Worship Resources for
the Center for Faith and Giving
4th Sunday of Lent
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Call to Worship (unison), inspired by Psalm 107
We’ve come to give thanks to the Lord, who is always good.
Gathered in this place, some in person and some on-line,
we remember how some cried in their trouble,
and God saved them!
Remembering God’s steadfast love,
we lift our voices in a song of joy!
If you have an opening hymn following the Call to Worship, make it a joyful one today. “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” or “When in our Music God is Glorified” are two possibilities
Opening Prayer (unison)
We thank you, Good God, for the ways you respond to your people in times of trouble.
You provide a way when there seems to be no way.
You offer options when the road seems narrow.
You hear our cries when we can only see chaos.
So today we celebrate, knowing you do not cast us out,
but you care for us from the rising of the sun to its setting,
and all through the nights of our despair.
Hear our prayer, even as you heard the prayers of the Psalmist, AMEN
Moment for Stewardship
For most people in the United States, today is the day to “spring forward”, as we move our clocks one hour ahead.
Did that trip you up, so you nearly missed worship?
Years ago an older gentleman came to worship with a grimace on his face, saying “if God intended for us to change our clocks over and over – to get up when its dark and go to sleep when its still light — I would have told God to make up his mind! I don’t think this is what the good Book means when it says “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away”!
However you remembered, or forgot, about the clock change, may you always remember it is God who has given us life and all good gifts we cherish. Having received so much, let us cheerfully respond with gifts which
symbolize our abundant lives!
Let us offer our morning tithes and gifts in gratitude for the way Jesus was lifted up on the cross, giving up his own life for our sake.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Receive these gifts, Life-giving God, as signs of our love for you and our desire to help build up your Realm on earth. Lift us up to be more and more like you — generous in our words and actions, and eager to reach out to those who struggle to find even the basics for life. AMEN
Invitation to Communion
As we continue on the journey to Jerusalem during these 40 days of Lent, we yearn for ways to be refreshed.
This table becomes a place of respite, bringing us to feast in the midst of Lenten fasting.
Here we find gifts which Jesus gave even to Judas, becoming a model for us to give with love and compassion to all who we encounter.
And here we pause to pray before we eat, giving thanks for the life, death and resurrection of the One we seek to follow.
May these elements become for each of us the refreshment we need to step into a new week of fasting, giving and praying.
The feast is prepared. Come!