A prayer for the Sunday after the presidential election in the United States but could be adapted for other contexts. “Creator of the universe, Lord of this time and place…”
Resources by Joyce Borger
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to do one of my favorite things: serve communion. There are many things I treasure about the honor of hosting this holy meal, but on this occasion what struck me most were the children. The act of bending down to their level, looking them full in the face, speaking to them, and serving them ministers to my soul. Here these children come without fully comprehending the words or what this sacrament is all about, yet with fitting solemnity they dip their bread in the cup. Some come with a little trepidation and a supportive parental hand at their back, while others come eagerly, like the young man who decided to immerse the bread and most of his fingers in the juice. Thankfully, he quickly placed the soggy bread in his mouth before it dripped onto his clothes. The young girl with the beautiful white dress who so nicely dipped the bread wasn’t quite so quick. Maybe we all should wear white for communion, collecting stains as a remembrance of all our sinful imperfections for which God bent down to earth and gave his life as a redemption. Because we are humans serving humans, our call isn’t to bend down, but to recognize our equality with others, crossing barriers so we too can meet people as they are, wherever they are, and share the good news about our Bending-Down God. The image of God bending down, breaking the God/human barrier by being both God and human, is one of the most important themes of Advent. God bent down to become like us, to meet us as we are, where we are. Advent is a missional message. God’s first mission was to bend across a barrier and establish a covenant relationship with God’s people. Then, in the fullness of time, the incarnate Christ bridged barrier after barrier, bending to look people full in the face, serving humanity—the fearful, the eager, and the stained—equally. Advent is a missional message as we are called by the Holy Spirit to be Christ’s disciples, to emulate Christ. Because we are humans serving humans, our call isn’t to bend down, but to recognize our equality with others, crossing barriers so we too can meet people as they are, wherever they are, and share the good news about our Bending-Down God. Those are the themes that can be heard throughout this issue—a barrier breaking, missional ostinato. We hear the theme in the worship series that speaks of the reckless love of God for the women in Christ’s genealogy—reckless only from a human perspective that placed little value on these women. It comes through clearly in the articles on “Advent and Mission” and “The Christmas Mission”. This Bending-Down God is the foundation of the bridge-building mission of the music group Sela, evident in the songs featured in this Songs for the Season. Bridging divides can also occur through the correcting of historical narratives as we expand our understanding of church history, learning from the 15th century church of Ethiopia and Eritrea. While the theme may not be as pronounced in other articles and resources, if you listen carefully you will hear it there as well. Unfortunately, it isn’t always easy to build bridges. The work of crossing barriers and looking at the other full in the face with the same love that Christ has for them can sometimes seem impossible. In this issue we provide helpful suggestions for being bridge-builders and peacemakers that were learned by Christians in Ireland during their “Troubles”. During difficult times it is important to name those challenges and divisions and to lament, so we have also included a litany to use either with a Blue Christmas/Longest Night service in Advent or on other occasions where the church is called to lament. This Advent, as you engage the familiar nativity story again, may you encounter this Bending-Down God anew, and may the missional theme of Advent permeate not just your worship, but also the hearts, minds, and actions of those you lead.
Whether or not you mark this coming Sunday as Trinity Sunday in your church, given the significance of the Trinity to our Christian faith it ought to receive attention in our worship. Here is a beginning list of songs to consider for use with such a service as well as an outline for the beginning of worship.
So often in the telling of the gospel story we forget the role of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost Sunday is an opportunity for us to offer a healthy corrective as we acknowledge the role the Spirit played in creation, in the renewing of all living things, in our prayers, our salvation, and our resurrection hope.
As you plan for Ascension Day and Pentecost services, consider adapting one of these resources for your own context.
The following service was written for a devotional time before a church meeting, but it could easily be adapted for congregational worship. It is centered around Psalm 103 and the petition “give us this day our daily bread,” which would be fitting for Thanksgiving Day or any other service with gratitude as its central theme.
In my circle of Reformed folk, we like to talk about our “world and life view,” or a way of looking at life through the lens of faith—a faith that believes that the Holy Spirit is at work in this world, claiming it for Christ and building God’s kingdom on earth. As Abraham Kuyper famously said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’” (From Kuyper’s inaugural address at the dedication of the Free University, in Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader, ed. James D. Bratt (Eerdmans, 1998), 461). This is a faith that sings, “Every inch of this universe belongs to you, O Christ. For through you and for you it was made. Your creation endures by the order of your hand. So you must have in all things the first place” (Matthew Westerholm, “The First Place,” © 1999 Matthew Westerholm, Lift Up Your Hearts #15). Yet so often our professed faith and our lived faith don’t align. Instead of seeing our daily life as an expression of our faith and as part of the larger mission of building God’s kingdom on earth, we relegate our faith to an hour of corporate worship, a small group or Bible study, and maybe a few moments of daily prayer or personal devotions. But that’s not the way it’s supposed to be—nor does it need to be. One way to help our congregants understand that all of life is under the lordship of Christ and should be lived for his glory is to teach and show how our corporate worship should affect the rest of our living—and that our daily lives should affect our corporate worship. As Ron Man says, “Worship as a church and worship as a lifestyle are in a mutually enriching relationship” (“Living Worship,” p. 3). “Every inch of this universe belongs to you, O Christ. For through you and for you it was made. Your creation endures by the order of your hand. So you must have in all things the first place.”—Matthew WesterholmThat relationship between corporate worship and all of life is what we’ll be exploring in the next few issues of Reformed Worship. This certainly isn’t the first time we have addressed this topic, but now we will be doing so in a more focused way. In this issue we are paying particular attention to the relationship between corporate worship and our daily vocations, as seen in the worship series “Work and Worship” (p. 7), a reflection on “Daily Worship and Vocation” (p. 15), and “Songs for Work and Worship” (p. 19). Future issues of Reformed Worship will explore the connection between worship and mission. As always, we encourage you to submit your own resources related to these topics or related to the liturgical seasons. To learn more, visit reformedworship.org/how-submit-article. As we think about the connection between our worship, our work, and our faith, I can think of few people who have exemplified it as well as Laura Meyering. Laura recently retired after ten years as the subscription manager for Reformed Worship. She may not have written for the journal, but her servant’s heart and wisdom have profoundly affected our ministry, and we are grateful for her. To fill the gap that Laura leaves, and as part of the ongoing transition of Reformed Worship to our new home within the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, I invite you to join me in warmly welcoming members of CICW’s central office to the Reformed Worship team. With their help our rhythm of work and worship continues.
As I read through the lectionary readings for this season, many of them centered around love: God’s love for us and the call of Christ’s followers to love each other. Thus, that refrain echoes throughout these resources.. Another theme that began with Mark’s account of the women at the tomb is that of doubt and faith and how closely the two reside in each of us.
As we enter the final week of Lent and begin to think more seriously about the Sunday after Easter here are some resources to adapt for your context or use as inspiration.
On Ash Wednesday instead of looking at the dark that surrounds us from the comfort of a lit room we sit in darkness, and see the light.
