Lent 1999: In The Belly of Paradox

 

Seekers Church:
A Christian Community
In the Tradition of the Church of the Saviour

Lent 1999

In The Belly of Paradox

Silent Reflection

Awakening desire, they make a place
where pain can enter;
that’s how growing happens.
They bring suffering with their laughter,
and longings that had slept and now awaken
to weep in a stranger’s arms.

Ranier Maria Rilke, Book of Hours,

Prelude

Call To Worship

Leader:        God hungers for us, calling
"Come and find me!"

Community:  A cry in the wilderness,
a song in the city,
a sigh in the night,
a shout in the morning.

Leader:        Rejoice, for God is among us!

Unison:        Let us sing and praise the One who calls.

Invocation

Hymn

Word for the Children

Silence

Chant

Unison:        More than those who watch for the morning,
My soul waits for God.

Silence

Prayers

Common Confession

Leader:        God of laughter as of tears,
shake us awake.
Teach us to laugh at ourselves:
at our petty preoccupations,
at our black-draped piety.

Voice 1:       Teach us to laugh through hurt and adversity
until our laughter lures us deep
beneath the terrors without names,
beneath the questions without answers,
beneath the pain without relief.

Voice 2:       Teach us to laugh through uncertainty and fear
until our laughter lures us deep
to the love unused,
to the strength unspent,
to the dream unrisked.

Unison:        Shake us awake, O Great One,
until we are lured into the belly of paradox,
safe in the terror of Your presence.

Individual Prayers of Confession

Assurance

Leader:        The way of the cross is also the way toward peace,
toward the center where contradictions converge.

The cross speaks the greatest paradox of all:
To live we have to die.

The good news in Christ
is that there is healing
in the depth of God’s laughter.
Amen.

Prayers of the Community

Hymn

The Word

First Lesson

Silence

Gospel Lesson

Sermon

Silent Reflection

Offering

The first Sunday of each month we switch to a Communion Liturgy here.

Shared Reflections

Announcements

Hymn

Benediction

Leader:        Go now, to lives filled with laughter and with pain,
knowing that God is with us in the dark and in the light,
in our abundance and in our emptiness,
in every moment of our lives. Amen.

Liturgy Resources
Chant: From Psalm 130
Confession: From Ted Loder, Guerrillas of Grace
Assurance: Parker Palmer, The Promise of Paradox, pp 37-38.