This service was created as a part of a Lent series though it could be used alone. For the rest of the series go to "Having the Identity of a Servant: Series Homepage".
How do you view others? How do you view yourself in relation to others?
The gospel text from Luke 13 is part of a larger discourse around the end times, how to discern it and our heart’s attitude when Christ’s return is at hand. As Christ followers, we are being warned not to think too little of others or too highly of ourselves.
Jesus mentions two horrific events in the text, one from human hands, and one that was truly random. The question we of course want to ask is “why?”. Why did those horrendous things happen? Why did so many people die? Why did God allow it?
If only Jesus had taken this opportunity to answer our questions. Instead he warns us not to think of ourselves as better than those who suffer. If we want to be Christ’s workers in this world, we cannot start with a sense of “better than,” that somehow we worked harder, are smarter, or more worthy than anyone else.
Jesus then shares the story of the fig tree that wasn’t bearing fruit. While it would be logical to replace a non-bearing tree with one that could bear fruit, the gardener saves the tree believing that one day it will produce a crop. The gardener exhibits mercy, patience, and grace. If we are honest, we will admit that Christ has been exceedingly patient with us. Why wouldn’t we also extend that same mercy, patience, and grace to others?
Living a life of service with a heart of service means recognizing the radical and complete equality in the body of Christ. In a sermon preached a few months before his assassination Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. . . . You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant" (Martin Luther King Jr., “Drum Major Instinct” Sermon, 4 February 1968).
Call to Worship
Our gracious God calls us to worship entreating:
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
—Isaiah 55:1-3
Song of Longing: "Just As I Am, Without One Plea" (st. 1, 3) Elliott
Greeting
We come, empty handed,
with our faith and with our doubts,
thirsty for the spiritual food God offers us,
eager to listen and digest
the word that God has for us today.
And this gracious God greets us saying:
“To those who are called,
who are beloved in God
and kept safe for Jesus Christ:
May mercy, patience, peace, grace, and love
be yours in abundance.”
—Jude 1, 2 adapt.
Opening Responses
You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
—Psalm 63:1–5
Songs of Praise
“Psalm 63 (Better Than Life)” Riddle, Barnard, Miller, Warneking
“Thank You” Gretzinger, Bowe, Moore
“Amarte sólo a ti, Señor” st. 1 Anon., st. 2 Schutmaat
“Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” Neander
Call to Confession
If we worship a holy God, and desire to walk in his ways, we are soon confronted with our own impurity. The prophet Isaiah says:
“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”
—Isaiah 55:6–7
Prayers of Confession
With that promise ringing in our ears, let us go before God with our prayers of confession. During this prayer time there will be moments of silence when you are invited to examine your own hearts and offer your own prayer to God. When it is time for the silent prayer to end I will say, “Lord, in your mercy,” and you are invited to respond, “hear our prayer.”
Holy God,
Today we have heard your invitation to come and to seek you.
We know that this invitation is offered to us every day
and yet so often we think we are too busy to go to you,
we are too self-involved to seek you.
Sometimes even the busyness of doing good work
gets in the way of us spending time with you,
For the times this week where we have failed to spend time with you,
forgive us.
Silence
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
God, if we are honest, its not just our busyness
that gets in the way of our relationship with you,
we simply don’t desire you.
We know you are there and we take that for granted.
Maybe there is even a part of us that fears
desiring to follow you would require us to change,
to let go of things and practices that we love too much
but that we know are not good.
Forgive us, and plant in us a deep thirst and longing for you.
Silence
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Gracious God,
so often we fail to see how patient you are with us.
There is a pattern in our life,
we ask for forgiveness and say we want to change our ways,
and yet within hours we have forgotten,
and fall back into old patterns.
Lord, open our eyes to our own hypocrisy.
Silence
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Merciful God,
why is it that we think we are so deserving of your forgiveness,
yet fail to extend that forgiveness to others?
What makes us think that somehow we are better than others?
How is it that we look down on others
and feel that somehow they deserve to suffer?
That their illness, unemployment, lack of a home,
or the natural disaster or war that has fallen upon them is a sign of your judgment?
How is it that we think we are deserving of privilege,
or so fearful of losing it, even if it is just a little,
that we feel justified in keeping others down
because of their gender, physical or cognitive challenges, sexuality, age, race,
size, style of clothing, color of their hair…
Lord have, mercy!
Silence
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Send your Holy Spirit,
move in us,
align our hearts with your heart,
our will with yours.
Amen.
—Joyce Borger, Reformed Worship, © 2024 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike. Used by permission.
Assurance of Pardon: Psalm 103: 8–13
Call to Holy Living: 1 Corinthians 10:1–13
Song of Dedication: “For the Healing of the Nations” Kaan
Children’s Message
Do any of you have younger or older siblings? Or friends? Do you ever compare what you are able to do to what they can do? Maybe you are better at building blocks than your younger sister. Maybe your older brother is faster at running than you. Do you ever feel like you want to be better than other people at something?
Has anyone here seen the PBS show Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood? In one episode Daniel Tiger and Prince Wednesday want to pick some cherries, but they aren’t tall enough to reach them. Prince Wednesday’s big brother, Prince Tuesday, helps them pick the cherries. At first Prince Wednesday is sad that he wasn’t tall enough to do it himself, but Prince Tuesday reminds him that “everyone is big enough to do something,” and they work together to bring the cherries to their parents.
In the church, we believe that God loves everyone equally and gives us all gifts. Nobody is better than another person and “everyone is [gifted by God] to do something.” Since God loves all of us equally, I wonder what that means about how we should treat other people?
—Bethany Besteman, Reformed Worship, © 2024 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike. Used by permission.
Prayer for Illumination
Holy God,
as we come now to the reading of your word,
we ask you to illuminate our hearts and minds
by the power of your Holy Spirit.
May the light of your word
brighten the Lenten path ahead of us
as we journey in steps of Christ towards the cross. Amen.
—Bethany Besteman, Reformed Worship, © 2024 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike. Used by permission.
Scripture
[For churches who follow the Revised Common Lectionary, portions of the Old Testament, Psalm, and Epistle texts were all used earlier in this service. It does not hurt for these same texts to be read again in their entirety.]
Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 55:1–9
Epistle Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:1–13
Gospel Reading: Luke 13:31–35
Sermon: “Heart of Service”
Response to the Sermon
“From Ashes to the Living Font” Hommerding
Prayers of the People
[While true for any time we lead the prayers of the people, on this particular Sunday, make sure to check the news before worship and include in your prayers places in your community and the world that have experienced a natural disaster, or been victims of violence at the hands of someone else. How might we be their servant?]
Baptism
[If celebrating the baptism of an infant in this service it would be fitting to include some version of the French Reformed baptismal prayer like this simple one:]
“For you Jesus Christ came into the world;
for you he died and for you he conquered death;
All this he did for you, little one,
though you know nothing of it as yet.
We love because God first loved us.”
Communion
“God is Waiting at the Table” Tice
Response of Praise and Prayer
“How Clear Is Our Vocation Lord” Pratt Green
“In My Life, Lord, Be Glorified” Kilpatrick
Sending
People of God,
let us claim the freedom Christ gives us
by his self-giving on the cross.
May he enable us to serve together
in faith, hope, and love.
Go in peace and serve the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
—Source unknown
Sending Song
“Take Us as We Are, O God” Daw
Blessing/Benediction
May the God of love, who showed us love,
strengthen us in our love for others.
May Christ, who shared his life,
grant us grace that we might share ours.
And may the Holy Spirit dwelling in us
empower us to be Christ’s ambassadors
wherever we go and to whomever we meet.
Amen.
—Source unknown
| Series Homepage | Previous Service | Next Service |