This blog is a record of the call to worship, Scripture readings, and prayers from our Sunday liturgies. If you are interested in writing something for the liturgy, please email jamie@ubcwaco.org.
Call to Worship
We have gathered to seek the One who seeks us
To find the One who has found us
And to enter into the story of Jesus
taking up the love without borders,
and the life that is unbound.
And to be caught up in the work of the Spirit
To fill our lungs with this Breath
And be changed from the inside.
Amen
Scripture
Isaiah 1:10-18
Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.
When you come to appear before me,
who asked this from your hand?
Trample my courts no more;
bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation--
I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
Your new moons and your appointed festivals
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me,
I am weary of bearing them.
When you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.
Come now, let us argue it out,
says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be like snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
Luke 19:1-10
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today." So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him.
All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner." Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much." Then Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost."
Prayer
This week's prayer was adapted by Toph from Kyle Lake's final sermon:
May we live, and live well.
May we breathe deeply the fullness of Christ.
May we be present in each moment we find ourselves in.
May we enjoy each day and feel the warmth of the sun, or the cool crisp air of autumn in our lungs.
May we get knee-deep in a novel and lose track of time.
May we feel the satisfaction of a job well done—a paper well-written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well-performed.
May we be able to mourn when it is time, and may we find ourselves in community in our mourning.
May we laugh, and laugh hard, with friends and family.
May we experience each day with a renewed appreciation of each smell we encounter.
May we savor every bite of food we take, and relish in the company of friends.
May we love God.
May we embrace beauty.
May we live life to its fullest.
And may we recognize it is most certainly all a gift from God.
Amen.