Sermon on Psalm 113

The following is a sermon I wrote during my internship. We walked together through the psalm, with each verse chanted in Hebrew throughout. The entire psalm was chanted at the end of the sermon. I had someone else do the chanting, and I think the variety of voices throughout the sermon was helpful.

The Psalms. 150 poems. And these are not just any poems. They are the prayer book of the Israelites – meant to be sung, not spoken. These are deep words, expressive and incredibly true to the human experience. There are desperate pleas for help, joyous hymns of praise, songs of thanksgiving, expressions of profound trust, cries of pain from deep grief

The Liturgical Cross

The liturgy is a dynamic and living conversation. Profound words are spoken, the gospel is proclaimed, we are changed! Part of my year as a youth minister was working with the confirmation classes to lead a worship service together. Before we began planning the specifics, we spent a few weeks learning about the different parts of the liturgy.

One day, we went through each piece of the liturgy. We opened up our ELWs to page 94, I had each of the parts written on a piece of paper and had the students place them on four different posters according to the proper category:
1. God speaking to us
2. Conversation with each other
3. The assembly speaks to God
4. The assembly speaks God's Word, Grace, & Gospel (by the power of the Holy Spirit)

Once we had all the parts of the liturgy in their proper places, I assembled the pieces to reveal a cross - a liturgical cross!