Worship Resources for Sunday March 29th
We encourage you to read and reflect on these scriptures, songs, notes, and prayers as we look forward to our time of worship together this coming Sunday.
Please print this guide or have it handy in digital format for use during the service.
And don’t forget to join us Sunday immediately following the service in our virtual foyer for a group video chat! https://us04web.zoom.us/j/202653556
SERMON SCRIPTURE
In the days leading up to our Sunday gathering, please read through the sermon scripture as the Holy Spirit prepares your heart for the sermon inspired by this passage.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”
SONGS
Be listening to these songs allowing their words and melodies to give expression to our worship this week.
How Can I Keep From Singing
Mary Lynn Lightfoot | Robert Lowry
Performed by Audrey Assad
My life flows on in endless song
Above earth’s lamentation
I hear the sweet though far off hymn
That hails a new creation
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear the music ringing
It finds an echo in my soul
How can I keep from singing
What though my joys and comfort die
The Lord my Saviour liveth
What though the darkness gather round
Songs in the night He giveth
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that refuge clinging
Since Christ is Lord of heav’n and earth
How can I keep from singing
I lift my eyes the cloud grows thin
I see the blue above it
And day by day this pathway smooths
Since first I learned to love it
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart
A fountain ever springing
All things are mine since I am His
How can I keep from singing
CALL TO WORSHIP
Bold lines to be read aloud corporately.
Healing God, we come together in our brokenness,
to call to you in your mercy, to make us whole again.
Wholeness–giving God, hear our prayers, we pray.
Restoring God, we gather to worship you, even as
we hopefully seek to be renewed and restored again.
God, our Quiet-Centre, hear our prayers this day.
Foundational God, we come to praise and thank you!
In the depths of your Holy Being we find peace and rest.
God – our Beginning and our End, we hope always in you. Amen.
(Based on Psalm 130, Joan Stott, Geelong City Parish UCA)
CONFESSIONAL PRAYER
Holy and merciful God,
in Your presence we confess
our sinfulness, our shortcomings,
and our offenses against You.
You alone know how often we have sinned
in wandering from Your ways,
in wasting Your gifts,
in forgetting Your love.
Have mercy on us, O Lord.
Forgive our sins,
and help us to live in Your light
and walk in Your ways,
for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Amen.
(The Worship Sourcebook)
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
If God kept track of all our mistakes—
the harmful things we say and do,
the callous way we sometimes treat the people around us,
the selfishness that puts our needs ahead of the needs of others—
if God kept track, what chance would we have?
But with unfailing love, God offers us forgiveness—
complete forgiveness that erases our sins completely,
and allows us to begin again.
So be at peace – your sins are forgiven!
Praise be to God!
(Christine Longhurst, re:Worship)
SERMON NOTES
Shelter From The Storm
Matthew 7:24-27 (NRSV)
THE MESSIANIC AGE
According to the prophet Isaiah, the Messianic age would bring shelter to the oppressed and vulnerable and be a safe haven from the weary world.
- Isaiah 4:2-6 – The age of the Messiah shall be a shelter from the storm
- Isaiah 25:1-5 – God’s care for the poor is a shelter from the storm
- Isaiah 32:1-2 – A king will rule with justice and righteousness whose kingdom will be a shelter from the storm.
At the end of the sermon on the mount, Jesus closes his famous sermon by picking up this metaphor and applying it to “anyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them.”
THE SERMON IN CONTEXT
Imagine a people under occupation by a violent empire, seeking rescue and liberation, who began to hear that the One rumored to be the Messiah will be giving a speech on a hill near Lake Gennesaret. They gather in droves to hear his called to arms and begin the revolution to win back their freedom!
Now, imagine their surprise when this Messiah announced that in his kingdom, they are to practice enemy-love, forgive those who have wronged them, and store up treasures in heaven. This was certainly shocking – and disappointing – to a crowd ready for violent revolution.
800 years after Isaiah had envisioned what the Messianic age would look like, Jesus picks up the metaphor because he envisions that the kingdom he is building would be the shelter from the storm that Isaiah talked about eight centuries before.
The Church is to be a shelter from the storm of weary, fearful, modern life.
HOW DO WE BECOME THE SHELTER
But, the question remains, how do we become that kind of shelter.
The sermon on the mount begins with what are commonly known as the beatitudes. In this teaching, Jesus says thing like “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” and “blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.”
The beatitudes are not instructions on how to live. Rather, they are an announcement of the kind of people that will be blessed by the arrival of the kingdom of God!
Since the Church is to be kingdom people, then it also means that the Church should be good news to the poor in spirit, the merciful, the peacemakers. It means that the Church should be a shelter from the storm where people can find rest, peace, hope, and love.
What if the Church – our church – began to live in such Christlike ways that the announcement of the Good News was not just good news for the well-to-do or self-sufficient, but for those who mourn, the persecuted, merciful, and peacemakers?
May this beautiful metaphor stir our imaginations.
COMMUNION
Prepare the elements of “bread” and “wine” for use as we gather around The Lord’s Table. These can be any items convenient around the home that symbolize these for you.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your Name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins
as we forgive those
who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
and deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory for ever and ever.
Amen.
BENEDICTION
Oh God, our Rock, You are our shelter when storms come our way.
We are secure, no matter what news we hear of danger.
You are our rock and our defense.
We will not be alarmed or fearful.
When the wind rages around us, we have our safe retreat in You.
May we, your Church, be a shelter in the storm for those in need today.
For as we find anchor in your peace, may we be of solace to others.
You alone are our refuge, be ever near us, we pray.
Keep us safe through this time.
Amen.