Worship Service for June 6, 2021

 

Worship Service for June 6, 2021

Announcements:

I want to extend a deep, personal thank you to all those who have continued worshipping in person at our congregational sanctuaries and bearing with me in this on-line format for the past two months.  My sister had undergone surgery, radiation and chemo treatments for endometrial cancer during 2020.  After ringing the bell and being declared free of cancer in November 2020, she had some residual pain in her neck and shoulder beginning in February 2021.  In March (almost exactly a year to the date of her initial surgery) she ended up back in the hospital with pneumonia.  Knowing her history, they did additional scans and found that the cancer had spread everywhere and rapidly.  On May 14, my sister Joy completed her journey here on earth and began a new one with her heavenly Lord. 

I also want to extend a special thank you to Rev. Carol Divens Roth and Rev. Bob Ruefle for their worship coverage at both Olivet and Bethesda, and to the wonderful members at both congregations, and to all of you who lifted my family up in prayer, comfort, and support during this difficult time.

As I return to a regular schedule and routine, this blog will also continue as it has for the past couple of years.  With apologies, I offer today's service this morning with no YouTube clips for music or the sermon. 

Prelude

Call to Worship

L:      You were not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for    you. 

P:      We choose to gather on this Sabbath to worship, to pray, and to share with one another.

L:      Jesus asked, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to harm, to      save life or to kill?”

P:      We choose compassion and justice, grace and healing.  In this    Sabbath time together, we choose life.

 

Opening Hymn – Ye Servants of God

Prayer of Confession

          O God, whose very name is Love, we mean to do well, but our intentions are soon discarded.  We try to be faithful, but we are diverted by so many things.  We do not wish to harm anyone, but, for lack of consideration, we sometimes hurt those we love the most.  We sympathize with those who suffer more often than we provide actions that might help them.  We refuse to accept the help of others because we are unwilling to admit our own needs.  Help us, Lord and forgive us our sins.  (silent prayers are offered)  AMEN.

Assurance of Pardon

L:      This statement is true and should be universally accepted that God, in the human form of Jesus Christ, died for our sins and has redeemed us back to Himself.  It is a gift freely given that we should freely accept.

P:      Thanks be to God.  AMEN.

 

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, this is the season of growth.  Plants sprout new leaves, birds nest in trees, rabbit families hop in gardens, and children play in the parks.  We, too, need to grow in Your love.  We need to find ways of nurturing our own souls and spirits in the ways of Your grace and truth.  Help us to truly trust in Your creative process in our lives.  We look around and see the beauty of Your world and all that You have created.  We wonder at the joy all around us, sometimes even in the midst of pain, sorrow, and grief.  We are thankful for celebrations of graduations and marriages, of receiving new life that bursts forth.  However, we are not blind to the shadows of sadness and sorrow that invades the world when systems of injustice and hatred lay claim to people’s lives.  Prepare us, O Lord, to become ambassadors of peace, grace, and hope.  Help us place our trust in You, so that when we are serving others, they may come to know Your abiding love and power.  Give us courage and great joy as we serve You.  Hear our prayers as we lift up to You those whom we have named:

And in this time of silence Lord, hear the prayers of our hearts.

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

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 138

NT – 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

Sermon – “Extending Grace”

Extending Grace

(based on II Corinthians 4:13-5:1)

 

          A wilderness journey was undertaken by the Hebrew people who left bondage in Egypt and wandered in the desert for 40 years before coming to the land that would become their home.  We could say that, beginning in March of last year until Palm Sunday of this year, we too entered a 40+ week wilderness journey during the months of isolation from Covid-19.  Just prior to the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus went into the wilderness, prayed and was tested for forty days and forty nights. 

The journey that Christians ought to take during the forty days of Lent are supposed to resemble a wilderness journey; leaving the comfort of what we know, spending more and more time in prayer, asking God to test us, try us, do something new with us. 

However, I think it’s a good metaphor for the season after Pentecost as well.  Because at Pentecost, maybe even more than at Lent, we should be entering into untested waters, a wilderness that we do not understand.  It is a very new beginning.  Pentecost, which we celebrated two weeks ago, is often referred to as the Birthday of the church.  The church that Jesus Christ had in mind had just begun on this day.  Peter, the rock upon which Christ said that he would build his church, stood up among the assembly of thousands in Jerusalem and gave an eloquent speech about the life of Christ and who he was and why these people were behaving the way they were.  When people in the crowd heard what Peter said, the scriptures tell us in Acts that “they were cut to the heart” and wanted to know what they could do.  Peter replied, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are fare away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.”  He spoke longer and showed them more and more about what Jesus taught.  And on that day three thousand people were baptized and joined in the work of the disciples. 

But no one knew, at that very moment, what was in store for this new church.  No one knew what journey they would be embarking on, now that Jesus was gone and they were left with something called the Holy Spirit that was supposed to bring fire, wind, power and comfort.  The Holy Spirit would pour out gifts to each of them; understanding, wisdom, justice, fortitude, wonder and awe.  And as this new community of believers worked together under this power, they would eventually produce fruit such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  The gifts of the Holy Spirit and the fruits of the Holy Spirit, all poured out for them on the day of Pentecost.  In order to comprehend all of that I think we are indeed on a wilderness journey.

There is another dimension to this journey, beyond the comprehension of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and how, as we use those gifts, the fruits of the Holy Spirit are seen.  There is the dimension of fashioning a vision for this particular church.  We are now more than 2,000 years separated from that moment in history.  A lot has changed.  The world has changed.  Christianity was an isolated religion, scattered by the diaspora when Rome invaded and struck down Jerusalem in 70 A.D.  It grew among those scattered, who shared the good news of Christ.  It embraced empire and was adopted by Constantine who then made Christianity the legal religion of all people in the known world at that time.  Approximately 500 years later, the world entered the dark ages of the 11^th through 13^th Centuries and Christianity, as a religion, nearly vanished.  It remained as a practiced faith only in isolated monastic communities.  But, as the rising power and feuding of the European monarchs grew, the church once again, embraced empire and intertwined with politics grasping at power.  As world domination and exploration into new lands grew, so did Christianity.  Since the time of the Reformation in the 16^th Century, we saw new Christian churches with different ideas, beliefs, and doctrines crop up in every village, town, city, and corner of the world until Christianity truly became a World Religion.  In the past 50 years or so that has begun to change again, while we witness more and more churches closing their doors.  Kenda Creasy Dean, last year’s lecturer for an online, web-only series at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, said that “one in three regular worshippers have stopped attending church and will most likely not return.  As a result, probably 1 in 5 American churches will close their doors.  These trends were already well under way before Covid-19 which only hurried the process along, “drop kicking” us 20 years into the future.”  She went on to say that, “We, in America have come to believe that Christianity allows us to dictate our values to the world, rather than demonstrating our values to the world through lives of engagement and service.  We have forgotten that we serve a crucified Lord whose only crown was a crown of thorns not one of gold.  Perhaps now that Christendom is over and ended, the church can be the true church again and seek the kingdom of God.”

I’d like to add this statement to hers, “Christianity was never intended to be like the world – it was always intended to be different.”

Now that we have re-emerged from our Covid-19 isolation, maybe our wilderness journey has taught us something that comes from today’s scripture passage from 2 Corinthians 4:15, “so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.”  And the following verse, verse 16 tells us, “Do not lose heart.”

In can be easy to give up, to say, “What can we do if the tide is so strongly us?”  It’s time to re-fashion a vision for the future, to truly live into the purpose and meaning of the church and Christianity, to extend grace to more and more people, to no longer be of the world, but rather to set the world aside and engage the world in a new way. 

At our last session meeting in May, the elders of both congregations chose this as the driving task of our partnership together, as we look to the future.  As we work together, as we form a bond of ministry, what is God’s vision for us?  What will define us?  What will our focus be?  What are our strengths?  What are our weaknesses?  How are we caring for the physical well-being and the spiritual life of our members?  How are we proclaiming the fullness of God’s good news to those outside the church?  What is God doing in the world at-large that he wants us to participate in?  What opportunities is God showing us regularly; monthly, weekly, daily that we should grasp hold of and know that this is our mission?  How are we extending grace to more and more people.

That is the wilderness journey we are on.  Often times, as churches struggle for a vision, entering that wilderness, they turn inward.  Beginning that journey can be frightening and scary.  No one knows what lurks behind the bushes, or what is around the bend, or what potential threats may come.  So we huddle together and walk cautiously forward.  We are on defense mode, ready to attack or flee depending upon the event that comes.

I would like us to enter this new wilderness journey with the innocence of a child, looking around at what amazing things God is doing, an openness to the fantastic wonder of God’s world and seeing how grace can strengthen us, define us, and shape our vision for the future.  A grace that extends to more and more people.

But what exactly is grace?

Kathleen Norris, in her book called Amazing Grace, talks about the biblical character Jacob as an appealing tale of unmerited grace.  Here’s a man who has just deceived his father and cheated his brother out of an inheritance.  But God’s response to finding Jacob vulnerable, sleeping all alone in open country, is not to strike him down for his sins but to give him a blessing.

Jacob wakes from his dream of angels ascending and descending on a stairway to heaven, in awe and wonder, exclaiming, “Surely the Lord is in this place – and I did not know it!”  For once his better instincts take hold, and he responds by worshipping God.  He takes the stone that he’d kept close by all night, perhaps to use as a weapon should he be attacked by an animal or his furious brother Esau, and sets it up as a shrine, leaving it for future travelers, so that they, too, will know that this is a place of awe and wonder, the dwelling place of God.

Norris goes on to say that she was reminded of this story about Jacob when she came across a young couple with an infant at an airport departure gate.  The baby was staring intently at other people, and as soon as he recognized a human face, no matter whose it was, no matter if it was young or old, pretty or ugly, bored or happy or worried-looking he would respond with absolute delight.  She said, “As I watched that baby play with any adult who would allow it, I felt as awe-struck as Jacob, because I realized that this is how God looks at us, staring into our faces in order to be delighted, to see the creature he made and called good, along with the rest of creation.” 

She goes on to say that she suspects only God, and well-loved infants can see this way, but it gives her hope to think that when God gazed on the sleeping Jacob, he looked right through the tough little schemer and saw something good, if only a capacity for awe, for recognizing God and worshipping.  That Jacob will worship badly, trying to bargain with God, doesn’t seem to matter much to God.  God promises to be with him always.

Peter denied Jesus, and Saul persecuted the early Christians, but God could see within those apostles and what they could become.  God does not punish Jacob as he lies sleeping because he can see in him Israel, the foundation of a people.  God loves to look at us, and loves it when we will look back at him.  Even when we try to run away or attack as Jacob did and was ready to do.  God will find us, and bless us, even when we feel most alone, unsure if we’ll survive the night.  God will find a way to let us know that he is with us in this place, wherever we are, however far we think we’ve run.

On our journey together into this wilderness we will take the gift of the Holy Spirit of wonder and awe in the Lord and while we travel, we will cast a vision that becomes clearer and clearer to us as we are open to the ways of God, offering grace to more and more people.  As we travel in this wilderness we will begin to see our surroundings the way God sees it and more importantly, we will see one another and those whom we come across on our journey the way God sees us; extending grace.  In doing so, we will find thanksgiving and glory in the Lord and not lose heart.

Thanks be to God.  AMEN

 

Closing Hymn – Open My Eyes, That I Might See

Benediction

Go now in peace, knowing the miracles that God has produced in Your life.  Be assured that there are still more miracles to come, grace to offer, and our witness to bear to the world.  In the name of the Creator, the Holy One, our Triune God, who resides with you always, go in peace.  AMEN.

Postlude