Worship for the Lord's Day, Sunday, Oct. 2021

October 31, 2021 Order of Worship

 

First Presbyterian Church

October 31, 2021

10:00 AM

Order of Worship

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed.

Then our mouths were filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy.

Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

 The Lord has done great things for us. Let us rejoice and give thanks!

Let us worship the Living God.

 

*Hymn of Praise: “Lord, Speak to Me”

1. Lord, speak to me, that I may speak in living echoes of thy tone; as thou has sought, so let me seek thine erring children lost and lone.

2. O strengthen me, that while I stand firm on the rock, and strong in thee, I may stretch out a loving land to wrestlers with the troubled sea.

3. O teach me, Lord, that I may teach the precious things thou dost impart; and wing my words, that they may reach the hidden depths of many a heart.

4. O fill me with thy fullness, Lord, until my very heart o'erflow in kindling thought and glowing word, thy love to tell, thy praise to show.

5. O use me, Lord, use even me, just as thou wilt, and when, and where, until thy blessed face I see, thy rest, thy joy, thy glory share.

      PRAYER OF CONFESSION (In Unison)

God of grace and mercy, we often say that we love you with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, but when we look closely at our lives, we confess that our hearts are full of concerns that are not your concerns. Our souls are neglected. You are barely on our minds, and our strength is depleted by things that do not have anything to do with you. Please forgive us our sin. Cleanse us. Renew us. Reform us. Make us ever new. We ask this in the name of the One who died to set us free, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

*SILENT PRAYERS OF CONFESSION

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

We may not keep our promises to God, but God’s promises to us never fail. Friends, let us rejoice that because of God’s great faithfulness, we have been forgiven. Amen.

 

 

*THE GLORIA PATRI

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

INVITATION: “Dear Lord, I need You, please come into my life today.  Amen”

SCRIPTURAL INTRODUCTION

Micah 7: 18-20

                Ours is a relatively short passage from the Prophet Micah.  Micah is one of the “Twelve Minor Prophets” in the Old Testament.  It is not that they are less important than the “Major” prophets, but their works are not as long.  Judgement and the redemption of God are both strong themes in Micah’s work. 

                Unlike Jonah, which has a storyline that is popular from Sunday School on forward among the Bible’s stories, Micah is more typical of the prophetic book, a gathering of the words of the prophet spoken in God’s Name.  This is the style of most of the prophetic books, although some have a fair bit of historical narrative (like the prophet Jeremiah) or at least some historical context (Isaiah contains some of this). 

                One thing that Micah is well known for is one of the prophetic underpinnings of Jesus’ birth, in Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come to me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”  This passage is cited by the scribes when King Herod is confronted by the Magi who ask where the king of the Jews is to be born.

                Thus, in Micah can be found prophecies that are used to point directly to Jesus as well as prophecies, as our passage today, that indicate the plan and the forgiveness of God made manifest to us by Jesus’ death and resurrection.

 LESSONS: Micah 7: 18-20

¹⁸ Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
   and passing over the transgression
   of the remnant of your possession?
He does not retain his anger for ever,
   because he delights in showing clemency.
¹⁹ He will again have compassion upon us;
   he will tread our iniquities under foot.
You will cast all our sins
   into the depths of the sea.
²⁰ You will show faithfulness to Jacob
   and unswerving loyalty to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our ancestors
   from the days of old.

SERMON:                            “Punishment and Consequence”                                    Rev. Peter Hofstra

                In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven for our sins.  Such is the grace of God extended to us through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Such is the centerpiece of God’s plan to restore the proper relationship between the creation and Godself.  The theology is pretty clear, I hope. 

                Forgiveness means that the mercy of the Lord surpasses the justice of the Lord.  For the wages of sin is death, according to Paul.  We are punished for our sins, that is how the system works.  In the act of punishment, the ideal is that we are restored to right relationship with God, that we return to obedience of our Loving Father.

                I believe that is pretty straight forward, at least I hope it is.  This is the joy of Easter morning, new life.  And our passage in Micah demonstrates for us that, in Jesus, forgiveness was not a new thing, that somehow God now forgives when God used to punish before.  But it does open the question of how punishment works in God.

                Punishment, when bad things happen, that is a working definition for some, but I believe things are more complicated than that.  So I want to distinguish between punishment and consequences.  To use a current example, a parent warns their child not to touch the hot stove.  Instructs them NOT to do so.  But the child, being the child, does what?  They touch the hot stove.  And they burn their hand.  Let’s work with that to define consequences.  One activity leads to another activity.  Then, the parent, in their emotional response to the child doing something they were told not to do, gives them a whack on the backside for ‘not listening’.  That, for the sake of our definitions, is punishment. 

                In the Old Testament, consequence and punishment are often brought together.  For example, you know the Sunday School song, “Joshua won the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho…”  The reality is that Joshua had very little to do with it, God won the battle, but that is another sermon.  In that victory, God commanded that all the treasures, all the spoils of war, they all belonged to the Lord.  These were the first fruits of their victories.  The rest of the victories, the rest of the conquests, those spoils went to the people.  But the first portion belonged to the Lord. 

                That Biblical message has not changed to this day.  God provides us all that we have.  The call for the support of God’s church is the tithe, is the first portion of what we receive as the blessings of God.  How that actually works out in the giving to the church, that is another matter.

                What happens at Jericho is that some of the spoils of the victory are held back.  Achan looked upon the treasures, his greed got the better of him, and he took some and hid it.  Punishment came from the Lord upon the whole people of Israel.  After Jericho, the next target for their campaign was the small city of Ai.  It was so small, the whole army was not deployed, only some select battalions.  From God’s point of view and Israel’s point of view, that should have been enough to conquer them.  But the army of Ai beat back the Israelite attack.

                The consequence of the failed attack is that the army of Israel was defeated.  But we come to understand, from the text, that this was also a punishment against the Israelites because of the treasure NOT given to God, at God’s command, from Jericho.  God made them lose.  Consequence and punishment are here blended.

                That mindset is reinforced throughout the Old Testament.  God leads to victory in times of obedience, God punishes with defeat in times of disobedience.  The blending of consequence and punishment is deeply ingrained in our religious psyche.

                This thinking continues to this day.  Christians announced that the Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans as God’s punishment.  9/11 has been called God’s judgement on America.  Superstorm Sandy has been called God’s punishment on New York City.  Bad things happened because of these hurricanes, because of the terrorist attack, there are consequences to the loss of life and the damage done.  But is it proper to call these things ‘punishment’ from God?

                So let’s go to Jesus.  The gospel of John, chapter 9, where Jesus heals the blind man.  The presumption on the part of the disciples is that this man was blind as a punishment for sin.  “Who sinned that this man is blind?  Did he or his parents?”  Jesus’ response is that no one sinned that resulted in this man’s blindness.  Rather, this man is blind and the power of healing in Jesus is to be made manifest in him.

                That is a careful piece to interpret.  It is one thing to ask what sinned to cause this man’s blindness.  It is something very cynical to suggest that God struck this man blind for Jesus.  The man is blind.  It is the opportunity for Jesus to heal, for God’s power to be made manifest.

                In Luke 13, Jesus speaks of a local tragedy.  The tower of Siloam collapsed, killing 18 people.  Jesus talks about that and punishment for sin.  Were those 18 more guilty of sin than others?  The answer is no.  The punishment for sin is that ALL will perish.  Eighteen people died, that is a tragedy.  Maybe it was the consequence of shoddy workmanship, the Bible does not tell us, but Jesus very clearly delineates between the tragic consequences of this collapse and how God’s punishment is now carried out.

                Through Jesus, the things that God did in the Old Testament are not ended, but rather, they are fulfilled.  So the pattern of using external forces, historical forces, to exercise punishment on the people of Israel, so that consequences and punishment are virtually the same thing, that has changed as Jesus has changed the very nature of Humanity’s relationship to God, from God’s Chosen People to All the People. 

                Punishment for sin has been universalized.  Bad things are not going to happen to us because God is punishing us.  The punishment for sin is permanent death, eternal separation from God.  It is how we understand hell, a place of torment, a place where we are no longer with our Creator. 

                Punishment is universalized because forgiveness has been universalized.  So if New Jersey sins, God is not going to raise up the armies of Pennsylvania to attack us in punishment.  Rather, whomever in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and wherever else in the world turns against God and rejects the law of Love toward God and Neighbor, God’s punishment is upon each and every one.

                That was a shortfall in the punishment of the people at Ai, back in the time of Joshua.  The faithful and the unfaithful among the Israelites, the obedient and the disobedient, were punished.  It was based on the community of believers, where now it is the individual relationship with Jesus that governs our punishment and forgiveness.

                But having said all that, consequences remain.  Thousands have died as a result of 9/11, directly and in the aftermath.  Those are the consequences of the evil deeds perpetrated by those hijackers.  Katrina and Sandy, hurricanes, ‘natural disasters’, if we call those punishments, why were only New Orleans and New York singled out?  Now, we might point to global warming, we might point to antiquated levy systems and other response systems as reasons why the consequences were so much worse that they should have been, but that is something different from saying “God punished them”. 

                Which leads to something else so very important in the Christian faith.  If God had truly singled out some person or some group of people for divine punishment, how could we, as Christians, in good conscience, help them out?  If God were truly punishing New Orleans, how should we dare to defy our God and help them?  And there were Christians who were saying, essentially, let them drown.

                But in the resurrection of Jesus and the forgiveness it brings to all who call on Jesus’ name, the love of God is unleashed.  The love of God and the love of neighbor, they are the guiding principles for all that we do.  People suffering the consequences of natural or manmade events, they are not singled out as ‘bad’, they are singled out for special attention as we wield God’s love in the world. 

                That’s God’s punishment is no longer directly inflicted upon the world has opened up new advantages to our faith.  There is no one we cannot reach out to.  Where there is a need, there can the church be, there can we be.  The world calls somebody the bad guys, the immigrants, the foreigners, the people who look that way or talk that way, such is utter nonsense.  All are God’s children!  There is nowhere we cannot go in the power of the Holy Spirit.

                When it comes to sin, how liberating is this for us!  There is no punishment except the permanent death of hell.  That means there is no one here that we need turn our backs on as sinners.  Some group calling themselves Christian tell the world that ‘those’ people are sinners and therefore need to be shunned?  Absolutely NOT.  “Those people” are God’s children as surely as WE are God’s children. 

                The consequence of Jesus’ forgiveness of our sins is that we, in turn, work with others to receive that same forgiveness that we have received.  We DO NOT do so by threatening others with divine punishment.  Believe in Jesus or else.  No, the call for all Christians is to work against the consequences of sinful behavior to show to the world the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁸ Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of your possession? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in showing clemency. ¹⁹ He will again have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. ²⁰ You will show faithfulness to Jacob and unswerving loyalty to Abraham, as you have sworn to our ancestors from the days of old.

God accomplishes God’s clemency, God expresses compassion, God casts our sins into the depths of the sea through our Lord Jesus Christ.  We are saved, all of us who accept the love of Christ.  Judgement is given to Jesus, punishment is given to Jesus, but that choice is ours, not His.  He did not die to kill us.  He did not rise again so that we would stay dead.  Even in the worst consequences of what happens in creation, Jesus is right there with us.  Christ is our example to be right there with our fellow human beings. 

In Jesus, we are forgiven for our sins.  Hallelujah and Amen.

 

 

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH (The Apostle’s Creed)

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick 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.

PASSING OF THE PEACE

THE OFFERING OF OUR TITHES & GIFTS

Trusting in the generosity of God, let us now give generously to the work and ministry of the church of Jesus Christ in the world

*DOXOLOGY

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  Amen.

 

*PRAYER OF DEDICATION

Gracious and generous God, please accept these gifts that we have brought. May these offerings serve to draw others to love, honor, and serve you. Multiply these tithes and offerings, Holy One, and use them for the edification of your people all around the world. All for love’s sake, amen.

JOYS AND CONCERNS

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

Reforming God, our world needs you. We have wandered so far from your ways and turned away from your commands. War, violence, hatred and greed prevail, so we ask that you grant us peace, hope, love and courage so that we can be the people you created us to be in this world. Our nation needs you. Politics and fear divide us and drive us to our separate corners even though we are called to love our enemies and do good to those who curse us and despise us. Lord of love, we ask that you remind and empower us to be people of hope and reconciliation who stand up for righteousness, justice and peace. Our church, your church, needs you. We don’t know your word well enough to teach it to our children. We don’t read your word enough to draw on it during our time of need, so we ask that you prompt us to imbibe in the Bread of Life and Living Water that are found in your word and in you. Remind us that you are the source of all that we need, and then send us to be your church in the world, all the time, everywhere. We need you; each of us needs you. Please remind us that you hear our prayers and you answer them. Invite us again and again to draw near to you as you draw near to us. And hear us as we pray the prayer Jesus taught us to pray, saying,

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.

*CLOSING HYMN: “For the Beauty of the Earth”

1. For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies; Lord of all, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.

2. For the beauty of each hour of the day and of the night, hill and vale, and tree and flower, sun and moon, and stars of light; Lord of all, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.

3. For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and mind's delight, for the mystic harmony, linking sense to sound and sight; Lord of all, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.

 4. For thy church, that evermore lifteth holy hands above, offering upon every shore her pure sacrifice of love; Lord of all, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.

5. For thyself, best Gift Divine, to the world so freely given, for that great, great love of thine, peace on earth, and joy in heaven: Lord of all, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.

 

*BENEDICTION

*THREE FOLD AMEN

Elements of Order of Worship Liturgy written by Gail Henderson-Belsito courtesy of the Presbyterian Outlook

Worship for the Lord's Day, Celebrated on Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021

Order of Worship for Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021

 

First Presbyterian Church

October 24, 2021

10:00 AM

Order of Worship

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed.

Then our mouths were filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy.

Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

 The Lord has done great things for us. Let us rejoice and give thanks!

Let us worship the Living God.

 

*Hymn of Praise: “All Glory, Laud, and Honor”

Refrain: All glory, laud, and honor, to thee, Redeemer, King, to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring.

1. Thou art the King of Israel, thou David's royal Son, who in the Lord's name comest, the King and Blessed One. (Refrain)

2. The company of angels are praising thee on high, and we with all creation in chorus make reply. (Refrain)

3. The people of the Hebrews with psalms before thee went; our prayer and praise and anthems before thee we present. (Refrain)

4. To thee, before thy passion, they sang their hymns of praise; to thee, now high exalted, our melody we raise. (Refrain)

5. Thou didst accept their praises; accept the prayers we bring, who in all good delightest, thou good and gracious King. (Refrain)

      PRAYER OF CONFESSION (In Unison)

God of perfect love, you continually bring forth life, transforming sadness to joy, and despair to hope We are weak, but you are strong. Our ways are flawed, but your ways are true. We are seldom right, but you are never wrong. Forgive us, redeem us, transform us. Take away the sin that burdens us, and restore us to the people you would have us be, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

*SILENT PRAYERS OF CONFESSION

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

Relentlessly, God seeks us out. With abundant grace and boundless mercy, God seeks us out. This is good news! In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven!

*THE GLORIA PATRI

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

INVITATION: “Dear Lord, I need You, please come into my life today.  Amen”

SCRIPTURAL INTRODUCTION

Acts 9: 1-25

                A third of the way into the Book of Acts and we meet the apostle who will, arguably, have the greatest influence over the development of Christianity to our very day.  We meet Paul, name changed from Saul by Jesus in his vision of conversion.  As a character, Saul appears a little sooner in the book, but as a persecutor of the Christians-including at the martyrdom of Stephen. 

                His past is acknowledged in the text.  Before Jesus appears to him, he is described as “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.”  When Ananias is called to take him in, the first reaction of Ananias is to question about this man who up until that moment had been persecuting the believers of Jesus. 

                He will go on first to preach to the Jews in Damascus, where his conversion took place, and then in Jerusalem where, although the disciples are initially fearful of him, Barnabas stands up for him and he is accepted.  It seems that his conversion from such a rabid “Christian hater” to one who is now speaking out on behalf of Jesus was enough to inspire a plot to kill him by the very leaders on whose behalf he had been working.

                Saul, whose name will be changed to Paul, is called with a purpose.  When Ananias questions Saul’s credentials as one who persecuted the Christians, the Lord replies, ‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.’ 

                This is how the life of Paul is going to play out.  In the book of Acts, the focus of the book will shift to Paul and the three ‘missionary journeys’ that he undertook.  In the New Testament, the letters he wrote to these various churches and to select individuals will also be gathered to become the largest selection of books in the New Testament.

                In the New Testament, Paul will be the most influential apostle in terms of ministry extended to the Gentiles.  He will as also suffer for the faith, always living in the shadow of his time as an agent of destruction to the faith, and finally going to prison for his faith.  In prison, as a Roman citizen, he will appeal to the Emperor to hear his case and will be moved from the Promised Land to Rome, under guard, and the historical narrative of the New Testament concludes with his still waiting for his appeal to be heard. 

                As an apostle, Paul serves as the bridge between the Jewish heritage of the faith Jesus taught to its expansion to the Gentile world in which it ascended.

 LESSONS: Acts 9: 1-25

9Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest ²and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. ³Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ ⁵He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ⁶But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’ ⁷The men who were travelling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. ⁸Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. ⁹For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

10 Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ He answered, ‘Here I am, Lord.’ ¹¹The Lord said to him, ‘Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, ¹²and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.’ ¹³But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; ¹⁴and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.’ ¹⁵But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; ¹⁶I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.’ ¹⁷So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ ¹⁸And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, ¹⁹and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, ²⁰and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ ²¹All who heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?’ ²²Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah.

23 After some time had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, ²⁴but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him; ²⁵but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

26 When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. ²⁷But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus. ²⁸So he went in and out among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. ²⁹He spoke and argued with the Hellenists; but they were attempting to kill him. ³⁰When the believers learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

31 Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

SERMON:                          “Life Lessons In The Holy Spirit”                               Rev. Peter Hofstra

Acts 9: 1-25

                So the details of our passage are fairly straight forward.  Saul is confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus, blinded by the Lord, and here he has his conversion experience.  Ananias, a believer in Damascus, is then sent by Jesus to take him in.  A prophecy of the ministry that Saul is to undertake sets the stage for Saul to become Paul the apostle.  Paul then begins to preach in Damascus, but his former colleagues, seeing him ‘switch sides’, plot to kill him.  So they get him out of Damascus.  Paul goes to Jerusalem where the apostles are initially worried about this man who is known to them as ‘breathing threats and murder against the disciples of Jesus’ but Barnabas, who is witness to what happened in Damascus, stands up for Saul/Paul, he is accepted into the community.  When he starts to preach in Jerusalem, there is another conspiracy that arises to kill him, so they smuggle him out yet again.  With Paul converted and in safety in Tarsis, the Bible records that the church then found a time of peace in the Holy Spirit to grow and flourish.

                It is a powerful story in the book of Acts, coming at a significant point of transition.  At the beginning of the book, the call is to share the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.  With Saul, who becomes Paul, we have the apostle by whom the journey of the church to the ends of the earth will find its beginning.  Paul will undertake three missionary journeys in the book of Acts, his name will go on 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament, he has a tremendous influence on how Jesus and the plan of God is understood and interpreted for the church down through the ages.

                As we look to his story, I want to call our attention to how what we know of Jesus is made manifest in this moment in Paul’s life, how Jesus communicates with us, how Jesus is portrayed to us.  It is one thing to talk about the beauty and wonder that is our Lord in the abstract, but it is perhaps more powerful to see how those talks find reality in Jesus’ work among us.  This process is how we see the Holy Spirit working through the text and working in us to bring the message of Jesus ever more powerfully into our lives and worship. 

                So what do I mean by this?

                Remember last week, we spoke of Jesus the Warrior.  We shared how much caution must be exercised in how such imagery is used in the affairs of the world.  But here, I think we can see how the image of Jesus the Warrior finds expression.  How about in the war for Saul’s very soul?  From the executioner of the faithful to the champion of the faithful, I see the victory of Jesus, the rider on the White Horse, overcoming the evil that had infected the heart of this man.   

                This is language that Paul himself will allude to in his letters.  Such is the blessing of having his personal letters as part of the Canon of Scripture.  He is open and introspective about how Jesus has affected him and changed him in a way that I do not think he would be if he believed his letters were going to be ‘for the ages’ and not just for the particular churches and individuals with which he was in correspondence.

                Are you with me?  Seeing through the lens of the Holy Spirit how the image of Jesus the Warrior plays out in the “battleground” of the soul?

                I believe we can also see how Jesus works with the lives we have lived as enter the life that He calls us to.  Who we are in the world, that is the person, those are the talents, that is the one whom Jesus is calling to His ministry.  Consider the dialogue between Ananias and Jesus, “But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; ¹⁴and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.’ ¹⁵But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; ¹⁶I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.’”

                Saul’s background and upbringing seem to be those of an educated religious type, a Rabbi or Pharisee in the tradition of the time.  So it is from that upbringing, from that background, that he will passionately defend and define how the finer points of Jewish thought and theology find their fulfillment and ultimate working out in the Person and Ministry of Jesus Christ.  He is the most prolific theological thinker of the New Testament.

                In this passage, we see how the Lord Jesus fulfills the promises that He made that, although He ascended into heaven, He is with us in the Holy Spirit.  He calls the unbeliever through the Holy Spirit.  Such is the conversion vision that Saul has in direct confrontation with Jesus.  While it is true that we do not run into many stories today about Jesus blinding us while we travel to confront us with our sins, neither did the early church.  It was Paul’s unique run in with the Almighty.  But it is not how it was done that is so important as what was done.  Here was a persecutor of the church, inciting mobs to murder, throwing people in prison for believing in Jesus, and how radically was his life turned around?

                But note that, in the Holy Spirit, Jesus does not just confront the sinner, but He leads the saved.  He came to Ananias, he answered the questions this believer had about Saul, he empowered Ananias to heal Paul and to become his guide in the community of faith in Damascus.

                While these direct conversations with Jesus are not as common today, it is not that Jesus does not speak to us.  The record of Saul’s conversion, the letters that Paul is going to write from this point, the history of the book of Acts, those along with the gospels and the rest of the canon of Scripture, the Holy Bible, that is where Jesus speaks to us from in this age. 

                This story also speaks to us of the power of forgiveness in Jesus.  Not only does the Christian community both in Damascus and in Jerusalem offer forgiveness and acceptance to the man who hunted them, but they put themselves at risk for him.  Conspiracies to murder Paul were rife, and with good reason.  It does not look well for the opposition if their number one attack dog against this new, upstart sect with Judaism has suddenly joined the other side.  They put themselves at risk in saving his life.  Forgiveness is one thing, but look at what forgiveness led to.  The communities of faith were not just neutral in their attitudes to Paul, but they put themselves in harm’s way to keep him out of it.

                I think where we can connect with the Holy Spirit in our own life and times out of this story is in the person of Barnabas.  The text does not identify Jesus coming to him directly, unlike to Paul and to Ananias, but Jesus is there nonetheless.  Paul is trying to crack open the Christian community in Jerusalem.  Remember, he’d already been arresting there.  It seems he took the show on the road because he’d driven the church underground so there were no more easy pickings among Jesus’ followers to imprison.  Now he’s asking for them to come out into the open, for him.  He’s not exactly trust building. 

                So the Holy Spirit works through Barnabas.  The man was in the right place at the right time, he was witness to Damascus.  He is a person that the community trusts and listen to.  And he is led to do the right thing.  The Spirit leads him to essentially sponsor Paul to the apostles, to take responsibility for him among the leaders of the church.  Face it, if we remove our consideration of the Holy Spirit to speculate on ‘what if’ Barnabas was wrong, Saul gathered the leaders of the conspiracy he had been trying to stomp out all in one place.

                It’s a conversion story, so of course Jesus is there, but the presence of Jesus in the Holy Spirit, the emphases of Jesus in our life and ministry, the imagery of Jesus opened to us across Scripture, all those are to be found here as well. 

                What then are we to do with this?  It is an invitation to consider life.  But to consider life from a particular point of view.  Where is Jesus is what is happening to us?  Are things not going so well, but we have endured and overcome?  Do we see the hand of Christ upon us in those circumstances?  The hand of Christ was upon Paul through two assassination plots in our passage this morning.

                Has something in life happened where there was the need to stop and reassess, to consider what is going on is a good choice or a bad choice?  Sometimes something looks really good, but you know the wisdom ‘too good to be true’.  Was there a little voice, or a screaming voice that warned “don’t do it?”  May not be as obvious as Jesus appearing to Paul, but still.

                Or maybe you happen to be in the right place at the right time to be there for someone else, like Ananias was there for Paul.  Maybe there is a whispered voice that pushes us away from the attitude that ‘this is not my problem’.

                We live our lives in the guidance of our Lord Jesus.  But it does not have to appear to be so happenstance.  A life that begins daily with “Jesus, use me as You will” may not change what possibilities are out there for us in the given day, but might just open our eyes to see them and open our hearts to accept them in a way we might not have otherwise.

                A heart for God is a heart for our neighbors, because a heart for God is a loving heart, and that love of God is only ever slightly more important than our love of neighbor.  I would argue that the reality of a heartfelt love for God, instead of some words that sound good in the mind, is when we live out heartfelt love for our neighbors.

                Where does this come from?  It does not just happen.  It comes from the outworking of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.  To pray, Lord Jesus, make me more receptive to people in need of your love is to pray, “Lord Jesus, I open my heart to the Holy Spirit.”  Because the Holy Spirit is not an empty vessel that we then fill.

                No, in Christ, when we truly open our hearts to His love, forgiveness, and concern for neighbors and friends, we empty ourselves of the greed and sin of the world and it is the Holy Spirit that fills us with the good things of Jesus so that we live lives of faith.

                Read Acts 9 again, look for where Jesus is working in the life of Saul, of Paul.  Meditate on the Word of God, in this case, where now could I see the work of Jesus going on in my own life?  Where can I more fully express the Holy Spirit in me?  Where can the love of Christ open my heart that I may come to know more fully what it means to be a child of the Living God?  Amen.

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH (The Apostle’s Creed)

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick 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.

PASSING OF THE PEACE

THE OFFERING OF OUR TITHES & GIFTS

ur God trusts us to be agents of change and love. May we respond to the generosity of our God and to God’s ceaseless hope in us by serving God through the sharing of the gifts of our time, toil and treasure.

*DOXOLOGY

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  Amen.

*PRAYER OF DEDICATION

God of love, we know that all good things come from you. As we return these gifts to you, we pray that they will bring you joy. We pray that you will show us how to use them to serve you, your church and your people that you may be glorified. We pray this in the name of the one who modeled servant love for us, Jesus Christ. Amen.

JOYS AND CONCERNS

 

 

 

 

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

Merciful God, powerful and wonderful, eternally present and graciously close, we are grateful for what you have given us in Jesus Christ: life and love without end. Prompted by your Spirit and encouraged by your faithfulness, we lift to you the cares and concerns of our hearts, the burdens and the worries of our lives. We pray that the sick would be healed, that the broken would be mended, that the mournful would be comforted. We pray that warriors would yield to peace, that leaders would gain wisdom, that the forsaken would be gathered in. We pray that the sorrowful would be consoled, that the poor would be lifted up, that the anxious would be released. We pray for children in their growing and for youth in their seeking. We pray for those making new starts and for those nearing a journey’s end. We pray for those facing hard choices and for those enduring painful consequences. We pray for those filled with bitterness and for those who are just empty. We pray that your church might claim its potential, that the body of Christ might be strengthened by its many parts, that the work of ministry might be done with joy and thanksgiving. We pray for the courage to follow Jesus, for the faith to trust your promises to us, for the vision to see your kingdom among us even now. We pray for all that you would have us pray. We pray for those for whom no one prays. We pray all of these things in the name of the one who ceaselessly prays for us, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Trusting in Christ, we offer together the prayer he taught us:

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.

*CLOSING HYMN: “Blessed Assurance”

1. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.

Refrain: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long; this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.

2. Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight; angels descending bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love. (Refrain)

3. Perfect submission, all is at rest; I in my Savior am happy and blest, watching and waiting, looking above, filled with his goodness, lost in his love. (Refrain)

*BENEDICTION

*THREE FOLD AMEN

Elements of Order of Worship Liturgy Liturgy written by John Wurster, pastor of St. Philip Presbyterian Church in Houston.

Worship for the Lord's Day: October 17, 2021

Order of Worship: Lord's Day October 17, 2021

 

First Presbyterian Church

October 17, 2021

10:00 AM

Order of Worship

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

Our Lord is called Faithful and True,

In faithfulness, in truth, and in righteousness will our Lord Jesus judge the world.

Through Him comes victory and eternal life.

So shall we call our Jesus King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

 Let us worship the Living God.

 

*Hymn of Praise: “All Things Bright and Beautiful”

Refrain: All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful: the Lord God made them all.

1. Each little flower that opens, each little bird that sings, God made their glowing colors, and made their tiny wings. (Refrain)

2. The purple-headed mountains, the river running by, the sunset and the morning that brightens up the sky. (Refrain)

3. The cold wind in the winter, the pleasant summer sun, the ripe fruits in the garden: God made them every one. (Refrain)

4. God gave us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell how great is God Almighty, who has made all things well. (Refrain)

      PRAYER OF CONFESSION (In Unison)

Holy God, through Jesus, you taught us that the last shall be first and the first shall be last, but we often struggle with creating space so that others might thrive. We are haphazard with your creation, choosing convenience over conservation, and recklessly assume there will always be enough to go around. We idealize the poor as “happy with their small portion” and put off acts of justice that restore opportunities for the vulnerable. We are often content for those on the margins to be “first” in the afterlife but not in this life. And sometimes we fall prey to the world’s priorities, which whisper that we must come in first and have the most and that we are always in jeopardy of not being enough. Help us, O God, to lean into the example of our servant savior, who models power in vulnerability and invites us to serve one another

*SILENT PRAYERS OF CONFESSION

 

ASSURANCE OF PARDON (Based on Mark 10:45)

Family of God, our hope is in the Son of Man, who came not to be served but to serve, and who gave his life as a ransom for our own. In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the debt of our sin has been paid, and we have been freed for new life. In Jesus Christ, we are all forgiven.

 

*THE GLORIA PATRI

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

INVITATION: “Dear Lord, I need You, please come into my life today.  Amen”

SCRIPTURAL INTRODUCTION

Rev. 19: 11-21

                The Book of Revelations, also called ‘the Apocalypse of John’, the book of the End Times.  How do we begin to understand this book?  The one lesson that I was taught early on to keep everything in perspective is to remember that the Good Guys win.  The rest is in the detail.  And what detail.

                There have been entire histories written seeking to use this book as their guide for what is going to come in the End Times.  But here is a problem.  Some strands of thinking in the New Testament basically consider everything after Pentecost as ‘the End Times’.  It is not hard to go down the rabbit hole of trying literal interpretations of one of the most symbolic books in all of Scripture.

                The four riders of the Apocalypse, they have appeared in any number of ‘end of times’ movies and television shows, War, Hunger, Disease, and Death.  Although there are more popular names for a couple, Hunger is “Famine” and Disease is “Pestilence” according to Google.  But there is not so much about the White Rider, the one from heaven who rides against these four from hell.

                Having said that, if we have any fans of Lord of the Rings here, we know that Gandalf, in the final battles, rides forth as ‘the White Rider’.  The difference between that White Rider and this White Rider is that in Lord of the Rings, their White Rider was still capable of being beaten.

                As we focus in here, we are at the climactic battle in the book of Revelations.  The White Rider is leading the armies of heaven.  The first part of our passage is perhaps the most detailed image laid out for us in the Book of Revelations.  Who is the White Rider?  Outside of the book of Revelations, the leader of the angelic armies is said to be the archangel Michael.  But here we see a description that is, in my experience, rarely drawn out to its logical conclusion.

                Because we are used to the imagery of this person as being the Suffering Servant, the Lamb of God sacrificed to take away the sins of the world, the Son of Man.  Or we see him as the Judge, sitting on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, taking on the mantle of the one who will judge the world.  But there is not a lot of detail that describes Jesus as the Warrior, the Conquering Hero of God’s army.  We tend to discount the Cosmic Victory because talking about war so triumphantly is not really in vogue anymore. 

                But to understand Jesus and what he did for us on the cross is to understand that a cosmic victory has taken place, and that victory is described in our passage this morning.

 

 LESSONS: Revelations 19: 11-21

11 Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. ¹²His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed that no one knows but himself. ¹³He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God. ¹⁴And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. ¹⁵From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. ¹⁶On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’.

17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly in mid-heaven, ‘Come, gather for the great supper of God, ¹⁸to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of the mighty, the flesh of horses and their riders—flesh of all, both free and slave, both small and great.’ ¹⁹Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against the rider on the horse and against his army. ²⁰And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed in its presence the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulphur. ²¹And the rest were killed by the sword of the rider on the horse, the sword that came from his mouth; and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

SERMON:                          “Christ Victorious: Jesus as Warrior”                               Rev. Peter Hofstra

Revelations 19: 11-21

                Are you familiar with the English actor and director Kenneth Branagh?  Shakespearean actor of immense skill.  If you know the MCU, he directed the first Thor movie.  Harry Potter fans?  He played Gilderoy Lockhart.  Fans of PBS Masterpiece Theater Mystery?  He played Wallander.  Most recently, he was on a promotional tour with an extremely impressive beard, portraying Hercule Poirot in the remake of “Murder on the Orient Express”.

                I spend too much time on his resume because of the first movie he ever directed.  It was an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Henry V”, a historic play, a war play.  Branagh is in the title role.  And to see him, its like a line from Road House, where Patrick Swayze played the bouncer, “I thought he would have been bigger.”  But he is not and he is magnificent.  Henry V led the British to tremendous victory over the French in the battle of Agincourt.  And in the movie, that battle and victory are portrayed with great intensity.  But it is the scene after that lingers in my mind.  It is a long, panoramic shot of the aftermath, of the wounded, the broken, the dying, and the dead.

                Henry V has been described as an “antiwar” war film.  Our passage in Revelations reads like that movie.  In the first part, it is all the pomp and circumstance of a victorious army headed to war.  In the second, it is almost gratuitous in its detail of the birds called upon to consume the flesh of the dead.  I will be honest and admit that I am not sure if I have ever heard those latter verses shared during worship.

                It is that second part of the passage, sharing of the horrors of the aftermath of battle, that make the first part something that is not generally a part of our image of Jesus.  Because the White Rider, it can be nobody else.  Yet it offers a tremendous contradiction in who we understand Jesus to be.  We know Jesus from passages like, “and a sheep before its shearer is silent”.  He was the one who refused to answer those who were taunting him on the cross that he should just come down if he were truly God’s son.  Jesus said, “My peace I leave with you.”

                But here is the conquering hero.  And what a magnificent description of our Lord and Savior. 

Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse!  Its rider is called Faithful and True… It is possible, maybe, to try and link this rider to someone other than Jesus, if this does not fit our image of Jesus.  “Faithful and True”, that describes Jesus, but it could be anyone of divine obedience, but John quickly corrects that possibility…and in righteousness he judges…here is a powerful link between Revelation and the Gospel of John, where one of the focal points of Jesus is that He has been made Judge…and makes war…but that we may not like as much…¹²His eyes are like a flame of fire,…scary and overwhelming, and this is how Jesus’ eyes appear to John in Revelations chapter 1…and on his head are many diadems;…diadems, a multi-jeweled crown, hearkens to language describing the twelve gemstones in the breastplate of the high priest and the language of what the New Jerusalem is built of…and he has a name inscribed that no one knows but himself…that one is a bit of a mystery to me, except to say that only Jesus would have knowledge known only to Godself.  ¹³He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood,…language straight from his own crucifixion…and his name is called The Word of God…Gospel of John 1, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God… ¹⁴And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses…the armies get brief mention, but the fine linen, white and pure, hearkens back to the transfiguration where Jesus appeared with Moses and Elijah is purest white.  ¹⁵From his mouth comes a sharp sword…as with the eyes of fire, this is Jesus’ appearance in Revelation 1, and more, the Word of God is described as a two-edged sword…with which to strike down the nations…not simply judgement of the nations, but punishment as well…, and he will rule them with a rod of iron…takes me back to an image in the prophet Daniel, the descent of empires, gold to silver to bronze to iron, Babylonian to Persian to Greek to Roman, the Iron Empire whose might has never been challenged (up to the moment of John’s writing anyway)…; he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty…this is the inspiration for the Battle Hymn of the Republic, “He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored”… ¹⁶On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’…such inspiring power here, these are the climactic words in the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.  I have been a baritone in the choir pounding out these words as the higher parts, the voices of the angels, are singing Forever and Ever, Hallelujah, Hallelujah…

                I had to get up and walk away from writing the sermon for a few moments because the chorus was ringing joyfully in my memory.

                I don’t know about you, but I am pretty well convinced that, although not mentioned by name, the White Rider is Jesus.

                In the movies, in the runup to the climactic battle, the charismatic leader usually gives the troops an inspiring speech of all that is to come.  Here, we do one better.  Jesus IS the Word of God, and his very presence is the inspiration to victory.  Ultimate, cosmic victory. 

                This is not World War 3 or 4 or whatever that we are talking about here.  This is settling of accounts, this is Good versus Evil, and the Good Guys win.  But as awe inspiring as this is meant to be, it has a huge downside.  It has been coopted throughout history as justification for every war that has been perpetrated in Jesus’ name.  And where Christianity has been ascendant, that is pretty much all of them.  It is woven into our own American patriotic language in times of war.

                And there is an honesty in this passage that, in the next verses, John does NOT shy away from the aftermath of battle.  Those images are pretty gross.  But we live in a day and age where warfare has entered our very homes, Vietnam was the first truly televised war, where we have been sensitized to the cost and the aftermath of war like never before.  So we do not spend a lot of time with “Warrior Jesus”. 

                It is easier to see Jesus in Mother Theresa or Nelson Mandela then in George Patton.  But that may just be a good thing.  We are reminded of the stakes of war, life and death itself.  And we are reminded of who has the power of life and death in their hands, our Lord Jesus.  We humans, we have a pretty frightening ability to wield the power of death, but not life.

                And in this world, there are no absolutes.  In war, there is never one side that is completely evil or one side that is completely good.  There is no such thing as a clean war.  Innocents get stuck and suffer from every side.  Even in the final, cosmic battle between Good and Evil, we are not left with a clean, sanitized version of its aftermath.  And I think that is a good thing.  We can learn from this.

                Because God draws upon human experience to understand divine reality.  The glory of the glittering army setting off to war is an extremely potent image in the hearts and minds of humanity.  Freedom is protected, justice is served, evil is vanquished, all that language of warfare finds its roots in what God has accomplished for us in Jesus Christ.  We, as human beings, have a tremendous ability to delude ourselves.  We sent our young people off to war and, for a time, block out our knowledge of the consequences.  Jesus leading us into war, it’s the war where there will be no consequences for the winning side.  We will come back alive and delighted in the knowledge that we have overcome evil.  That’s the image God uses to help us to understand what God’s plan is going to accomplish.

                Because its not watching the war.  Its about keeping our eyes upon Jesus.  It’s about us understanding how Jesus is love, how Jesus is justice, how Jesus is victorious over sin and death, over the devil and the forces of evil.  Jesus Lamb of God, Jesus Warrior, Jesus Suffering Servant, Jesus Judge, Jesus Friend of sinners, He is all of that and so much more.  Amen.

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH (The Apostle’s Creed)

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick 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.

PASSING OF THE PEACE

THE OFFERING OF OUR TITHES & GIFTS

ur God trusts us to be agents of change and love. May we respond to the generosity of our God and to God’s ceaseless hope in us by serving God through the sharing of the gifts of our time, toil and treasure.

*DOXOLOGY

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  Amen.

*PRAYER OF DEDICATION

God of love, we know that all good things come from you. As we return these gifts to you, we pray that they will bring you joy. We pray that you will show us how to use them to serve you, your church and your people that you may be glorified. We pray this in the name of the one who modeled servant love for us, Jesus Christ. Amen.

JOYS AND CONCERNS

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

God of our joyful days and our aching days, we give thanks that we can trust you with the heaviest parts of our hearts, and so we bring to you the burdens of our complicated world, and we ask you to lighten the load. Yet, even in the midst of an avalanche of challenging news, we spot the sliver of moon in the night, and so our prayer of longing is punctuated by gratitude. Hear both, our cries for relief and our warbling song of joy, O God. Sometimes our words of lament get stuck in our throats, but we yearn for a better world — one that brings to life your plans for wholeness and well-being to fulfillment for all. Heal our warring madness, and teach us the ways of peace with our global neighbors, within our polarized society, and in our local communities. Breathe life into the lungs of those who are trampled down. Turn the hearts of oppressors. And stir our compassion and energies when indifference sets in for other people’s struggle. We raise to you the cries of those who may be feeling forsaken: those longing for relief from natural disaster, women and girls in societies which limit their opportunity and access to power, refugees who long for welcome and safety, overburdened healthcare workers, and all who wonder if someone — anyone — will take notice of their pain and extend comfort and hope. Thank you for small signs of kindness and possibility in days that are bleak — the red bird perched on a bare branch, one hand brushing another in kindness, the familiar tune of “Happy Birthday,” the smell of baking bread. Sometimes our words of lament get stuck in our throats, and so, O God, we carve out this silence for our hearts to speak to yours, to trust you with our wounds, our dreams long buried, our yearnings for those most dear and the fractures in our relationships, Listen to our thoughts and our meditations, O God. Thank you for small signs of possibility and fresh hope that sparkle amidst the fog of ache — laughter that surprises us, children’s imaginations, a perfect crisp apple, the first promising notes of a song we know by heart. We are grateful that you hear our prayers whether we are brimming with joy, seething with anger, crying out for justice, or sighing with grief. Hear us now, as we turn to the reliable words of the prayer for all our days, the one that Jesus taught us to pray, saying,,

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.

*CLOSING HYMN: “Love Divine, All Love Excelling”

1. Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven, to earth come down; fix in us thy humble dwelling; all thy faithful mercies crown! Jesus thou art all compassion, pure, unbounded love thou art; visit us with thy salvation; enter every trembling heart.

2. Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast! Let us all in thee inherit; let us find that second rest. Take away our bent to sinning; Alpha and Omega be; end of faith, as its beginning, set our hearts at liberty.

3. Come, Almighty to deliver, let us all thy life receive; suddenly return and never, nevermore thy temples leave. Thee we would be always blessing, serve thee as thy hosts above, pray and praise thee without ceasing, glory in thy perfect love.

4. Finish, then, thy new creation; pure and spotless let us be. Let us see thy great salvation perfectly restored in thee; changed from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place, till we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love, and praise.

*BENEDICTION

*THREE FOLD AMEN

Elements of Order of Worship Liturgy written by Teri McDowell Ott.