Bethany Besteman

A prayer based on Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43 the gospel reading for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost that can be adapted into a prayer of confession, intercession, illumination or application.

A prayer based on Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, the gospel reading for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost that can be adapted into a prayer of confession, intercession, illumination or application.

A prayer based on Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30, the gospel reading for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost that can be adapted into a prayer of confession, intercession, illumination or application.

A prayer based on Matthew 10:40-42, the gospel reading for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost that can be adapted into a prayer of confession, intercession, illumination or application.

This is part of the worship series, "Psalm 23"Series Introduction Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10Week 11 | Week 12IntroductionThis series was designed to be a flexible focal point during the summer months when family schedules were less predictable and many people, including our pastor, took vacation. By using Psalm 23, one of the most familiar passages in Scripture, as our summer theme, the worship team hoped people would feel a sense of continuity even if they had missed a service or a guest pastor was preaching. We sent an email each week inviting reflection on that week’s verse and providing prompts for additional engagement. Each children’s message was centered around the week’s verse, and we taught the congregation how to sign the psalm. Several congregation members offered testimonies or reflections as the summer progressed. Psalm 23’s flexibility was proved as it coordinated well with two different sermon series and two services led by guest pastors over twelve weeks. Lorelai Reiffer, a talented young artist in our congregation, contributed artwork each week that we featured in our bulletin and on social media. She offers her artwork free to use with attribution. They can be downloaded from the resource section below.We chose to use the New King James Version’s rendering of the psalm for this series because we felt it was more poetic and would resonate with adults' early memories of the psalm.Series OutlineWeek 1God’s Work in Ordinary TimePsalm 23:1 Week 2Green Pastures and Still WatersPsalm 23:2 Week 3RestorationPsalm 23:3a Week 4The Way of RighteousnessPsalm 23:3b Week 5The Shadow of DeathPsalm 23:4a Week 6God’s PresencePsalm 23:4b Week 7The Shepherd’s ToolsPsalm 23:4c Week 8God’s Invitation to the FeastPsalm 23:5a Week 9Anointed—Blessed and CalledPsalm 23:5b Week 10AbundancePsalm 23:5c Week 11Chased by GoodnessPsalm 23:6a Week 12Our Forever HomePsalm 23:6b Revised Common LectionaryYear A: Easter—Fourth Sunday of EasterYear A: Season after Pentecost—Proper 23 (28)Year B: Easter—Fourth Sunday of EasterYear B: Season after Pentecost—Proper 11 (16)Year C: Easter—Fourth Sunday of Easter

We can use language to open the door to true worship by the grace of God, but he makes that worship true in every heart, not us. Repetition can be the tool needed on a particular Sunday to hammer through the walls of hardened hearts or it can be the means by which worship rises to a climactic crescendo of praise. We labor in the fields, but God brings about the harvest.

Because that blood in the tank, the blood nourishing the church, didn’t really come from the worship leaders; it doesn’t come from the Pastor, the elders or the deacons. We are only ever graced to be conduits.

Thus to write poetry is to partake in the process of giving form to something formless…By creating, we act in hope as we push back the darkness of isolation and disconnection. Moreover, by creating we worship: we act out our imago dei, imitating the creator and making good out of his Good.

These Sonnets are written to follow the order of worship and can be used by individuals for personal reflection, or in worship with households, small groups, or full congregations interspersed throughout worship or as a poetic offering. While these days we readily associate the word Corona with the COVID-19 virus, in English literature it has another meaning entirely. Bethany explains: