I Will Remember: A Responsive Reading

 

I Will Remember

A Responsive Reading

 Congregation:   But remember the former days...

 Reader One:  Remember the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 

 Reader Two:  For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

 Congregation: Remember your confidence!

 Reader One:  "I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

 Reader Two:  And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.  But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. 

 Congregation:  Remember those who are in prison…

 Reader One: Remember those in prison as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.

 Reader Two:  For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'

 Reader One:  Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?'

 Reader Two:  And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'

 Congregation:  Remember your leaders…

 Reader One:  Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

 Reader Two:  I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

 Reader One:  He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

 Reader Two:  I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

 Congregation:  Remember me, O LORD.

 Reader One:  Remember me, O LORD, when you show favor to your people. 

 Congregation:  Remember me with favor, O LORD…

 Reader One:  "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,"

 Reader Two: Then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."

 

 

Texts: Hebrews 10:32-35; John 16:1-4; Hebrews 13:3; Matthew 25:25-40; Hebrews 13:7; John 10:11-16; Hebrews 13:8; Psalm 106:4-8; Hebrews 10:16-17 (ESV).

The Power of the Reasurrection: A Responsive Reading

 

The Power of the Resurrection

A Responsive Reading

 Reader One: Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. 

 Congregation: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities

 Reader Two: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped

 Congregation: All things were created by him and for him.

 Reader Two: But made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness...

 Congregation: He is before all things, and in him all things hold together

 Reader Two: And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

 Congregation: For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.

 Reader One: I have lost all things.  I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ

 Congregation: For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves, in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins.

 Reader Two: Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him a name that is above every name

 Reader One: I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings becoming like him in his death, and so somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead.

 Reader Two: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

 All: Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ.

The Fellowship of Suffering: A Responsive Reading

 

The Fellowship of Suffering

A Responsive Reading

 Reader One: The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 

 Congregation: This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.  I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.

 Reader One: Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.

 Reader Two: His intent was that now through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 Congregation: I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.  Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

 Reader One: For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of a procession, like men condemned to die in the arena.  We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men.

 Congregation: A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.  It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master.  If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household.

 Reader One: We are fools for Christ...to this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.  We work hard with our own hands.  When we are cursed, we bless.  When we are persecuted, we endure it.  When we are slandered, we speak kindly.  Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.

 Congregation: All men will hate you because of me.  If the world hates you keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

 Reader One: But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.  For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.  To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.  And who is equal to such a task?

 Reader Two: Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

 All: For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.