Lent 1997: Preparing for the Not Yet
SEEKERS CHURCH
A Christian Community
In the Tradition of the Church of the Saviour
Lent 1997
Preparing for the Not Yet
REFLECTION
The community of disciples around Jesus had the irreducible conviction that:
- God makes homecoming in the midst of exile;
- God makes creation in the midst of chaos;
- God makes resurrection in the face of crucifixion..
Interpretation and Obedience
.,Walter Brueggemann, g 318.
PRELUDE
CALL TO WORSHIP
- Leader:
- How clearly the sky reveals God’s glory!
How plainly it shows what God has done!
Day carries the news to day;
night brings the message to night. - People:
- Without a word, without a sound,
without a voice being heard,
their message fills the world,
their news reaches its rim. - Unison:
- May the words of our mouths
and the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable to you,
O God, our rock and our redeemer.
INVOCATION
HYMN
WORD FOR THE CHILDREN
SILENCE
LENTEN LITANY
- Leader:
- We are a community that believes
our faith has a future. - Voice 1:
- The future of our faith
Is new when we fully grieve
Because the old is lost and gone. - Voice 2:
- A future grounded in God’s hope
cannot be filled with deception or cover-up,
pretense or denial, numbness or old habits. - Unison:
- The future is given to us by God,
known in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.
SILENCE
PRAYERS
COMMON CONFESSION
- Leader:
- Ours is a society in which hopelessness
is prevalent and powerful;
muteness and complacency are enemies of hope. - Voice 1:
- Too often we are part of the mute majority,
who choose to conform rather than to risk. - Leader:
- We Americans are among the affluent of the world,
too easily satisfied with what is,
unwilling to look for the not yet. - Voice 2:
- We assume we have the answers
and no longer hunger for God’s true gifts. - Unison:
- God of hope, our trust in you is weak.
INDIVIDUAL PRAYERS OF CONFESSION
ASSURANCE (Leader)
Power for life is given in seasons of vulnerability.
The good news in Christ is this:
we are forgiven and freed for a hopeful future. Amen.
PRAYERS OF THE COMMUNITY
HYMN
THE WORD
FIRST LESSON
SILENCE
GOSPEL LESSON
SERMON
SILENT REFLECTION
The first Sunday of each month we switch to a Communion Liturgy here.
OFFERING
SHARED REFLECTIONS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
HYMN
BENEDICTION (Leader)
Go forth into the danger of the Not Yet,
knowing that we are part of the faithful people of God.
Amen.
LITURGY SOURCES
Call to Worship: Psalm 19
Other prayers and litany: After Brueggemann, Hope Within History
