Live with the End in Mind

Live with the End in Mind is our worship theme for the first Sunday in Advent, December 2, 2012. Our focus scripture is Luke 21:25-36.

The main passion of Jesus’ life, teachings and actions is the coming of the kingdom of God. Having just celebrated the reign of Christ on the last Sunday of the church year, we now begin the first Sunday of the new church year with this passage about the fulfillment of the kingdom. Although Jesus is the catalyst who prepares the way for the kingdom to fully blossom, he does not expect it to come with his death in Jerusalem or with the destruction of the temple. In fact, the risen Christ makes clear in Acts 1:6-7 that it is not for his followers to know the time that God will choose. Yet in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection the power of God that will create the kingdom is evident and already at work.

The verses we have before us comprise the last part of Jesus’ teachings about the end times in Luke. These teachings begin at 21:5 with remarks about the destruction of the temple where Jesus has been teaching, an event that had actually happened at the hands of the Romans by the time Luke wrote his Gospel. As Jesus and his followers arrive at Jerusalem, he tells them the Parable of the Pounds in order to make it clear that the time for God’s kingdom to come is not yet here. And neither is the destruction of the temple the sign that the kingdom is fully coming. Rather, Jesus teaches that his followers must prepare for a time of persecution, in which even family members will turn them in for their faith and some will be tortured and killed. Nevertheless, he tells them, “By your endurance, you will gain your souls.” He goes on then to describe cosmic signs that echo the prophecy of Joel 2:30-32. As Eugene Peterson translates Jesus’ words in verses 25-26: “It will seem like all hell has broken loose—sun, moon, stars, earth, sea, in an uproar and everyone all over the world in a panic, the wind knocked out of them by the threat of doom, the powers-that-be quaking.” These verses make it clear that the coming of God’s kingdom is not limited to human history, but that as Paul puts it in Romans 8:22: “The whole creation has been groaning in labor pains.”

Having predicted so many painful things, Jesus finally comes to the great resolution to the turmoil. As we know that summer is coming when the fig tree begins to sprout its leaves, so these signs will eventually foretell the coming of the son of Man on clouds of glory and with great power. Then all things on earth and in the cosmos will be put right. And the generation of suffering will be over.

The key, Jesus stresses is not to endlessly speculate on when the kingdom will come, but to live each day with the end in mind. We must be careful not to let our hearts become weighed down with the entertainments or the worries of this life. Rather, we must pray for strength to endure the persecutions that come with following him and to live with expectation that the kingdom will be fulfilled.

During his earthly life Jesus cast a circle of the kingdom of God all around him. Wherever he went, God’s love and justice and power shone like a beacon of light and caused revolutionary things to happen. Even though the kingdom has not yet fully come, to live with expectation means to let Jesus come to life in us. Then we also will prepare the way by casting a circle of his love and justice and power into the dark places of our world.

Here is a Call to Worship based on the Church’s understanding Jeremiah’s telling of the first coming of Jesus. Please feel free to use or adapt anything in this post that is helpful to you.

Call to Worship     From Jeremiah 33:14-16

L: Friends, on this first Sunday of Advent let us recall God’s promise to Jeremiah:

    “The days are surely coming when I will fulfill my promise to my people.

P: At that time I will make a new branch sprout from David’s tree.

    He will follow my leading and will execute justice throughout the land.

L: In that day my people will be saved and they will live in safety.

All: Then they will declare, ‘God has set all things right for us.’”

    Thanks be to God for keeping the promise! Let us worship God!

Be Thankful!

Be Thankful! is our worship theme for Thanksgiving Sunday, the 22^nd Sunday after Pentecost, November 16, 2012. Our focus scripture is Colossians 3:12-17.

Here, the author of Colossians writes of the virtues that Christians should strive to live out. The author lists compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Then come forgiveness and, above all, love. Finally there is the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts and creating unity in the church. With all of that going for us, the author then reminds us to be thankful. With these virtues established, we have everything we need. Indeed, this reminds me of Paul’s statement at the end of Philippians that he has learned to be content in whatever circumstance he finds himself. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, he writes.”

Life is full of beautiful possibilities regardless of economic circumstance. We can be thankful because nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus, our Lord. God’s love swirls around us and within us every moment. So alive within the power of God’s love we can be thankful!

Here is a Call to Worship based on Deuteronomy 8:7-18. Please use or adapt anything that is helpful to you.

Call to Worship    from Deuteronomy 8:7-18

L: Friends, as we celebrate Thanksgiving let us recall God’s promises to Israel:

    Behold, I am bringing you into a good land; a land of flowing streams, of wheat  

    and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, of olive trees and honey.

    In this land you will lack nothing!

P: Yet take care that you do not forget me, by failing to keep my commands.

    And when you eat your fill, and live in fine houses; when your flocks

    multiply and you have money in the bank… then do not exalt yourselves

    forgetting the One who brought you out of slavery.

L: For it was I who led you through the terrible wilderness with fiery snakes and

    scorpions. I made water flow out of flint rock and fed you with manna.

P: So do not say to yourself, “My power and might got me all this wealth.  

     I did it all myself!” Remember that my strength makes you live well.

    And I give it to keep covenant with you today, just as I did your ancestors.

All: Thanks be to God!  Let us worship God!                                                                              

Trusting Everything

Trusting Everything is our worship theme for Stewardship Sunday (the 24^th Sunday after Pentecost), November 9, 2012. Our focus scriptures will be Mark 12:38-44 and Psalm 146.

On what will be Stewardship Sunday in many churches the Lectionary gives us Mark’s account of the Widow’s Mite. The point of this simple story is that the widow trusts everything to God. Jesus notes the fanfare of the scribes who strut around displaying their piety while devouring widows' homes behind the scenes. He also watches wealthy people putting large sums into the temple treasury. But when he sees a poor widow offering two copper coins, he knows exactly what it means to her. This is all she has to live on, yet she trusts the promise in Psalm 146 that God will uphold the widows and those who are poor. The wealthy give out of their excess without threatening their own standard of living. The widow gives all she has. In our society this story continues to be played out this very day.

Here is a Call to Worship based on Psalm 146. Please use or adapt anything that is helpful to you.

Call to Worship   From Psalm 146

L: Praise the Lord, O my soul!

P: Let us praise the Lord as long as we live!

     Let us sing praises to God every day of our lives!

L: Do not put your highest trust in human leaders,

    in mere mortals in whom there is no help.

    When their breath departs, they return to the earth.

    On that very day their plans perish.

P: Happy instead are those who hope in the Lord their God,

    the One who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that lives;

    the One who keeps faith forever;

    the One who executes justice for the oppressed and feeds the hungry.

L: God, you set the prisoners free. You open the eyes of the blind.

    You lift up those who are bowed down.

    You love those who keep your ways.

P: You watch over the refugees. You uphold orphans and widows.   

     But the way of the wicked you bring to ruin.   

All: The Lord our God will reign forever! Praise the Lord!

        Let us worship God.                                                     

Lifting the Shroud

Lifting the Shroud is our worship theme for All Saints Sunday, November 4, 2012. Our focus scripture is Isaiah 25:1-10a.

Chapters 24-27 of Isaiah are full of a contrast between judgment and salvation. In places it looks very bad for all people without exception. And in other places, like verses 6-10a of chapter 25, it looks good beyond any human expectation. Perhaps this contrast mirrors our experience. Sometimes our enemies get us down and we wish the worst for them. Sometimes we ourselves are the bad guys, and we know deep down that we deserve the worst. But then there are other times when we feel the pull of God’s powerful Spirit which comes from far beyond anything our enemies can do, or even any viciousness buried in the bottom of our hearts. The pull of God’s Spirit is a pull in the direction of justice, and hopefulness, and love, and even peace.

Often times this pull comes to us as we celebrate a wedding or a Thanksgiving Dinner or a church pot luck supper! A wedding ceremony can lift up the highest ideals for love and its promise to “bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things”. It is a time when we gather with our closest loved ones, (perhaps an enemy or two), and in the spiritual presence of so many saints who have gone before. Then, too, a wedding reception with food and dance that appeals to the body as well as the soul can gather all ages into a spirit of fun and a real sense of belonging. So it’s not hard to understand Isaiah’s proclamation that the day will come when God will call all people up the mountain for an eternal feast of fine food and wine. That the day will come when God will lift the shroud of death and we will finally live together in peace. May we all be blessed to feel what Isaiah feels when he is speaks these welcome words: ^“It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Here is a Call to Worship, a Prayer Litany, and a Unison Communion Prayer appropriate for All Saints Sunday. Please use or adapt anything that is helpful to you.

Call to Worship    From Revelation 21:1-4

L: Sisters and brothers, let us rejoice in the vision of John:

     I saw a new heaven and a new earth!

     The old heaven and the old earth and the sea had disappeared.

P: Then I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, descending from God   

     out of heaven, beautiful as a bride adorned for her husband.

L: A great voice thundered from heaven:

     “See, God is making God’s home with mortals!  

     God will live with them. They will be God’s people.

P: God will wipe every tear from their eyes.

     There will be no more death, or sorrow, or crying, or pain.

     All of this – gone forever!”

All: Thanks be to God! Alleluia! Amen.

A Prayer Litany for Members and Friends Who Died This Year

                                                                                    From I Corinthians 15

          L: We proclaim the good news with joy: Christ is risen from the grave!

               Yet some say there is no resurrection from the dead.

          P: If that is true, if Christ has not been raised, our faith is futile.

               We are not released from sin, and those who die in Christ perish.

          L: If it is for this life only that we hope in Christ,

               we are, of all people, most to be pitied.

          P: But in fact, Christ has been raised from death,

               the first fruits of those who have died!

          L: For since death comes through a human being,

               the resurrection also comes through a human being.

          P: As in Adam all die, so in Christ will all be made alive!

          L: As it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”;

               so the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

          P: It is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical.

          L: The first man was from the earth, a man of dust;

               the second man, the Lord, is from heaven.

          P: Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust,

               so we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.

          L: So flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,

               nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

          P: Hear then a mystery! We will not all die,

               but in the twinkling of an eye, we will all be transformed.

          L: The last trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable!

               When our perishable bodies become imperishable, and our

               mortal bodies become immortal, then the saying will be fulfilled:         

          P: Death is swallowed up in victory! Where, O death, is your victory?

               Where, O death, is your sting?

       All: Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory,

              through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Unison Communion Prayer 

     Eternal God, on this Memorial Sunday we come to Christ’s table keenly remembering the great cloud of the saints of our lives. Their lives have influenced us in so many ways. They influence us still. Their example, their wisdom, their faithfulness live on in our hearts. Their spiritual presence sustains us each day. Never do we face any challenge or walk through any dark valley alone. Always we are part of the great parade of those your love calls to come close to you and to join you in your work of new creation.

     This holy meal to which you invite us is but a foretaste of the great feast that goes on eternally in heaven. So we come to Christ’s table full of joy. Joy in his love. Joy in the chance to do his ministry. Joy in the knowledge that one day his love will completely fill the entire universe and all creation will join to sing your praise.

     Now we pray that you will bless this bread and cup. As we receive these symbols of Christ’s ministry, death, and resurrection, may we also receive his Living Spirit. Feed us with his life and power. Prepare us to carry on his ministry on earth in the presence and with the help of the saints above. All this we pray in his name. Amen.