Note: During the season of Lent you may want to have the following items available for your gathering space: a candle and matches, a cup of water, a roll or a piece of bread, a cut out of a heart, a cross and a piece of purple cloth.
Welcome
Invite those gathered to bring a designated item and use this liturgy as a way to begin your time of learning together.
One: This is the season of Lent, 40 days to remember and pray, worship and think deeply on the ways we can…
All: Follow in the ways of Jesus.
One: He came as a baby to bring light to the world and how us how to…
(Place a candle on a table in your gathering place and light it.)
All: Follow in the ways of Jesus
One: The Bible tells the story of the way he called disciples when he was on earth and how he still calls disciples today who will…
(Place an open Bible on a table in your gathering place.)
All: Follow in the ways of Jesus.
One: When people were hungry, he gave them food. When people were thirsty, he gave them water. When people needed love, he loved them — even those the world thought were unlovable and called us to do the same as we…
(Place the bread, the cup of water and the heart in your gathering place.)
All: Follow in the ways of Jesus.
One: When it became obvious that we still had trouble being faithful, he made his way to Jerusalem and to the cross so that through his grace we would be able to…
(Place a cross on a table in your gathering place.)
All: Follow in the ways of Jesus.
One: And so, each year, for the 40 days leading to Easter we remember what Christ did for us, pray for forgiveness for our unfaithfulness, worship the God who loved us enough send us the Son and think deeply on how we can…
(Drape the cross with the purple cloth.)
All: Follow in the ways of Jesus.
One: We are here, Holy Spirit, ready for your leading.
God sightings and prayer offerings
Invite each person to share where they saw or experienced God this week. Invite each person to share something — a person, community, experience, event, etc. – for which they want to offer prayer.
Good and gracious God, we thank you for all the ways you were and are present in our lives and in the world. [Invite each person to say aloud the sighting they named earlier.] We bring our prayers to you, prayers for… [invite each person to say aloud the prayer need they named earlier]. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.
Connecting with Scripture: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Read the Scripture aloud the first time using the New Revised Standard Version or the Common English Bible.
Choose a character from the story and put yourself in their place as you listen to the Scripture read a second time.
Connecting through story
Watch and listen to this reading of Nancy Tillman’s children’s book “You’re Here for a Reason.”
- What “reasons” were named in the story?
- What do you think this story wants to reader to know?
- Why is it important to remember that we are here for a reason?
Connecting with our lives
Engage in dialogue:
- What was God’s message for Abraham and Sarah in this story?
- Who did God want Abraham and Sarah to be?
- What was Abraham’s “reason” for being? Or, rather, what was Abraham and Sarah’s purpose?
- Why would Abraham and Sarah need God to remind them of their purpose or “reason for being”?
- Why would God need to remind Abraham and Sarah?
- Why do you think God changed Abram and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarai?
- Who gives us our reason for being?
- How do we know what our “reason for being here” is?
- What do you think your purpose or reason for being is?
- In what ways does God remind you that you were created for a purpose/reason?
Teaching points that can be incorporated into your discussion:
- God has a habit of showing up and talking with Abraham.
- The first time we read of this is in Genesis 12:1-3, where God makes a covenant with Abram and Sarai. God promises to make a great nation of their descendants and to give them land. This is their purpose.
- This is an unconditional covenant. There is no “if” in this promise — no “if you do this,” then God will give you the land and the blessing. God simply speaks God’s promise into being first and Abram and Sarai respond by being faithful and doing what God commands.
- In this week’s story, God is reminding Abram and Sarai of the covenant promises made with them.
- We see in this text another reason, or purpose, for Abram and Sarai — to worship God, to walk in the ways of God and to be faithful. Abram and Sarai drop everything and immediately worship God.
- This encounter with God changes who they are. The change of their names is an outward expression of the inward change. They go from being simply Abram and Sarai, a couple without children or a land to call their own, to Abraham and Sarah the parents of a great nation with descendants too numerous to count.
- The blessing God bestows on them and the Promised Land and promised child are not of Abraham and Sarah’s doing — they are of God’s doing.
- It is God’s promise to give, God’s blessing to bestow and God’s grace to offer.
- Through the lens of Christianity, we come to understand this story as an early example of God’s freely given gift of grace that will later take shape in the new covenant: Jesus Christ.
Last week, your family was invited to think about what each of you personally, or as a family, could “take on” during the season of Lent that would deepen your understanding of what it means to follow in the ways of Jesus. This is our weekly “check in” with one another:
- What Christian practice did you “take on” this week?
- Share a story or describe an experience from this week that invited you to consider how you are following in the ways of Jesus.
Prayer
Close your time together by praying for one another, your neighbor, community and the world
REBECCA DAVIS is the associate professor of Christian education at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina. A teaching elder and certified educator, she served congregations for over 20 years before moving into academic teaching. In addition to teaching and mentoring students, her passion is child advocacy and ministry.
