Lent Day 4
Theme – The Fall
Gather
Christ goes on before us, during these days of Lent, telling us to deny ourselves…
…and we take up our cross and follow.
Song – Forty Days
Prayers of the People
God who knows our every weakness, we pray this day for those along our journey who need comfort from affliction and release from bondage. You are the great and ultimate healer. May we be not mere observers and recipients of your overwhelming love, but also Spirit-led instruments that live out your redemptive story to all people.
Lord, in your mercy…
…Hear our prayer.
Confession
Source of life and all that is good…
…we confess to you how far we have journeyed astray, more often acting as if this world is home, rather than as aliens in a foreign land. We have chosen pleasure rather than justice, pride rather than mercy, and platitudes rather than sacrifice. Forgive us, O Lord.
Presentation of the Nails and Song – Sojourn
Alms Giving
Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. Matthew 6:2
Lord of all…
…Take these gifts, bless and multiply them, that you may be glorified. Amen.
Reading – Genesis 3:14-19
The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
but he shall rule over you.”
And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Song – Dust
Benediction
Holy Father, here in the very beginning of your redemption story, we see not just the loss of the good you desire for us, but the supplanting of the good with that which we have foolishly come to expect as normal and everyday – endless labor, relationship conflict, and ultimately death. And yet even in this tragedy, you plant the seed of hope. May our hearts be gardens for that seed to sprout and grow into a tree of life.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
Amen.
Next: 1st Sunday of Lent