Join Atonement Lutheran Church, Boulder for Unraveled: Seeking God When Our Plans Fall Apart, a summer worship series. Take a new look at some familiar stories and characters in the Bible.
We have entered a brave new world since mid-March when we entered into stay-at-home orders. Much has come unraveled; plans have been canceled; dreams and hopes unraveled. Of course, even before this time we likely could think of moments when life hasn’t gone exactly the way we have planned.
What happens when our world falls apart? How do we press onward when our tightly-knit plans unravel into loose threads? What do we become when the path we’re on comes undone? What if all of this is not the end we fear it will be – what if God does something beautiful when the vision we had for our lives tears apart?
In our unraveling, sometimes life surprises us with unexpected joy, love, and hope—with a new beginning we couldn’t have imagined. Sometimes unraveling becomes an opportunity to untangle ourselves from broken patterns, or to become unwound from a path or identity that no longer serves us. Sometimes we are unraveled, but God uses the unraveling to change us in unexpected, beautiful ways.
Throughout the summer our worship will focus on stories and characters throughout the Bible whose plans fall apart, stories of unraveled shame, identity, fear, grief, dreams, and expectations. The promise we will hear over and over is that these are stories where God meets us, unraveling our plans – and us – into a new weaving – something unexpected and full of grace.
Weekly Themes and Texts:
June 21 || GENESIS 18: 1-15; 21:1-7 || Sarah Laughs (Unexpected Joy and Surprise)
June 28 || MATTHEW 14: 22-33 || Peter Sinks in the Water (Unraveled by Uncertainty)
July 5 || JOHN 4:1-29 || The Samaritan Woman at the Well (Unraveled Shame)
July 12 || LUKE 19: 1-10 || Zacchaeus the Wealthy Tax Collector (Radical Unraveling of Vocation)
July 19 || EXODUS 7: 8-23 || Pharaoh Hardens His Heart to Moses’ Requests (When Humans Unravel God’s Plans for Justice)
July 26 || ACTS 9: 1-20 || The Conversion of Saul to Paul (Discovering a New Path)
August 2 || JEREMIAH 29:1-7 || Encouraging the Israelites in Exile to Plant Gardens & Build Houses (When Dreams Unravel)
August 9 || JOHN 20:19-29 || Doubting Thomas (When the Unimaginable Has Happened)
August 16 || EXODUS 1:22, 2:1-10 || Moses’ Mother Gives Moses Up So He Can Live (When Our Plans for Our Children Unravel)
August 23 || JOB 28:12-28 || Job’s Lament and Loss (Seeking Understanding When Everything Has Fallen Apart)
August 30 || 2 SAMUEL 3:7; 21:1-14 || Rizpah Mourns Her Sons (Public Grief That Inspires Action)
September 6 || MARK 5:1-20 || Jesus Heals Legion, a Man Possessed by Demons (The Unraveling of the Mind)
Leave a Comment