sin and leads us to freedom. Baptism is an image of the Red Sea, the way of liberation. The water of Baptism is the bath that washes away all our sin, the free-flowing grace of God that forgives us completely, setting us free to live by God’s Spirit instead of our fears.

Jesus met people where they were hurting and healed them. He washed people’s feet; he shared their tears; he gave them drink; he nourished their souls and saw them as new, “reborn” people. The water of Baptism is the life-giving balm that soothes our wounds, the drink that renews our life, the river that bears us along through life’s suffering, the flowing force that sets us free, the promise that Christ is always with us.

Dying and rising. “We have been buried with Christ by baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Life-Giver, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6.4). Baptism is a drowning. In the earliest centuries the congregation sang funeral songs while the person being baptized went down into a tomb-shaped pool… and was pronounced dead… —and then arose, a new person, with a new name! Baptism is a call to entrust our whole selves and our will to God. We repent; we surrender our life to God. We die: we give up our spirit, with nothing more to hang onto. And we are raised with Christ to new life, free from all the “Old Stuff,” born anew. We are transformed. We live in new ways, led not by our own will but by God’s Spirit. The water of Baptism is the water of drowning and re-birth.

The gift of the Holy Spirit. “No one enters the Realm of God without being born of water and Spirit” (John 3.5). As we water a plant and it bears fruit, God pours God’s Spirit into us so that we bear the fruit of divine love. The water of Baptism is a symbol of God’s Spirit within us. It signifies that we are ordained by God to a holy task: to spread God’s love. The Spirit enables us to do this, just as the Spirit descended on Jesus at his Baptism. Just as our bodies are mostly water, we ourselves are mostly love: the love of God is in us from the beginning, ready to flow out into the world. The Spirit empowers us to live out the Gospel, to live lives of gratitude, trust, compassion, and justice. The water of Baptism is an invitation to allow God to pour love out on us and in us and through us into the world.

The Body of Christ. “In the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12.13). “Christ” is our theological term for the embodiment of God’s love. Jesus embodied the love of God, the physical presence of God’s love. In the resurrection God brought Christ to us again — but not as an individual: Christ is now a community. The Church is the Body of Christ, the physical entity that embodies God’s presence. As different rivers pour into the same sea and become part of one body of water, baptism symbolizes our lives all becoming part of Christ. God includes each of our lives as part of God’s salvation of the world. The water of Baptism is the river that bears us into the Church, the Body of Christ.

For this reason Baptism is usually not performed privately, but in gathered worship. It is the sacrament of the community. The church acknowledges the person’s membership in the Body of Christ and covenants to provide for them a loving community where they can experience their belovedness, discover their gifts, and practice following the Way of Jesus.

Many parents wish for their children to be baptized “so they will grow up Christian,” or at least “have a good spiritual foundation.” Baptism itself has little to do with this. Baptism is the symbol of the life-long relationship between the individual and the community —and that has everything to do with this. It’s the ongoing relationship with the community that gives a person a nourishing spiritual environment, and gives the parents the support and resources to provide for their children. The parents, not the church, are their children’s primary spiritual teachers. Baptism affirms the covenant between the church and the parents to help them “raise their children Christian” or at least “provide a good spiritual foundation.” Baptism is the doorway to the feast, but the real meal is what the child will experience in the love, teaching, worship, forgiveness, mentoring, companionship and shared life of the church community over years. When you bring your child for baptism you are entering into this expectation, this relationship, this covenant.

The Baptismal Vows: “Thank you; Yes.”

Baptism is a sacrament in which we experience the grace of God through water and the Word. In Baptism God promises: “I, your Creator, have made you. You are my image, and you are my beloved child. In Christ I will be with you in grace and truth and healing, and I will save you. I have sent you for a sacred purpose, and my Holy Spirit is within you to do this. I make you part of the Body of Christ, part of my healing of the world.”

This is God’s Covenant with us. God is always faithful to the Covenant, but we often slip and fall. We need continually to enter again into the Covenant, and to ask for God’s help. We don’t “re-baptize,” because baptism is a symbol of God’s action—and God got it right the first time. God’s faithfulness is absolute and constant. But we always need to renew our faithfulness to the Covenant.

To renew our Baptismal vows does not mean that we pronounce ourselves faithful, or believe ourselves to be particularly worthy of God’s approval. It means that we are willing to let God love us. It means that we are willing to let God hold us accountable to this abundant grace; that we are willing to let God change us, and make us into new people for God’s sake; and that we are here to serve God, ready to be sent into the world to love. The Baptismal vows are not a test or proof of our faith, but an invitation to deeper faith.

The Vows —United Methodist version

— We confess our need for the saving, healing grace of God.

— We renounce the spiritual forces of evil, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of our sin.

— We accept the freedom and power God gives us to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.

— We confess Jesus Christ as our Savior, put our whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as our Lord, in union with the church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations and races.

— According to the grace given us, we pledge to remain faithful members of Christ’s holy church and serve as Christ’s representative in the world.

— And, for parents of a child being baptized: We pledge to nurture the child in Christ’s holy church, that by our teaching and example they may be guided to accept God’s grace for themselves, to profess their faith openly, and to lead a Christian life.

We confess our need for grace
We are all broken, incomplete, and bent out of shape. None of us has it all together. Baptism is an open doorway to a feast for which we all are hungry. This vow is our way of getting over ourselves and the illusion of our power and control, and saying, with gratitude, humility and an open and willing heart, “Yes, God, I need your grace. I would starve without it.”

We renounce our sin
Yeah, I know. Sin is a heavy word. But it’s a real thing. Sin isn’t being bad or disobedient. It’s our inability to trust perfectly. As humans with free will there’s an element of distrust, fear and self-centeredness built into our egos. It’s not a bad thing: it keeps us from walking into danger. But it prevents us from being able to trust God perfectly. Our fear, distrust and self-centeredness that we call “sin” makes us susceptible the illusion that we’re separate from God and Creation and others—so much so that it seems right and natural and even a good thing to do things that actually tear the fabric of our relationship with God, wound our place in Creation and human community, and betray our own holiness, wholeness, and belovedness, just to protect ourselves. It’s not that we do bad things but that we can’t actually see clearly what’s good and what isn’t. So sin isn’t something you do, like breaking a rule. It’s just the way we are, like not being able to fly. Because of that state we’re in, we tend to do evil things. And society tends to evoke and heighten our fear, distrust and self-centeredness. We need a lot of help to choose a different path. This vow is a way of being honest and saying “I have this tendency in me. I know its powers are all around me. Therefore I renounce evil and the fear that generates it, and I ask God’s help to choose a different path, the path of love and grace.”

We resist evil and injustice
Christian faith is not just about our little private tea party with God. Following Jesus is about entering into God’s desire for the whole of Creation, including the transformation of human culture. Jesus spoke of it as entering the Empire of God (“Kingdom of God,” is a common translation). Jesus’ ministry worked on multiple levels: as he healed people’s bodies he also healed the wounds of society. He stood against unjust power systems and hierarchies with the power of love and grace. Like the prophets, Jesus was not as concerned with individuals “doing bad things” as much as he was concerned with systemic evil, patterns of power baked into our societies that wound the wholeness and holiness of every person. Baptism compels us to join Jesus in resisting evil and injustice. It also reminds us we don’t have to be superheroes to do this: we “accept the freedom and power God give us” to do this. And it reminds us that we resist evil “in all the forms it presents itself…” That includes systemic evil like racism and white supremacy, but equally insidious is the injustice within ourselves. In fact it’s usually our own evil we have to deal with before we can make much progress against social evils.

We confess Jesus as healer and guide
This is the part that gets abused a lot. We’re accustomed to the image of the proselytizer demanding, in an accusatory way, “Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?” As if you’re in big trouble if you don’t. Yikes. Forget that. This vow is not the secret code to becoming a Christian insider. It’s a humble, hopeful statement of what gives us life and directs our living. Jesus has embodied God’s love in ways that have given me life. Jesus has revealed God’s healing for my brokenness. Jesus has modeled God’s grace, forgiveness, love and mercy that has drawn me close to God and shown me my own divine nature— saving me from the life-distorting power of my ego and its fears and desires. In this way Jesus is my “savior.” I’d be sunk without him. And Jesus teaches me, guides me, and helps me choose the Way of Grace in great and small occasions. And I take his guidance seriously. I let the Spirit he imparts motivate me. He’s my guide, my leader, the “boss of me,” or, in old fashioned language, my “lord,” to whom I devote my loyalty and trust. So I gladly confess Jesus the embodiment of God’s Love, or “Christ,” as my “lord and savior.” It’s not the secret password, or the “right answer;” it’s an outburst of gratitude and trust.

We commit to a life of faith
Here it becomes clear this is not just a secret deal between you and God: this is about being part of the Body of Christ, and part of God’s transformation of the world. Whether we’re baptizing a child or an adult it’s not hit-and-run: baptism includes the person in the life of the church. Our faith is lived in out in community, and in the ecosystem of God’s Creation and human history. In everything we do, public and private, large and small, we are Christ’s “representatives in the world.” We are now, in Luther’s words, “little Christs.” We belong to God’s plan for human society, and for all Creation, and for the transformation of the world through love. The liturgy in the hymnal says we are “incorporated into God’s mighty acts of salvation.” And we do this in community. We couldn’t do that alone. We commit to being part of the church and its witness, because the church needs us, and we need them. We accept that the church is imperfect, but like our family, we belong to it and serve to help make it better. Like God does for us in Jesus, we promise to be present.

Thank you. Yes.

In baptism God says, “I give you the power to live just like Jesus, in fact to be part of Jesus. Do you want to?” And in the vows we say, “Thank you. Yes.” And the church joins in and says, “We’ll help you.”

January 14, 2024

Lectionary Texts

Isaiah 49.1-7. God has called the prophet (and us) to proclaim God’s word and to bring about justice. Significantly, the call is not only to be a prophet to one’s neighbors, but to the nation, and in fact to other nations as well. It’s an exceedingly broad vision! God’s justice is never about “America first,” but about the well-being of all the nations, “to the end of the earth.”

John 1. 29-42 reflects a vision of Jesus’ call similar to Isaiah’s: that Jesus has been ordained by God from the beginning, and agin that his witness is not just for the sake of a chosen few but for the whole nation. Jesus is the lamb of Gosd who takes away the sin of the world. God knows we have a lot of sin to be taken away.

      Some alternate texts:
                  Hebrew Bible
Isaiah 9.2-4 Next week’s lectionary reading—celebrates the light of God’s liberating grace, which overwhelms the darkness of war, injustice and oppression.

Isaiah 42.1-9 is the reading from the previous week. It describes God’s gentle servant, who brings healing and justice nonviolently.

Micah. 6.1-8 (The reading for Epiphany 4) What the Lord requires: Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God.

Isaiah 58.1-9 (The reading for Epiphany 5) God criticizes religiosity that does not lead us to love our neighbor and care for the poor. “You serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress your workers. But real religious observance is to do justice and set people free.” In this your light will shine.

Isaiah 11. 1-10 imagines a ruler from Jesse’s family tree who shows us how to live: with a spirit of wisdom, judging not by appearances, but by the spirit; providing justice for the poor, until nonviolence prevails over all the world.

                 Psalm
Psalm 72 celebrates one who rules with justice, defending the poor and needy and eliminating oppression.

Preaching Thoughts

Racism. A preacher who avoids preaching about racism is a bad preacher, or at least a coward in the face of the call of Jesus. But how you address racism takes a lot of discernment, wisdom and nuance. Everyone is somewhere on a continuum from those who are profoundly oblivious, in denial and actively white supremacists—to those who are becoming aware of the issue—to those who are ready to engage in serious self-examination about their racism— to those who are actively wrestling with their own implicit bias, disentangling themselves from their complicity, and working for justice. Where are your people? What is their next step? What message will help them take that step? They probably don’t need righteous pulpit-pounding with “racism is bad!” What will actually be good news for them? Even repentance can be preached as good news if it’s clear that God’s grace invites us, accompanies us, and empowers us to make the journey. Don’t complain about racism. And don’t just talk about how great Martin was. Give your people some fuel for the work, some encouragement to keep at it.

Lamb of God. How was Martin a “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?” I don’t mean he was Jesus, or equal to him. But he—and all Black people—have been scapegoats. They suffer for our sins. And Martin, and many before him and after, received our hatred, violence and injustice without returning it. They confront us with our sin but also offer forgiveness, and the possibility of masking amends. Is that what it means to be a lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? Maybe Martin gives us a model for what it might mean to really follow Jesus.

Call to Worship

1.
Leader: God of justice, the poor of the world cry out.
All: You are among them, and your cry goes out to the ends of the world.
Evil stalks the earth, and oppression hides everywhere.
But you are among us, and your Spirit breathes a new Creation.
Unseeing, we are caught in webs of injustice.
But you are among us, and your love transforms our hearts.
We worship you in awe and humility.
Speak your Word to us. Open our eyes. Give us courage and wisdom,
that we may do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you,
for the sake of the mending of the world.

2.
Leader: God, you created the world whole.
All: But we have broken it: fractures and divisions abound.
Still, your grace remains.
Even now you are healing what is wounded.
We come to give you thanks.
We come to give you our hearts and our hands,
that we may join you in the mending of the world.
We worship in gratitude, in confidence, in joy!

3.
Leader: God of glory, you create all people in your image.
All: All are your Beloved, and all are worthy of our love.
You call us to do justice, to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with you.
Give us your Spirit, so that we may fulfill your dream for us.
Strengthen your love us, that we may faithfully follow Christ,
who redeems the world with love.
Alleluia! Come, Holy Spirit, and transform us by your grace. Alleluia!.

4.
Leader: This is God’s world, a world of beauty, wonder and incredible diversity.
All: Yet it is broken: fractured by our racism poverty, militarism and greed.
But God is still God, offering us forgiveness, and giving us courage to heal the world.
Speak to us, God. Give us grace to see ourselves clearly,
to be changed by your grace and renewed by your Spirit,
and to follow Jesus.
We open our hearts to you. We give you our thanks. We worship you.

Collect / Prayer of the Day

1.
God of grace, in this world broken by hate, fear, violence and greed, we need Jesus. We need your Lamb of Love to forgive us, to teach us, to lead us. Open our hearts to hear his voice and to follow, that we too may become your lambs of love, in the name of Christ and the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

2.
Jesus, love of God, walk with us in humility, mercy and justice.
With Martin Luther King, Jr, walk beside us in nonviolence.
With Rosa Parks, walk beside us in courage.
With Oscar Romero walk beside us in hope.
On the Trail of Tears, walk beside us in repentance.
Crucified and risen Christ, walk beside us in justice, love and mercy. Amen.

3.
God of justice, we worship you in a world of injustice. The evils around us challenge our faith that you are in charge. But your grace is greater than our sin. Your justice is more powerful than our wrongdoing. Speak to us; renew our faith; rekindle our courage. In the spirit of those who have gone before us, in the company of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., lead us on. Make us your faithful workers. Amen.

Prayer of Confession

1.
God of love,
we confess the smallness of our love,
our fear of acting justly,
our willingness to comply with injustice.
Forgive us, heal our hearts,
renew our courage, and lead us in lives of justice.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us, and give us life.

2.
God of grace,
we confess our racism.
We confess that we are complicit in unjust systems,
that we protect our privilege and defend our biases.
We have broken the bonds of the human family,
and injured our siblings, and we repent.
With the grace you show us in Christ,
forgive our sin, heal our fear,
and inspire us to be transformed,
to change and to work for change,
for the sake of the healing of the world.

3.
God of love and justice,
we praise you for the wonder and beauty
of the diversity of the human family.
And we confess our fear of the gift,
our buried, subtle bias against people of color,
our preference for what is white and familiar.
We confess all our sin, including racism.
We confess our silence in the face of injustice.
Forgive our sin, and transform it.
Heal our fear, and open our eyes.
Give us humility to admit when we are biased,
and honesty to be learners
when we’re not sure what to do or say.
Help us be aware of our privilege
and steward it with humility and compassion.
Give us courage to take risks,
to bear witness, to speak out against injustice.
God, grant muse the joy of living in harmony with Christ,
by the grace of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Response / Creed / Affirmation

1.
     God, we love you and we give our hearts to you: you who create all things, who make all people in your image, who give us this world of rich and blessed diversity.
     Jesus, Lamb of God, we love you and we give our hearts to you, for you take away the sin of the world: you set us free from our fear and selfishness, and you give us the power and courage to do justice, to love boldly, and to serve humbly. Dying, you confronted oppression without surrendering. Rising, you renewed in us life without limit. In gratitude we seek to follow you.
     Holy Spirit, we love you and we give our hearts to you, for you descend on us as on Jesus, empowering us to continually repent of our sin, be renewed in your grace, and work for justice and reparation. You give us the power of nonviolent love, humble courage, and undying hope. We open our hearts to your grace, that we may be your lambs of love, in the name of Christ, for the healing of the world. Amen.

2.
Leader: Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
All: God of love, give us Christ’s peace.
Jesus said, “Love your enemies.”
God of love, give us Christ’s love.
Martin said “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
God of love, give us Christ’s light,
that we may be light for the world,
and love among broken people. Amen.

3.
Leader: God of justice, we accept the Spirit you give us to follow Jesus,
to proclaim your Realm of Grace.
We give thanks that you cherish this Creation and care for it,
All: and we shall do the same.
We lament our corporate sin of poverty, discrimination and violence,
and give thanks that Jesus came among us in forgiveness, healing and reconciliation;
and we shall do the same.
We give thanks for those prophets among us
who have spoken and acted in faith and in peace for the sake of justice;
and we shall do the same.
We give thanks for those who have honored the gift of our diversity,
who have labored and sacrificed to break down barriers of hate,
who in love have made strangers into siblings and enemies into friends;
and we shall do the same.
God grant us faith and courage to pray and to speak, to work and to live
for the sake of the coming of your Realm of Grace, in the name and Spirit of Jesus.
Amen.

Listening Prayer

(suitable as a Collect, preparation for hearing scriptures, or invitation to prayer)

Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,
give us your humble love,
your gentle courage,
your trust in the mystery of grace.
The heart of our hearts
rises to follow you.

Eucharistic Prayer

[After the introduction, the body of the prayer may be read responsively with the presiding leader(s) and congregation, or by the leader(s) alone.]

God is with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your heart.
We lift them up to God.
Let us give thanks to the Holy One, our God.
It is good and beautiful to give God our praise.

God of love, we thank you,
for you create us in love, all of us in your image,
in spectacular diversity of color and culture—
all in your image of love and loveliness.
You claim us as your children, and save us when we are lost.
You judge the forces of oppression and set your children free:
free from slavery, free from prisons, free from hatred.
And you ask us to join you
in the great work of setting all your children free.
To guide us you sent us Moses and prophets, and you sent us Jesus.
You sent Martin and Rosa and Harriet and Ruby and so many more,
and still you send leaders to help us set free your Beloved.
Therefore in chorus with all who have bee set free
and those who long for freedom, we sing your praise:

               Sanctus, spoken or sung:
        Holy, holy, holy One, God of power and might,
        heaven and earth are full of your glory.
        Hosanna in the highest.
        Blessed is the one who comes in the name of God.
        Hosanna in the highest.
       [or alternate]

Blessed are all who come in your name,
and blessed is Jesus, your Christ,
whose nonviolent love changed the world—and changed us.
He fed the poor, healed the broken,
and proclaimed liberty to the prisoners.
He stood for justice, and paid with his life,
but you raised him from the dead, for justice cannot be killed.
Living still, he renews with us your Covenant
to be with us in love forever.

     (The Blessing and Covenant)
As long as we break this bread and share this cup
we remember his death and resurrection, until he comes again.
Therefore, remembering these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we offer ourselves as a living and holy sacrifice,
in union with Christ’s offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of our faith:

             Memorial Acclamation, spoken or sung:
        Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
                     —or—
        Dying, Christ destroyed our death. Rising, Christ restores our life.
        Christ will come again in glory.
             [—or alternative]

Pour out your Holy Spirit on these gifts of bread and cup,
that they may be for us the body and blood of Christ.
Pour out your Spirit on us,
that we may be for the world the Body of Christ,
nonviolent lambs of love for the healing of the world,

             [Spoken or sung]
        Amen.

____________
* The Blessing and Covenant
[I usually don’t print the words. I want people to be looking at the bread, not their bulletins.]

On the night in which he gave himself for us
Jesus took bread, blessed it,. broke it, and gave it to his disciples,saying,
“Take and eat; this is my body.”
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup,
blessed it with thanks and gave it to them, saying,
“Drink of this, all of you. This is my blood,
poured out for you and for many, in a new Covenant,
which is the forgiveness of sin.”
As long as we break this bread and share this cup
we remember his death and resurrection, until he comes again.

Prayer of Dedication / Sending / after Communion

[Adapt as needed.]
Gracious God, we thank you for (the mystery that you give yourself to us in love. / this mystery in which you have given yourself to us.) Lamb of God, strengthen us in your courage and your love, to work for justice, gentle as lambs and resolute as lions, in the name and the spirit of Christ. Amen.

Suggested Songs

(Click on titles to view, and hear an audio clip, on the Music page)

Light for the World (Original song) – [weekly Epiphany “Theme song”]
A dialogue between soloist and congregation. May be used as a “theme song” throughout the Epiphany season, using one to three verses per week. Throughout the season the congregation sings the chorus; each week the soloist’s verses relate to the day’s lectionary readings. Lyrics for this week:]

Congregation
Love, may we live by your light.
Let us be light for the world.

Cantor:
“You are my servant in whom I delight, a light unto the nations.”
Shine for the ones who dwell in the dark, with comfort and justice.

The people in darkness have seen a great light. On them your glory has risen.
For you have broken oppression’s power. Your people rejoice!

“This is the fast that I choose,” says our God, “to loosen the bonds of injustice.
For then your light shall break forth like the dawn, rising in the darkness.”


                        << See all songs with “justice” tags, especially these: >>

Becoming Whole (Original song)
(This has many possible verses. A sampling:)

We are a broken people becoming whole again.
We are a wounded people being healed again.
We are a wandering people coming home again.
We are a captive people walking free again.


Breath of God       (Tune: Londonderry Air, O Danny Boy)

O Holy One, Creator of the stars of night,
whose dust we are, created with your light,
now breathe your spirit into us and give us life;
give us new hearts that beat with your delight.
Our dust and ashes, Love, we give in faith to you.
Receive our lives, our sin, our wounds, our death;
and raise us up with Christ from death to life by grace.
God, may we be your love and you our living breath.

Breathe into us the breath of your compassion, God,
the breath to sing your praise in all we do,
the breath to run the race of justice, long and far.
Breathe, holy breath: empower and renew.
O be the grace that fills our lungs, reviving us;
O be the wind on which our hearts can soar;
O be our life, our beauty and our living breath.
O Spirit, come breathe in us now and evermore.


Do Justice (Original Song)
Do Justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.
Love, help us humbly live your justice, your love, your mercy.


Give us eyes      (Tune: EBENEEZER, “Once To Every Man and Nation”)

Give us eyes, O God of justice, to see clearly as you see:
not to turn away but bravely face oppression’s misery.
Steel our hearts to see injustice, and to feel our siblings’ pain.
Give us sorrow; give us rage; but let our anger be humane.

Give us eyes, O God of mercy, to see evil as you see:
holding victim and oppressor in its jaws, and neither free.
God, refine our wrath and grief with yours ‘till only love remains.
Give us loving rage and courage to step up and break the chains.

Give us eyes, O God of wholeness, to see all the love you sow,
and by grace to set it free: in every person let it flow.
Let our wrath be flames of love and not the burn of power denied,
till we gently, firmly, mightily pry the gates of justice wide.


God, We Are Broken         (Tune: Be Thou My Vision)

God, we are broken, for all flesh is weak.
Grant us the healing and peace that we seek.
For all that pains us, beyond our control,
grant us your healing, our bodies made whole.

God, we are broken; our hearts are not one.
Sometimes it seems that our souls come undone.
Bring us renewal and calm in our soul.
Grant us your healing and make our hearts whole.

God, we are broken: for families and friends
suffer when love fails and faithfulness ends.
May your forgiveness and grace play its role.
Grant us your healing; make covenants whole.

God, we are broken, for many are poor,
and we ignore those who lie by our door.
God, may your justice like great rivers roll.
Grant us your healing; make all people whole.

God, we are broken for hate and all war
wound us so we are not free anymore.
Make us one people from pole to pole.
Grant us your healing, and make the world whole.


Lead on, O God of justice
Tune: LANCASHIRE (Lead on, O King Eternal)

Lead on, O God of justice. Your vision calls us forth:
to life where all are cherished, and know their sacred worth,
where all have what they need to be who they can be,
and all know their belonging and live in peace and free.

Lead on, O God of justice, as Jesus shows the way,
and gives to us your Spirit, and guides us day by day.
Your courage and compassion, your love flow through our veins
for those we cast aside, who bear oppression’s chains.

Lead on, O God of justice. Your fiery pillar burn
in us to heal the world, to make injustice turn.
To change our evil systems your Spirit sets us free.
Though long the road and tiring, you bear us faithfully.

January 29, 2023

Lectionary Texts

Micah 6. 1-8. God has delivered us from slavery. What, then, shall we give God in return? Obedience to religious rules? No: what God wants is for us to do justice, to be kind, and to walk humbly with God.

Psalm 15 commends people who live justly and gently.

1 Corinthians 1. 18-31. The world values power and accomplishment; therefore the cross seems to be a sign of powerlessness and failure. Yet the cross is the sign of our salvation, because it reveals God’s grace that overcomes our sin and failure. God uses what is weak in the world to overcome what is strong. Our wisdom is foolish when we try to use it to figure out God and God’s grace.

Matthew 5. 1-12. The Beatitudes, delivered on a mountain like Moses’ commandments, are the core of Jesus’ teaching: trust in God’s grace to bring blessing and life out of what appears to the world’s eyes to be weakness, barrenness and failure. In this trust, we live lives that are radically gentle, compassionate and courageous, serving for the sake of peace and healing.

Click here or a collection of ten paraphrases and eight meditations on the beatitudes.)

Preaching Thoughts

Both Micah and Jesus give us clear, concise images of the life to which God calls us. They involve both the inner and outer life: inwardly our trusting companionship with God bears fruit outwardly in love and justice. Both Micah and Jesus attend to a three-dimensional faith: to live in life-giving relationship with God, with other persons, and with society as a whole. Both of these passages are worth repeating in worship regularly. I encourage you to incorporate them just about as much as the Lord’s Prayer or the Apostle’s Creed.

Note that in the Beatitudes what makes for the blessings is not the circumstance, but God. The poor in spirit are blessed not because they’re poor in spirit, but because theirs is the Realm of God. It’s not that it’s better to be in mourning than to be happy, but that God comforts those who mourn. Our society seems no less convinced than Jesus’ culture that what happens to us is somehow God’s judgment: sickness is God’s punishment; riches are God’s rewards. Our way of thinking is profoundly structured by cause-and-effect, and rewards-and-punishment dynamics. If you work hard, then you will get ahead. If you displease God, then you will suffer. (How often has someone encountered difficulty and said, “What have I done to deserve this?”) So of course if you haven’t gotten ahead, or if you’re suffering, it must be your fault. God must be mad at you.

Notice how this way of thinking is shaped not by spiritual wisdom but by fear. We’re afraid of suffering, afraid of loss, afraid of being vulnerable or in need or not in power. Our emphasis on “how to get ahead,” and all the ways to manage that endeavor, are built on the assumption that we need to get ahead—because life without getting ahead is unbearable. But the wisdom of Jesus contradicts all this. It departs from what seems like common sense because it contradicts the basic assumption that getting ahead is necessary. Jesus says, No, getting ahead isn’t what matters. What matters is intimacy with God. Being happy, and avoiding pain, isn’t what matters. Having a shining reputation isn’t what matters. What matters is receiving and giving the grace of God. It’s as if Jesus lives in a whole different universe. Well, yes, he does. He calls it the Realm (“Kingdom”) of God. The beatitudes are the “law of the land” in the Empire of Grace.

The spirituality of the beatitudes is one of radical trust in grace. In what society generally views as unwelcome circumstances, God is present, offering abundant, life-giving grace. Out of emptiness God brings abundance, out of mourning, joy. It’s the spirituality of resurrection. This profound trust is the opposite of, and the antidote to, our sin, our inability to trust God. Jesus names those places we’re afraid to God and says, “God is there.” In poverty, in brokenness, in vulnerability, need, and persecution, God is present, offering blessing. Built on this trust, we can dare to be nonviolent (“meek”), we can dare to be peacemakers and endure persecution. (Click here or a collection of ten paraphrases and eight meditations on the beatitudes.)

“Poor in spirit” may mean spiritually impoverished. It may mean having a spirit that does not cling to possessions, material or otherwise.It might mean solidarity with the economically poor. Maybe it means empty (free of preconceptions, judgments, attachments and demands), all of which means being receptive. It may mean not having it all figured out. It certainly. means being utterly dependent on God. Here is the profound irony of grace: Blessed are they who have no relationship with God, for God has a deep, rich relationship with them. The heart of the beatitudes is that our blessedness is not dependent on us, but on God—who is perfectly, totally, universally good, generous, merciful and loving.

Mourning may be for the death of a loved one, but Jesus engaged in a wider, deeper grief for the suffering of the world. He wept over Jerusalem. He invites us to let ourselves be heartbroken for the world, trusting God’s comfort.

“Meek” doesn’t mean timid. It means gentle and nonviolent. By the way this saying repeats Psalm 37.11.

To hunger and thirst for righteousness may mean to seek to be a faithful person. It also means to hunger and thirst for justice—not for one’s self but for the poor and oppressed.

The merciful aren’t merciful so that they receive mercy. They already know they’ll receive it, which gives them to courage to me merciful. Nor do they it because they’ve first practiced it. There’s no exchange. Mercy is a given. The challenge is to trust that. In a violent world it takes the greatest courage to be gentle; in a world were everyone’s trying to get ahead it takes courage to be merciful. Jesus assures us: the mercy is there. Trust it, and be merciful.

It’s not helpful to think of being pure in heart as being spiritually faultless. It means not so much to be perfect, but to have a heart of love, undiluted by fear or selfishness. To be completely present in the present moment, lovingly attentive. It is to see with “a whole eye”—to see the unity of all things (and the sacredness of all things), rather than with vision that is split and divided by dualistic judgments. (See what Jesus says later in the sermon on the Mount: “If your eye is whole, your whole body will be full of light” [Mt. 6.22] He doesn’t just mean healthy eyesight [though “whole” is usually translated as “healthy”]—he means complete, of a whole, and seeing the whole, the unity, the Holy Oneness.) Purity of heart means seeing things through the eye of love. When we see things that way—surprise!—we see God.

Peacemakers aren’t at all the same as “peacekeepers” in today’s militaristic world. To be a peacemaker doesn’t mean to enforce quiet or quell conflict. It means to repair relationships. It’s the hard work of confronting injustice, addressing wounds, seeking forgiveness and healing, and fostering reparation. It’s the long work of justice. Sometimes making peace begins in bringing conflict to the surface. When Jesus healed the bent over woman he brought peace to her life, but raised a ruckus in the synagogue. Peacemaking isn’t always quiet; it’s gentle but not submissive.

Most of the folks we preach to aren’t being persecuted by being fired, tortured, forced to flee, or executed. (Some in this world are.) We experience persecution more in the form of cultural hostility and belittlement. But it’s still hard to accept. Jesus reminds us that God’s good news is so contrary and even threatening to the world’s values that the world is always likely to resist it and those who bear it. Sometimes you know you’re doing good work by whose enemy list you’re on.

Call to Worship

1.
Leader: When we hunger and thirst for God,
All: God satisfies us.
When we are weak or brokenhearted,
God comforts and heals us.
When we seek to be peacemakers and do justice, and despair of our smallness,
God empowers us.
God we thank you; we praise you; we worship you. Alleluia!

2.
Leader: Beauty is all around us, offered without cost.
All: What a gift! God, we praise you.
Love and healing are given to us, without regard or exception.
What a miracle! Jesus, we thank you.
Power is placed in us—not our own, but the power of grace.
What a wonder! Holy Spirit, we give ourselves to you in humility and service.
Speak your Word, that we may do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with you.

3.
Leader: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
All: We come to be filled.
Blessed are the pure in heart.
We long to see God.
Blessed are you. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven.
O God of mystery, we open our hearts to your presence and your grace.
Bless us and all your creatures, that in our worship we glorify you
and become your light for the world. Amen.

4.
Leader: Beloved, this nis the good news:
The God of love brings light out of darkness, life out of death.
All: God fills us in our hunger and comforts us in our grief.
To us who are poor in spirit God gives grace abundantly.
God of love, we come to worship you, to receive your grace,
to learn to trust, and to become your peacemakers
in the name and Spirit of Christ. Alleluia!

5.
Leader: Creator God, we praise you!
All: Risen Christ, we greet you!
We do not come to you with a wealth of spiritual power
We are poor in spirit, yet you bless us.
We come to you hungry and thirsty for righteousness.
We long for your love; and you fill us with your grace.
Have mercy on us, God, and hear our prayers.
Alleluia! Grant your peace to us and to all the world. Alleluia!

Collect / Prayer of the Day

1.
Who shall dwell in your tent, O God? Those who are compassionate and truthful, who do not judge or despise, those who keep their promises even at great cost. Speak your Word to us, God, that we may be among them in love and faith. Amen.

2.
Eternal God, Jesus went up on the mountain and spoke your Word. So we gather close, and listen, that we might hear, and receive the gift of life, and be changed. Speak to us, for we are listening. Amen.

3.
Gracious God, we come to you poor in spirit. Fill us with the riches of your Word. We come to you hungry for justice. Give us hope and joy. We come to you powerless in this violent world. May we inherit the world of your grace. We come to you desiring to be your peacemakers. Bless us that we might receive your Spirit, and serve you in the name of Christ. Amen.

4.
Gracious God,
as seeds dead and buried come to life in the spring,
may our hearts come to life in your grace.
May the gentle rain of your comfort heal us in our grief.
May the warm sunrise of your gentleness fill us and flower in us.
May the river of your mercy flow through us.
Like a hawk riding the winds,
may your hunger for justice lift us and guide us.
May your grace enable us to see with the eyes of love alone.
May your peace give us courage to make peace in this broken world.
May your blessing give us courage to bear witness and to bless.
We pray in the name and the company of Christ,
who is always with us, and among us, and within us.

Prayer of Confession

1.
Pastor: The grace of God is with you.
Congregation: And also with you.
Trusting in God’s tender mercy, let us confess our sin to God with one another.
God of love, we confess we are broken, and for that we mourn.
We are in need of grace.
We are brokenhearted, hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
We have not always been merciful, but we ask your mercy.
We are not whole by ourselves, but only in you.
Receive us with grace, heal our wounds
and forgive the sin that rises out of them.
.. Silent prayer … Word of grace

2.
Pastor: The grace of God be with you.
All: And also with you.
Trusting in God’s tender mercy, let us confess our sin to God with one another.
Loving God, we confess
that we have lived by our efforts instead of your grace,
in anxiety rather than trust;
and we confess those ways that, in our anxiety, we have acted hurtfully.
Through the gift of your Son Jesus Christ,
who lived and died that we may know your love,
redeem us from the hurts we have caused,
relieve us of our illusions,
forgive our sin,
and restore our deep trust in your grace alone. Amen.
.. Silent prayer … Word of grace

Listening Prayer

(suitable as a Collect, preparation for hearing scriptures, or invitation to prayer)

1.
God of love,
we are poor in spirit;
your grace alone is our prayer.
We do not know how to pray as we ought.
Pray in us,
that we may be merciful and pure in heart.

2.
God of infinite grace,
in our self-assurance give us the gift of poverty of spirit,
to be utterly dependent on you and your grace.
In our mourning hold us in your heart.
In our desire for power, help us be gentle.
In our hunger for justice, give us hope.
In our conflicts and judgments, help us be merciful.
In this world of greed, give us pure hearts, to see with love alone.
In this world of conflict, may we bring reconciliation.
In this polarized world give us humble courage
to stand for truth, to bear witness to your love,
to work for the healing of the world,
in the name and the company of Jesus. Amen.

Response / Creed / Affirmation

1.
Leader: Eternal God, by your blessing you created this world.
All: All things live by your blessing.
All things are filled with your blessing.
In their very being, all things praise you!
Crucified and risen Christ, in God’s grace
you gave yourself in love, even suffering death.
And in grace God raised you to life.
In you God brought life out of death,
and brought us out of slavery to our sin and fear.
We thank you, and we honor you!
Holy Spirit, by your grace you make all people beautiful, powerful, and holy.
Alleluia! We give ourselves to your grace.
We offer ourselves to die and rise.
God of blessing, transform us by your grace. Alleluia!

2.
       We believe in God, creator of all things, ruler of all that is and all that is to come; whose reign is one of grace, mystery and loveliness; and who is transforming the world into a realm of justice and mercy.
       We follow Jesus, who trusted God, who taught and healed, who died and rose, revealing God’s abundant grace. He reigns in love over all Creation, and sends disciples to embody God’s grace and to participate in the Reign of God in all that we do.
       We rely upon the unfailing grace of God, the presence of the Holy Spirit, the community of the church as the Body of Christ, the unity of all believers, the power of forgiveness, the reality of resurrection and the alluring blessing of eternal life.
       Therefore, by the grace of God, we devote ourselves to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God, in the name and the Spirit of Christ, for the glory of God and the transformation of the world. Amen.

3.
Gracious God, though we are poor in spirit we are rich in your grace.
Sharpen our hunger for justice, and give us trust.
Instill in us your perfect mercy.
Make us pure in heart, ready to see you every moment.
Send us into the world as your humble, gentle peacemakers,
prepared to mourn with those who struggle,
to endure persecution for the sake of the Good News,
and to rejoice at the coming of your Realm of Grace. Amen.

4.
Leader: People of God, what does the Holy One ask of you?
All: To do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly with God.
The good news is the Jesus has shown us the way of life:
To do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly with God.
God, by your grace we pray for your Spirit to guide and empower us—
to do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly with God.

Readings

Click here or a collection of ten paraphrases and eight meditations on the beatitudes.)

Poetry

Blessed are they

Blessed are they
who are not burdened by the past,
who do not posses a future,
who do not carry around with them
the riches of this world,
or the riches of a world they wish for,
impoverished of all they want,
and even of wanting,
but who simply receive
the present moment
as it is
as a gift.

They live not in a small world
of their own making,
but in the realm of heaven,
a world granted purely by God.

              The Beatitudes

These benedictions rise from certainty
born of bewilderment,
the confidence that life prevail
above its final falling— that life endures
not only death but even life,
its hunger and its mourning—
and arises from the giving of one’s life.
This blessing falls from lips
who’ve drunk of passion
and survived, and arises
from a heart that trusts the dark.
All wombs are dark and fragile things,
and breathing—falling, rising—sings
of life unknown by stones
and other unmoved things.
For stones in all their strength
can only sit or roll or fall;
but, daring to be tender,
life alone can rise and grow.
Blessing falls, like snow and rain,
like sunlight’s bright surprises;
but life itself starts dark and low;
and always life arises.

Eucharistic Prayer

Leader: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Realm of God.
All: We are poor beggars, O God. Feed us with your grace.

Blessed are the broken hearted, for God holds them close.
In this broken bread, hold us and comfort us.

Blessed are the gentle, for you give them all of Life.
Nourish us with Christ’s tender love, that we, too may be gentle.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for deeper love.
Satisfy us with your love; and deepen our hunger and thirst for you.

Blessed are they who are merciful, knowing you shower them with mercy.
We give thanks for your mercy, that we too may live lives of mercy.

Blessed are those who are pure in love, for they shall see God.
In this meal fill us with the love of Christ for all the world.

Blessed are those who bring reconciliation, for they are God’s beloved children.
In this meal we are one, all of us saints and sinners,
at peace with you and with one another.

Blessed are those whom the world scorns, for God is present with them.
Sharing this meal, we are one with the outcast of this world, as Jesus was an outcast.

—The Blessing and Covenant—

Pour out your Holy Spirit on these gifts of bread and cup,
that they may be for us the body and blood of Christ.
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us,
that we may be the Body of Christ for the world.
Strengthen us with courage to bear witness to love and to work for justice,
to devote our lives to nonviolence and the mending of the world,
despite the world’s resistance, to be your saints in the name of Christ.
Amen.

____________
* The Blessing and Covenant
[I usually don’t print the words. I want people to be looking at the bread, not their bulletins.]

On the night in which he gave himself for us
Jesus took bread, blessed it,. broke it, and gave it to his disciples,saying,
“Take and eat; this is my body.”
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup,
blessed it with thanks and gave it to them, saying,
“Drink of this, all of you. This is my blood,
poured out for you and for many, in a new Covenant,
which is the forgiveness of sin.”
As long as we break this bread and share this cup
we remember his death and resurrection, until he comes again.

Prayer of Dedication / Sending / after Communion

[Adapt as needed.]
1.
Gracious God, we give you our lives, symbolized in these gifts. Receive them with love, bless them with grace and use them according to your will. Strengthen our hearts to trust your grace, to be your peacemakers, to do justice, practice kindness, and walk humbly with you, for the sake of the healing of the world, in the name of Christ. Amen.

2.
Gracious God, we thank you for (the mystery that you give yourself to us. / this mystery in which you have given yourself to us.) We entrust ourselves to your grace, surrender to your desire for us, and go forth as your light, for the sake of the healing of all Creation. Amen.

3.
Gracious God, we give you these gifts as symbols of our lives. Receive them with love, bless them with grace, and use them according to your will. Send us into the world to stand with those who suffer, to bless those who are mourning, to work for peace and justice, to endure hatred for the sake of your will, in the name and the Spirit of Christ. Amen.

Suggested Songs

(Click on titles to view, and hear an audio clip, on the Music page)

Light for the World      (Original song) – [weekly Epiphany “Theme song”]
[A dialogue between soloist and congregation. May be used as a “theme song” throughout the Epiphany season, using two or three verses per week. Throughout the season the congregation sings the chorus; each week the soloist’s verses relate to the day’s lectionary readings. Lyrics for this week:]

Congregation
Love, may we live by your light.
Let us be light for the world.

Cantor:
Jesus, the light of your love shines warm in the dark of our suffering and struggles.
Fill us, we pray, with the light of your grace, that we may shine for others.

God, by your grace make us pure in heart, to see by the light of your love alone.
May we be peacemakers, light for the world, and shine with your mercy.


Blessed          (Original song)
[Music for this song also includes Eucharistic Responses]

Dear God, receive me anew, mourning and poor in my soul,
hungry for what makes me whole.
Bless me by making me simple like you.
       Refrain: Blessed are the ones who have nothing but God,
       for God and God alone shall fill their lives.

Mercy please grant me anew. Make my heart pure by your grace,
humble, that I may see your face.
Bless me by making me gentle like you. Refrain

Courage please give me anew, peace in the world to make,
and to suffer for your Gospel’s sake.
Bless me by making me faithful to you. Refrain


Do Justice      (Original Song)
Do Justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.
Love, help us humbly live your justice, your love, your mercy.

We Are Your Body (Tune: Be Thou My Vision)
[Matt. 5.1-12]

God of all holiness, baptized in you,
we are your Body: your presence shines through.
We, poor in spirit, are blessed with your own.
May our lives shine forth with your grace alone

We who with Jesus do mourn with the world
shall see your banners of deep joy unfurled.
We who are hungry for love freely shared
feast at the banquet that you have prepared

May we be merciful and pure in heart,
your gentle peacemakers, doing our part.
Dying and rising, we fear no great loss,
sealed with your Spirit and marked with your cross.

Bles-sed, beloved and baptized to serve,
we are your Body and you are our nerve.
Not by our effort, but by your pure grace,
may we be your hands and your human face