We acknowledge that the land on which we gather is the traditional territory of the Sana and Tonkawa peoples. It is also important to acknowledge that we are here today due to the exclusion and erasure of many indigenous people from their native land, including the land on which we stand today. We honor with gratitude the land itself and its original people.
Treehouse Dinner Church
Welcome to Dinner Church at Treehouse! We are thrilled you are here. Tonight’s worship mirrors a form of worship known by the earliest Christians. If it is new to you, not to worry! We will guide you through everything. Take a moment in prayer to settle yourself and recognize the presence of God already at your table. Then relax and enjoy this night!
Welcome and Explanation of the Night
The Lord be with you!
And also with you.
Let us pray…
Opening Song –
Sharing of the Bread
On the night before Jesus was to die, he gathered together with his friends for dinner. And on that night, he took the bread, broke it, and gave it to them saying, “Take and eat, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
And so tonight, we do the same. We take bread, broken for us, and share it with one another with those sacred words, “The body of Christ given for you.”
Communion Song –
Post-Bread Blessing
Be strengthened this night by the presence of Christ made known to you in the bread and in one another. Amen.
Invitation to Meal
Reading – 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are being destroyed. But it is the power of God for those of us who are being saved. It is written in scripture: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reject the intelligence of the intelligent. Where are the wise? Where are the legal experts? Where are today’s debaters? Hasn’t God made the wisdom of the world foolish? In God’s wisdom, he determined that the world wouldn’t come to know him through its wisdom. Instead, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of preaching. Jews ask for signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, which is a scandal to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. But to those who are called—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom. This is because the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Question
What does it mean the message of the cross is foolishness? Is Christianity foolish?
Prayers
Sharing the Cup
When supper had ended that night, Jesus took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and all people for the forgiveness of sin. Do this as often as you drink in remembrance of me.”
And so tonight, we take the cup of wine, and we drink together, “The blood of Christ shed for you.”
Communion Song
Post-Wine Blessing
Now that you have tasted the goodness of God in bread and wine, let us be the body of Christ, blessed and broken for the whole world. Amen.
Closing Song –
Blessing and Sending
They are right,
those who doubt what we do.
It is purely the product of over-active imaginations.
Who but the foolish would look at barren ground and imagine food for all,
see past desolation and believe it will become an oasis,
would not be stopped by war, but live for the day it will be peace,
and reach deep into the world’s fear in the prayer it would bring life.
So if faith is the terrain of the deluded
then may you leave here with the faith of the fools
who have loved the world since it’s beginning
and will live for its redemption until its end.