Worship Notes - May 4, 2025
Imago DEI - Jesus' Response to Diversity
Part of Worship Service Notes
May 5, 2025

Series Art:

The art piece at the front of our worship space is a collaboration between Creator’s Space participants and people from Wednesday night groups at Hope. The window frame was originally left for the garbage, repaired, broken, repaired again, and then augmented to include the extra new artwork. The construction of this multilayered/multiparticipant piece is similar to the way the church mends its own brokenness while creating new and expansive spaces for new expressions of faith.

Today’s Scripture:

Mark 7:24-30
24 From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25 but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” 30 So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Today’s Music:

Spotify Playlist

We Belong
This is a standard in the Hope catalogue and incredibly appropriate for this series. It’s exciting to open the morning singing these words that widen the circle of belonging.

Sing Over Me
The main phrase from this song comes from a minor prophet from the Hebrew Scriptures: Zephaniah 3:14-20.

Who Is Greatest?
This song is grounded in a section of the Gospels: Luke 9:46-48. Jesus redifines what being together looks like by upending traditional hierarchies and power structures.

Willing to Change
This kind of song calls us to the hard but necessary work of change and growth. This is hard work, but singing this during communion reminds us that God gives us good food (the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus) and good company (the people sharing the meal with us) to do good work (sharing God’s grace with absolutely everyone).