WORSHIP RESOURCES

 

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Written on Our Hearts

 

Additional Scriptures

Psalm 51:1-12; John 12:20-33; Hebrews 5:5-10

Preparation

Provide a heart-shaped piece of paper and something to write with for each participant as they enter the worship space. At the exit of the worship space, provide a bulletin board with tacks or a sticky board for participants to post their hearts as they leave the service. Keep this board visible through the Easter season.

Prelude

Gathering Hymns     Choose two.

"Hope of the World"
CCS 29

"The God of Abraham Praise"
CCS 94

"Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing"
CCS 87

Encourage participants to sing in a language other than their own.

Welcome

Call to Worship: Psalm 51:10-12

Hymn of Rejoicing

 “Wind Upon the Waters"
CCS 49

OR “Great and Marvelous Are Thy Works"
CCS 118

OR “I Will Sing, I Will Sing"
CCS 112

Encourage participants to sing in languages other than their own.

Invocation

Lenten Reflection

As we come to the end of our Lenten journey with Jesus and his disciples, let’s reflect on the many signposts and detours that were encountered. What did you do? What did you see? Were you tempted to wander off the path in search of an easier way or a different way? Maybe you lost interest in the journey altogether. Hopefully, you discovered that the detours and signposts were invitations to see with new eyes and to listen anew to the words of Jesus. What is it that opens your eyes now as we continue our journey? What words of hope or love is Jesus writing on your heart today?

Reading: “The Peace of Jesus Christ”

Reader 1: I heard the voice of Jesus say…

Reader 2: “Come unto me and rest…I bring good tidings of release

to all who are oppressed.”

Reader 1: I came to Jesus as I was, weary, worn, and sad.

            I found in him a resting place, and he has made me glad.

Reader 2: I heard the voice of Jesus say…

Reader 3: “Behold, I freely give the living water, thirsty one!

            Here, stoop down and drink and live.”

Reader 2: I came to Jesus…and I drank of that life-giving stream.

            My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in him.

Reader 3: I heard the voice of Jesus say, “I am this dark world’s light…look unto

me! Your morn shall rise, and all your day will be bright.”

ALL Readers: We all looked to Jesus, and in him we found our star, our sun, and

in that light of life we’ll walk…’till all our traveling days are done.

—Horatius N. Bonar, CCS 31, “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say,” adapted

Hymn of Humility

“Who Is This Jesus?"
CCS 38

“Searcher of Hearts"
CCS 178

OR “Ososŏ/Come Now, O Prince of Peace”  Sing several times.
CCS 225

Encourage participants to sing in languages other than their own.

Prayer for Peace

Light the Peace Candle.

Prayer

God of New Life,

Our journey through a Lenten wilderness nears its end, and we are reminded that you promised a path in the wilderness to the Israelites, whom you love.

Now you walk the path to death still in the name of love. Still for your people. How did you look to such a future with hope?

Our journey through wilderness toward peace often feels like a circle. Famine, depression, inequality, unfairness, and sickness have us wandering in a desert of despair.

The path ahead often looks bleak, and we yearn for peaceful moments from our past. Yet there is a river in this wilderness—a river you provide!

Grant us courage to be a prophetic people, speaking hope to the despondent, sharing love with the discouraged, and standing beside the dispirited.

We must look to the light and reflect the light if we are to pursue peace!

Strengthen us to not run from this wilderness, but to instead cultivate life and peace with that river, right where we are. In the name of Jesus, the hopeful One. Amen.

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34

Period of Meditation

Quietly play “God Within God Around,” CCS 20, or sit in silence for a short time.

Sermon                                                                                                   

Based on Jeremiah 31:31-34

Reflection

On the paper heart provided, ask participants to write a word or phrase that captures their Lenten experience. The hearts will be posted on a board as they exit the worship space.

Disciples’ Generous Response

Statement

God intends Christian faith to be lived in companionship with Jesus Christ and with other disciples in service to the world. The church of Jesus Christ is made of all those who respond to Jesus’s call. Community of Christ is part of the whole body of Christ. We are called to be a prophetic people, proclaiming the peace of Jesus Christ and creating communities where all will be welcomed and brought into renewed relationship with God, and where there will be no poor. God’s grace, especially as revealed in Jesus Christ, is generous and unconditional. Having received God’s infinite grace, we offer all that we are and have to God’s purposes as revealed in Jesus Christ.

During this time of Disciples’ Generous Response, we focus on aligning our heart with God’s heart. Our offerings are more than meeting budgets or funding mission. We can tangibly express our gratitude to God through our offerings, who is the giver of all.                                                                  

As we share our mission tithes either by placing money in the plates or through eTithing, use this time to thank God for the many gifts received in life. Our hearts grow aligned with God’s when we gratefully receive and faithfully respond by living Christ’s mission.

If your congregation is meeting online, remind participants they can give through CofChrist.org/give or eTithing.org (consider showing these URLs on screen).

Blessing and Receiving of Local and Worldwide Mission Tithes

Hymn of Mission

“Christ Has Changed the World’s Direction"
CCS 356

OR “O Young and Fearless Prophet"
CCS 36

OR “This Is My Song"
CCS 389

Encourage participants to sing in languages other than their own.

Benediction

Sending Forth

Take what you have written on your paper heart with you and post it on the bulletin board near the exit. Take what has been written on your heart during the Lenten season and prepare for Holy Week. May you go with God.

Postlude

 

SERMON AND CLASS HELPS

Year B—Old Testament

Fifth Sunday in Lent

Jeremiah 31:31–34

Exploring the Scripture

The scripture text for this Sunday is a message of hope and restoration that God extends in a new covenant with the house of Israel.

To understand this powerful message, it is important to place it in a historical frame of reference.

People from the kingdoms of Israel and Judah had been taken by the Assyrians and then Babylonians and exiled from their homeland. The message Jeremiah declares comes amid the deep suffering and turmoil the people experienced. Their daily lives were filled with the loss of identity, family, home, and a sense of belonging, coupled with the disturbing question of why God had abandoned them.

The story surrounding the text for today has its beginning in chapter 30, where God reminds the people they were not forgotten. In chapter 31, God describes the coming restoration.

“A new covenant,” God declares, is what God will make with the houses of Israel and Judah. This new covenant will be different from what God made with their ancestors, who came out of Egypt.

The word covenant, used throughout the Old Testament, is not to be interpreted as strictly an agreement between two individuals. When covenant is used about God, it is always about expressing a special relationship between God and the people.

When God declares that a new covenant will be made with those in exile, God affirms a transformative relationship is being birthed with the people. This new covenant will not be words written on stone as their ancestors experienced with Moses. God is going to place this new covenant in the hearts of the people. From the external laws on stone to the internal presence of God placed on their hearts, a new way of relating with God will form them as a nation and people of God.

In these four verses, we encounter the depth of love God extends to the people. It is always God’s initiative to offer love, grace, forgiveness, and restoration formed in a new covenant that describes the relationship God yearns to have with all people. It is not a relationship formed by fear and blind obedience. Rather, it’s a relationship that invites people into the heart and love God has for them. In that encompassing relationship of love, God makes the multiple factors of salvation known through restoration that is about to come forth.

In this text, we face the invitation to consider how this new covenant of love frees us to live fully the life God has created in us. Even more, we are challenged to consider our covenant response to the relationship of love God yearns to share with each human life. But even when we fail to uphold our shared part of the covenant relationship, God is faithful, extending new opportunities to experience God’s grace and restoration.

Central Ideas

1. God constantly seeks to bring healing, renewal, and redemption in the covenant made with all creation.
2. The new covenant challenges us to consider the depth of our response to living in a significant relationship with God and one another.
3. When God places a new covenant in our heart, that covenant is filled with love, grace, forgiveness, and restoration that brings joy, hope, love, and peace to our lives and how we choose to be with others.

Questions for the Speaker

1. How does the message God shared with the people of Israel and Judah, who struggled in their suffering and questions, speak to us today in our different life circumstances and cultures?
2. What do you find in this scripture passage that awakens in you and your congregation to the new covenant God is seeking to place in your heart?
3. How does this new covenant that expresses love, grace, forgiveness, and restoration invite you to see differently those in your community or neighborhood? What message will you live and share?

 

 

SACRED SPACE: A RESOURCE FOR SMALL-GROUP MINISTRY

Year B

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Jeremiah 31:31–34 NRSV

 

Gathering

Welcome

Today is the fifth Sunday of Lent. We join other Christians who for many centuries have observed it as the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter, not counting Sundays. During Lent, we center our attention on Jesus as we remember his life and ministry. Lent provides a means to also sharpen our focus on our own lives in relationship to Jesus. And the Lenten season encourages us to turn away from whatever distracts or blocks our commitment to discipleship. May the season of Lent help us walk with Jesus even though the path leads to the cross.                                                       

Prayer for Peace

Ring a bell or chime three times slowly.

Light the peace candle.

Our Creator and Sustainer of life, as we see and experience the newness of life in its stirrings after the harshness and chill of winter, our hearts are filled with gratitude of our own gift of life and breath. There are stirrings within our hearts when we feel the warmth of your Spirit opening us up to understanding the blessings and the challenges of fulfilling the purpose for which each of us has been created.

Just as the season of the year brings forth the many colors and scents that speak to us of the ongoing acts of creation, so too do we grow and mature in the ever-changing environment of our lives and our spiritual understanding. The beauty of the natural order is nurtured by exposure to sunlight and rain, sources of food, and purity of air. The maturing of our humanity is nurtured and made strong through meaningful relationships with each other and the source of divine power. We must be fed physically and spiritually and overcome difficulties as well as bask in the sunlight of joyous experiences.

For all your children, at times the balance is sometimes out of focus, and we falter and feel uncertainty in our discipleship and our efforts to be at peace and to help bring the spirit of peace to others in needs. We ask your forgiveness, O God, when we look away from you and are distressed and ineffective by losing our center in you. We are all your needy children and ask that your Spirit continue to illumine the paths we take and the choices we make so that we truly can rightfully claim and fulfill the call to be makers of peace.

This is our great desire and our petition, even as we acknowledge our dependence on you. Amen.

—Helen Lents

Spiritual Practice

Silent Personal Reflection 

Read the following to the group.

Prayerfully consider the following statement from “We Proclaim Jesus Christ” found in Sharing in Community of Christ. How does this statement help you conclude your Lenten journey and lead you into Holy Week?

We live and serve in hope that God’s kingdom of justice and peace will indeed come, bringing healing to the whole, groaning creation. Putting our trust in the Risen Christ, present among us by the Holy Spirit, we press on together, giving blessing, honor, and glory to God, now and forever more.

—Sharing in Community of Christ, 4th ed., p. 60

www.CofChrist.org/common/cms/resources/documents/sharing-in-community-of-christ-4thed-web.pdf

End the reflection time by sounding a chime or bell.

Sharing Around the Table

Jeremiah 31:31–34 NRSV

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

People from the kingdoms of Israel and Judah had been taken by the Assyrians and then Babylonians and exiled from their homeland. Their daily lives were filled with the loss of identity, family, home, and a sense of belonging, coupled with the disturbing question of why God had abandoned them. Into this setting Jeremiah brings a message of a new covenant between the people and God.

Here the word “covenant” is best understood as a special relationship between God and the people. This new covenant will be different from what God made with their ancestors, who came out of Egypt. This new covenant will not be words written on stone as their ancestors experienced with Moses. God is going to place this new covenant in the hearts of the people. From the external laws on stone to the internal presence of God placed on their hearts, a new way of relating with God will form them as a nation and people of God.

In these four verses, we encounter the depth of love God extends to the people. It is always God’s initiative to offer love, grace, forgiveness, and restoration formed in a new covenant that describes the relationship God yearns to have with all people. It is not a relationship formed by fear and blind obedience. Rather, it’s a relationship that invites people into the heart and love God has for them. In that encompassing relationship of love, God makes the multiple factors of salvation known through restoration that is about to come forth.

Questions

1. When have you felt abandoned or “in exile”? How was God present with you even during this time?
2. How have you experienced love and hope replacing judgement and fear?
3. How does a new covenant of restoration (wholeness) invite you to examine your relationships with God and others in a new light?

Sending

Generosity Statement

Faithful disciples respond to an increasing awareness of the abundant generosity of God by sharing according to the desires of their hearts; not by commandment or constraint.

—Doctrine and Covenants 163:9

The offering basket is available if you would like to support ongoing small-group ministries as part of your generous response.

The offering prayer for Lent is adapted from A Disciple’s Generous Response:

Ever Present God,

Forgive us when we are less than loving, less than hope-filled, less than you have created us to be.  Your mercy and grace is always with us. May we find strength in your presence and may we respond to your love with generous spirits. Amen.

Invitation to Next Meeting

Closing Hymn

Community of Christ Sings 450, “Lead Me, Lord” (Sing twice. This will be our closing song each Sunday of Lent.)

Closing Prayer

 

Optional Additions Depending on Group

• Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
• Thoughts for Children

 

Thoughts for Children

Our Lenten Journey

Note: This Lenten activity continues through the season of Lent.

Materials:

• The chain from the previous week
• Skinny strips of purple paper (approximately 1.5 inches wide)
• Pencil
• Tape

Say: We are in the season of Lent, which lasts 40 days. The number 40 is meaningful in several ways. Perhaps most meaningful to the season of Lent is the story of Jesus spending 40 days in the wilderness, preparing to minister to people. Our Lenten journey is modeled after Jesus’ time in the wilderness because we are also using this time for preparation. During Lent, we prepare for Holy Week and Easter by doing things that help us live like Jesus and recognize God’s presence in our lives and the world.

When Jesus left the wilderness, he was ready to begin his ministry. When Jesus ministered to people, he shared joy, hope, love, and peace with them. Just like Jesus, we can share joy, hope, love, and peace in the world.

(Following is a rhetorical question. It might be helpful to provide examples, but allow participants to answer the question themselves internally.)

Ask: What are some ways you can share joy, hope, love, and peace in the world?

Say: I am going to give you each a purple strip of paper. Purple is an important color during Lent. It reminds us that we should honor Jesus. I would like you to write words to describe, or draw a picture of, something you can do to share joy, hope, love, and peace like Jesus did. If you have more than one thing, feel free to ask for another slip of paper.

Once everyone has written on their slip of paper:

Say: We are going to put all your strips of paper together to add to our paper chain from last week.

Help participants add their link to the chain.

Hold the completed chain up for everyone to see.

Say: Look at all of the preparation we have done to get ready for Holy Week and Easter!

Keep the completed chain some place safe to be used in your Palm Sunday and Easter worship displays.