This past Sunday was the second Sunday of Lent, 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. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.
Songs:
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
Lord I Need You by Matt Maher
Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band
What the Dry Years Took Away by ubcmusic
This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Lent, 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. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.
Songs:
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
Wandering by Jameson McGregor
Eternal Anchor by ubcmusic
Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light
Drawing in the Dust by Jameson McGregor
This past Sunday was both Palm Sunday and ubckids Sunday, 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 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:
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
Here is Our King by David Crowder* Band
Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
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.
In the Night: This song traces the thread of God’s presence within struggle throughout the biblical narrative, and invites us to step into the lineage of hope-in-despair.
Here Is Our King: We sang this song because honestly what other song would you sing for Palm Sunday while a parade of children danced in waving palm branches?
Just A Closer Walk With Thee: This song gets to one of the primary concerns of Lent: being formed in the way of Christ.
Fall Afresh: We sang this song to invite the Spirit to continue to transform us and to guard our faith from complacency.
Lord, I Need You: This song offered us a prayer to carry us through the end of Lent.
Be Thou My Vision: This song will accompany us through Lent, reminding us to turn to God for our vision, wisdom, and security.
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.
we have gathered to worship the Living God
the One who draws rivers in the desert,
who makes a way where there isn’t one
and to enter God’s embrace
to find rest
renewal
and strength
as we invite the Spirit of God
to transform our hearts and our minds
teaching us to live, to love, and to die
in the way of Christ
Amen
Isaiah 43:16-21
Thus says the Lord,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,
who brings out chariot and horse,
army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
The wild animals will honour me,
the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.
Philippians 3:4b-14
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
This past Sunday was the fifth Sunday of Lent, 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 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:
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light
Wandering by Jameson McGregor
Come Alive by Jameson McGregor
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.
In the Night: This song traces the thread of God’s presence within struggle throughout the biblical narrative, and invites us to step into the lineage of hope-in-despair.
Wayward Ones: This is our communion hymn, and it contemplates Christ's self-giving love that is displayed and remembered in the eucharist.
Wandering: We sang this song to remind ourselves and proclaim aloud that God is faithfulness is constant when ours falters, and that God is, for whatever reason, choosing to draw us in to God’s work in the world despite how unreliable we can be.
Come Alive: This song is about our coming alive as we learn to do the dance of Christ.
Be Thou My Vision: This song will accompany us through Lent, reminding us to turn to God for our vision, wisdom, and security.
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.
we have gathered to worship the Eternal One
the One who created and sustains all that is,
our Desert Stream and Storm Shelter,
to enter into the Story of God
and find our own stories there
that our hearts might be formed in the way of Christ
and our lives might carry the hope
of the Kingdom of God
amen.
Exodus 3:1-15
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.
Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.
So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”
But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”
He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I am has sent me to you.'” God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you':
This is my name forever,
and this my title for all generations.”
Luke 13:1-9
At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?
No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."
Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none.
Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"
This prayer written and read by Vanessa Zuck:
Lord, Thank you that we know you and can love you. Thank you for being God three-in-one, for being YHWH, the I Am, the yet to come, the always. Thank you for the all the ways we can know you as our God, our truest love, and thank you for always seeking and reaching out to us.
Help us to keep reaching out to you too. May we continue to find you in familiar and new ways. Open our eyes to see you in all of faces of your beloved, and teach us how to trust that you are who you say you are. May we continue to abide in the light of your love, precious in your sight. Thank you that we are seen and that we can see you. We love you, in Jesus' name, Amen.
This past Sunday was the third Sunday of Lent, 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 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:
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go by ubcmusic
There by Jameson McGregor
Mother by Jameson McGregor
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.
In the Night: This song traces the thread of God’s presence within struggle throughout the biblical narrative, and invites us to step into the lineage of hope-in-despair.
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go: We sang this song as an anchor in the midst of Lent, reminding ourselves that the Living God clings to us despite our shaky discipleship.
There: This song is an anchor of a different kind, reminding us that, while God is present in our suffering, God also stands above and beyond it.
Mother: This is a song about God as Mother, offering comfort and wisdom in the midst of growth and suffering.
Be Thou My Vision: This song will accompany us through Lent, reminding us to turn to God for our vision, wisdom, and security.
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.
we have gathered to worship the Living God,
the One who is with us,
before us,
and behind us
to enter into the story of God,
who is in us, beneath us, and above us,
on our right, and our left
to find our stories formed in the way of Christ,
in our lying down in our getting up
that the Spirit might shape our minds
to find Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of us
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of us,
Christ in every eyes that sees us
and Christ in every ear that hears us
Amen
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.”
Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.”
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears.
Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
This prayer accompanied a time of silence for the victims of the mosque shootings in New Zealand:
Living God, we are for you, and it is to you that we return.
We come to you grieved by the display of evil that claimed the lives of 50 of your children in Christchurch this week.
We pray for the community that is learning to live in a world without some people that they love in it, and ask that you would grant them comfort and peace.
For those who are still in intensive care, we ask that you would grant them healing and strength.
We pray for the shooter, that the Light of your love would pierce the veil of the hatred he has embodied.
We ask also that you would care for our Muslim neighbors, both in New Zealand, and Waco, as they carry this story with them. Protect them from harm, unjust aggression and discrimination, breathe healing into their wounds, and teach us what it means to be Christ to them.
We are aware of the overwhelming scope of that which we cannot do about the evil in our world, but we ask that you would give us eyes to see the scope of that which we can.
Amen.
Yesterday was the second Sunday of Lent, 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 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:
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band
For Those Tears I Died by Jameson McGregor (adapted from Marsha Stevens)
Acetone by Jameson McGregor
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.
In the Night: This song traces the thread of God’s presence within struggle throughout the biblical narrative, and invites us to step into the lineage of hope-in-despair.
Deliver Me: This song offers us language to carry through Lent as we turn toward the Living God.
For Those Tears I Died: We sang this song to accompany a time of prayer and lament for the mosque shootings in New Zealand.
Acetone: This song is about God cutting through the decorative ways we wear our religious convictions, revealing to us the tombs we disguise.
Be Thou My Vision: This song will accompany us through Lent, reminding us to turn to God for our vision, wisdom, and security.
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.
we have gathered to worship the One is gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love
to find rest for our weariness,
and a balm for our aches,
in this wilderness of Lent
at this seam between seasons,
this space between death and new life,
we trace the stitches with our hearts
and invite the Spirit to trace the seams within us
to find our loose threads and pull them
that we might begin again
our journey on the way of Christ
amen
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Once you enter the land that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance and take it over and settle down, you are to take some of all the firstfruits of what you grow in the land that God, your God, is giving you, put them in a basket and go to the place God, your God, sets apart for you to worship him.
At that time, go to the priest who is there and say, “I announce to God, your God, today that I have entered the land that God promised our ancestors that he’d give to us.” The priest will take the basket from you and place it on the Altar of God, your God. And there in the Presence of God, your God, you will recite:
A wandering Aramean was my father,
he went down to Egypt and sojourned there,
he and just a handful of his brothers at first, but soon
they became a great nation, mighty and many.
The Egyptians abused and battered us,
in a cruel and savage slavery.
We cried out to God, the God-of-Our-Fathers:
He listened to our voice, he saw
our destitution, our trouble, our cruel plight.
And God took us out of Egypt
with his strong hand and long arm, terrible and great,
with signs and miracle-wonders.
And he brought us to this place,
gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.
So here I am. I’ve brought the firstfruits
of what I’ve grown on this ground you gave me, O God.
Then place it in the Presence of God, your God. Prostrate yourselves in the Presence of God, your God. And rejoice! Celebrate all the good things that God, your God, has given you and your family; you and the Levite and the foreigner who lives with you.
Luke 4:1-13
After his baptism, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"
Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours."
Jesus answered him, "It is written,
'Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.'"
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,
'He will command his angels concerning you,
to protect you,'
and
'On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
This week’s prayer was from Gill Le Fevre:
Merciful God, You see deep into our hearts and know us better than we know ourselves. Forgive us we pray. For the times we turn away from Your word, remind us that You are the Lord our God, our eternal protector and guide. For our impulses of anger and jealousy, scorn or spite, grant us Your healing peace. For our resistance to forgiveness, generosity and mercy, inspire us with Your compassionate love.
Yesterday was the first Sunday of Lent, 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 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:
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
Wandering by Jameson McGregor
Chasing the Wind by Jameson McGregor
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.
In the Night: This song traces the thread of God’s presence within struggle throughout the biblical narrative, and invites us to step into the lineage of hope-in-despair.
Lord, I Need You: We sang this song to take on its confession of dependence upon the Spirit as we make our way further into the Lenten season.
Wandering: We sang this song to celebrate God’s faithfulness to us despite our failing to be faithful to God.
Chasing the Wind: This song is about the emptiness that comes with trying to make ourselves whole.
Be Thou My Vision: This song will accompany us through Lent, reminding us to turn to God for our vision, wisdom, and security.
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.
we have gathered to worship the One whose mercy endures forever
the One whose love unfolds in our brokenness
to step into the story of God and the people of God
and find our own stories transformed
that we might take up the mind of Jesus
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death--
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Amen
Isaiah 50:4-9a
The Lord God has given me
the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens--
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backward.
I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.
The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
It is the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
Mark 11:1-11
When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it.
If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street.
As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it.
Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,
“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
This week's prayer was written and read by Emma Wood:
God, we have a problem.
Our culture is sick and, unknowingly, we have caught humanity’s disease.
In our separation from You who birthed us,
We have become vulnerable to fear, power, oppression and the seduction of knowing.
Remind us that you cannot be understood. Remind us that as we grasp to be formed into kingdom people that we will never get it right because of our humanness.
God, you know that we have good intentions. But it seems that our world has made you one dimensional. Our feeble attempts at knowing you have made you male, aged, power seeking, and exclusive.
We have begun to hate you in your fullness. Misogyny has run rampant in our governments, institutions, organizations, gatherings and households. We have denigrated your divine feminine attributes. We have admonished boys and men when they dared to feel. We have systematically created a world in which women have been assigned second class citizenship. We have pathologized the feminine imago dei.
We have labeled women as “emotional,” “sensitive” and “irrational,” we have blamed them for their own abuse, exploitation and oppression. We have denied that this sin is an issue, we have felt justified as we’ve pointed out all the ways in which women are treated fairly in this world. We have suggested that perhaps their lack of representation at the highest levels can be explained by their inherent inferiority. By biological differences. By innate skills and qualities that end up being fulfilled in devalued social positions. We have criticized your creation time and time again until it has become our truth. Lord, forgive us for our ignorance.
Let us not forget that
Lord, you are our Dayspring, the source of life, a mother nursing her child.
You are our Comfort, a mother hen drawing her chicks under wing.
You are Wisdom, the intuition of felt knowledge, that which cannot be rationalized.
Lord, You are Mercy. You became flesh and told a story in which Jesus overthrew power structures and spoke radical, inclusive, misfit love. A story in which time and time again Jesus turns the systems of the world on its head by elevating the role of women, intentionally affirming their value and dignity.
This is the story of the Lenten season in which we anticipate with bated breath the living Christ, the good news in which, through finding the tomb empty, women are the very first humans to witness your promise fulfilled. God, thank you for breaking the rules our world has constructed, thank you for revealing your inclusive truth through the Word and through the Gospel message.
God, we need help.
Help us to see you in your fullness, and to see your fullness in all people.
Help us to question gender roles and oppressive power structures.
Open our eyes to the ways in which we have internalized a God made in man’s image- and give us strength and humility to listen to and privilege the voices of women, the feminine and the oppressed amongst us.
In a world where the feminine circle has been placed below the masculine line we are reminded that you have revealed yourself as a circle, alpha and omega, beginning and end, as eternal.
I pray that UBC can become a people that hold man’s image of you loosely, that this image be laid down as we humbly embrace your mystery.
Amen.
Yesterday was Palm Sunday, and our 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:
Here is Our King by David Crowder* Band
Rise Up by BiFrost Arts
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
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.
Here Is Our King: We sang this song to enter into the part of the Jesus story where he enters Jerusalem.
Come Thou Fount: This song offers us language to seek vitality from God in the wilderness of Lent, and encourages us to look at who God has been for us in order to expect who God will continue to be for us.
Rise Up: We sang this song as a petition for God to rise to the defense of the weak in a world that privileges the strong.
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
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.
we have gathered to worship
the Forgetful God revealed in Jesus Christ
to devote our attention
to the One whose compassion blots out our sin
seeking to be formed by the renovating memory of God
into people whose hearts mirror God’s own
whose minds are open to the wisdom of the Spirit
and whose lives are joined
with God’s work of re-Creation in the world.
Amen.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
John 12:20-33
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
This week's prayer was written and read by Emmy Edwards:
God,
We want to see You.
We want to know You.
We want to love You.
Merciful God,
Forgive us for the ways we close our eyes when You show us Your face in the faces of the downtrodden.
Forgive us when we hid our minds from You in shame, fear, or guilt.
Forgive us when we love our own designed comfort instead of You.
Mysterious God,
So today, even in the wilderness, we ask for new eyes, new minds, and new hearts.
We ask to see You more – even if it’s just to expand our world.
We ask to know You more – even if it’s just to know how greatly we’re known by You.
We ask to love You more – even if it’s just to grasp at the hem of your cloak.
God,
You are relentless in Your pursuit of us and all Your beloved.
You invite us to see You, to know You, and to love You.
You invite us to be redeemed.
Today, and moment by moment each day, will You give us the grace to say yes?
Amen
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.
we have gathered to worship
our Creator and Sustainer
seeking rest in the wilderness of Lent
and hoping to be formed
more fully in the way of Christ
to make his self-giving love our own
and to seek the wisdom of the Spirit of God
that we might pursue the Kingdom of God
with our lives
Amen
Numbers 21:4-9
From Mount Hor the Israelites set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way.
The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”
Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.”
So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”
So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
John 3:14-21
Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
This week's prayer was written and read by Kim Stübben:
God,
So much of the time things are unexplainable, they are so difficult that they are beyond comprehension, so painful that they defy logical thought, so confusing that hope is hard to grasp onto.
But you make ways. That sounds cliche, but I know it’s true because you promise that you make ways. When life gets to be a way where we can’t fathom making it, somehow we do. Somehow, regardless of what life is or where it takes us, you are there.
So much of the time I want to know why. I want to know what the purpose is for it all. I want to know the reasons things happen. Why do we suffer? Why is pain so prevalent? Why, how, can we be the source of so much pain?
Though we can’t know why (even though we try so much of the time to make sense of it all), help us to be aware when we are the cause. We can’t control so much of what happens in our world, but help us navigate the way you set, the path you wish us to go. Help us bring light into the darkness, even when it is us that dim the light.
Amen.
Yesterday was the fourth 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:
Your Love Is Strong by Jon Foreman
Wandering by Jameson McGregor
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
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.
Your Love Is Strong: We sang this song to begin our gathering by proclaiming the self-giving love of God.
Wandering: This song gave us language to celebrate God's faithfulness to us despite our inconsistent faithfulness to God.
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about O Love That Will Not Let Me Go then: Lent can be a daunting season as we come to terms with our sin. We sang this song to remind ourselves of the enduring love of God.
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
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.
we have gathered to worship the Living God
the God of gentle whispers
and turned-over tables
to be transformed in this wilderness of Lent
to learn to see our own brokenness
and to invite the Spirit of God
to breathe life into our desert places
amen
Exodus 20:1-17
Then God spoke all these words:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
John 2:13-22
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.
Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”
His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body.
After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
This week's reading was from Barbara Cawthorne Crafton in a book called Break and Wine:
We didn't even know what moderation was. What it felt like. We didn't just work: we inhaled our jobs, sucked them in, became them. Stayed late, brought work home – it was never enough, though, no matter how much time we put in.
We didn't just smoke: we lit up a cigarette, only to realize that we already had one going in the ashtray.
We ordered things we didn't need from the shiny catalogs that came to our houses: we ordered three times as much as we could use, and then we ordered three times as much as our children could use.
We didn't just eat: we stuffed ourselves. We had gained only three pounds since the previous year, we told ourselves. Three pounds is not a lot. We had gained about that much in each of the twenty-five years since high school. We did not do the math.
We redid living rooms in which the furniture was not worn out. We threw away clothing that was merely out of style. We drank wine when the label on our prescription said it was dangerous to use alcohol while taking this medication. "They always put that on the label," we told our children when they asked about this. We saw that they were worried. We knew it was because they loved us and needed us. How innocent they were. We hastened to reassure them: "It doesn't really hurt if you're careful."
We felt that it was important to be good to ourselves, and that this meant that it was dangerous to tell ourselves no. About anything, ever. Repression of one's desires was an unhealthy thing. I work hard, we told ourselves. I deserve a little treat. We treated ourselves every day.
And if it was dangerous for us to want and not have, it was even more so for our children. They must never know what it is to want something and not have it immediately. It will make them bitter, we told ourselves. So we anticipated their needs and desires. We got them both the doll and the bike. If their grades were good, we got them their own telephones.
There were times, coming into the house from work or waking early when all was quiet, when we felt uneasy about the sense of entitlement that characterized all our days. When we wondered if fevered overwork and excess of appetite were not two sides of the same coin – or rather, two poles between which we madly slalomed. Probably yes, we decided at these times. Suddenly we saw it all clearly: I am driven by my creatures – my schedule, my work, my possessions, my hungers. I do not drive them; they drive me. Probably yes. Certainly yes. This is how it is. We arose and did twenty sit-ups. The next day the moment had passed; we did none.
After moments like that, we were awash in self-contempt. You are weak. Self-indulgent. You are spineless about work and about everything else. You set no limits. You will become ineffective. We bridled at that last bit, drew ourselves up to our full heights, insisted defensively on our competence, on the respect we were due because of all our hard work. We looked for others whose lives were similarly overstuffed; we found them. "This is just the way it is," we said to one another on the train, in the restaurant. "This is modern life. Maybe some people have time to measure things out by teaspoonfuls." Our voices dripped contempt for those people who had such time. We felt oddly defensive, though no one had accused us of anything. But not me. Not anyone who has a life. I have a life. I work hard. I play hard.
When did the collision between our appetites and the needs of our souls happen? Was there a heart attack? Did we get laid off from work, one of the thousands certified as extraneous? Did a beloved child become a bored stranger, a marriage fall silent and cold? Or, by some exquisite working of God's grace, did we just find the courage to look the truth in the eye and, for once, not blink? How did we come to know that we were dying a slow and unacknowledged death? And that the only way back to life was to set all our packages down and begin again, carrying with us only what we really needed?
We travail. We are heavy laden. Refresh us, O homeless, jobless, possession-less Savior. You came naked, and naked you go. And so it is for us. So it is for all of us.
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:
Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
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.
Fall Afresh: We sang this song to give language to our need for the Spirit to occupy the wilderness space of Lent alongside us and carry out the Spirit's vitalizing work of transformation.
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go: Lent can be a daunting season as we come to terms with our sin. We sang this song to remind ourselves of the enduring love of God.
Deliver Me: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Deliver Me then: 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.
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
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.
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
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.”
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.
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.
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
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