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October 04, 2020 Worship Services A Hands-On God Rev. Kristy Parker

10/3/2020

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SERVICE FOR THE LORD’S DAY 
October 04, 2020

Schedule reminders:October 04 2020
The office is reopened
Church Service 9:30 am
PRELUDE 
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,
Schedule reminders:
The office is reopened
Church Service 9:30 am, This is World Communion & Peace & Global Witness  you should have gotten an envelope about this and a percentage of the offering stays here in Clinton and is going to the Vinson Jetter Youth Center 
 
WORDS OF WORSHIP
O praise the Lord with me,
Let us exalt God’s name together.
 
GATHERING PRAYER
Almighty God, in Jesus Christ you have ordered us to live as loving neighbors. Though we are scattered in different places, speak different words, or descend from different races, give us common concern, so that we may be one people, who share the governing of the world under your guiding purpose. We pray that all people might enter your community of love promised in Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
 
CONFESSION AND PARDON
Gracious Lord, creator of this universe, in your generosity you have given us a world of abundance and diversity, yet we live guided by greed and selfishness. We confess that we have defaced your creation and poisoned our environment through our consumerist behavior and for personal gain. In Christ, you made us brothers and sisters and intended for us to be united, and yet we have built walls to separate us from those who are different from us. You gave us wisdom and creativity and we have used those to develop of destruction and death. You gave us laws to order our lives and we have abused them to take revenge and punish our enemies. We love war rather than strive for peace. We ignore the poor and the weak and honor the rich and powerful. In all this we have not lived according to your will. Forgive us, Lord, for daring to boast in our human achievements and for failing to recognize that you alone are worthy of praise. In your mercy, forgive us our sins.
Hear the good news: God’s love is everlasting. He doesn’t judge us according to our sins or repay us according to our iniquities. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is God’s love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west so far does he remove our sins from us. In Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven.
 
OFFERING PEACE
The peace of Christ be with you.
 
INTERLUDE
 
                                                    Word
 
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the Scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today. Amen.
 
SCRIPTURE LESSONS               
 Psalm 19
9 The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. 10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. 11 By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.12 But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. 13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. 14 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
 
                                                       Exodus 20: 1-4,
20 1And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before[a] me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
 
 
Exodus 20: 7-9, 
7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 
 
Exodus 20:12-20
12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance 19 and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning
 
SERMON                                        “A Hands-On God”

I was watching TV the one day, and a commercial came on about the unfortunate way our children today are addicted to video games. 
 
  • A little boy is sitting on the floor in front of the TV holding the control. 
  • As the camera zooms in on him, he has a crazed look on his face. 
  • He is totally absorbed in the TV screen, and oblivious to everything else around him. 
  • The rest of the family is ready to eat dinner, and his mother is calling him to the table, but he’s so wrapped up in his game that he doesn’t even hear or, or chooses to ignore her.
 
I thought it was going to be one of those service messages encouraging parents to take back their authority and set boundaries for their children. 
 
  • I expected the mother or father to go over and turn the game off, take the child by the hand and lead him to the table. 
  • I was shocked and amazed when instead, a device called the “Power Cop” flashed onto the screen. 
  • It was a small electronic box that one could plug into the video game or computer game and it would shut the game off after a certain time.
  • It seemed ridiculous to me that a family would need to invest $29.99 in the “Power Cop” when the mother and father were both right there in the room, and could just go over and turn the game off themselves.
  • But more than seeming ridiculous and unnecessary, it seemed sad – sad that parents would give the privilege and responsibility of guiding their children over to a box. 
  • Sad that parents would miss out on the chance to nurture a relationship with their child in which he would come to know that they set boundaries for him because they love him, and have his health and happiness in mind. 
  • Sad for a child to miss out on the firm, yet loving voice and touch of a parent’s leading. 
  • It seems that setting boundaries and nurturing relationships is just too much for us, anymore. 
  • It’s just a lot easier to go to “remote control.”
 
I wonder what would have happened to Israel if God would have purchased a “Power Cop” and decided to deal with them by “remote control.” 
 
  • What would have happened if God had looked down upon his children and despaired at them and decided it was just too much for him?
  • Imagine it – God looks down upon his children and sees that they are so absorbed in their games that they have time for little else. 
  • His children have crazed looks on their faces and they’re so riveted to the games that they can’t even come to the table when he calls them.
  • Nahor is worshiping idols today, and Milcah is swearing at him using God’s name. 
  • Zibeon is working 24/7 with no time off. 
  • Abdeel is defying his parents. 
  • Eliphaz is into adultery and his wife is furious enough to kill him.
  • Timna is stealing and Abimelech is spreading rumors around town.
  • Eshban and Ithran are just trying to keep up with the neighbors, who always seem to have more.
 
God observes the games they’re playing and heaves a sigh. 
 
  • “I must invest in a Power Cop,” he says to himself. 
  • “The children are too unruly, and they have ignored my voice for too long. 
  • I’ve had it.
  • I think I’ll just plug them and their games into a box and forget about them. 
  • It sure would be a load off of my mind.
  • So Nahor and Milcah, Zibeon and Abdeel, Eliphaz and Timna, Abimelech, Eshban and Ithran have thirty minutes more to play before the Power Cop will shut them off by remote control. 
  • Then they’ll sit there like robots waiting for the next time they get to play.
 
Fortunately for Israel, God chose not to let a box parent his children. 
 
  • He was the parent and he would take active part in their discipline. 
  • It was he who had made them and given them life. 
  • It was he who had freed them from the bonds of slavery in Egypt. 
  • All that they had, all that they were, had come from him, and he alone had the right to speak and to command. 
  • He would not give up his authority to a box. 
  • He would not operate by remote control.
  • He would take them by the hand and lead them to the table. 
  • He would be a “hands-on” God.
 
After God had delivered the Israelites and they were camped in the wilderness of Sinai, he called to Moses from the mountain and said, “Say to Israel, ‘I am the one who saved you. 
 
  • You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 
  • Now if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. 
  • The whole earth is mine, but you are special to me. 
  • You are a holy nation. 
  • I’m lifting you up to be a light to all people.
 
Now this is what is necessary that you do if you are to live out the purpose I’ve created you for:
 
  • ‘You must be loyal only to me. 
  • No carved gods of any size, shape or form. 
  • Don’t bow down to them, and don’t serve them, because I am a jealous God, punishing the children for any sins their parents pass onto them, but I’m unswervingly loyal to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments. 
  • There are other “gods” out there that will compete for your attention.
  • Choose me and only me. 
  • Don’t curse in my name or invoke my power for things that aren’t about me or for my purpose,
  • honor your parents because it is they who will pass the faith to you.
  • You have six days to get everything done.
  • Keep one day holy just for me. 
  • Don’t keep working to exhaustion just for more money and more power. 
  • Have respect for life. 
  • Don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t sleep with other people’s spouses, and don’t envy what other people have. 
  • This is what you need to do to be healthy and happy, to be in loving relationship with me and with one another. 
  • God wrote the commandments on two stone tablets.
 
Even as God was speaking to Moses, giving him the law, the people were down at the foot of the mountain absorbed their games. 
 
  • They had gotten tired of waiting for Moses to return and they’d taken all of their earrings off and molded them into a golden calf to worship.
  • As Moses came down from the mountain, he saw them with crazed looks on their faces eating and drinking, and rising up to dance around the calf. 
  • When Moses came near the camp and saw them running wild, he was furious and he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them. 
  • He took the calf that they had made and burned it in the fire and ground it into fine powder. 
  • And then he stood in the gate at the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side?  Come to me.”
 
Then making intercession for the people, Moses went the next day on their behalf to ask God for forgiveness. 
  • And God was good.
  • “You are a stiff-necked people,” he said. 
  • “I want you to take your people and leave this place. 
  • My presence will go with you. 
  • Cut two new tablets of stone and I will write on them the same words that were on the old ones.” 
  • And Moses bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. 
  • He said, “Oh Lord, I pray, go with us. 
  • Although this is a stiff-necked people, pardon our sin, and take us for your own.”
  • And the Lord made a covenant to perform marvels, to do an awesome thing among his people.
 
A hands-on God. 
 
  • He refused to give his authority over to a box, to leave them to their games, to let them sit there with crazed looks on their faces, gazing at the calf. 
  • Instead he took them by the hand and led them out again. 
  • He was the parent, and he wouldn’t let his children be lost to their games.
  • I wonder what would have happened if God had decided to purchase a “Power Cop” and deal with Israel by remote control.
  • If he had decided it was just too much. 
  • It would have brought God pain and sorrow to miss out on nurturing a relationship with his children where they would come to know and understand that he set boundaries for them because he loves them. 
  • It would have been sad for his children to miss out on the firm, yet loving voice and touch of a parent’s leading.
 
We live in a permissive society today where it’s not too popular to follow God’s law. 
  • We don’t want any rules or conventions intruding on our personal freedom. 
  • We don’t have to look far to see that God’s children are playing games. 
  • The golden calf is alive and well and we’re running wild, playing at lying, stealing and adultery.
  • We’re killing and swearing, working 24/7 to try and keep up with the neighbors. 
  • God is calling us to the table, and we don’t even hear him, or we choose to ignore him.
  • It’s a real pain in the neck to quit what we’re doing to follow a bunch of rules. 
  • If he wanted to, God could buy a “Power Cop.” 
  • He could shut us down anytime he wanted and let us sit there unchanged and addicted to our habits, waiting for the next time we get to play.
 
But the truth is, he loves us too much for that.
  • God has made us, and he’s taken us by the hand and led us out of Egypt. 
  • He has liberated us from slavery, and now he refuses to let us be held captive by our sins, refuses to let us stay in the bondage of our games.
  • He takes us by the hand and he teaches us what we need to do to be healthy and happy, how we must be, in relationship with him and with one another. 
  • His law isn’t a harsh means of restricting us from freedom and fun. 
  • It is pure grace. 
  • It is relationship with a God who loves us enough to give us boundaries, who loves us enough to forgive us when we screw up,
  • and to continue to walk with us, to never take his presence from us.
  • It is a gift of love from a hands-on God. 
It is the God who loved us so much that when he saw we couldn’t keep the law, came to Earth to be physically present with us, to show us by his own example what he meant by love and fidelity and honor and rest and loyalty to God and God alone. 
 
  • He is the God who opened his hands to feed us and laid hands on us to heal us. 
  • He is the God who turned off our games, took us by the hand and led us to the table and said, “This is my body given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.” 
  • He’s the God who carried his cross up the hill, who took the nails in his hands, who rose again and appeared to his people alive, who lifted his hands and said, “I am with you always.”
 
A Hands-On God. 
 
  • A God who cares about us so much that he refuses to deal with us by remote control. 
  • Who loves us enough to give us boundaries for our own health and happiness. 
  • “Be loyal to me,” he says. 
  • “Don’t curse in my name. 
  • Honor your parents, take time for rest.
  • Don’t lie, don’t gossip, don’t steal, don’t sleep with other peoples’ spouses, don’t envy what other people have. 
  • I love you. 
  • Here – take my hand. 
  • It’s time to turn off the game and come to the table.
 
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 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 on 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.
 
COMMUNION WITH PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION AND THANKSGIVING AND THE LORD’S PRAYER

Holy Communion Liturgy

INVITATION TO THE LORD’S SUPPER

THE GREAT THANKSGIVING

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks & praise.
O Holy God. . . we lift our hearts in joyful praise 
We praise you. . . together, we proclaim the mystery of our faith.
Gracious God,...all glory and honor are yours, Almighty God, now and forever.

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. 
 
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
 
CHARGE & BLESSING   

POSTLUDE             
 

 
 




 
 

 
 
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September 27, 2020 Worship Services Walking on Water Rev. Kristy Parker

9/26/2020

0 Comments

 
SERVICE FOR THE LORD’S DAY 
September 27, 2020

Schedule reminders:
The office is reopened
Church Service 9:30 am
PRELUDE 

WORDS OF WORSHIP
 
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it!                       
 
GATHERING PRAYER
 
Oh God, we praise you, we worship you, we adore you.
You hold the heavens in your hand, all stars rejoice in your glory.
You come in the sunrise and the song of the morn
and bless the splendor of the noonday. 
The stars in their courses magnify you,
day and night tell of your glory.
Your peace blows over the earth
and the breath of your mouth fills all space.
Your voice comes in the thunder of the storm
and the song of the wind whispers of your majesty.
You satisfy all things living with your abundance
and our hearts bow at your presence.
Accept us, your children, Eternal God,
and hearken to our prayer.
Bend over us, Eternal Love, and bless us. Amen.
 
CONFESSION AND PARDON
 
Merciful God, in your gracious presence, we confess our sin and the sin of this world. Although Christ is among us as our peace, we are a people divided against ourselves as we cling to the values of a broken world. The profit and pleasures we pursue lay waste to the land and pollute the seas. The fears and jealousies we harbor set neighbor against neighbor and nation against nation. We abuse your good gifts of imagination and freedom, of intellect and reason, and have turned them into bonds of oppression. Lord, have mercy upon us; heal and forgive us. Set us free to serve you in the world as agents of your reconciling love in Jesus Christ.
 
OFFERING PEACE
 
The peace of Christ be with you.
 
INTERLUDE
 
                                                    Word
 
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
 
Guide us, O God, by your Word and Spirit, that in your light we may see light, in your truth find freedom, and in your will discover your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
 
SCRIPTURE LESSONS
 
Psalm 46: 1-11
 
1 God is our refuge strength, an ever-present trouble. 2we will not fear, the earth give way and the mountains fall the heart of the sea,3its waters roar foam and the mountains quake their surging.[ c]  4is a river streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High. 5God is within her, will not fall; will help at break of day.  6in uproar,; he lifts his voice, earth melts. 7with us; the God of Jacob our fortress.  8 Come and see what the done, the desolations has brought on the earth.  9makes wars to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; burns the shields[ d]fire. 10He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; will be exalted among the nations,  I will be exalted in the earth.”  11Lordis with us ;God of Jacob our fortress. 
 
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                                        “Walking on Water”
 
        My husband Tom and I just returned from a trip to the Boundary Waters.
  • It’s a beautiful wilderness area near the Canadian Border. 
  • The Boundary Waters experience is a mixed bag
  • There’s the wonder and awe at the magnificent beauty and incredible stillness of nature,
  • And then there’s the backbreaking work of paddling your canoe through headwinds and carrying your worldly belongings on your back over long portages.
  • It’s camping on an island and being bitten by mosquitoes on the long muddy trail to the hole in the ground that serves as your restroom in the middle of the night.
  • It’s a trip we’ve taken with various configurations of our family over the years.
 
   You get to know your traveling companions really well. 

  • Tom had the great fortune to share a canoe with my sister and me on one of our trips.
  •  He was in the stern steering.
  •  I was in the bow – apparently that’s supposed to be the “powerhouse” of the canoe – poor Tom. 
  • And my sister was in the middle seat. 
  • For some reason, we were far behind everyone else in our group. 
  • We were on a tight schedule, because the women in the group were planning to spend just part of the time on the water, and then go to a condo in Grand Marais. 
  • As we paddled, we sang, “Oh happy day, oh happy day, when the ladies go to Grand Marais. 
 
We were out on big water, and heading into a strong wind. 

  • The water was choppy, and the going was slow.
  •  My arms were aching. 
  • Those two-pound weights I’d lifted for a few weeks before the trip hadn’t done the job.
  •  I started to get sort of a desperate feeling. 
  • There was water all around, and I was holding the paddle. 
  • Who else would get us to shore? 
  • There was nothing to do but keep going. 
  • Something compelled me to start singing, and I sang that old hymn, “Stand by Me.”
  • Elvis Presley does a wonderful soulful version of it: 
                  When the storms of life are raging, stand by me;
                  When the storms of life are raging, stand by me;
                  When the world is tossing me like a ship out on the sea,
                  Thou who rules wind and water, stand by me.
 
When I finished, Tom said, “I guess there’s only one Elvis Presley.”

  • Strangely enough, though, the paddling became easier.
  • Maybe the extra breath required for singing helped push us forward
  • kind of like those tennis players who grunt while they’re hitting the ball. 
  • Or maybe it just got our mind off the pain.
  • Still - and I know this is true – there was a presence. 
  • As I sent out the words – “Thou who rules' wind and water, stand by me,” I knew that God was.
 
I said to my sister, “I remember going out on a lake by myself in a rowboat when I was about 14 or so, and getting stuck in a headwind. 

  • I thought I’d never make it back across the lake to the place we were camping.  
  • I fought the wind for what seemed like hours, and as I finally rowed into the shore, I saw my Dad standing there.
  •  He’d been there watching me the whole time.  
Jesus was standing there watching his disciples the whole time. 
​
  • He was supposed to be on “vacation,” or if not vacation, at least a “retreat”
  • He’d tried a couple of times to get away for a while
  • It wasn’t just that the work had been strenuous, though it was
  • Jesus’ time was always in demand
  • Jesus was also grieving the loss of his friend John the Baptist
  • He’d gone off by himself to pray
  • But when the people in the surrounding villages heard that he was in the area, they followed him there.
  •  Having compassion for them, Jesus healed them and then fed them – 5000 of them- with the loaves and fishes
  •  It had been a hectic, demanding time, as feeding a large group of people usually is​
  • Jesus wanted to try for some solitude again
  • So, he put his disciples into a boat and sent them on ahead of him across the lake, and he went up to the mountain by himself to pray
 
When Jesus opened his eyes and looked across the lake, he could see that they were in trouble.

  • the boat was already a long way out, and it was being whipped and tossed by the wind. 
  • In ancient times, the nights were divided into four segments. 
  • The “fourth watch,” which it was called, would have been from 3 AM to 6AM, so it was at this hour in the middle of the night that Jesus, concerned for his disciples’ safety, went walking toward them across the water.
  • The disciples were terrified. 
  • For one thing, to be caught in a storm in the middle of a lake was a fisherman’s worst nightmare. 
  • For another thing, in those times, people perceived the sea as a place of monsters and devils. 
  • They thought Jesus was a ghost. 
  • Desperate from battling the waves, and spooked by the sight of a figure walking on top of the water toward them in the dark, they cried out in fear. 
  • But Jesus was quick to calm them, to tell them not to be afraid; it was only him.
 
Peter wasn’t really sure it was him. 

  • Hovering in the boat, he asked for proof, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come out on the water to you.” 
  • And Jesus said, “Come.”
  • Peter must have had faith it was the Lord, because he did it. 
  • He stepped out of the boat and started to walk, to walk toward Jesus like a toddler trying out his legs for the first time as his parent waits.
  • He was doing well, walking on water, but then the wind whipped across his face and distracted him, and he began to focus on that instead of on Jesus, and as he did, he started to sink. 
  • But he must have walked on water just long enough to know that it truly was Jesus out there, because he cried out, “Lord, save me.”
 
And immediately, Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. 

  • And looking at Peter, shaking his head a bit, he asked him, “Why did you doubt?” 
  • Walking together then, they stepped into the boat, and as they did, the wind died down. 
  • Jesus was back in the boat, back with his disciples, and they were safe.
  • It was so good to have the Lord back on board. 
  • They worshiped him together, praising him and affirming who he was – the ruler of wind and water – the son of God.     
 
How are things in your boat today?

  • How are you weathering this storm our world is in?
  • The turbulence is unreal – hurricane, fire, violence, pandemic, not to mention the political climate
  • We have personal struggles too –
  • Friends have gotten sick and some have died
  • We can’t reach out or grieve the way we want to
  • People we love are sick, or we struggle with illness ourselves. 
  • Some of us have pain, or disease to deal with 
  • Some have brokenness in our families. 
  • Some of us are worried about children and grandchildren
 
I could go on and on with a whole litany of issues

  • But to do that would depress us even more
  • And dwelling on our problems is not what our text this morning would encourage us to do
  • True, we have to look at our problems so we can see what we’re dealing with
  • we can’t just close our eyes and pretend everything’s fine
  • that’s not what the text advises either
  • what our text this morning does tell us to do is acknowledge that there’s a dreadful storm going on around us, yes
  • but also, to look up, away from the waves and see that Jesus is walking on water towards us
  • If we look up, away from our problems for even a second, we might be able to see him there in the darkness, extending his hand. 
  • We might realize he’s been keeping an eye on us from the shore
  • He sees we’re in trouble, and now he’s reaching out for us, motioning for us to come to him, to step out of the boat, to trust him.
 
We’re not sure. 

  • Maybe it’s not even him. 
  • The boat is familiar; it’s tangible; it’s what we know. 
  • We can feel the gunnels under our hands and it gives us something to hold onto. 
  • We have a tendency to want to fight the storms of our lives ourselves.
  • We want to paddle ourselves silly. 
  • We want to tackle the headwinds ourselves, so we watch the sky; we watch the waves. 
  • We’re afraid that if we take our eyes off of them, we might capsize.   
          
It’s natural for us as human beings to focus on our problems. 

  • If we’re thinking about them and worrying about them, we feel like we’re in control. 
  • But actually, the opposite is true. 
  • The more we dwell on things, and try to figure things out ourselves, the more serious our situation seems, the more convoluted our thinking becomes. 
  • We begin to lose perspective when we take our eyes off Jesus. 
  • Our lives become rockier, and our problems become more complicated when we try to solve them without his help. 
  • Pretty soon, we’re sinking.
 
Jesus is walking on water, and he wants us to let go of the sides of the boat, to let go of the defense mechanisms and ways we have found to cope with things ourselves, to step out, and walk toward him.  
  • He wants us to trust him. 
  • When we keep our eyes on Jesus, we see perfect love, perfect forgiveness, perfect peace. 
  • He embodies everything we need for our lives, whatever we’re going through. 
  • When we keep looking at him instead of looking at our circumstances, our lives begin to change. 
  • We begin to embody the same thing he does – love, forgiveness, and peace.
 
The same is true for the church. 

  • In Matthew’s gospel, many scholars believe that the boat is a metaphor for the church. 
  • It was a community of new believers in the process of growing in faith. 
  • It was easy for them to take their eyes off of Jesus, to fail to trust him.
  • If we see the boat as being symbolic of the church, the point is obvious. 
  • The church that takes its eyes off of Jesus and focuses on the storm around it is in serious danger of sinking.
  • Or when a church focuses on its own internal problems and tries to solve them apart from Jesus it also gets into trouble. 
  • When we operate apart from Jesus we’re no longer the church, but simply another group of people battling it out our own way, under our own power.
  
There’s another possibility in this text too. 

  • Matthew says that Jesus “made the disciples get into the boat, and he sent them ahead across the lake.” 
  • The place they were headed to was an area associated with the Gentiles. 
  • Jesus seemed to be stressing the necessity of extending the mission beyond Israel. 
  • The storm on the lake is symbolic of the opposition that the early church encountered when they tried to take their mission to others.
  • It’s the same opposition we encounter today. 
  • Offering Jesus to others, extending the mission is difficult.
  • But we’re called to keep stepping out of the boat, reaching out to others, offering to others the strength and peace that’s been offered to us
 Our calling, in our personal lives, and in our lives as a church, is to keep our eyes on Jesus. 
  • He’s walking on water toward us, holding out his hand, ready to catch us. 
  • How much easier and more satisfying life is when we look at him instead of focusing on our problems
  • It takes a constant effort to keep our eyes on Jesus. 
  • The enemy wants to sink us by making us look at all the disasters around us. 
We need to seek help from the Scriptures continually, spend time with Jesus, pray to him, and ask him for his help.
 
Take some time, every day, to close your eyes, to picture Jesus walking toward you across the water. 
  • It can be early in the morning; it can be before you go to bed; it can be anytime. 
  • Any time you feel yourself sinking, go to Jesus. 
  • Don’t try to battle the headwinds yourself. 
  • Don’t hold so tightly onto the side of the boat. 
  • Step out, trust him. 
  • He is perfect love, perfect forgiveness, perfect peace. 
  • That’s what he wants us to be too. 
  • And we can be, if we keep our eyes on him.
 
So what lake are you paddling on today?  What’s in your boat?  What do you need to step out of your boat to do with Jesus’ help?

  • Whatever it is, one thing is sure ~ Jesus is there
  • Jesus is always watching over us
  • Jesus is always ready to help us walk on water
  • Always ready to reach out and catch us, to keep us from falling
  • Jesus is always willing to step into our boat, to still the wind and waves, even in the most serious of headwinds
 
The amazing thing is that when we let go and take the risk to trust him, we find the courage for whatever we’re facing.

  • Out on those great, pristine waters, in that incredible stillness, we remember who’s in control
  • Thou who rules wind and water, stand by me.
 
Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer
 
O God, maker of the sun and the moon, the earth and the sky, ruler of wind and water, our maker, we know that you hear our prayer and we trust you with our lives.
 
Walk with us in the hour of our grief – for we have lost much – people we love, former ways of living and being.  Hold us close and comfort us.
 
Walk with us in our pain, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual.  Lay hands on us and heal us from the diseases we battle, from conditions that affect our sight, our hearing, our movement, our breath.
 
Walk with our families and friends and give us joy in the presence of one another.  Release us from our worries and fears and help us to surrender our loved ones into your care.  Bring reconciliation where there is discord and help us to honor you in the way we honor others.
 
Walk with your church in these challenging times and keep us focused on your love.  Keep us reaching outward instead of looking inward. Make us a beacon of light to show the way, an extended hand to a hungry crowd or a faltering neighbor or stranger.
 
Walk with our country in these turbulent times.  Still the flood waters and restore your divine order to your creation.  Tame the words of hatred that come from careless speech and heartless acts.
 
Walk with our world, tossed in the sea of chaos.  Shine down your love that we might receive your brilliance.  You tell us you have overcome the world and so we place it and everything in it in your hands.
 
Walk with us Lord, in greater trust, in greater service, in greater love for 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 on 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
 
                                                                Sending
 
CHARGE & BLESSING                                                                                                    
 
POSTLUDE
 


 
 

 
 
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September 20, 2020 Worship Services Are you jealous because I am generous? James Camp

9/20/2020

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​SERVICE FOR THE LORD’S DAY
September 20, 2020

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- “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the lord’” (Psalm 122:1)
 
GATHERING PRAYER-We come before You, O God, because You have loved us and invited us to part of Your kingdom. Still our restlessness, calm our anxieties, open our ears and our hearts that we may hear what You have to say to us and for us. In Jesus’ name we ask, Amen
 
CONFESSION AND PARDON –We come before you Lord, knowing full well we have not always been faithful servants. We have failed to do many things we should have done; we have done many things we should not have done and there is no health in us. We confess we have sinned against You and harmed our neighbors and loved ones with our actions and our words. Because of Your great mercy and love You offer us forgiveness. We beg You for that forgiveness in Jesus name, Amen
 
PARDON- “God proves His love for us in that, while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8) in the name and power of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven people.
 
                                                Word
 
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION-May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to You, our Lord and Savior, Amen.
 
SCRIPTURE LESSON Matthew 20:1-15
 
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
 
20“For the kingdom of heaven is like landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. Agreed to pay them a denarius [a]the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. Told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right. ‘they went. “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. Five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’7“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ 8“When evening came, owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’  9“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. When those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. They received it; they began to grumble the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat the day.’ 13“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. But you agree to work for a denarius? Your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
 
SERMON- “Are you jealous because I am generous?”
 
         There is one thing we need to be really clear about as we were to way through this parable: it is NOT advice on how to run a business.   Jesus did not intend this parable to be used as instructions on how employers should treat their workers. There is no business that could survive a month if they followed the example of this parable. When we work with this parable, we have to keep in mind the 1st few words we read today: “The kingdom of God is like”- what we are looking at is Jesus showing his followers and us something about God, not something about business.
     Now let’s put this parable into everyday content but to do that, I need your help for a minute. How many of you have children raised your hands?   Now, how many of you NEVER heard a child yell out THAT” S NOT FAIR? Raise your hands. When you boil this parable down, that is the complaint of the workers. Somehow or the other they had to, they had a definite feeling they got the short end of the stick, and they are raising an objection.   In this parable, Jesus is showing us the difference between our sense of what is fair and God’s sense of what is right.
 Suppose for a minute you are the guy who was hired early in the day.   You were down at the town square before daylight, hoping someone would need help harvesting their crop. The usual workday is Sunup to Sundown, but the pay was enough to feed your family for a couple of days with a bit of money left over. The landowner offers you a usual day’s wage for a day’s work. You agree, and you go to the field and begin working.
    About 9, you see the landowner coming with the more workers; you ask one what his agreement was, and the worker says the landowner promised to pay what is right. Again, at noon at 3 and at 5 you see more workers come in. You think to yourself the fellow hired at 5 might make enough to buy his family supper, but what should he get since he only worked an hour or so. 
     When the Sun goes down, the manager lined up the workers up with the last at the front of the line. You are at the end of the line because you were the first one hired. Suddenly a buzz starts through the line “the workers who were hired last that a full day’s pay”. Immediately you begin to wonder how much you will get since you worked all day. Surely, they will be extra since I bore the heat of the day. As the line moves, you notice, each group of workers receive a full day’s pay. There does not seem to be any consideration for those who have worked longer. Still, you hold the expectation that because you worked I full day, you will receive more. 
Then it was your turn.
    You walked to the table, eagerly anticipating a bonus of some sort.  When you received the usual day wage, the same everyone else had received, your immediate response was “THAT’S NOT FAIR”. Surely, it was worth something extra to have to work through the blistering heat of the day. Surely, there should be some difference between those who have worked all day and those who only work for an hour. Your cries of unfairness fill the evening air.
    Because your complaint is so loud, the landowner hears and comes to you. He asked what is your complaint? You paid those workers who worked only an hour of full day’s wage we have worked, and we have worked the full day. That is not fair that we should get the same as them.
The landowner asks, “What did you agree and this morning?” you are forced to answer, “You said the usual pay for a day’s work”. The landowner replies, “You received what you agreed to. If I choose to be generous to someone else, you do not lose anything you are promised, take what you a promise, and go home.”
     As I worked on this, it occurred to me; there is another parable where the point is the different idea of fair and God’s idea of what is right. It usually is called the prodigal son. We all know the story. The oldest demanded his share of the inheritance, took the money, went to a strange land spent everything. He was so destitute he took a job feeding pigs, an animal that the Jews considered unclean; he was so hungry, sometimes he caught in self looking at the pig's food and wondering what it might taste like. Finally, he decided rather than to starve; he would go home, throw himself at the father’s mercy, and take a job as a slave there Instead, the father threw a robe on, and him put on a signet ring and threw a party for everyone.
 When the younger said son heard the party, he was furious. When the father came to ask what was wrong, the son replied, “this son of yours took the family fortune spent it doing God knows what, and when he is about to starve to death, he comes home, and you throw him a party with prime rib for everyone, I work my rear off on this farm never taken is much is the lamb for myself. “ITS NOT FAIR”
    As I thought about these two stories, I wondered about the idea of fairness. I went to one of my Bible search programs and looked up the word fair learn and learn something very interesting,  In the King  James Bible and in the New Revised Standard Bible, God is never described as being fair in his treatment of people. God is often called loving, compassionate, just, and other similar terms, but there is never a place where either in scripture where God is described as fair. This it was something I had never really thought about before. I am still working my way through understanding what that means in terms of these two parables, so this sermon is a part of that process of understanding.
     What I see so far in these two parables may be a way of Illustrating  Isaiah 55: 8- 9 this is God speaking to Isaiah,” For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways higher than your ways,  and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” In both of these parables we see this pointed out clearly. Our human nature tends to agree with the younger son and the worker in the field.
    What has happened is clearly NOT fair. What we need to remind ourselves is these stories are not about the workers; they are not about the two sons; they are about the kingdom of heaven and the way God extends mercy.
    If we go back to the story, the landowner never promised to pay the worker what was fair. If you read the parable closely, the word fair is never in the story. He promised he would pay them” whatever is right” from God’s point of view about what is right and not from our point of what is fair. Again, we have to refer to ourselves to Isaiah’s words about the difference between our ways and the ways of God.
    It is our sense of what is fair that cause the problem in both parables: both the worker in the field and the youngest son had the same idea: I have worked the longest therefore, I should get most for what has done.
That is the way OUR world works. If you work hard, you will get rewarded accordingly, and, when that doesn’t happen, we cried foul. We have to keep reminding ourselves, these stories are not about our world: Jesus was attempting to help us understand something about God’s Kingdom. 
 One of the principal attendant tenants of the protestant faith is that we are not saved by works, but rather we are saved by grace. That is truly the point of both parables. Neither the late worker nor the son earned what they received. They received it because of the mercy of someone else.  In one sense, we know this, and yet there is a bothersome and voice that says, if we have worked hard, we should receive something for it. We have been church members, we have been taught Sunday school, and we have been officers. We had been Pastors. Surely there ought to be something “extra” for us because of what we have done. That would be fair.
    Suppose for a moment that God Was fair. Suppose at the end of our lives; we stand before the throne of judgment, we got what we deserved based on everything we did,  the things we failed to do, and the things we said and the things we failed to say.
    Every false statement we made, every time we spoke cruelly to or about another person, every time we tried to justify some selfish decision we made, every time we judged another person because they did not meet our standards of behavior or dress would be paraded before us and then Gods judgment would be made. Is that really what we want for end our lives?
 I can’t answer that question for you, but for me, the answer is no. I do not want God to judge me on the basis of the things I have done and the things that have left undone. When I stand in the judgment, I do not want what is fair; I do not want what I deserve based and words or acts of my life, I want grace. I want mercy.  To paraphrase and another author, we do not sing a hymn called amazing fairness. We sing a hymn called amazing grace, and that’s the point of these parables are making for us to consider. God ways ARE NOT our ways.
    There are many places where we can see this truth spelled out for us.   John 3:16 is verse we can quote by memory but think about what it REALLY says in the light of this parable. “For God so loved the world he gave his only son, so that whoever believes in Him may not perish, but have everlasting life.” I want to focus on the “whoever” in that verse.
     When Jesus was crucified, there were thieves on each side of him.  One of the thieves turned in pleaded with Jesus to remember him when Jesus came into his Kingdom. Jesus response was, “today, you will be with me in paradise.” A man condemned by Rome at the last-minute pleading with Jesus to be remembered, a truly death row conversion, and wished his granted. The verse says “whoever” and Christ bears witness to that act. Gods grants what is right, not what we might say was fair.
    We sometimes read of a person being convicted of some sort a serious crime, and, when they have been in prison for a while, they suddenly become very religious. Sometimes we look at this with our eyes squinted a bit, suspecting what they have done is put on a show of some sort board the hopes of a later settings or improve conditions. Again, the verse says “whoever,” and we have to considers God sense of what’s right over our sense of what is fair. 
    Looking at Romans 5:8, we see another view: “God proves his love for us while we are still sinners, Christ died for us’” long before any of us were born,  long before our great great grandparents were born, the act of salvation was given on the cross. None of us have done ANYTHING to deserve that. Even if we had worked hard at being in model Christian all of our lives, there is there enough places where we had not lived up to our own expectations, let alone to the things God asks us. There are enough places where we had failed that it would we would be fair of God to condemn us, but the verse does not that say God proves his fairness; it says God proves his love.
 In both of these parables, we see that the cry out to us THAT’S NOT FAIR, but in both stories, we see God is acting in ways that are right. Again, that is the point of the stories Jesus want as to struggle with the concept of the way God sees things sometimes, it makes us considered possibilities we rather not think about. Jesus want us to be clear about the kingdom of God is not given according to what our sense of what is fair. It is given according to God sense of what is right.
    When we balk for one reason or another as the workers or son did, we need to stop and examine what exactly we feel we have lost our why it was unfair. Most of the time, it is because we have been shortchanged in one way or another. As Billy Waterson, a Christian comedian, says, “I know the world is unfair, but why is it never unfair in my direction?’
    Both these parable point to our past concept of what is fair towards the idea of God’s grace, something totally unexpected, totally undeserved, and yet totally wonderful. We all heard something stories about someone drive-in where the customer not only pays for their own meal but for the person behind them as well. Pretty soon, the line has gone as gone forward with each person paying for the one behind them. Because they have received something unexpected, they are doing the same for someone else. There is not a sense of obligation but a sense of sharing a gift that they had received.
  The parables we have worked on today put up a caution sign for us if we think about judging the faith of another person. They teach us it is not our place to judge another based on when or how they came to their faith.
 
We have to come to our faith by a wide variety paths based on the circumstances of our lives. Your path is different from the person beside you for a variety of reasons but you each have come to accept the truth of the message we share. Each of us, regardless of how we came to the truth, is promised the same results, residents in the kingdom of heaven .There are no qualifiers.
    Some Christian scholars said a long time back the ground around the cross was level, by that they meant while we come to the cross from many different directions with our with many different backgrounds still when we get there, the question remains the same: do you accept Jesus Christ as YOUR Lord and savior. When we can accept the truth of that statement, then we can accept the idea that the latecomer is admitted into the kingdom just as fully as the person who is believed all their lives. When we truly understand the full power of amazing grace, God offers all of us; then, we can answers God’s question: are you jealous because I am generous?
 
AFFIRMATION Apostle’s creed Ecumenical version
 
                                                Prayers
 
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION-Lord, we pray for those who have lost homes, for those who have lost crops, for those who have been devastated in any way by the storms. As we edge closer to the time of election, we pray for our leaders, that they may see more than what is important to them and understand the needs of others around them. We pray as we make our choices we, too, may see more than what is important to us and look toward the good of our country. We pray for those who are ill in body, mind or spirit, that You may be with them to lift them up and grant them healing. We pray you would be with each of us, that we may be servants of your will in all we do, we ask all this in Jesus’ name, Amen
 
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING-We thank You for power line workers from all across the country who have been here helping to restore services. We thank You for Doctors and Nurses who labor during this time of pandemic. We thank You for the many gifts we have received from Your love day after day. We thank You for those who have been healed in any way. We thank you for the many people who volunteered in helping with the cleanup and pick up after the storms. Above all, O God, we thank You for Your saving grace freely extended to us. Amen

THE LORD’S PRAYER
 
Sending
 
CHARGE & BLESSING-I charge you to go out into the world as witnesses to God’s love. To render no person evil for evil, but to witness to all the healing and forgiving grace of God. Now, may the Lord bless and keep us all every day from this day forward, Amen
 
POSTLUDE
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September 06, 2020 Worship Services Putting On Christ By Kristy Parker

9/5/2020

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​SERVICE FOR THE LORD’S DAY
September 06, 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

WORDS OF WORSHIP
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it!         
 
GATHERING PRAYER 
Bless us, O God, 
with a reverent sense of your presence,
that we may be at peace
and may worship you with all our mind and spirit;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.
 
CONFESSION AND PARDON 
Holy and merciful God, in your presence we confess our sinfulness, our shortcomings, and our offenses against you. You alone know how often we have sinned in wandering from your ways, in wasting your gifts, in forgetting your love. Have mercy on us, O Lord. Forgive our sins, and help us to live in your light, and walk in your ways, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Savior.
 
In Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven. Know this and be at peace. Amen.
 
OFFERING PEACE
 
The peace of Christ be with you.
 
INTERLUDE
                                                    Word
 
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
 
Guide us, O God, by your Word and Spirit, that in your light we may see light, in your truth find freedom, and in your will discover your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
 
SCRIPTURE LESSONS                 Psalm 119: 33-40
 
33 Teach me,, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end. [a] 34 me understanding,that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart. 35 me the path of your commands, for there I find delight. 36 my heart your statutes and not toward selfish gain. 37 my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my lifeto your word. [b]  38 your promise your servant, so that you may be feared. 39 away the disgraced read, for your laws are good. 40 How I long your precepts! your righteousness preserve my life. 
 
                                                       Romans 13: 8-14
 
Love Fulfills the Law
 
8 no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” [a]whatever other command there may be, are summed up this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” [b]does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
 
The Day Is Near
 
11 do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come you to wake up from your slumber,our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.night is nearly over; the day is almost here.let us put aside the deeds of darkness put on the armor light.us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness,in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy., clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ,do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. [c]
 
 
SERMON                                        “Putting on Christ”
 
Well, this is the time of year when our thoughts tend to turn to clothing. 
  • Fall is just around the corner, and even though it’s been pretty warm, we know it won’t be long before we’ll be getting out our jackets.
  • Maybe some of us need to update our fall wardrobes
  • I’m not much of a fashionista.
  • Give me an old pair of jeans and I’m happy
  • Still sometimes, I come to the realization that something I’ve been wearing for years has started to look a little shabby and may need to be replaced.
  • I’ve become so used to it, so comfortable in it that its unsightliness has crept up on me.
 
In our scripture passage from Ephesians this morning, Paul talks about clothes 
  • Not the kind we’ve been talking about
  • Paul is talking about “spiritual clothing,” about putting off our sinful nature once we become believers.  
  • He tells the church that when they accepted Christ, they were taught to put away their former way of life, their old self that was corrupt and deceitful
  • Then they were to clothe themselves with the new self, created in the likeness of God
 
Most scholars think that Ephesians is a letter Paul wrote while he was in prison in Rome.  
  • It was a “circular letter,” or a letter that circulated among the churches of Asia, and as we study it, we find that it’s just as relevant for us as individuals and as a church today.
  • The key thought of Ephesians is the gathering together of all things and people in Jesus Christ. 
  • In nature as it is, without Christ, there is nothing but disunity and disharmony.
  •  Human beings in their natural state are divided from one another, class from class,  nation from nation, Gentile from Jew.
  •  Human beings in their natural state are divided within themselves, torn between the desire to do good and the desire for evil; we hate and love our sins at the same time.
  • We who are meant to be in fellowship with God are estranged from him. 
  • This can be made right only through our relationship with Christ.
  • When we receive the gift of our salvation in Jesus Christ, we begin to strip ourselves of our old nature, and take on his nature, the way we would take off an old coat and put a new one on. 
Paul says, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”  
  • When we truly accept the gift of salvation that Jesus gave to us when he died on the cross for our sins, we’re so filled with gratitude and with love for him that we respond by trying everyday to be more and more like him. 
  • The goal of our Christian lives is for people to look at us and see less and less of us, and more and more of Christ.
  • Our Christian faith should make our lives look and feel different. 
  • The change begins with our attitude, and it affects every part of our lives from the way we speak, to what we eat and drink, to how we behave in our relationships with one another, to the way we handle our money. 
  • The reading today tells us to take a look at our “clothing” and see if it might have gotten a little shabby
  • Maybe we’ve been so comfortable in our old “clothes” for so long that we don’t realize we might be wearing something unsightly, or unbecoming to us
  • We might need to do a little update of our wardrobe – make a change in our attitudes and speech and actions to be a good representation of the Christ that we love and serve.
  • So, we look to Christ himself – the way he spoke, the way he lived and loved, and we become imitators of him. 
Our verses today specifically address the way we get along with each other. 
  • First Paul talks about the importance of truth-telling. 
  • He says, “Putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.”
  • Can you imagine Jesus saying to his disciples, “Truly I tell you,” while he was crossing his fingers behind his back?
  • Can you imagine him keeping things from some of the disciples who might get upset or over-react, or not be up-front with them about who he was and what following him would mean? 
  • Jesus knew that the disciples had to be a tight-knit group in order to carry his ministry forward. 
  • There couldn’t be any pretending or game playing.  He was always honest, straightforward, and to the point.
  • Like Jesus, we need to be honest with others in our families and our churches if we’re to be a unified group with a common purpose. 
  • We need to be able to trust each other
Paul goes on to say, “In your anger, don’t sin.”  
  • “Be angry,” he says, “but don’t stay angry.  Don’t let the sun go down while you’re still angry.”
  • As we all know, Jesus did get angry.
  •  His anger was a righteous anger. 
  • When he went into the temple in Jerusalem, he saw the money changers there exploiting people, taking advantage of them. 
  • He saw them using God’s house for a money-making venture, and he was furious.
  • He turned over the tables and drove them out. 
  • It was right that he should have been angry. 
  • But can you imagine Jesus stomping off in a rage, and turning over in his bed all night long with resentments about the money changers, thinking up things to say to them the next time he saw them? 
  • Or can you imagine him sitting on the temple steps in a pout, giving the money changers the silent treatment?
  • Jesus got angry, and then it was over.
  •  He got angry over important things.
  •  He spoke up, he took action to correct the situation, and then he got on with his life.
  •  When we imitate him in our families, in our churches, in our workplaces, and in our communities, this is how we handle our anger. 
  • Being angry over petty things is a sure way to tear down a family or a church. 
  • Paul says this makes a “foothold for the devil.” 
  • When we stay angry, it consumes us, and we’re unable to do what God is asking us to do for the kingdom.
 
Paul goes on to say, “Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.”
 
  • In the ancient world, stealing was rampant, as it is today.  
  • We can think of many contemporary Christians who have been caught embezzling or stealing. 
  • This does serious damage to the faith.
  •  But Paul gives an even deeper reason for being an honest worker.
  •  He doesn’t say, “Become an honest worker so you can support yourself.” 
  • He says, “Become an honest worker so that you may have something to give away to those who are poorer than yourself.” 
  • The goal of our Christian work is to give to others.”
  • Picture Jesus in a crowd of 5000. 
  • The disciples approach him and say, “Lord, its suppertime, and we have nothing to feed these people.”
  •  Can you imagine Jesus responding by saying, “Well that’s the way it goes.  God helps those who help themselves.” 
  • Can you imagine Jesus and his disciples sitting down to eat in front of others who had no food?
  • Jesus’ whole ministry was one of giving of himself for the other.
  •  He was never concerned about his popularity as a leader or the state of things inside the temple.
  •  He was always working to feed and clothe and heal the outsider.
 
Paul says, “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.” 
 
  • Can you imagine Jesus taking his disciple Andrew aside and  saying, “I’ve really had it with Peter lately.  He’s so impulsive.
  •  James and John are driving me nuts too; they’re so full of themselves.  Can you believe how they were arguing over who gets to sit beside me?” 
  • Can you imagine Jesus walking around Jerusalem saying to people, “Did you hear about Zaccheaus?  He’s ripping people off.
  •  And we’ve got a real problem on our hands with that adulterous woman.”
  • If someone was having a problem, Jesus never used them as an example to others.
  •  He sat down to eat with them, he forgave them, and he re-directed them to better    behavior.
  •  Every word and encounter were to build others up, to include others in his life. 
  • Unwholesome talk, maybe more than anything else can intrude into the spirit of a family, a church, a workplace, or a community and spread like a poison. 
  • As Christians, the Spirit of God lives in us. 
  • “Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit by letting that poison into the body,” Paul says.
 
Paul says as Christians, we’re “sealed with the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption.” He’s talking about baptism here.
  •  We know that when Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit came down and filled him. 
  • When we become Christians, we too are baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit.
  •   The water is a sign of our cleansing. 
  • As we’re taken down into the water, we die to our old way of life, and as we’re brought back up out of the water, we rise into new life with Christ. 
  • We leave the old life behind and take on the new life of becoming more like Jesus everyday.
There’s a song by Kyle Matthews that tells the story of a boy’s baptism, and to me, captures the Spirit of Baptism.  It goes like this:
 
Preacher pulled the boy up from the water
Alleluias rose from the banks
There was a new suit of clothes from his Father
And a prayer of thanks
The boy walked barefooted all the way home for dinner
And when they laughed at his muddy feet...

He said I've been through the water and I've come out clean
Got new clothes to cover me
And you don't wear your old shoes on your brand new feet
When you've been through the water

Preacher turned them around at the altar
Pronounced the boy and his girl "man and wife"
In two years they were Mother and Father
And they built them a life
And his old girlfriend saw a moment of weakness
And she said "If you're lonely come see me sometime..."

He said I've been through the water and I've come out clean
Got new clothes to cover me
And you don't wear your old shoes on your brand new feet
When you've been through the water

He baits a hook with his grandson of seven
And says "Soon, I'll be free from these pains."
The boy asked if he's ever been to heaven
He says "No... but I think I know the way...

“Cause I've been through the water and I've come out clean
Got new clothes to cover me
And you don't wear your old shoes on your brand new feet
When you've been through the water

https://youtu.be/JJVLc7h-lJ0

Our baptism is the beginning of our Christian walk.
 
  • It’s a visible sign of God’s grace, of his unconditional love that can never be taken away.
  • Having received God’s deep love for us, we spend the rest of our lives living out our baptisms, trying to be more and more like Jesus everyday.
  • Paul says, “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.  Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and live in love, as Christ loved us.”
 
Does this mean that once we’ve been baptized, once we’ve become Christian we’ll never sin again?  No.
 
  • Our failures and mistakes and inadequacies are all part of being human
  • We remember our Old Testament reading from this morning
  • The Psalmist says, “If you, O LORD should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?”
  • We all fall short
  • Sometimes the old clothes are tempting
  • They’re comfortable and familiar, and easy to slip back into 
  • But having been washed in the waters of baptism, having been loved by Christ, it’s not long before they start to feel kind of tacky
  • They’re dirty, and thin and not very substantial, and they don’t fit the way they used to.
  •  So we take them back off and remind ourselves that we have new clothes now
  • The Psalmist continues, “But there is forgiveness with you that you may be revered…my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning…
  • Baptized in Christ, we have the opportunity to put on a set of fresh, clean clothes every morning, and start our lives all over again.
  • Another chance to speak truth, to reconcile with others, to give generously, and to be kind
  • Another chance to put on Christ. September 06 2020
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 on 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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August 30, 2020 Worship Services "Confession, Misconception, & What’s Next?” by Pat Halverson

8/29/2020

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​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

0 Comments

 
​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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July 26 - Equipped For Mission

7/25/2020

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SERVICE FOR THE LORD’S DAY
July 26, 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.
  • Today, we will listen to the whole postlude before leaving one pew at a time allowing you to come past the pulpit area if you wish, so we can bid each other farewell.
 
Schedule reminders:
  • The office and the rest of the building remain closed, but you can contact Karla during her office hours.
  • I will be here for meetings with Karla and Syd on Tuesday, but that is my last as I continue to use up vacation days.
  • 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. That may include educational ministries as we have shared with them in the past or joint special services as we started for Lent this year. I’m sure there are many other possibilities for local churches to help each other in ministry.
 
PRELUDE
 
WORDS OF WORSHIP                                                                      Psalm 100, NRSV
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing.
 
3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
 
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise.
    Give thanks to him, bless his name.
5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever,
    and his faithfulness to all generations.          
 
GATHERING PRAYER                                                                                                     
Almighty God, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, we your people come before you with our praise and thanksgiving, just as you ask us. We bring our prayers and our offerings, our needs and our burdens, our hopes and our dreams. We bring an openness not only to hear your Word, but to ponder it, to apply it, and to live it as best we are able. Lord, may your Holy Spirit hover among us this hour, that we might go home refreshed and inspired, ready to do your will. Amen.
  
CONFESSION AND PARDON                                                     Ephesians 2:1-5, CEV
1 In the past you were dead because you sinned and fought against God. 2 You followed the ways of this world and obeyed the devil. He rules the world, and his spirit has power over everyone who doesn’t obey God. 3 Once we were also ruled by the selfish desires of our bodies and minds. We had made God angry, and we were going to be punished like everyone else.
 
Merciful God, forgive us for the times we have gone back to our old ways and sinned against one another, against your creation, and against you. As humans both our minds and our bodies can lead us far from your intentions for us. Give us the strength to resist those temptations. Teach us to walk ever more closely in the pathways you set before us. Lord, in your mercy, hear the silent sins we confess before you…
 
4-5 But God was merciful! We were dead because of our sins, but God loved us so much that he made us alive with Christ, and God’s wonderful kindness is what saves you. In the name of Jesus you are forgiven. Thanks be to God!
 
OFFERING PEACE                                       
May the peace of Christ be with you.
 
INTERLUDE
 
Word
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION                                                                      Psalm 119:
Lord, may “Your word [be] a lamp before my feet and a light for my journey.” Amen.
 
SERMON                                     Equipped for Mission
As I did last week, I’ll read a section of scripture and comment on it before going on to the next section. You have the scriptures printed in your bulletin to follow along. This week’s chapter fours are from Luke and Ephesians.
 
SCRIPTURE LESSONS                                                                               Luke 4, CEB
4 Jesus returned from the Jordan River full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. 2 There he was tempted for forty days by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and afterward Jesus was starving. 3 The devil said to him, “Since you are God’s Son, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”
 
4 Jesus replied, “It’s written, People won’t live only by bread.”
 
5 Next the devil led him to a high place and showed him in a single instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 The devil said, “I will give you this whole domain and the glory of all these kingdoms. It’s been entrusted to me and I can give it to anyone I want. 7 Therefore, if you will worship me, it will all be yours.”
 
8 Jesus answered, “It’s written, You will worship the Lord your God and serve only him.”
 
9 The devil brought him into Jerusalem and stood him at the highest point of the temple. He said to him, “Since you are God’s Son, throw yourself down from here; 10 for it’s written: He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you 11 and they will take you up in their hands so that you won’t hit your foot on a stone.
 
12 Jesus answered, “It’s been said, Don’t test the Lord your God.” 13 After finishing every temptation, the devil departed from him until the next opportunity.
 
Sermon: Luke 4 begins where Matthew 4 did, as the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tested by the Tempter. The scene is written with similar details. The one thing that caught my attention came at the end of Luke’s version. Did you catch the spoiler that there will likely be a sequel? The Devil waited for another opportunity to trip Jesus with temptation. Some believe that came during Jesus’ final days on earth as he prayed in Gethsemane.But in the meantime, this three-part test was like passing three stages in an interview process. Jesus did not fall for the traps. He answered the questions well. He was ready to move fully into his ministry on earth. 
Jesus announces good news to the poor14 Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news about him spread throughout the whole countryside. 15 He taught in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
 
16 Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been raised. On the Sabbath he went to the synagogue as he normally did and stood up to read. 17 The synagogue assistant gave him the scroll from the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
 
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
    to proclaim release to the prisoners
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
    to liberate the oppressed,
19     and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
 
20 He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the synagogue assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the synagogue was fixed on him. 21 He began to explain to them, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it.”
 
22 Everyone was raving about Jesus, so impressed were they by the gracious words flowing from his lips. They said, “This is Joseph’s son, isn’t it?”
 
23 Then Jesus said to them, “Undoubtedly, you will quote this saying to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we’ve heard you did in Capernaum.’” 24 He said, “I assure you that no prophet is welcome in the prophet’s hometown. 25 And I can assure you that there were many widows in Israel during Elijah’s time, when it didn’t rain for three and a half years and there was a great food shortage in the land. 26 Yet Elijah was sent to none of them but only to a widow in the city of Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 There were also many persons with skin diseases in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha, but none of them were cleansed. Instead, Naaman the Syrian was cleansed.”
 
28 When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was filled with anger. 29 They rose up and ran him out of town. They led him to the crest of the hill on which their town had been built so that they could throw him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the crowd and went on his way.
 
Sermon: In Matthew’s Gospel we noted that Jesus’ ministry was teaching, preaching, and healing. Matthew did not include this scene of Jesus reading the scroll from Isaiah at his hometown synagogue. From the scroll handed to him, Jesus chose to read the first few lines of Isaiah 61. I think Jesus saw in these verses his own call and definition of ministry.
 
Jesus knew he was fulfilling God’s mission. Jesus understood himself to be God’s anointed, the Messiah, the Christ. Jesus would bring good news to God’s people. God had once delivered them from Egypt and later from Babylon. Jesus came to release them not from Rome, but from their own sin. He came to bring sight to the blind, not only in terms of physical healing, but also new insight. Jesus came to liberate the oppressed, to bring real justice, but also to set us free from the burden of our own flawed thinking and self-deprecation. Jesus came to proclaim a year of Jubilee, like the Old Testament call every 50 years to cancel debt, free indentured slaves, and restore land ownership, to reconcile families and give rest to cultivated lands. Jesus’ fulfillment of this was to cancel our sin debt and buy us back just as a kinsman redeemer could buy back the family land in the time of Ruth and Naomi. Jesus reconciled us back into God’s family. Isaiah 61:1-2a became Jesus’ mission statement as he claimed to be its fulfillment.
 
While it is said that everyone was impressed with Jesus’ gracious words (v. 22), they could not accept that this hometown boy claimed to be the answer to Isaiah’s prophecy, in short that he was the Messiah. Jesus anticipated their skepticism. He referred to two stories from the Old Testament, Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, Elisha and Naaman. In both cases, Jesus pointed out that the blessing and healing were given where it might not have been expected. This is because in spite of their hesitancy, both the widow and Naaman chose to do as they were asked; in spite of doubt they acted on faith. Jesus knows well enough that sometimes our human brains cannot see the potential of what is being presented to us. But Jesus asks us to have faith, not in human leaders or institutions, but in himself, in the One God sent to us.
 
Indignant at the hinted insult, that those in Nazareth did not have enough faith, they rose up against Jesus, attempting to do away with him over a cliff. To us that may seem a violent reaction to a sermon, but there was more going on here. Jesus’ was essentially claiming to be the Messiah, perhaps even that he was God. To those present that day, it was taken as blasphemy, the punishment for which was death according to Leviticus 24:16. Yet in spite of their angry intentions, Jesus walked away unharmed.
 
Jesus in Capernaum31 Jesus went down to the city of Capernaum in Galilee and taught the people each Sabbath. 32 They were amazed by his teaching because he delivered his message with authority.
 
33 A man in the synagogue had the spirit of an unclean demon. He screamed, 34 “Hey! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. You are the holy one from God.”
 
35 “Silence!” Jesus said, speaking harshly to the demon. “Come out of him!” The demon threw the man down before them, then came out of him without harming him.
36 They were all shaken and said to each other, “What kind of word is this, that he can command unclean spirits with authority and power, and they leave?” 37 Reports about him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.
 
38 After leaving the synagogue, Jesus went home with Simon. Simon’s mother-in-law was sick with a high fever, and the family asked Jesus to help her. 39 He bent over her and spoke harshly to the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and served them.
 
40 When the sun was setting, everyone brought to Jesus relatives and acquaintances with all kinds of diseases. Placing his hands on each of them, he healed them. 41 Demons also came out of many people. They screamed, “You are God’s Son.” But he spoke harshly to them and wouldn’t allow them to speak because they recognized that he was the Christ. 42 When daybreak arrived, Jesus went to a deserted place. The crowds were looking for him. When they found him, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43 But he said to them, “I must preach the good news of God’s kingdom in other cities too, for this is why I was sent.” 44 So he continued preaching in the Judean synagogues.
 
Sermon: The first healing presented by Luke, the physician, was calling a demon out of a man. Luke’s placement of this story sets up a contrast between the hometown folk who couldn’t accept that Joseph and Mary’s son was the Messiah, and an “unclean demon” who immediately recognized Jesus as the Son of God. It accepted Jesus’ authority and left the man unharmed.
 
The second healing was Peter’s mother-in-law. Simon Peter’s family at Capernaum was hosting Jesus when she became ill. Jesus called the fever out of her body as he had called the demon out of the man. She recovered quickly enough to serve the meal.
 
Healings continued to be part of Jesus’ ministry in that region, and as the stories were told others brought their suffering family members to him. If I think about our ministry, the good news still spreads as we tell others what God has done in our lives, the healing or blessing we have personally received. In this way we bring our family or friends to Jesus, by telling our story, then at some point inviting them to learn more or to seek healing and blessing themselves. 
 
The time came when Jesus needed to move on and continue preaching and teaching in other communities.  Jesus was at the beginning of his ministry. It started well in Capernaum, but there were other peoples who needed the scriptures interpreted, who needed to hear the message of God’s kingdom and favor, who needed healing and release from various burdens. Jesus had to minister to them, too.
 
Given what else we are celebrating today, I have to note my time to move on. My ministry came as a surprise 33 years ago when Jessika was a baby. Her dad’s first full time appointment came with a half time pastoral appointment for me at Wyanet United Methodist. Tali was born while I served there. Eventually God led me to a second seminary degree and the ordination process. After four and a half years at Wyanet, I was moved to Ohio and Red Oak Churches. I remember giving the D.S. a hard time about moving me when the church and I had both requested that I stay another year. However, God had his reasons. I served those churches for six years, then Christ UMC, Elmhurst for three years. I came to Albany UMC in 2001 as a single mom with two daughters. In 2005, it was time to move again, but this time to a leave of absence.
 
I walked through the doors of this church at the end of July 2005. I was greeted by Charlene who took very good care of me that day. I met Pastor Connie, and Cheri and Gene. I applied for the teaching staff of your Wednesday Early Out program and was the craft leader my first year. In October I filled in the office for Diane. That month you became First UNITED Presbyterian Church as First and Riverside joined together. In November I was offered the position of secretary. Back in those years I joked that my job description changed about every six months, but that was pretty accurate. When this became my appointment to Ecumenical Shared Ministry as a United Methodist clergywoman, I took the title Administrative and Spiritual Life Director as kind of a mini job description to help my bishop understand the range of what I did here. My job continued to shift as your needs changed. I know why God brought me here 15 years ago. I had some skills you would need, but I would also find growth and healing for myself while here. In 2009 I helped New Hope Lutheran when they met upstairs in the Great Hall. It was Advent 2014 when I became your regular pulpit supply in addition to my paid position. I’m still surprised that I have been here nearly half my ministry and in your pulpit for so long as well.
 
However, it’s time for me to move on, not to a new church, but into the next chapter of my life, my retirement years. There will still be ministry, mostly online. I’ll still do worship at Sarah Harding. I still have weddings to complete. I’ll do pulpit supply again. I don’t feel like I’m leaving entirely, because I may still preach for you in months to come. But I am leaving the office and most of the Bible Studies that have defined my life for so long. I look forward to taking up hobbies that have been shelved for several years. I anticipate the healing of enjoying my home and yard.
 
Today I want to share with you some of what has been meaningful for me in my years of ministry by looking at Ephesians 4.
 
                                                                                                              Ephesians 4, CEB
4 Therefore, as a prisoner for the Lord, I encourage you to live as people worthy of the call you received from God. 2 Conduct yourselves with all humility, gentleness, and patience. Accept each other with love, 3 and make an effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit with the peace that ties you together. 4 You are one body and one spirit, just as God also called you in one hope. 5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 and one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all.
 
Sermon: Paul had a sincere love for the people of the churches he worked with, just as I have. While Paul relied on friends to help write and distribute his letters to his beloved congregations, I have the modern ease of Facebook to see what’s going on in the lives of people I have known from churches and retreats and youth groups over the years. I can still reach out to them offering my sermons or Bible studies, etc. by posting links there.
 
What Paul wanted for his Christian family I also want for you, that you would continue in the fruits of the spirit including “humility, gentleness, and patience,” accepting each other and those God will send your way in the love encouraged by Christ. (v. 2) That includes praying for each other, caring for each other, forgiving each other, working together willing to compromise when needed. Make it your mutual aim to do God’s will to the best of your ability as a congregation.
 
Verses 3 – 6 are especially important to me with the theme of unity. My time here began as you united. In the Early Out program I appreciated teaching staff that represented several churches in the area. I love bragging about how many denominations participate in my Bible Studies. I think Deb and Bonnie’s favorite line has become a defining statement for my ministry here. They enjoy telling everyone they are Lutherans who come to a Presbyterian church to hear a United Methodist preach.
 
I have known the word ecumenical since childhood. It has become a significant principle of my ministry to work ecumenically. I encourage you to maintain that unity in Christ as you cooperate with other local ministries, because regardless of our varying rules or practices, what makes us Christian are the things Paul emphasized here: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. (v. 4-6)
 
Gifts7 God has given his grace to each one of us measured out by the gift that is given by Christ. 8 That’s why scripture says, When he climbed up to the heights, he captured prisoners, and he gave gifts to people.
 
9 What does the phrase “he climbed up” mean if it doesn’t mean that he had first gone down into the lower regions, the earth? 10 The one who went down is the same one who climbed up above all the heavens so that he might fill everything.
 
11 He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. 12 His purpose was to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ 13 until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son. God’s goal is for us to become mature adults—to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we aren’t supposed to be infants any longer who can be tossed and blown around by every wind that comes from teaching with deceitful scheming and the tricks people play to deliberately mislead others. 15 Instead, by speaking the truth with love, let’s grow in every way into Christ, 16 who is the head. The whole body grows from him, as it is joined and held together by all the supporting ligaments. The body makes itself grow in that it builds itself up with love as each one does its part.
 
Sermon: Talking about and helping people recognize their spiritual gifts has also been an important theme in my ministry not only here but in every congregation I served. I firmly believe that everyone who chooses to serve God is given gifts by the Holy Spirit to be used in ministry. All are called and all are equipped! I was the right person here for a particular time in your ministry because of the gifts with which God had equipped me. Others came with skills and experience and gifts that we needed here, and the rest of you have continued to grow into your gifts. If I give you examples, I’ll leave someone out, but let’s look at it this way. Among those who regularly participate in the life of this congregation there are those whose gifts, skills, and experience include hospitality, teaching, leadership, organizing details, planning ahead, human relations, generosity, welcoming strangers, compassion for the suffering, prayer, faith, encouragement, art, music, cooking, various repairs and maintenance: electronics, mechanics, engineering, gardening, plumbing. All of these gifts and others, God has used to keep you going and support the ministries to which God has called you. That is the point I want you to recognize. All of your talents, spiritual gifts, and life experiences serve God’s purpose. That’s ministry!
 
Just as Jesus claimed Isaiah 61:1-2 for his mission statement, early in my ministry here, Ephesians 4:12 became my mission statement: “to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ.” Honestly, the gist of that goes back to something I contemplated on my swing set in my grandparent’s backyard and refined further as I considered ministry. I was clear that helping others discover and grow in ministry was my calling. I think that is why there has been a teaching emphasis even since my teen years.
 
One of my greatest pleasures here has been seeing many of you grow using your gifts to serve our God. I am excited to watch from the sidelines and observe your continued growth and ministry, your potential partnerships with others in the community as you reach out in mission, your deepening faith in your personal lives and how that will ripple out to touch others. Remember above all else that your ministry is not just about you. You are one part of a much larger whole Body of Christ. Your direction should always be set by Christ, who is the head of the Church, in cooperation and partnership with others as Christ invites you to work together. The Holy Spirit will continue to guide you, gift and equip you for ministry, if you are open to her leading. So pray frequently for the Holy Spirit to work in each of your lives and to inspire your ministry together.
 
The old and new life17 So I’m telling you this, and I insist on it in the Lord: you shouldn’t live your life like the Gentiles anymore. They base their lives on pointless thinking, 18 and they are in the dark in their reasoning. They are disconnected from God’s life because of their ignorance and their closed hearts. 19 They are people who lack all sense of right and wrong, and who have turned themselves over to doing whatever feels good and to practicing every sort of corruption along with greed.
 
20 But you didn’t learn that sort of thing from Christ. 21 Since you really listened to him and you were taught how the truth is in Jesus, 22 change the former way of life that was part of the person you once were, corrupted by deceitful desires. 23 Instead, renew the thinking in your mind by the Spirit 24 and clothe yourself with the new person created according to God’s image in justice and true holiness.
 
25 Therefore, after you have gotten rid of lying, Each of you must tell the truth to your neighbor because we are parts of each other in the same body. 26 Be angry without sinning. Don’t let the sun set on your anger. 27 Don’t provide an opportunity for the devil. 28 Thieves should no longer steal. Instead, they should go to work, using their hands to do good so that they will have something to share with whoever is in need.
 
29 Don’t let any foul words come out of your mouth. Only say what is helpful when it is needed for building up the community so that it benefits those who hear what you say. 30 Don’t make the Holy Spirit of God unhappy—you were sealed by him for the day of redemption. 31 Put aside all bitterness, losing your temper, anger, shouting, and slander, along with every other evil. 32 Be kind, compassionate, and forgiving to each other, in the same way God forgave you in Christ.    
 
Sermon: In that first paragraph, Paul is clear how not to live as a Christian. It is easy to get swept up in the ways of the world, including how some of the world thinks. I find myself exposed to it on Facebook, but you also see it on the news or hear it in conversations. We may go overboard on material things or get caught up in political debates; we are tempted to judge others or gossip; we might choose convenience over compassion or caring for creation. The attitudes and accepted practices of the world affect our own expectations and priorities. However, we can daily ask ourselves what Jesus would say about the things that hold our minds captive. Are they worthy of Christ? If not, ask God to help you focus on the better path.
 
Verse 23 echoes another favorite of mine, Romans 12:2. Both urge us to renew our minds by letting the Holy Spirit work within us. Becoming a new person by changing our thought habits doesn’t happen by flipping a switch or turning a page. It takes repeated practice to form healthy new habits, but it is also the work of the Holy Spirit to guide that process. As you face the need to change, begin with prayer!
 
The next paragraph continues to talk about the need for changed lives. I wonder if Paul had particular people in mind as he named some common sins. Kindly, he did not call out those names. We may think it easy to avoid lying or stealing, though there are shades of each that might tempt us. I suspect the one we wrestle with the most is anger. I have most often heard verse 26 as advice to newlyweds, but it is good advice to us all. You may need a cool down period before you talk to someone who has triggered an angry response in you, but don’t let it take forever. Pray about it; ask for God’s help to deal with your anger. Then, make an effort to be reconciled with that person as soon as possible, even if that means agreeing to disagree. Angry tension between peoples is not healthy for either party or anyone else around you.
 
I think this leads into the final paragraph of chapter 4, which lists several behavioral concerns. I would sum them up as Paul encouraging Christians to set a good example. Put away behaviors that would turn others away from Christ. Instead exhibit behaviors that demonstrate the mercy and grace Christ extends to you.
 
I like the reminder that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. We ritually enact that in baptism, confirmation, and ordination. But whether or not such ceremony has occurred, the Holy Spirit has claimed you for Christ as soon as you believed. If you affirm that God in love sent Jesus to save God’s people from their sin and this includes you, then the Holy Spirit is already at work in you in all the ways this chapter names.
 
Finally, Paul encourages us to forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us. Both Presbyterian and United Methodist rituals for saying goodbye to a pastor include forgiving each other for any mistakes made. My appointment here was administrative and teaching rather than being your pastor. But I’ve made more mistakes than I can name over the past 15 years, and there are still some I regret. Today we will offer each other forgiveness for any mistakes or misunderstandings between us. This is important to do not only as we formally end my employment and appointment here. It is something Christians should do with one another on a regular basis and demonstrate to the world.
 
Summary: For some of you, it feels odd that we have arrived at my retirement. I’ve been in your office corridor for so long! One or two of you may have separation anxiety, but God will get you through this. I did start warning you a few years ago, and I’ve tried to prepare you as best I could. Today I really wanted to tell you one more time that you are more than capable of doing ministry without me. What you need is God far more than you need me.  I was just one of the ways God helped you for a while. It has been a privilege to do so. But God will send others your way as you need them.
 
Today and last week, I shared a bit from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and letters from the later years of Paul’s ministry. I can resonate with what Jesus wanted to do, how he taught his disciples, what he and they must have felt when his time on earth was complete. But let’s remember that they did carry on equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit. So will you. I can appreciate the love and care Paul had for his churches, what he wanted for them and from them. I also want the best for you, and for you to do your best to serve our God.
 
You have been a blessing to me, and I am grateful for the opportunities I have had to bless you. We remain united as family in Christ, even if we don’t see each other for a while.                                   
 
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
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
Those who have been ill or in the hospital.
For Gary Iverson, Ellen Miller, Judy Welcher, Bonnie Pillers with ongoing needs.
For those who choose to stay home during this pandemic
 
Many who will become homeless as COVID-19 protections expire
Those affected by unemployment and other benefits running out soon
Those around the world coping with not only the health concerns
But also the financial realities to be faced as COVID-19 is not ending anytime soon
 
Those finding creative ways to express the justice needs of our world
Cities with ongoing protests and concerns raised by federal interventions
Continued tensions related to China and elsewhere in the world
 
The future of this congregation
The Session as it meets next week
The women coming to preach the next several Sundays
 
PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING
For this congregation and the years we have shared together
For the beauty of creation, time outdoors, gardens and greenery
For the basics of life: water, air, oxygen, food, clothing, shelter, family and friends
For visual and performance arts from photography, drawings, and paintings
To dance, music, and dramas, for literature and humor,
For athletics to observe and to participate, including Olympians training an extra year
For the grace and mercy of Christ, for God’s abiding presence through the Holy Spirit
 
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.
 
 
Sending
RECOGNITION OF RETIREMENT AND APPRECIATION OF MINISTRY
     Whatever they have to say or present - Mike
 
     Dissolution of appointment adapted from UMC Book of Worship:
 
I thank you, the members and friends of First United Presbyterian Church,
for the love and support you have shown me while I have ministered among you.

I am grateful for the ways my leadership has been accepted.
I ask forgiveness for the mistakes I have made.
As I leave, I carry with me all that I have learned here.

If you are willing to accept my “thankfulness, offer forgiveness,
and accept” my retirement, please say, “We do.”
 
If you wish to express gratitude for our time together.
You may say, “We do.”

I also accept your gratitude and forgiveness, and I forgive you,
trusting that our time together and our parting are pleasing to God.
I release you from turning to me and depending on me.
I encourage your continuing ministry here
and will pray for you and for Karla, for your leadership and your future.

Let us pray.

Eternal God, whose steadfast love for us is from everlasting to everlasting,
we give you thanks for cherished memories and commend one another into your care as we move in new directions. Keep us one in your love forever, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 
Through my years of ministry I have used some form of this benediction most Sundays:
 
CHARGE & BLESSING                                                           2 Corinthians 13:14, NIV
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
 
Go forth in peace and serve the Lord.
 
Please remain seated today for the entire postlude, then I will dismiss one side at a time. You are welcome to come up to the front on your way out if you wish to exchange a farewell for now.
 
POSTLUDE
 ​
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