Worship
for the Lord’s Day
April 18,
2021
A Note before we begin
this day’s worship:
If you are in the local area, please plan to join us again on
Sunday mornings at our regular worship times (Olivet Presbyterian Church, West
Elizabeth – 9:45am and Bethesda United Presbyterian Church, Elizabeth –
11:15am) with our previous safety precautions in place – wearing masks, using
hand sanitizer when you arrive at the church as well as if you’ve touched
various surfaces in the church, and being physically distant from one another.
As always, you can
click on the highlighted portions below which will open a YouTube clip of the
songs and the sermon.
Let’s begin:
Prelude – Fanfare by William
Mathias
Call to Worship
L: Rejoice and call on the name of the Lord!
P: Praise be to
God!
L: The Lord is
our refuge and strength.
P: God is an
ever-present comfort in our strife.
L: Look to the
Lord in all that you do and do not forget God’s many blessings.
P: Gracious Lord,
be present in our worship this day.
Hymn To God Be the Glory
Prayer of Confession
Words of Assurance
L: Even in the midst of doubt and darkness, the light of God
is shining in us, on us, and
through us. Out of God’s great love, we
have been redeemed and made whole. Rejoice, beloved of God! You are blessed
and given new hope.
P: Thanks be to God for God’s infinite mercy!
Affirmation of Faith – 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
Lord of Dawn and Darkness, how grateful we
are for Your loving mercies. You saw our
fear and doubt, our suspicion, our mistrust, and You banished them from our
lives, replacing them with hope, peace, love, and joy. You called us to be your witnesses, to all the
world, unafraid of what others might think or say about us. We have been invited out of our darkened
hideaways, into the light of Your world as emissaries of hope and justice,
peace and compassion. Be with us, as we
participate in ministries of healing and hope through this church, in our
community, region, nation, and world. Give
us courage and strength to be Your disciples in all the circumstances of our
lives; for we ask this in Jesus’ Name.
This day, we also offer up in prayer…
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.
Anthem – Because He Lives Caleb and Kelsey Grimm
Scripture Readings
Old Testament: Psalm 4
1Answer
me when I call, O God of my right! You
gave me room when I was in distress. Be
gracious to me, and hear my prayer.
2How
long, you people, shall my honor suffer shame? How long will you love vain words, and seek
after lies?
3But
know that the Lord has
set apart the faithful for himself; the Lord hears when I call to
him.
4When
you are disturbed, do not sin; ponder it on your beds, and be silent.
5Offer
right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.
6There
are many who say, “O that we might see some good! Let the light of your face shine on us,
O Lord!”
7You
have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and wine abound.
8I will
both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.
New Testament: 1 John
3:1-7
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called
children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that
it did not know him. 2Beloved,
we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we
do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him
as he is. 3And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he
is pure.
4Everyone who commits sin is
guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5You
know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6No one
who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. 7Little
children, let no one deceive you. Everyone
who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
Sermon –
(based on 1 John 3:1-7)
When I was in late elementary School
or Jr High School, I can’t quite remember which, we began reading about
mythology. The Greek and Roman
gods. Zeus was ruler of the Olympian
gods. He overthrew his father, Cronus,
and then drew lots with his brothers Poseidon and Hades, in order to decide who
would succeed their father on the throne. Zeus won the draw and became the supreme ruler
of the gods. We also read about Norse
Mythology with Odin, the All-Father. He
was ruler of the Aesir, the name of the group of all the other gods. For some reason I became more interested in
reading about the Norse gods than about the Greek and Roman ones.
In recent years, there has been a
Hollywood rediscovery of these ancient myths, as part of the comic book Marvel
Universe, and a whole franchise has included the stories of Odin and the
Aesir. Much of it has centered around
the story between Thor and Loki. In the
original story-telling, Thor is Odin’s son and Loki is brought up as a child in
Odin’s household when his own parents are killed. Therefore, Thor and Loki consider themselves
to be brothers. In the Hollywood
remaking of the tale, Loki is actually adopted by Odin as a baby and becomes
Odin’s son. Loki doesn’t discover this
until he is an adult and feels betrayed by both Father and Brother.
Every year when I read this passage
from the first letter of John, the phrase that usually catches my eye is this
phrase, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called
children of God, and that is what we are.”
The reason this phrase strikes me is partially because the book I read
about the Norse gods of the Aesir which was called Children of Odin. It was this that made me recall Hollywood’s
new retelling of these myths and the story behind Odin, Thor, and Loki.
In the retelling Odin took
compassion on a child left parentless and adopted him as his own, raised him,
taught him, loved and cared for him. I
think it is this story that always hits my own inner spirit because another
father and mother over 50 years ago did not leave me or my sister as orphans, but
adopted us as their own children and then how I could also do the same for another
child, my son Tyler, that needed a home.
Just like the rest of you who are
parents and grandparents, we must marvel at God’s incredible patience and
understanding of us when we act like spoiled children and refuse to listen;
when we stomp our feet and face the other way, when we kick and scream and want
to do our own thing. Regardless, God
still calls us his children. He doesn’t
turn his back on us. He doesn’t renege
on the relationship. He doesn’t cast us
off or throw us away. In spite of our
failings, God loves us back into that warm and welcoming embrace and continues
to keep us as his forever family.
For awhile there was an advertising
campaign on television, I think it was an insurance company, where a teenager
is doing something and an adult is seen in the background (sort of double
exposed over the scenario) telling them or whispering to them, “say thank you”,
“put on your seatbelt”, “look before you cross the road”, etc… Then one of the teens’ peers pulls out some
drugs and the teen looks at it. The
narrator comes on and says, “If you’ve never told them, how will they know what
to do?”
I use to believe that it was just today’s
generation that needed us to tell them the story of God’s incredible love for
them, that there are real things in this world that will get them in
trouble. But it isn’t just today’s
generation. It’s the entire world, over
multiple generations, that need to hear the story, need to experience that same
love and response from the Children of God.
As part of God’s forever family, we need to share the good news with
them and figure out ways to do that. They
need someone to reconnect them to that voice of the Holy Spirit that whispers
in their ears to show them that they, too, are Children of God.
But let me get to the phrase that
hit me hardest this time around when I read 1 John. It was the verse that follows this entire
concept of us being children of God. I
never gave it much thought before, but this year in the reading of this passage
was different.
Verse 2 says, “Beloved, we are God’s
children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.”
I thought about that phrase over and
over again these past couple of weeks.
And I’ve begun bringing up some questions about this with our session
members as part of a broader discussion that we all need to have.
It’s been a difficult year for us
individually and personally, for our families, communities, businesses,
churches, country, and in fact, the whole world. And I’ve heard so many people ask, why? Why did this pandemic happen? Why would a good God create such a horrible
virus that has, so far, caused over 3 million deaths world-wide. But then we could ask deeper and more
difficult questions like why would a good God allow suffering, pain, agony,
heartbreak, or evil to exist in the world, at all. But that’s not the right question to
ask. Why is nearly always an unanswerable
question. God’s short answer to Job when
Job began asking that very question was, “How dare you question me. Do you know how the earth spins? Were you there when I set the foundations of
the earth and understand how life begins and ends?” And in Jeremiah, God says to the people
through the prophet, “Do you know the plans I have for you?” We cannot fully grasp the mind of God. It’s not possible. The verse within this passage that has always
grabbed my attention reminds us that we are children, Children of God, but incapable
of fully understanding the heart, mind, passion, duty, responsibility, and
sacrifice of a parent.
This later verse about what we will
be reminds us that we need to ask ourselves a different set of questions. What can I do?
What is there in this for me to learn, grow, experience, change,
transform?
A few years ago, I wrote a sermon
about Phyllis Tickle and her book called the Emerging Church. In it she says that if you look back on history,
you’ll notice that there has been a globally significant shift in religion and
faith dynamics every 500 years. She predicted
that we are in the midst of a new one.
So, my question to our session
members and I raise it with you, as well; We know that we are children of God
now, but what will we be? In other
words, as a church we believe that we’ve been faithful to God. We’ve created a sacred space for worship, we’ve
crossed our t’s and dotted our i’s in organizational practices, we’ve done everything
decently and in order as our Presbyterian slogan goes. Many, if not most or all of the other
Christian faiths can say the same. But is
this all we are?
This pandemic year has given us time
to reflect, to wonder, to re-set if you will.
But is that re-set going to push us to drive for a return to what we’d
always been doing or is this re-set going to challenge us to become something
different, something more. Perhaps we
are no longer children with a naivete of children. Perhaps it’s time for us to grow up and see
the world with adult eyes. Perhaps it’s
time for us to learn new skills, bravely step out of the shadow and into the
light.
There’s a scene in the movie The
Lion King, when Simba as a young lion thinks he knows everything but steps into
his father, Mufasa’s, pawprint and realizes just how small and insignificant he
is and just how much he still needs to grow.
1 Corinthians 13:11 says, “When I
was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a
child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.”
Perhaps it’s time for us to grow up
and put away our childish ways and grow into something akin to adulthood in
this re-set. Perhaps it’s time for us to
stop playing at church and actually and truly become the church.
I don’t know. I’m just wondering and imagining what
connections we should be making here and now in our time. Because it is our time now to lead the world
into something different, something more, something better.
Where do we, indeed, go from here? What will we be?
AMEN
Hymn He Lives
Benediction
Go in courage and peace, proclaiming the Risen Lord to all! Be those who bring hope and justice to a
hungry and hurting world! The peace of
the Lord is with you now and forever. AMEN.
Postlude Toccato from 5th
Symphony
No comments:
Post a Comment