Since we are suspending our gathered worship in the sanctuary to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19, you are invited to continue the worship of God in your home. For each Sunday we are not able to gather, a home worship guide will be posted.
Jewish households begin worship every Sabbath at home around the family’s table. Jesus being Jewish would have had a robust practice of worship at home. Our Baptist tradition believes in the “priesthood of believers” meaning every believer is able to lead worship.
Designate a space for worship. A table is a good place because it is a safe place for candles and limits distractions. Set out one or two candles to represent the presence of God. If you want to celebrate communion, pour a cup for each person and have something to eat for each.
The worship guide is based on our regular weekly worship. They are not obligations, but suggestions. Follow them or amend them as needed. Home worship will be more brief than corporate worship in the sanctuary. Involve all the people at your home in the worship time who are able.
Grace and peace, Tonya and Jeffrey
The Worship of God
Light two candles in recognition of Christ’s presence. In our practice, one candle represents Jesus’ divinity and the other Jesus’ humanity.
Gathering for Worship
Passing the Peace
Say to one another, “May the Peace of Christ be with you.”
Respond by saying, “And also with you.”
Call to Worship (You may want one to read the non-bold text and all to read the bold.)
Healing God, we come together in our brokenness,
to call to you in your mercy,
to make us whole again.
Wholeness–giving God,
listen to our prayers, we pray.
Restoring God, we gather to worship you,
even as we hopefully seek to be renewed and restored again.
God, our Quiet-Center,
listen to our prayers this day.
Foundational God, we come to praise and thank you!
In the depths of your Holy Being
we find peace and rest.
God – our Beginning and our End,
we hope always in you. Amen.
A Time of Prayer, Confession, and Assurance
A Reading from the Book of Psalms
Listen to a collection of our church members reading the psalm.
Psalm 130:1-6
I cry to you from the depths, LORD–my Lord, listen to my voice!
Let your ears pay close attention to my request for mercy!
If you kept track of sins, LORD–
my Lord, who would stand a chance?
But forgiveness is with you–
that’s why you are honored.
I hope, LORD. My who being hopes,
and I wait for God’s promise.
My whole being waits for my Lord–
more than the night watch waits for morning;
yes, more than the night watch waits for morning.
Prayer (The following prayer is based on the Lord’s prayer. We are praying in unison this prayer each Sunday in Lent. Before you begin, if there is more than one of you, choose someone to close the “Silent Prayer and Meditation” by reading the “Words of Assurance.”)
Divine Source of love and life,
holy is your name.
May your Way of living resonate throughout the earth
just like it does in heaven.
With your great wisdom show us
that what we truly need
you freely give us to receive.
With your steadfast love
forgive us
when we fail to trek your Way of life.
With your grace and mercy
make us ready
to forgive one another.
Acknowledging your abiding presence
may we understand
how to surrender to you instead of temptation
for everything belongs to you.
Silent Prayer and Meditation
Words of Assurance. The Lord is merciful and compassionate, very patient, and full of faithful love. The Lord is good to everyone and everything; God’s compassion extends to all creation. May we bless God’s holy name forever and ever. Amen.
Celebrating Communion
Communion. (Bread and wine were common foods during Jesus’ day. As we celebrate communion at home, use common food and drinks you have. The type of food and drink is not what matters, but it matters that you remember Christ as you share, eat, and drink.)
A Reading from the Gospels. Mark 14:22-24.
While [the disciples and Jesus] were eating, [Jesus] took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” 23Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. 24He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
Before you eat, have someone say,
“This food represents the body of Christ. As we eat, we remember Jesus.”
Before you drink, have someone say,
“This drink represents the covenant Christ made with us that our sins will be forgiven. As we drink, we remember Jesus.”
Prayer of Thanksgiving. (Offer a prayer of thanksgiving to God for coming to live on this earth as Jesus and for the forgiveness promised to all of us.)
Song. Close communion by singing a hymn. You may want to sing Amazing Grace.
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
that saved a wrench like me.
I once was lost, but now I am found,
was blind but now I see.
The Gospel Lesson for the 5th Sunday in Lent
John 11:1-45
Listen to a collection of our church members reading the gospel lesson.
A certain man, Lazarus, was ill. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (2 This was the Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped his feet with her hair. Her brother Lazarus was ill.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, saying, “Lord, the one whom you love is ill.”
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This illness isn’t fatal. It’s for the glory of God so that God’s Son can be glorified through it.” 5 Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. 6 When he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed where he was. After two days, 7 he said to his disciples, “Let’s return to Judea again.”
8 The disciples replied, “Rabbi, the Jewish opposition wants to stone you, but you want to go back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours in the day? Whoever walks in the day doesn’t stumble because they see the light of the world. 10 But whoever walks in the night does stumble because the light isn’t in them.”
11 He continued, “Our friend Lazarus is sleeping, but I am going in order to wake him up.”
12 The disciples said, “Lord, if he’s sleeping, he will get well.” 13 They thought Jesus meant that Lazarus was in a deep sleep, but Jesus had spoken about Lazarus’ death.
14 Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died. 15 For your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there so that you can believe. Let’s go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (the one called Didymus) said to the other disciples, “Let us go too so that we may die with Jesus.”
Jesus with Martha and Mary
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Bethany was a little less than two miles from Jerusalem. 19 Many Jews had come to comfort Martha and Mary after their brother’s death. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, while Mary remained in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22 Even now I know that whatever you ask God, God will give you.”
23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die. 26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 She replied, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, the one who is coming into the world.”
28 After she said this, she went and spoke privately to her sister Mary, “The teacher is here and he’s calling for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Jesus. 30 He hadn’t entered the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were comforting Mary in the house saw her get up quickly and leave, they followed her. They assumed she was going to mourn at the tomb.
32 When Mary arrived where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her crying and the Jews who had come with her crying also, he was deeply disturbed and troubled. 34 He asked, “Where have you laid him?”
They replied, “Lord, come and see.”
35 Jesus began to cry. 36 The Jews said, “See how much he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “He healed the eyes of the man born blind. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”
Jesus at Lazarus’ tomb
38 Jesus was deeply disturbed again when he came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone covered the entrance. 39 Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”
Martha, the sister of the dead man, said, “Lord, the smell will be awful! He’s been dead four days.”
40 Jesus replied, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you will see God’s glory?” 41 So they removed the stone. Jesus looked up and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. 42 I know you always hear me. I say this for the benefit of the crowd standing here so that they will believe that you sent me.” 43 Having said this, Jesus shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his feet bound and his hands tied, and his face covered with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”
45 Therefore, many of the Jews who came with Mary and saw what Jesus did believed in him.
Reflection from Jeffrey. “The Raising of Lazarus“
The Raising of Lazarus is an iconic story. Like the Feeding of the 5000 or the Prodigal Son, just the mention of Lazarus’ name draws to mind a vague picture of Jesus standing commandingly before a tomb and shouting, “Lazarus, come out!” My older self cannot shake the image from my childhood imagination in which Lazarus comes tottering out of the tomb looking like an adolescent mummy in costume for Halloween with dirty white strips of cloth hanging over his face.
For all the drama in the story associated with Lazarus, the real star is Jesus. He’s the one summoned by Mary and Martha when their brother is sick. He‘s the one who decides to stay away too long so that Lazarus dies. Jesus is the one upbraided by both Martha and Mary who state emphatically the problem as they see it: “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” Jesus is also the one in whom Martha offers a word of faith that is profound in its ambition: “But even now I know God will give you whatever you ask.”
As I consider the first people who heard the story of Lazarus, I’m certain it was intended as be a witness to Jesus’ divine authority to grant life. After all, the only One who can bring things to life is God. And if God can bring life from nothing, then surely God can bring life from death. This faith in resurrection—life after this life—serves as the foundation of Christianity. Perhaps we have lost the “wow factor” since we read this story already believing in the resurrection of Jesus. Yet this is the first time we read the story of Lazarus during a global pandemic. For me our context highlights some different parts of this story.
Jesus loved Lazarus, Martha, and Mary (v. 5). We sing cute childhood hymns like Jesus loves the little children, and, Jesus loves me this I know. It would be hard to imagine Lazarus writing song lyrics that say Jesus loves me yet I died. *(Full lyrics found below.) Nevertheless, that is one point of this story: God’s love for us is absolute whether we live or die.
We want to live long. Our sisters want us to be restored to health before we die. Sometimes these things don’t happen, even when Jesus is our friend and “on call” when we need him. And still we know as a matter of faith that God loves us and death does not change that reality. When Jesus makes that confession “I am the resurrection and the life,” (v. 25) and then adds, “everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (v. 26), he does not mean that a virus cannot kill us. Nor cancer. Nor accidents. Nor old age. Nor young foolishness. What might he mean, then? If it is God’s love that gives us life, and if death cannot take away God’s love, then after we die God both still loves us and we still live in God. Resurrection is not just a promise of life but the realization of love for eternity.
Jesus wept (v. 35). Although this verse is forever known as the shortest verse in the entire Bible, it is not to be overlooked as small in significance. Jesus does not weep out of fear. Jesus does not cry because of death. Jesus is not moved to tears because he misjudged how sick his friend was. Jesus is not overwhelmed by his knowledge of the future and thus weeping anxiously over what is to come. These things cause us to shed tears, and rightly so.
In this case, however, Jesus weeps out of compassion for Mary and Martha. It remains, for me, one of the most meaningful changes in what I believe about God—God weeps with us in our grief and struggles and oppression and sorrow. The power of God is not in manipulating nature but in divine compassion. God’s grace is in knowing that God’s presence is healing for our spirit even when illness has taken its toll. Remember Jesus said, the last shall be first and the weak will be strong. Even for God, divine strength is shown in compassion.
Questions for Reflection:
God’s presence communicates comfort, not judgment. When have you found God’s presence comforting?
Jesus did many miracles that led people to believe in him. Raising Lazarus was one of them (see v. 45). Which stories of Jesus increase your faith?
Name three people you depend upon. Who are three people that depend on you? These people are the ones who provide meaningful relationships—they are a grace from God. What can you do to keep these relationships strong?
Prayer of Thanksgiving. (Offer a prayer of thanksgiving to God for helping us to see the world with different eyes, for changing our hearts, for helping us treat one another as friends, for opening our minds to be able to think differently about things.)
Sending Out from Worship
Benediction (If there are more than one of you, choose someone to read the following.)
May there always be work for your hands to do.
May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine upon your window pane.
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near to you and
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.
Closing Song. In our tradition, we close worship by singing the first verse of Blest Be the Tie. Mindy starts us each week, and so she does today as well.
Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love.
The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. Amen.
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Credits: The Call to Worship was written by Joan Stott. Psalm 130 was read by Tessa and Pam. The video was prepared by Elizabeth. The gospel was read by Kendall, Calley and Galen. The Benediction is a traditional Celtic blessing. Blest be the Tie was sung by Mindy.
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*The Lost “Lazarus Verse” — To the Tune of “Jesus Loves Me”
Jesus loves me yet I died
And my sisters sat and cried
God had loved me every day
Now with God I ever stay
Cullowhee Baptist Church 