This is part of the worship series,
"Rooted and Established in Love”
Introduction
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4—World Communion Sunday
Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8—All Saints /Reformation Sunday
Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12—Christ the King Sunday
Week Seven: The Saving Tree
Scripture: Luke 23:26–49
It 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 Testimonies
Reflection: Do 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.
EXPOSITION
Call 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
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it...And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
—John 1:1–5, 14 NRSVUE
Song
“The First Place” Westerholm
Greeting from God
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.
—Colossians 1:15–19 NRSUVE
We Greet Each Other
Song
“Jesus Messiah” Tomlin
Scripture Reading
Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity,
and as one from whom others hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him of no account.
Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases,
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
—Isaiah 53:1–6 NRSVUE
Song
“What Wondrous Love” Mead
Children’s Message
Offering
CRISIS
Prayer of Confession
Refrain: “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.
Refrain
God 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.
Refrain
Emmanuel, 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.
Refrain
Jesus, 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.
Refrain
Holy 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.
Refrain
We 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 Roelofs © 2025 ReformedWorship.org, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Turning Point
Responsive Reading
Is it significant that he was “crucified”
instead of dying some other way?
Yes.
By this I am convinced
that he shouldered the curse
which lay on me,
since death by crucifixion was cursed by God.
What further benefit do we receive
from Christ’s sacrifice and death on the cross?
By Christ’s power
our old selves are crucified, put to death, and buried with him,
so that the evil desires of the flesh
may no longer rule us,
but that instead we may offer ourselves
as a sacrifice of gratitude to him.
—Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 39, 43, Translation © 2011, Faith Alive Christian Resources. Used by permission.
Scripture Reading
Luke 23:26–49
Message
“The Saving Tree”
Resolution
Song
“Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” Wesley
Reading
“The Story and the Song” [see Call to Worship]
Song
“I Love to Tell the Story” Hankey
Revised Common Lectionary
Year C: Lent—Liturgy of the Passion
Year C: Season after Pentecost—Reign of Christ—Proper 29 (34)
