THE GOSPEL LESSON Luke 23:39-43
THE COVENANT LESSON Exodus 20:1-17
SERMON "Responding to the Commandments with Gratitude"
Worship Notes
In today's worship, we continue our journey in Lent to deepen our covenantal relationship with God. The liturgical color for the season is purple. Each Sunday in Lent, we will explore an aspect of God's covenant with creation. This covenant is not only vertical, but also includes a horizontal dimension emphasizing how our relationship with God is reflected in how we relate to one another. Each Sunday in Lent, we will also reflect on one of the last words spoken by Jesus from the cross. This we do to remember that our Lenten journey culminates in the crucifixion on Good Friday, which this year will be observed in a single worship service involving all of Madison's Presbyterian congregations. These seven last words of Christ will be the basis for this joint Good Friday Service of Tenebrae, which will also include the music of Mozart's Requiem.
The covenant we explore today is that established through the Commandments that God established for the Israelites as they wandered in the desert. These Ten Commandments were not intended as a punishment, but as a gift, a way to order life as a community. God gave the Israelites the Commandments as part of God's covenant promise to care for God's people. This promise of order and guidance through God's law is still present for us today. In worship today we will respond to God's gift of guidance and law with gratitude. We hear the gratitude for the law in Psalm 19, which is a song of praise to God thanking God for the law and order that guides the community.
Today we will also read one of the last words that Jesus spoke from the cross in the gospel of Luke. He speaks to one of those being crucified with him, and offers to him the promise of Paradise. This is a promise that is offered to all of us, yet another aspect of God's grace in establishing and upholding the covenant relationship. We respond to this gift, as to all others, with gratitude.
