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.

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CALL TO WORSHIP

Please join in on the bolded lines.

The Lord is making a new covenant with the people of God.
Here in this place, Christ writes the law of love on our hearts.
We are children of the living God.
Together, let us worship the Lord of Love!

MUSIC: REJOICE

CCLI #7004663 | Dustin Kensrue and Stuart Townend © 2013
Performed by Emmaus Road Worship Team

MUSIC: GREAT IS OUR GOD

CCLI #6291530 | Eric J. Marshall © 2011
Performed by Emmaus Road Worship Team

CORPORATE PRAYER

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Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.
(BCP, Lent 5)

MUSIC: GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

CCLI #5196100 | Thomas Obediah Chisholm
Performed by Emmaus Road Worship Team

WORD

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Lamentations: The Fourth Poem
Lamentations 4:2-9 (NLT)

Intro
The fourth poem of Lamentations makes comparisons between the way things were in the past and the way things are now in the siege.
-Children used to play in the streets and laugh
together, but now they are left to beg for food.
-The wealthy used to eat fancy meals, only to find themselves scavenging for food along the ground.

-The leaders of the city we once filled with splendor, but now are dirty, ragged, and unrecognizable.
Chapter four takes a deeper dive into lament.

Three Observations

  1. The need for lament continues for as long as injustice and sin continue. Life doesn’t always resolve the way we want or hope.

    While life is not a formula of predictable outcomes, we can rest in the hope of redemption. Lament IS NOT the loss of hope, but an expression of it! Just as the conditions for suffering persist, so does our lament. This DOES NOT mean we live overwhelmed by sadness or despair. Rather, it means that a full-bodied faith is honest and willing to engage in the hard realities of life.
  2. The most revered are only human.

    Look at vss. 7-8, “Our princes once glowed with health brighter than snow, whiter than milk. Their faces were as ruddy as rubies, their appearance like fine jewels. 8 But now their faces are blacker than soot. No one recognizes them in the streets. Their skin sticks to their bones; it is as dry and hard as wood.

    Celebrity is the term we’ve used to describe people we revere as more valuable. The Latin root of our word “celebrity” means “honored.” We honor those with the most. Those with the most often have the most because of their beauty. Or their political power.

    Lamentations chapter four challenges the celebrity impulse by pointing out suffering and injustice is no respecter of celebrity or power or beauty or platform. There is this universality to the human experience.

    This is why the incarnation of God is so important. God held the highest privilege and honor and let that go to enter the human experience. The Creator God became unrecognizable. He entered into the injustice, sin, and brokenness in order to redeem it. May we see Lamentations four, not just as a critique of celebrity (and the ways celebrity has entered the church), but as a reminder of what God has done in Christ.
  3. The innocent suffer the most.
    Verses 3-4 describe the toll that the siege took on the children of Jerusalem. This points us to an important truth: It is the most vulnerable who suffer the most in a broken world.

    Suffering, disaster, injustice are all common to the human experience, but these things disproportionately affect vulnerable communities.

    This lament is an invitation to recognize this reality. To admit out loud when we are less affected by an event because of our wealth, access to health care, or color of our skin. Then, to see and know the invitation that God gives the Church to participate in caring for vulnerable communities.

TABLE

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. 

CONFESSION OF THE MYSTERY OF FAITH

Christ has died.
Christ is risen. 
Christ will come again.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

As we pray together, we invite you to share your own requests and testimonies with us this week. If you have a request you can share it live in our video stream chat, or you may email us at emmausroadfc@gmail.com

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

You are invited to hold your hands out, palm-up as we receive this benediction.

Go now, and invest your lives in the works of faith.
May you be known for generosity and compassion.
Fulfill God’s holy law by putting love into action
as eagerly for others as you would for yourselves.
And may God be your defender and provider;
May Christ Jesus dispel all that disturbs or disables you;
and may the Holy Spirit make you rich in faith and loving and merciful in action.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord.