Joyce Borger

It is worth noting that in Luke’s account of the triumphal entry there is no mention of the Palms; instead Luke highlights the laying down of the coats, a sign of reverence and subservience. Little did Christ’s followers understand of what true service to God requires: Nothing short of our whole lives, not merely our cloak. Yet, though they did not grasp the deep significance of the pageantry unfolding in front of them, they played a significant part. The message of the angels proclaimed in Luke 2:14 —“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” —has now been taken up by Christ’s disciples, “‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’” (Luke 19:38). As Christ’s disciples in the world today, we need to continue that refrain or else the stones will cry out in our place.

What acts of service are meaningful? Is the call to serve, to live missionally, just for those who work for the church or a mission organization ? Is it for those with a particular gift?

Like the Pharisees we often are too worried about what others think about us. We worry what would happen if we hung out with the wrong people, or if someone saw us acting outside of approved norms. We spend so much time talking about our differences that we fail to see the many more ways that we are the same. The father in the story of the prodigal son  loved the prodigal son and he loved the lost son who stayed at home. Christ loved all the sinners around the table. Christ loved the Pharisees though they chose not to see it.

Living a life of service with a heart of service means recognizing the radical and complete equality in the body of Christ. In a sermon preached a few months before his assassination Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. . . . You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant" (Martin Luther King Jr., “Drum Major Instinct” Sermon, 4 February 1968).

Our passage this week is Luke 13:31–35 where Christ talks about foxes and hens. The fox is understood as Herod, and the hen is Jesus. Instead of the hen running away from the fox, the hen runs to the fox. Jesus continues on to Jerusalem. And while it seems the fox kills the hen, in the end true strength comes from the weakness and vulnerability of the hen. Sacrificial love always wins over power. We are called to that same love, that same attitude, that same humble service and willingness to knowingly lay down our lives. That calls for commitment.

Our faith journeys include high and low points. If that was true for the Israelites and true for Christ, why should we expect anything different? Let’s not be surprised by the wilderness, but embrace it as a time of preparation for service, a time in which we are formed as Christ’s servants and our callings clarified. This Lent, let’s embrace the wilderness—the uncertain aspects of our lives and our faith journeys—and wait expectantly for God’s call.

The season of Lent traditionally begins with a service of repentance. Attendees are invited to receive on their foreheads the mark of the cross, made from ashes. We often think of these ashes as a mark of our penitence, but they also mark us as people who live in the way of the cross. What would it mean if we wore ashes on our foreheads every day? When we don’t wear ashes, do the people around us know that we are Christ followers?

Are you looking for resources for Advent and Christmas? You are sure to find something at ReformedWorship.org with hundreds of resources from series that provide services for each week, to lessons and carols, Longest Night or Blue Christmas services, children’s pageants, to advent candle lighting—we have it covered. All of these resources are a gift to you and available for free.

When Reformed Worship staff sat down to discuss the worship series for this issue and how it might connect with the year’s theme of mission, we thought of how the church historically has the greatest missional impact when it combines the gospel message with lives of service that emulate Christ. The concept of service fits well with the traditional Lenten themes of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. We were happy to discover that this theme also correlated well with the Revised Common Lectionary texts for Year C. As we continued thinking about this theme, we found Richard J. Foster’s classic work Celebration of Discipline particularly helpful.Because several people would be creating this series, we drafted a broad outline to keep each worship service for the Sundays in Lent focused on worship’s dialogue between God and those gathered (see "Full Order of Worship" below). Not all of the worship elements appear every week, but the outline may be a helpful reference if you adapt this series for your context. To help anchor the theme and create some continuity, the ending of each Sunday service is the same. During Lent there also are weekday services, including those for Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday. Each of these services has its own rhythm and does not closely follow the outline for Sunday services. We have provided background notes on the theme for each service that could also serve as sermon notes and help you see the thread tying the worship elements together. Following the Ash Wednesday and Sunday services are suggestions for how individuals and households might respond.The graphic found at the top of the page is available for worshiping communities to use with the right attribution. You can find links giving you the copyright information as well as a downloadable graphic under "Resources" at the bottom of this page. Here are links to each of the service. Ash Wednesday: Coworkers in ChristLent 1: The Call to ServiceLent 2: Commitment to ServiceLent 3: The Heart of ServiceLent 4: Service as Radical HospitalityLent 5: The Ministry of Self-GivingLent 6: (Palm/Passion Sunday): The Servant King Maundy Thursday: The Sign of ServiceGood Friday: The Suffering ServantEaster: The Servant’s MessageFull Order of Worship for the Sundays of LentEach service contains some of the following elements while retaining the flow of God’s actions and our response. GOD GATHERS US Call to WorshipGreetingWE RESPONDOpening ResponsesCall to ConfessionPrayers of Confession or LamentAssurance of PardonThe PeaceThanksgivingDedication to Holy Living / The LawGOD SPEAKS TO USChildren’s MessagePrayers for Illumination Scripture ReadingSermonWE RESPONDResponse to the Sermon Profession of Our Church’s FaithPrayers of the PeopleOfferingBaptismProfession of Faith and Remembrance of BaptismGOD MEETS US AT THE TABLEThe Lord’s SupperDeclaration of God’s Invitation and PromisesGreat Prayer of ThanksgivingPreparing the Bread and CupCommunionWE RESPONDResponse of Praise and PrayerGOD SENDS US OUT TO SERVESendingBlessing / BenedictionFollowing the pattern we’ve established the question we should be posing to those gathered for worship is: Having encountered our God in worship, how are we going to respond in our daily living? The sending doesn’t end our worship but begins our life of worship. First Service 

Have you ever been driving somewhere so familiar that you get lost in your own thoughts, and then suddenly—as if waking up from a dream—you look around and wonder for a moment where you are? I sometimes have the same reaction to Scripture and the church calendar. It becomes so routine—another Lent, another Holy Week—that I drive through on autopilot, going through the motions without really taking anything in.But sometimes when I drive I have the opposite experience. I may be driving a familiar route, but something catches my eye that likely has always been there, yet it’s as if I’m seeing it for the first time. What a delight to discover something new and beautiful in the familiar!I may be driving a familiar route, but something catches my eye that likely has always been there, yet it’s as if I’m seeing it for the first time. What a delight to discover something new and beautiful in the familiar!My prayer for all of us is that we might journey through this season of Lent with fresh eyes. Instead of driving through on autopilot, we might take time to stop, get out of the car, walk around, and experience Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem as if it were our very first Lent and Easter. I pray that we might linger in Scripture and find ourselves in the story. Would we be selfish like Judas or, like Mary, willing to give everything to Jesus? Would we be like Peter, who denies knowing Jesus, or like John, who comforts Jesus’ mother at the foot of the cross? Would we be found among the Palm Sunday people shouting “Hosanna!” or in the Good Friday crowd demanding that Jesus be crucified?I pray that the Holy Spirit might fill you with curiosity and wonder as you open Scripture so that you find meaning in the details we sometimes skip over. I pray that as you plan worship you may find ways to encourage that same curiosity and wonder in your communities. May you see the familiar in new and meaningful ways, and may those new insights blossom into new ways of doing and being that bring honor and glory to God.This Lent, we invite you to journey through the familiar with the particular lens of servanthood and mission. You will find sample services from a series that puts servanthood at the heart of the gospel and at the nexus of our mission as Christ’s disciples. (The entire series can be found by searching by the title at ReformedWorship.org.) We also have included several other planning resources for Transfiguration Sunday, Lent, and Holy Week, plus articles to help us see and think anew.This journey to Jerusalem is not an easy one. There are moments of delight, but also times of deep sorrow and intense pain. But if we go slowly enough, following the Spirit’s lead, we are sure to encounter the holy.