Liturgy 2-25-2018

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 Eternal One

the one who hears the cries of those who suffer
and draws near to those who mourn

following Jesus into the wilderness of Lent,

hoping to be formed more fully in the way of Christ

and learning to live in the hope of God’s story

until our hope gives way to glad fruition

amen

Scripture

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.”

Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Mark 8:31-38

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly.

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?

Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Reading

This week's reading was an excerpt from a series of Lenten meditations by Yolanda Pierce.  You can view the whole series here, and find the full post that the excerpt is from here:

My Lenten meditation is: “Help me to have faith, O God, when I just cannot believe the cruelties of this age.” It is an important prayer because I never want to become indifferent to hate and injustice. I never want to grow accustomed to children dying in jail cells alone. I never want food deserts and poisoned water to become the usual state of affairs. I want my disbelief to propel me to work harder, pray more, and turn over tables.

Prayer

This week's prayer was written by Martin Luther King, Jr.:

We thank thee, O God, for the spiritual nature of man.  We are in nature but we live above nature. Help us never to let anybody or any condition to pull us so low as to cause us to hate.  Give us strength to love our enemies and to do good to those who despitefully use us and persecute us.  The thank thee for thy Church, founded upon thy Word, that challenges us to do more than sing and pray, but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us not upon thee.  Then, finally, help us to realize that man was created to shine like stars and live on through all eternity.  Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace; help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together until the day when all God's children, Black, White, Red, and Yellow will rejoice in our common band of humanity in the kingdom of our Lord and of our God, we pray.

Amen.

Setlist 2-25-2018

Yesterday was the second Sunday of Lent, and the songs were gathered with that 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 a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:

Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher

Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band

Rise Up by Bifrost Arts

In the Night by Andrew Peterson

Be Thou My Vision

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. 

Lord, I Need You: We sang this song to give voice to our reliance on God for transformation in the wilderness of Lent.  

Deliver Me: We sang this song as a petition for God to deliver us from the cycles in our lives that push against being formed more fully in the way of Christ.

Rise Up: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Rise Up then: We sang this song to petition God to rise to the defense of the vulnerable, and by extension a reminder to ourselves that to be the people of God is to take up the cause of the vulnerable.

In the Night: This song carries us through Lent all the way to Easter.  It is a record of God’s showing up in the midst of despair throughout the biblical narrative.

Be Thou My Vision:  Throughout the Lenten season, we will close our liturgies with these words to reaffirm our desire to seek our vision, wisdom, and security in God alone.

-JM

Liturgy 2-18-2018

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 Lord of all creation,

the One who is gracious, merciful,
and abounding in steadfast love

to follow Jesus into the wilderness of Lent

and face the truth about ourselves;
our brokenness, and our fears

to open ourselves to the transformation of the Spirit

that we might be formed more fully in the way of Christ

Amen.

Scripture

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” 

Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 

I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Mark 1:9-15

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Reading

This is an excerpt from God of the Oppressed by James Cone (93-94):

Story is the history of individuals coming together in the struggle to shape life according to commonly held values.  The Jewish story is found in the Hebrew Bible and the Rabbinic traditions.  The early Christian story is told in the Old and New Testaments, with the emphasis on the latter as the fulfillment of the former.  The white American story is found in the history of European settlements struggling against dark forests and savage people to found a new nation.  The Black American story is recorded in the songs, tales, and narratives of African slaves and their descendants, as they attempted to survive with dignity in a land inimical to their existence.  

Every people has a story to tell, something to say to themselves, their children, and to the world about how they think and live, as they determine and affirm their reason for being.  The story both expresses and participates in the miracle of moving from nothing to something, from nonbeing to being. 

When people ask me, “How do you know that what you say is true?” my reply is: “Ultimately, I don’t know and neither does anybody else.” We are creatures of history, not divine beings.  I cannot claim infinite knowledge.  What I can do is bear witness to my story, to tell it and live it, as the story grips my life and pulls me out of nothingness into being.   

However, I am not imprisoned within my story.  Indeed, when I understand truth as story, I am more likely to be open to other people’s truth stories.  As I listen to other stories, I am invited to move out of the subjectivity of my own story into another realm of thinking and acting.  The same is true for others when I tell my story.

It is only when stories are abstracted from a concrete situation and codified into Law or dogma that their life blood is taken away and thus a people begins to think that its ways of thinking and living are the only real possibilities.  When people can no longer listen to other people’s stories, they become enclosed within their own social context, treating their distorted visions of reality as the whole truth. 

Prayer

This week's prayer was written by Mary McLeod Bethune:

Father, we call Thee Father because we love Thee.

We are glad to be called Thy children, and to dedicate our lives to the service that extends through willing hearts and hands to the betterment of all mankind. We send a cry of Thanksgiving for people of all races, creeds, classes, and colors the world over, and pray that through the instrumentality of our lives the spirit of peace, joy, fellowship, and brotherhood shall circle the world.

We know that this world is filled with discordant notes, but help us, Father, to so unite our efforts that we may all join in one harmonious symphony for peace and brotherhood, justice, and equality of opportunity for all men. The tasks performed today with forgiveness for all our errors, we dedicate, dear Lord, to Thee. 

Grant us strength and courage and faith and humility sufficient for the tasks assigned to us.

Amen.

Setlist 2-18-2018

Yesterday was the first Sunday of Lent, and the songs were gathered with that 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 a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:

Rise Up by Bifrost Arts

Come Thou Fount

Wandering by Jameson McGregor

For Those Tears I Died by Jameson McGregor

In the Night by Andrew Peterson

Be Thou My Vision

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. 

Rise Up: We sang this song to petition God to rise to the defense of the vulnerable, and by extension a reminder to ourselves that to be the people of God is to take up the cause of the vulnerable.

Come Thou Fount: This song offers us language to seek sustenance in who God is and root our hope in who God has been for us.

Wandering: This song praises God’s faithfulness in the midst of our own inconsistency and selfishness.

For Those Tears I Died: This song is a cry of lament.  I’ve thought of these words as being directly related to too many tragedies to even remember—it’s just a blur of despair at this point.  And I hate that.  But these are words I return to time and again to process my rage when faced with a reminder of how very evil we humans are capable of being.

In the Night: This song carries us through Lent all the way to Easter.  It is a record of God’s showing up in the midst of despair throughout the biblical narrative.

Be Thou My Vision:  Throughout the Lenten season, we will close our liturgies with these words to reaffirm our desire to seek our vision, wisdom, and security in God alone.

-JM

Liturgy 2-11-2018

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 devote our attention to the Lord of all

to worship the God
revealed in Jesus Christ

to embrace what God would have us know
about who God is

and what God would have us know
about who we are

that we might be drawn into God’s story

and join with God in the work
of new life in the world.

Amen.

 

Scripture

Psalm 50:1-6

The Lord, the God of gods, has spoken;
and has called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

Out of Zion, perfect in its beauty,
God reveals Godself in glory.

Our God will come and will not keep silence;
before God there is a consuming flame,
and round about God a raging storm.

God calls the heavens and the earth from above
to witness the judgment of God’s people.

"Gather before me my loyal followers,
those who have made a covenant with me
and sealed it with sacrifice."

Let the heavens declare the rightness of God’s cause;
for God is judge.

Mark 9:2-9

Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them.

And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Poem

truth
by gwendolyn brooks

And if sun comes
How shall we greet him?
Shall we not dread him,
Shall we not fear him
After so lengthy a
Session with shade?

Though we have wept for him,
Though we have prayed
All through the night-years—
What if we wake one shimmering morning to
Hear the fierce hammering
Of his firm knuckles
Hard on the door?

Shall we not shudder?—
Shall we not flee
Into the shelter, the dear thick shelter
Of the familiar
Propitious haze?

Sweet is it, sweet is it
To sleep in the coolness
Of snug unawareness.

The dark hangs heavily
Over the eyes.

Prayer

This week's prayer was written by W. E. B. Du Bois:

In these first beginnings of new life in the world, renew in us the resolution to persist in the good work we have begun.  Give us strength of body and strength of mind and the unfaltering determination to carry out that which we know to be good and right.  

Forgive all wavering in the past service of Thy cause and make us strong to go forward in spite of our own distrust in ourselves. 

Out of the death of winter comes ever and again the resurrection of spring: so out of evil bring good, O God, and out of doubt determination. Amen.

Liturgy 2-4-2018

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 devote our attention
to the Living God

to be formed more fully in the way of Christ

who, on the night he was betrayed,
took bread, blessed it, and said

this is my body which is for you
do this in remembrance of me

in the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying

this cup is the new covenant in my blood
do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me

for as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup

we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes

Amen.

Scripture

Isaiah 40:21-31

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning? 
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 

It is the Lord who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; 
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to live in;
who brings princes to naught,
and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. 

Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, 
when the Lord blows upon them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble. 

To whom then will you compare me,
or who is my equal? says the Holy One. 
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
Who created these? 

The One who brings out their host and numbers them,
calling them all by name; 
because this One is great in strength,
mighty in power, 
not one is missing. 

Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God"?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
The Lord does not faint or grow weary;
the Lord’s understanding is unsearchable.
The Lord gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.

Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.

Mark 1:29-39

After Jesus and his disciples left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.”

He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Poem

"Caged Bird" by Maya Angelou

A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind   
and floats downstream   
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and   
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings   
with a fearful trill   
of things unknown   
but longed for still   
and his tune is heard   
on the distant hill   
for the caged bird   
sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn
and he names the sky his own

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams   
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream   
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied   
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings   
with a fearful trill   
of things unknown   
but longed for still   
and his tune is heard   
on the distant hill   
for the caged bird   
sings of freedom.

Prayer

This week's prayer was written by Martin Luther King, Jr. (Thou, Dear God, 63):

O God, our gracious heavenly Father, we thank thee for the inspiration of Jesus the Christ, who came to this world to show us the way.  And grant that we will see in that life the fact that we are made for that which is high and noble and good.  Help us to live in line with that high calling, that great destiny.  In the name of Jesus we pray.  Amen. 

Setlist 2-4-2018

Yesterday was the fifth Sunday of Epiphany, and the songs were gathered with that 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 a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:

Amazing Grace by Citizens and Saints

Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light

Pulse by Jameson McGregor

Just the Same by Jameson McGregor

Hope by Jameson McGregor

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. 

Amazing Grace: This song offers us language to express the transformative grace of God revealed in the Person of Jesus.

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.

Pulse: This song expresses the interconnectivity of God's creatures that is revealed through the life and ministry of Jesus.

Just the Same: Epiphany offers us the chance to encounter Jesus again and to re-calibrate the lens through which we view him.  This ends up being an opportunity to intentionally seek to revise our models of faith, which will launch us into this more intentionally during Lent.  In revising our faith models, we are faced with the reality that, over time, the things we believe to be true about God change.  This song is about the complexity of the hope and grief of coming to terms with that change.

Hope: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Hope then: Among the things we come to find revealed in Jesus is how far God is willing to go to set things right with us.  In the incarnation, long before we reach the love revealed in the Passion, we find an act of radical love and empathy: the self-emptying of God into humanity.  This song gives voice to a hope rooted in God having demonstrated God's decision to set things right in Creation.

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

-JM