Worship
for the Lord’s Day
January
17, 2021
A Note before we begin
this day’s worship:
On Friday late
afternoon I began to upload all the parts of worship that I incorporate for
this blog after writing it this week.
But, for some reason my computer wouldn’t read my flash drive. I turned off the computer and tried it again
later in the evening…again, I got a message saying that it was “not
responding.” Saturday morning, same
thing. Found out that my flash drive and
all data on it were compromised and were not able to be retrieved, even by the
Geek Squad at Best Buy. Luckily, I last
backed up all my data on May 25, 2020.
However, a significant amount of data has been lost. I’ve often been fearful of losing my
flash drive more than it not working and since I’ve spent most of my time at
home, I wasn’t backing up as often as I should have been. Lesson learned!
In the 11th hour, I have recreated the
worship service below, but just did not have it in me to rewrite and video tape
an entire new sermon for today. So, I
have a shortened message to offer in written-form-only during the
“Sermon slot” in our worship time today.
This week, Food Bank
volunteers meet on Tuesday, January 19 at 9:30-11:30am to pack boxes, and we
distribute from 1-2:30pm.
Our sessions meet via
Zoom on Tuesday, January 19 at 7pm.
We will continue to
have on-line only worship until the positivity rate is below 3.5%. We have improved this week and have gone down
from 10.2% to 9.7%; however, some of our surrounding counties are increasing to
dangerously high levels – as much as 17%.
Continue washing your hands, wearing your masks, and keeping a physical
distance of 6 feet or more from others with whom you are not “cocooning” in
your house.
Let’s begin:
Call to Worship
We are called to seek
good and not evil, that we may live; and so that the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be with us. We are called to hate
evil and love good, and establish justice. Let justice roll down like waters, and
righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. We seek to be a people that embodies God’s
justice. By the power of God at work
within us, may it be so. AMEN.
Hymn All Creatures of Our God and King
Prayer of Confession
If we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sin, God who is faithful
and just will forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let us confess our sin together, trusting
God’s promised mercy.
Holy God, we confess
our failures to discern the ways that racism and other demons of hostility have
warped our common humanity. Claiming to
be “colorblind” or “not racist,” we have failed to see racism as a disease that
infects us all. Yet we know that your
Spirit heals the wounds in our lives and empowers us to extend that healing
into the life of our communities. Empower
us by your Spirit, O God, to be people who live out our baptism and live more
fully into its promise that in Jesus Christ there is no longer Jew or Greek,
slave or free, or male and female. AMEN
Words of Assurance
In Christ, all the
dividing walls of hostility have come down so that we might live in justice,
friendship and peace. Friends, hear the
good news of the gospel: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven and restored, and set
on right paths! AMEN
Affirmation of Faith – we normally use the Apostles’ Creed, but this morning we are using another creed called, A Brief Statement of Faith, adopted after the two main branches of the Presbyterian Church reunited.
We trust in Jesus Christ, fully human, fully God.
Jesus proclaimed the
reign of God:
preaching good news to
the poor and release to the captives,
teaching by word and
deed and blessing children,
healing the sick and
binding up the brokenhearted,
eating with outcasts,
forgiving sinners,
and calling all to
repent and believe the gospel.
Unjustly condemned for
blasphemy and sedition,
Jesus was crucified,
suffering the depths of
human pain
and giving his life for
the sins of the world.
God raised this Jesus
from the dead,
vindicating his sinless
life,
breaking the power of
sin and evil,
delivering us from
death to life eternal.
With believers in every
time and place,
we rejoice that nothing
in life or in death
can separate us from
the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Alleluia. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer
Holy One, you have
called for justice to roll down like waters and righteousness like an
ever-flowing stream. On this Sunday, as
we remember the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., help us to embody
the justice and righteousness that he sought for our country. Help us to embody his dream of a beloved
community and of a day when justice is a reality for all Americans, not just
the few. Inspire us by his example and
by the power of your Spirit at work within us to live in solidarity with all
who have been marginalized in our world. Give us ears to hear their cries, and hearts
that move us to respond. Indeed, during
these tumultuous days of political and social reckoning, give us courage to
pursue accountability for all who have incited and inflicted this violence upon
the nation — and courage to recognize our own complicity in the racism that has
warped our common life. Animate courage
in us so that we might confront realities that deform and deface our country
and participate in your reconciling and justice-seeking work in our midst. Hear our prayers also for peace in the days
ahead as we navigate transitions in the nation’s leadership. Grant all of our elected leaders wisdom and
patience and courage to work together for the common good and to restore a
spirit of partnership among us. God, our
help in times of trouble, we continue to pray for the global community as it
grapples with an ever-worsening pandemic. We pray that you would give each of us
determination to take personal responsibility for measures that protect us all.
We pray especially for the well-being of
those hit hardest by the strains of this scourge, and pray for those in
leadership in our communities, states and nation as they negotiate ways in
which to aid those most afflicted.
We also pray for our
loved ones, friends, and neighbors who are dealing with concerns of the spirit,
of the mind, and of the body. We lift those
prayers to You now….
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 Here I Am, Lord
Scripture Readings
Old Testament: Psalm 139:1-18
1O Lord, you have
searched me and known me.
2You
know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
3You search
out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
4Even
before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
5You hem
me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
6Such
knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
7Where
can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?
8If I
ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9If I
take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10even
there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.
11If I
say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become
night,”
12even
the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for
darkness is as light to you.
13For it
was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14I
praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
15My
frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately
woven in the depths of the earth.
16Your
eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that
were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.
17How
weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
18I try
to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with
you.
New Testament: John 1:43-51
43The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip
and said to him, “Follow me.” 44Now Philip was
from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him
about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph
from Nazareth.” 46Nathanael said
to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and
see.” 47When Jesus saw
Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in
whom there is no deceit!” 48Nathanael
asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the
fig tree before Philip called you.” 49Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are
the King of Israel!” 50Jesus
answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?
You will see greater things than these.” 51And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see
heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of
Man.”
Sermon –
Teaching Tolerance
(based on John 1:43-51)
In
the church calendar, today is known as Race Relations Sunday: specifically put
in place by the church on the Sunday before Martin Luther King, Jr Day. It is an attempt to get ministers to talk
about the issue of race and diversity in the church. Not all ministers take up the challenge. Most move on to other subjects, but reading
today’s lectionary passages, it seemed quite obvious to me that there was a strong
connection between what people say and our outlook on people who are different.
“Can
anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Nathaniel’s quick dismissal of Jesus because he came from
We,
who think we’re better than others, write people off with a quick comment like
Nathaniel’s. I hear it in the line at
the check-out counter at Giant Eagle. I
hear it over lunch at the table next to mine.
I hear it as I walk down the sidewalk.
I’ve heard it at meetings. I’ve
heard it at the gym. I’ve probably heard
a prejudicial comment about someone’s race, religion, physical or mental
handicap, age or orientation almost every day of my life.
The Christian vision of diversity is
based upon two fundamental doctrines of Holy Scripture: 1) the unity of the human race; there is, afterall, only one race, the human race and 2) the
universality of the Christian Church.
Christians face significant challenges in applying these truths, and
expressing the need for a changed heart in order to overcome the prejudice that
dominates so many believers and non-believers.
Implicit
bias is revealed when we make snap judgments about the characteristics of a
person based on factors as arbitrary as skin color, hair texture, other
physical features, abilities, age, sexual orientation or gender, believing that
this makes some people more valuable or less valuable and placing some in a
privileged category and others in a disadvantaged category. These snap judgments are quick and unconscious
associations toward a group. What is
challenging for many is that these biases may be in direct conflict with their
explicit beliefs and values. A person
may believe that s/he thinks one way, but react in a contrary way. The best way to interrupt implicit bias is,
first, to become aware of it, to admit that these biases exist. Next, we can train ourselves to counter bias
by changing our reactions and actions and joining intercultural coalitions of
people who are working to think and behave differently.
We
were anointed at our baptisms, and a new humanity, a new people, a new race was
created, where all are one in Christ Jesus. So today we reaffirm our baptisms, joining the
intercultural community, of every race and people, created equally in God’s
image, and anointed to God’s service.
God teaches us that the human race is one, not many, but one. It begins from Genesis, “So God created the
human race in God’s own image…male and female God created them. Later on, in the story of Noah, Genesis tells
how, “from the son’s of Noah, came the people who were scattered over the
earth.” It is these scattered and
alienated peoples that God calls to faith and repentance through the gospel’s
ministry of reconciliation. As we come
into the New Testament and the miracle at Pentecost, we find that it wasn’t a
miracle about hearing, whereby each person was made to understand one language,
but it was a miracle of speaking, whereby the apostles preached in many
languages to the gathered crowds so that all could understand.
As
we Christians look at the mandate from Jesus, to make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we realize that
God is making the church a diverse and rich community of believers because we
are to embrace the diversity of each culture and the people that make up that
culture. In Peter’s sermon to the people
he said, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation
anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God” (Acts
10:34–35).
If
we would take a close look at the church in Antioch as mentioned in Acts 13, we
would find a church rich in cultural diversity just from looking at the names
of the leaders of the church;
Barnabas – a wealthy Jewish Levite
from
Simeon, called
Lucius of
Manaen – a Helleninzed Jewish
aristocrat whose name is the Greek from of the Hebrew Menahem,
Saul – a Tarsus-born Jew raised in
The
Book of Acts emphasized the cultural diversity of the
Christ
tears down the walls of hostility that divide Jew from Gentile, making former
enemies into friends and equals in the faith.
As in Galatians 3:28 it says “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor
free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
And
finally in the Book of Revelation 7:9 it says, “a great multitude that no one
could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language” stands before the
throne of God and the Lamb, singing praise.
My
first real lesson about implicit bias and racism came from musicals, the world
of my mother’s. First, it came from
South Pacific, followed shortly thereafter by West Side Story.
In
South Pacific, the Lieutenant falls in love with a girl from
You've
got to be taught to hate and fear
You've
got to be taught from year to year
It's
got to be drummed in your dear little ear
You've
got to be carefully taught
You've
got to be taught to be afraid
Of
people whose eyes are oddly made
And
people whose skin is a different shade
You've
got to be carefully taught
You've
got to be taught before it's too late
Before
you are six or seven or eight
To
hate all the people your relatives hate
You've
got to be carefully taught
As
Christians, it’s our job to watch what we say, how we say it, and to be
sensitive to issues of diversity and tolerance.
It is our job to raise children who will one day raise their children,
who will one day raise their children, who will one day raise their children
who will one day down the line find a world free of prejudice and
discrimination. And as the book of
Revelation tells us, “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation,
tribe, people and language” standing before the throne of God and the Lamb,
singing praise; therefore, a world rich of diversity and cultures praising God together.
AMEN.
Hymn I Have Decided to Follow Jesus
Benediction
Lord of love and light,
You have called us to be Your people and have fed us with Your loving
spirit. Now send us on our way in joyful
service. Give us courage and strength to
go boldly into the world by taking care of each other. We go now in peace! AMEN.
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