Skip to main content

Introduction to Worship for 1/29/2017

By
This week begins a four-week exploration of the Sermon on the Mount, a collection of Jesus’ sayings. It appears only in the gospel of Matthew in this form; Luke has a similar collection of sayings (including another version of Beatitudes) called the Sermon on the Plain. In Matthew, the sayings are placed at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and function as the vision statement for his ministry: he lays out a radical vision of what God’s reign on earth might look like, a vision of wholeness for all people.

Matthew 5: 1-12

The Beatitudes begin the Sermon on the Mount. They are a series of sentences beginning with the word blessed, or happy in some translations. Blessing is God’s free gift to humankind, a sign of covenant relationship with God. Jesus’ first teaching to the disciples turns a world view on its head. We have learned the ways of the world from our earliest days: that the blessed are the rich, blessed are those with good healthcare and retirement plans, blessed are the powerful and popular, and blessed are the young and good looking.

There is urgency in Jesus’ teaching. He uses the present tense – this is happening right now. In Jesus’ coming, God’s love is revealed and made manifest. This teaching is directed to the disciples, the Twelve and the larger group of men and women who accompany Jesus. The Beatitudes describe the way of life for those who commit themselves to follow. For Matthew’s community, this re-imagined realm is what life should be like. Those who mourn will be comforted; those who make peace will be called God’s children. Those who are persecuted in the cause of justice will find themselves part of God’s transforming reality.

Our experience today is, in many ways, similar to that of Matthew’s community. We may not be persecuted for our faith, but the ways of faith often seem foolish compared with the values of society. What challenges do we find when we immerse ourselves in the extraordinary and wise ways of God?

Connecting Scripture and Life

Close your eyes and imagine yourself receiving a blessing from God: What do you feel? (pause) What do you see? (pause) What do you hear? (pause) What do you smell? (pause) Do you taste anything? (pause) What emotions do you experience? (pause) Have you felt this way before? (pause)

Use the attached resource sheet to explore moments you have seen or experienced or needed God’s blessing and then take that moment to talk to God in prayer.

Invite children to think of people who might be feeling sad, hungry, lonely, without friends and draw a face for each person they think about. Suggest they sit quietly in the prayer space and say a gentle prayer, asking that each person will know God’s love and care. For each person/prayer they might ring a bell and listen as the sound of the bell disappears. Then move on to the next prayer.

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