Space for Sorrow

Are we making space, and giving language for the varied experiences in our corporate gathering? Does our liturgy allow space for grief, lament, and naming our sorrows and longings before the Lord (Psalm 38:9)?

As author Clint Watkins says, “Biblical worship includes sorrow.”

If corporate worship is about the spiritual formation of the people of God whether our specific room is filled with people currently experiencing sorrow (we all one day will) we have a responsibility to help do the burden-bearing work of weeping with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15). When we make space for sorrow, lament, and grief we are giving people language, helping them now and later.

You may also be interested in:

• Emotions in Worship

• Experience or Formation

• Lead Toward Need

• Head and Heart

• Embodied Worship

• Worship As Pastoral Care

April 15: Liturgy + Set List

Enter in Silence [Isaiah 53:3-7, Matthew 26:26-29, Matthew 27:28-31, Mark 15:33-34]

Welcome and Corporate Confession:

Merciful God, We confess that we have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, By what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart and mind and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. In Your mercy forgive what we have been, help us amend what we are, And direct what we shall be, So that we may delight in your will and walk in Your ways, To the glory of Your holy name. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen. [Book of Common Prayer]

• WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS

• KING OF KINGS

Corporate Confession:

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy, and save Your people whom You bought with Your own blood. Do not turn away from us because of our sins. Remember us according to Your steadfast love, and Your gracious work for Your people. Deliver us that we may enjoy the benefits of Your chosen ones, and share in the joy of Your people, and join Your inheritance in giving praise. Amen. [Adapted from Seed Grains Prayer]

Individual Confession: Psalm 51:1-3

• NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD

  Sermon

• MAUNDY THURSDAY HYMN

Corporate Confession Based on Psalm 51:

ALL:
Have mercy on us, O God according to Your steadfast love and abundant mercy. We confess we have committed overt and secret sins against You. We’ve done evil in Your sight and our sin is always before us. We’ve tried to right our own wrongs in pride but our guilt causes our heads to hang low.

LEADER:
For those who hide themselves in the work of Christ, our High Priest, you’ve been give a broken spirit, a contrite heart. Your transgressions are blotted out. Your iniquities cleansed. You’ve been washed whiter than snow. In Christ, you can know joy and your broken bones rejoice! God renews our spirit and creates in us a clean heart. Because God’s renewing power, we can sing aloud of His power and goodness.

Communion

• HOW CAN IT BE

• IS HE WORTHY

  Final Word, John 19:30, when ready, people leave in silence

• JESUS PAID IT ALL

21 December: Blue Christmas

Life is hard.  It can be unpredictable and often painful.  Jesus reminds us that in this world we will have trouble (Jn 16:33).  2020 has left no one unscathed from the realities of living in a broken and troubled world.  Celebration and suffering can often seem at odds - as if you must ignore one or the other.  I think what Advent teaches us is that we live in a tension between the now and not yet.  We live with longing, expectation, and hope, like people who say ‘all my desires are before You…’ and clinging to the prayer ‘and if not…’ He is still good (Ps 38:9, Dan 3:18). 

A Blue Christmas service often held on the longest day of Winter, is an invitation to hold the tension of loss and expectation.  To acknowledge that grief and celebration can exist together.  To bring every part, good, bad, and ugly to the One who invites us to share our weary, and heavily burdened heart to the One who knows our need. 

Whether your grief is an acute and specific, or a general hum from a difficult year, set aside time today to place all your desires before God.  Pour out your heart to Him (Ps 62:8).  He cares for you (1 Pet 5:7).  Even when grief feels like it will swallow you whole, He will never leave you or forsake you (Heb 13:5).  Our Suffering Servant was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isa 53).  Take heart, nothing goes unseen by the One who loves you, and He has overcome the world.  His first Advent, He stepped into our pain, in His second, He will do away with it once and for all.  

'Come, let us return to the Lord;

    for He has torn us, that He may heal us;

    He has struck us down, and He will bind us up.’ 

- Hosea 6:1

To download a complete PDF of the O Antiphon Advent Devotional, click here.

14 July: Tuesday Refocus

‘He comes to you and me in our sorrow.  And He says, ‘Trust Me.’  ‘Walk with Me.’ – Elisabeth Elliot

God comes to us in our sorrow.  He is not absent, but inviting.  Whether our sorrow is a result of our own sin, sin against us, or the reality of living in a broken world - sorrow is an invitation deeper into His heart.  A heart that says, ‘For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, ‘Fear not, I am the One who helps you (Is 41:13).’

Because we are met in our sorrow, we can cling to the One who holds us up.

‘My soul clings to You, Your right hand upholds me (Ps 63:8).’ Lord, You are worthy of my trust, my soul cling to You alone. Amen.

Upheld,

AB

December 17: Tuesday Refocus

‘God hides His most precious treasures in our most difficult and painful experiences.’ - Jon Bloom

Over the last several years I have more closely followed the rhythms and seasons of the Church calendar.  As a worship leader, it has been helpful in my planning and preparation, as a Christ-follower it has helped me experience the connection to a diverse, global, eternal body of believers. (1 Pet 2:9, Rev 7:9, Is 9:7)

The older I get the more I see and experience the pain of living in a broken, fallen world.  And that is why I love Advent - because I have often asked God, ‘Do You know how hard it is down here?  Do You see how painful it is?’  And Advent reminds me that not only does He see the pain and difficulty, He answers it with Himself. ‘But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.’ (Gal 4:4-5)

Sin and brokenness do not just affect humanity - it is as offensive as it is painful for God.

He pursued relationship, we chose death (Gen 1:26, 2:17, 3:6-7).

We hid, He covered us (Gen 3:8, 3:21).

He came to His own, we did not receive Him (Jn 1:11).

We deserve death, He gives us His life (Rom 6:23).

The One who knit Mary together in the womb of her mother became humanity knit together in Mary’s womb (Ps 139:13, Lk 1:30-33).  The One who saw the sorrow we experience did not stand far off but became the Man of Sorrows - acquainted with all our grief (Is 53:3).  The One who saw us in our sin became sin so that we might become His righteousness (2 Cor 5:21).

Advent is the continuing story of a God who has never had a ‘plan B,’ but has always sought His Son’s greatest glory, and His children’s good.  ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…’ this is the joy and pain of God Himself experienced (Jn 3:16, Is 53:10, Heb 12:2).

This is the joy and pain of Advent.

’Everything sad is going to come untrue and it will somehow be greater for having once been broken and lost.’ - Tim Keller

Lord, thank You that You do know our sorrow and pain.  From the groans of ‘it’s not supposed to be this way,’ to pain that is soul-piercing, You know and You have experienced it all.  Allow us to approach this Advent season with gratitude, wonder, and worship.  In Your name, amen.

Waiting,

AB