READ:

Read or listen to John 15:18-27
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“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

FOCUS:

Gather with your church family and ask God to keep your eyes open for how you can do good to someone in the household of faith (Galatians 6:10) today or this week.

In the journal, write down reflections on how you see Jesus reveal God’s attributes in the passage.

What does this passage say about what it means to follow Jesus?
What about Jesus’ identity and what it means to follow him encourages and/or challenges you today?

PRAY:

If possible, pray this liturgy with someone else before or after a worship service. One person reads the plain text and the other the text in bold print.

Every Moment Holy, Volume 1: “A Liturgy for the Labors of Community”

Our lives are so small, O Lord.
our vision so limited.
Our courage so frail,
our hours so fleeting.

Therefore give us grace and guidance for the journey ahead.
We are gathered here because we believe that we are called together into a work we cannot yet know the fullness of.
Still we trust the voice of the one who has called us.

And so we offer to you O God these things:
our dreams, our plans, our vision.
Shape them as you will.
our moments and our gifts.

May they be invested toward bright eternal ends.
Richly bless the work before us, Father.
Shepherd us well lest we grow enamored of our own accomplishment, or entrenched in old habit.

Instead let us listen for your voice, our hearts ever open to the quiet beckonings of your Spirit in this endeavor.
Let us in true humility and poverty of spirit remain ever ready to move at the impulse of your love in paths of your design.

You alone, O God, by your gracious and life-giving Spirit, have power to knit our imperfect hearts, our weaknesses, our strengths, our stories, and our gifts, one to another.
Unite your people and multiply our meager offerings, O Lord, that all might resound to your glory.

May our acts of service and creation, frail and wanting as they are, be met and multiplied by the mysterious workings of your Spirit, who weaves all things together toward a redemption more good and glorious than we yet have eyes to see or courage to hope for.
May our love and our labors now echo your love and your labors, O Lord.

Let all that we do here, in these our brief lives, in this our brief moment to love, and this the work you have ordained for this community, flower in winsome and beautiful foretaste of greater glories yet to come.

BOTH:
O Spirit of God, now shape our hearts.
O Spirit of God, now guide our hands.
O Spirit of God, now build your kingdom among us.
Amen.