*You are welcome to use or adapt any of my resources for free, but I ask that you provide proper citation AND comment on this post to let me know.*
Call to Worship
Leader: Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. People: We come before God as wonderers, wanderers, and seekers.
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about fatherly advice. It doesn’t have to be gendered, really; it can come from anyone. But the phrase itself evokes a very specific genre of guidance: usually given by an older mentor figure and coming from a place of genuine affection and care, it’s heartfelt advice meant to help someone live a better life. It’s parental wisdom offered with the best interests of its recipient at heart.
Ah, the Beatitudes. Although Matthew’s gospel technically begins Jesus’ ministry at very end of chapter 4, the Sermon on the Mount is the first of Jesus’ teachings that Matthew reports in full, and the Beatitudes are the very first words of it that he speaks. We’re all familiar with the formula, although we may recall different words: “Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are the meek, blessed are the merciful.”
--------------------------------------------------------- Last Sunday, we heard Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism. Our reading ended with a voice from heaven speaking the words, “This is my Son whom I dearly love; I find happiness in him”. A beautifully moving moment depicting God’s love for the Messiah. Today, we turn the page to the next chapter of Matthew’s gospel, only to read about, in what is literally the very next sentence, the Spirit leading Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Talk about spiritual whiplash! It’s like God is saying, “I love you so much; now get out of here and take this unpleasant test proctored by Satan.” It’s a weird plot twist.
*You are welcome to use or adapt any of my resources for free, but I ask that you provide proper citation AND comment on this post to let me know.*
Call to Worship
Leader: We have heard John’s call, and now Jesus summons us with the same words: People: “Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!”
Baptism is one of the most recognizable Christian rituals, possibly because it’s also one of the oldest. The form and function of many of our other traditions – hymn singing, corporate prayer, marriages, funerals, the liturgical year, and so on – are all relatively new; they’ve developed into their current form only after centuries of theological discernment and identity building. Baptism, on the other hand, has been practiced since the days of the Bible, with its form remaining more or less unchanged from what was handed down to us in Matthew’s gospel: we baptize with water (as demonstrated at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Matthew 3) and in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (as established towards the end, in Matthew 28). There remain, of course, plenty of disputes throughout modern Christendom about the specific prayers included, the age required to be baptized, and whether to sprinkle, dunk, or immerse, but the basic elements have remained largely unchanged for over 2000 years.