This is part of the worship series
"Consider the Birds of the Air"
Series Introduction
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4
WEEK FOUR
ON EAGLES WINGS
Call to Worship
Psalm 84 (different sung or spoken settings)
*Call to Confession
Christ our Lord invites all who love him,
who earnestly repent of their sin
and seek to live in peace with one another.
Therefore let us confess our sin before God and one another.
Prayer of Confession
O God, who brooded over the world when it was created,
and broods now over your children
until we are shaped in the image of Christ,
we confess our daily sins:
the word sharply spoken,
the praise withheld,
the embrace not given,
the hurt disguised,
the envy felt,
the self indulged,
the need neglected.
Receive us now broken, penitent, wishing it were otherwise.
Enfold us in the arms of love and forgiveness, and restore a new spirit within us.
Make us one with ourselves, with each other, with you.
Let your name be magnified, let Christ be glorified, let the Holy Spirit be intensified,
in each heart and on all our lips, this day and forever.
Amen.
—John Killinger, Lost In Wonder, Love & Praise: Prayers and Affirmations for Christian Worship, p. 49. © 1986, Angel Books, Lynchburg, VA 24503. Used by permission.
Alternatively, the congregation could sing Psalm 139, “Lord, You Have Searched Me” Post and Oliver
*Assurance of Pardon
Leader: Hear the good news: Christ died for us while we were yet sinners; that proves God’s love for us. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
People: In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
All: Glory to God. Amen.
Hymn of Response
“Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart” Croly and Arkinson
Prayer for Illumination
“Spirit Divine, Inspire Our Prayers” Reed and Cruger
Scripture
Isaiah 40:28–31; Revelation 4–5
Sermon Seed
The heat was intense on the island of Patmos. John was doing hard labor for the Roman government because he remained loyal to Christ and refused to worship the Roman emperor. This penal island was surrounded by the beautiful Aegean Sea whose clear water must have appeared “as a sea of glass, as clear as crystal” to him. But this was no day spa for John.
To get through his days, John hoped and prayed for the new day coming. He dared to compose a beautiful hymn of faith for the church:
Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat upon them,
nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd;
he will lead them to springs of living water.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
—Revelation 7:16–17
During those hard days, God gives John a vision of a huge, cosmic battle that will be like a woman defeating a dragon. Once the war is over and the dragon slain, the woman will leave with “two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly to the wilderness” (Revelation 12:14).
With this image John recalls verses that extol the mystique of the eagle: the ease of its gravity-defying flight (some eagles have been clocked in a 120-mph dive), the grandeur of its stature, the cunning skill of its hunting. These qualities are apparent in Boevé’s painting; the girth of an eagle soaring to the heavens appears even bigger than the huge sun behind it.
In the Bible the eagle is a symbol of spiritual experience. When we trust God, we discover the enormous lifting power of faith and hope: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles” (Isaiah 40:31). The psalmist praised the Lord for renewing his youth like the eagle’s (Psalm 103:5, based on an old idea that eagles renew their youth by soaring toward the sun). Eagles have a long life—some have been known to live up to eighty years. So mysterious was the eagle of biblical times that it attained a godlike quality. No wonder the Bible mentions “wings” and “flying” in connection with God again and again.
John knew that no matter how hard life is, a day is coming when we will rise up on eagle’s wings. We will belong to a city whose architect and builder is God. This hope became reality in Jesus Christ. It is our hope today.
In Revelation 4-5 John writes no less than five songs of praise to the One seated on the throne and to the Lamb. He declares that Christ, the hope-giver, is worthy of all our praise. And to that the heavenly-winged lion, the ox, the human, and the flying eagle cry “Amen.”
Congregational Song
“On Eagles’ Wings” (Psalm 91) SFL 205, SNC
“By the Sea of Crystal” Kuipers and Vanderhoven
“Come, Praise the Lord, My Soul” Otte and Slenk
“Creation Sings, Each Plant and Tree” SNC
Anthem Suggestions
“They Shall Soar Like Eagles,” Laura Manzo; SAB with optional flute obbligato (Fred Bock, BG 2078)
“City of Heaven,” arr. Josephine Poelinitz (Plymouth Music HL-105)
“Wings Like Eagles,” Allen Pote; SATB (Hope Publishing C5049)
“On Eagles’ Wings,” Michael Joncas; SATB (Hope Publishing A675)
“I’m Goin’ Up A Yonder,” Walter Hawkins; four-part treble; (Bossey & Hawkes OCTB6451)
Easter Wings
Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more
till he became
Most poor.
With thee
O let me rise
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day thy victories:
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.
My tender age in sorrow did begin:
And still with sicknesses and shame
Thou didst so punish sin
that I became
Most thin.
With thee
Let me combine
And feel this day thy victorie;
For, if I imp my wing on thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.
—George Herbert (17th cent.)
Revised Common Lectionary
Year B: Epiphany—Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
Year C: Easter—Third Sunday of Easter
