Kathryn Ritsema Roelofs

There are no songs in my hymnal written for government contractors. At the church I formerly served in Washington, DC, as my first Labor Day weekend there approached, I wanted to plan a service focused on the “work of the people.” I was disappointed—but not at all surprised—that there was no specific language for this congregation’s specific vocation. The same was true for my colleague who served in Houston. There aren’t hymns for oil workers. The more I dug, the more I realized that the songs in most churches’ repertoires that are tangentially related to “work” refer mostly to farming. They speak of plowing fields, tilling soil, and cultivating growth. There are many churches, of course, where these words reflect the daily living of many of their congregants as they grow and produce the bounty that lands on our tables each day. But for those not directly involved in farming, work-related hymns are slim pickings.That first Labor Day would turn into a second, and a third, and eventually a sixteenth before I took another call. In those years, I learned the importance of vocationally conversant language not only in preaching, but in liturgy and in song. Worship not only allows for honest recognition of our daily lives, but welcomes it. We hear God’s call to worship, and we respond with our fullest selves. We don’t fragment our lives and bring only that which is spiritual or deemed “appropriate” for church. But too often—and with good intentions—pastors and worship leaders make the mistake of welcoming people to worship by inviting them to leave behind their work weeks. Forget about the stress. Don’t think about what tomorrow will bring. This is a time to worship God.What a missed opportunity! At God’s gracious invitation, we are welcomed to worship by the One who is present in our worship and in our daily lives. We are received by a God who not only cares about our week, but has been present with us throughout it. “Leaving it at the door” potentially rejects an integral part of ourselves and what God created us to be: image bearers and beloved children.If we as leaders want to walk with congregations, to bridge the gap between Sundays, we need not only the tools, but the pastoral imagination to create something contextual. So, unless you’re a prolific hymn writer, it’s a matter of being creative with what’s already available. Below you will find a few songs with work-specific themes. Some of these might be familiar; some might be new. Each song is tied to a specific liturgical moment, and I’ll offer some suggestions on how to use it. There are many ways to frame a song well to address a worker’s daily life—but it does take practice, awareness, and a willingness to try.Day by Day LINKThis beautiful, simple song names several vocations (farmer, lawyer, teacher, nurse) and blesses the work they are called to do so that God’s kingdom may come and on earth God’s will be done. The refrain “Lord, be close to us. Lord, have mercy on us. Lord, please put your hand on us day by day” could easily be sung by the congregation even if the rest of the song is not accessible. Consider having someone sing the verses and then include everyone on the refrain. Intersperse prayers specific to your congregation between refrains. If you have never tried naming specific vocations, this would be an easy way to begin. Here are some examples: Prayers for Use with “Day by Day”God, we praise you for the gift of accountants,who work with the books to ensure equity and fairness. Their accuracy and intelligence blesses society’s systems in ways most of us never notice. God of numbers and order, we give you thanks for accountants. Sung refrain:Lord, be close to us. Lord, have mercy on us.Lord, please put your hand on us day by day.God, we praise you for the gift of plumbers, who make sure our buildings are sanitary and safe. Their expertise identifies problems and creates welcome solutions. God of well-working systems,we give you thanks for plumbers. Sung refrainGod, we praise you for the gift of retirees, who bless us by their very presence—with wisdom and support offered to family and community members and time given to prayer, for their volunteering roles, and their willingness to do tasks large or smallthat bring you and others great delight. God, who created seasons of life and blessed them,we give you thanks for retirees. Sung refrainGod, who calls each of us to be faithful day by dayas retirees, students, employers, employees, caregivers, or those who receive care, send your Holy Spirit to go before us,and move in and through us so that God’s kingdom may come and on earth God’s will be done. Amen. —Katie Roelofs © 2024 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Work Be Our PraiseLINKOld tune, new text! Hunter Lynch has given us new words to sing to the familiar tune ASSURANCE, composed by Phoebe Knapp. This song works well for framing offerings or tithing. When COVID-19 shifted many of our churches to online-only giving, offerings became more of a monthly bill to pay instead of a meaningful and formative part of our worship services. We have forgotten the theological significance of bringing our firstfruits before the Lord as an offering and a gift. The concept of “firstfruits” has, of course, changed; we don’t bring livestock or baskets of produce into worship. But how can we preserve the idea that, as a grateful response to God’s word, we should offer to the Lord our very best? Imagine a time of offering in your service that includes bringing modern things to worship and offering them to God in thanksgiving. Imagine a pile of stethoscopes, briefcases, packing tape, laundry baskets, and homework, all signifying an offering of the work of our hands. If this song wouldn’t work in your context, how could you use some of the same language to write an offertory prayer? Consider adapting this prayer: An Offering Prayer Lord, we offer up our firstfruits and the work of our hands. In and through our daily work, may you be honored and glorified. Use these gifts of money. Use the skills you have equipped us with. We offer our lives in gratitude to you. Amen.—Katie Roelofs © 2024 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. ADDITIONAL RESOURCESAudio recordings and other resources related to the songs in this article can be found at these websites by searching with the song title: • “Day by Day,” praisecharts.com• “Work Be Our Praise,” worshipforworkers.com• “Before You I Kneel,” praisecharts.com • “Breastplate of Saint Patrick,” worshipforworkers.com• “Cloister Song: Steadfast Love,” worshipforworkers.comFor the following resources related to work and worship go to ReformedWorship.org and search with the article’s title in quotations. Reformed Worship:• “Prayers of the People for the Work of the People” • “The Heart of Worship”• “Sunday’s Prayer and Monday’s Work” • “The People Had a Mind to Work: A Service for the Sunday before Labor Day”• “Everyday Church-Iglesia Cotidiana” OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES • Worship for Workers: worshipforworkers.com• Made to Flourish: madetoflourish.org• “Work and Worship: Reconnecting our Labor and Liturgy,”    by Matthew Kaemingk and Cory B. Willson, © 2020, Baker Academic,        workandworshipbook.com. Before You I Kneel (A Worker’s Prayer)LINKWritten by Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, Jeffrey J. Taylor, and Stuart Townend, this hymn artfully weaves the melody of “Sleepers, Awake!” throughout and is a wonderful song for a commissioning or dedication. Its flexibility makes it a useful addition to your church’s repertoire. You could use this for: an installation service of staff or church leaders.blessing youth as they head back to school.a service of anointing people’s hands and saying, “May God bless you and the work of your hands.”  Prayer Calendar for WorkersTake inventory of your congregation’s professions and create a prayer calendar (I recommend the skill mapping tool made by our friends at Made to Flourish (madetoflourish.org/what-we-do/skill-mapping)). Then put together a “commissioning calendar” around particularly significant times of the year for workers in your church, such as:praying for mental health professionals near the winter solstice.praying for firefighters near the anniversary of September 11 (or a similar significant event in your context).praying for nurses on the anniversary of COVID-19 being declared a global pandemic.praying for your accountants during tax season.praying over university students before exams. Be intentional about praying over your people’s work and daily living—and include “Before You I Kneel” when you can! Having a violin or flute play the introduction makes this song especially lovely.  Breastplate of Saint PatrickLINKSome congregations have grown more adept at offering regular prayers of lament. Others need on-ramps to begin using this essential prayer language. Many in your church have positive work experiences. They generally like their jobs. They feel satisfied and receive a paycheck that covers the bills. But that certainly is not the case for everyone. Are you giving your congregation words with which to lament the painful and challenging parts of their daily lives, including their work? Think about the unemployed and those who are unable to make ends meet. Think about the parishioner who was laid off or passed over for a promotion they deserved. Think about the foreign service officer whose entire week was spent dealing with a humanitarian crisis overseas. These are worthy of lament, not only individually, but corporately. Corporate worship and corporate prayer are covenantal reminders that we are part of the body of Christ. Teach your congregation to pray for and lament with one another in the midst of challenges and pain.This powerful song by Wendell Kimbrough and Dan Wheeler, centered around the Lorica of Saint Patrick, gracefully holds in tension our laments and hopes. The text allows us to express sorrow, frustration, and disappointment, but then covers those emotions with the “promise of God that I’m never alone.” This song is easy to sing, and I guarantee it will run through your head throughout the week when you least expect it. It can be sung as a call and response, with the congregation directly quoting Saint Patrick. For all the joys and challenges, what a grace to put these words on people’s lips: “Christ above me, Christ beneath me, Christ behind, and Christ before.” Cloister SongLINKOra et labora—pray and work. The songs I’ve included here all help workers bring their daily living into worship and offer it to God in grateful prayer. What are some other ways that Sunday’s worship can carry over into Monday’s work? Has your church spent time developing spiritual practices that help people continue worshiping and being mindful of God’s presence long after they leave the church building? Are there familiar short songs or refrains in your repertoire that are easy to learn, easy to remember, and accessible to all ages? How might you give people ways to weave one of these simple songs into their workdays prayerfully and intentionally? Could you develop a way to “pray the hours” using these songs? Praying the Hours in SongThe simple “Cloister Song” uses Psalm 90 as a framework for praying the hours (morning, daytime, evening). It could be introduced in worship and woven into corporate prayers, and the text could go home with members on small cards to keep in prominent locations such as a desk, a dashboard, a bathroom mirror, or a bedside table.Invite people to intentional moments of prayer throughout the day. You could use a song you already know and love, or you could write a short refrain of your own! The goal is to give words that will continue to come to mind and draw people to prayer and a recognition of God’s presence—God with us. ConclusionRegardless of the work your congregants do, vocationally-conversant worship is not out of reach. Worship leaders can beautifully contextualize worship practices to speak to the daily realities congregants face during their work weeks. Write down three songs your congregation already knows and sings well. How could you use a spoken introduction or scripture to frame these songs so that they communicate a message that will reverberate far beyond the sanctuary walls? What short sentence will encourage worshipers to recognize God’s presence in their work, school, and home contexts from Sunday to Saturday? These kinds of small changes are like planted seeds: they’re almost unrecognizable at first, but with patient nurturing, they grow and flourish.

This 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. Lorelai Reiffer, a talented young artist in our congregation, contributed artwork each week that we featured in our bulletin and on social media. Several other 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. 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 tap into more people’s early memories. On the next pages you will find outlines for the first five services of the twelve-week series. A link to the remaining weeks can be found at tinyurl.com/RW147Psalm23Series.   Week 1 God’s Work in Ordinary Time “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1). After Pentecost, the long season of the church known as Ordinary Time begins. The mountaintop experiences of the liturgical calendar are past, and the church enters into the everyday to experience God’s sanctifying work amid the ordinary. Ordinary Time corresponds at least in part with summertime, a season in which school finishes, travel happens, graduations are celebrated, and transitions are anticipated. If this is a time of change in your daily schedule, celebrating Ordinary Time can offer stability and grounding.  Ordinary Time is a good time to return to well-loved and well-known Scripture—passages so well ingrained in us that we don’t remember when we memorized them, as if we’ve always known them. Psalm 23 is one such passage, and its first verse is one of the best known verses in all of Scripture: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”  What needs do you see met in your everyday life? Imagine your daily routine as a pasture you are being guided through. How does your shepherd care for you as you wake up? As you make coffee? Get the kids dressed? Get to work? Run errands? Make dinner? Get ready for bed? In the ordinary moments of your day, remember that God is your shepherd and that God takes care of you. Sermon: Luke 15:1–10, “What’s So Great About a Shepherd?”  Sermon notes by Rev. Chelsey Harmon are available from the Center for Excellence in Preaching (tinyurl.com/Luke15CEP). Children’s Message [Display or project a picture of a shepherd so that all the children can see it. If you choose, distribute small cards of the image and the blessing found below for the children to take home. You can also print more for congregants to pick up on their way out of the worship space.] [Spend time wondering together using questions like these.] Does any of you have a special name that only your family calls you? Or do you sometimes shorten your name a little and just use a part of it? Some people have lots of names. In the Bible, God has lots of names. Can you think of some of God’s names? There is one name for God that we are going to be thinking about a lot this summer: shepherd. What does a shepherd do? I wonder why sometimes the Bible says that God is our shepherd? How is God like a shepherd? [Possible answers: he protects us; he watches over us; he helps us do the right thing.] Yes, and that’s why sometimes we call God our shepherd. This summer we are going to be thinking a lot about how God is our shepherd because we are going to be thinking about Psalm 23.  The first verse of Psalm 23 says, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Another version of this verse says “ God, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing” (Psalm 23:1, MSG). Of course we still need some things, like food and water, but the psalm writer is telling us that we can trust God always to be with us and care for us. Isn’t that incredible? God—the Creator of the whole universe!—loves and cares for each of us, and because God takes care of us we can trust God with everything. When you pray to God you can call him God, Shepherd, or [one of the other names the children came up with]. Different names remind us of different things about God. When we pray to God and call him “Shepherd,” we are saying that God is someone we can trust. God is there for us, protects us, and is always with us even if we don’t see him. Let’s pray to our shepherd God now.  [The children’s message can end here, or you can continue with the text below if you want to make use of the optional handout.] Optional Handout [Ahead of the service prepare a handout with a picture or line drawing of a Shepherd and the blessing found below. Make extra copies for older children and adults to pick up at the end of the service.] As I was thinking about this name for God, I was reminded of a blessing sometimes given at the end of the worship service. I put it on these cards with a picture of a shepherd, and I’m going to give one to each of you so that you can read it or have a grown up read it to you every day this week. Listen to what it says: God goes before you to lead you,  God goes behind you to protect you,  God goes beneath you to support you,  God goes beside you to befriend you.  Do not be afraid.  May the blessing of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be upon you. Do not be afraid.  Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. Amen. —Source unknown I hope that you will take this home with you and remember that God is always with you.  You don’t have to be afraid about the future because God’s already there. You don’t have to be sad about what happened in the past because God is in the past as well. You don’t have to worry about the present because God is with you today too. I hope that helps you as much as it helps me. Song Suggestions “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” Baker, LUYH 824, GtG 802, SSS 359 “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” Anonymous, LUYH 26 Prompts for Reflection During the Week Journaling: Make a list of all the ways a shepherd meets the needs of a sheep. Then extend the metaphor: what might God be doing in your life like a shepherd does in a sheep’s life? For example, a shepherd makes sure that a sheep receives food; in what ways does God make sure you are fed, both physically and spiritually? Faith Practice: Gratitude Sensory: Using an old egg carton, start a sensory journey through the psalm. Each week, put something small into one of the egg holders that reminds you of that week’s verse. For example, perhaps this week you put a cotton ball in the first spot to give you a sensory memory for the idea of being a sheep in God’s flock. By the end of the twelve weeks you will have developed sensory memories associated with Psalm 23. This prompt will work well with young children who are just beginning to memorize Scripture, but it may also be a meaningful way for someone who has already memorized this psalm to experience it with more than just our eyes or our ears. Think of some creative ways to decorate your egg carton to reflect Psalm 23.  Weekly Devotions: Spend time this week with the many different passages of Scripture that consider the metaphor of God as a shepherd, especially Isaiah 40, Ezekiel 34, Luke 15, and John 10. How do these passages shed light on the Psalm 23 meditation on God as our shepherd? Which passages use the metaphor to show God’s gentle and caring side? Which passages use the metaphor of shepherd to show God’s protective and defending side? Faith Practice: Engaging Scripture   Week 2 Green Pastures and Still waters “He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters” (Psalm 23:2). What are the green pastures and still waters in your life that God has blessed you with? What blessings bring you peace and rest? Do you have a favorite corner of the couch that you curl up on? Is there a neighborhood coffee shop you feel at home in? Is there a friend who calms you down every time you are in their presence? Praise and thank God for these green pastures and quiet waters. If this verse doesn’t feel true for you this week—if life feels filled with deserts and rough seas—maybe spend some time remembering what God has done for you in the past and allow that to comfort you in the present moment.  Sermon: Ephesians 1:3–14, “Blessings” Sermon notes by Rev. Stan Mast are available from the Center for Excellence in Preaching (tinyurl.com/Ephesians13CEP). Children’s Message Last week we talked about God the shepherd, and we mentioned a few different ways God is like a shepherd: God corrects us when we sin, God guides us, and God is all around us when we need him or when we feel sad or lonely. This week we are focusing on a different way that God is like a shepherd. Today’s verse tells us that God “makes me to lie down in green pastures” and “leads me beside the still waters.” Green pastures are places where there is soft green grass and where the water is quiet.  [Spend time wondering together, asking questions such as the following.] I wonder what it would be like to lie down in a green pasture—to lie down on soft, green grass. Do you have any ideas about what that would be like? What about lying beside quiet waters? I wonder what that would be like. Have you ever lain down by a small stream? I wonder what quiet water sounds like. Would you like to go somewhere that had green grass and quiet waters?  Where are some places you don’t want to go?  Today we are going to be talking about how God brings us to good places like green pastures and quiet waters—places that are safe and comforting. I wonder what some of the safe and comforting places in your life are.  How might we thank God for the safe and comforting places in our life? I wonder what we could do right now in our time of worship to praise God for the good things God gives us. [If one of the children says “pray” or “sing a song,” use that to transition into the next part of the service.]  Song Suggestions “God Is So Good”  Makai, LUYH 777, GtG 658, SSS 461 “Ten Thousand Reasons” Redman, LUYH 559, SSS 440 “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us” Thrupp, LUYH 330, GtG 187, SSS 538 Prompts for Reflection During the Week Poem: Make an acrostic poem. Write a word or words from the verse vertically on a piece of paper and, for each letter, name a blessing that begins with that letter. Faith Practice: Celebrating Artwork: Take a piece of paper and draw a stream down the center of it lengthwise. On one side of the stream write down ways God has blessed your body; on the other side of the stream write down ways that God has blessed your mind. In the stream itself write down ways that God has blessed your soul. You can make this more creative by using green and blue pencils or pens to write or by making the lists on green construction paper with a blue stream cut out and glued in the center. Faith Practice: Remembering Activity: Find time this week to go for a walk with a notebook and pen near a stream or by a field. Find a place to sit. Breathe in while saying to yourself, “He makes me to lie down in green pastures.” Breathe out while saying to yourself, “He leads me beside the still waters.” Repeat for a few minutes, and then sit in stillness, inviting the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart. After listening, you can spend some time journaling, either recording what God says to you or writing a letter back to God after you’ve listened to him. Faith Practice: Listening   Week 3 Restoration “He restores my soul” (Psalm 23:3a).  If something must be restored, it is in a state of imperfection. The table that needs restoration has been scratched and stained; the garden that needs restoration is overgrown with weeds. Your soul is precious to God and worth the time, effort, and sacrifice its restoration requires. What scratches and stains is God lovingly undoing? What weeds are God lovingly removing?  Sermon: Luke 7:11–17, “Restored”  Sermon notes by Rev. Scott Hoezee are available from the Center for Excellence in Preaching  (tinyurl.com/Luke7CEP). Children’s Message [Spend time wondering together, asking questions and reflecting on the idea of restoration.] In Psalm 23 we are reminded of this promise: God restores my soul. I wonder what “restores” means. Do any of you have any ideas?  Have you ever brought a broken toy to a bigger person and asked them to fix it, and they gave it back to you all fixed? They restored your toy; they made something broken perfect again. Restored is another way to say “fixed.” [If you have a broken toy that is fixable, show them how it is broken; after you fix it, talk about how it is restored.] God promises that he will restore the whole world. When something is broken it doesn’t work right or maybe doesn’t look right. The Bible calls those problems “sin.” What are some things in the world that aren’t right, that are broken? I wonder what the world will look like when it is all fixed.  God also promises that he will restore you and me. The Bible says that there are things in our lives that are not right, that are broken. The Bible calls those things “sins” too. I wonder what the world would look like if there wasn’t any sin in it, and people were filled with love for each other and creation. Would you like to live in a world like that?  You know what’s awesome? God promises us that one day we will get to live in a world where nothing is broken, nothing ever breaks, and everyone is full of love. Isn’t that amazing?  Song Suggestions “God, Be Merciful to Me” LUYH 622, SSS 508 “Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God” Green Prompts for Reflection During the Week Artwork: Draw a picture of something that is beautiful or precious or deeply meaningful to you. Cover your picture with a piece of wax paper or parchment paper and secure it with a piece of tape so that you can lift the paper to reveal your original drawing beneath. On the top paper, trace or redraw the original image, but represent it as stained or broken or degraded in some way. If you want, write what in your soul is in most need of restoration on this top piece of paper (if you use wax paper, permanent markers may work best for this task, but be sure to let the ink dry so it doesn’t smear). Now, every time you lift the top paper you have an image of God’s restoring work. Allow this image to inspire you to be grateful for all that God has done in your life. Faith Practice: Gratitude Activity: With family or friends, visit a park or trail and spend some time picking up trash (with all safety precautions observed). Think or talk about the ways our souls become littered and in need of God’s restoration work. By working to restore a small part of creation, you are joining in the work that God is doing, restoring the whole world. Faith Practice: Justice and Mercy Journaling: In a journal entry, use your senses to explore the concept of restoration. What might restoration taste like? If you could touch restoration, what would it feel like? If you could hear it, what would it sound like? What does restoration look like? If it were a scent, what would it smell like? Faith Practice: Wonder   Week 4 The Way of Righteousness “He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake” (Psalm 32:3b). God leads us toward blessings, as we contemplated two weeks ago (green pastures, still waters), but God also leads us to live up to his moral and ethical standard: righteousness. What does it mean to walk in the way of righteousness? In the Bible, the idea of righteousness is almost always about being in right relationship with God and with our fellow humans. How is God helping you walk paths of right relationship this week? How is God helping you to be right with him? With your neighbor?  Sermon: Isaiah 5:1–7, John 15:1–17, “Justice and Righteousness”  Sermon notes by Rev. Stan Mast are available from the Center for Excellence in Preaching (tinyurl.com/Isaiah5CEP). Children’s Message [Spend time wondering together, asking questions and reflecting on being right with God. If you used a toy with the children’s message last week, use the same toy this week.]  Last week we talked about how God restores us. He fixes the things in us that are broken. Imagine that I let you use my toy and you broke it. You brought the broken toy to me and told me you were sorry. What should I say to you if you really are sorry? Should I say “I forgive you”? I should, shouldn’t I?  Well, the cool thing is that I know how to fix the toy, so I restore it, and then I let you play with it again. This time you play really rough with my toy. You stomp on it and break it again. If you were me, what would you do? Should I let you play with my toy again even though you keep breaking it? What if I could teach you how to play with my toy without breaking it? If you knew how to play with it gently, should I let you play with my toy again? Could I trust you to play nicely with it?  I wonder how you think you would feel knowing that I had fixed the toy, taught you how to play with it, and then gave it to you to play with. I wonder how you would feel if I let you play with all my toys even though you had broken some before. If it were me, I think I’d be pretty thankful, and I’d think you were a really good friend to trust me like that. And if I wanted to keep being your friend I’d want to keep playing with your toys in the right way, wouldn’t I?  Did you know that God has given us this whole world to play with and have fun in, and God gave us lots and lots of people to love and be friends with? Sometimes we break God’s world, though. We leave our garbage around, for example, or we aren’t always kind to other people. What do you think we should say to God when we realize that we aren’t playing with God’s world the way he wants us to? We should probably say we’re sorry, shouldn’t we? I wonder what you think God would say to us if we told him we were sorry. God would forgive us, wouldn’t he?  But God doesn’t just forgive us for all the bad things we do. God also teaches us how we should behave. That’s what we mean when we say God “leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” God shows us how we should live in this world—how we are to love God, creation, and all the people on earth. Is this easy to do? No, of course not; that is why we need God, our good shepherd, leading us. Even when we are thankful that God has forgiven us, we still are going to mess up. But God says he will keep helping us learn and get better at living how he wants us to, one step at a time.   Song Suggestions “I Will Rise” Reeves, et al., LUYH 468 “The Lord, My Shepherd, Rules My Life” Idle, LUYH 732   “Lift Up Your Hearts unto the Lord” LUYH 844, SSS 685 Prompts for Reflection Activity with Scripture: Take a walk on a trail this week. As you walk, meditate on Psalm 23:3b or any of the following verses from Psalms that talk about the paths God leads us on and what helps us stay on them. Faith Practice: Engaging with Scripture “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”  (Psalm 16:11) “You enlarged my path under me, So my feet did not slip.” (Psalm 18:36) “All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth, To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.”  (Psalm 25:10) “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105) Artwork: Draw a path, either a bird’s-eye view or a path that recedes into the distance using a vanishing point. If this is the path of righteousness, what will you encounter along it? Wonder about what the journey into righteousness will look like. Draw or create a collage of things cut out from magazines of what you imagine you will find along the path of righteousness. They can be symbolic (a bird to represent the Holy Spirit, for example). Faith Practice: Wonder Journaling: Journal a timeline of your life as a progression along the path of righteousness. What events in the past has God used to grow you in righteousness? What is happening right now that shows God is leading you in the path of righteousness? What do you hope will happen in the future? Faith Practice: Remembering   Week 5 The Shadow of Death “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil”. (Psalm 23:4a)  So far Psalm 23 has described us being led to green pastures, still waters, and paths of righteousness. Now the psalmist imagines a more sinister road: a shadowy valley where the threat of death lurks behind boulders. The sheep and shepherd walk a path that reminds the sheep how close life and death are. How does the shadow of death appear in your life? Are there broken relationships, physical ailments, withered hopes, or livelihood insecurities? The sheep in this verse remarkably faces the shadow of death and says, “I will fear no evil.” How does your shepherd give you the courage to look at the shadows around you and say the same? Sermon: Psalm 23, “Everyone Needs a Shepherd”  Sermon notes by Rev. Scott Hoezee are available from the Center for Excellence in Preaching (tinyurl.com/Psalm23CEP). Children’s Message [Spend time wondering together, asking questions and reflecting.]  Do you remember where God, our shepherd, leads us? “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in . . . [green pastures]; He leads me beside . . . [the still waters].” Do you remember wondering what it was like to lie down in green pastures and lie beside quiet waters? Then we talked about how God leads us on paths of righteousness. That just means that God teaches us how we are to treat the world around us and everything and everyone within it. But now the Bible teaches us that God leads us in scary places too. It says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” (Psalm 23:4a). I wonder what the valley of the shadow of death is like? It sounds like a scary place, doesn’t it? Are there places that scare you? The Bible is saying that even if we are in the scariest place ever we don’t need to be afraid. Why do you think that is? [Because God is with us.] We don’t have to fear because God is there! Next week we will think some more about how wonderful it is that God is always with us.  Song Suggestions “Don’t Be Afraid” Bell, LUYH 429, SSS 293 “Abide With Me” Lyte, LYUH 466, GtG 836, SSS 475 “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” Dorsey, LUYH 465, GtG 834, SSS 336 Prayer of Lament  [The following prayer is interspersed with singing portions of “My Soul in Stillness Waits” Haugen, LUYH 63, GtG 89, SSS 75, RW 53:26.] Throughout this prayer, after I pray the words “We wait and hope for you to banish these shadows,” we will sing together the chorus to “My Soul in Stillness Waits.” We will end the prayer with the first verse and chorus together.  Even though we know we don’t need to fear the shadows of death, that doesn’t mean we have to ignore them or pretend they don’t exist. Let’s come to God this morning, lamenting the shadows and praying for the light. Please pray with me. Creator God, out of the darkness you spoke, and there was light; you banished the first shadows with the power of your Word. But humanity rejected partnership with the Light in favor of the shadows. We see the way shadows now darken your good creation: polluted waters, decimated forests, species extinction, and unbalanced ecosystems.  Lord, we lament these shadows, and we confess our part in them. Show us how to care for your creation so we can be bringers of light. We wait and hope for you to banish these shadows. For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; truly my hope is in you.  God, ruler of all the world, we trust in your sovereignty over the nations, but we lament the shadows of death that loom large in wars, oppression, terrorism, and corruption across the world. We pray in faith and hope for an end to these shadows, and we beg that the light of truth, justice, and peace would shine among the nations of our world. We wait and hope for you to banish these shadows. For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; truly my hope is in you.  King of kings and Lord of lords, we look closer to home and see shadows here too. We lament the shadow of partisanship that divides much of this nation and seems increasingly bitter. We pray for the men and women we elect to be guided by your light so they might promote the flourishing of all life. We wait and hope for you to banish these shadows. For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; truly my hope is in you.  Holy Spirit, our guide and comforter, whose coming heralded the dawn of the church, be with your church now. The same shadow of partisanship that affects our government has crept into your church in North America, dividing communities. Shadows of abuse, theological disunity, and idolatry creep into our sanctuaries. We beg you to bring your church into the light so it can be the light it is meant to be to a shadowed and dying world. We wait and hope for you to banish these shadows. For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; truly my hope is in you.  Father God, who cares for his children as only loving parents could, here in this space there are people walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Shadows of illness, broken relationships, bereavement, isolation, exhaustion, and despair threaten us. We lament these shadows in this room today. We pray against them and ask for your light. We wait and hope for you to banish these shadows. For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; truly my hope is in you.  God of light, in whose light we see light, bring us to the end of the valley of the shadow of death and into the radiance of your glory. Amen. For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; truly my hope is in you. O Lord of Light, our only hope of glory, your radiance shines in all who look to you.  Come light the hearts of all in dark and shadow. For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; truly my hope is in you. −Bethany Beteman, 2022 © Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Prompts for Reflection Music: Listen to the hymn “Abide with Me,” which uses much of the same symbolism as Psalm 23:4. Each hymn verse goes deeper into the dark of night before the final verse, which brings us to the dawn. Reflect, journal, and pray about the ideas the hymn considers. What does it mean for God to abide with us? How does God’s presence help you deal with people letting  you down? With change? With pain? With sorrow? Spend time in prayer, in the abiding presence of God. Faith Practice: Prayer Artwork/Activity: Make a memento mori (Latin for “remember you have to die”). Sometimes, when life is going great and we aren’t walking through any shadowed valleys, we have a hard time remembering that we are dependent on God for everything. The early Christian practice called memento mori, in which one meditated on death or kept a visual reminder of it, helped combat this forgetfulness. The point of the memento mori is not to become constantly focused on your own death or keep you from being happy with life. The point is to remember that God holds both your life and your death in his hand, and for that reason you don’t need to fear. Symbols for death included a skull, an hourglass, or wilted flowers.  You can do some art journaling and choose one of these symbols to draw. Or you can buy or pick some flowers and hang them upside down to dry. Once they’ve dried you can put them in a vase without water somewhere you’ll regularly see them to remember we flourish like a flower of the field  (Psalm 103:15). Faith Practice: Remembering For weeks 6–12, see: tinyurl.com/RW147Psalm23Series.

Are you unintentionally sending the message that work has no place in worship? “Leave it at the door and pick it up again on your way out!”

I love doing jigsaw puzzles, whether it’s a 1,500-piece Thomas Kinkade painting spread across my in-laws’ dining room table at Christmas or a 15-piece Thomas the Tank Engine puzzle with my child on the kitchen floor. There’s something so satisfying about the way each piece has been crafted for a particular location, and as you examine shapes and shades you find a way to build something whole and beautiful piece by piece. Do you have moments when you sit down at your desk, open up a blank Google document or new week on Planning Center, and feel like you’re about to start assembling a jigsaw puzzle? There are the standard components in your worship service that don’t change from week to week. Put those pieces in. Then there are the seasonal elements for holidays, holy days, or denominational days. Add those pieces to your pile. Will you be having the Lord’s Supper or a baptism this week? Put in the piece. Has something happened in your community or elsewhere in the world that needs attending to? Is it a meaningful Sunday to the church, either for celebration or for grieving? Leave ample space for those pieces because they are often last minute and always important. Will there be people worshiping online, listening on the radio, or watching a recording? Make sure there are pieces to include them as well. By the time you’ve identified all those pieces, sometimes all you can do is find a way to connect some of them and vow to incorporate the leftover pieces another week. I want to affirm you and tell you that you are doing hard and holy work. The fact that each week God’s people are gathered for worship and the Holy Spirit is present in the worship of your community is a testament to God’s faithfulness at work within your planning efforts. Whether it was a week you barely pulled it together or a week where you were energized and ready to go, God’s name was praised. There are many puzzle pieces that might never have been taken out of the box. During the pandemic years, some of us discovered new pieces and were able to try them out; others of us ended up putting well-worn and even beloved pieces back in the box because they just didn’t fit. And now many of our congregations are trying to figure out what pieces are necessary to make their worship feel right and complete once again. As many of our churches begin to evaluate some of these pieces with new eyes, I want to encourage you to think about how to include our children not just as worshipers, but as worship leaders. This puzzle piece is vitally important for them and for you. Children and youth need to be reminded that their presence matters. The church laments the time when we weren’t able to gather in person with people of all ages. We didn’t just miss the cute Christmas pageants with children in sheep ears and angel halos. We missed the children themselves. We missed their wonder, their curiosity, and their life. We missed them as our brothers and sisters in Christ who bear God’s image. We missed them as those who experience and engage worship every bit as meaningfully as we do, who often open our eyes to see the ways God is working in the world through a whole new lens. We missed them as fellow worshipers whose voices join in to mirror the resounding praise in heaven above. When we intentionally involve them in church life and leadership, we communicate that their presence with us as equal worshipers matters. Children and youth need to be reminded that their leadership matters. Of course we did actually miss the children acting in pageants and singing Sunday school songs. But their participation isn’t just about making cute videos to send to grandparents. When our children lead us in worship—as a group, as a family, or on their own—they are not performing for recognition. They are worshiping! God’s call to worship is every bit as much for them as it is for adults. We want them to worship in ways they can understand and engage with their young bodies and minds. We want to honor what the Holy Spirit is doing in and through them and how God might be using them. We do this best when we involve them as leaders—when we mirror what they are doing instead of always expecting them to follow us. Their worship is genuine and real, and there are times we need to follow them. Children and youth need to be reminded that their perspectives matter. I wonder what it would look like if you sat down on the metaphorical kitchen floor with a child of your congregation and started building the puzzle together? And what if we did that from the posture of “What can I learn about worship and about God from you?” instead of from a posture of teaching the “right” way to worship? I wonder how the past two years have affected our younger minds and how they might want to lament the brokenness and the pain they’ve experienced in their lives. I wonder what questions or memories they have when they hear water pouring into a baptismal font and over a forehead. I wonder what they wonder. As both a parent and a worship planner, I know that giving children and youth leadership responsibilities in worship takes extra work. It is easier to hand off a Scripture reading to an adult who can practice on their own. It is simpler to ask someone who has an email address and doesn’t need additional permission to participate so you can put one more piece securely in its place as Sunday draws closer. It is far less stressful to have a predictable soloist who won’t need extra rehearsals and multiple sound checks. But I urge you to consider recent worship shifts from a child’s perspective. How confusing it must have been to lose the stability and rhythm of Sunday worship, instead being at home with a bowl of goldfish crackers or in a sanctuary sitting far apart from other worshipers! What have they learned and observed about church, about worship, and about God? Now is the time to ensure that their presence and participation in church is not just tolerated, but fully embraced as a vital part of worship. These pieces might require additional time to fit into the puzzle, but including children where they rightly belong brings us one step closer to a fuller picture of God’s grace and God’s presence in our worship each week. Each piece matters. Praying that every person in your church find their place in this glorious picture, A fellow worship leader and planner

 Washington, DC Christian Reformed Church presented a twelve-part fall worship series titled “Rooted and Established in Love.” Using a tree as a metaphor, the series led the congregation through the journey of God’s creation, the brokenness of humanity, redemption in Christ, and the call to mission. What follows are highlights of six services that can be used as is, shortened, or expanded to include one or more of the other weeks listed below.Reformed Worship chose to publish this series because of its clear connection to faith practices, our focus for this issue. To help strengthen that connection, we have included a faith practice note for each service. We hope the notes will help inform the message, but they can also be adapted for bulletin notes, to prompt reflection time following the sermon, or for individuals, households, or small groups to discuss together.Series OutlineWeek 1: Genesis 2:4–25, “The Living Tree” (Formation)Week 2: Genesis 3, “The Dying Tree” (Forgiveness and Grace)Week 3: Exodus 3, “The Calling Tree” (Obedience and Discipleship)Week 4: Judges 4, “The Justice Tree” (Community, Unity and Solidarity), World Communion SundayWeek 5: Isaiah 55, “The Witness Tree” (Witness/Evangelism)Week 6: Luke 13:1–9, 18–21, “The Patient Trees” (Patience)Week 7: Luke 23:26–49, “The Saving Tree” (Sacrifice and Storytelling)Week 8: Hebrews 11, “The Family Tree” (Spiritual friendship/Mentoring), All Saints / Reformation SundayWeek 9: Psalm 1, “The Giving Tree” (Generosity)Week 10: Galatians 5:16–26, “The Fruitful Tree” (Rule of Life)Week 11: John 15, “The Abiding Tree” (Rootedness)Week 12: Revelation 22:1–6, “The Healing Tree” (Hope), Christ the King Sunday VisualsTwo artists from our congregation helped us envision ways to integrate visual components into this series. One taught a painting class during church school and used the tree theme to inspire students’ pieces. We hung the paintings on one wall of the sanctuary.The other artist created a piece based on photographs of her “family tree.” This piece was also hung in the sanctuary, and the artist shared its story with us on All Saints / “Family Tree” Sunday.The front of the sanctuary during this series featured greenery. a basket of leaves, and a thematic banner in addition to the usual liturgical furnishings.Also appropriate would be an adaptation of the ideas for projection described in the sidebar to “Worshiping with the Psalms” that features an image of a tree (RW 120:10).Week One: The Living TreeScripture: Genesis 2:4-25Faith Practice: FormationWhat does it mean that God breathed life into humanity and formed us? What does it mean to grow in the Lord, to be alive in God? How does that connect with our call to care for creation and to be creative, growing, and living children of God?Call to Worship: Psalm 8[Consider a dramatic reading of Psalm 8 involving intergenerational members of the congregation.]Call to Confession[Consider adapting paragraph 10 of Our World Belongs to God.]Prayer of ConfessionCreator God, we thank you for the beauty of your creation and for giving us the privilege of caring for it. We turn to you in prayer as the Maker, Creator, Author of all, acknowledging not only your sovereignty and lordship over all, but also praising you for your creativity, your providence, and your ongoing sustaining work in the creation.God, you saw the mountain ranges, outlining the peaks and the valleys and dusting them with snow, before they came into existence. You imagined the bright colors of the fish in the ocean before the waters teemed with life. You knew the composition of a single human cell, the intricacies and delicate balance of our bodies before they were formed from the dust.You knew each and every one of us long before we were conceived. You knew our thoughts and our actions, and you had a vision for how our lives would flourish and grow. We praise you as the one who is Lord over the big and the small, the vast expanses and the miniscule particles, the big picture and the daily details.We confess that so often we lose sight of the myriad ways you created and continue to create: through scientific advancement, through minds enabled to think and reason, through ways to cultivate farmland to feed both human and animal, through the gifted minds and hands of those who have the ability to teach young and old alike. For the times we forget that your hand is at work in all these things, continuing your good work of creating, forgive us, Lord.For the times we waste, destroy, or apathetically let go, we ask for forgiveness. You created all things and then pronounced them good. You created us from the dust, yet in your own image—your image that is beautiful and perfect and good. You desire flourishing for creation and for all humankind—but how often we fail, underestimating your plans. Instead of flourishing, we hide, we feel unworthy, we do not feel equipped enough or loved enough to do what you are calling us to do. Forgive us, Creator God.We pray that in your creation and in our lives as those made in your image we would flourish and grow in the grace and knowledge of you, our Lord and Savior. May your Holy Spirit fill us so that we might serve you with our whole heart, mind and strength. May we with all creation submit to you as Lord of all.—Kathryn RoelofsSong: “Have Thine Own Way, Lord!” PollardAssurance of Pardon: Isaiah 51:1–3Choral Anthem" “Grow Me, Lord” SchramChildren’s Message[One of our members grew an avocado pit (tinyurl.com/8crc6dac) and brought pits for kids to grow during the series so they could watch the avocado put down roots.] Week Two: The Dying TreeScripture: Genesis 3Faith Practice: Forgiveness and GraceWhat does it mean to live forgiven? How might that reality shape our living and our relationships with one another? Call to WorshipOn this Lord’s day, we, as beloved and chosen people of God,      are graciously called into this place for worship.Christ, who is our Redeemer, our Savior, healer, and giver of life,      beckons our community of faith to come together      and lift our individual and corporate voices to our Lord.It is by God’s gracious invitation that we are called to worship.So, people of God,      we are invited to come to worship not because we ought to,            but because we may;      we come and worship not because we are righteous,            but because we acknowledge our own sinfulness;      we come and worship not because we are strong,            but because we are weak and in need of God’s grace;      we come and worship not because we are whole,            but because we are broken and long for Christ’s restoration.—Kathryn RoelofsChoral Anthem: “Jesus Christ the Apple Tree” HelveyPrayer of ConfessionRefrain: “Your Mercy Flows” Sutton  (refrain only, repeating as indicated)Hear our cry, O Lord, for we are a broken people desperately in need of your grace and mercy. We are a broken people whose sins overwhelm us like a flood—some sins blatant, and some so secret we dare not think about them or acknowledge them before you. Hear our cry, O Lord. Hear our silent prayers, our silent longings, our silent confessions before you, laying bare our guilt and sin.We confess our personal sins, the ones we try so hard to hide from others but which are so known to you. We confess all the things that stand as a barrier between us and your gracious desire for our lives. Hear our prayers.RefrainWe confess systemic sins, the troubles and the sufferings in this world that seem so vast and oftentimes so far removed from our daily lives. But we are guilty before you for the sins of this world. Hear our prayers.RefrainWe confess the sins committed against us and our response to those sins. We lament the brokenness we share with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Hear our prayers.RefrainWe call out to you as those who are broken by our own inability to fix our own problems and by our ever-present propensity to make a mess of the beautiful world you have so graciously given us. Take these broken pieces of our lives and our souls and restore them with your mercy.—Kathryn RoelofsSermon Response  [During the sermon, Pastor Meg Jenista Kuykendall held up a large terra-cotta pot. She talked about how the previous Sunday was all about human flourishing in the garden and God’s good creation. Then she held the pot over her head and smashed it to the floor. This week was about brokenness and sin, and the destruction was a stunning visual and auditory representation of that. We “pre-broke” several other large pots and handed out rough-edged pieces of the terra-cotta for people to hold and feel during the sermon. During the response time after the sermon, people brought their pieces forward and placed them in a basket. The author reflected on this moment in the blog:  “Broken Pieces, Henry, and the Holy Spirit” The following Sunday, we had a repaired pot in front of the sanctuary, where it stayed for the rest of the series. We had very carefully broken a pot so the pieces could be glued back together. We tried kintsugi, the Japanese technique of using gold or silver resin both to repair and to highlight the cracks, but the substance didn’t stick well to terra-cotta.See “From Brokenness to Beauty: The Parable of the Clay Pots” for another possibility.]Song: “Amazing Grace” NewtonAssurance of Pardon: Psalm 103:8–14 followed by verses 1–4Song: “And Can It Be” WesleyParting BlessingSong: “To God Be the Glory” Crouch Week 3: The Calling TreeScripture: Exodus 3Faith Practice: Obedience and DiscipleshipCall to WorshipNow Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”And Moses said, “Here I am.”“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”—Exodus 3:1–5Prayer of ConfessionAlmighty God, so often we, like Moses, fear what it means to be called by you. So many times we look at the risks, we look at our own inadequacies for the task, we look around and see so many other people who are better equipped to serve you, and we shy away or close our ears to hear your call. We ask, “Who am I to be used by you?” But God, you say to us again and again, “I will be with you.” You, God, will be with us because you are almighty, you are everlasting, and you are always faithful. Your grace is enough. Amen.Assurance of Pardon: “Your Grace Is Enough” Maher, LUYH 698Guide to Grateful LivingJoining the mission of God,the church is sentwith the gospel of the kingdomto call everyone to know and follow Christand to proclaim to allthe assurance that in the name of Jesusthere is forgiveness of sinand new life for all who repent and believe.The Spirit calls all membersto embrace God’s missionin their neighborhoodsand in the world:To feed the hungry,bring water to the thirsty,welcome the stranger,clothe the naked,care for the sick,and free the prisoner.We repent of leaving this work to a few,for this mission is central to our being.—Our World Belongs to God, section 41Parting Blessing: Hebrews 13:20–21Song: “Thuma mina / Send Me, Lord” South AfricanWeek 4: The Justice Tree (World Communion Sunday)Scripture: Judges 4Faith Practice: Community, Unity, and SolidarityWhat does it mean to be united in Christ with people around the world whom you’ve never met? What does it mean to be united in Christ with people in your own community, some of whom you might not agree with? What does it mean to be united in Christ with people of different socioeconomic categories, cultural backgrounds, races, or genders?Call to ConfessionOn this World Communion Sunday, we are cognizant that there are many around the world—many of our brothers and sisters in Christ—who are on the margins. They gather around the table to celebrate, but some do so in fear of persecution. Some do so with true physical hunger plaguing their bodies so their “feast at the table of the Lord” is only something that is hoped for and longed for. In our broken world, God gathers us all: the marginalized, the powerful, the weak, the strong, the broken, and those seemingly put together. God gathers us together as God’s one church, as brothers and sisters, which means that when they suffer, we suffer with them. So we turn to the Lord in prayer—for them, for us, for all—asking for forgiveness where it is needed and for grace that can always be found.—Kathryn RoelofsWe grieve that the church,which shares one Spirit, one faith, one hope,and spans all time, place, race, and language,has become a broken communion in a broken world.When we strugglefor the truth of the gospeland for the righteousness God demands,we pray for wisdom and courage.When our pride or blindnesshinders the unity of God’s household,we seek forgiveness.—Our World Belongs to God, paragraph 40Let us pray for the world that God so dearly loves.Let us pray for the troubles and the sufferings of the world.Prayer of ConfessionSung Prayer: “Pelas dores deste mundo / For the Troubles” NetoSpoken Prayer: Lord, we pray for your kingdom to come. While we see glimpses of that kingdom that is already before us, we long for the day when your kingdom and your reign will be complete and all will acknowledge your rule and praise your name.Lord, we pray for your kingdom to come in areas of our world that so desperately need your grace. We pray for all who are on the margins: for those without adequate food and water; for those who have been affected by natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, and flooding.Lord, we pray for your kingdom to come and your peace to reign in areas of conflict: for the fear of nuclear development in North Korea; for the ever present tensions in the Middle East; for terrorist attacks and constant clashes of power. We pray for all the people who live in the shadow of these conflicts, people whose very lives are destroyed because of them.Lord, we pray for your kingdom to come to a world so rich in resources, yet so unfairly distributed; for a world so beautiful, yet cared for so poorly, with waste and little care for creation.Lord, we pray for your kingdom to come to our country: to our government, to our leaders and local officials, to our schools, to our cities and our farmlands.Lord, we pray for your kingdom to come to our city, a hub of political power where many important decisions are made daily that affect not only the city and the country, but the world; a city that struggles with inequality and poverty, a city that needs you.Lord, we pray for your kingdom to come to our own lives, with whatever we face: financial struggle, illness, depression, lack of enthusiasm for our work, boredom, major life transitions, parenting, “adulting,” grieving.For all these things and more, we pray for peace, the blessed peace that comes from seeking justice in your world for all the people you love so dearly.—Kathryn RoelofsSung Prayer: “Pelas dores deste mundo / For the Troubles” NetoAssurance of Pardon: Poem: “And the Table Will Be Wide,” Jan Richardson (see RW 138:32)Communion Week Five: The Witness TreeScripture: Isaiah 55Faith Practice: Witness/EvangelismCall to Worship: “This Is My Father’s World” BabcockOur World Belongs to GodAs followers of Jesus Christ,living in this world—which some seek to control,and others view with despair—we declare with joy and trust:Our world belongs to God!From the beginning,through all the crises of our times,until the kingdom fully comes,God keeps covenant forever:Our world belongs to God!God is King: Let the earth be glad!Christ is victor: his rule has begun!The Spirit is at work: creation is renewed!Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!Jesus ascended in triumph,raising our humanity to the heavenly throne.All authority, glory, and sovereign powerare given to him.There he hears our prayersand pleads our cause before the Father.Blessed are allwho take refuge in him.Our hope for a new creation is not tiedto what humans can do,for we believe that one dayevery challenge to God’s rule will be crushed.His kingdom will fully come,and the Lord will rule.Come, Lord Jesus, come.—Our World Belongs to God, sections 1, 2, 27, 55Song: “Rejoice, the Lord Is King” WesleyChoral Anthem: “The Trees of the Field / Come to Me” arr. Larson Week Six: Patient TreesScripture: Luke 13:1-9, 18-21Faith Practice: PatienceQuote for Bulletin or Projection“Teach me thy patience; still with theein closer, dearer company,in work that keeps faith sweet and strong,in trust that triumphs over wrong.”—“O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee,” Gladden, P.D.Call to WorshipQ. What do you believe when you say,“I believe in God, the Father almighty,creator of heaven and earth”?A. That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,who out of nothing created heaven and earthand everything in them,who still upholds and rules themby his eternal counsel and providence,is my God and Fatherbecause of Christ the Son.I trust God so much that I do not doubthe will providewhatever I needfor body and soul,and will turn to my goodwhatever adversity he sends upon mein this sad world.God is able to do this because he is almighty Godand desires to do this because he is a faithful Father.—Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 26Song of Response with Prayer of Confession: “Kindness” TomlinAssurance of Pardon: 2 Peter 3:9Week Seven: The Saving TreeScripture: Luke 23:26-49It may seem odd to preach the crucifixion in the fall, but every sermon is a proclamation of the gospel, and the crucifixion is central to that story. Indeed, this service was all about telling that story, and it was the turning point in our series.Faith Practice: Sacrifice, Storytelling, and TestimoniesDo you know your spiritual story? We all have one. We sometimes think that the pinnacle of our testimony is the moment we declared we believed. The reality is that the climax of the story happened about 2,000 years ago, when our God sacrificed himself on a tree. It was that moment that made all salvation moments that followed possible.EXPOSITIONCall to Worship: “The Story and the Song”[We bookended the service with excerpts from The Jesus Storybook Bible read by our oldest member from a rocking chair up front.]Scripture Reading: John 1:1–5, 14Song: “The First Place” WesterholmGreeting from God: Colossians 1:15–19We Greet Each OtherSong: “Jesus Messiah” TomlinScripture Reading: Isaiah 53:1–6Song: “What Wondrous Love” MeadChildren’s MessageOfferingCRISISPrayer of ConfessionRefrain: “Jesus, Remember Me” Taizé Father of all creation, before the world began, you were there. Before there was time and before there was space, you—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—dwelled in perfect unity, in perfect harmony, in perfect knowledge of all that would be in this world and in the world to come. You called this world into being from nothing, filling the earth with the beautiful, the strange, and the unique, the cosmic and the particle. From the dust of the ground you formed us in your own image. Father of all creation, you knew us, you remembered us, you loved us from the very beginning.RefrainGod our redeemer, in the garden, through Adam and Eve, sin entered our world. Your desire for human flourishing and delight was marred and destroyed by sin, and that sin continues in us today. We prove each day that we are guilty sinners through our actions, our inaction, our words, our thoughts, our motivations, and our very lives. Forgive us. Have mercy on us. Remember us.RefrainEmmanuel, God with us, you did not turn away from a world bent on destruction, but instead you turned toward it in love. You are the long-awaited Messiah, the Word that became flesh and dwelled among us in our brokenness and sin. On that night in Bethlehem, you entered in, you chose the path of love, you remembered us.RefrainJesus, Emmanuel, you came into this world for us. You endured trials and temptations for us. You suffered and cried at the last, “It is finished!” for us. For us you rose to newness of life to prove that death no longer has the final word. For us you were victorious, you were obedient, and you are now crowned Lord of all, and now you stand before the Father interceding for us. In the midst of all these things, you remembered us—from death to life, you remembered us.RefrainHoly Spirit, Breath of God, given to us so that through true faith we may share in Christ and all his benefits: you are our comfort, and you promise your presence will be with us through our joys and our sorrows, our fears and our rejoicing. Forgive us for the times we doubt and lose sight of your presence working within us. Forgive us when we ignore your prompting, favoring our own competency and will. Like the wind, you blow through our hearts and our lives, unseen yet ever felt, ever moving, ever changing us, ever challenging us to trust and obey. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, God, you remember us and continue your ongoing work in our lives as we bring forth your kingdom here on earth.RefrainWe praise you, God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—for the multitude of ways you remember us, from the beginning of time through your life, death, and resurrection. Thanks be to you, O God. Amen.—Kathryn RoelofsTurning PointResponsive ReadingIs it significant that he was “crucified”instead of dying some other way?Yes.By this I am convincedthat he shouldered the cursewhich lay on me,since death by crucifixion was cursed by God.What further benefit do we receivefrom Christ’s sacrifice and death on the cross?By Christ’s powerour old selves are crucified, put to death, and buried with him,so that the evil desires of the fleshmay no longer rule us,but that instead we may offer ourselvesas a sacrifice of gratitude to him.—Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 39, 43Scripture Reading: Luke 23:26–49Message: “The Saving Tree” ResolutionSong: “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” WesleyReading: “The Story and the Song” (see Call to Worship)Song: “I Love to Tell the Story” Hankey Week Eight: The Family Tree (All Saints Sunday)Scripture: Hebrews 11Faith Practice: Spiritual Friendship, Mentoring, and Faith StoriesCan you name the people who have impacted you spiritually? Whom do you have in your life who is helping you grow in the faith? Are there individuals whom you mentor, either formally or informally? Each of us needs people to accompany us on the journey of life, and we need to do the same for others. We are all members of the same tree.[Since this service fell on All Saints Sunday, instead of a traditional service we invited several members of the congregation to share their faith stories around particular themes. You can find those themes interspersed throughout the service. Feel free to adapt the service to fit the stories from your community. Each story was three to five minutes.]The Family TreeIntroduction[This service began with a short personal story about a tree. You are encouraged to begin by telling your own story in just a few sentences before moving on to the following text.]...Every tree can tell a similar kind of tale if you look at the etchings in its bark or listen to the whisperings of its leaves. It belongs to generations of people, telling stories from decades of living, climbing, and tending. It might be yours for only a short period of time, but it doesn’t make it any less a part of your story, and you are not any less a part of its story.This morning we turn our attention to our family tree—not your personal, great-grandparent/parent/sibling kind of family tree, but the broader family tree that is our community of branches rooted in Jesus Christ, ingrafted by our shared unity and faith in him, and called to spread wide our branches to grow God’s kingdom. In our worship this morning we will go back to our roots, remembering and celebrating where we began. We will take time to pray for and tend to the weaker branches of the tree. We will commit ourselves once again to being part of a community of believers, and finally we will gather together to share a meal where life-giving words are spoken, where we are fed, sustained, and nourished by the grace of God and called once again to go and live into the stories of our faith.On this All Saints Sunday, it is so right and fitting that we celebrate our family tree, one made up of those on earth and in heaven who call this tree their own. These are the ones who cared for this tree, who handed it down to us in faith. And here’s the thing about this family tree: it is not so much a part of our individual story; rather, we have the unique and wonderful privilege for a short time to be a part of its story. Along with all of God’s people on earth, in heaven, and yet to come, we find ourselves in the branches of this tree, lifting our voices in praise to the heavenly realms. It is a tree that holds the whole of God’s beloved ones, from the fruit in Eden to the final springs of eternity in the New Jerusalem. It is the tree that holds the cloud of witnesses described for us in Hebrews 12:1–2: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”So together, we join our voices with saints of all times and all places to sing “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.”—Kathryn RoelofsSong: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty” HeberGree;ting from GodSong: “O Christ, the Great Foundation” Lew We Return to Our RootsChoral Anthem: “Psalm 28” IvoryScripture Reading: Psalm 46Song: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” LutherDeclaration of FaithHere, we worship God as one Church:The Church Reformed and always Reforming.Here, the Holy Spirit pours over us:Reforming us into the Body of Christ.Here, we return to our roots:Seeking the beginnings, middles, and ends of our faith.—Rev. Lucus Levy Keppel 2013 © Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Rev. Keppel is currently serving Trinity Presbyterian Church in Bixby, OK. (From LiturgyLink.net). Used by permission.Faith Story: “Rooted”Caring for All Parts of the TreeOffering and Offertory Prayer[We adapted a prayer from a previous issue of Reformed Worship (“I Was Hungry: A Litany of Remembrance and Confession,” RW 75:21). During the prayer we paused for several seconds of silence as facts about poverty in our community, state, nation, and world were projected.]Faith Story: “Nourished”Morning Prayer[Consider using a prayer based on the Beatitudes such as the one found at tinyurl.com/RW-140-Beatitudes-Prayer.]The Tree Thrives in CommunityResponsive ReadingWhat do you believe concerning “the holy catholic church”?I believe that the Son of God through his Spirit and Word, out of the entire human race, from the beginning of the world to its end, gathers, protects, and preserves for himself a community chosen for eternal life and united in true faith. And of this community I am and always will be a living member.—Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 54Faith Story: “Communal”Song: “Beneath the Cross” Getty (vs. 1, 2)Prayer of ConfessionWe stand beneath the cross, confident that God hears our prayers and has already accomplished the great work of redemption for us. But as we look up at the cross and remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we acknowledge the sin and brokenness in our world and in our own lives. Please pray with me.Life-giving God, Creator of all things good, Redeemer of the cosmos, breath of life for all living things, we praise you for the many ways you are at work in this world. At your word, creation came to life—vast oceans with unfathomable depths, mountain peaks reaching up to the heavens, golden prairies that reach as far as the eye can see, trees of every variety and size providing us with shade, air to breathe, colors to stand in awe of. You, O Lord, have also created us in your image and called us to be good stewards of your creation. You call us to tend the earth, to bring forth your kingdom through our vocations, to be your body here on earth, united with your church in doing your will. We confess that in so many ways we fall short of these mandates. Instead of seeking unity, we seek conflict. Instead of seeking community, we choose to isolate. Instead of seeking peace, we tolerate dysfunction. You do not call us to a life of relying on our own selfish pride and independence; you call us to be your body: joined together, working together, seeking you together. Forgive us when our own actions have a negative impact on your world—creation and people alike. May we and all your children strive to bring you all the honor and glory and praise you deserve, until we as your people are united with each other and all the world in singing an unending hymn of praise to you, our Creator, Redeemer, and Lord. Amen.—Kathryn RoelofsSong: “Beneath the Cross” Getty (v. 3)Assurance of PardonHear these words of assurance from Ephesians 2:19–22: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”We Greet Each OtherThanks be to God that God forgives our sins and calls us to unity with Christ and all God’s people. In response and in gratitude we greet one another in peace and love.Song: “Koinonia” McKay Our Family Tree Has Many MembersFaith Story: “Whole”[Annie Kotowicz, the creator of the image at the top of the article, shared the story of the painting.]Song: “One Bread, One Body” Foley (vs. 2, 3) The Tree Is a Foretaste of the Creation to ComeCommunion Celebration Week Nine: The Giving TreeScripture: Psalm 1Faith Practice: GenerosityPrayerRefrain: “Take, O Take Me As I Am” BellCreator God, loving Father, Redeemer Son, Holy Spirit, living breath of God:In the waters of baptism you claimed us and marked us as your own. From before time began you hovered over the waters, you called us by name, and you made known your promises of faithfulness and love. It is in these waters that we find our roots. It is water that is life-giving and nourishing, helping us to grow wide our faith and grow out with our love for the good creation you have put around us. In these waters, we see life. In these waters, we dwell with you just as we are meant to be.RefrainBut Lord, how often and how quickly the chaos disrupts us, uproots us, holds back nourishment from the fruit we are called to bear. The way of the wicked seems to flourish and we are unable to find ways to resist it. We know from your Word and we know in our heads that the wicked will not prosper, but how hard it is to remember that when our hearts ache, our eyes see the unimaginable, our minds cannot comprehend. We see wicked prospering all over your world, the world you love so dearly. We see it in the marring and destruction of creation, lives lost in natural disasters and epidemics. We see it in the unfair distribution of goods and wealth leading to poverty, hunger, and a lack of dignity for some and wealth for others. We see it in the seemingly neverending conflicts between nations. We see it in abuse—of power, of substances, of other human beings. We see it in our cities,  our classrooms, the conference rooms we sit in, and, when we are honest, our own selves. Everywhere around us we see it. And everything inside of us cannot comprehend it. So we sit baffled, stunned, apathetic, and helpless to change the course. So take us as we are, O God. Summon out what we will be.RefrainGod, where we lack wisdom, where we sit baffled and stunned, apathetic and helpless to change course, you remind us that you entered into this mess we have made of your good world and you whisper reminders from the waters that you will be with us. For you are always at work in us, prompting us and leading us by your Holy Spirit, opening opportunities for us to be righteous in our lives because you were already righteous on our behalf. In your uncommon wisdom, you chose us. You work through us. You love us. You use us to do your work here on earth. Open wide our eyes to see you. Open wide our hands to share and serve. Open wide our mouths to declare your praise. Open wide our imaginations to dream, create, and catch a glimpse of your uncommon wisdom. Open wide our hearts to be used by you. Take us just as we are, O God, and live in us.RefrainCall us back to the waters of baptism to again hear your promises—promises that are sure and eternal—and a wisdom that is far beyond our comprehension. Then send us forth, renewed and planted deeply in your streams of water to bear fruit and grow in your grace.“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?’ ‘Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?’ For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen (Romans 11:33–36).Response Time—Remembering Your BaptismFriends, we are baptized people. God has chosen and named us, and we respond with the faith he alone gives. But we respond. We have to do something. We have to get out of the boat if we want to walk on water. We have to live lives worthy of the grace we’ve been given. So let’s together affirm what God makes possible. I’ll ask a series of questions, and you’ll answer all together with a collective “I do!”[Leader asks a series of questions that resonate with themes that may be present in the sermon. Supplement this list with your own questions.]Do you trust in God’s gracious promises, signed and sealed to you in your baptism?Do you believe that God, who always makes the first step toward us in love, has planted you by streams of water and calls you to bear fruit?Do you turn your back on evil and turn toward God and God’s law as a gracious guide for your life?Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, as the one who watches over us and continually calls us back to the living waters?Finally, have you decided, by God’s grace, to choose the path of righteousness, turning away from all the wicked things that lead to destruction?Song of Response: “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus” AnonymousParting BlessingSong: “We Will Extol You, God and King” Scheer (vs. 1, 4)Week Ten: The Fruitful TreeScripture: Galatians 5:16-26Faith Practice: Rule of LifeWhat is your “rule of life”—the particular habits, rhythms, and commitments that God has put on your heart? Just 300 years after Christ’s death there were communities that were intentional about how they wanted to live, what their values were, and what habits they needed to put into practice in order to be true to those values. If you haven’t already written a rule of life, the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is a great place to begin your discernment process.Choral Call to Worship: “I Shall Not Be Moved” arr. ParkerResponsive ReadingGod calls us to be like trees, planted by the streams of living waters,a river that flows eternally with cool, sweet water.Drink in the Word of God and live joyfully in the light of the Holy One.We let go of the evil that corrupts, and cling to the good that nourishes us.Then, when the time is right, the fruit of the Spirit will be with us,and we praise God for the ripeness of life. Amen!Prayer of Confession: “Gracious Spirit, Heed Our Pleading” Niwaglia (vs. 1–3)Galatians 5 calls us to confess our sins: So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.Gracious Spirit, you desire good: good in the world and good in our lives. You have given us ways to know you and ways to know what your will is for us. But we confess that our wants and our desires cause us to turn away, to choose our own will and our own way. We think it will lead us to where we want to be, but God, we know that your way is the way of life eternal. So we pray for your Holy Spirit to work within us, to guide and lead us, to help us bear fruit, to grow and cultivate in us the way of life. Come, Holy Spirit, come. Peace of ChristAssurance of PardonDedication / Guide to Grateful LivingWe believe that true faith,produced in us by the hearing of God’s Wordand by the work of the Holy Spirit,regenerates us and makes us new creatures,causing us to live a new lifeand freeing us from the slavery of sin.It is impossiblefor this true faith to be unfruitful in a human being,seeing that we do not speak of an empty faithbut of what Scripture calls“faith working through love,”which moves people to do themselvesthe works that God has commandedin the Word.These works,proceeding from the good root of faith,are good and acceptable to God,since they are all sanctified by God’s grace.But they do not count toward our justification—for by faith in Christ we are justified,even before we do good works.Otherwise they could not be good,any more than the fruit of a tree could be goodif the tree is not good in the first place.So we do good works,but not for merit—for what would we merit?Rather, we are indebted to God for the good works we do,and not God to us,since God “is at work in [us], enabling [us] bothto will and to work for his good pleasure.”—Adapted from Belgic Confession 24Song: “For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free” Dunstan, LUYH 679Week Eleven: The Abiding TreeScripture: John 15Faith Practice: RootednessQuote for the Bulletin or Projection“Now how does a branch bear fruit? Not by incessant effort for sunshine and air; not by vain struggles for those vivifying influences which give beauty to the blossom, and verdure to the leaf;—it simply abides in the vine, in silent and undisturbed union; and the fruit and blossoms appear as of spontaneous growth.“How, then, shall a Christian bear fruit? By efforts and struggles to obtain that which is freely given; by meditations on watchfulness, on prayer, on action, on temptation, and on dangers? No, there must be a full concentration of the thoughts and affections on Christ; a complete surrender of the whole being to him; a constant looking to him for grace.”—Harriet Beecher Stowe, introduction to Religion As It Should Be, or, The Remarkable Experience and Triumphant Death of Ann Thane Peck, by Christopher C. Dean, 2nd ed. (Boston: Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, 1851), xi.Week Twelve: The Healing Tree (Christ the King Sunday)Scripture: Revelation 22:1-6Faith Practice: HopeWhen we know our roots, find ourselves firmly established in God’s story of redemption, and declare Christ as King and Lord of all, then we also know the rest of the story. Wherever we find ourselves, even in the midst of the darkest valley, we can take the long view, knowing that there will be a day when all will be well. We have hope because one day there will be a tree of life once again, “and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2).Call to ConfessionWe come before God to confess our lack of trust. We sing “Jesus is Lord” and declare him King of kings over all creation, but too often we act as though he is powerless in the face of the events in our world today. Our broken world and our broken lives are in need of Christ our King. The war-torn countries and poverty-stricken cities are in need of Christ our King. Our groaning planets and our aching hearts are in need of Christ our King. In this silent time of confession, let us acknowledge this need.Prayer of ConfessionMighty and tender God, voice of the voiceless, power of the powerless, we praise you for your vision of a community of wholeness, a realm of peace in which all hunger and thirst are nourished, in which the stranger is welcomed, the hurting are healed, and the captive is set free. Guide us by your truth and love until we and all your people make manifest your reign of justice and compassion. Open our minds and our imaginations to see and participate in your kingdom already at work in this world, and help us to dream and continue to long for a kingdom yet to come. We pray in the name of your anointed one, our King and our Savior, to whom, with you and the Spirit, be honor, glory, and blessing, this day and forever. Amen.—Kathryn RoelofsAssurance[Consider creating a responsive reading from Our World Belongs to God, paragraphs 1, 2, 27, and 55.]Song: “Rejoice, the Lord Is King” Wesley (vs. 1, 2, 4)Sermon Response[After the sermon we prayed for the “healing of the nations.” People came forward to put leaves on the countries of the world where prayer was needed (see picture below). During this prayer time we sang “Pelas dores deste mundo / For the Troubles” Neto and “Salaam/Peace.” Samir]     

As pastors and worship leaders, we do our best to live into the gospel that we proclaim from week to week. It’s a gospel big enough to contain both our laments, our cries, our hopes, and our joys. It’s a gospel that recognizes and acknowledges the brokenness of our world and still finds a way to offer the hope of Easter morning.

We—pastors, worship leaders, congregations —are afraid. 2020 has seen the rise of a global pandemic, job loss and economic depression, and overwhelming prophetic anger at racial injustice, not to mention all of the uncertainties and losses of being human on a planet desperately in need of restoration and renewal. Advent is a season of waiting on God’s promises for a redeemed creation. As we wait, we offer up our fears to God and hear God’s comfort in angel voices: “Do not be afraid.”For Advent, Pastor Meg Jenista Kuykendall preached the instances throughout the Christmas story where the words “do not be afraid” are spoken. We dug into what each character’s particular fears might have been as they were told that they had been chosen for a greater purpose. We looked at the many ways God’s promises of God’s presence were steadfast even in times of doubt and confusion.In the sidebar are links to additional services related to this series, both new and previously published.Prelude to AdventFear as the Beginning of WisdomGod Calls Us to WorshipScripture Reading Psalm 111Songs“O God Beyond All Praising” (choir sings v. 1, all sing vs. 2–3)Perry“Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” (vs. 1, 3, and 4)Smith We Confess Our Fears and Are Assured of God’s Presence With UsSong “Still, My Soul, Be Still” GettyPrayer of Confession Lord, we are a fearful people. It is not easy to rest in you alone, and it is not easy to feel secure in a world that is shifting beneath our feet. We fear for our jobs, our country, our own health, our families, and all those we love. Fear is a language we speak fluently, and we confess this. Lord, we need faith in your wisdom and in your providence that, no matter what it is we fear, you in your wisdom are guiding us and walking with us.Choral Assurance of Pardon “Child of God” De VriesGod Speaks to Us a Word of Grace and Sends Us Out With God’s PresenceSong “Be Thou My Vision” IrishScripture Proverbs 1:1–7Message “The Fear of Wisdom, the Wisdom of Fear”Sending Song “God of Grace and God of Glory” (vs. 1, 2, and 4)FosdickAdvent 1The Hopes and Fears of All the YearsWe Wait and We HopeChoral Introit “Comfort, My People” CallananAdvent Candle Lighting: Hope On this first Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of hope. [Light andle.] Isaiah gives us a vision of a kingdom yet to come where everything has been made new and where creation is at peace. “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD—and he will delight in the fear of the LORD” (Isaiah 11:1–3). We light this candle of hope as a sign of our waiting and expectation for the coming Christ.Song “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” GermanResponsive Reading I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,and in his word I hope;my soul waits for the Lordmore than those who watch for the morning.We wait and we hope. O Israel, hope in the LORD!For with the LORD there is steadfast love,and with him is great power to redeem.We wait and we hope. Glory to God the Father, to Jesus the Messiah, and to the Holy Spirit.We wait and we hope. Amen. —adapted from Psalm 130:5–7, NRSVSongs “Christ, Be Our Light” (vs. 1, 2, 4, and 5) Farrell“Here I Am to Worship” HughesPrayer of Confession We wait and we hope. For many of us, Christmas feels like a time in which we do neither. The season has become one of parties and extra activities, plans with family, year-end deadlines, and purchasing gifts. There is not much space for us to wait and feel hopeful. So this morning we begin our time of prayer by carving out some space for silence, for silent prayers to God or maybe just for silence before God.[Silence]Emmanuel, God with us, in this Advent season, we confess how difficult it is to slow down. We don’t want to wait patiently for anything, and instead we buy into the busyness of the season, leading many of us to feel a lack of joy and a lack of hope. When we look at the world around us, it’s hard to feel hopeful about the world, about our nation, about ourselves. We are surrounded by death, destruction, and pain, and we long for a day when your promised kingdom comes to make all things new. Give us hope that this day is indeed coming, and help us to rest in this because your promises are always true. Amen.Assurance of Pardon Our hope for a new creation is not tied to what humans can do, for we believe that one day every challenge to God’s rule will be crushed. His kingdom will fully come, and the Lord will rule. Come, Lord Jesus, come.—Our World Belongs to God: A Contemporary Testimony, 55Song “Eternal Weight of Glory” KimbroughWe Rest in God’s WordScripture Reading Isaiah 11:1–10Message “The Hopes and Fears of All the Years”Prayer of Response Eternal God, for whom all people wait and search, open our eyes, closed by fear and blinded by self-pity, that we may see clearly the anxieties and uncertainties that beset our days. These are the very circumstances that make us impatient for your return.—Adapted from John T. Ames, Let Us Pray; Reformed Prayers for Christian Worship. Edited by Martha S. Gilliss. © 2002, Geneva Press. Used by permission.Refrain: The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee, O Christ. (“O Little Town of Bethlehem,” adapted Brooks, LUYH 88, GtG 121, SSS 80)For all those whose fears cause them to fight, who are caught up in conflicts or escalating tensions; for people and nations who bait and taunt one another, who threaten violence, who begin and perpetuate wars: teach us vulnerability to name our fears, to experience hope, and to trust in you.RefrainFor all those whose fears cause them to fly, who cannot name or feel or know the depths of their own sorrow or anger, who are so hidden they cannot even find themselves, who pretend when the work of holiness demands honesty: teach us vulnerability to name our fears, to experience hope, and to trust in you.RefrainFor all those whose fears cause them to freeze, who feel stuck in patterns and behaviors they know are not healthy or wise but do not know how to do or to be anything other than what they’ve always done and always been; for people and nations stuck in the way things have always been, who are afraid to imagine a new way forward: teach us vulnerability to name our fears, to experience hope, and to trust in you.RefrainRemember your church, O Christ; send your Spirit of unity, courage, and holiness. Give joy to all your faithful servants; have mercy on all who suffer persecution for your name’s sake; uphold them by your strong Spirit. Bring an end to divisions between Christians; gather us in one visible communion. Teach us vulnerability to name our fears, to experience hope, and to trust in you.—Adapted from an ecumenical prayer from France RefrainWe pray for all who are leading the nations. Give them a sense of what is right, that they may work toward peace, the common good, and human flourishing for all. Call each of us as we enter our workplaces, communities, and homes to bring your presence with us, bearing signs of your light in dim and dark places. Teach us vulnerability to name our fears, to experience hope, and to trust in you.—Adapted from an ecumenical prayer from FranceRefrainEternal God, ever faithful to your promises, the earth rejoices in hope of our Savior’s coming and looks forward with longing to his return at the end of time. Prepare our hearts to receive him when he comes, for he is Lord forever and ever. Amen.—Adapted from Baker’s Worship Handbook: Traditional and Contemporary Service Resources. Paul E. Engle. Baker Books, a division of Baker Book House Company, 1998. © 1998, Paul E. Engle. Used by permission. bakerpublishinggroup.com.Advent 2Fear of DisappointmentPraise Be to the Lord, the God of Israel, Because God Has Come to His People and Redeemed ThemAdvent Candle Lighting: Love Last Sunday we lit the candle of hope and were reminded to put our hope in God’s promises of a peaceful kingdom. [Light first candle.] On this second Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of love. Our God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). We light this candle to remember God’s love, which brings joy to the world and peace on earth. [Light second candle.]Choral Anthem“Joy to the World” arr. ProulxResponsive Reading Rejoice in the Lord always.I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all.The Lord is near. We rejoice in the hope of Christ’s coming.Rejoice! Rejoice! —adapted from Philippians 4:4–5Songs “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (vs. 1, 2, and 7) Traditional“Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” (vs. 1, 3, and 4) WesleyGod Shows Mercy to Our Ancestors and Helps Us Remember God’s Holy CovenantSong “My Soul in Stillness Waits” HaugenPrayer of Confession Emmanuel, God with us, we confess how hard it is for us to wait. Like Zechariah, we have a hard time waiting on you, and we lose hope so quickly when it seems as though you aren’t answering our prayers in the ways we hope. Sometimes your timing is mysterious. Sometimes you answer our longings and our prayers in ways we have a hard time comprehending. Take away all the barriers in our lives that keep us from being able to hear you, to know you, and to love you with all our hearts. And give us ears to hear your gentle voice saying, “Be not afraid.” Amen.God Gives God’s People the Knowledge of Salvation through the Forgiveness of Their SinsScripture Reading Luke 1:5–25Message “The Fear of Disappointment”Responsive Music “I Shall Not Want” AssadGod Shines on Those Living in Darkness to Guide Our Feet into the Path of PeaceSending Litany In this Advent season of waiting on the Lord,We trust in the Lord’s goodness.We rely on his mercy.We find shelter in his steadfast love. In this Advent season of waiting,Lord, we await your salvation.We await your leading,We await your coming. In this Advent season of waiting on the Lord,We walk in the Lord’s way.We keep our covenant promises.We follow his example of love. —Adapted from Harry Boonstra, Reformed Worship 9, © 1988 Worship Ministries of the Christian Reformed Church. Used by permission.God’s Blessing The same voice that speaks over the waters and calls us to follow and obey,the same voice that promises “I am your God, you are my people,”the same voice that spoke “This is my beloved Son,’now blesses the people with peace:“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”The blessing of Almighty God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is with you now and forevermore. Amen.—Based on Psalm 29:2, 9; Exodus 20:18; Matthew 3:17; Isaiah 41:10Song: “How Firm a Foundation” (vs. 1–3, 5)18th century Additional Services for This SeriesLinks to the following services are available in the digital edition and at ReformedWorship.org.- Christmas Eve Service- Longest Night / Blue Christmas Service Using Psalm 80- Two Epiphany ServicesTwo previously published services that would fit well with this series, also by Pastors Kathryn Roelofs and Meg Jenista Kuykendall:- Longest Night: A Service of Christmas Mourning, RW 125:25- Be Not Afraid: A Service of Scripture and Song for a New Year, RW 133:30Advent 3Fear of RevisionCome and Worship!Advent Candle Lighting: Peace On the first Sunday of Advent, we lit the candle of hope and were reminded to put our hope in God’s promises of a peaceful kingdom. [Light first candle.] On the second Sunday of Advent, we lit the candle of love to represent God’s love for us through the incarnation of our Savior, Jesus Christ. [Light second candle.] This morning we light the candle of peace. We wait for God’s promises of peace on earth and good will to all. We pray that God’s peace would break through our restless hearts and lead us to Bethlehem, where we can celebrate our Savior’s birth. We light this candle of peace. [Light third candle.]Children’s Choir Pageant “Away in a Manger” 19th c. North American“Go, Tell It On the Mountain” SpiritualResponsive Call to Praise We have heard the story of Jesus Christ with joy and anticipation.We have come to worship. We open our hearts to prepare room for his coming.We have come to worship. We open our ears to hear the choirs of angels proclaim his holy birth.We have come to worship. We open our lives to God’s greater plans for us.We have come to worship. Through the grace of God’s Holy Spirit,we have come to worship Christ, the newborn King.Songs “Angels from the Realms of Glory” (vs. 1, 4, and 5) Montgomery“Hark, the Glad Sound! The Savior Comes”(vs 1, 2, and 4) Doddridge  Restore Us, O God, and Make Your Face Shine upon UsSong “Meekness and Majesty”(vs. 1, 3) Kendrick Prayer of Confession with Spoken Response There is mystery in the season of Advent and mystery in the story of Jesus’ birth. God works in mysterious ways, using ordinary people like you and me to accomplish God’s plan of salvation and kingdom work. But we gather for prayer to confess that we aren’t always eager to allow God to work in us. We prefer our own ways over God’s mysterious ways. We prefer darkness over light. So we pray using words from Mary’s song (Luke 1:46–55), and we ask God to make God’s face shine on us and to open our hearts to God’s will for our lives. When I say “Restore us, O God,” please respond with “and make your face shine upon us that we might be saved.”Let us pray.Our souls glorify you, O Lord, and our spirits rejoice in you, our Savior!For you have been mindful of the humble state of your servants.You have heard our cry and saved your people.We shall be called blessed because we are called by you to be a blessing to others.Your mercy extends from generation to generation.Your mercy called Adam and Eve into being.Your mercy kept vengeance from taking Cain’s life.Your mercy saved Noah and his family from the flood.Your mercy caused Sarah’s womb to be fruitful.Your mercy gave Joseph’s dreams the power to save a nation.Your mercy heard the Israelites’ cry and called Moses to action.Your mercy charged Mary with the most special of tasks.Your mercy strengthened Joseph to care for her.Your mercy sent Jesus Christ into the world to save us from the dark of night.We give you thanks for your mercy; may it continue to shine upon us!Restore us, O God,and make your face shine upon us that we might be saved.We remember this day thosewho crave your shining face,who long for the light,who need your power to drive out the darkness:For those who live with depression or other mental illnesses. [pause]For those who cannot bring themselves to forgive others. [pause]For those who cannot forgive themselves. [pause]For those who seek refuge, but have been denied shelter. [pause]For those who seek shelter, but have been denied a home. [pause]For those who have lost loved ones in the past year. [pause]For those who have lost physical or mental abilities. [pause]For those who care for aging spouses or loved ones. [pause]For those who have been living with cancer and other debilitating illnesses. [pause]Restore us, O God,and make your face shine upon us that we might be saved.We ask that you would strengthen us as a congregation:as we serve one another and those with whom you called us into fellowship,as we seek to bring hospitality and hope to our community,as we discern where you might be leading us,as we hold in tension that which we have been with that which you call us to be,as we seek to be the best stewards of the money and gifts with which we’ve been blessed,as we search for the truth of your word and do our best to live it out in our lives,as we wait, watch, and wonder in preparation for the coming of your Son.Restore us, O God,and make your face shine upon us that we might be saved.Gracious God, on this Advent journey,may we wait with Mary’s joyful anticipationas we prepare to welcome your Son, our Savior,into this broken world in need of his redeeming.Gather us, guide us, and keep us as your people.Send us into the world so that our hands might beChrist’s own, and his mind one with ours in all thatyou would have us do.Restore us, O God,and make your face shine upon us that we might be saved.Amen.“May Your Word to Me Be Fulfilled”Scripture Reading Luke 1:26–45Message“The Fear of Revision”Dramatic Reading “How the Grinch Learned the Magnificat,” by Rev. Emmy R. Kegler (tinyurl.com/y88awm3d)Song “My Soul Cries Out with a Joyful Shout” (vs. 1–3) Cooney Parting BlessingSong “My Soul Cries Out with a Joyful Shout” (v. 4) CooneyAdvent 4Fear of a Ruined ReputationJoy to the World, the Lord Is Come!Advent Candle Lighting: Joy As we anticipate the birth of Jesus Christ, we light candles of hope, love, and peace as reminders of the promise that Emmanuel is our God with us and that God graciously gives us these gifts even if they sometimes come in ways that are mysterious to us. [Light three candles.] On this fourth Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of joy. We fix our eyes on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him, he came down to earth and took on our humanity, endured the cross with all its shame and sat down at the right hand of God in heaven. The day is coming when there will be everlasting joy to the world, for our Lord will come! Let all the earth receive her king! We light this candle of joy in anticipation of that day. [Light fourth candle.] Please stand as we join our voices with the heavenly voices to sing our joy.—Some sentences adapted from Hebrews 12:2Songs “Joy to the World” (vs. 1, 2, and 4) Watts “O Come, All Ye Faithful” (vs. 1–3) Wade Greeting From GodWe Greet Each OtherLet Every Heart Prepare Him RoomSong “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” (v. 1, 3, and 4) Wesley Prayer of Confession Come, thou long-expected Jesus, come. Sometimes we have a hard time imagining that you would come down from the glorious splendor of heaven to be born in a Bethlehem stable with straw, mud, and animals all around. We cannot imagine that you willingly took on our broken human flesh with bodies that ache and suffer from illness and pain. You walked into our sadness, into wars, into violence and persecution, and you did this all for us. We confess that it is difficult to comprehend and difficult to believe. Why, Lord, would you do that for us? We call you Emmanuel, God with us, but how often do we live out this Christmas story with the truth that your incarnation was for us? Continue to enter in, Emmanuel. Enter into our darkness and give us light. Enter into our lives and change them for your good purposes. Enter into our hearts and still them with the words “Be not afraid.”Song “Imagine” Getty Assurance of Pardon / Guide to Grateful Living In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.—Philippians 2:5–11Children of God, this is the God who forgives our sins and calls us to obedience and love. Thanks be to God.He Comes to Make His Blessings Flow Far as the Curse Is FoundScripture Reading Matthew 1:18–25Message “The Fear of a Ruined Reputation”Response with Song “Christ, Be Our Light” (vs. 1, 2, 4, 5) Farrell He Rules the World with Truth, Grace, and Wonders of His LoveCall to Service By the power of your Spirit,we will walk in the light. In times of joy and gladness,we will walk in the light. In times of sorrow and despair,we will walk in the light. Called to witness to your love,we will share the light.Parting BlessingSong“Jesus, the Light of the World” (vs. 1, 2, 4)Wesley  Visual Arts Ideas That Highlight Advent Lament1. Create a video of the key headlines of the past year with images and set to an appropriate song such as was done with this one created for 2016 (https://youtu.be/kCui6wFAuk4). The fact that many of the same images could have come from this past year is in itself cause for lament.2. Wrap advent candle/wreath in burlap sprayed with a flame retardantA Longest Night Service Based on Psalm 80Fear of DarknessCall to WorshipResponsive ReadingJesus said, “Come unto me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). And so we invite each other to this time of peaceful worship. Tonight we come looking for the Christ child.We bring in our hearts the hopes and fears of all the years.We come seeking relief from pain, anxiety, loneliness, and despair. With the psalmist of the Scriptures we say, “I cry to you, LORD; I say, ‘You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.’ Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need” (Psalm 142:5–6).We bring in our hearts the need and desire to rest in God.We come to worship, to sing, to pray, to be silent before our God. In the busyness of this season, in a countercultural way, we chose this evening to slow down, to remember, and to wait.I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning,more than watchmen wait for the morning (Psalm 13:5–6).Song“Wait for the Lord” TaizéPrayer of InvocationO God, our beginning and end, by whose command time runs its course: Bless our impatience, perfect our faith, and keep us from growing weary until at last the coming Christ enters the hearts of those who wait with quiet expectation for all that is good and holy and just. Amen.Praying for Darkness in a Year of Glare1st voiceLord, turn out the lights.Turn out for moments of our prayersand for moments of our livesall the lights we see by,or all the lights we think we see by.Make it dark in here, even now, in each of us.2nd voiceHere in the half-drowned worldthat we surrender to when we sleep,we feel the dark river that flowsthrough every heartbeat,the pulse of our oldest and deepest music.Congregational Response“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (v. 1, no refrain) Latin2nd voiceWith all our old symbols of candles and torches, with our little logos of lamps of learning,since ancient times we have always been taughtto seek and pursue the light.But sometimes now we shield our eyes from all the glitter and glare.1st voiceWe have trivialized our ancient symbols of light.We haven’t learned to governthe new light we uncover or make.This is what we are learning to fear:Our own light. Our idol. Ourselves.Congregational Response“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”(v. 2, no refrain) Latin 1st voiceWe see how we have hurried past the visionthe psalmist knew, that Jonah, Job, Mother Teresa, and so many others knew to be true, that even in the dark God is there.      “The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness” (1 Kings 8:12)2nd voiceKeep us now and then in the dark, Lord—The dark of Golgotha, or Paul’s black jolton the way to Damascus, or the grapple of Jacob,to be renamed Israel, wrestling his wayin the dark from eyesight to vision.We pray for darkness so that we may see.1st voiceAs we wait in the darkwe do sometimes see tracings and splinters,a flicker of our dream of the world you gave us,sparks and flashes we almost remember.2nd voiceWe seek moments of blindness and insightso that we may be truly onewith the dark and lowly servant,paradoxically “light of the world,”who came to share our darkness with us.In his name have we dared to askfor dark as well as for light.Congregational Response“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”(v. 4, no refrain)  Latin 2nd voiceNow we rest in quiet for a moment     in the shadow of the Almighty,remembering Moses and     the dark cloud where God was,remembering at least to say what the psalmist used to sing;     “He made darkness his covering,     his canopy around him—          the dark rain clouds of the sky.”1st voiceParent God, cover us, your adopted children, as in blankets,in what St. Hildegarde called “the cloud of unknowing.”Hold us here in darkness a moment more, a moment more.We want to see again from behind the eye;it is here we can dream and remember and imagine deeplyas Hebrew prophets did, as children do.Congregational Response“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (v. 3, no refrain)  LatinSo now we pray you, Lord—do not yet dispel the dark; dispel the light a little longer.Silence2nd voiceNow stilled by this primal dark,children again who feel alone and lost,we pray for light.1st voiceLet it be a flicker that grows as it approaches,not harsh or blinding, a flashlight through the woodsthat’s coming to find us.Congregational Response“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”  (vs. 5 and 7, no refrain) Latin2nd voiceAs we emerge out of this dark into light, show us, God,as for the first time, freshly, the rich glowings of our different skins,the eyes of the oppressed piercing dark skies like beacons,the flares of wonder that play in the eyes of our children.Congregational ResponseBy way of darkness, seeing fresh, Lord,we pray to live again in the wonder of light. Amen.—© Rod Jellema, d. 2018. Used by permission. Churches interested in using “Praying for Darkness in a Year of Glare” may email pavlicekmarie@hotmail.com for permission.“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”(v. 6, with refrain)  LatinMinistry of the WordScripture ReadingPsalm 80:1–10HomilySong of Response“Shine On Us” SmithMinistry of PrayerPrayers of Intercession(with refrain “Come and Fill Our Hearts” Taizé)We light this candle to remember those who have died, and those who mourn the dead. The shadow of death can seem impenetrably dark during these long nights. We pray to God, whose first act in creation was to call light from darkness.     RefrainWe light this candle to remember those who are captive to darkness. For those lost in the night of addiction, depression, anxiety, or unexpected grief, we pray to God, who guided the Israelites through the darkness with a pillar of fire.     RefrainWe light this candle to remember those who feel that hardship will overwhelm them. For the poor, the persecuted, the hungry, the immigrant, the refugee, and the homeless, we pray to God, who walked with three men through the consuming flames of a fiery furnace.     RefrainWe light this candle to remember those who are battling illness. We lift up those who suffer the pain, indignity, and bewilderment that accompany a broken body. For all who desire to be returned to wholeness, we pray to God, who lit the night sky with a star to guide three Magi to the healing Christ.     RefrainWe light this candle to remember those who are alone. We remember those who isolated from loved ones; far from home; wandering down the wrong path; or convinced that God is unconcerned with their suffering. We pray to God, who is like the woman who lit a lantern to search all night for one lost coin.     RefrainWe light this candle to remember God’s beautiful and fragile creation. For those who experience drought, flood, disease, famine. For survivors of natural disasters and for all those called to be caretakers of creation. We pray to God, who will not destroy the earth but purify it with refiner’s fire that goodness may be restored.     RefrainYou alone see us as we are, Lord God, so we ask you to nurture us according to our need tonight, to minister to us according to our wounds, to heal us in all the places you can see that we are broken or sick. Come and fill our hearts with your peace. Alleluia. Amen.Prayer StationsDuring this time you may visit the prayer stations or pray quietly in your seat.1. AnointingCome forward to a pastor for anointing with oil and for personal prayer. You may ask for prayer for yourself or another person and can be as specific or private as you need. Please indicate whether you’d like anointing on your hand or forehead.[Words of blessing: Restore your child, O God; make your face shine upon him/her/them, that he/she/they may be saved.]2. CandlesLight a candle in remembrance of a loved one, in solidarity with someone who is hurting, or as a representation of your own need and prayer.3. MapMany areas of our world are in need of Christ’s light to break through the darkness of war, poverty, conflict, and strife. Light a candle and place it in the area of the world where you pray for Christ’s light this Christmas.Sent Out with God’s BlessingSong“O Little Town of Bethlehem” (v. 1) BrooksPrayer for God’s BlessingLord, it is night. The night is for stillness. Let us be still in the presence of God.It is night after a long day. What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done; let it be.The night is dark. Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives rest in you. The night is quiet. Let the quietness of your peace enfold us, all dear to us, and all who have no peace.The night heralds the dawn. Let us look expectantly to a new day, new joys, new possibilities.In your name we pray, amen.Song“O Little Town of Bethlehem”(vs. 3–4)  Brooks Please leave the sanctuary in silence.Christmas EveFear of RevelationCandle of HopePrayer of InvocationWhen the world was dark and the city was quiet, you came.You crept in beside us.And no one knew.Only the few who dared to believe that God might do something different.Will you do the same this Christmas, Lord?Will you come into the darkness of today’s world;not the friendly darkness as when sleep rescues us from tiredness,but the fearful darkness, in which people have stopped believing     that war will end      or that food will come     or that a government will change      or that the church cares?Will you come into that darkness and do something differentto save your people from death and despair?Will you come into the quietness of this city,not the friendly quietness as when lovers hold hands,but the fearful silence when     the phone has not rung,     the letter has not come,     the friendly voice no longer speaks,     the doctor’s face says it all?Will you come into that darkness,and do something different,to embrace your people?And will you come into the dark cornersand the quiet places of our lives?We ask this… because the fullness our lives long fordepends on us being as open and vulnerable to youas you were to us,when you came,wearing no more than diapers,and trusting human handsto hold their Maker.Will you come into our lives, if we open them to you and do something different?When the world was darkand the city was quietyou came.You crept in beside us.Do the same this Christmas, Lord, Do the same this Christmas. Amen.—”When the world was dark” from Cloth for the Cradle, p. 92-93 by the Wild Goose Resource Group, © 1997, 2000 WGRG c/o Iona Community, Scotland, GIA Publications, Inc., exclusive North American agent. Reprints permitted with a license from ONE LICENSE. We hope for an end to the darkness and for the beginning glimpses of light. We hope expectantly as those who wait for a promise that is coming. We light this candle of hope. [Light candle.]Song“O Little Town of Bethlehem” (vs. 1, 3, 4)BrooksCandle of LoveIn-Between Words“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). On this Christmas night we celebrate God’s gift of love, seen in the birth of Jesus Christ. We light this candle of love. [Light candle.] We are also called to show God’s love to others. Please greet each other and extend Christ’s love to those around you.We Greet Each OtherSong“Once in Royal David’s City” (vs. 1, 4, 5) AlexanderCandle of PeaceScripture ReadingIsaiah 40:1–11 Song“Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”  (vs. 1–3) German In-Between WordsThe words of the prophet Isaiah remind us of a coming kingdom where peace will reign and all will be well. Because of the birth of Jesus Christ, we can anticipate peace on earth and pray for the ability to be peacemakers until he comes again. We light this candle of peace and then bow our heads in prayer to pray for the world that God so dearly loves. [Light candle.]Prayers of the PeopleSong“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” (vs. 1 and 3)WesleyCandle of JoyIn-Between WordsWe light this candle of joy. Emmanuel is born! Rejoice! Rejoice! [Light candle.] Hear now the glorious story of the birth of our Savior.Scripture ReadingLuke 2:1–20HomilySong of Response“Angels We Have Heard on High” French Lord’s SupperInstitution of the Lord’s SupperLong after the angels vacated the skies, the shepherds left the manger and the Magi traveled home again. On another night—the night of his betrayal, not his birth; the night of his arrest, not his adoration—Jesus sat at dinner with his disciples.On that night, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”In the same way, he took the cup saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.”As we eat this bread and drink this cup, we remember and proclaim the mystery of our faith:Christ has died.Christ is risen.Christ will come again.Great Prayer of ThanksgivingThe LORD be with you.And also with you.Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the LORD.Let us give thanks to the LORD our God.It is right for us to give thanks and praise.With joy we praise you, gracious God, Eternal Creator. At the beginning of time your rescue plan of salvation began with the work of Your hands, fashioning our planet and spinning our galaxies into place.Through history you sent prophets and priests to point the way and to shape the expectations of your people longing for rescue from sin and salvation from bondage to sin’s effects.Until, at last, in the fullness of time, our Savior and Redeemer was born.Though he could not find hospitality in his own city, his birth offers the world the eternal hospitality of God.Song“Of the Father’s Love Begotten”  (vs. 1–3) Prudentius We give thanks to you, Jesus Christ, who came among us as the Word made flesh to show us a new and radiant vision of your glory, full of grace and truth.Therefore, we join our voices with the angel choirs who forever sing glory to your name.Song“Of the Father’s Love Begotten” (vs. 4–5) Prudentius By the power of your Holy Spirit, unite us with Christ and all who share this feast. Give us courage to live according to the promise of this night, to be your people, showing forth your justice, grace, mercy, peace, and love until the day when the baby whose birth we celebrate tonight comes again in fullness and peace.Then we will feast with all your saints in the joy of your eternal realm.Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor are yours, almighty God, now and forever. Amen.InvitationThe church father Ambrose of Milan wrote about the significance of this evening, saying:“He became an infant and a child so that your humanity might be made perfect. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes so that you might be absolved from the bonds of death. He was on earth so that you might be in heaven. He had no room at the inn so that you might have mansions in heaven. He was in a manger so that you might be at the altar.”—Ambrose, Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke 2:41The gifts of God for the people of God![Distribution of elements while singing “What Child Is This” Dix]Candle of LightScripture ReadingJohn 1:1–5, 14We light this candle of light, for Jesus Christ, the light of the world, has been born for us.[Light candle.]Song“Silent Night! Holy Night” MohrParting BlessingThe joy of the angels, the eagerness of the shepherds, the perseverance of the Magi, the obedience of Joseph and Mary, and the peace of Jesus Christ be yours this Christmas.The blessing of Almighty God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—be upon you and remain with you always. Amen. Epiphany 1Fear of Strangers 1“Arise, Shine, for Your Light Has Come”Responsive Call to WorshipMay the light of God’s love push back the darkness.We come to the light from the four corners of the earth, from the north, from the south, from the east, and from the west.We come from many nations and many cultures.But we are all one in Jesus Christ.We come seeking the light that guides us to life.But we are all one in Jesus Christ.Let us lift up our many voices and praise the God of all people.—From Reformed Worship 63, © 2002, Worship Ministries of the Christian Reformed ChurchSong“Jesus, the Light of the World”(vs. 1, 2, and 4) WesleyGreeting from GodWe Greet Each Other“See, Darkness Covers the Earth, and Thick Darkness Is Over the Peoples”In-Between WordsGod calls us to live in the light and to walk as people of the light. But on this Epiphany Sunday, we come before the Lord in prayer to confess that we still walk in darkness. We make personal decisions that drive us into the darkness. Our world is one filled with darkness, brokenness, and despair. We are deeply in need of Jesus Christ, the light of the world, to enter in and shine on us. Together we confess in song our need for light.Sung Prayer of Confession“Christ, Be Our Light” (vs. 1, 3, and 5) FarrellAssurance of PardonThe light of God shines in the darkness. God is calling the whole world together in unity to walk in the light as beloved and chosen people. Open your hearts to God’s light and to one another. Thanks be to God.Song“We Are Called”(vs. 1–2)  Haas“Nations Will Come to Your Light, and Kings to the Brightness of Your Dawn”Scripture ReadingMatthew 2:1–12Message“Fear of Strangers” (Part 1)Declaration of PromisesRemember that at [one] time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.But now in Christ Jesus [we] who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.—Ephesians 2:12–14Epiphany 2Fear of Strangers 2God Calls Us to Worship and PraiseCall to WorshipI will extol the LORD at all times;     his praise will always be on my lips.I will glory in the LORD;     let the afflicted hear and rejoice.Glorify the LORD with me;     let us exalt his name together.—Psalm 34:1–3Songs“Praise the LORD! Sing Hallelujah” (vs. 1, 3, and 4) Psalter“Lord Most High” Harris and Sadler Greeting from GodWe Greet Each OtherThe Lord Is Close to the Broken-HeartedCall to ConfessionI sought the LORD, and he answered me;     he delivered me from all my fears.Those who look to him are radiant;     their faces are never covered with shame.This poor man called, and the LORD heard him;     he saved him out of all his troubles.—Psalm 34:4–6Song“Pelas dores deste mundo / For the Troubles” NetoPrayer of ConfessionO Christ, you are the light of the world. Shine into the dark places and expose the sins of greed, oppression, hate and violence. Fill us with love, joy, peace, patience, and a willingness to forgive.O Christ, you are the light of the world. We pray for the homeless, the refugees, the expelled and forgotten people everywhere. Strengthen us in our belief that you are a God of justice. Empower us with the determination to work for basic human rights.O Christ, you are the light of the world. We pray for people everywhere that you would show us how we are to live together as neighbors, understanding and respecting one another. We remember before you the many places in the world where there is conflict between nations. We pray that love may determine a just solution.O Christ, you are the light of the world. As the Risen Christ you broke the chains of death; free us from every kind of oppression. Breathe your Holy Spirit upon us. Make us a people of hope who live in lands where there is peace and justice for everyone.—Pocket Prayers for Peace and Justice, compiled by Christian Aid. Prayers for Peacemakers, page 46, by Women of Jerusalem, Church House Publishing, 2004, © The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England. Used by permission. copyright@churchofengland.org. Assurance of PardonThe righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;     he delivers them from all their troubles.The LORD is close to the brokenhearted     and saves those who are crushed in spirit.The righteous person may have many troubles,     but the LORD delivers him from them all.—Psalm 34:17–19Song“Blest Are They”  (vs. 1, 2, and 5) Haas Statement of FaithWhat do you believe about God the Father?I believe in Almighty God,who guided the people in exile and in exodus,the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon,the God of foreigners and immigrants.What do you believe about God the Son?I believe in Jesus Christ,a displaced Galilean,who was born away from his people and his home,who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger,and returning to his own country suffered the oppressionof the tyrant Pontius Pilate, the servant of a foreign power,who then was persecuted, beaten, and finally tortured,accused and condemned to death unjustly.But on the third day, this scorned Jesus rose from the dead,not as a foreigner but to offer us citizenship in heaven.What do you believe about God the Spirit?I believe in the Holy Spirit,the eternal immigrant from God’s kingdom among us,who speaks all languages, lives in all countries,and reunites all races.I believe that the church is the secure homefor the foreigner and for all believers who constitute it,who speak the same language and have the same purpose.I believe that the communion of the saints beginswhen we accept the diversity of the saints.I believe in the forgiveness of sin, which makes us all equal,and in reconciliation, which identifies us morethan does race, language, or nationality.What do you believe about the life to come?I believe that in the resurrectionGod will unite us as one peoplein which all are distinctand all are alike at the same time.Beyond this world, I believe in life eternalin which no one will be an immigrantbut all will be citizens of God’s kingdom,which will never end. Amen.—Book of Common Worship, 2018 edition. © 2018, Westminster John Knox Press. Used by permission. All rights reserved.  Special Music“Refugee King (Away from the Manger)” Scheer, Vice, Benedict, and Ruth (tinyurl.com/RefugeeKing)God Speaks to Us Words of GraceScripture ReadingMatthew 2:1–8, 12–23Message“Fear of the Stranger” (Part 2)We Dedicate Ourselves to God’s Work and Go Out to ServeSong“Imagine” Getty Declaration of FaithHow does the knowledge of God’s creation and providence help us?We can be patient when things go against us,thankful when things go well,and for the future we can havegood confidence in our faithful God and Fatherthat nothing in creation will separate us from his love.For all creatures are so completely in God’s handthat without his willthey can neither move nor be moved.—Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 28Even now,as history unfoldsin ways we know only in part, we are assuredthat God is with us in our world,holding all things in tender embraceand bending them to his purpose.The confidence that the Lord is faithfulgives meaning to our daysand hope to our years.The future is secure,for our world belongs to God.—Our World Belongs to God, section 12Parting BlessingSong“The Lord Is My Salvation” Getty

The change of the church season and the participation of the democratic process remind us of the privilege and the call to participate in a greater story being told.

It doesn’t matter how many beautiful and well put together worship services you’ve crafted. What truly matters is how you’ve chosen to love and care for those whom God has entrusted in your worshipping congregation.