WORSHIP RESOURCES

Ordinary Time (Proper 8)

Galatians 5:1,13-25

You Shall Love

 

Additional Scriptures

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14; Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20; Luke 9:51-6; Doctrine and Covenants 161:2, 7; 162:7c-d

 

Prelude

Gathering Hymn

“As We Gather”                      Sing twice.       CCS 73

            OR “Creator God We Sing”   CCS 114

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

            OR “Uthando Lwam’ Kuwe/My Love for You Will Remain”   CCS 82

Sing twice. Encourage participants to sing in languages other than their own.

 

Welcome

Invitation to Worship: Doctrine and Covenants 161:7

Opening Hymn          

“Now in This Moment”     CCS 96

French and Spanish translations are available at: www.HeraldHouse.org/products/newly-translated-songs-from-world-
conference-2023-pdf-download?variant=45826935390481

OR “This Is My Song”       CCS 389

Encourage participants to sing in languages other than their own.

Invocation

Response

Body Prayer: Surrendering Yourself to God

Leader:            As we offer this prayer together you will place your hands first

on your head, then over your eyes, next over your ears, then your throat, and finally your heart. I will offer a prayer phrase and you will repeat it as a group. After each phrase, we will rest in silence for a few moments as we open ourselves to God’s presence.

Place your hands on your head and repeat after me:

Lord…may my thoughts be your thoughts, as I live this day.

All:                  Lord…may my thoughts be your thoughts as I live this day.

Pause.

Leader:            Place your hands over your eyes repeat after me:

God…may my vision be your vision as I look with love on all I see.

All:                  God…may my vision be your vision as I look with love on all I

see.

Pause.

 

Leader:            Place your hands over your ears and repeat after me:

                        Creator…open my ears that I may hear your voice this day.

All:                  Creator…open my ears that I may hear your voice this day.

Pause.

 

Leader:            Place your hands on your throat and repeat after me:

                        God…I offer you my voice that all I speak today will express

your love and truth.

All:                  God…I offer you my voice that all I speak today will express

your love and truth.

Pause.

 

Leader:            Place your hands over your heart and repeat after me:

                        Lord…may your love flow from my heart to all I meet today.

All:                  Lord…may your love flow from my heart to all I meet today.

Pause.

 

All:      Amen.

 

Prayer for Peace

Light the peace candle.

“Never seen, ever known where this wind has blown

bringing life, bringing power to the world.”

Peace Prayer

Ever-moving and Ever-still Spirit,

We thank you for the wind!

Gentle wind that cools us.

Whipping wind that urges us faster.

Howling wind that piques our curiosity.

Quiet wind that awakens our sense of direction.

As the wind coaxes us, may we be open and discerning of your guidance. May we bring life—peaceful life—to our neighborhoods. May we step out into the wind and with the wind.

Open our wings and let your wind carry us to never-before-seen yet always-known places. May we harness your Spirit of Peace and blow it into the stuffy, stale corners of our communities, bringing breezes of peace to those gasping for fresh air.

In the name of Jesus, the breath of peace, Amen

—Based on Shirley Erena Murray, “As the Wind Song Through the Trees,” CCS 42, adapted, ©2005 Hope Publishing Company.

 

Hymn of Wonder Ministry of Music OR Congregational Hymn

“As the Wind Song Through the Trees”     CCS 42

 

Scripture Reading: Galatians 5:1, 13-25

Focus Moment

Our theme today is “You Shall Love.” How might we show our love?

Ask several participants to be ready to pantomime actions of love. As each pantomimes, have the group guess what they are doing. Some examples include shoveling snow, raking leaves, mowing grass, washing dishes, and doing laundry. Once your participants have finished, ask the group if anyone else wants to pantomime an action of love. Close by asking participants to consider what action of love they could perform in the coming days.

Morning Message

Based on Galatians 5:1,13-25

Disciples’ Generous Response

Statement

When we share generously, we help God’s love and compassion grow endlessly.

If you have participants joining the worship online, remind them that they can give through www.CofChrist.org/give or through eTithing at www.eTithing.org (consider displaying these URLs).

            Scripture Reading: Doctrine and Covenants 162:7c-d

Blessing and Receiving of Local and Worldwide Mission Tithes

 

Closing Hymn

“Called by Christ to Love Each Other”    CCS 577

OR “The Summons”        CCS 586

OR “Blest Be the Tie that Binds”    CCS 325

Encourage participants to sing in languages other than their own.

 

Benediction

Sending Forth

Become a people who proclaim peace, a people who feel conflict yet extend the hand of reconciliation, a people who encounter broken spirits and find pathways for healing, a people who seek the peace of Jesus Christ throughout the world.

—Doctrine and Covenants 161:2, adapted

 

Postlude

 

SERMON AND CLASS HELPS

Year C—Letters

Ordinary Time (Proper 8)

Galatians 5:1, 13–25

 

Exploring the Scripture

Chapter 5 begins by urging the churches of Galatia to choose freedom in Christ, rather than a yoke of slavery. Paul’s letter to the Galatians uses a theme of slavery and freedom to represent the law and grace symbolically. He is referring to his earlier argument that the law of Moses was given to prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah. But it became burdensome, a strict disciplinarian that enslaved, rather than freed, the people.

Paul urges the Galatians to choose freedom. Freedom can be difficult when a person is used to the confines of slavery. People may feel more comfortable relying on laws to define their actions rather than making their own decisions. Laws were given to help define relationships and dictate what actions were acceptable within the community. Freedom in Christ is not separating from those responsibilities and relationships, but embracing Jesus’s example of kingdom relationships shaped by love.

The temptation to abuse newly found freedom is great. Paul calls on people to avoid self-indulgence and put others first in love. He quotes Leviticus 19:18 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” He reminds them that if they bite and devour one another, eventually they all will be eaten up! Individual freedom must be secondary to community empowerment. Loving your neighbor as yourself involves reciprocity and equality.

A choice is before them: live by the Spirit or gratify their wishes. The two are incompatible and cannot coexist. Those who live by the Spirit, Paul affirms, are not subject to the law. That doesn’t mean they are free to do whatever they like and live a self-centered existence of greed, drunkenness, promiscuity, and carousing. The list includes material and spiritual excesses like sorcery, idolatry, anger, envy, and divisiveness. Paul warns that those who engage in these activities are outside God’s kingdom/kin-dom. They become slaves to their yearnings for too much of anything.

Paul compares the works of the flesh to the fruits of the Spirit. Even the nouns he uses to define the categories are revealing: works and fruits. Living in the flesh is hard “work,” using up your resources and exhausting your soul. Living in the Spirit results in growth, development, and good “fruit…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things” (v. 22–23). Although these are listed as spiritual fruits, they also positively affect our physical existence and build community. The tension between works of the flesh and fruits of the Spirit is not a simple dualism of matter versus Spirit.

There is, of course, the temptation to revert to the works of the flesh, but Paul reminds us that those who belong to Christ have been crucified with him, thus destroying the self-centered wants and passions that could control us.

The Spirit guides us in controlling our wants, both material and spiritual. We can limit our consumption of goods, energy, and resources. We can handle relationships with true desire, faithful love, and generosity aimed at empowering others. We can check our greed and emotional outbursts by remembering the needs of others. Recognizing how God loves us shapes how we love our neighbors; it transforms us.

 

Central Ideas

1. The law was given to help define relationships and behaviors. But laws are inadequate to free people to love as God loves.
2. Christ frees us to live in the Spirit, motivated by a higher ethic than a list of laws, to love our neighbor as ourselves.
3. The Spirit guides us in controlling our wants, both material and spiritual.

 

Questions for the Speaker

1. Where do you recognize the law as inadequate to free people today?
2. Where do you see the fruits of the Spirit active in your life? In the life of your congregation?
3. How would you characterize the tension between individualism and community awareness in your nation?
4. What is God calling you to do as you live in the Spirit?
   
   

 

 

SACRED SPACE: A RESOURCE FOR SMALL-GROUP MINISTRY 

Year C Letters

Ordinary Time, Proper 8

Galatians 5:1, 13–35 NRSVue

 

Gathering

Welcome

Ordinary Time is the period in the Christian calendar from Pentecost to Advent. This span is without major festivals or holy days. During Ordinary Time we focus on our discipleship as individuals and a faith community.

 

Prayer for Peace

Ring a bell or chime three times slowly.

Light the peace candle.

Loving God, your Spirit calls us to be emissaries of your love and peace.

We acknowledge that in our comfort we often forget there are many who lack basic needs; many crying to be free from oppression and injustices. And you weep.

You, who created all humankind, implore us to see the inestimable Worth of All Persons.

You call us to heal our divisions, tear down walls of separation, and build bridges of understanding.

How long must you wait for our dedicated response to follow the example of the One we follow, reaching out to those who are rejected and marginalized?

May we truly be Community of Christ and live sacrificially, generously, with eyes and hearts wide open to needs around us—near and far.

May we live your vision of shalom until inequities and brokenness give way to love and peace. We pray in the name of the One we serve. Amen.

—Doctrine and Covenants 162:6a–c, adapted

Spiritual Practice

Body Prayer

Demonstrate the three postures of this spiritual exercise:

First posture: Head bowed with hands folded.

Second posture: Sitting or standing with arms stretched upward.

Third posture: Hands clasped over the heart.

Say: We will begin with the first posture. A chime will signal when to move into the next posture. We will not be offering words of prayer, but instead will focus on sensing what type of prayer silently emerges within us as we hold each posture.

Lead the group in three deep cleansing breaths as preparation. Ring a chime.

First posture: Head bowed with hands folded (one minute). Ring a chime.

Second posture: Sitting or standing with arms stretched upward (one minute). Ring a chime.

Third posture: Hands clasped over the heart (one minute). Ring a chime.

Close with a spoken, “Amen.”

Invite participants to share what they experienced.

 

Sharing Around the Table

Galatians 5:1, 13–35 NRSVue

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

…For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become enslaved to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

Since its beginning, the church has experienced many instances when adherence to rules has taken precedence over the extension of grace. It is during such a dilemma that Paul writes to the churches of Galatia. Paul begins chapter 5 by urging the churches to choose freedom in Christ (grace), rather than a yoke of slavery (strict adherence to the law).

Though Paul does not encourage abandonment of the law, he does recognize that, without the balance of grace, the law can become a strict disciplinarian that enslaves people rather than frees them. Freedom in Christ is not separating from the laws that define acceptable responsibilities and relationships in the context of community. Rather, it’s embracing Jesus’s example of kingdom relationships shaped by love.

Paul also is aware of the self-serving dangers of living in community where grace is lived without laws. The temptation to abuse newly found freedom is great. Paul calls on people to avoid self-indulgence and put others first in love. Quoting from Leviticus, Paul reminds his readers, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” and that if they bite and devour one another, eventually all will be eaten up! Individual freedom must be secondary to community empowerment. Loving your neighbor as yourself involves reciprocity and equality.

Just below the surface of this text is the message that too much of anything can be dangerous. The slavery against which Paul warns includes, but is not limited to, “ownership” of one person by another. We can become “slaves” to ideologies, power structures, religious traditions, cultural “norms,” gender stereotypes, and so many other things. These would be included in the works of the flesh to which Paul refers.

As followers of Christ, we are encouraged instead to focus on those things that produce the fruits of the Spirit.

 

Questions

1.     Give an example of how law, without grace, can keep people “enslaved.”

2.     Give examples of things today in which we allow ourselves to become “enslaved.”

3.     What does the phrase, “love your neighbor as you love yourself” mean to you?

4.     Where do you see the fruits of the Spirit active in your life?

 

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. You also may give at CofChrist.org/give.

This offering prayer is adapted from A Disciple’s Generous Response:

Discipling God, as we navigate our world of debt and consumerism, help us to save wisely, spend responsibly, and give generously. In this way may we prepare for the future and create a better tomorrow for our families, friends, the mission of Christ, and the world. Amen.

Invitation to Next Meeting

 

Closing Hymn

Community of Christ Sings 655, “The Lord Bless You and Keep You”

 

Closing Prayer

 

 

Optional Additions Depending on Group

·       Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper

·       Thoughts for Children

 

 

Thoughts for Children

Materials:

·       paper hearts with “I am with you” written on one side

·       crayons or pencils

 

Prepare beforehand paper hearts with “I am with you” written on one side. Give one to each person.

Invite everyone to print his or her name on the blank side of the heart.

Hold up your own paper heart. Explain that as a blessing of community we learn to love others as God loves us.

Have everyone hold up their heart.

Say: The heart helps you remember that God loves you and is with you. When you give God’s love to another person, you are sharing in Blessings of Community.

Encourage children to give their hearts to others, and encourage others to give their hearts to the children.

Make sure each child receives a heart from someone else.