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August 30, 2020 Worship Services "Confession, Misconception, & What’s Next?” by Pat Halverson

8/29/2020

SERVICE FOR THE LORD’S DAY
August 30, 2020

Schedule reminders:
The office and the rest of the building remain closed, but you can contact Karla during her office hours.
On September 13th we are invited to worship with First Congregational Church 700 North Bluff Clinton Iowa 52732

PRELUDE

Call to Worship

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his steadfast love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so?!

Hymn:                                                       “The Church’s One Foundation”

https://youtu.be/jotNbcFelX4

Prayer of Confession
Gracious God, thank you for your promises to us and patience with us. Even with mature faith, we admit we do not understand your ways. We may expect you to treat us better because “we are Christians.” We may doubt your love when hard times come. We justify our bad behavior towards others because we think they deserve it. Forgive us for not loving with genuine love. Forgive us for hanging onto blessings, instead of taking up our cross to follow you. Remind us of your love and forgiveness. We love you and want to follow you wherever you lead. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.

Assurance
If we say we have no sin, we make God a liar. But if we confess, the Lord is faithful and just to forgive us of all our iniquity.
Thanks be to God.

Prayer for illumination
Dear Lord, as we turn our attention to your Word, may your Spirit illumine it so that we might apply it to our lives as you continue to lead us daily. May our faith be encouraged as we are reminded of your holiness, love and truth. Amen.

Gospel Reading:                 Matthew 16:21-28
Jesus Predicts His Death
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem suffer many things the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law,that he must be killed on the third day raised to life.
22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter,“Get behind me, Satan!are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples,“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life[a]lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man going to come his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.28“Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Epistle Reading:                 Romans 12: 9-21

Love In Action
9 must be sincere.what is evil; cling to what is good.devoted to one another in love.one another above yourselves.be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor,the Lord.joyful in hope,in affliction,in prayer.with the Lord’s people who are in need.hospitality.
14 those who persecute you;and do not curse.with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.16 in harmony with one another.not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. [a]not be conceited.
17 not repay anyone evil for evil.careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.not take revenge,dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” [b]the Lord. 20 the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” [c]
21 not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Sermon Title:                      “Confession, Misconception & What’s Next?”

James Michener, the author of sweeping historical novels like Hawaii, and Chesapeake, was asked at a National Press Club gathering, “How do you get your ideas for books?” He said, “Well, I usually have about 9 ideas rattling around in my head at one time—good ideas. I whittle them down and whittle them down and whittle them down until I have one idea, and then I devote the next three or four years to it. There’s no turning back once you’re in.” (shared by William J. Carl, FPC of Dallas)
I think our Christian faith starts with a hodge-podge of ideas about God, Christ, meaning in life and how to live our lives—and we whittle it down and whittle it down and whittle it down until hopefully, we have the big idea, which Jesus summed up this way: “Love God with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Confession
But, keeping God center is not all that easy, is it? Previously in Matthew Jesus had asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter whittled it down correctly because God revealed it to him. Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Loving God.” Peter’s confession lived up to his name, Petros, meaning Rock. On this Rock I will build my church.
Misconception
A few verses later, v. 21, Jesus says, “I must go to Jerusalem where I will face suffering and certain death.” Peter, still basking in the Lord’s praise opens his big mouth and says, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” His recent confession of Christ as Messiah is now clouded by his misconception of what that means.
Peter is not the only person to get the confession right and yet hold to a misconception about the Messiah’s purpose. What? Jesus isn’t going to overthrow Rome and restore Israel? He’s going to be killed?
We often like the idea of a Messiah, who, like Mighty Mouse, sings “Here I come to save the day!” I’ve even heard Christians proudly state, “I’m not afraid of Covid. I know God will protect me.” Really… To many the gospel of Christ is a gospel only of triumph and protection from all enemies. That is ultimately true, but suffering and death come before resurrection. We often are led through the valleys of shadow instead of the still waters. We live in a fallen world with disease, injustice and very bad weather at times. Christ will bring ultimate triumph, but not immediate triumph. In theological circles we call this the “now” and the “not yet” of salvation.

Those who hold to the Triumph Now, “Mighty Mouse” gospel with its promises of health and wealth and freedom from suffering right now, must wonder, “How could this disaster in my life be a part of God’s loving plan?” Peter wonders, “How could the Son of the Living God, ‘Messiah,’—[we translate the word as “Christ”] –“talk about needing to suffer and die?
Jesus responds probably more harshly to Peter than to anyone else when he says, “Get behind me Satan.” Peter has been given the keys to heaven, but has momentarily dropped them! He is thinking in human terms, not as God thinks. And Peter, for the first time perhaps, is speechless!
Christ makes it clear to his bewildered disciples. “If any want to become my followers, let, them take up their cross and follow me.” Choose to save your life or lose it. The paradox? If we save it, we will lose it, and if we lose it for the Lord, we will find it when the Lord comes with his angels in glory.
That means for us today…
Let’s not rest on the laurels of our spiritual past. Peter is called the “rock” on which Christ will build his church. A few sentences later, the loyal fisherman is called “satan.” Faith—whether of a church or of a person—is not merely a point in time confession, or a glorious bygone era. Rather, faith is a constant journey of learning, of mistakes, of growth, of challenge, of discipline, of obedience.
Human wisdom does not always cut it with the Lord. Our “wisdom” may be contrary, and even “satanic” by comparison to God’s wisdom and truth. “The wisdom of God is foolishness to humans,” Paul writes in Romans. So let’s be less dogmatic! God’s ways are higher than our ways. Who would have thought the death of Christ on a cross would accomplish the salvation of God’s people? The wisdom of God…
Christianity is more than merely a set of beliefs or a code of moral behavior. Our Christian faith is to be a total commitment to the person, Jesus Christ. Once we answer Christ’s question, “Who am I?” for ourselves, we must decide what to do with that revelation. What difference will it make daily in my life to take up my cross and follow Jesus?
What’s Next?
So, while I doubt any of us are headed for the kind of service and eventual martyrdom required of those early disciples, and of so many thousands around the world today. Yet, we are still told to take up our cross and follow Jesus. What might that look like?
What does it mean to lose one’s life today in order to gain it ultimately? How should our faith be reflected even in a Covid-19 pandemic, in a country torn politically, racially, economically? How should we then live?

Paul said in Philippians 1:21, “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.” He also wrote in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”
How? I find an answer in this little text from Romans 12. Most days I’m not trying to figure out the BIG questions of the meaning of life or what is heaven really like. Most days, I need to decide how I will treat others with my words, how might I help someone in need, how can I trust God to meet my needs and not worry or lose hope?
To live by faith in the Son of God who loves you and me and who lives within you and me, is practically spelled out by Christ: Love God, love neighbor. And more specifically, here in Romans 12: Let love be genuine. Hate evil, cling to good. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.
As we take up the cross to follow Christ, we are laying aside our own lives each day. How do we love another genuinely? It might look like this, as Peter wrote in his letter: “Do not return insult for insult but give a blessing instead.”
For example, the other day while distributing food at the River Bend Foodbank drive up, a man came on foot and demanded something we couldn’t give. He started swearing like a sailor at us and at the police security guy. He didn’t stop swearing long enough to hear anything reasonable, but I finally said to him as he was walking away still ranting: “I’m sorry… May the Lord bless and keep you. May God’s presence be upon you.” It was obvious he wasn’t in a coherent frame of mind, but I took this verse literally. “Bless those who curse you.” I’ve recently done the same with Facebook friends of friends who get pretty testy sometimes over politics. I simply say, “We will never agree, but may God bless you in some special way today.” Often they offer a blessing back.
I’m not suggesting we need never speak up. We are to speak truth in love. We need the prophets of our day to speak truth and justice, and we need to care for each other. Whether it is during our family gatherings, in Facebook disagreements, or on the streets of our towns. Instead of hurling insults, instead of anger and even violence, what if we sat down and listened, and offered to bless the other in prayer? Not in a condescending way, but out of genuine care for that person. Let love be genuine.
We need not be haughty, but let us associate with the lowly. We need not repay evil for evil, but rather do what is noble in the sight of all.
Two chapters later in Romans 14 says this: “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”
Friends, as we take up our cross to follow Christ, day to day let us lose ourselves on behalf of another. Let us model this to our children and grandchildren. Our nation needs genuine love. Our communities need it. We need it. To God be all glory. Amen.

AFFIRMATION                Apostle’s Creed, Ecumenical Version

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Prayers of the people

The Lord’s Prayer

Hymn                                                                            “I Surrender All”

Benediction

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August 23, 2020 Worship Services Resting in God's Word Kristy Parker

8/23/2020

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SERVICE FOR THE LORD’S DAY
August 23, 2020

Gathering

MUSICAL OFFERING

WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Let me remind you quickly of our protocols for everyone’s safety.
Attendance was taken by ushers as you entered
Offerings may be placed in the plate by the doors.
The bulletins were placed specifically for social distancing, one household per pew. Please sit exactly where you found your bulletin.
Please keep your masks on and remain seated through the whole service.
There will be no singing, and no physical contact.
You may read along silently, but today there will be two questions at the end to which I will direct a short out loud response
Short Informational Congregational Meeting
Fran to explain World Communion Sunday offering

Schedule reminders:
The office and the rest of the building remain closed, but you can contact Karla during her office hours.

PRELUDE

WORDS OF WORSHIP
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it!

GATHERING PRAYER
O God,
light of the minds that know you,
life of the souls that love you,
strength of the thoughts that seek you:
help us so to know you
that we may truly love you,
so to love you
that we may fully serve you,
whose service is perfect freedom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

CONFESSION AND PARDON

O God, we confess to our brokenness, to the ways we wound our lives, the lives of others and the life of the world. May God forgive us, Christ redeem us, and the Spirit empower us to live in love.
In the name of Jesus, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God!

OFFERING PEACE
May the peace of Christ be with you.

INTERLUDE

Word

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
Oh Lord, your Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Open our hearts to receive it, that we might know your more completely and serve you more faithfully. In Christ we pray, Amen.

SCRIPTURE LESSONS           Romans 7: 15-25a

15 do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. If I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. [a]I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.19 I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. If I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 I find this law at work: I want to do good; evil is right there with me. For in my inner being delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin work within me.a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law,in my sinful nature

                                                        Matthew 11: 16-19

16“To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
17“‘We played the pipe for you,
you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
you did not mourn.’
18 John came neither eating drinking, they say, ‘He has a demon. ’Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. ’wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”

Matthew 11: 25-30
25 that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father ,of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children., Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
27“All things have been committed to me my Father.one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28“Come to me, you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.my yoke upon you and learn from me ,I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

SERMON                                          “Resting in God”

Today’s scripture reading from Matthew is one of my favorites.
I’ve always been a person who takes responsibilities seriously
I’m a bit of a perfectionist
Maybe you’ve heard it said as I have, “Anything worth doing is worth doing right.”
And troubles tend to weigh heavily on me, whether they’re my own, those of my family and friends, or those of the world.
So, the first time I read these words from Jesus, I felt a lightening of sorts, a relief:

“Come to me, all of you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Ahh!

I found this ox yoke in an antique barn out in the rural countryside of Illinois
I was going to be preaching on this text, and I wanted to have a visual to show people
I was delighted to find it!
The only problem with it as far as I could see was that it wasn’t the same on both sides.
The bow that goes under the neck of the ox is smaller on this side than it is on the other
I kept pushing down on it and pulling on it to try to even it up

When I got to church that Sunday, I was showing my yoke to Susan, one of our musicians
I pointed out the “imperfection” of the uneven bows and she just kind of grinned at me.
She said, “That’s because it’s a training yoke.
The smaller bow goes around the neck of the younger, less experienced ox and the larger one goes around the older, stronger, more experienced ox.
When they work together, the weaker animal learns from the stronger one”
And it all suddenly made sense to this city girl

I find it kind of ironic, as I look back at it now
My failure to understand the yoke came from not having grown up in the country, yes
But maybe there was something more going on
Wasn’t it like me to try to force the smaller bow into something it wasn’t?
Wasn’t it like me to try to “perfect” something that was designed just as it was meant to be, for the purpose it was meant to fulfill?
Something tells me that, given the choice, I’d rather be the strong ox than the weak
I’d rather be the experienced ox, wearing the big bow, the one who knows where to go.
That’s a problem for me sometimes

It seemed to be a problem for some of the people Jesus was trying to reach too.
The people Jesus spoke these words to were the scribes and the Pharisees
They were the “big people,” the intellectuals, the religious elites, the wise
They had a certain way of doing things

We know that they were given the Ten Commandments, which we as Christians still try to follow today
But the commandments over time evolved into over 600 ceremonial rules that Jews were required to follow
It was humanly impossible to do everything right
Imagine what a burden it must have been
Jesus said of the scribes and Pharisees: “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others.”
The Jews had been waiting for a Messiah for a very long time
They’d been longing for the coming of the One who would relieve their suffering and oppression and bring them new life
But when Jesus came in gentleness and humility, announcing the peaceable kingdom of unconditional love, and celebrating the goodness of life, he was rejected
He wasn’t living up to their expectations for a savior at all
And the Pharisees were nothing but critical of the way Jesus was doing things
Jesus wasn’t following the rules

It seems that in our scripture reading today, Jesus has just about lost patience with them
In fact, he tells them they’re acting like little children
And he doesn’t mean that in a good way
we know that, just as our children can be wise and profound, they can also be very demanding, self-centered little beings at times.
We’ve probably all had the experience of watching an over-indulged child opening up so many birthday gifts that none of them satisfies him.
Or we’ve watched our own children or grandchildren sit in a room full of toys and heard them say, “There’s nothing to do.”
This was the kind of behavior Jesus had noticed in the crowd he spoke to that day.
They’d asked for a Messiah, waited for one, and now they didn’t like the one they were given.

I like Eugene Petersen’s rendering of Jesus’ speech in The Message.

Jesus said to them, “How can I account for this generation? The people have been like spoiled children whining to their parents, ‘We wanted to skip rope, and you were always too tired; we wanted to talk, but you were always too busy.’   John came fasting and they called him crazy. I came feasting and they called me a lush, a friend of the riff-raff.

John the Baptist had showed up, living in the desert, eating locusts, avoiding luxurious food and drink, and the people considered him demon-possessed.
They couldn’t see him for the remarkable prophet he was.
Jesus had done the opposite, enjoying life, eating and drinking and being with people, but their reactions to him were negative too.
Neither John nor Jesus looked or acted in ways that the religiously “wise and intelligent” would expect.
The “children” didn’t like their “gifts.”
You just couldn’t satisfy them.

Petersen goes
“Next Jesus let fly on the cities where he had worked the hardest but whose people had responded the least, shrugging their shoulders and going their own ways. ‘Doom to you Chorazin! Doom, Bethsaida! If Tyre and Sidon had seen half of the powerful miracles you have seen, they would have been on their knees in a minute. At Judgment Day, they’ll get off easy compared to you. And Capernaum! With all your peacock strutting, you are going to end up in the abyss.
It seems that the people of Capernaum had just chosen to ignore Jesus altogether
They were indifferent to the message of salvation
They weren’t notorious for their sins the way some other cities were
They were just too smart for what he had to offer
They had just continued with business as usual while the redeemer was in their midst
That’s all
Jesus was fed up
But then, right there in front of everybody, Jesus started praying,
“Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.
You concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people.
There were some who accepted Jesus, and these were the “little” people, the unpretentious people who came to him with a childlike trust
after lambasting the high-and-mighty, and giving thanks for the few believers, Jesus suddenly turned around and offered some of the gentlest words in Scripture:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?
Come to me.
Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it.
I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
Keep company with me, and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Jesus had been fuming with righteous anger.
He’d stopped to pray.
And then he’d turned with tenderness toward the crowd to invite them to rest in his love.
Maybe it was like one of those moments we’ve experienced when our children are behaving badly and we’re letting them have it,
and in the middle of our tirade, we’re suddenly filled with a parent’s compassion.

Suddenly, that child who has rebelled against us and annoyed us to no end appears needy to us.
We’re so overcome with love that we want to take him into our arms and hold him.
Maybe that’s what happened with Jesus.
Maybe he was so overcome with love and compassion for his high-and-mighty, do-it-yourself, unbelieving, untrusting people that he just wanted to take them in his arms.
“Come to me.
It’s not about being perfect.
It’s not about being intelligent.
It’s not about keeping the rules impeccably.
Come to me, learn from me, walk with me, rest in me.
If you’re trying to save yourself, you’ll never do it.
You’re in for a life of frustration.
Yoked to me, partnered with me, life is easy.
The apostle Paul knew all about the struggle.
Paul had learned the hard way.
A strict and pious Jew, he had tried to earn salvation by keeping the law and failed.
Having found his peace in Christ, he admits in the Romans passage that we read this morning,
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…as it is, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it…what a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Later in the passage he concludes, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”
In giving up trying to do it himself, and giving his life over to Christ, Paul was freed.
Paul understood the peace of coming to Christ with a childlike faith, in resting in the arms of God.
That is the invitation that Jesus gave to the crowd this day.
If we read further into the chapter, we find that Jesus’ invitation went unaccepted.
The Pharisees were hard to convince.
It’s hard for us to believe too, isn’t it?
It’s hard to believe that we don’t have to do anything to receive God’s love.
It’s hard for us to surrender to him, to relax in his arms with a childlike trust.
I wonder how many of us are making life hard for ourselves by feeling we have to save ourselves.
How many of us are trying to work, and think, and achieve our way into salvation?
It’s hard to believe God could love us just the way we are.
There must be something we have to do.
It’s especially hard for us as Americans.
America is the home of Davey Crockett, who conquered the wild frontier and Wyatt Urp, who tamed the wild west.
We honor and value independence, self-sufficiency, and strength.
Hard work and perseverance have made us the great country that we are.
We Americans don’t like to be dependent on anyone.
And yet, that’s exactly what Jesus is asking us to do.

He says, “Come to me when you’re overwhelmed and burnt out and tired of trying to do it all.
Bring me your burdens.
Come to me.
Rest in me.”

In Palestine, ox-yokes were made of wood
The ox was brought, and the measurements were taken
The yoke was then roughed out and the ox was brought back to have the yoke tried on
The yoke was carefully adjusted, so that it would fit well, and not chafe the neck of the animal
The yoke was tailor-made to fit the ox.
God knows each one of us personally and completely
He knows about our successes and failures
He knows what’s brought us joy and what’s brought us sorrow
He knows our gifts and graces
He knows our inadequacies and fears
He knows the exact work that each of us was created to do
And so, he fits his yoke perfectly to us, and it’s like no one else’s
He says to us, “My yoke is easy.”
The word “easy” in the Greek means “well-fitting.”
It’s not a yoke that allows us to do nothing
It’s a yoke that allows us to do the work we’re made for with ease because we’re walking beside Jesus
We’re working yoked to the stronger, more experienced one who walks beside us
We watch him
We learn from him
When its uphill, we allow him to carry more of the load because he knows how
When we stumble in the mud, we let him pick us up again
We aren’t yoked to a wagon all by ourselves with Jesus as a task-master standing over us with a whip, saying, “Move this way, pull faster, pull harder.”
No, we’re yoked to Christ, the one who pulls for us, pulls with us.

So how do we live surrendered to Christ?
We must come to Christ in prayer
Every day, every moment, with every breath we breathe
We breathe in the breath of life
And as we breathe out, we surrender to him
We give up our difficult yoke of carrying everything ourselves
What are the unnecessary things we carry?
One is guilt or regret over the past
We can’t do anything today while carrying or pulling our accumulated burdens from yesterday
We can confess our sins to God and let God forgive us
We can make amends to people we’ve hurt
And then we move on

Another unnecessary thing we carry is fear of the future
We have to remember that God has gotten us through difficult times before and God will do it again
We need to release the future to Jesus and trust that he’ll be walking beside us every step of the way
We might also carry the belief that we need to be more than we are or that we need to be like someone else
Remember, our yoke is made just for us
Jesus asks us only to be ourselves, to do what we can
There is work that only we and Christ can do together
And we must give up the belief that we have to know everything and do everything ourselves
We were never meant to live this life without the help of God and others
We need to ask for help – in prayer from God, from friends and family, from pastors and counselors
We were never expected to always know the way to go
We were never meant to pull the whole load ourselves
And we have to let go of perfectionism
The Pharisees were perfectionists and it lead to bondage and death
There’s a saying I like:
“Perfectionism is death by self.”
Perfectionism is constantly trying to fit ourselves to the part of the yoke that’s too big for us
But surrender to Christ is to wear the part of the yoke that fits just right
Jesus says, “Come to me.”
Rest in me
Walk with me
I love you completely and accept you as you are
I will take you into the future unafraid
And together we will do the work that only you and I can do together

AFFIRMATION                Apostle’s Creed, Ecumenical Version

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.


PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION AND THANKSGIVING AND THE LORD’S PRAYER

CHARGE & BLESSING

POSTLUDE

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August 16, 2020August 16,, 2020Worship Services August 16th Staying The Course Rev. Kristy Parker

8/16/2020

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SERVICE FOR THE LORD’S DAY

August 16, 2020

Gathering
WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Let me remind you quickly of our protocols for everyone’s safety.
· Attendance was taken by ushers as you entered
· Offerings may be placed in the plate by the doors.
· The bulletins were placed specifically for social distancing, one household per pew. Please sit exactly where you found your bulletin.
· Please keep your masks on and remain seated through the whole service.
· There will be no singing, and no physical contact.
· You may read along silently, but today there will be two questions at the end to which I will direct a short out loud response
Schedule reminders:
· The office and the rest of the building remain closed, but you can contact Karla during her office hours.
· There will be an informational meeting on August,23, 2020 before church.

PRELUDE

WORDS OF WORSHIP

This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it!

GATHERING PRAYER

Eternal God,
You are the power behind all things:
Behind the energy of the storm,
Behind the heat of a million suns.

Eternal God,
You are the power behind all minds:
Behind the ability to think and reason,
Behind all understanding of the truth.

Eternal God,
You are power behind the cross of Christ:
Behind the weakness, the torture and the death,
Behind unconquerable love.

Eternal God,
We worship and adore you. Amen.

CONFESSION AND PARDON
O God, we confess to our brokenness, to the ways we wound our lives, the lives of others and the life of the world. May God forgive us, Christ redeem us, and the Spirit empower us to live in love.
In the name of Jesus we are forgiven. Thanks be to God!

OFFERING PEACE
May the peace of Christ be with you.

INTERLUDE

Word
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
Oh Lord, your Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Open our hearts to receive it, that we might know your more completely and serve you more faithfully. In Christ we pray, Amen.

SCRIPTURE LESSONS:
   Psalm 33: 12-22
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose his inheritance. 13 From heaven the Lord down and sees all mankind; 14 from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth--15 he who forms hearts of all,considers everything they do.  16 No king is saved by the size of his army;warrior escapes by his great strength.  17 A horse a vain hope for deliverance;all its great strength it cannot save.18 But the eyes the Lord on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, 19 to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. 20 We wait hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.  21 In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.  22 May your unfailing love be with us,Lord, even as we put our hope in you.

                                                  Hebrews 11: 1-3
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for assurance about what we do not see .2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command,that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Hebrews 11:8-16
8 faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance,and went,though he did not know where he was going.9 By faith he made his home in the promised land a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents,did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city foundations,architect and builder is God 11 by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age,enabled to bear children she considered him faithful who had made the promise .12 so from this one man, and he as good as dead,descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised;only saw them and welcomed them from a distance,that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.16, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.God is not ashamed be called their God,he has prepared a city for them.

SERMON “Staying the Course”

Well this would normally be the time of year when all types of athletic events would have taken place

Summer in Iowa usually means the John Deere Classic and the Bix Marathon in the Quad Cities, and the Ragbrai across Iowa. It’s normally the time of year where athletes leave their homes and families and venture out to endure heat, and storms, and hardships of all manner all of them determined to stay the course, to finish the races for which they’ve been trained athletic competitions have been going on for centuries contests in running, walking, jumping and throwing are among the oldest they were depicted in the ancient Egyptian tombs as early as 2250 BC the first Olympics was in 776 BC, and was a stadium length running event it seems to be in our human wiring to want to race, and compete, and push ourselves to our physical limits

Of course, none of that happened this year because of the pandemic

it’s been necessary to cancel sporting events to keep people safe from the virus we’re all running in a different kind of marathon
and it’s an event that is pushing some people to the very limits of their abilities we know our healthcare workers and other essential workers have endured and continue to endure extreme hardship in caring for others and in seeking solutions they continue to show up, to work long hours, to stay the course

Staying the course

that’s what this passage from Hebrews is about
and it’s about a lot more than just a bike ride or a game of golf
the book of Hebrews is a letter written to Christians who were feeling the
temptation to give up on the faith these were Christians who were living in those years after the first apostles they were Christians who had suffered persecution and insults
they had stood by their friends as they suffered the same thing they had watched each other be imprisoned and they’d had their property taken away from them
in the early days of their faith when they had first “received the light” of salvation, they had accepted and endured all of this gladly and even with joy for the sake of their faith but the first glow of faith had worn off and they were beginning to get a little worn down from everything it seemed that they were ready to abandon their faith in Christ and go back to their former practices these, we know, included the adherence to the law and Jewish ritual practices like the sacrifice of animals they’d begun to believe that faith in Christ alone wasn’t good enough they’d begun to remember the former things of Israel’s faith - angels, and prophets and priests and as it often happens when things are tough, they’d begun to idealize the past they wanted to devise their own brand of religion that would suit them better, they thought

And so the writer of Hebrews reminded them that “Faith is the assurance or things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

It was this act of faith, this trust in God’s promise that helped the great mothers and fathers of the faith stay the course
It wasn’t their own abilities, their successes, their stuff, their rituals that kept them going
It was their handle on what they couldn’t see
It was their faith that set them above the rest of the crowd.

“By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home,” the writer says.
“when he left, he had no idea where he was going.
By an act of faith, he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents.”

God’s call to Abraham came like a bolt out of the blue

Abraham didn’t do anything that we know of to warrant the blessing.
He lived a simple life in the fertile crescent in the middle of a commercial trade route.
He could have been a caravan merchant, but the Bible presents him mostly as a farmer.
His call came during a rather turbulent time in history.
The story of God’s people up to this point had been a “soap opera.”
Adam and Eve had been discovered in the garden naked, having eaten from the forbidden tree.
One of their sons had murdered the other one.
The whole universe had become so corrupt that God had to whisk it away in a flood and start over.
Even with a second chance, his creatures proved thick-headed and built a tower into the heavens to bring themselves fame and glory.

They were so full of themselves and their seeming importance that God had to confuse their languages and send them on their separate ways.

Maybe Abram’s family was one of those families that was sent away from the Tower of Babel.
We’re told that Abram’s father Terah had started moving toward Canaan.
Terah’s personal life hadn’t been a bed of roses lately either.
He had lost one of his sons, and so he had custody of his grandson, Lot.
His daughter-in-law, Sarai, was experiencing infertility problems.
Maybe the journey became too much for him – he was 205 years old, after all.
At any rate, when they came to Haran, they settled there, and Terah died, never completing his journey to Canaan.

Then in the midst of all this communal and personal sin, struggle and tragedy, God, who had sent the flood and crumbled the tower was moved to compassion for his children.
He decided to bless them.
And he chose to do it through Abraham.
God spoke to Abraham, and said, “Leave your home and go to a new land that I will show you.
I will bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing…in you, all of the families of the earth will be blessed.”
And so Abraham went – just like that – no arguing with God or pleading inadequacy as we would see Moses do later.
He just went, we’re told – packed up his belongings and took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot and started moving toward Canaan.

Now there are some things about God’s choice of Abraham that frankly, don’t make sense.
For one thing, Abraham and Sarah were old.
Another obstacle was Sarah’s apparent barrenness.
Abraham and Sarah had never been able to have children.
How would it be, then with their age and infertility that God would bless them with a great nation and offspring as numerous as the stars?
Still, in light of all this, God gave Abraham the blessing, and Abraham never questioned it.
He just moved toward Canaan like God told him to.

If we read the rest of Genesis, we know that Abraham’s family didn’t suddenly become perfect after God blessed him.
After God blessed them, Abraham and Sarah didn’t suddenly march into Canaan, take over the place, have a family full of children, and live happily ever after.
For one thing, Canaan was occupied with all sorts of hostile people.
For another thing, blessed or not, people are people– the soap opera continued with lies, deception, surrogate motherhood, jealousy and sibling rivalry.
It would be years before the “great nation” and the “numerous offspring” would come to be.
The blessing would have to work itself out amidst the slow, imperfect pace of the lives of ordinary human beings.

But none of it stopped God from continuing to bless Abraham as he had promised,

and none of it kept Abraham from moving forward toward Canaan.
Why?
Maybe it’s because the fulfillment of the blessing didn’t depend on Abraham’s age or his status, or the perfection of his family, or anything he could be or do.
It depended on two things - God’s grace and Abraham’s faith.
It wasn’t anything Abraham did that helped him to stay the course,
that empowered him to be a blessing to all nations of the world.
It was his extraordinary faith in what God could do.

Author, Frederick Buechner says of Abraham:

“In spite of everything, he never stopped having faith that God was going to keep his promise about making him the father of a great nation.
Night after night, it was the dream he rode to sleep on – the glittering cities, the up-to-date armies, the curly-bearded kings.
There was a group photograph taken of him not long before he died.
It was a bar mitzvah, and they were all there down to the last poor relation.
They weren’t a great nation yet by a long shot, but you’d never know by the way Abraham sits enthroned there in his velvet yarmulke with several great-grandchildren on his lap and soup on his tie.
Even through his thick lenses, you can read the look of faith in his eyes…
it was that look God loved him for and had chosen him for in the first place.
“They will all be winners, God willing.
Even the losers will be winners.
They’ll all get their names up in lights,” say his eyes.
“Someday - who knows when? I’ll be talking about my son – the Light of the World.”

Well, as we know, Abraham’s son, the Light of the World has arrived and has sealed God’s promise through our salvation.

As believers in Christ, we are heirs of Abraham and Sarah’s blessing,
We are called by God to stay the course, to finish the race set before us
To never give up, even though it looks like things are going nowhere

So what course are you trying to stay on today?

What race are you in the midst of?
We’re all trying to make it through this pandemic that seems to have no end in sight
There are the continuing challenges of racism and division in our country and world
And what seems to be an increasing intolerance for one another, and a lack of courtesy and human decency
And then why not throw a massive storm into the mix?
Loss of property and crops and food and life

And our usual personal struggles haven’t gone away -

Serious things like loss and grief so overwhelming we feel we’ll never make it through Like threatening health conditions in ourselves and in those we love We have       challenging relationships – brokenness within our families We are worried about our children, our grandchildren, our parents, spouses, friends

And amidst all of this, the relevance of the Church is called into question

No one can deny the declining numbers everything we believe seems to be up for grabs sometimes And we, like those early Christians are tempted sometimes to just give it all up

And so the writer of Hebrews is here to remind us of what we believe today

To remind us that Jesus is the Son of God,
Jesus is the one who, because we were flesh and blood, took on flesh and blood himself to rescue us
Who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus is the one who has secured for us the promise of a better life, a new heaven and a new earth where there will be no more suffering, no more tears, no more pain, no more death

This is what our faith teaches us and it’s the hope to which we cling

It’s the faith that was lived out by Abraham and Sarah and it’s the faith of Christ himself
it’s the faith we’re called to

I like Eugene Petersen’s rendering of the 12th chapter of Hebrews. He says:

“Do you see what this means – all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on?
It means we’d better get on with it
Strip down, start running – and never quit!
No spiritual fat, no parasitic sins
Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in
Study how he did it
Because he never lost sight of where he was headed – that exhilarating finish in and with God
He could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever
And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.
When you find yourself flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through
That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

The Russian author Alexander Solzenhitzen tells of a moment when he was on the verge of giving up all hope.

when he was a political prisoner in the Soviet Union, he was forced to work 12 hours a day on a starvation diet and he became gravely ill the doctors, in fact, predicted his death one afternoon, shoveling sand under a blazing sun, he simply stopped working even though he knew the guards would beat him severely, even to death; but he just felt he couldn’t go on then he saw another prisoner, a fellow Christian, moving toward him cautiously. with his cane that man quickly drew a cross in the sand and then erased it in that brief moment, Solzhenitsyn felt all of the hope of the gospel flood through his soul it was a renewal of Christian hope, even though the situation hadn’t changed it gave him courage to endure that difficult day and the months of imprisonment that followed.

This is the difference between Christian hope and mere optimism or wishful thinking

wishful thinking is just that – wishing things were different optimism is born of the human spirit it sees the situation clearly and yet clings to the notion that good will triumph somehow hope goes further; hope knows and understands what that good is – how that triumph will finally occur the Christian hope is the hope of heaven
the Christian hope is the hope of a kingdom with no more suffering, no more pain, no more tears, no more death that’s what we’re certain of it’s not dependent on the strength of our own spirit it’s what functions even when our spiritual strength leaves us broken and vulnerable, with nothing left of ourselves that’s what Solzenhitzen discovered when he had nothing left of himself, the building block of faith was still there
and that faith awakened in him the gift of hope

Abraham and Sarah were commended for their faith

not their knowledge
not their goodness
not their money
not their success
not their popularity
not their performance

What course are you on today?

Maybe your life feels like a soap opera like those early mothers and fathers of the faith were living For ourselves, for our families, for our church, for our nation, for our world, we are called to faith.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

We are called to stay the course, to finish the race
Not through our knowledge, or our goodness
Not through our money, or success, or popularity,
Not through anything we can do ourselves

We are called to stay the course through our faith in Christ

The one who has already won the race for us
Who waits for us at the finish line ready to embrace us
To draw us into the fullness of his love.

Prayers of the People and The Lord’s Prayer

O Lord, you are the God of Abraham and Sarah of Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel. You are the God of our mothers and fathers, and you are our God. You care for us deeply and completely, and so we bring our prayers to you in faith, trusting you to intervene in our lives.

We pray for your comfort and peace in the midst of our grief. To be human and to love is to experience loss, and we have lost much – people we love, former ways of life. Especially, we lift up to you all who are struggling to recover from the storm. Help us to work together to offer support and resources to one another. Walk with us in our hour of darkness.

We ask for your healing touch in every way that we suffer. Lay hands on us in the midst of disease and illness, pain and weakness of every kind. Give us ease of movement, sight, hearing, speech and breath. We lift up to you all who are suffering from the virus and pray for recovery. We pray for a vaccine and for those who are working to develop one. We pray for strength and perseverance for health care and other essential workers. You too Lord suffered much. Help us to know that we’re never alone.

We lift up our families to you and ask for you to bring blessing to our homes and relationships. Heal our broken places and help us to understand and honor one another. Keep us safe and help us to walk in love. Especially we pray for teachers and children who are going back to school, that you would place your protection around them.

We pray for your mighty power to uplift our churches. We are the body of your precious son on this earth. We pray that all who enter here would see his face, that we would see the face of Christ in them. Help us to persevere, to be the Church even when it’s hard, even when it’s not popular. Help us to never give up in sharing the message of your acceptance and love.

O God, our country is in need of your guidance. Help our leaders to humble themselves under your mighty hand, to look out for the good of all people. Heal our racial strife and economic disparity. Help us to make a better world here on earth while we wait expectantly for your heavenly one.

And Lord, we place this hurting world into your hands, for we know its sorrows are much too much for us to handle alone. Still, make us instruments of your peace, providers for the hungry, a welcome place for your homeless and alone.

Just as you led your children of Israel through the wilderness, we know that you lead us too, for you’ve promised never to leave us or forsake us. You guide us with your unfailing light and provide food enough for today. You send friends to travel this journey of life with us, the sun in the morning and the moon and stars by night. And in the midst of our imperfect lives, you send your perfect Son, to love us and redeem us, our Savior, Christ, who taught us to pray,

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen.

AFFIRMATION                Apostle’s Creed, Ecumenical Version
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION AND THANKSGIVING

THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

CHARGE & BLESSING

POSTLUDE

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Worship Services August 09 "When..." Rev. Pat Halverson

8/9/2020

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SERVICE FOR THE LORD’S DAY

August 9, 2020 Gathering

WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Let me remind you quickly of our protocols for everyone’s safety.
Attendance was taken by ushers as you entered
Offerings may be placed in the plate by the doors.
The bulletins were placed specifically for social distancing, one household per pew. Please sit exactly where you found your bulletin.
Please keep your masks on and remain seated through the whole service.
There will be no singing, and no physical contact.
You may read along silently, but today there will be two questions at the end to which I will direct a short out loud response
Schedule reminders:
The office and the rest of the building remain closed, but you can contact Karla during her office hours.
We are having a short congregational meeting on August 23rd before church. This will be an informational meeting only.
PRELUDE
WORDS OF WORSHIP
Give thanks to the Lord, proclaim his greatness, tell the nations what God has done.
Sing praise to the Lord!
Be glad that we belong to God, let all who worship him rejoice.
Sing praise to the Lord!
Go to the Lord for help, and worship God continually.
We will sing praise to the Lord!

GATHERING PRAYER

HYMN:                          “Sing Praise to God, Who Reigns Above,”

CONFESSION AND PARDON

Gracious God, thank you for your promise not to abandon us. But we confess in this troublesome time that our faith is at times weakened by our worries, our fears, our selfish attitudes, and even our doubts that you care. We gather to be inspired by your promises and to be strengthened by your presence among us. So forgive us, and lead us to renewed trust. We love you, and thank you for your infinite love for us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
In Christ we are forgiven
Thanks be to God.

OFFERING PEACE
May the peace of Christ be with you.

INTERLUDE PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
God does not ask us for too many leaps of faith,
but for small steps that help us stay with God every day.
Our scriptures today touch on familiar themes:
fear, unknown, and trust but mostly, on the amazing faithfulness of God.

SCRIPTURE LESSONS
1 Kings 19:4-14
4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. 7 The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” 11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
    Matthew 14:22-33
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” 32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

SERMON “When…”

“When…”   1 Kings 19:4-14, Matthew 14:22-33
Several years ago, when I was in campus ministry, I was at a conference where the speaker’s text was I Kings 19. Now I had been deeply involved in this particular ministry since my first days as a college freshman, and within months felt called to join the staff after graduation. So now, having been on staff with the ministry since college, I was hearing for the first time, a speaker talk about more than evangelism and discipleship and how great God is and how joyful being a Christian is. That is all good. But, for the first time, I was hearing a speaker talk about depression, using the mighty prophet Elijah as his example. I’m no Elijah, but I was all ears to hear someone finally acknowledge that even the most faithful and successful servants of God can be struck with debilitating sadness, and it is not an abandoning of faith.
(To get the full story, read 1 Kings 18 and 19.) Basically, Elijah has spent a day calling upon the power of God to show the prophets of Baal that God is God, not Baal. Elijah calls down fire and, in a mighty miracle, proves his point. Next, as the nation is enduring a severe drought, Elijah prays for rain. Despite all the signs against it, a cloud appears and soon enough, a torrent. Again, it is a miraculous proof of God’s presence and power. But Queen Jezebel hears about Elijah and sends an army to go kill him. He has undermined her power, made her gods look foolish and weak, and slaughtered her prophets.
Elijah, the miracle-working prophet is now on the run into the desert. He sits down under a little tree and tells God, more or less, “kill me now,” and falls asleep. Angels wake him and provide food, and again he sleeps. He is suffering from exhaustion, fear of the queen, and suicidal depression. This great man of faith is a mess.
As I listened to the speaker share this, I actually felt relief. My chirpy, happy-Christian extrovert colleagues maybe didn’t get it, but I did. Faith is not merely a feeling of euphoria. It is a step by step walk towards the will of God, as God leads. Sometimes God leads us atop mountains of great success, and sometimes through valleys of darkness. Either can produce the exhaustion and sadness that Elijah felt.
But God isn’t through with Elijah yet. After his second meal at the Angels Café under that tree, he goes on in the strength of that meal for the next 40 days, fasting in the wilderness, because God has more for him to do. Sure enough, as Elijah is resting in a cave, there is a big earthquake, then a great wind, then a mighty fire. Elijah has seen God’s power before. But God is not in any of these. Finally, there is “sheer silence,” and out that silence Elijah hears the still, small voice of God.
Let’s fast forward to the New Testament. Not unlike Elijah, Jesus is also well established in his ministry. And like Elijah, Jesus also finds resistance, but his is from those in his hometown, even his family. Then his cousin, John the Baptist, is put to death. In Matt. 14:13 we read, “When Jesus heard about [the death of John], he withdrew by boat to a deserted place.” But, the crowds follow and find him. He has compassion upon them and heals their sick. After a long day, the disciples suggest Jesus send the crowds away so they can get supper. But, the Lord tells them, “You feed them.” Really? Us? As we know, a few fish and loaves are offered and turned into a banquet for thousands.
Then we read, “Immediately,” Jesus sends the disciples in a boat to the other side of the lake (about a six mile distance across the Sea of Galilee). Jesus finally gets his chance to rest and pray. Even he needs a break from the demands of people as he grieves the death of John. Meanwhile a storm begins to batter the disciples’ boat. Early in the morning they see a ghostly figure coming towards them walking on the surface. They cry out in fear, but the Lord assures them, “Take heart, it is I.”
The group’s spokesman, Peter, says, “Well IF it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” If? If? What if it was a ghost Peter!! Anyway, Peter sets out walking on the water and begins to sink. “Lord, save me!” he cries. Jesus reaches down, pulls him up, and they walk back to the boat and get in. Jesus asks him, “Why did you doubt?”
Well, it’s obvious to us-- because Peter was sinking! This experienced fisherman was about to drown because he dared obey the Lord’s one word command, “Come.” Peter obeyed. Peter took the Lord at his word.
That is faith, taking God at his word, as a mentor of mine would often say. Jesus asks, “Why did you doubt?” He is asking Peter why his faith waivered. I can’t help but wonder, if it were me, how would I answer? Maybe something like… “Thanks for pulling me out of the water, but did we really have to keep walking through that hurricane to get back to the boat? Couldn’t you have stopped the storm earlier?!” That’s what my faith would expect! I’d rather be protected from peril before sinking into it!
Then we read, “When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.” Why then and not before? The word “when” in this context is not a question, like, “When will the storm stop?” Or, in our context perhaps, “When will I get a job?” Or, “When will this Covid thing subside?” Instead, this little word “when” is an answer. “When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.” Their response? “All in the boat worshipped the Lord.”
When… Elijah wished for death instead of Jezebel’s murder of him, perhaps wondering, “When will God save me from her?” Peter might have wondered, “When will Jesus do something before I drown?” “When” is often a good question, and sometimes it’s a confusing answer. “When they got into the boat, the wind stopped.” That’s when.
I find myself asking God, “When will this raging storm of division in our nation cease? When will our economy get going again? When will we be able to be socially non-distant? When will people stop murdering each other in our streets?” Any of us might ask, “When will my cancer be gone? When will I be able to see my grandchildren again? When will my son get a job?”
Just as our questions of God often begin with that word, so do God’s answers. If God answers at all, it might be: “Your prayer will be answered in this way when it is according to my timing, according to my will, according to my ultimate purposes.” And so in the meantime, we take God at his word. That is, we proceed by faith, not by sight. We step out of our boat into the storm when he says, “Come,” because this is the word of the Lord.
If you think about it, the disciples boarded that boat by faith, because the Lord told them to cross to the other side. The word of the Lord was fulfilled. Verse. 34 says, “When they crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret,” thus fulfilling the word of the Lord.
So friends, if the great miracle-working Elijah experienced depression, and the great fisherman Peter found himself drowning, don’t be surprised if you feel overwhelmed. Know that you are not alone. Others share your experience. Know that God is not only with you, God can still use you.
Whether God comes down to us in a display of fire, or speaks in a small voice in the silence, or beckons us to leave the boat and walk through the tempest, let’s have faith. Let’s take God at his word when he says, “Come,” when he says “Go,” when he says “Stay,”. No matter how and when he answers our questions, to us he always says, “I love you. I will not leave you.”
Prayer: God of land and sea, Lord of our hearts, during this time of uncertainty, help us seek you and listen. May we take you, Lord, at your word and walk by faith, led by your Spirit in truth and love. May we seek peace in turmoil, calm in strife, hope in our despair, unity in our divisions. May we be loving and generous to our friends in their tough times, and kind to all, as you, Lord Jesus, would be. Even as we ask, “When will all this bad news stop?,” help us to trust in your timing. May our faith in and love for you grow as you fill us with your presence. Amen.

AFFIRMATION     Apostle’s Creed, Ecumenical Version
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

THE LORD'S PRAYER:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

HYMN:                          “My faith Looks up to Thee”

Sending
CHARGE & BLESSING

POSTLUDE

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Worship Services August 02 The Power of Speaking God’s Word Rev. Kristy Parker

8/2/2020

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SERVICE FOR THE LORD’S DAY

August 2, 2020

Gathering
WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Let me remind you quickly of our protocols for everyone’s safety.
· Attendance was taken by ushers as you entered
· Offerings may be placed in the plate by the doors.
· The bulletins were placed specifically for social distancing, one household per pew. Please sit exactly where you found your bulletin.
· Please keep your masks on and remain seated through the whole service.
· There will be no singing, and no physical contact.
· You may read along silently, but today there will be two questions at the end to which I will direct a short out loud response
Schedule reminders:
· The office and the rest of the building remain closed, but you can contact Karla during her office hours.
· Session, you are meeting with the governing board of First Congregational Church next Sunday followed by your own meeting. The joint meeting is for the purpose of getting acquainted and sharing ideas for potential partnerships in future ministries

PRELUDE
WORDS OF WORSHIP
This is the day that the Lord has made.
let us rejoice and be glad in it!

GATHERING PRAYER

Everlasting God, in whom we live and move and have our being, we praise you and adore you. You have made us for yourself, so that our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Give us purity of heart and strength of purpose, that no selfish passion may hinder us from knowing your will, no weakness keep us from doing it; that in your light we may see light clearly, and in your service find perfect freedom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

CONFESSION AND PARDON
O God, we confess to our brokenness, to the ways we wound our lives, the lives of others and the life of the world. May God forgive us, Christ redeem us, and the Spirit empower us to live in love.
In the name of Jesus, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God!

OFFERING PEACE
May the peace of Christ be with you.

INTERLUDE

               Word
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
Oh Lord, your Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Open our hearts to receive it, that we might know your more completely and serve you more faithfully. In Christ we pray, Amen.

SCRIPTURE LESSONS
Isaiah 55: 10-13
          10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.”

Matthew 13: 1-9
13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Matthew 13: 18-23
18 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.
23 But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

SERMON

The Power of Speaking God’s Word   Rev. Kristy Parker
Both of our scripture readings today address the power that the spoken word has for us. (Isaiah 55: 10-13 and Matt. 13: 1-9; 18-23)

We know that words are powerful
They have the power to build us up or to diminish us
We can probably all remember a word of praise from a parent or teacher spoken during our childhood that made us feel cherished
By the same token, we can probably remember a negative word spoken that crushed us and still has power, to this day, to make us feel sad or inadequate when it comes to mind.
Words are powerful

If anything is true of this time we’re living in now, it’s that there is an abundance of words out there.

There are words about the pandemic
There are words about race
There are words about politics
When I dare to venture onto Facebook, its clear that many people have become experts on all of the above
Radio, tv, and social media flood us with such an overwhelming onslaught of opinions and exhortations that we feel numb.

Nicholas Butler, American philosopher, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient said this about experts:
“An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.”

And it seems to me that there are also a lot of people who know nothing about everything

And now here I am, prepared to give us more words to add to our already saturated brains.

It’s the preacher’s job to offer words that will hopefully help in times of need, comfort in times of grief, inspire in times of apathy, convict in times of sin, redeem in times of repentance.
The difference, though, is that the preacher is accountable for letting God’s Word be heard, not her own -
to read the Word, to ask the Holy Spirit for help in hearing what God has to say, to study what others have said, and then to speak it.
And really as followers of Christ, we’re all called to hear and to speak a word from God into the lives of others and into the life of the world
The Word Isaiah speaks about today is the Word that comes from God

In the verses that precede our reading today, God says to the people through the prophet Isaiah,
“my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways; as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
There is a voice and a Word that can be trusted today

There is a power that can give us hope and guide us
That Word and that power come from God
Not CNN or FOX or NPR
Not from our Facebook friends

Isaiah wrote these words toward the end of the Babylonian exile.

Israel had been pushed out of the promised land into a foreign land and Jerusalem was in ruins.
The people were heartsick and depressed.
Not only were they cut off from their land, but they couldn’t worship.
It was as if their heart had been torn out.

I think of the song from the musical Godspell that speaks of this time in Israel’s history:
On the willows, there
We hung up our lyres
For our captors there
Required
Of us songs
And our tormentors, mirth
saying:
Sing us one
Of the songs of Zion
But how can we sing?
Sing the Lord's songs?
In a foreign land?

Many of us feel as if we’re in a “foreign land” right now

It feels like we’ve been exiled from a life we used to know
We feel captive in our own homes, isolated from others,
We fear singing and even breathing in the presence of others
We feel heartsick at the injustice and oppression in our society
And we feel powerless over the chaos that’s raging
And we’re tired of words, words that say nothing and offer no hope

Just as Israel had lost all hope, God spoke to them through the prophet Isaiah and said to them:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name and you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…you are precious, and honored in my sight, and I love you.”

What a healing balm those words must have been for Israel at such a time

And God proved faithful to God’s word
just as everything seemed hopeless, Cyrus led a vast Persian army on a westward conquest.
Babylon was conquered and Israel returned home to rebuild Jerusalem
The people returned because it was God’s command.
As certain as the rain cycle, God’s word had an effect.
Just as the rain came from heaven to water the earth, making it flourish, so did God’s word bring forth joy and peace for God’s people
Just as the rain yielded seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so did God bring God’s people home again.

We have to believe that the same God who restored Israel will once again restore us, will once again allow us to “go out in joy and be led forth in peace”

We have to trust in the power that is higher than we are
In the Word that comes from the One who really is the expert at loving people, redeeming people, and restoring people
And we have to speak that word out to our world that is hurting

How do we as followers of Christ speak God’s word into this word-saturated culture of ours?

Can our words make a difference in a culture that is flooded with words that bring confusion, and hostility and even death?
Sometimes it seems futile to us as Christians.
It seems like there is so much to compete with that nobody is really listening anymore.
We look around us and it seems our witness has diminished with respect to its influence on life in the world

But it was no easier in Jesus’ time.

Humanly speaking, Jesus had very little success.
The doors of the synagogue were shutting him out.
The leaders of orthodox religion were his bitterest critics and were obviously out to destroy him.
True, the crowds came to hear him, but there were so few who were really changed, and so many who came to reap the benefit of his healing power, and who, when they’d received it, went away and forgot.
There were so many who came to Jesus only for what they could get.
The disciples were faced with a situation in which Jesus seemed to rouse nothing but hostility in some and a very short-lived response in others.
It’s not surprising that they would get discouraged at times. We think perhaps that “conditions” were better back then, but it’s not true.
Sowing seeds, speaking God’s Word was perhaps even more difficult.

And so, Jesus told the parable of the sower.

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Then Jesus explained to the disciples what the parable meant. The seed is the Word of God, the path is the heart of the hearer, and the bird is the evil one.

Our first instinct when we hear this text is to start trying to figure out what kind of soil we are.
We have this nagging feeling that we’re not “good soil.”
We come to church and hear the Word, and we don’t really understand what was said.
We don’t really see how it applies to our lives, and we’re really not into Bible study too much, so we think we must be like that place on the path where the bird snatched the seed away before it had a chance to land.
Or we come to church and hear the word, and then we have an argument in the car on the way home. “Hum, the seed must have fallen on rocky ground,” we think.
We hear the Word and we’re all motivated to go out and do mission work, but then we get caught up in the everyday responsibilities of life, and we don’t do the great things we thought we would while we were sitting in church.
So, we think to ourselves, “I must be shallow ground.
The seed planted in me isn’t growing.
The Word isn’t changing me.
I’m bearing no fruit.”

Well what if this parable really isn’t about us at all?

What if the parable is really about the indestructible nature of the seed, the indestructible nature of the Word of God?
Just like the rain that waters the earth to yield seed for the sower, so is the Word that goes out from the mouth of God
It will accomplish what God desires for it and achieve the purpose God has for it.

There’s no doubt about it.

The Word has an effect.
It will bear fruit.
It doesn’t matter how bad the conditions are.
Yes, some seed may fall by the wayside and be snatched away by the birds; some seed may fall on the shallow ground and never come to maturity; some seed may fall among the thorns and be choked to death; but in spite of all that, the harvest does come.
Why?
Because the sower just keeps sowing
God just keeps speaking, keeps planting God’s word in God’s people

Fortunately, the results of the planting don’t depend on “conditions” so much as they do on the indestructibility of the seed.

Let’s face it, some days we’re good soil and some days we’re bad soil
That’s what it is to be human
In stressful times like the ones we’re going through now, it can be more difficult to be receptive, to stay positive
But even when we’re not at our best, God can still work with us
I remember driving down the highway once after a flood
There was junk and debris lying all over the place
But right there, growing up through a crack in the pavement, there was a sunflower
It’s an amazing mystery how these things happen.
But it’s proof positive that God can make a seed grow wherever God wants to.

In the same way, God can and will use God’s Word to accomplish God’s purpose, even in the worst of conditions.

Even during a pandemic
As I was in the middle of writing this sermon, I took a break to have a ZOOM meeting with my siblings and my dad
My dad is in a memory care center
We haven’t been able to hug him for six months, and have just recently been allowed to sit at an outdoor table six feet away from him
One of my sisters thought it might lift his spirits if we could have a hymn sing together
My brother found David Crowder’s version of Because He Lives, and we all sang along with Crowder’s gravelly, passionate voice:

God sent his son; they called him Jesus,
He came to love, heal and forgive,
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my savior lives

Because he lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because he lives, all fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living just because he lives.

It was powerful for all of us, as well as the attending nurse who teared up when the music started

We felt hopeful, uplifted by the power of speaking God’s word

So as believers, it’s our calling to speak the Word, to sow the seed, despite the hopelessness of the conditions we find ourselves in.
The Word itself is what’s operative.

We’re the mouthpiece of God.
It can be as simple as a note or a song of encouragement

So, in these times where we’re bombarded by negative speech, spend some time reading God’s words of encouragement and speaking them out into the world in whatever way is possible for you right now.

God will bring us out of exile
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made…in him was life, and that life was the light of all humankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it
The same God who spoke life into the world in the beginning promises to carry us through to the end
God promises to wipe every tear from our eyes

If you get a moment, sing it with David Crowder this week:

And then one day, I’ll cross the river,
and fight life’s final war with pain,
And then as death gives way to victory,
I’ll see the lights of glory, and I’ll know he lives.

God will bring us through this time

God loves us, and when we pass through the rivers, they will not overwhelm us
Believe it, know it, speak it
God’s word has the power to save, even in the worst of times.

AFFIRMATION  Apostle’s Creed, Ecumenical Version
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Sending
CHARGE & BLESSING

POSTLUDE

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