My newsletter article changed after talking with a couple of people
affected by the events in Roanoke VA today. A word about being church.
This is not the only words that need to be said right now about how to
be counter-cultural (speaking about violence and how we carry it out
should also be forefront, as well as how to help heal a world isolated
and divided) but it is A word that God has given me to speak.
There have been other words in this space, but the events of this
morning, August 26, have caused me to change the words to fit something
that has hit home once again today.
The world we live in often
feels on the edge of chaos. Some events seem to make no sense, and we as
a culture are often afraid that this chaos will one day affect us even
more directly. Some people even feel so overwhelmed by this that they
do things that seem to make no sense to us in attempts to feel in
control themselves. This is core it seems to our culture, "I must gain
control over the things that are important to me and protect them."
There is value in being smart and measured with the things that matter
to you, but when it comes to being a community of faith, the people of
God, a church there is a different call. As I've talked with a
few friends this morning who are ministers in the Roanoke, VA area, our
conversations about the shock in their community and resources that may
help to talking about the events here in Charleston back in June. All
of these conversations have included some form of "I get the impression
that they've truly forgiven and are moving forward and aren't changing
the open door policy that allowed this to happen. I'm not sure we'd
trust outsiders so much if it was us."
Interestingly though, a
couple of the conversations moved to talking about a crossover point of
these two horrible events and church life. What do we do inside the
church that helps people see that trying to maintain power and control
isn't getting us anywhere near God's intent for us? How do we present
the alternative to "protect this house," "seize what's mine," "I/we have
to win," etc?
The big question that hit time and again was
"What does a community of people who feel they have nothing to protect,
but just everything to give, really look like, and how do we help
churches become that?" I've never been in a church where everyone was
like that, and we pondered if it was possible or if human nature meant
that the systemic issues would always just keep coming around and
"people being people" would always keep us from ever realizing what it's
like to truly be church doing what Jesus asks of us and what Acts says
the first church did.
Since then I've been thinking and praying
around Jesus' teachings in Luke 6:27-36 and Matthew 5:38-47. In this
time, I came to ponder if really requires everyone to create what church
is meant to be, or if part of the issue is that thought itself. What
if we each tried to be a person who feels (s)he has nothing to protect,
just everything to give? What if each of us lived out these teachings
and let the chips fall where they may? What if like Abraham, we risked
sacrificing everything we love to God, knowing God and trusting God to
be Love and to provide perfectly? We may never do it always or
perfectly, but what if we tried?
We claim to worship a God who's
actions throughout our scripture are based in Manna and Mercy. Can we as
the church be the place where those things live? Can we risk our own
desires and our own place, so that the Spirit can move freely? Can we
be what our culture is not, a place and a people who do not seek
vengeance, who do not seek recognition, who do not seek power or
control, but exemplify what it means to freely give as God asks?
We're all in this together
"A"
Showing posts with label Worship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Worship. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Choice of Purpose
Okay, I admit it, I thought I was done with this subject a couple weeks ago, like most blog posts that make the rounds with my friends the various "Let/Don't Let Your Kids Choose To Not Go To Church" posts came in a bunch and then we'd move on to whatever else someone thought was killing the church. But NO, another round of "Get your kids into Sunday worship" posts are showing up.
So, I've made my points on choice previously, but my issue with these are that they tie into everything I'm struggling with regarding this whole "church survival" culture. There are lots of points where this culture goes astray, but this recent series of articles hits two main ones. 1) Church = Sunday Morning Worship (or at least that large corporate worship is central to the idea of Church). 2) The objective of Church is to survive, and that means indoctrinating kids into the culture so that (maybe, hopefully) they'll find it essential to their adult lives.
So let's talk about this: The church built around a large corporate worship as the only, best, or even "right" way to do church is dying. Not for every congregation or context, but as a whole it is. This is NOT what church is or what church needs to be in the new paradigm. Worship will happen, but it's quite probable that it will happen in smaller groups, or at special times of the year, or both, or connected to mission and other parts of "Church," or who knows exactly, it should based on the new paradigm be contextual, organic, and relational. And to be quite honest, for most churches, large corporate worship is not, and quite probably can not be that sustainably.
So why then is this the drum that so many beat when it comes to the ideal of "helping our children be Godly?" Probably in large part because it's what they know. For many, Sundays at church was the norm, but it also was rarely (and most of the posts I've seen state this) the only way faith, religion, and/or spirituality interacted with their life. The problem is that having spent most of our life in the Postmodern Transition, we create a false duality and over emphasize the roles of institutions which support our "truth." This is not where we are today, and certainly for kids who have spent most of their life in the new paradigm is actually completely illogical. Not saying that all kids who go to a Sunday large service of worship will turn against it, but coming to that will NOT keep anyone involved in the church or with their faith by itself.
If anything, for those who have spent most their lives in this relational paradigm of convergence, the separation of the world at the "worship hour" is going to present large issues with finding purpose unless it is supported by a connection to the rest of the world around us. At some time in the near future there will be a tipping point where this struggle to maintain and survive will be the very thing that brings about an inevitable ending.
It is though the fear of this ending that I think causes us to write so many of the posts, to spend so much time reflecting on how to survive. Yet, it seems too often rather than being willing to risk letting things that we've always known and make us feel safe and connected to our ideas of "God," we think that we just need to focus on making others think the same way we do. This is especially risky (in my opinion, as if everything we right isn't based on our opinions) when it comes to our children. I struggle a lot with parenting, the ideas we ask our children to accept just because we hold them close to ourselves aren't always ones we should impose on our kids. I started struggling with this with sports. So often I see babies dressed in school or team colours, told to cheer on "our team" just because it's "mom's team" or "dad's team."
The thing is we don't stop with sports (and even if we did, I'd have lots to say, but that's a different post), we basically tell our children for years who God is, what God thinks, and sometimes go as far as to turn God into the global boogie man without meaning to. We want our kids to think like we do, and we do it to the point of indoctrination. That's a problem, I see it time and again at confirmation age. There are kids who have never asked questions, they come to church because they're told to, they answer questions with certainty because they've been told what the right answer is, but when faced with realities that conflict with these answers, they don't know how to doubt, they don't know HOW to make a CHOICE!
We've created a world filled with anxiety because these children have never existed within a world where there was a "right" path to a "single" truth. Their world is relational and every thing that happens adds to the book they are doodling in (see previous blog posts for more on this) creating new understandings. But we want faith not to be in THAT book, we want faith to be already written. We want them to memorize the text book and never deviate from or question it.
Have you looked at a GOOD children's educational book recently? Many have more questions than answers. Most new one's I've seen aim to put kids into the world their studying and then leave them room to go find more about the questions that matter to them. We just finished our first youth literary circle here, they read the BFG by Dahl and they had so many different thoughts on the BIG stuff (Fear, Hope, Pain, Life, Ethics) that came from the reading it was hard to keep track of who asked what and who answered what and what all that lead to.
We cannot indoctrinate our kids and expect them to survive in a world where the constant stream of information means that their reality is ALWAYS changing. They need room to figure it out. The things church provides are useful and important in that formation, but the idea that the other things of life are somehow less important, or even unequivocally less Godly than that Sunday morning thing is very misplaced.
So let's sum this up before the few people who have made it this far move on:
Going to church as a kid WILL NOT mean that they'll come to church as an adult. This NEVER should have been our intent. I've seen in a number of posts the idea that when we have kids, people come back to church. There were once statistics to support this, but that was mostly part of a modern way of thinking that became paramount in the postmodern transition to the idea that our truth was a truth based on a singular path. The fact though is: if we're not going to be the kind of place that an individual thinks is important to THEIR OWN LIFE at any certain time, there was never anywhere to go but down, because as we are more able to see the complexities of the world, we look for places to engage our passions, and those places and people become most important. The church CAN be that place, but we have to make it that place. We have to let go of the idea that getting people in the door is our purpose, we have to let go of the things that make us comfortable, we have to stop trying to survive and become whatever it is our context needs most. If we allow ourselves to be moved by the Spirit that envelops all things, WE will find our passions, our children can find their passions, and God's reign will move ever closer.
<End Rant>
So, I've made my points on choice previously, but my issue with these are that they tie into everything I'm struggling with regarding this whole "church survival" culture. There are lots of points where this culture goes astray, but this recent series of articles hits two main ones. 1) Church = Sunday Morning Worship (or at least that large corporate worship is central to the idea of Church). 2) The objective of Church is to survive, and that means indoctrinating kids into the culture so that (maybe, hopefully) they'll find it essential to their adult lives.
So let's talk about this: The church built around a large corporate worship as the only, best, or even "right" way to do church is dying. Not for every congregation or context, but as a whole it is. This is NOT what church is or what church needs to be in the new paradigm. Worship will happen, but it's quite probable that it will happen in smaller groups, or at special times of the year, or both, or connected to mission and other parts of "Church," or who knows exactly, it should based on the new paradigm be contextual, organic, and relational. And to be quite honest, for most churches, large corporate worship is not, and quite probably can not be that sustainably.
So why then is this the drum that so many beat when it comes to the ideal of "helping our children be Godly?" Probably in large part because it's what they know. For many, Sundays at church was the norm, but it also was rarely (and most of the posts I've seen state this) the only way faith, religion, and/or spirituality interacted with their life. The problem is that having spent most of our life in the Postmodern Transition, we create a false duality and over emphasize the roles of institutions which support our "truth." This is not where we are today, and certainly for kids who have spent most of their life in the new paradigm is actually completely illogical. Not saying that all kids who go to a Sunday large service of worship will turn against it, but coming to that will NOT keep anyone involved in the church or with their faith by itself.
If anything, for those who have spent most their lives in this relational paradigm of convergence, the separation of the world at the "worship hour" is going to present large issues with finding purpose unless it is supported by a connection to the rest of the world around us. At some time in the near future there will be a tipping point where this struggle to maintain and survive will be the very thing that brings about an inevitable ending.
It is though the fear of this ending that I think causes us to write so many of the posts, to spend so much time reflecting on how to survive. Yet, it seems too often rather than being willing to risk letting things that we've always known and make us feel safe and connected to our ideas of "God," we think that we just need to focus on making others think the same way we do. This is especially risky (in my opinion, as if everything we right isn't based on our opinions) when it comes to our children. I struggle a lot with parenting, the ideas we ask our children to accept just because we hold them close to ourselves aren't always ones we should impose on our kids. I started struggling with this with sports. So often I see babies dressed in school or team colours, told to cheer on "our team" just because it's "mom's team" or "dad's team."
The thing is we don't stop with sports (and even if we did, I'd have lots to say, but that's a different post), we basically tell our children for years who God is, what God thinks, and sometimes go as far as to turn God into the global boogie man without meaning to. We want our kids to think like we do, and we do it to the point of indoctrination. That's a problem, I see it time and again at confirmation age. There are kids who have never asked questions, they come to church because they're told to, they answer questions with certainty because they've been told what the right answer is, but when faced with realities that conflict with these answers, they don't know how to doubt, they don't know HOW to make a CHOICE!
We've created a world filled with anxiety because these children have never existed within a world where there was a "right" path to a "single" truth. Their world is relational and every thing that happens adds to the book they are doodling in (see previous blog posts for more on this) creating new understandings. But we want faith not to be in THAT book, we want faith to be already written. We want them to memorize the text book and never deviate from or question it.
Have you looked at a GOOD children's educational book recently? Many have more questions than answers. Most new one's I've seen aim to put kids into the world their studying and then leave them room to go find more about the questions that matter to them. We just finished our first youth literary circle here, they read the BFG by Dahl and they had so many different thoughts on the BIG stuff (Fear, Hope, Pain, Life, Ethics) that came from the reading it was hard to keep track of who asked what and who answered what and what all that lead to.
We cannot indoctrinate our kids and expect them to survive in a world where the constant stream of information means that their reality is ALWAYS changing. They need room to figure it out. The things church provides are useful and important in that formation, but the idea that the other things of life are somehow less important, or even unequivocally less Godly than that Sunday morning thing is very misplaced.
So let's sum this up before the few people who have made it this far move on:
Going to church as a kid WILL NOT mean that they'll come to church as an adult. This NEVER should have been our intent. I've seen in a number of posts the idea that when we have kids, people come back to church. There were once statistics to support this, but that was mostly part of a modern way of thinking that became paramount in the postmodern transition to the idea that our truth was a truth based on a singular path. The fact though is: if we're not going to be the kind of place that an individual thinks is important to THEIR OWN LIFE at any certain time, there was never anywhere to go but down, because as we are more able to see the complexities of the world, we look for places to engage our passions, and those places and people become most important. The church CAN be that place, but we have to make it that place. We have to let go of the idea that getting people in the door is our purpose, we have to let go of the things that make us comfortable, we have to stop trying to survive and become whatever it is our context needs most. If we allow ourselves to be moved by the Spirit that envelops all things, WE will find our passions, our children can find their passions, and God's reign will move ever closer.
<End Rant>
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Youth Sunday Service
The following is the service they youth I work with created and led this week. It began with the theme of "God is There, Listening" and I think was a very moving and powerful service worth sharing:
PROCESSIONAL
(iPod Plays Below My Feet, pitchers brought forward and poured into aquariums)
PSALM OF THE DAY
I put all my hope in the Lord
He leaned down to me;
he listened to my cry for help.
He lifted me out of the pit of death,
out of the mud and filth,
and set my feet on solid rock.
He steadied my legs.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise for our God.
Many people will learn of this and be amazed;
they will trust the Lord.
Those who put their trust in the Lord
who pay no attention to the proud
or to those who follow lies,
are truly happy!
You, Lord my God!
You’ve done so many things—
your wonderful deeds and your plans for us—
no one can compare with you!
If I were to proclaim and talk about all of them,
they would be too numerous to count!
You don’t relish sacrifices or offerings;
you don’t require entirely burned offerings or compensation offerings—
but you have given me ears!
THE WELCOME
Leader: O praise the Lord with me,
People: Let us exalt God’s name together.
Right Hand of Fellowship
As we begin our worship this morning, let us take a moment to great one another sharing the peace of Christ.
Leader: The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
All: And also with you
Call to Worship
Leader: Eternal God, we say good morning to you.
People: Hallowed be your name
Leader: Early in the morning, before we begin our days,
People: We praise your glory.
Leader: Renew our bodies as fresh as morning flowers,
People: Open our eyes, as the sun casts new light on the darkness
Leader: Deliver us from all captivity
People: Give us wings of freedom like the birds in the sky to begin a new journey.
Leader: Restore justice and freedom, as a mighty stream running continuously as day follows day
All: We thank you for the gift of this morning, a another new day to work with you.
Songs of Praise
Days of Elijah
Firm Foundation
Prayer of Confession
Leader: When we feel we cannot go any farther, he picks us up and tells us he knows.
People: When I feel I cannot sink any lower, he pulls me out and tells me he sees.
Leader: When we feel that the pain can't get any worse, he takes it away and shows us he cares
People: When I feel that I cannot open my heart, he reaches in and and show me he can.
Leader: When we think our lives cannot get any harder
All: I turn to him. He's always there.
Prayer of Illumination
God, Give us seeing eyes, hearing ears, and understanding hearts. May your word be like fire, and a hammer that breaks the hardest rock into pieces. May we experience it's world changing power. AMEN
Genesis 21 verses 8-21
The boy grew and stopped nursing. On the day he stopped nursing, Abraham prepared a huge banquet. Sarah saw Hagar’s son laughing, the one Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham. So she said to Abraham, “Send this servant away with her son! This servant’s son won’t share the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
This upset Abraham terribly because the boy was his son. God said to Abraham, “Don’t be upset about the boy and your servant. Do everything Sarah tells you to do because your descendants will be traced through Isaac. But I will make of your servant’s son a great nation too, because he is also your descendant.” Abraham got up early in the morning, took some bread and a flask of water, and gave it to Hagar. He put the boy in her shoulder sling and sent her away.
She left and wandered through the desert near Beer-sheba. Finally the water in the flask ran out, and she put the boy down under one of the desert shrubs. She walked away from him about as far as a bow shot and sat down, telling herself, I can’t bear to see the boy die. She sat at a distance, cried out in grief, and wept.
God heard the boy’s cries, and God’s messenger called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “Hagar! What’s wrong? Don’t be afraid. God has heard the boy’s cries over there. Get up, pick up the boy, and take him by the hand because I will make of him a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well. She went over, filled the water flask, and gave the boy a drink. God remained with the boy; he grew up, lived in the desert, and became an expert archer. He lived in the Paran desert, and his mother found him an Egyptian wife.
Leader: The Word of The Lord
All: Thanks be to God.
Anthem
"Who Am I"
Mark 4 verses 35-41
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Leader: The Gospel of God.
All: We Praise You, Lord Jesus
Children’s Message
Read Mark text from Spark Story Bible. Acted out. Congregation behind kids make storm sounds as led along with story.
Prayer:
God who knows when we're afraid,
You are always with us.
Help us to always remember
the hope we have in you.
Amen
Romans 8 verses 22-27
We know that the whole creation is groaning together and suffering labor pains up until now. And it’s not only the creation. We ourselves who have the Spirit as the first crop of the harvest also groan inside as we wait to be adopted and for our bodies to be set free. We were saved in hope. If we see what we hope for, that isn’t hope. Who hopes for what they already see? But if we hope for what we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.
In the same way, the Spirit comes to help our weakness. We don’t know what we should pray, but the Spirit himself pleads our case with unexpressed groans. The one who searches hearts knows how the Spirit thinks, because he pleads for the saints, consistent with God’s will.
Leader: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.
All: And a light unto my path
Hymn
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
Sermon
“God In Our Storms”
(There will be a progressive storm created in the aquarium on the chancel as the sermon occurs)
Devon:
Everyone faces struggles in their lives. As life continues storms show up. It either comes out of nowhere or gradually builds until everything blows up. Storms are different for everyone. Whether they are illness that creep up and then affect a family or a failure that comes out of nowhere, every storm brings its problems but there is always a light at the end of the storm, something to continue your faith. Each of the scriptures talked about today, shows how the peoples faith was tested and the storms came but God and Jesus brought the light and the end of the storms.(Make clouds with shaving cream)
One can generally tell when a storm is coming. The skies start to darken and the wind starts to pick up and you know that something is coming. You can tell the storm is coming in the first scripture because Sara again is upset with Ismael and Hagar. This shows one-way a storm comes up on someone, giving you time to prepare. It allows them to prepare for the upcoming issue that may impact your life. I can relate to this because as we get closer to the end of the year, finals and the impending doom of a month full of exams are right around the corner. The storm is approaching but because I know it is coming I have time to prepare and study for them.
But life does not always give you a warning before the storm pops up. This is evident in the second scripture, when the storm pops up while the disciples are in the boat and Jesus is asleep. There is no warning for the storm and their faith is tested. They are scared and have to call on Jesus to help them. This is very much like when someone suddenly gets diagnosed with an illness. It takes you by surprise and can change your life and those lives around you. Storms affect us all in one way or another but faith and hope found in God help us get through, and keep us from being defeated.
Alex:
Everyone goes through a time in their life, wether it is a day, a week, a month, or even longer where it seems as though everything in your life is awful. This is when the storm hits. (Make rain with food coloring) When the rain is pouring so hard, that you cant see three feet a head of you when driving. This is when you have to pull over and let the storm pass. However, when dealing with intangible things, that you cant actually put in a box and lock away, this is not always so easy.
In Genesis, after Hagar is kicked out of her house with her child, she eventually reaches a point where she breaks down and leaves her child, knowing she cant do anything else. However, God hears her cries without her even directing them to him. He sends someone to help her and save her child, to continue her life. God understood what she needed, even when she did not know how to express her fears.
Romans also shows that even when we do not share our worries with god willingly he hears our groaning and is there for us to lean on and for him to help. When we think we are so deep down in a hole that no one can hear us, God can and will always listen for us.
Sometimes, as in Mark, when the disciples begin to even blame God and wonder if he cares that they are all about to drown, we begin to feel as if he will not be there to hear us. Maybe that he has others to take care of and who need him more. We may be in a rain storm, but somewhere else there are those who are dealing with a hurricane. But as soon as the disciples called Jesus’s name, he awoke and came to help them. He was listening the whole time, even though they didn’t realize.
There are times, when the storm that is happening all around us, that we can barley hear ourselves! Personally, my storm hit two weeks ago. Now I am playing lacrosse with games and practices everyday on a team that I am wholeheartedly committed to, I am also acting in Fort Johnson’s show Hello Dolly, as my fourteenth show, and trying to finish out my senior year at Academic Magnet strong. Two weeks ago, lacrosse and play started to come together and on top of that I had a lot of drama with the people in my life that I love and the schoolwork began to pile up. Then I got to take the SAT on saturday for the third time trying for a scholarship, because a five hour test is the simplest way to de-stress after a long week right? During this time I remember thinking I wish I could just open the bible and hear God speak to me about how to move past the pain, the hurt, and the tiredness that was surrounding me, but I didn’t know where to look. But I don’t have to just look to the bible, I can look to him and pray to him to help me through the storm. In this case it was both literal and figurative because it poured rain all that week, however when the sun finally came out on saturday, after taking the SAT it was gorgeous and I knew that I had made it through (Turn on light behind aquarium) and I had faith that everything would work out the way it was supposed.
Sometimes it is hard to find that rock to stand on, when out of no where it has been swept out from under us. God will be there though, standing with you and holding you steady through your storm, making sure you make it out and holding your faith and hope with you.
Brooke:
Kaos is enevitable. Pain is enevitable. Loneliness is—well I have gone to church here my entire life, ive listened to many a sermon and we all know how it is the messages start to blend together but bits and peices stick out, one piece that will always stick out to me is the day Philip said he was never lonley because god was always with him. Well , I thought, what god is he talking to because I have certianly felt lonley before. I only wish someone would have told me sooner that god is always there he is always listening and that loneliness could be a myth if we let it become one.
There is a poem by Dana Gioia that goes like this, “The world does not need words. It articulates itslef in sunlight, leaves and shadows. The sunlight needs no praise peircing the rainclouds, painting the rocks and leaves with light, then dissolving each lucent droplet back into the clouds that engendered it. The daylight needs no praise and so we praise it always greater than ourselves and all the airy words we summon.” Once adrian asked us to go around and each tell him in our own words what we thought the holy spirit was. I had never even thought about this before but managed to stammer out— The holy spirit is like a glowstick that is inside of everyone all the time and all we have to do is shake our glowstick to feel gods love a love so thick that words cannot bind it. A love we carry with us through our lives to give us hope to give us the courage to face any storm that comes our way.
God has a plan for each and everyone one of us, we may not know what that is but god stands by us leading us to figure out the path he has laid for us. Through his son Jesus Christ or a well, or maybe even the rainbow that appears after a storm God’s light is inside of our hearts beyond our sins beyond our storms and beyond our words.
Prayers of the People
We invite each of you to now take a moment and use the markers and thin translucent materials found on the ends of your pews to write down a word or two that describes a storm in your life or the life of someone you love. For our prayers of the people we ask you to bring them forward and place them in the water that was brought in to start our worship found in front of each rows of pews. The paper will melt away and the words slowly fade. This is us giving our storms to God, knowing the hope promised by our God who listens to our every prayer.
(People come forward to U2s '40' Live Version)
Lord, we bring all of this and even more things we cannot even bare to share to you. We give it all over to you, asking those things that you taught your disciples to pray saying:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom
and the power
and the glory, forever.
Amen
Profession of Faith
Apostles Creed
Offering
"From This Valley"
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Giver of all gifts, attender to all prayers, help us to live as we pray. Through these gifts and our rededication to your purpose, may our lives be answers to prayer to those seeking some sign of your presence in this world. Make us a blessing, that through our acts of love, generosity, courage, and service your Spirit blesses the world. Amen.
Sending Song
"Our God"
Benediction
Go and know that the Lord goes with you: Let God lead you each day into the quiet place of your heart where he will speak to you. Know that God loves you and watches over you, listening to you with gentle understanding and is with you always, wherever you are and however you feel, may the blessings of God – Father, Son, and Spirit – be yours forever. Amen
PROCESSIONAL
(iPod Plays Below My Feet, pitchers brought forward and poured into aquariums)
PSALM OF THE DAY
I put all my hope in the Lord
He leaned down to me;
he listened to my cry for help.
He lifted me out of the pit of death,
out of the mud and filth,
and set my feet on solid rock.
He steadied my legs.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise for our God.
Many people will learn of this and be amazed;
they will trust the Lord.
Those who put their trust in the Lord
who pay no attention to the proud
or to those who follow lies,
are truly happy!
You, Lord my God!
You’ve done so many things—
your wonderful deeds and your plans for us—
no one can compare with you!
If I were to proclaim and talk about all of them,
they would be too numerous to count!
You don’t relish sacrifices or offerings;
you don’t require entirely burned offerings or compensation offerings—
but you have given me ears!
THE WELCOME
Leader: O praise the Lord with me,
People: Let us exalt God’s name together.
Right Hand of Fellowship
As we begin our worship this morning, let us take a moment to great one another sharing the peace of Christ.
Leader: The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
All: And also with you
Call to Worship
Leader: Eternal God, we say good morning to you.
People: Hallowed be your name
Leader: Early in the morning, before we begin our days,
People: We praise your glory.
Leader: Renew our bodies as fresh as morning flowers,
People: Open our eyes, as the sun casts new light on the darkness
Leader: Deliver us from all captivity
People: Give us wings of freedom like the birds in the sky to begin a new journey.
Leader: Restore justice and freedom, as a mighty stream running continuously as day follows day
All: We thank you for the gift of this morning, a another new day to work with you.
Songs of Praise
Days of Elijah
Firm Foundation
Prayer of Confession
Leader: When we feel we cannot go any farther, he picks us up and tells us he knows.
People: When I feel I cannot sink any lower, he pulls me out and tells me he sees.
Leader: When we feel that the pain can't get any worse, he takes it away and shows us he cares
People: When I feel that I cannot open my heart, he reaches in and and show me he can.
Leader: When we think our lives cannot get any harder
All: I turn to him. He's always there.
Prayer of Illumination
God, Give us seeing eyes, hearing ears, and understanding hearts. May your word be like fire, and a hammer that breaks the hardest rock into pieces. May we experience it's world changing power. AMEN
Genesis 21 verses 8-21
The boy grew and stopped nursing. On the day he stopped nursing, Abraham prepared a huge banquet. Sarah saw Hagar’s son laughing, the one Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham. So she said to Abraham, “Send this servant away with her son! This servant’s son won’t share the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
This upset Abraham terribly because the boy was his son. God said to Abraham, “Don’t be upset about the boy and your servant. Do everything Sarah tells you to do because your descendants will be traced through Isaac. But I will make of your servant’s son a great nation too, because he is also your descendant.” Abraham got up early in the morning, took some bread and a flask of water, and gave it to Hagar. He put the boy in her shoulder sling and sent her away.
She left and wandered through the desert near Beer-sheba. Finally the water in the flask ran out, and she put the boy down under one of the desert shrubs. She walked away from him about as far as a bow shot and sat down, telling herself, I can’t bear to see the boy die. She sat at a distance, cried out in grief, and wept.
God heard the boy’s cries, and God’s messenger called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “Hagar! What’s wrong? Don’t be afraid. God has heard the boy’s cries over there. Get up, pick up the boy, and take him by the hand because I will make of him a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well. She went over, filled the water flask, and gave the boy a drink. God remained with the boy; he grew up, lived in the desert, and became an expert archer. He lived in the Paran desert, and his mother found him an Egyptian wife.
Leader: The Word of The Lord
All: Thanks be to God.
Anthem
"Who Am I"
Mark 4 verses 35-41
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Leader: The Gospel of God.
All: We Praise You, Lord Jesus
Children’s Message
Read Mark text from Spark Story Bible. Acted out. Congregation behind kids make storm sounds as led along with story.
Prayer:
God who knows when we're afraid,
You are always with us.
Help us to always remember
the hope we have in you.
Amen
Romans 8 verses 22-27
We know that the whole creation is groaning together and suffering labor pains up until now. And it’s not only the creation. We ourselves who have the Spirit as the first crop of the harvest also groan inside as we wait to be adopted and for our bodies to be set free. We were saved in hope. If we see what we hope for, that isn’t hope. Who hopes for what they already see? But if we hope for what we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.
In the same way, the Spirit comes to help our weakness. We don’t know what we should pray, but the Spirit himself pleads our case with unexpressed groans. The one who searches hearts knows how the Spirit thinks, because he pleads for the saints, consistent with God’s will.
Leader: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.
All: And a light unto my path
Hymn
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
Sermon
“God In Our Storms”
(There will be a progressive storm created in the aquarium on the chancel as the sermon occurs)
Devon:
Everyone faces struggles in their lives. As life continues storms show up. It either comes out of nowhere or gradually builds until everything blows up. Storms are different for everyone. Whether they are illness that creep up and then affect a family or a failure that comes out of nowhere, every storm brings its problems but there is always a light at the end of the storm, something to continue your faith. Each of the scriptures talked about today, shows how the peoples faith was tested and the storms came but God and Jesus brought the light and the end of the storms.(Make clouds with shaving cream)
One can generally tell when a storm is coming. The skies start to darken and the wind starts to pick up and you know that something is coming. You can tell the storm is coming in the first scripture because Sara again is upset with Ismael and Hagar. This shows one-way a storm comes up on someone, giving you time to prepare. It allows them to prepare for the upcoming issue that may impact your life. I can relate to this because as we get closer to the end of the year, finals and the impending doom of a month full of exams are right around the corner. The storm is approaching but because I know it is coming I have time to prepare and study for them.
But life does not always give you a warning before the storm pops up. This is evident in the second scripture, when the storm pops up while the disciples are in the boat and Jesus is asleep. There is no warning for the storm and their faith is tested. They are scared and have to call on Jesus to help them. This is very much like when someone suddenly gets diagnosed with an illness. It takes you by surprise and can change your life and those lives around you. Storms affect us all in one way or another but faith and hope found in God help us get through, and keep us from being defeated.
Alex:
Everyone goes through a time in their life, wether it is a day, a week, a month, or even longer where it seems as though everything in your life is awful. This is when the storm hits. (Make rain with food coloring) When the rain is pouring so hard, that you cant see three feet a head of you when driving. This is when you have to pull over and let the storm pass. However, when dealing with intangible things, that you cant actually put in a box and lock away, this is not always so easy.
In Genesis, after Hagar is kicked out of her house with her child, she eventually reaches a point where she breaks down and leaves her child, knowing she cant do anything else. However, God hears her cries without her even directing them to him. He sends someone to help her and save her child, to continue her life. God understood what she needed, even when she did not know how to express her fears.
Romans also shows that even when we do not share our worries with god willingly he hears our groaning and is there for us to lean on and for him to help. When we think we are so deep down in a hole that no one can hear us, God can and will always listen for us.
Sometimes, as in Mark, when the disciples begin to even blame God and wonder if he cares that they are all about to drown, we begin to feel as if he will not be there to hear us. Maybe that he has others to take care of and who need him more. We may be in a rain storm, but somewhere else there are those who are dealing with a hurricane. But as soon as the disciples called Jesus’s name, he awoke and came to help them. He was listening the whole time, even though they didn’t realize.
There are times, when the storm that is happening all around us, that we can barley hear ourselves! Personally, my storm hit two weeks ago. Now I am playing lacrosse with games and practices everyday on a team that I am wholeheartedly committed to, I am also acting in Fort Johnson’s show Hello Dolly, as my fourteenth show, and trying to finish out my senior year at Academic Magnet strong. Two weeks ago, lacrosse and play started to come together and on top of that I had a lot of drama with the people in my life that I love and the schoolwork began to pile up. Then I got to take the SAT on saturday for the third time trying for a scholarship, because a five hour test is the simplest way to de-stress after a long week right? During this time I remember thinking I wish I could just open the bible and hear God speak to me about how to move past the pain, the hurt, and the tiredness that was surrounding me, but I didn’t know where to look. But I don’t have to just look to the bible, I can look to him and pray to him to help me through the storm. In this case it was both literal and figurative because it poured rain all that week, however when the sun finally came out on saturday, after taking the SAT it was gorgeous and I knew that I had made it through (Turn on light behind aquarium) and I had faith that everything would work out the way it was supposed.
Sometimes it is hard to find that rock to stand on, when out of no where it has been swept out from under us. God will be there though, standing with you and holding you steady through your storm, making sure you make it out and holding your faith and hope with you.
Brooke:
Kaos is enevitable. Pain is enevitable. Loneliness is—well I have gone to church here my entire life, ive listened to many a sermon and we all know how it is the messages start to blend together but bits and peices stick out, one piece that will always stick out to me is the day Philip said he was never lonley because god was always with him. Well , I thought, what god is he talking to because I have certianly felt lonley before. I only wish someone would have told me sooner that god is always there he is always listening and that loneliness could be a myth if we let it become one.
There is a poem by Dana Gioia that goes like this, “The world does not need words. It articulates itslef in sunlight, leaves and shadows. The sunlight needs no praise peircing the rainclouds, painting the rocks and leaves with light, then dissolving each lucent droplet back into the clouds that engendered it. The daylight needs no praise and so we praise it always greater than ourselves and all the airy words we summon.” Once adrian asked us to go around and each tell him in our own words what we thought the holy spirit was. I had never even thought about this before but managed to stammer out— The holy spirit is like a glowstick that is inside of everyone all the time and all we have to do is shake our glowstick to feel gods love a love so thick that words cannot bind it. A love we carry with us through our lives to give us hope to give us the courage to face any storm that comes our way.
God has a plan for each and everyone one of us, we may not know what that is but god stands by us leading us to figure out the path he has laid for us. Through his son Jesus Christ or a well, or maybe even the rainbow that appears after a storm God’s light is inside of our hearts beyond our sins beyond our storms and beyond our words.
Prayers of the People
We invite each of you to now take a moment and use the markers and thin translucent materials found on the ends of your pews to write down a word or two that describes a storm in your life or the life of someone you love. For our prayers of the people we ask you to bring them forward and place them in the water that was brought in to start our worship found in front of each rows of pews. The paper will melt away and the words slowly fade. This is us giving our storms to God, knowing the hope promised by our God who listens to our every prayer.
(People come forward to U2s '40' Live Version)
Lord, we bring all of this and even more things we cannot even bare to share to you. We give it all over to you, asking those things that you taught your disciples to pray saying:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom
and the power
and the glory, forever.
Amen
Profession of Faith
Apostles Creed
Offering
"From This Valley"
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Giver of all gifts, attender to all prayers, help us to live as we pray. Through these gifts and our rededication to your purpose, may our lives be answers to prayer to those seeking some sign of your presence in this world. Make us a blessing, that through our acts of love, generosity, courage, and service your Spirit blesses the world. Amen.
Sending Song
"Our God"
Benediction
Go and know that the Lord goes with you: Let God lead you each day into the quiet place of your heart where he will speak to you. Know that God loves you and watches over you, listening to you with gentle understanding and is with you always, wherever you are and however you feel, may the blessings of God – Father, Son, and Spirit – be yours forever. Amen
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