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 Nine: The Giving Tree
Scripture: Psalm 1
Faith Practice: Generosity
Gathering
Prayer
Refrain: “Take, O Take Me As I Am” Bell
Creator 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.
Refrain
But 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 never-ending 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.
Refrain
God, 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.
Refrain
Call 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.
—Kathryn Roelofs © 2025 ReformedWorship.org, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
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 NIV
Word
Scripture
Psalm 1
Message
The Giving Tree
Response
Response Time—Remembering Your Baptism
Friends, 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” Anonymous
Sending
Parting Blessing
Song
“We Will Extol You, God and King” (st. 1, 4) Scheer
Revised Common Lectionary
Year A: Season after Pentecost—Proper 25 (30)
Year B: Easter—Seventh Sunday of Easter
Year B: Season after Pentecost—Proper 20 (25)
Year C: Epiphany—Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany
Year C: Season after Pentecost—Proper 18 (23)
