Liturgy 10-30-2016

This blog is a record of the call to worship, Scripture readings, and prayers from our Sunday liturgies.  If you are interested in writing something for the liturgy, please email jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Call to Worship

We have gathered to seek the One who seeks us

To find the One who has found us

And to enter into the story of Jesus

taking up the love without borders,
and the life that is unbound.

And to be caught up in the work of the Spirit

To fill our lungs with this Breath
And be changed from the inside.

Amen

Scripture

Isaiah 1:10-18

Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.

When you come to appear before me,
who asked this from your hand?
Trample my courts no more;
bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation--
I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
Your new moons and your appointed festivals
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me,
I am weary of bearing them.

When you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen; 
your hands are full of blood.

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.

Come now, let us argue it out,
says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be like snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.

Luke 19:1-10

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today." So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 

All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner." Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much." Then Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost."

Prayer

This week's prayer was adapted by Toph from Kyle Lake's final sermon:

May we live, and live well.
May we breathe deeply the fullness of Christ.
May we be present in each moment we find ourselves in.
May we enjoy each day and feel the warmth of the sun, or the cool crisp air of autumn in our lungs.
May we get knee-deep in a novel and lose track of time.
May we feel the satisfaction of a job well done—a paper well-written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well-performed.
May we be able to mourn when it is time, and may we find ourselves in community in our mourning.
May we laugh, and laugh hard, with friends and family.
May we experience each day with a renewed appreciation of each smell we encounter.  
May we savor every bite of food we take, and relish in the company of friends.  
May we love God.
May we embrace beauty.
May we live life to its fullest.
And may we recognize it is most certainly all a gift from God.
Amen.

Setlist 10-30-2016

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

Songs:

Future/Past by John Mark McMillan

Pulse by Jameson McGregor

Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle

Wash Me Clean by Page CXVI

Come Thou Fount

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. 

Future/Past: We sang this song to begin our time together expressing the example God has set in seeking out the Other in love--specifically, God's reaching out to us despite the infinite distinction between who God is and what we are.

Pulse: This song is a prayer that God would reconnect us to the Pulse of the Spirit in creation, and that we would learn to base our love for one another in our mutual status as creatures of God.  There is no person for whom this does not apply, and, though it is at times seemingly impossibly difficult, we do not get a pass on our call to love everyone.

Fall Afresh: We sang this song as a prayer that the Spirit would reawaken us to the transformative call of the Kingdom.

Wash Me Clean:  This song is equal parts confession and hopeful longing.  It admits our need to forgiveness and transformation, and also imagines, with the prophets, the kind of transformation that God has planned for human history.

Come Thou Fount: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Come Thou Fount then: This song asks that God would tune our hearts to sing the story of God's presence in our lives, as well as confesses our proneness to wandering.  Perhaps it is in having a clear understanding of the way that God has entered the broken places in our lives in the past that we are able to make it through brokenness in the future.  So, like the prayer offered before we sang this song (that will be posted with the Liturgy blog on Wednesday), we has God to flood the dry and broken places within us with a renewed understanding an appreciation of who God has been for us in our lives.

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

-JM

Liturgy 10-23-2016

This blog is a record of the call to worship, Scripture readings, and prayers from our Sunday liturgies.  If you are interested in writing something for the liturgy, please email jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Call to Worship

You Who are quick to forgive and slow to anger,

we have come seeking mercy
for the good have left undone
and the wrong we have done.

Teach us the humility of Jesus

so that we can embrace our true selves,

and fill us with Your Spirit

so we never walk alone.

Amen

Scripture

Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22

Although our iniquities testify against us,
act, O Lord, for your name's sake;

our apostasies indeed are many,
and we have sinned against you.

O hope of Israel,
its savior in time of trouble,

why should you be like a stranger in the land,
like a traveler turning aside for the night?

Why should you be like someone confused,
like a mighty warrior who cannot give help?

Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us,
and we are called by your name; 
do not forsake us!

Thus says the Lord concerning this people:

Truly they have loved to wander,
they have not restrained their feet;

therefore the Lord does not accept them,
now he will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins.

Have you completely rejected Judah?
Does your heart loathe Zion?

Why have you struck us down
so that there is no healing for us?

We look for peace, but find no good;
for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.

We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord,
the iniquity of our ancestors, 
for we have sinned against you.

Do not spurn us, for your name's sake;
do not dishonor your glorious throne;
remember and do not break your covenant with us.

Can any idols of the nations bring rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?

Is it not you, O Lord our God?
We set our hope on you, 
for it is you who do all this.

Luke 18:9-14

Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, `God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, `God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."

Prayer

This week's prayer was from An Iona Prayer Book, and is credited to Brother Roger:

You are the God of every human being
and, too dazzling to be looked at,
you let yourself be seen as in a mirror,
shining on the face of Christ.
We are eager to glimpse a reflection of your presence,
so open in us the gates of transparency
of heart.
Come and refresh the dry and thirsty ground
of our body and our spirit.
Come and place a spring of living water
in the lifeless regions of our being.
Come and bathe us in your confidence
to make even our inner deserts
burst into flower.

Amen.

Setlist 10-23-2016

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

Songs:

Just A Closer Walk With Thee

SMS [Shine] by David Crowder* Band

Come Thou Fount

Anthem by Leonard Cohen

Be Thou My Vision

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. 

Just A Closer Walk With Thee: We sang this song to express a simplified version of what our aim is as we gather: namely, to follow Jesus more closely on the road he has walked before us.  As is typical when we sing this at ubc, the second verse holds particular significance in its underscoring of the significance of Jesus' sharing our burdens with us.  We are prone to falter in our approaches to faith, but that does not devalue our journeys.  This journey is fundamentally difficult, wrought with pain and failure and the pursuit of reconciliation.  Which makes sense because this journey is ultimately a relationship, and relationships are marked by all of those things.

SMS [Shine]:  This song is an exercise in seeking God in the midst of affliction.  It places the truth on our tongues that God is still "Light" when we don't see light, and that we have a sign of life from God in the Person of Jesus, his story and his resurrection.  This story is good news for broken people, though it is at times difficult to call to mind and embrace when we need it most.  Singing these words helps us develop a habit of claiming this hope that may make it easier to remember when we need it most.

Come Thou Fount: This song asks that God would tune our hearts to sing the story of God's presence in our lives, as well as confesses our proneness to wandering.  Perhaps it is in having a clear understanding of the way that God has entered the broken places in our lives in the past that we are able to make it through brokenness in the future.  So, like the prayer offered before we sang this song (that will be posted with the Liturgy blog on Wednesday), we has God to flood the dry and broken places within us with a renewed understanding an appreciation of who God has been for us in our lives.

Anthem:  There's a lot going on in this song.  In light of the other songs this week, we might think of it like this: it begins with a call-back to what Jesus said about birds and worry in Matthew 6, then develops a sense of how the world continues to be an uncertain and imperfect place.  In the midst of this development, however, we find the chorus: ring the bells that still can ring//forget your perfect offering//there's a crack, a crack in everything//that's how the Light gets in.  It is in the midst of the mess--the brokenness and uncertainty--that the Light makes its way in.  

Be Thou My Vision: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Be Thou My Vision then: We sang this song to practice asking God to override the false, shame-driven, narratives about ourselves that we replay time and again in our heads.  

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

-JM

Liturgy 10-16-2016

This blog is a record of the call to worship, Scripture readings, and prayers from our Sunday liturgies.  If you are interested in writing something for the liturgy, please email jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Call to Worship

We have gathered to worship the Living God

Bringing our whole selves:
The good and the bad,
The broken and the mended.

We are seeking to be formed by the life and empathy of Jesus,

To learn to love God,
 to love each other,
and to embrace those different from us.

Holy Spirit, who weaves every story into One,

Draw us further in
to Your redemptive work
and transform our hearts
to be like Yours

Amen

Scripture

Jeremiah 31:27-34

Look! the days are coming when I will plant anew the house of Israel and the house of Judah. I will repopulate the land with people and animals. Just as I watched over them in order to uproot and stamp out, to upend and destroy, and to bring disaster from the north, so now I will watch over them as I rebuild and replant them.

This is what I, the Eternal One, declare. In those coming days, people will no longer speak the proverb, 

    Fathers have eaten sour grapes,
       and their children’s teeth are set on edge.

No, now it will be that each one will die for his own sins. If you eat sour grapes, then it is your own teeth that will be set on edge.

Look, the days are coming when I will bring about a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors long ago when I took them by the hand and led them out of slavery in Egypt. They did not remain faithful to that covenant—even though I loved and cared for them as a husband.  This is the kind of new covenant I will make with the people of Israel when those days are over. I will put My law within them. I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. 

No longer will people have to teach each other or encourage their family members and say, “You must know the Eternal.” For all of them will know Me intimately themselves—from the least to the greatest of society. I will be merciful when they fail and forgive their wrongs. I will never call to mind or mention their sins again.

Luke 5:8-10 

Simon’s fishing partners, James and John (two of Zebedee’s sons), along with the rest of the fishermen, see this incredible haul of fish. They’re all stunned, especially Simon. He comes close to Jesus and kneels in front of His knees.

Simon says: I can’t take this, Lord. I’m a sinful man. You shouldn’t be around the likes of me.

Jesus replies: Don’t be afraid, Simon. From now on, I’ll ask you to bring Me people instead of fish.

1 Peter 1:13-25

So get yourselves ready, prepare your minds to act, control yourselves, and look forward in hope as you focus on the grace that comes when Jesus the Anointed returns and is completely revealed to you. Be like obedient children as you put aside the desires you used to pursue when you didn’t know better. Since the One who called you is holy, be holy in all you do. For the Scripture says, “You are to be holy, for I am holy.” If you call on the Father who judges everyone without partiality according to their actions, then you should live in reverence and awe while you live out the days of your exile.

You know that a price was paid to redeem you from following the empty ways handed on to you by your ancestors; it was not paid with things that perish (like silver and gold), but with the precious blood of the Anointed, who was like a perfect and unblemished sacrificial lamb. God determined to send Him before the world began, but He came into the world in these last days for your sake. Through Him, you’ve been brought to trust in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him for the very reason that your faith and hope are in Him.

Now that you have taken care to purify your souls through your submission to the truth, you can experience real love for each other. So love each other deeply from a [pure] heart. You have been reborn—not from seed that eventually dies but from seed that is eternal—through the word of God that lives and endures forever. 

For as Isaiah said,

All life is like the grass,
and its glory like a flower;
The grass will wither and die,
and the flower falls,
But the word of the Lord will endure forever. 

This is the word that has been preached to you.

Prayer

This week's prayer was from An Iona Prayer Book, and is credited as an "Australian Aboriginal Prayer."

Rainbow God,
you have created people of many different colors,
and given us different cultures.
But in you
each has its source and fulfillment.
In Jesus Christ you have made us one,
breaking down the walls we make to protect ourselves.
By your Holy Spirit you have joined us in one body,
giving to each part its special gift.
We pray that in the church and in the world,
we may experience, more and more,
the love of your Holy Spirit,
love which honors and respects each one,
which is sensitive to our hurts and hopes,
which values the gifts we bring,
and shares its own treasures with us.
And, to you, O God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
be all honor and glory, now and to ages of ages.

Amen

Setlist 10-16-2016

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

Songs:

Heart Won't Stop by John Mark McMillan

Be Thou My Vision

Death In His Grave by John Mark McMillan

Noise by Jameson McGregor

There's A Wideness in God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)

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. 

Heart Won't Stop: This song is centered on the idea that nothing can sever use from the love of God.  The shame we carry is a false narrative about who we are that is shattered by the love of God.  The true narrative about who we are says that we are God's beloved children.  That's not to say there is not a place for guilt when we do what we should not, but instead that we are not capable of amassing a guilt that cancels out the love of God.

Be Thou My Vision: We sang this song to practice asking God to override the false, shame-driven, narratives about ourselves that we replay time and again in our heads.  

Death In His Grave: We sang this song to proclaim the story of Jesus' death and resurrection, reminding ourselves in a more particular way why our shame narratives are false.  The things we do are not able to change who we are in light of what Jesus has done for us. 

Noise: This song made an appearance because of this line in the chorus: when i was a broken promise, You made me another one. There are several ways you could interpret that line, but for the sake of this week, let's go with this one: God does not leave it up to us to reconcile the rift in the divine-human relationship.  God is reconciling us to Godself, and our inconsistent leaning-in to this doesn't get to override what God is doing.

There's A Wideness in God's Mercy: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about There's A Wideness in God's Mercy last week: This song confronts our tendency to try to talk ourselves out of any confidence in God's faithfulness to be God-for-us--as though we could disqualify ourselves.  Instead, it reminds us that the love of God is not limited by our own sense of what kind or degree of mercy we deserve.

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

-JM

Liturgy 10-9-2016

This blog is a record of the call to worship, Scripture readings, and prayers from our Sunday liturgies.  If you are interested in writing something for the liturgy, please email jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Call to Worship

We have gathered to worship the Creator

The One who sees through
the masks we wear,
and loves us completely.

In gathering, we seek to be shaped and healed
by the story of Jesus,

To see our wounds replaced with hope
and our fear with love

Spirit of the Living God,

Repair what is broken in us
And teach us how to truly live.

Amen.

Scripture

Psalm 66:1-11

Be joyful in God, all you lands;
sing the glory of his Name;
sing the glory of his praise.
Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds!
because of your great strength your enemies cringe before you.

All the earth bows down before you,
sings to you, sings out your Name."
Come now and see the works of God,
how wonderful he is in his doing toward all people.

He turned the sea into dry land,
so that they went through the water on foot,
and there we rejoiced in him.
In his might he rules for ever;
his eyes keep watch over the nations;
let no rebel rise up against him.

Bless our God, you peoples;
make the voice of his praise to be heard;
Who holds our souls in life,
and will not allow our feet to slip.
For you, O God, have proved us;
you have tried us just as silver is tried.

You brought us into the snare;
you laid heavy burdens upon our backs.
You let enemies ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water;
but you brought us out into a place of refreshment.

Luke 17:11-19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.

Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

Prayer

This week's prayer was from the Iona Community Worship Book:

O God, gladly we live and move and have our being in you.
Yet always in the midst of this creation-glory,
We see sin's shadow and feel death's darkness:
Around us in the earth, sea and sky, the abuse of matter;
Beside us in the broken, the hungry and the poor,
The betrayal of one another;
And often, deep within us, a striving against your Spirit.
O Trinity of love,
Forgive us that we may forgive one another,
Heal us that we may be people of healing,
And renew us that we also may be makers of peace.

Amen.

Setlist 10-9-2016

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

Songs:

Wandering by Jameson McGregor

Amazing Grace by Citizens & Saints

There's A Wideness in God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)

Breathe For Me by Jameson McGregor

Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher

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. 

Wandering:  We sang this song to celebrate God's faithfulness to us, even though our faithfulness to God is inconsistent, at best.  With the theme of healing in mind, we might think of God's relentless choice to be God-for-us as the method of God's healing us.  God is actively healing us of our brokenness all the time, though this process is slow.  And, because God has chosen to redeem what God has made, we can trust that God will be faithful to do exactly that.

Amazing Grace: This song is an exercise in looking back to look forward.  The saving work that God has enacted in our lives is not a one-off event, but instead is indicative of the way God acts toward us in general.  So, looking back at the glimmers of hope or healing in our stories, we move forward knowing that there will be more.

There's A Wideness in God's Mercy: This song confronts our tendency to try to talk ourselves out of any confidence in God's faithfulness to be God-for-us--as though we could disqualify ourselves.  Instead, it reminds us that the love of God is not limited by our own sense of what kind or degree of mercy we deserve.

Breathe for Me: The healing we experience in our lives of faith tends to cycle--that is, we usually break again in one way or another.  This song is a record of re-breaking, and a plea for healing: for God to start over with the dust and ash of what is left, form it clean, and breath into it again.

Lord, I Need You:  We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Lord, I Need You Then: This song voices our need for God's help in all aspects of life, but particularly when it comes to doing the things that we should do.  Left to our own devices, we have a tendency to disappoint--or, worse, harm--ourselves and those around us.  Over time, we might find ourselves more permanently formed by the Spirit, but we never get to the point where we do not in fact need God's presence.

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

-JM

Liturgy 10-2-2016

This blog is a record of the call to worship, Scripture readings, and prayers from our Sunday liturgies.  If you are interested in writing something for the liturgy, please email jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Call to Worship

We have gathered to worship the One in Whom all things hold together

Seeking, ourselves,
to be held together

In our gathering, we hope to be more fully formed in the way of Christ

That narrow way
of loving God
and loving the Other

In all of this, we seek the transformation of the Holy Spirit

that we might be made into collaborators
in the movement of the Kingdom.

Amen.

Scripture

Psalm 137

By the rivers of Babylon—
    there we sat down and there we wept
    when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
    we hung up our harps.
For there our captors
    asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
    “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 

How could we sing the Lord’s song
    in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
    let my right hand wither! 
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
    if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
   above my highest joy.

 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
    the day of Jerusalem’s fall,
how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down!
    Down to its foundations!”
O daughter Babylon, you devastator!
    Happy shall they be who pay you back
    what you have done to us! 
Happy shall they be who take your little ones
    and dash them against the rock!

Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, `Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, `Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, `We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’"

Prayer

This week's prayer was read by David Wilhite, and it was written by St. Basil the Great

We bless Thee, O most high God and Lord of mercy, Who art ever doing numberless great and inscrutable things with us, glorious and wonderful; Who grantest to us sleep for rest from our infirmities, and repose from the burdens of our much toiling flesh.We thank Thee that Thou hast not destroyed us with our sins, but hast loved us as ever, and though we are sunk in despair, Thou hast raised us up to glorify Thy power. Therefore we implore Thy incomparable goodness, enlighten the eyes of our understanding and raise up our mind from the heavy sleep of indolence; open our mouth and fill it with Thy praise, that we may be able undistracted to sing and confess Thee, Who art God glorified in all and by all, the eternal Father, with Thy only-begotten Son, and Thy all-holy and good and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages.

Amen.

Setlist 10-2-2016

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

Songs:

All Creatures of Our God and King

Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher

Up On A Mountain by The Welcome Wagon

For Those Tears I Died by Jameson McGregor

Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light

Doxology

How They Fit In:

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

All Creatures of Our God and King: We sang this song to begin our time together acknowledging our interconnectedness with all of creation through our mutual praise of God.  This song was born out of the writing of Saint Francis of Assisi.  He is memorable for many things, but one overarching theme of his life was an awareness of our siblinghood with creatures that are not human.  He extended this familial relationship even to the sun and the moon.  Every created thing bears witness to the work of the Creator, and sings a song in praise of God's sustaining work.  God's sustaining work is ongoing, and we are ever-needful of it.  This song allowed us to begin our liturgy by practicing the correct orientation of our attention.

Lord, I Need You:  This song voices our need for God's help in all aspects of life, but particularly when it comes to doing the things that we should do.  Left to our own devices, we have a tendency to disappoint--or, worse, harm--ourselves and those around us.  Over time, we might find ourselves more permanently formed by the Spirit, but we never get to the point where we do not in fact need God's presence.

Up On A Mountain: This song recalls the story of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, allowing us to meditate on the inner anguish he faced as the time of his death approached.  The point of it is that, when faced with this horror, he was at no point interested in forfeiting the outcome of his death.  He knew it was a long way down.  He knew what was at stake.  And now he is our advocate, and sent the Spirit to be our Comforter.  Because of this, we are not alone, but are held in the mind of God.

For Those Tears I Died: I've played this song once before.  It's consists of equal parts confession, despair, anger, and hope.  When I wrote it, I thought I knew what tragedy it referred to, but it now points to an ever-growing list of tragedies.  I recently recorded an acoustic demo of it, which you can stream here:

this song was written in the summer of 2016 in the wake of a series of tragic events that continues to grow. it is loosely inspired by the Martha Stevens hymn by the same name and includes most of that hymn's chorus.

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

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

-JM