a community creating for the relentless return of Sunday
submitted by Michael Morgan, organist, Central Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, Georgia; seminary musician, Columbia Theological Seminary; and author of the Psalter for Christian Worship
Now that T-Fig is a mere 10 days away, it’s time to get serious. What are you thinking for transfiguration this year? What phrases do you want to start working with? What seeds are you hoping will bud into new liturgy? What fig-ments (hahaha) do you want to build on?
I know, I know, it’s still only the 11th day of Christmas, but some of us have to work really far ahead. Whether it’s because we have a lot of volunteers involved and they need more time to create, or we’re trying hard to do new creative things that always somehow seem to require more work, or our brains just need the lead time to let things simmer, it’s time to look forward in faith…toward everyone’s favorite holy day, Transfiguration. Every year, the same story of the shiny Jesus and the whole Moses-Elijah-crazy-Peter-dwellings-falling-on-our-faces-overshadowed-by-clouds-voice-from-the-sky thing. So…what are you thinking about for T-Fig? How can we experience the holy in this story this year? What creative ways–music, liturgy, movement, art, etc–can help us encounter God on this Sunday before Lent?
A prayer of confession written by youth reflecting on Matthew 25.34-40.
Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, Ridgefield-Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church
One: God, we know your commandments,
we read your story,
we can recite the Golden Rule.
All: Yet every day we ignore you,
every day we forget,
every day we need your forgiveness.
One: We confess that we are not as perfect
as we would like to think.
All: We confess that we often act in ways
contrary to your will.
One: It is only through our savior Jesus Christ
that we can live the way you call us to.
All: Help us again to listen, to follow, to live.
Amen.
Ah, Christ the King Sunday. Reign of Christ Sunday. Last Sunday of the liturgical calendar. The day no one knows what to do with. What just happened here? Sunday. Another One Of These Again? Sunday. It’s Almost Advent! Sunday. Thanksgiving Sunday.
So many different names for this one…
Where are you, liturgically? Lectionarily? Musically?
Perhaps you’re pondering just what more the sheep could want than to be cared for by the most attentive shepherd ever recorded (thanks, Ezekiel, for the imagery!).
Perhaps you’re ending the liturgical year on a bang, making a joyful noise to the Lord and entering his courts with thanksgiving.
Maybe you’re pondering our inheritance, giving thanks for the work of ministry, or wondering just what it means that Christ is head of the church…(oh, Ephesians, could you pack any more stuff into so relatively few verses?)
Or are you working on that perennial favorite, the sheep and the goats?
Perhaps you have a Thanksgiving theme with an off-lectionary text–what are you working with?
Over at my (Teri) church, we’re pondering Christ the King through the lens of the Lion King and part of the Matthew reading. Never let it be said that we can’t use our imaginations!
So–what are you pondering this week? What prayers do you need? What litanies are you writing? What hopes and dreams are you exploring? What music do you need?
Put your ideas, your sparks, your beautiful turns of phrase and your words that still need work…we want it all!…in the comments, and let’s get this liturgy party started!
Maybe you’re saving All Saints for this Sunday, because yesterday was Reformation Sunday.
Maybe you’re having stewardship commitment/dedication Sunday.
Maybe you’re in the middle of the stewardship campaign.
Maybe it’s a communion Sunday.
Maybe it’s just another Sunday in the endless Year A journey through Matthew.
Whatever you’re doing this Sunday, we want to create together for worship! Join in the comments below as we write together, bounce ideas around, contemplate themes or hymns or creative expression. How are the people of God encountering the living Word this Sunday?
If you follow the lectionary, you might be pondering telling our history and figuring out how to make a choice to serve the Lord. What does it mean to serve the Lord with your congregation’s particular story? How might that relate to All Saints or Communion or Stewardship? Or you might be wondering what’s up with those lazy bridesmaids who didn’t make sure they had enough oil. Aside from singing Keep Your Lamps, what are some ways we can use the liturgy to help our congregations be prepared to encounter God? If you’re pondering the connection between yet another missed rapture date and All Saints, perhaps Thessalonians is your guide. What liturgical language do you need to illuminate this strange and oft-misunderstood idea?
As we contemplate the plot twists, the lives of our communities, and the movement of the Spirit–what language are you leaning toward for this week? What ideas do you hope to convey? What musical ideas do you have?
Let’s create together!
recent comments