Rescue Me

For many worshipers, this is the beginning of Lent. Weekday or weeknight services are sometimes difficult to manage in our overly busy world. So, the worship teams can recapture some of the essence of the Ash Wednesday service as we gather for this First Sunday in Lent. There is an invitational quality to this beginning. Whatever call was issued on Wednesday needs to be repeated here. Are there recommended spiritual disciplines the community is focusing on this season? Are there opportunities to gather, to partner with others, to join a small accountability group that will walk with you this Lent? If so, then reissue those invitations, not with a wagging finger saying, “You should have already been on board with this,” but with an open, enthusiastic invitation, making the genuine offer to “observe a holy Lent,” as our Book of Worship has it.

This is how we will “Rise Up,” as our playlist song puts it. Listen carefully to this one. Again, the decision to use the song in worship is one you have to make. But it can certainly inspire the worship planning and the congregation as a whole as you think of the individual effort required to become disciples and the corporate dimension of that journey. “I’ll rise up, in spite of the ache” and “all we need is hope, and for that we have each other” encapsulate those twin themes of individual effort and relational support. Pay attention to the invitation.

Yet we also remember that as we gather here, none of this is possible on our own. The plea from the psalmist is to God, “Rescue me.” So, when we gather, there is both our continued petition for God’s rescue to be seen in our lives and the gratitude for what God has already provided in each of us and in all of us. We give thanks for the capacity to grow and the grace to continue, even when the way is hard. That means that while Lenten worship is serious, it need not be somber. There can be joy in the journey. There can be hope of realizing the vision of who we are as the people of God. There can be community, even when we wrestle with temptation, as our Lord did in the gospel text for this week. We call on the resources that he provides by example and continuing presence. We remember the gift that he gave by making that journey, so that, in our journey, we have a companion who knows. As we worship today, let us celebrate the Christ who knows us and our journey because he has walked this same lonesome valley.

PLAYLIST SONG

“Rise Up” by Andra Day

Rescue me. Perhaps Jesus said it during his temptation in the wilderness. Certainly, the psalmist says it over and again in many ways. We call out to God to rescue us today, sometimes with a certainty that God will answer and other times out of desperation, hoping God will listen when it seems no one else will. As you listen to Andra Day’s “Rise Up,” let the words wash over you as a prayer and as an answer to prayer, and consider: “Where in your life are you calling out for rescue, and how might God be calling you to reach out in love to rescue your neighbor?”