This is part of the worship series,
"Rooted and Established in Love”
Introduction
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4—World Communion Sunday
Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8—All Saints /Reformation Sunday
Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12—Christ the King Sunday
Week Two: The Dying Tree
Scripture: Genesis 3
Faith Practice: Forgiveness and Grace
Reflection: What does it mean to live forgiven? How might that reality shape our living and our relationships with one another?
Call to Worship
On this Lord’s day, we, as beloved and chosen people of God,
are graciously called into this place for worship.
Christ, who is our Redeemer, our Savior, healer, and giver of life,
beckons our community of faith to come together
and lift our individual and corporate voices to our Lord.
It is by God’s gracious invitation that we are called to worship.
So, people of God,
we are invited to come to worship not because we ought to,
but because we may;
we come and worship not because we are righteous,
but because we acknowledge our own sinfulness;
we come and worship not because we are strong,
but because we are weak and in need of God’s grace;
we come and worship not because we are whole,
but because we are broken and long for Christ’s restoration.
—Kathryn Roelofs © 2025 ReformedWorship.org, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Choral Anthem
“Jesus Christ the Apple Tree” Helvey
Prayer of Confession
Refrain: “Your Mercy Flows” Sutton (refrain only, repeating as indicated)
Hear our cry, O Lord, for we are a broken people desperately in need of your grace and mercy. We are a broken people whose sins overwhelm us like a flood—some sins blatant, and some so secret we dare not think about them or acknowledge them before you. Hear our cry, O Lord. Hear our silent prayers, our silent longings, our silent confessions before you, laying bare our guilt and sin.
We confess our personal sins, the ones we try so hard to hide from others but which are so known to you. We confess all the things that stand as a barrier between us and your gracious desire for our lives. Hear our prayers.
Refrain
We confess systemic sins, the troubles and the sufferings in this world that seem so vast and oftentimes so far removed from our daily lives. But we are guilty before you for the sins of this world. Hear our prayers.
Refrain
We confess the sins committed against us and our response to those sins. We lament the brokenness we share with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Hear our prayers.
Refrain
We call out to you as those who are broken by our own inability to fix our own problems and by our ever-present propensity to make a mess of the beautiful world you have so graciously given us. Take these broken pieces of our lives and our souls and restore them with your mercy.
—Kathryn Roelofs © 2025 ReformedWorship.org, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Song
“Amazing Grace” Newton
Assurance of Pardon
Psalm 103:8–14 followed by verses 1–4
Song
“And Can It Be” Wesley
Sermon Notes
[During the sermon, Pastor Meg Jenista Kuykendall held up a large terra-cotta pot. She talked about how the previous Sunday was all about human flourishing in the garden and God’s good creation. Then she held the pot over her head and smashed it to the floor. This week was about brokenness and sin, and the destruction was a stunning visual and auditory representation of that. We “pre-broke” several other large pots and handed out rough-edged pieces of the terra-cotta for people to hold and feel during the sermon. During the response time after the sermon, people brought their pieces forward and placed them in a basket. The author reflected on this moment in the blog: “Broken Pieces, Henry, and the Holy Spirit”
The following Sunday, we had a repaired pot in front of the sanctuary, where it stayed for the rest of the series. We had very carefully broken a pot so the pieces could be glued back together. We tried kintsugi, the Japanese technique of using gold or silver resin both to repair and to highlight the cracks, but the substance didn’t stick well to terra-cotta.
See “From Brokenness to Beauty: The Parable of the Clay Pots” for another possibility.]
Parting Blessing
Song
“To God Be the Glory” Crouch
Revised Common Lectionary
Year B: Season after Pentecost—Proper 5 (10)
