march 2018

Liturgy 3-25-2018

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 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

Scripture

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.

Prayer

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.

Setlist 3-25-2018

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

Come Thou Fount

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. 

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

Liturgy 3-18-2018

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 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.

Scripture

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.

Prayer

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

Liturgy 3-11-2018

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 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

Scripture

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.”

Prayer

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. 

Setlist 3-11-2018

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

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. 

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

Liturgy 3-4-2018

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 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

Scripture

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.

Reading

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.

Setlist 3-4-2018

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:

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

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. 

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