Worship
for the Lord’s Day
November
8, 2020
West Elizabeth Food
Bank at Olivet will receive their food delivery for the Food Bank on Friday,
November 13 around 10am and the Middle School will be delivering their Food
Drive items the same day around 1:30/1:45pm.
We could use help with unpacking and sorting through the donations
given.
Let’s begin:
Call to Worship
Hymn O For a Thousand Tongues to
Sing (first and last verses)
Prayer of Confession
Words of Assurance
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:
(Pause for silence.)
We pray for persons in leadership across our country, that
together we might make wise decisions.
(Pause for silence.)
We pray for brothers and sisters around the world, whose
lives are torn apart by war.
(Pause for silence.)
We pray for the saints who give witness to Your love
through their words and actions.
(Pause for silence.)
We pray, knowing that You are with us now, and that You
will strengthen us to keep awake, to keep the faith, to keep working for the
time when Christ will come again to surprise us anew with love and justice on
earth.
Hear now the burdens of our heart.
(Pause for silence.)
In Christ we are one and in His name, we 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. 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 A Mighty Fortress (first and last verses)
Scripture Readings
Old Testament: Joshua
24:1-3a, 14-25
New Testament: Matthew
25:1-13
Sermon – Just like the hymns, you can click on the
sermon title to hear/watch a video of today’s sermon via YouTube. If you watch closely, I have an unexpected
visitor – Quaker, one of our cats, makes a quick appearance.
(based on Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25)
I have
served the church as a pastor for over 30 years, but not all of them have been
as a full-time pastor. During many of
them I’ve had to find additional means of employment. And in those years I have done some interesting
things, some of those other pieces of part-time employment have lasted a year
or less, while others have lasted a long time.
I’ve served as a hospice chaplain, a bookstore owner, a database input
officer, a warehouse stock boy, an office manager, an employment coach, and as
an English language tutor. There is a
line from the Sound of Music when Maria is meeting with the Mother Superior and
she asked Maria, “Why did you come to us?”
Maria responds with something about escaping her problems and the Abbess
says to her, “Maria, these walls were not meant to shut out problems, but to
face them.”
I think the
benefit of my serving the church in multiple years as a part-time pastor and
having to find other means of employment have kept me from escaping behind
these walls and the security of just a pastor’s desk. It has forced me to notice the world around
me and the people who really live in it each and every day. Because of that I think I see the world, view
the world, interact with the world from a unique perspective, both as a pastor and
as just a regular guy going about his day’s work. I think it has helped me be deeply rooted in
my faith, but also deeply rooted in understanding how difficult daily life with
work, commutes, schedules, kids, bills, obligations, and allegiances can truly
be.
Over the
years, I’ve sat in meetings over a cup of coffee in neighborhood diners and
coffee shops, in employee kitchens or breakrooms, or in dedicated conference
rooms; I’ve eaten meals in fancy
restaurants, the local dive or at fast food restaurants, and yes, I’ve even
been known to have drinks with friends at a local bar; in it all, I’ve listened
to other people’s conversations. I’m not
normally a nebby person out in public, listening to what other people are
saying, but two things happened very close together a few years ago and it’s
made me more aware of things.
The first
thing that happened was this…I met with one of our Presbytery’s branch leaders
a few years ago. We met for coffee at a
tiny little dive of a sandwich shop on the North Side. At the table next to us were two men – they
looked like laborers of some sort – perhaps road crew or construction
workers. I heard one of them say to the
other, “I can’t wait until this weekend, the wife and I aren’t doing anything
but staying home. Last weekend we got
totally trashed which made Monday a (and I’ll substitute the word he used with
‘a difficult day’)”. The other man
chuckled a bit and responded, “well my brother and I are helping the woman next
door to him. Her porch is collapsing and
needs to be completely torn down. Last weekend,
he and I got a most of the material we need and this weekend we are going to
try and tear down the porch and start the foundation.”
The other man, who used much more colorful language that I’m
editing said, “I wouldn’t help the blank people that live next to me even if
their house caught on fire. They are
worthless pieces of trash. (again, an
edited version of what he actually said.)”
His companion asked, “Really that bad?”
He responded with more colorful language talking about
letting them burn.
At that point, I didn’t really want to hear the rest of the
conversation but I couldn’t help it.
The less colorful language man said, “Well, I was always
taught that you helped your neighbors.
At least, that’s what my parents and my church taught me.”
The colorful language man said, “Yeah, well, the Bible also
says that God helps those who help themselves and these people who live next to
me are living off of my dime because they are nothing but welfare crackheads.”
“You know the Bible doesn’t actually say that, right? “ His companion said.
And he responded, “I don’t really give a blank what the
Bible says, I just hate people who are living off of my hard-earned money just
so they can waste it on alcohol, drugs and cigarettes.”
The other man than asked, “Have you ever had a conversation
with them?”
“Why the blank would I do that?” colorful language man said.
“I don’t know, maybe so they could see you as more than just
a prejudiced jerk and maybe you could start seeing them as human beings.”
“Believe me, they are nothing but trash.” And I stopped listening.
Choose today who you will serve…as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord.
The following week, I was having dinner with a friend of
mine at Caffe Notte in Ben Avon as we celebrated a belated birthday dinner for
both of us. Two couples were sitting at
the table next to us. As my dinner
companion and I talked I couldn’t help but overhear bits and pieces of the next
table’s conversation, especially as I kept hearing large monetary numbers casually
thrown out by one of them. $30,000 here,
half a million dollars there. My
interest peaked when I heard one of them mention buying a house in Sante Fe,
New Mexico. One of the places that I
have visited and have fallen in love with.
“My real estate agent was able to get this house for us at a
steal due to a nasty divorce settlement from what they said. Neither the husband nor the wife want the
other to get a dime. Hey, that’s fine
with me. We got it for about
$600,000.” “You aren’t moving are you?”
the opposite couple’s wife asked.
“No, we’re just going to use it as one of our vacation
homes.”
“Oh, that’s right, you still have a vacation home down in
the Keys, right?”
“Yes, Key Largo, actually – we like it better than Key West,
much more laid back without all the tourists.
We have a home up in Canada, too on the lake. Next week we are going up there to close it
for the winter and drydock the boat.
We’re probably going to have it completely overhauled and sell next year
if you know anyone who wants to buy a yacht.
It’s really too big of a boat for up there. The Lake is huge, but I’d rather have a
smaller schooner or something.”
“Well, we don’t really know anyone that would want to buy a
boat, we don’t exactly operate in the same circles as you do. We have a hard enough time trying to raise a
couple thousand dollars every year for our kids’ mission trips.”
“Oh, that’s right, you guys do that church thing.”
“Yes, our daughter is going to Nicaragua over Christmas
break and our son is trying to get enough money together to go to Indonesia
next year. He is about $4500 short, but
we’re helping him as much as we can.
Most of our family and friends have all sponsored him…he’s sort of on
his second wave of requests.”
“That’s right, I think we got his letter asking for
support. It’s so nice that they can do
that.”
There was a lot of silence at the table for a while and
small talk that I didn’t really hear.
But I never once heard the couple who was boasting about
all their money and all the homes that they own offer to support the
other couple’s son in anyway.
Choose this day whom you shall serve…as for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord.
Those two very different conversations, and yet very similar
caused me to listen more and wonder….who or what gods do people serve
today. Over the years, I’ve learned that
it seems that most people definitely have a religion that they enthusiastically
follow. That most people are passionate
about their faith, their beliefs, their values.
And that most people have found a god to believe in – but often those
gods are money, power, or self.
My last example doesn’t come from a conversation I overheard
but rather a story about Nelson Mandela’s life from the book Chicali Wall
by Echeverría Martínez.
After becoming President, I asked some of my bodyguard
members to go for a walk in town. After
the walk, we went for lunch at a restaurant.
We sat in one of the most central ones, and each of us asked what we
wanted. After a bit of waiting, the
waiter who brought our menus appeared, at that moment I realized that at the
table that was right in front of ours there was a single man waiting to be
served.
When he was served, I told one of my soldiers: go ask that
man to join us. The soldier went and
transmitted my invitation. The man stood
up, took the plate and sat next to me.
While eating, his hands were constantly shaking and he didn't lift his
head from the food. When we finished, he waved at me without even looking at
me, I shook his hand and walked away!
Soldier said to me:
- Madiba, that man must be very sick as his hands wouldn't
stop shaking while he was eating.
Not at all! The
reason for his tremor is another - I replied.
They looked at me weird and said to them:
- That man was the guardian of the jail I was locked up
in. Often, after the torture I was
subjected to, I screamed and cried for water and he came to humiliate me, he
laughed at me and instead of giving me water he urinated on my head.
He wasn't sick, he was scared and shook maybe fearing that
I, now that I'm president of South Africa, would send him to jail and do the
same thing he did with me, torturing and humiliating him. But that's not me, that behavior is not part
of my character nor my ethics. Minds
that seek revenge destroy states, while those that seek reconciliation build
Nations.′′
Joshua gave
the people of Israel, the followers of the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob,
the God of Moses who delivered his people out of bondage in Egypt, an
opportunity to choose which god they would serve. He told them that today they needed to decide
whether to embrace the gods of their ancestors before Abraham or to embrace the
new gods of the land in which they were living or to serve God, with a capital
“G”, Yahweh, the Lord, the great I AM.
Joshua told the people that you cannot serve the Lord and serve other
gods. At the time, the people responded
that they would follow the example of Joshua and choose God. Have you truly made that choice for yourself
and for your whole house? Are you truly
serving God, the one and only God, in all you do or are you of a split
allegiance?
Choose
this day whom you shall serve…as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Hymn Jesus Calls Us (all
verses)
Benediction
We do not know the day
or the hour, but we do know that God goes with us at all hours, on all days. Go with the love of God, the peace of Christ,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We
go to witness and serve! AMEN.
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