Skip to main content

Introduction to Worship for 11/13/2016

By

Isaiah 65:17-25

This is the last week in “Ordinary Time,” the part of the church year where we are not celebrating particular times or seasons in the life of the church.  Next week we will celebrate the Reign of Christ, and then the week after that we will start the church year with Advent.  This is the time of year that we are beginning to dream of a world made new, to consider the promises of God and to remind ourselves of our hopes for the One who is to come. Our scripture this week is one of the texts that looks forward to the time when the world will be healed, and imagines what that day might look like.

Scholars believe the book of Isaiah was composed at different times by different authors, and generally divide the book into three sections: First, Second, and Third Isaiah. These verses are from Third Isaiah, written a couple generations after the people had returned from Babylonian Exile. The fresh energy is long gone, and in its place are the many hardships and deepening discouragement of a destroyed dream that Jerusalem would again be what it once was. Into this context of failed dreams, an uncertain future, the prophet Isaiah enters the chaos of their world with the astounding assertion that now is the time to rejoice in what God is doing. “Be glad and rejoice,” sings the prophet, with words of God’s promise. Let go of that old sad song about what once was and rejoice in the present day ways in which God’s justice, healing, and peace are being made known. There is no denial of the struggle, the weeping, cries of distress, lives lost too early, homelessness, economic injustice, and turmoil with which they live. But, rather than let this chaos become the basis for despair and hopelessness, the prophet attests that it is precisely in this chaos that God is able to create a new world of wholeness and peace, inviting our participation. The time for rejoicing is now.

Family activity (can be adapted to families of all ages)

  • Reflect on your own life and/ or the life of your community. What “former things” do you imagine might need to be forgotten, or let go so that the possibility of God’s new heaven and new Earth might emerge in your life, in your community, in the world?
  • How might letting go of old dreams open you and your community to the experience of joy? 
  • How have you experienced the surprising and unexpected peace and wholeness of God about which the prophet speaks?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to Worship for 4/30/2017

By
Followers of the Way: Renowned Jesus scholar John Dominic Crossan made a profound statement about this week’s gospel reading. “Emmaus never happened,” Crossan wrote. “Emmaus always happens.” What we are invited to grapple with in that statement is the truth that the factual (historical) significance of the resurrection stories is secondary to a more profound truth: the risen Christ is with us. Now. Here. That is what the early church began to learn, and it is what enabled them to move on. Luke 24:13–35 The exact location of Emmaus is not known. Perhaps this uncertainty forms a commentary on the focus scripture. Emmaus may be anywhere. Hearts burning and eyes opening do not take place in only one place, either geographical or spiritual. Emmaus comes into sight wherever a path leads us toward communion with God and whenever we recognize the risen Christ among us. On the day of Jesus’ resurrection, two disciples walk along the road to Emmaus with Jesus, informing this “strange...
1 comment
Read more

Introduction to Worship for 2/26/2017

By
Matthew 17:1-9 And so the Season after the Epiphany closes: on a holy mountain where God may be found. It is a place of sacred mystery, where shining and shadow convey a holy presence. It is a place of community across time, where God’s people of past and present meet. It is a place of silence and witness, where visions are kept quiet and God says of Jesus, “Listen to him.” From here, we go forward into Lent: the 40 days and 6 Sundays that take us through Jesus’ progress toward Jerusalem and the conflict with the government of Palestine that would lead to his crucifixion. We will have special worship stations in the sanctuary, for reflection and prayer; a Tuesday morning prayer group; a book study on “Gifts of the Dark Wood,” a book that reflects on the hard places and what we find there; and in worship, we will tell the stories of Jesus and his encounters with people who were on the margins, that he brought into the center.  So this week, we pause to reflect on the insight tha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Introduction to Worship for 9/3/2017

By
Misfits: As we come to the close of our journey through the Dark Wood, we are considering one final gift. Eric Elnes calls this the gift of “Misfits,” and by that he means two things. The first is the experience each of us sometimes has of being a misfit in our cultural context or our community, when it seems that who we are and what we want is at odds with the world around us. And the second is the gift of others who are also misfits, who guide and challenge us along the way as we strive to find our place and our purpose in God’s commonwealth together. He names this second category of misfits as “mentors”, and invites us to identify and to keep regular contact with those who can mentor us toward living fully in the gospel, and keep us from becoming too comfortable on the wrong paths. Psalm 137: 1–6 The Psalm is the classic cry of the broken hearted, finding themselves in a faraway land and a world that does not value “Zion”—the reign of God on earth. By crying out their grief a...
Post a Comment
Read more