Worship
for the Lord’s Day
January
24, 2021
A Note before we begin
this day’s worship:
As we continue to monitor our area’s virus positivity
rates, the sessions have chosen to remain on-line for now with the hopes of
re-opening within the next month or so.
We will keep you informed, as always.
Let’s begin:
Call to Worship
O God, You are our
light and our salvation. Living in Your
presence, we have nothing to fear. Open
our hearts to Your word this day. As we
hear the story of the call of the first disciples, make us ready to follow Your
son, Jesus on whatever path He leads us. Cast aside our fears and doubts, and teach us
to trust wholly in You. For we ask this
in Jesus’ Name. AMEN.
Hymn Holy, Holy, Holy
Prayer of Confession
We listen to the
stories of the call of the disciples and find them interesting but unrealistic.
When we look at our own lives, we
believe that we could not leave everything to follow someone we didn’t know. We have many responsibilities and ties which
keep us from following. But God is
persistent. God understands our
confusion and doubts. And God continues
to call us to be in ministry and mission in this world. It may not mean leaving everything behind, but
it does mean being willing to serve wherever God calls us. That’s hard. We want to place conditions on service, and
usually those conditions are "if we have time", "if we have
energy"; " if we can just try serving God for a little while to see
how it all works out". Still God
calls to each of us. Discipleship is
difficult.
Forgive us, patient and
persistent Lord, for the very many times we turn our backs on serving You and
focus on our own comforts. Forgive us
when we look the other way when people are in need. Forgive us our angry attitudes and actions
which hurt rather than heal. Wrap Your
arms around us, healing our wounds, binding us to You. Gently move us into service in Your name. AMEN
Words of Assurance
When we repent, our God
relents, lifting us beyond the pain, restoring us to safety, protecting us in
the refuge of eternal love. In the name
of Jesus, who is the Christ, you are forgiven.
Glory to God. 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
Lord, You have come to
the lakeshore, looking neither for wealthy nor wise ones. You only ask us to follow humbly. This same Jesus, who long ago called to those
first disciples, calls to us each today. Our "lakeshores" are different. They are the places where we work and where we
live. Yet, Jesus is coming for each one
of us, just as we are and inviting us to follow him humbly. Today, we lift the names of loved ones in
prayerful petition for Your healing love. We may only be able to utter in our hearts the
names and situations that it would break our hearts to speak, but You, O God,
hear all our cries and respond in love. We
give You thanks that in this one act of the Church, the act of prayer, You are
faithful. So, we ask for Your healing
grace, mercy and blessings upon...
Precious Lord, as we
have offered our prayers, let us also offer our lives, trusting in Your love
and call to us, responding with confidence…
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 Savior Like a Shepherd
Lead Us
Scripture Readings
Old Testament: Psalm 62
1For God alone my soul
waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.
2He alone is my rock and
my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken.
3How long will you
assail a person, will you batter your victim, all of you, as you would a
leaning wall, a tottering fence?
4Their only plan is to
bring down a person of prominence. They take pleasure in falsehood; they bless
with their mouths, but inwardly they curse.
5For God alone my soul
waits in silence, for my hope is from him.
6He alone is my rock and
my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
7On God rests my
deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.
8Trust in him at all
times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.
9Those of low estate are
but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up;
they are together lighter than a breath.
10Put no confidence in
extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, do not set
your heart on them.
11Once God has spoken;
twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,
12and steadfast love
belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all according to their work.
New Testament: Mark
1:14-20
14Now after John was
arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15and
saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent,
and believe in the good news.” 16As Jesus passed along the Sea
of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for
they were fishermen. 17And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I
will make you fish for people.” 18And immediately they left
their nets and followed him. 19As he went a little farther, he
saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending
the nets. 20Immediately he called them; and they left their
father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
Sermon –
(There was a delay/out-of-sync quality in the video and the
sound while I was recording, so I couldn’t look at the camera as it was very
distracting. When I did a quick
playback, it seemed to have re-synced. Hopefully, when you watch it, that delay
will have gotten fixed in the upload, as well.)
(based on Mark 1:14-20)
Jesus
said, “The time has come. The
We don’t talk very often about the act
of repentance in church much anymore and yet it is the very first thing that
Jesus preached about. Repentance has a
rich history, going all the way back to Genesis, when even God repented of his
actions. That’s odd, don’t you
think? Doesn’t repentance have to do
with sin? Then how could God have
repented? Mmmm, maybe we don’t know what
repentance means after all. Well, we’ll
come back to that.
The beginning of Christ’s ministry
is marked by two significant events. The
first event is the ministry of John the Baptist, as he went about preaching and
baptizing to prepare the way. The second
is Christ’s own gathering of his chosen disciples. The passage that we read from Mark today,
bridges those two events. But before we
begin talking about how Jesus went from being the one for whom John prepared
the way to the one who gathered disciples, let’s jump back to Old Testament
times and glean an understanding of repentance.
In Chapter 6 of Genesis, verses 5
and 6, it says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the
earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil
continually. And the Lord repented that
He had made humankind on the earth and it grieved him to his heart.” The world
had grown so wicked that God repented of his actions. The word here in Hebrew is nacham – which meaning translates “to
feel sorrow, to grieve, or to have regret”.
So, here, repentance has nothing to do with sin, particularly as it
pertains to God, but adds a dimension that we need to keep in mind – that of
feeling sorrow or of regret. In Genesis,
God was so upset that humanity had become so evil toward one another, toward
the creation, toward God himself that God regretted having even created
humankind.
Another Hebrew word used for
repentance is teshuva – which means
“to turn away from”. This is the
word that is most often used in the Old Testament. It was used many times by the major and minor
prophets of the Old Testament to tell the people that they needed to turn away
from the path that they were on, and turn back to God. The Old Testament understanding of repentance
was more about the nation of
The prophets of the Old Testament
rarely singled out an individual, but rather rebuked all of the people of
Now we come to New Testament times
with John the Baptist preaching and baptizing in the desert. He is making way for Christ. As he preaches and exhorts and baptizes in
the desert he is recalling the sorrow of God as well as the old ways of the
prophets and calling the people to the full spectrum of repentance; to feel
some sort of regret, to feel sorrow, to grieve their actions and to turn away
from them. For John it was both a
personal call and a national call. It is
a reminder of the old ways, that the people of
Our reading today begins with “After
John was put in prison – Jesus went into Galilee…” So, John prepares the way for Christ, is put
into prison for his actions and now Jesus picks up where John left off. However, in the gospel according to Mark,
Jesus doesn’t first pick up disciples.
He starts out the very same way that John did. He goes out and begins telling the people –
all the people that – ‘the time has come.
The
And that’s when things begin to
change. Jesus makes connection with the
old ways, makes connection with the one who came before him to prepare the way,
makes a general connection with the people.
But then Jesus forges a new path and a new identity. And that’s when repentance becomes
personal. Jesus first calls the nation
to repentance just as the prophets of old had done, but then he begins to call
individuals to repentance.
“Come, follow me”, is Christ’s new
refrain. But it is the same
message. It is the same Old Testament
understanding of repentance, turn away from what you’re doing and turn toward
something new.
As the idea of repentance became
connected with Jesus in this new way, the Greek word for it was metanoia – which means
“after-thought”. Unfortunately, that
literal translation means nothing compared to the dimensions that the word
repentance took on following Christ’s death.
Metanoia came to encompass all of the Old
Testament parts of teshuva, nacham, and more.
Repentance for first century Christians meant a three-step process.
First, a person needed to have a change
of mind. To turn away from something
and turn toward something needed to make sense.
In other words, repentance took on some of the conscious part of our
spirit – or teshuva. This path
that I’m on is only causing me misery and anguish, I’m cut off from God,
others, and even myself. I think this
isn’t working for me, so let me return – do a 180 - to God’s promises and try
something new.
Second, a person needed to have a change
of heart. The act of repentance
needed to touch their emotions. I’m in
gut-wrenching agony for something that I’ve done, I’m sorry for it, because it
has given me a lot of pain in my heart.
This then is the old notion of God’s nacham
in Genesis 6.
And third, repentance required a
physical act of choosing to turn away from past behavior and create a new
set of behaviors or the metanoia, the after-thought. I’m going to stop the abuse of alcohol. I’m throwing what I have away. I’m getting myself into a program to help me
deal with my thoughts and emotions and making a new path for myself.
In our modern understanding of
repentance, the way we’ve used it in the church, requires you to think about
it, feel it, and do it. So, turning away
from sin and turning toward God is not something done just on an intellectual
level. It’s not done just on an
emotional level. And it’s not done
blindly because others are doing it.
It’s become a very personal event where you’ve thought about your sin,
you felt the consequences of your sin, and you’ve decided (with God’s help) to
do something about it.
However, perhaps, it’s time to also
bring back the original idea from the Old Testament that repentance is not only
a personal act, but a national act, as well.
That God is calling ALL of us to repentance.
Where in our lives together, what
areas of our lives together, what specific sin in our life together needs an
act of repentance? Something for all of
us to think about, feel it, and do it.
AMEN.
Hymn Be Thou My Vision
Benediction
As the disciples walked
with Christ so long ago, walk with Christ in your hearts and spirits. Feel the power of the Holy Spirit guiding your
path. Know the love of God which is
poured out for you and rejoice. Go in
peace and may God’s peace go with you. AMEN.
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