This is part of the worship series,
"Grounded and Growing—Journeying from Lent to Easter”
Series Introduction | Ash Wednesday | Lent 1 | Lent 2 | Lent 3 | Lent 4 | Lent 5 |
Palm/Passion Sunday | Maundy Thursday | Good Friday | Easter
Leading Prayers of the People During Lent | A Communion Liturgy for Lent
Also in this series: Advent and Christmas | Epiphany
The road through Lent is narrowing now. As some hymns describe it, the “shadows are lengthening.” The cross is now not an abstraction, it’s a dark destination. Jesus knows it. The disciples feel it. The air is thick with what is coming.
Some Greeks come looking for Jesus. They’ve heard rumors that life is happening where he walks. But when Jesus hears they want to see him, he does not offer a meet-and-greet. He offers an agricultural warning: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. This is not inspirational gardening advice. This is the acknowledgement of a death sentence. But it comes with a promise.
Jeremiah says God is planting a new covenant, not on tablets of stone but in the soil of the human heart. The writer of Hebrews says Christ learned obedience the hard way—through suffering. And Jesus says the only life worth keeping is the one we are willing to give away.
This is the strange arithmetic of the kingdom:
loss=gain
surrender=strength.
To be grounded and growing is to trust that God is not finished with what looks spent. It is to believe that God, in resurrection power, can coax life out of what has been buried, hope out of what has been handed over. There is a cost; but in time there is also a harvest.
Service Outline
GATHERING
Call to Worship
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,
it remains alone.
But if it dies,
it bears much fruit.
God is doing a new thing among us.
We come to worship the God of life.
Opening Song
“I Want Jesus to Walk With Me” African American, st. 1 trad., st. 2-4 Rienstra
During this song, attend to these four gestures during the appropriate verses:
1. Light the Christ candle
2. Lift and place the Scriptures
3. Drape purple cloth on the cross
4. Pour water into the font
Welcome & Season Framing
[Brief word naming the start of Lent, the wilderness journey, and the Grounded and Growing theme (see introduction).]
Praise/Psalm
“Psalm 32: Then At Last” Kimbrough, CCLI Song #7064730
[Note that on the sheet music verses 1 and 2 are at the top and then the refrain. In the recording, Wendell sings the first two verses and THEN the refrain. The last 3 staves are the 3rd verse, followed by the refrain again.]
Prayer of Lament and Confession
[Adapt the lament and confession from Lent 1 – possibly using a different Kyrie]
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the good news.
The God who promises a new covenant
has written mercy on our hearts.
The Christ who walked the road of suffering
has gone ahead of us into death
and opened the way to life.
Friends, believe this good news:
in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.
Thanks be to God.
Response
Refrain from “Then At Last”
WORD
Prayer for Illumination
Faithful God,
speak your Word into the soil of our hearts.
Plant what leads to life.
By your Spirit,
teach us the way of Christ.
Amen.
Scripture Readings
- Jeremiah 31:31–34—God promises a new covenant written on the heart.
- Psalm 32—A song of forgiveness, freedom, and the joy of being restored by grace.
- Hebrews 5:5–10—Christ learns obedience through suffering and becomes our salvation.
- John 12:20–33—Jesus speaks of the grain of wheat that dies to bear much fruit.
Sermon
“Life from Death”
[See notes from the introduction.]
Song of Response
“Take My Life and Let It Be” Havergal
“Take, O Take Me As I Am” Bell
Prayers of the People
[See “Leading Prayers of the People During Lent”]
TABLE
Lord’s Supper
[See “Grounded and Growing—A Communion Liturgy for Lent”]
SENDING
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Faithful God,
you have met us at your table
and fed us with the bread of life
and the cup of the new covenant.
You have given us more than a meal.
You have given us a promise —
that what is given to you is not lost,
and what is laid down in love will rise in hope.
Send us now as a people shaped by your mercy,
ready to bear fruit for your kingdom.
Ground us in your grace.
Grow us in your love.
Lead us on your way.
Amen.
Closing song
“Dead in You, Lord, May We Rise” Rienstra
Closing Prayer
[Attend to the four gestures named in the introduction to this service.]
God of love and mercy,
Bless us on our Lenten journey.
By your light, call us to faithful following.
By your word, call us to attentive listening.
By your cross, call us to sacrificial obedience.
By your Holy Spirit, call us to repentance, joy, and service.
Benediction
May the God who plants a new covenant in human hearts
give you courage to trust what you cannot yet see.
May the Christ who chose the path of obedience
walk with you when the road narrows.
May the Spirit who brings green shoots from buried seed
give you courage to give yourself away.
Go in peace.
Walk in hope.
Amen.
Bless the Lord.
The Lord’s name be praised.
Go in peace…
A sign of peace may be exchanged.
