This worship series is an invitation to enter into the delights of Wisdom. These four weeks of worship traverse the full arc of the biblical story: Creation, Justice, Jesus, and the Church. They draw equally from both Testaments. The full resource provides themes, sermon seeds, hymn suggestions, prayers, and an entertaining children’s story set at Camp Friedenswald. We hope you enjoy this resource!
A Four Week Worship Series
(For the full resource, go to https://mcusacdc.org/resources/worship-christian-formation/ )
“Wisdom from on high is dawning.”
It was August 2023 and the CDC board was gathered for our annual visioning retreat. After generating a range of ideas for the next biennial theme, displayed on multiple large post-it notes around the room, informed by our recent listening sessions with congregations, we paused for a time of worshipful re-centering. Into the silence, our Conference Minister, Doug Luginbill, sang through Voices Together 238 as the rest of us listened:
Wisdom from on high is dawning. Even now a golden ray
shines into a world of shadows, from the realms of endless day.
Hidden womb who birthed the heavens, in the womb now hides away.
From this and the following verses of this Advent hymn, the ideas scattered about the room coalesced around a single theme large enough to hold them all within its wide embrace: “Listen! Wisdom is Calling.”
That’s one way of telling the origin story of our Wisdom theme.
Wisdom itself is intertwined with the great origin story of our scriptures. Proverbs chapter 8 celebrates Wisdom as the first of Creator’s acts. Wisdom, it declares, was there from the beginning, “rejoicing in God’s inhabited world and delighting in the human race” (Proverbs 8:31). Wisdom is displayed in the calls for justice from the Hebrew prophets and the writings of the sages. Jesus becomes the embodiment of Wisdom in his ministry. Out of resurrection life comes the call of the church to be a manifestation of God’s Wisdom, all the while remembering that we are first and foremost listeners to that which long precedes us. Listen! Wisdom is calling.
This worship series is an invitation to enter into the delights of Wisdom. Wisdom dawns not just from on high, and not just at the beginning of time, but all around and within us, in the air we breathe and in the soil that sustains all life. It blooms not just out of the pages of our scriptures, but from the collective wisdom of varied cultures around the world.
These four weeks of worship traverse the full arc of the biblical story: Creation, Justice, Jesus, and the Church. They draw equally from both Testaments. Congregations are encouraged to adopt what is useful, adapt to your context, and add what enhances. It is our prayer that in entering more deeply into the ways of Wisdom, we will live more fully into the Way of Jesus.
The full resource provides themes, sermon seeds, hymn suggestions, prayers, and an entertaining children’s story set at Camp Friedenswald. We hope you enjoy this resource!
—Joel Miller, CDC Board President Elect
Weekly Summaries
Week 1: Wisdom and Creation
Texts: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-3; Psalm 104:24-30; Sirach 24:1-12; Romans 8:19-27
Sermon Seeds: Proverbs 8 contains something of a pre-creation story, told in the first person. It’s the voice of Wisdom, claiming her place as the first of God’s creations (v. 22) …
Hymn Suggestions: VT 44 We Long to Know Her; VT 176 O God, Great Womb; VT 179 At the Dawn of Your Creation; VT 180 This Is God’s Wondrous World; VT 181 Creation Is a Song/Ho’ e enemeohe; 182 I Sing the Mighty Power of God
Children’s Story: Sorrel the squirrel receives wisdom about creation passed down from generations of squirrel ancestors.
Week 2: Wisdom and Justice
Texts: Daniel 1; Esther 1; Proverbs 1:1-3; Psalm 37:28-31; Isaiah 11:1-9
Sermon Seeds: Wisdom may have been present at creation (Week 1), but ironically, Wisdom is a late bloomer in the biblical canon. The scholarly consensus is that Wisdom literature came to prominence in the post-exilic period…
Hymns: VT 196 Come and Seek the Ways of Wisdom; VT 198 Restore Our Faith, O Saving God; VT 201 Hear the Turmoil of the Nations; VT 206 Seek the Peace of the City; VT 209 We Dream of a Turning; VT 210 O Come, O Come, Immanuel (esp. verses 5-7);
Children’s Story: Sorrel the squirrel and other squirrel and chipmunk friends make peace with a groundhog that hoarded the acorns they need for food.
Week 3: Wisdom and Jesus
Texts: Matthew 11:28-30, 7:24-27; John 1; Luke 2:39-52; I Corinthians 1:18-31
Sermon Seeds: Matthew and John’s gospels both make a direct connection between Jesus and Wisdom. More than just a doctrinal confession, Jesus as the embodiment, enfleshment, of Wisdom continues to fill out and focus the many ways Wisdom manifests…
Hymns: Hymns: VT 200 Darkness is not Dark to You, God; VT 308 How Can We Worship Caesar’s Cross; VT 23 Hamba Nathi (Come, Walk with Us); VT 157 Come to Me, O Weary Traveler; VT 536 I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say; VT 547 How Clear Is Our Vocation; VT 570
Children’s Story: Sorrel the squirrel learns to listen to what her body is saying to her. She also learns how to build herself up to try new things.
Week 4: Wisdom and the Church
Text: Ephesians 3:7-13; Acts 6:1-6; Colossians 1:9-13; James 3:13-18
Sermon Seeds: There are myriad examples across the history of the church doing harm to its members and others. But the writer of Ephesians holds out a bold possibility for what the church might be: “Through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known…” (3:10)
Hymns: Hymns: VT 57 Holy Spirit, Come with Power (Ven, Espiritu, cual viento); VT 144 God, Give Me Time; VT 390 In Christ There Is No East or West; VT 392 The Church of Christ Cannot Be Bound; VT 393 Build Your Kingdom Here; VT 397 The Church’s One Foundation
Children’s Story: The squirrels and chipmunks try new things based on the talents and gifts they each have to share.
