Worship Notes for Sunday, March 4, 2012
Continuing in Lent this week, we are confronted with one of the sufferings of Christ—“He came unto his own and his own did not receive him.” The Creator of the stars and God Incarnate was rejected by the very people that he had made. In addition, not only is Christ rejected but also the Gospel of peace that he brings. We begin with the Call to Worship from Psalm 118—the familiar text of the rejected stone becoming the cornerstone. We continue by singing Come Thou Almighty King that is both an affirmation and prayer for God’s presence and the recognition of Christ as the Incarnate Word.The Psalm for Lent is additional verses of Psalm 130: From Depths of Woe. Our Old Testament Reading is from Isaiah 61 which is the passage that Christ quotes in Luke 4 about the “good news to the poor, binding up the brokenhearted, and proclaiming liberty.” With the Prayer of Confession from Romans 1, we confess our foolish desire to deny God and our failure to give him honor and thanks.
We sing Speak, O Lord as reminder of the power of God’s Word as our food, as truth that shapes us, as a light that leads to “acts of love and deeds of faith.” The Communion Hymns both reflect on who Christ is—as a prayer to come to know Him face to face and in the recognition of his role as the Man of Sorrows who bears shame and scoffing.
Our final hymn is Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah which tells of the glories of the spread of the Gospel in feeding the hungry, setting prisoners free, and helping the fatherless and widow. He shall reign through all ages as King from the great river to the ends of the earth. Hallelujah, what a Savior!
