“How Shall We Live?” Eastertide Worship Series
April 7-21, 2024 or anytime based on texts from 1 John
The Worship Team from United Methodist Creation Justice Movement is excited to announce the release of worship materials for use during a short three-week Eastertide season in 2024, based on a collaboration with Discipleship Ministries. The new series is like our previous series in that it has everything you need to bring Creation Justice into the worship life of your congregation, including sermon notes, contemporary and traditional music suggestions, and liturgical plans in the form of prayers, calls to worship, benedictions, bulletin inserts, children’s moment ideas, communion liturgy, and downloadable videos that integrate sounds and images from Creation with the opening prayer for each week. It’s different from our previous series because you will find it on the Discipleship Ministries website, as well as linked from the UMCJM website. The development process was based on the lectionary texts from 1 John in conjunction with input from Discipleship Ministries leaders and staff, who helped to shape and refine the series. While it has been designed for the first three weeks of April in 2024, it can be used anytime.
The series centers the worship experience on the question, “How Shall We Live?” now that Easter is over in a world that has so much going wrong. We consider how our faith in the resurrected Christ changes us and shapes us as people of God, coming back to our place among all of Creation and how we can live in harmony with the planet and all the species that call it home. The short season is an opportunity to explore how our way of life is consistent with God’s invitation to us to live abundantly among all of Creation. We look for opportunities to align our lives more fully with God’s interconnected and interdependent systems, including human and beyond-human creatures.
Week 1 begins with reflection on what our relationship with Christ reveals about how we should live. Since many congregations will celebrate communion on this day, specific prayers for The Great Thanksgiving are provided for this day, as well as a new set of lyrics to the familiar hymn tune, “Swedish Folk Melody,” which is also the basis of Hymn 77 in the United Methodist Hymnal. The movement in this worship experience will be from repentance to a fullness of joy as worshipers engage with what God is revealing for them.
Week 2 continues in an attitude of hope by noting the love of God that we observe all around us through the water, air, flowers, trees and other plants, and soil. The invitation for the worship experience this week is to bring images, colors, and even examples of the natural world into the worship space to spark the creativity of those in attendance about how we may live together with all creatures and the created world. Many congregations may be collecting a Special Offering this day for Native American Ministries in the United Methodist Church, which provides an opportunity to learn from and honor cultures that have co-existed and stewarded thriving ecosystems for countless generations.
Week 3 concludes the series with opportunities to put the love that we experience and receive and extend into action for the good of all as an expression of our life, abiding in Christ. This may be a day to invite reflections on missions of the congregation or to provide opportunity to participate in efforts of a local environmental organization or the church’s green team. Many will be celebrating Earth Day this weekend and may be able to involve the wider community in what is happening at church.
Throughout the series, the children’s messages use a puppet that can move into their home (several suggestions are provided) as a metaphor for how we all live on our home planet. The children can be guides as they describe ways that the puppet takes care of its home, how they take care of their homes, and how we can all work together to care for our common home.
A podcast with several of the authors of the series from the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement and Discipleship Ministries will be coming soon if you want to hear more. If you have questions or want to be involved in developing future worship series, please contact Kristina Sinks (kristina.k.sinks@gmail.com) or Laura Baumgartner (lkwbaumgartner@gmail.com).