LaGrave Live

LIVE Evening Worship Service - Resurrection Risk

About The Service:
Rev. John Steigenga will lead us in worship. He will preach on John 12: 1-11 and his sermon is entitled “Resurrection Risk.”

Order of Worship:
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About Us:
We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40 am, 11:00 am, and 6:00 pm. (10:00 am and 6:00 pm during the summer months)

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This evening worship service at La Grave explores the profound implications of Christ’s resurrection through the lens of Lazarus’s story in John 12. The service calls believers to shed the "grave clothes" of their old selves—specifically prejudice and selfishness—to embrace a new identity defined by "good trouble" and sacrificial love.

Liturgical Foundation and Global Intercession
The service opened with a call to worship from Psalm 100 and a responsive reading of Psalm 146, emphasizing God’s role as the maker of heaven and earth who remains faithful forever. This liturgical focus shifted into a pastoral prayer that acknowledged the "recreating power" of spring as a testimony to God's covenant. The prayer specifically interceded for those suffering in global conflicts, including the wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan, and the uncertainties facing people in Iran and Israel. The congregation sought the strength to "see like Christ" and to act justly in a broken world.

Shedding the "Grave Clothes" of the Old Self
Drawing from Colossians 3 and Romans 6, the sermon compared spiritual transformation to Lazarus being told to "take off those grave clothes." These metaphorical clothes include sexual immorality, greed, anger, and—most stubbornly—prejudice and racism. The speaker noted that even the founders of the United States, despite declaring all men equal, failed to shed the "grave clothes" of slavery because they viewed others as subhuman. True conversion requires "new eyes" to see that in Christ, there is no distinction between Greek or Jew, slave or free, as Christ is all and in all.

The Identity of a Witness and "Good Trouble"
The service highlighted that following Jesus inevitably leads to "trouble," which the late Senator John Lewis called "good trouble." Historical examples, such as the 16th-century "hidden Christians" of Japan, and modern examples, like a retired pastor visiting undocumented immigrants in detention centers, illustrate the cost of being a "living sign" of Christ. Lazarus’s core identity became inseparable from the man who brought him back to life; similarly, believers are called to live as those who are safe in God's arms even while serving in a hostile world.

The service concludes with a powerful reminder that while the world may target those who follow Christ, the resurrection is proof that the "old order of things" is passing away. To live as Lazarus is to be a living testimony of life-giving power, choosing intimacy with God over the safety of silence.>