January 24

A quote from William Carlos Williams (from The Desert Music) was on my mind while preparing the liturgy for this week.

Man has survived hitherto because he was too ignorant to know how to realize his wishes. Now that he can realize them, he must either change them or perish.

I believe that at our core, we want to seek God, but this world has a way of twisting our desires into things which harm us and others. The confession focuses on this twisting.

Blessed Be Your Name (Matt Redman)

Confession

Father,

At the core of our being,
we desire you.
But our desire is easily warped
by the relentlessness of this world,
and we often cause destruction -
of our own lives,
of those we love,
of our world.

As we find ourselves in the desert,
wash over our parched lives,
speak to us in the stillness,
and heal our desires,
so that we become once again
participants in your renewal of all things.

Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up;
do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
the people I formed for myself
that they may proclaim my praise.

Just Let Me Say

Stronger

Lord, Reign In Me

Response: I Have A Shelter

January 17

This is the second week of the current series on the Holy Spirit. The text for the sermon is Ephesians 5:13-21 ("Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit"). If the Spirit is the one who directs us to live in the way of Jesus, I have to conclude that I'm rarely filled with the Spirit. The liturgy is a simple confession of the lack of the Spirit, and a prayer centering around the metaphors of wind, fire and water that are used to describe the Spirit in scripture.

This tension of not being filled with the Spirit was evident to me this week in the responses to the Haiti earthquake - we saw the best in humanity and the worst in humanity, in the outpouring of support along with the condemnation of both the US government and the people of Haiti themselves for "causing" a natural disaster.

How Can I Keep From Singing (Chris Tomlin)

God Of Beauty (from Solomon's Porch)

Confession

Jesus,

You said the Father
Would send the Spirit
To lead us in truth,
To guide what we do.

We can only look at our lives,
Painfully aware
That we are not filled with your Spirit.

Blow through the staleness of our shame,
Warm our cold hopelessness,
Flow in the desert of our selfishness,
Fill our lives.

Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

"The Redeemer will come to Zion,
to those in Jacob that repent of their sins,"
declares the Lord.

"As for me, this is my covenant with them,"
says the Lord.
"My Spirit, who is on you,
and my words that I have put in your mouth
will not depart from your mouth,
or from the mouths of your children,
or from the mouths of their descendents
from this time on and forever,"
says the Lord.

Consuming Fire

All The Way My Savior Leads Me

Response: Open Skies (Claas P. Jambor)

January 10

The new sermon series is on the Holy Spirit. This is a tough one for me. I've realized that I haven't thought through a theology of the Holy Spirit since I have distanced myself from my Charismatic college days. I don't want to reduce the Holy Spirit to a vague force (the criticism of the Charismatics), but I also don't want to reduce the Holy Spirit to God's genie granting us our wishes (the criticism I have of the Charismatics). So, my liturgy this week is really saying that I don't really know who the Holy Spirit is. I'm hoping that listening to the upcoming sermon series will help me as I spend some time trying to grapple with who the Holy Spirit is.

I'm sure the symmetry of the confession will be lost on most of those speaking it, but I like it anyway, so there.

Confession

Spirit of God,
Who hovered over the waters,
Stirred the hearts of the prophets,
Baptized the church with fire,
Kept her through history:

We confess
We hardly know you.

Keep our lives today,
Fill and renew us with your fire,
Remind our hearts of Jesus' mission,
Help us form our world,
Spirit of God.
 
Assurance of Pardon

The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Epiphany Sunday

I've been thinking about the magi, and what they returned to in Persia, or wherever they were from. They probably didn't set up the First Presbyterian Church of East Persia. They probably went back to being magi, forever changed by meeting Jesus but bringing their knowledge of him to the context of their previous lives. I'm wondering how acceptable their worship would really be to most of the church today...

How many people do we dismiss who might be worshiping God, either without knowing it themselves or without us understanding that what they are doing is worship? I'm thinking of alternative healers, yoga instructors, painters, theatre people, etc, who don't look like they're promoting the gospel as evangelicalism has narrowly defined it. Or people who are doing amazing things like liberating kids from sex slavery around the world, fighting hunger, or working to save the environment in the Galapagos?

Or how often does the church write off Christians (yes, sometimes even denying their faith) who don't fit our script of what a Christian should look like. What about LGBT Christians? Universalists? Community organizers?

I'm playing with a definition of worship that basically is doing things that line up with God's mission and desire for the world. This could come from many places, including from a band of eastern astrologists two thousand years ago.

Confession

God of light, you accepted the gifts of pagan astrologers who saw a star. We confess that we often miss the worship of those around us, because they do not look like us, talk like us, or believe like us. Or worse, we are like Herod, seeking you for selfish reasons - for our comfort, wealth and security. But your light shines in our darkness, and our darkness has not overcome it. Help us to humble ourselves, and seek both to find, and to be a part of, your kingdom on earth. Amen

Assurance

God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.