Only this one thing.
A call to worship.
Themes
Jesus Christ and him crucified • Power of God • Reorientation • Revelation of God’s character • God’s intentions for me • Brokenness • Love • Healing • Reconciliation • Restoration • No condemnation • Unconditional acceptance • Forgiveness • Being known • Encounter • The Cross • Union with Christ • Friendship • Transformation • Sanctification • Likeness of the Son • Imagination
Where we can’t imagine we would find Him, He was there—loving us and healing us and reconciling us.
Scripture reading
1 Corinthians 2
This call to worship1 asks what life would look like if we really centered everything on “Jesus Christ and him crucified.” It’s an invitation to let God’s love meet us in our worst places, reshape our imagination, and send us out as people who look like Jesus for the good of our families, friends, and streets.
This is from a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians after leaving Corinth.
I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Prayer
Father in heaven, remind us, convict us, enable us to be so resolved, to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, to so live that our entire existence becomes reoriented around just that — around Jesus Christ and Him crucified. All that He was — His person — and how He gave His life — His crucifixion — this is the definitive revelation of Your character and of Your intentions for humanity, for each one of our families, and for each one of us. Who He was and how He died — His person, His crucifixion — this is the revelation of Your intentions for me. How is it that I would then live, if every reflection I contrived in my mind and every action I took in my life was contrived and was lived in response to this singular revelation — that You, Father, revealed fully who You are and fully Your intentions for me in Jesus Christ and in His crucifixion? What would happen to our thinking, what would happen to our imagination, and how would we live if all that we knew was that You, God, have taken into Yourself all of our brokenness and all of our alienation such that in the deepest parts of our brokenness, in the darkest places of our being where we can’t imagine we would find You, You were there, loving us and healing us and reconciling us to You? How would we live if we knew that Your intention is to go the furthest distance necessary to restore us back to right relationship with You? What would happen to our thinking, what would happen to our imagination, and how would we live if all that we knew was the depth of Your love and Your grace demonstrated on the cross — that You do not condemn us, even in our deepest and most unrepentant sin, but instead unconditionally accept and forgive us? How would we live if we knew that Your intention is to be known by us and to be encountered by us as the One who loves us beyond measure, even to the measure of the Cross? What would happen to our thinking, what would happen to our imagination, and how would we live if the only thing we knew was Your invitation to us to enter into Your very own divine life through union with Christ, and to share in Your very own divine nature? How would we live if we knew that Your intention is for us, empowered by Your Spirit, to fully participate in Your own triune communion and friendship? What would happen to our thinking, what would happen to our imagination, and how would we live if all we knew and experienced was the transformation and the sanctification of our lives — if we could look in the mirror and see before our very eyes our transformation into the likeness of Your beloved son, if we could see His likeness reflected back? How would we live if we knew that Your intention is for this reflection to have a profound impact on our children, our spouses, our school friends, our colleagues, so profound an effect that justice, peace, and righteousness flourish in the world? In the name of Jesus Christ, Who is proclaimed not by lofty speech or wisdom, Who supersedes all other things we might think are worth knowing, Who was crucified, Whose Spirit demonstrates power in us so that the faith of others will also rest in the power of God, Amen.
This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians who gathered at Pathway Church in Beaverdam, Michigan, on Sunday, February 25, 2024.