Worship
for the Lord’s Day
Sept 27,
2020
Both congregations, Olivet
Presbyterian Church and Bethesda United Presbyterian Church will begin having
in-person corporate worship on Sunday, October 4th which is World
Communion Sunday. Olivet will have
worship at 9:45 am and Bethesda will have worship at 11:15 am. I will continue to provide the same or nearly
the same worship service here on the internet for the foreseeable future.
·
Understand
that we are not “going back to normal”, at least not yet and there will be lots
of safety practices put in place for health concerns.
·
You
will be required to wear a mask while you are in the church, the only
exceptions will be the pastor while he/she is leading worship (this will
include any substitute or visiting pastors) and the pianist/organist while they
are playing.
·
There
will not be a bulletin, all of worship will be up on the screens with very few
responsive readings.
·
We
will be singing the hymns (masked), but only the first and last verse of each
hymn, or as otherwise noted.
·
We
will not have a time of passing the peace or greeting one another after the
service.
·
Half
of the pews are marked off and you will need to sit only in designated pews.
·
Hymn
books and Bibles are not available in the pews, at this time. If you would like to follow along in your own
Bible, please remember to bring it.
·
Offerings
can be placed in the Offering Plates at each church’s vestibule as you walk in
or when you leave.
·
The
Communion Cup and Bread will be available for pickup when you arrive on October
4 for worship. They will be in sealed
containers.
Let’s begin:
Prelude
Opening Prayer
Gracious Lord, how
shall we do your will today? Will it be
in acts of praise, in gifts shared, in prayers lifted? Who will you lead us to serve? Help us trust you. Help us listen. Bless this community as we come together in
worship. Encourage us, comfort us, unite
us, make our joy complete. AMEN.
Hymn Praise My Soul, the King of
Heaven
Prayer of Confession
God of patience, your
people grow weary. We complain and
question. We put you to the test. Our mouths say yes, but our deeds say no. When we wander off your path, when we fail to
follow through on our good intentions, when we give our attention to trivial
things; gently call us back to you. Empty
our hearts of anger and pride. Empty our
souls of greed and selfishness. Empty
our minds of envy, doubt, and mistrust. As
you poured out your very self through your beloved Son, pour your Spirit into
our hearts today. Forgive us our
wrongdoing. Reclaim us with your love. AMEN.
Words of Assurance
Friends in Christ, our
God is patient, steadfast, and understanding.
Christ hears our cries of repentance. The
Lord knows our hearts, inside and out. The
One who created us promises to care for us, even when we turn away. Hear these words of forgiveness. Be strengthened to walk as disciples. Trust in God's mercy. AMEN.
Affirmation of Faith –
The Apostles’ 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 again from the dead; He ascended into heaven
and sitteth on 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 Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life
everlasting. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer:
(Continued prayers for
all those affected by the Coronavirus, for our schools, for our national
leaders. We also pray for those affected
by the recent hurricanes and the wildfires that have damaged so much.)
You have called each of us, gracious God, into relationship
with You. As we grow and change, Your
words continue to challenge us, to confront us, to judge us, to love us. Thank You for the gift of Your Holy Word to
us in our lives.
You have called each of
us in Your Word-Made-Flesh self, who was willing to bear the reproach of those
in authority in order to serve the least, the last, and the lost. He spoke your healing, redeeming, gracious
words into reality. Thank You for that
gift of Your Word in our lives.
You continue to call to
us in the needs of those around us; and so we offer our prayers for all who are
in any way burdened, disillusioned, or suffering. Hear our prayers of concern for the world,
for the establishment of peace, for the ease of suffering and pain from
drought, disease, political strife and conflict. Reach out now to our own country and its
leaders. Allow them to be wise in
decision making and compassionate to those in need.
Lord, hear our prayers
for those near at home and their relationship with You. Allow them to feel Your presence and know
Your amazing grace. We lift up in prayer
to You this day….
We ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior who 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. 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.
Hymn There’s a Wideness In God’s Mercy
Scripture Readings
Old Testament: Exodus 17:1-7
From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the
Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped
at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to
drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test
the Lord?” 3But the people thirsted there for water; and the people
complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill
us and our children and livestock with thirst?” 4So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this
people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5The Lord said
to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel
with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and
go. 6I will be standing there in front of you on the
rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the
people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the
Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
New Testament: Matthew 21:23-32
23When he entered the temple, the
chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and
said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this
authority?” 24Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you
tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these
things. 25Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human
origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will
say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26But if
we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a
prophet.” 27So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them,
“Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
28“What do you think? A man had
two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29He
answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. 30The
father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but
he did not go. 31Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The
first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the
prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32For
John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but
the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it,
you did not change your minds and believe him.
Anthem –
Sermon – Just like the hymns, you can click on the
sermon title to hear/watch a video of today’s sermon via YouTube.
“Two Brothers”
(based on Matthew 21:23-32)
If
there had been an inquest into Jesus’ death, this parable of the brothers would
probably have been presented as one of the things that got him killed. According to Matthew, Jesus told it during
the last week of his life in Jerusalem – after he had done a bunch of other
things that would probably be part of that inquest as evidence – he had stolen
a donkey to ride into town, he had chased the merchants out of the temple, he
had cursed a fig tree for failing to bear fruit (which then abruptly withered
and died). He then went back to the
temple to teach, and that is where the chief priests and the elders cornered
him. The main thing they wanted to know
was who had given him the authority to do all those things. Who did he think he was?
Instead
of answering them, he did something that was very typical for Jesus. He asked them a question - “By whose
authority do you think I claim?” and he tells them a story. Of course, that took a little longer than
giving them a straight answer, but Jesus was never one to give people answers
they could come up with on their own. He
knew truth is something people have to discover on their own and for
themselves, so he went to the extra trouble of helping them do that, even when
he knew it might backfire on him.
The
story he told the chief priests and elders that day was the story of the Yes
and No brothers. In Matthew’s original
Greek, they are simply two children, old enough to work in the family vineyard
but still working out their relationship with their father. When he asked each of them in turn to go work
in the vineyard, the No brother said he would not go but later changed him mind
and went. The Yes brother said he would
go but never did. Which brother, Jesus
wants to know from his critics, did the will of his father?
It
was an easy answer, as easy for them as it is for us. The first brother did the will of his father,
of course. It was not what either boy
said that mattered but what he finally did.
Only that was not the part of the truth that got Jesus killed. What got him killed was the second part, when
he pointed fingers and told the chief priests and elders which brother they
were. They were the Yes men, he told them,
who said all the right things, believed all the right things, stood for all the
right things, but who would not DO the right things God had asked them to do.
First
John the Baptist and then Jesus suggested that this generation of believers
trade in their beliefs for a fresh experience of God, but they could not bring
themselves to do that. They had gotten
so immersed in what they thought were the right things that
they had twisted it and made it different than what had been intended. They said yes to God while at the same time
acted out a great big NO to Christ, who suggested that they might be in for a
big surprise.
People
they despised were going into the kingdom ahead of them, he told them – not
instead of them, but just ahead of them – people who may have said no at the
beginning but who changed their minds and went, while those who refused to go
continued to mistake their own convictions for obedience to God.
On
the one hand, it is just one more story about hypocrisy, which has always been
the number one charge leveled against religious people – that we say one thing
and do another, promising we will love each other on Sunday and finding a dozen
ways to slander, cheat, or just plain ignore each other on Monday. It is a serious charge against those who
pretend goodness, wearing a fake fur of faith in God in order to gain advantage
over other people.
I
remember growing up in Downingtown down the street from kids that were my age
and my sister’s age. We had a pool and
every summer our house was the house that all the neighborhood kids gathered
in. We played games, road bikes, swam,
made up radio shows and generally had a great time with each other. However, when school started again, most of
those kids acted as if my sister and I didn’t even exist. Why?
Well, they were part of the “in” crowd, part of the popular gang and my
sister and I were not. And every summer
would come around and they acted again as if we were long lost friends that
were bonded for life. Hypocrisy at it’s
core among children. But we adults in
the Christian church aren’t much better.
But
I don’t think that conscious pretense is the real problem. I am much more concerned about the
unconscious way many of us substitute our beliefs about God for our obedience
to God, as if it were enough to say, “I go, sir,” without ever tensing a muscle
to actually get out of our comfortable recliners or pews.
I
don’t know how it starts. Maybe we have
such a good imagination that we actually believe we have done things we have
really only thought about doing. Never
mind God for a minute. Consider everyday
life. Have you ever thought about
visiting a sick friend, rehearsed what you wanted to say, decided on a card
instead, thought about what a nice gesture that would be, congratulated yourself
on your thoughtfulness, and had life get in the way and didn’t even manage to
send the card. Or later on wonder if I
sent the card or not; which is even worse.
Because then do you call and ask if they got the card that you may or
may not have sent or do you send another one – horrible.…I’m as guilty as
anyone. And I’m trying not to point
fingers that don’t also point back at myself.
I
believe that I’m the kind of person and I believe that you all are, too, that
wants to go the extra mile for people in need, for people that need to know
that we are on their side. I believe
that I’m the kind of person that does nice things for others, kind gestures,
bringing a little hope. But sometimes I
don’t do them. I just roll the ideas
around in my mind until I have sucked all the sweetness out of them and then I
swallow the bitter core of regret that’s left over.
It’s
easy to get beliefs mixed up with actions.
Right now I know five or ten people who believe they love their families
but who spend very little time with them.
I know another twenty who believe in protecting the environment but who
don’t recycle. We’re guilty of that
right here in the town of Elizabeth and in this church. I know at least 100 people who believe that
they are against violence in movies but who stand in line for the next “Bourne
or Expendables” sequel, and I even know a few people who believe in the
“American way of life” however they define it, but who aren’t registered to
vote or haven’t voted in years but will be the first people to complain about
our government.
It
is a very peculiar thing, this vacuum between what we believe and what we
actually do. The theological word for it
is sin – missing the mark that God set for us in the Garden of Eden – which we
so easily succumbed to at it’s first opportunity. It is both inevitable and luckily, forgivable
but NEVER tolerable for those of us who love God. When God is the mark we are missing, the
vacuum is simply too painful to bear. It
tears us up to say one thing and do another.
It tears up our families, our friendships, our communities – when we say
love and do indifference, or say right and do wrong, or say “I will go” and go
absolutely nowhere at all. What we
believe has no meaning apart from what we do about it. There is not a creed or a mission statement
in the world that is worth one visit to a sick friend, or one cup of water held
out to someone who is longing for it.
A
fairly old movie, “Out of Africa” starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford is
one of my favorite movies and loosely based on the even better autobiography by
Isak Dinesen (the pseudonym for the Danish author Karen Blixen). One of the stories in the book tells of a
young Kikuyu boy named Kitau who appeared at Karen’s home. He asks if he could work for her. She says yes and he turned out to be a very
good worker, but after three months he came to her again to ask her if she
would write a letter of recommendation to Sheik Ali bin Salim, a Muslim in
Mombasa. Upset at the thought of losing
him, she offers to raise his pay, but he is firm about leaving.
You
see, he had decided that he would either be a Christian or a Muslim and his
whole purpose in coming to live with her and work for her had been to see the
ways and habits of Christians up close.
Next he wanted to live for three months with the Sheik to see how
Muslims behaved and then he would make up his mind. In the book Dinesen wrote, “I believe that
even the Archbishop, when he had these facts laid before him, would have said,
or at least thought, as I said, “Good God, Kitau, you might have told me that
when you came here.”
We’d
like the world to perceive us as being good Christians, doing all the right
things….but are we REALLY, and I mean REALLY living up to it.
God
does not tell us ahead of time. Or, more
to the point, God has been telling us all along – that there is no shortage of
people who say, believe, or stand for all the right things. There have always been plenty of those in the
world. But what God is short of are
people who will go where God calls them and DO what God gives them to do –
even, let’s say, when it goes against their beliefs. To quote, Kierkegaard, “Jesus wants
followers, not admirers.”
Whether
we say yes or not to him is apparently less important to him than what we
actually do. The important thing is what
our lives say, and there are as easy for most people to read as the story of
the Yes and No brothers. To tell which
one you are, look in any mirror. What is
moving? Your mouth or your feet?
AMEN.
Hymn Lord, Make Us More Holy
Benediction
Go forth with humble
hearts, ready to serve your neighbor and a world in need. Amen. Lead
us, O God! AMEN.
Postlude
