Worship Series for October 26-November 23
Whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.” So, this is not just what WOULD Jesus do? This is literally what Jesus DID do. He served. Those who follow Jesus are called to serve. So, when God invites us to live in God’s community, God is saying, “You’re invited… to serve.
Sunday, October 26| 8:30am & 10:45am Worship
Text: 1 Kings 5: 1-5; 8: 1-13
Theme: God’s house is a very, very, very fine house. Solomon desired to serve God by building God a house, an honor that was withheld from his father David. Interestingly, God never asked for fancy digs. What God asked was worship that involved justice, peacemaking, fellowship. In other words? Service.
Sunday, November 2 | 8:30am & 10:45am Worship
Text: 1 Kings 19: 1-18
Theme: “Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.” “What journey?” Elijah might have asked. “I’ve booked no flight. I have no rental car waiting for me. Where am I going?” And God might have responded, “You are going where and to whom I am sending you.” We’re all on a journey, and it is not a journey of our choosing. It is a journey of serving our siblings and God’s good creation.
Sunday, November 9 | 8:30am & 10:45am Worship
Text: Amos 1: 1-2; 5: 14-15, 21-24
Theme: Developing a theme that is gaining clarity, Amos speaks to us of what a “worship service” should be. It’s not an hour set aside for religion. It’s not music, however tuneful. It’s not liturgy (which literally means “the work of the people”). It’s justice and righteousness, right relationship.
Sunday, November 16 | 8:30am & 10:45am Worship
Text: Isaiah 52: 13 – 53:12
Theme: Live long and prosper. Probably even Mr. Spock would not define prosper in the way the word is generally understood in 21st Century US of A, and God most certainly does not. To prosper is to have more and more. To prosper is to be financially secure. To prosper is to be insulated from need. Through the prophet Isaiah, God tells us that to prosper means through service to bring to fruition that which God intends.
Sunday, November 23 | 8:30am & 10:45am Worship
Text: Jeremiah 29: 1, 4-14
Theme: Bloom where you are planted. Flowers bloom to attract bees. Bees go from plant to plant, pollinating along their way. Many of those plants feed animals, and each animal nurtures the world in its own peculiar way. In this string of being, nothing has to figure out what to do. It just does what it is. Can we do that, do you think? Can we just be servants, without having to figure out why and where and when and among whom?