Worship Service for June 13, 2021

 

Worship Service for June 13, 2021

Prelude

Announcements –

Now that we are back in our sanctuaries for worship, we are going to try something new and stream the entire service onto my YouTube Channel.  As this is a test run, I’m not sure how successful it will be.  And it won’t be done until later today (after the service has completed). 

So, in case it doesn’t work, I’ve copied the entire service in its written form and you can read it, or come back later today and clickhere (when/if this highlighted) to open the YouTube clip of the entire service.

Sounding of the Hour

Call to Worship

L:      Friends, let us rejoice!   Proclaim God’s presence!  

P:      Let our voices raise together in everlasting hope and joy!  God is with us!

L:      Our savior, Jesus Christ, offers us lessons in living and serving.

P:      All our days we will praise and thank God for God’s love and mercy.

 

Opening Hymn – O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing

Prayer of Confession

          Patient Lord, You know how we are.  We let frustrations and worries of our lives overcome us.  Our hearts seem to buckle under the weight of anger and confusion.  And we turn away from You, sure that You can do nothing to alleviate our strife.  How foolish we are!  How faithless we are!  Please forgive us.  Help us learn that You are actively involved in our lives, not as a “puppet master” but as a creative co-worker, seeking healing and hope not only for each of us, but for the whole world.  Make us into disciples of peace and compassion; for we ask this in Jesus’ name. (silent prayers are offered)  AMEN.

Assurance of Pardon

L:      Let go of your fears and doubts.  God pours God’s love on you, in you and through you to others.  Be at peace this day.

P:      We give thanks to God for God’s steadfast love.  AMEN.

 

Gloria Patri

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

Mighty and Holy God, we are thankful for the life you have given to us and for your renewing Holy Spirit that meets us with challenge and comfort.  Thank you for gathering us here with others who share faith with us.  We pray for the community of faith, that we may be instruments of peace on earth.  Guide our church and all believers around the world to extend the grace of Jesus Christ through service and commitment to faith and understanding.

Make us mindful of those from whom the goodness and abundance of your creation are hidden; of those who have been dispossessed from their homes and lands; of those unable to find food and bread.  Strengthen our hands to reach out to those living in fear and in the shadows of violence.  Give us your Holy Spirit to turn our wishes for justice into expressions of concern.  Make our prayers into efforts on our own part towards justice and grace.

We lift up to you our requests for healing, comfort, compassion and understanding for our neighbors and loved ones.  We especially prayer for….

And in silence we offer up to you our deepest prayers that we cannot find words to express.  Enter, O Lord, into our hearts and hear us…

In God’s amazing grace, God hears our every prayer.  Now, with one voice, we pray together saying…

 

The Lord’s 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.

 

Scripture Reading(s): 

OT – Psalm 20

NT – 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17

Sermon – “Walking By Faith, Not By Sight”

Walking By Faith, Not By Sight

(based on 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17)

 

The author of the this second letter to the Corinthian church makes an analogy early on in the passage we read today.  We walk by faith, not by sight.  Most people walk by sight; with our eyes, so that we are able to see what is before us.  Our eyes keep us from stumbling and falling.  It is our eyes which keeps us from walking off a cliff.  Most of us can be thankful that we live, day by day, by sight.

Many will then conclude that only what we see and what we touch is real.  In fact, this reminds us of the disciple Thomas who was not among the rest of the disciples when Jesus first appeared to his friends after the resurrection, doesn’t it?  For Thomas said, “I will not believe unless I put my hands in his wounds and touch them.”  A week later Jesus appears again and says, “Go ahead, Thomas, put your fingers in the marks of the nails, put your hand into my side.  Touch my wounds; see that I am real.”   When Thomas does so and exclaims that Jesus is the Lord.  Jesus says to him, “You believe because you have seen, but blessed are those who believe who have not seen.”  So, in the church, we suggest that there is more to this world than what meets the eyes.

In philosophy, the matter of the senses leads to very interesting conclusions.  Philosophers from the days of Descartes have questioned what we see and what we touch.  In his famous illustration, Descartes saw a stick in a pond stuck down into the mud.  Where the stick touched the water, it appeared to be bent.  His eyes told him the stick was bent.  But when he pulled the stick out of the water, the stick was not bent at all, it was straight.  If our eyes can tell us that the stick is bent when indeed it is actually straight, how can we really trust our eyes?  Because of that, Descartes concluded that we cannot trust our senses.

A similar experience comes when we view optical illusions.  Recently, I looked at a set of illusions that a friend sent to me by email.  The first set contained a series of geometric patterns that appeared to be swirling and moving.  But when I focused on an individual set of dots, they clearly were not moving at all.  The eyes deceive us when we look at optical illusions.

This kind of philosophy leads to the point of view of the box office hit movie, The Matrix, starring Keanu Reeves in which humans were connected by electrodes to a computer.  An entire alternate world was created by electrical impulses to the brain.  It’s actually an idea straight from Greek philosophy and many science fiction movies and stories are based on that premise.  Philosophers and science fiction writers alike conclude that we cannot prove by the senses that we are not just a brain in a vat. 

Well, Philosophy can take us only so far with logical conclusions.  In the church, we believe in something more than that, for in religion we say, “We don’t live by sight alone, but by faith.”  We believe there is more to life than just what we see.  Some people insist that they don’t believe in anything that they can’t see and touch.  It’s a point of view which leads ultimately to atheism.  That seems to make sense until we realize that walking only by sight means we will never believe in faith, hope, love.  There is no tangible way to touch or see those things.  There is evidence of them, but you cannot physically touch hope.  You can visibly see faith.  There is more to life than what we see and what we touch.

Paul says, “Walk by faith and not by sight.”

Similarly he says that “our home is with the Lord, and not just the body.”

When someone asks me, “Where is your home,” I would normally respond, “645 Maple Lane,” because that’s where my house is.  That’s where I go after work each day.  But is that really where my home is?  I like the saying often put on refrigerator doors, “Home is where the heart is.”

Paul says, “My home is now in the body, but my real home is with the Lord.”  In Philippians 1:23-24 he says, “I don’t know what I will choose.  But I am in a dilemma between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.  Yet, to remain in the flesh is more needful right now for your sake.”  However for Paul, his home, his heart was really with God.

In our passage for today, we find both of those phrases––”at home in the body” (v. 6) and “at home in the Lord” (v. 8).  But where is our home?

Paul was in prison for a time in the colony of Philippi.  After the area was conquered by Rome, the town was made into an outpost of the empire.  They imported Roman government and Roman culture to transform the town of Philippi into being just like Rome.

Paul takes that same idea and suggests that we are to make our place on earth as much like heaven as we can.  Our real citizenship lies in the Kingdom of God, but we are here on earth as resident aliens.  We are not really citizens of the United States, but citizens of heaven.  Our home is with the Lord.  Our calling is to make the area around us like the Kingdom of God.  Our home is with the Lord; not in the body.

Although verse 12 was not part of today’s lectionary reading, the end of verse twelve reads, “So that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart.”  In the literal meaning of the phrase, “outward appearance” means “the face.”  Do we judge people by the face or by the heart?  Do we live by outward appearance or by the heart?  Perhaps, it is just another way of asking do we live by faith or by sight?

          The Bible tells us in many places that God judges by the heart.  In our afterschool program at Olivet we used to use some rather revealing plays written by Stephen James that brought the biblical story to life for our grade school kids.  One week we were learning about the shepherd David who was to become king of Israel.  Samuel came to the house of Jesse and said that one of his eight sons would be the new king.  One by one, Jesse paraded his older sons before Samuel, only to be rejected.

In Stephen James’ play, we acted out this story with a little humor.  He suggested in the dialogue that the youngest son, David, was out caring for the sheep and may not have looked like much or smelled like much on the outside.  One by one, the children pretended to be the older sons.  Jesse, the father, bragged about each one and exclaimed what a fine specimen his son was.  The child playing Samuel asked if this son had a bath last night, and each said, “Yes.”  Samuel asked if they had brushed their teeth this morning, and they each said, “Yes.”  But God rejected each one.

Then the volunteer who was David came forward and admitted he hadn’t had a bath in a month, and hadn’t even brushed his teeth.  But God looks on the heart and not the outside and David was selected as the next king.  1 Samuel 16:7 says, “But Yahweh said to Samuel, ‘Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for I see not as human beings see; for humans look at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.'”

Ours is a faith of the heart.  We are called to look at the heart of other people.  And we are called to live by the heart.  “Walk by faith, not by sight” (v. 7).  That means we live by God’s guidance day by day.  So, today, I want to recommend living by the heart.  There is a value in living and making decisions by the heart.  This heart-talk speaks of the Holy Spirit that communicates to us.  Sometimes God leads us in ways beyond reason.  Sometimes we just know something by our hearts. 

But I offer a caution about the heart as well, because there are those who might commit horrible acts of violence and destruction against others and suggest that God spoke to their heart and told them to do that!  Sometimes we simply use it as an excuse, do what we want, and then blame it on God.  We mix up our desires and God’s desires.  Living by the heart, if not carefully mentored in faith, can lead to a mash-up of wants and desires that stampede our lives toward base instincts rather than a higher form of living.

Paul offers a balance for this in verse 14-15, “For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died.  He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.”  Our heart can be trusted as long as our hearts are anchored in Jesus Christ.  There has to be some standard to guide our emotions.  An abandoned ship on the water may wind up anywhere at the whims of the winds that blow.  But if the anchor is thrown out, the ship may be blown in a circle, but it will never be far from the place where the anchor holds.

So, Paul would say for us to anchor our hearts in Jesus through our understanding of his life, death, and resurrection.  When that happens we “no longer live to (ourselves), but to him who… died and rose again…” (v. 15).  Then we desire to please God instead of ourselves.  Because our hearts are not free to go with our desires, our wants.  Our hearts are controlled by the love of Christ.  Therefore, we lead lives of sacrifice and service to others.  We live for God – by faith, not by sight, embodying our true home, not in the flesh, but rather making the world around us part of the Kingdom of God.

Offertory –

Doxology

Prayer of Dedication

Holy God, receive these gifts, we pray.  Through our offering help us know in some surprising way that You are bringing into being something wonderful and new.  AMEN.

Closing Hymn – Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee

Benediction

Life is a mystery.  We walk entirely by faith.  God calls us when we least expect it, inviting us to be in Christ.  Walk out into the world, knowing that you are part of God’s life-giving new creation.  Go in peace.  AMEN.

Postlude