Liturgy 12-18-2016

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, or if you have a concern about any aspect of our liturgy, please email jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Call to Worship

In our waiting, we wear thin

In the dark, our eyes forget how to see.
In this long night, our hearts forget how to dream.

We have come that You might strengthen us, O God

that Your Love would weave through our frames
And hold us up right

So that in our waiting, we might find Life.

As we wait on the Light,
Transform the people we’ve become
Into those who know how to shine.

Amen

Joy Candle Liturgy

Grasping for Hope, we light the first candle.

[Light Hope Candle]

Longing for Peace, we light the second candle

[Light Peace Candle]

Seeking Joy, we light the third candle

[Light Joy Candle]

Today, we light the love candle. What we mean by “love” when we use it in the context of the Christian story is difficult to pin down.  It doesn’t fit neatly into bullet points.  Instead, it is best defined in a person: the Person of Jesus.  We are beginning a journey through the life of Jesus, and we will become better acquainted with Love throughout the year.  But even in the earliest part of the story of Jesus, the Incarnation, God is showing us what love is: God chooses to be God with us when we deserve God against us.  This surprising flash of light in the darkness is the heart of love. And we light the fourth candle with this particular love in mind.

[Light Love Candle]  

Hear now the Lord speaking out of love for the people of God in Isaiah 7:10-14:

The LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test. Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of human beings?  Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. 

Scripture

Matthew 1:18-25

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 

But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,”

which means, “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

Prayer

This week's prayer was written by Kareem Shane:

God this week we observe love during the Advent season. God we confess that we don’t know who to love each other and often we don’t know how to love You.
 
God during this Advent is season we recognize both our holy longing and the healing love you have for us, despite the many barriers we put up between ourselves and You.
 
This morning God we sit in our chair and simply cry out “Come Lord Jesus!” God if we let ourselves feel what is in our hearts, we know you will fill us with Your love.  And we can carry that experience with us as we go through the busiest of our week.
 
God we know You waits with infinite love, with Your arms outstretched to meet us. The words we say don't matter. We can speak as if  you are a Friend that we have not seen in a long time, but one with whom we can sit in a comfortable silence and experience Your love and peace.
 
God in this moment we choose to slow down. To breathe more deeply. To allow Your love to penetrate our hearts in the midst of a busy season of life. In this moment we cry out again, “Come, Lord, Jesus.”
 
God we know our lives are messy and we trust You don’t mind messiness of our lives. We believe You love us.
 
God we trust that Your love can’t find its way to our into wound and broken hearts.
 
God again we cry out “Come, Lord, Jesus!” We asked that You come into this place but not only this place but our house, into our families, into our struggles. Bring Your healing love and give us joy again.
 
Come and unite us and let us experience, each in our own way, the love you are offering for us now.”
 
Amen

Setlist 12-18-2016

This week was the fourth Sunday of Advent, and our songs were gathered with this in mind.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find recordings from Sunday morning of a few of them, and below the recordings, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs:

Hope (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic

Joy (Brightest) by ubcmusic

Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic

Love (Gladdening Light) by ubcmusic

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

Hope (There Will Come A Light): This song focuses on the hope of the coming of the Light, but hones in on what that means for the darkness around us--namely, the inauguration of its progressive demise. This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here. 

Joy (Brightest): This song explores the kind of joy that we associate with Christmas.  We take for granted that the wholesale change that Jesus brings about is something that we can be excited about.  This song isn't claiming that we shouldn't be excited about, but instead that the joy that arises out of this moment might demand something of us--that perhaps everything we've ever looked to for comfort or for a standard of goodness/love is about to be shown up, and that in God's changing everything, we too will be changed.  This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here. 

Peace (Change Everything): This song is a plea for peace to come into our lives in a number of ways.  The first verse asks when the night will be turned to day, a broad request for an answer to the uncertainties of life.  The second verse wonders when our weapons and violence will have no place among us.  The third verse longs for the dissolution of our worry and anxieties. And the fourth verse longs for a remedy for the existential concerns of death.  Through the chorus, this song raises the question of how exactly God plans on addressing these problems, wondering what a solution would even look like--a king (some kind of leader or outside force to set things right? Or a new way to breathe (a new way to be human--a new way to live)?  Neither? Both?  But the heartbeat of the song is the plea that closes out each verse: "Oh God, bring peace." This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here. 

Love (Gladdening Light): This song retraces the themes from the other three advent songs, and looks ahead to God's shining a light in our darkness.  This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here. 

O Come, O Come Emmanuel: As we near the end of the advent season, we sang this song to once again underscore our longing as we enter this final week leading up to Christmas.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Liturgy 12-11-2016

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, or if you have a concern about any aspect of our liturgy, please email jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Call to Worship

We have gathered to worship the God who makes deserts bloom like roses

Bringing with us
our own cracked and dry places

God of Joy, who brings living water into parched places,

We ask that you would bring
Peace into our chaos
Hope into our despair
Empathy into our apathy

Until streams flow in our deserts

And our deserts become gardens

Amen

Joy Candle Liturgy

Grasping for Hope, we light the first candle.

[Light Hope Candle]

Longing for Peace, we light the second candle

[Light Peace Candle]

Today, let us consider the fact that we are able to reach for Hope and seek Peace confidently because of the faithfulness of our God; that in the midst of immense darkness, we see glimpses of Light.  In directing our attention to the Light that God is giving us, we are captured by Joy.  This joy is neither fleeting, nor is it limited to the range of emotions that we might call “happy.” Instead, Joy is a way of seeing, where our priorities are not dictated by our own benefit, and where we stubbornly refuse to call the way things are “the way things will always be,” because we see that our God is still working to reconcile all things to Godself. With this in mind, we light the third candle.

[Light Joy Candle]

Hear now of the Lord coming into the darkness of Exile to lead us home in Isaiah 35:1-10.

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
   the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly,
   and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
   the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
   the majesty of our God. 

Strengthen the weak hands,
   and make firm the feeble knees. 
Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
   ‘Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God.
   He will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense.
   He will come and save you.’ 

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
   and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 
then the lame shall leap like a deer,
   and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
   and streams in the desert; 
the burning sand shall become a pool,
   and the thirsty ground springs of water;
the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp,
   the grass shall become reeds and rushes. 

A highway shall be there,
   and it shall be called the Holy Way;
the unclean shall not travel on it,
   but it shall be for God’s people;
   no traveller, not even fools, shall go astray. 
No lion shall be there,
   nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
   but the redeemed shall walk there. 

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
   and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
   they shall obtain joy and gladness,
   and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 

Scripture

Matthew 11:2-11

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written,

‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’

“Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

Prayer

This week's prayer was written by Kerri Fisher:

We thank God now for Christ, who is our joy-- 
a spring flowing up and out of us, from a well that lies deep within.

A joy which somehow mysteriously confirms: 
That even in our waiting we are complete, 
That even in our confusion we can know and be known
That even in our sorrow we might be ever full. 

Help us God, to desire to be seekers and cultivators of this joy.
To accept and to share it with children, friends and lovers.
To acknowledge it in strangers, in places, in moments.
To borrow it from one another as we have need--
And to cling to it in the darkness and in the light.

Amen.

Setlist 12-11-2016

This week was the third Sunday of Advent, and our songs were gathered around the theme of Joy.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find recordings from Sunday morning of a few of them, and below the recordings, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs:

Joy (Brightest) by ubcmusic

Hope (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic

Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic

A Great Rejoicing by Crowder (with additions by Jameson McGregor)

Joy to the World

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

Joy (Brightest): This song explores the kind of joy that we associate with Christmas.  We take for granted that the wholesale change that Jesus brings about is something that we can be excited about.  This song isn't claiming that we shouldn't be excited about, but instead that the joy that arises out of this moment might demand something of us--that perhaps everything we've ever looked to for comfort or for a standard of goodness/love is about to be shown up, and that in God's changing everything, we too will be changed.  This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here. 

Hope (There Will Come A Light): This song was written specifically for advent at ubc.  It focuses on the hope of the coming of the Light, but hones in on what that means for the darkness around us--namely, the inauguration of its progressive demise. This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here. 

Peace (Change Everything): This song is a plea for peace to come into our lives in a number of ways.  The first verse asks when the night will be turned to day, a broad request for an answer to the uncertainties of life.  The second verse wonders when our weapons and violence will have no place among us.  The third verse longs for the dissolution of our worry and anxieties. And the fourth verse longs for a remedy for the existential concerns of death.  Through the chorus, this song raises the question of how exactly God plans on addressing these problems, wondering what a solution would even look like--a king (some kind of leader or outside force to set things right? Or a new way to breathe (a new way to be human--a new way to live)?  Neither? Both?  But the heartbeat of the song is the plea that closes out each verse: "Oh God, bring peace." This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here. 

A Great Rejoicing: This song is from ubc's former music & arts pastor, David Crowder.  The version I played yesterday was essentially a different song, but maintained the chorus lyrics and some of the themes from the original. This version was tweaked to address our advent theme more directly, playing up the idea of joy being like streams of living water bringing life to dry places.

Joy to the World: We sang this song to engage both of our identities during advent--with our ancient identity, we looked forward to the coming of Joy in the Incarnation on Christmas, and with our contemporary identity, we looked back on the Incarnation and contemplated the way it affects the way we wait for the coming of the Kingdom in the here and now.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 12-4-2016

This week was the second Sunday of Advent, and our songs were gathered around the theme of Peace.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find recordings from Sunday morning of a few of them, and below the recordings, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs:

Hope (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic

SMS [Shine] by David Crowder* Band

Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic

A Lament by Emily Haas

Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

Hope (There Will Come A Light): This song was written specifically for advent at ubc.  It focuses on the hope of the coming of the Light, but hones in on what that means for the darkness around us--namely, the inauguration of its progressive demise. This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here.

SMS [Shine]: This song voices a longing for an in-breaking of Light into the chaos of the world, which can just as easily be considered a plea for peace to break into in whatever struggles might mark our lives in this season.  

Peace (Change Everything): This song is a plea for peace to come into our lives in a number of ways.  The first verse asks when the night will be turned to day, a broad request for an answer to the uncertainties of life.  The second verse wonders when our weapons and violence will have no place among us.  The third verse longs for the dissolution of our worry and anxieties. And the fourth verse longs for a remedy for the existential concerns of death.  Through the chorus, this song raises the question of how exactly God plans on addressing these problems, wondering what a solution would even look like--a king (some kind of leader or outside force to set things right? Or a new way to breathe (a new way to be human--a new way to live)?  Neither? Both?  But the heartbeat of the song is the plea that closes out each verse: "Oh God, bring peace."

A Lament: This song was written by Emily Haas.  I asked her for some thoughts on this song, and this is what she said: Everything is meaningless and I rarely believe in God.  Some days, a perfectly balanced stone on a windowsill speaks and the eager skip of a kid goat in pasture elicits something eternally good.  April sees pictures when she prays and Lauren mutters unintelligible languages.  Karina trusts as a child and tells me, "just to ask."  I am not comforted.  I am not happy and I don't understand why I have health insurance via my parents while a 3rd grader in McLennan County doesn't have dinner.  That's a speck.  Surely, if God is true, if Christ is the Christ, then there is not a bit of human experience he is unable to redeem.  And I lament that the issues are systemic and there's too much to be done and wonder - what is the point?  And then, life is full of purpose and I do believe in God// and I have never experienced "hearing" "THE VOICE OF GOD"//and am hesitant to claim, "it was Him!" but maybe I should and I wrote this song because he "said" and "says" these things to me in a way that is contrary to my whirring mind. 

Wayward Ones: We sing this song every time we take communion to remind ourselves of a couple of things.  First, we are a broken people--though we are seeking to become more like Jesus, we often fail at this.  Second, Christ has given Himself for us despite our brokenness.  We take communion to remember the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf, even though we did not, and do not, deserve it.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM