Resources for Worship, Sunday,
March 9,
First Sunday in Lent
Facts
Current Issues
Get Involved
. . . Take Action
Stories
Resources
Worship Resources for Sunday, March 9, First Sunday in Lent
Return to top
Facts
Current Issues
Get Involved
. . . Take Action
Stories
Resources
Worship Resources for Sunday, March 9, First Sunday in Lent
Return to top
|
|
|
Prayer of Assurance
Merciful God, we know you have a plan for each of us. That at our birth we each received a certain set
of gifts. But we don’t always know how
to use our talents and there aren’t always jobs to employ them. In this time of joblessness and recession, show us
new ways of expressing our gifts. Change the
hearts of our political leaders so a real safety net is restored for those who cannot work
or cannot find work. Inspire us with
imagination for creating jobs, for developing livelihoods that benefit entire communities,
and not just our own wallet. We want to be
your eyes, ears and hands in the world. Show us the way. Amen.
Litany for a Harvest of Justice*
Leader: We partake of
the fruit of the vine when we take communion, yet those who pick grapes are denied the
fruits of justice and many live in extreme poverty.
People: Christ said, “You shall
love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 22:39) With God’s help, we will.
Leader: Workers in the fields are repeatedly
exposed to cancer causing pesticides, their life expectancy is reduced and the health of
their children and families is threatened.
People: Amos said, “Hate evil,
love good, and establish justice.” (Amos 5:15) With
Gods’ help, we will.
Leader: Immigrant workers contribute daily to
the wealth of our economy, yet they are often subject to harassment and discrimination.
People: “You shall love the
stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Deut. 10:19) With God’s help, we will.
Leader: Many farm workers are forced to live
in one-room shacks crammed with six or more people, often without plumbing.
People: Show hospitality to
strangers. (Heb. 13:2) With God’s help, we will.
Leader: Most farm workers receive no health
benefits, no sick leave, no paid vacations, and no pension plan. The average farm worker earns only $8,000 a year.
People: “When an alien resides
with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien.” (Lev. 19:33) With God’s
help, we will.
Leader: Farm workers are excluded from many
of the protections afforded to other workers. Agricultural
workers are specifically exempted from federal laws guaranteeing the right to organize for
better working conditions.
People: If we are silent, even the
stones will cry out for justice. (Luke 19:40) With God’s help, we will speak out for
the poor and the oppressed. Amen.
* From the National Farm Worker Ministry, “Saying Grace, Acting
Grace.” Available at www.nfwm.org/_resources.htm.
On the Lectionary: March
9, 2003, First Sunday in Lent
From the Revised Common Lectionary, Year B
From the Micah 6 Prayer and Devotional Guide, Written by the Rev. Noelle Damico
Devotion: God
Disarms (Genesis 9:8-17)
After the flood has utterly destroyed the earth, God makes a pledge
to the surviving family of Noah and to the creatures that were preserved on the ark. The promise is that God will never again destroy
the earth. This promise is not something negotiated with Noah or even something that
involves him. God makes a unilateral covenant
of peace with God’s creatures.
And God realizes that God needs to be reminded of this promise. As a sign and reminder to God to keep this
pledge, God hangs the bow of divine destruction in the heavens. This bow, Walter Brueggemann explains,
“refers to God’s bow (and arrows) as a weapon of war, hostility and
destructiveness. That the bow is suspended in the sky means that God has made a gesture of
disarmament, has hung up the primary weapon, and now has no intention of being an
aggressor or adversary.”* God will
never again conduct war upon creation. God has disarmed.
What courage this must take, for God clearly knows that human beings
are likely to do all sorts of atrocious things to creation and to each other; to fall away
from God’s vision; to rupture the peace God is intent on establishing. And yet, in
the face of such prospects, God disarms. We
might expect God to hang a bow that reminds us that if we do not follow God’s vision,
that God will punish us with the bow of God’s hostility. But instead, God makes God’s own self and
creation vulnerable to the carefulness and carelessness of human stewardship.
As people who, during the flood, were counted as enemies of God,
God’s disarmament challenges our own peacemaking efforts. If our Creator disarmed in
the face of an imperfect humanity in order to establish peace, how does that influence our
own personal, national, and global actions toward those we call our enemies?
*Brueggemann,
Cousar, Gaventa and Newsome, Texts for Preaching, (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993), p. 193.
Micah 6 for Kids!
The story from Genesis that we read today says that people were
behaving very badly toward each other and toward God.
But Noah was a good man, unlike all the other people who were hateful,
greedy and violent. God got so angry at the
people who were bad that God decided that the whole earth should be destroyed. But God saved Noah and his family, because they
had tried to follow in God’s way, unlike the other people. God also asked Noah to save two of every kind of
animal by building an ark and going into it with the animals. Then God flooded the earth
for 40 days and during this terrible time, those who were not in the ark were drowned. Then the rain stopped. And God made a promise to Noah and to Noah’s
children and his children’s children that God would never flood the world again. And God wanted to remind Godself of this promise.
So God placed God’s bow in the sky to remind God that God would never again destroy
the earth.
© 2000 Noelle Damico
Publishing Co., 17 Dyke Rd., Setauket, NY 11733
For Micah 6 resources visit www.micah6.org
or call Nancy Theoharis at 1-877-MICAH 6-0.
Return
to top of page |
Visit the Center
on Law and Social Policy website, 
