Worship
Service for July 11, 2021
Prelude
Announcements:
You can click here when this is highlighted to go to the YouTube recording of the worship service at Bethesda which is generally uploaded later in the afternoon on Sunday.
·
Please feel free to join us for in person
worship at Olivet (West Elizabeth, PA) at 9:45am or at Bethesda (Elizabeth, PA)
at 11:15am.
·
Food Bank Distribution at Olivet is scheduled
for July 20th from 1:00-2:30pm
·
Joint Session Meeting – in-person and Zoomed
for those who prefer July 20 at 7:00pm
Sounding of the Hour (at Bethesda only)
Call to Worship
L: Open wide the doorways of our sanctuary!
P: May the King of Glory come into our midst.
L: Who is this King of Glory?
P: The Lord, strong and mighty.
L: Open the doorways of our hearts to receive
Jesus Christ.
P: May the Son of God come into our hearts.
L: Who is this Son of God?
P: He is the Lord of Hosts, He is the King of
Glory.
Opening Hymn – Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Prayer of Confession
O Lord, so
many things claim our attention. We work
hard during the week to earn a little rest and recreation, to break away from
all the stresses of our everyday living.
But we have too often pushed our worship of You aside. We have focused so much on our own physical
and emotional needs, that we have often neglected our spiritual hungers and
thirst. Forgive us when we are tempted
to stray from our worship of You and focus entirely on ourselves and our own
needs. As we celebrate this day, help us
remember all the wondrous things You continue to do for us. Let us look at the world as a place of
delight, given to us by You. And when we
encounter situations in which sorrow and hurt abound, help us to be ready to
bring hope and peace. Be with us in these
warm days of summer, preparing for mission and ministry, in Your holy name. (Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: God is merciful and just, pouring out
God’s love upon us abundantly.
P: In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God. 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
Lord of the dance of life, you have breathed
into us Your creative, joyful Spirit. You
have lifted us from the dust into the swirling joy of Your presence. We are so grateful for all that You have done
for us. Each day reminds us in many ways
of Your mercy and Your love. Yet there
are times in our lives when we have felt lost and alone. We have been hurt and frightened and wondered
where You were. Remind us again of Your
loving presence. Place Your hands of
healing on our lives. Comfort us when we
become afraid, lost, lonely, and fearful. Prepare us to serve You faithfully all our days.
As we prepare our own hearts for prayer,
we have lifted the names of dear ones to You who are in need of Your healing
love. We pray for….
Gracious God, allow us also to reflect on our own needs for Your love
and our response in dedicated service to You. Be with us now, in this time of silence…
Lord, surround our lives with Your joy and grace as 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.
Hymn – Alleluia! Sing to Jesus
Scripture Reading(s):
OT – Psalm 24
NT – Ephesians 1:3-14
Sermon – “Churchy Words and Their Meaning”
Churchy Words and Their Meaning
(based on Ephesians 1:3-14)
This
section of Ephesians is unlike any other portion of Paul’s writing. It is a different kind of letter. Paul is not debating or answering ugly
charges that have been hurled against him.
He is not trying to rebuke anyone, get them to see the error of their
ways or even necessarily trying to be the ultimate evangelist as he so often
does in his writing. But, he does use a
lot of churchy type words that we think we automatically understand, but do we fully
grasp the breadth of meaning that some of these words hold? I’d like for us to spend a little time this
morning reviewing some of those words and how together, they create a divine
understanding that Paul is talking about in this letter to the Ephesians.
I’m
not a huge Paul fan. Many times our
Christianity has become more Pauline than Christ-like. He can be opinionated, outspoken, dogmatic to
a fault, and quite judgmental. But here,
Paul simply lays out a joyful praise about God and about God’s plan. It is now not just about a small faction of
people that once were led out of the wilderness into the Promised Land. This plan is now to envelope the whole
planet. It’s not about what separates us,
but instead it’s about what unites us.
The
first word that I want us to explore is that Paul says that we are chosen
by God.
Is there anything quite like the
feeling that comes when we are chosen? I remember what it was like growing up –
being a small kid and not very athletic in the same way that all the other kids
were. The kids I grew up with were into
football and soccer, baseball and basketball.
While the only athletic things that I exceled in were gymnastics and
swimming. In gym class, there were
always the regulars who became captain and had to pick their teammates. It always came down to me and my friend Jim at
the end. I was the short, stocky kid and
Jim was the tall, lanky kid. Invariably,
they would pick Jim first. And the games
were always some kind of team sport in which I didn’t know the rules, couldn’t
outrun the other players, or who didn’t have quite enough bulk to play hard
enough against an opponent.
It
wasn’t until 7th or 8th grade and we were given some
instructions on the gymnastic equipment at school. Most of the kids had never seen the parallel
bars or the rings or a pommel horse. Our
first lesson was on the horse. All we
were supposed to do was come up to the horse, hit the board and jump over. The gym teacher would be there to place our
hands properly on the pommel horse and help us over. As usual I was at the end of the line with
Jim. Most of the kids in my gym class
didn’t have the right approach to the board and tripped or stopped too short or
didn’t get enough bounce and barely made it over.
There
weren’t a lot of things in gym class that I was good at, but gymnastic stuff, I
knew how to do. I began running at full
speed up to the board when suddenly the gym teacher stepped in front of the
horse and said loudly, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what do you think you’re doing?” Behind me, I heard all the kids start
giggling. I continued to walk up to the
horse and in front of the gym teacher.
He leaned down and said, “What do you think you’re doing? I just want you to walk up to the board, jump
on it and I’ll help you over.” I quietly
told him that I knew what I was doing.
He said, “Well, I just want you to jump over it for right now.”
So,
I went back and did what I was supposed to do, listening to all the comments
kids were making under their breath.
However, on the second pass I went at full speed and jumped over the
horse without any assistance. I didn’t “stick
the landing” as gymnastic competitors would have, but I did a pretty decent job
and the room was dead quiet.
During
the rest of that semester our gym teacher had me demonstrate how a particular
piece of equipment was used; the parallel bars, the rings. It just happened to be something that I was
naturally good at. For the first time in
gym class, I shined. After four weeks,
we were back to our team sports. This
time it was floor hockey. Normally, I
would have either found an excuse to miss gym class or would have waited to be
picked last. This time however, I was
picked second. I still wasn’t any good
at these team sport things with games I didn’t much like, but it felt great,
for the first time to be picked, to be chosen. And I made a better effort. I tried harder. I wanted the team to know that they didn’t
choose me in error. Before, I didn’t really
care. They didn’t care to choose me, so
why should I care to try and do well. It
felt great to know that I was chosen, instead of being just what was left.
God
chooses us. Paul never thought of
himself as having chosen God – but quite the contrary – God chose him. And this is what Jesus said to his disciples
“You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.”
Thomas
Merton once asked, “What am I?” and he answered his own question by saying, “I
am myself a word spoken by God.” How we
perceive ourselves, who we think ourselves to be, determines the direction of
our lives and shapes our relationships.
To accept at the depth of our being that we are chosen by God is the antidote
for our insecurity, our neurotic fears, our striving to be accepted, our
self-depreciation.
But
God doesn’t just choose us. God chooses
us for a purpose. In Herman Melville’s
classic, Moby Dick, there is a
gripping scene where Captain Ahab tightens a carpenter’s vise on his hand. With grimacing sternness he tightens it
tighter and tighter and says to the sky and sea, “A man has to feel something
that holds in this slippery world.”
We
need something to hold in a slippery world.
And ours is that kind of world.
Our cultural “if it feels good, do it,” doesn’t provide much direction
in life. But God’s choosing us for a
purpose does. Two more words are that God
chooses us to be “holy and blameless.”
We are to be distinctly different – set apart by God for God’s purposes. We don’t always understand this
completely. Sometimes people have
interpreted this to mean that we need to separate ourselves from the
world. We need to send our kids to
private Christian schools, we need to work in an all Christian environment, we
need to surround ourselves only with Christian friends, but that is not what
holy, set apart means. It doesn’t mean
separated from the world but rather
different from the world. Distinct
within the world’s chaos, a difference expressed in the world.
Not
only has God chosen us for the purpose of being holy, but we are also to be
blameless. The Greek word for blameless,
amomos, is a sacrificial word; it
means unblemished. Our whole lives are
to be an offering to God. When we have
done things that we know we’re not supposed to be doing, I’ve heard so many
people say, “Well, I’m only human.” What
is that really supposed to mean? That
being human sort of damns us to being something that is weak, incomplete,
broken, unable to make choices, driven only by our animal instincts, incapable
of morality. It’s a copout. We were created in the image of God. We are more than capable, more than strong
enough, more than broken, incomplete. We
are whole human beings capable of living up to God’s expectations of us. Granted, none of us are perfect. All of us fall short of the glory of
God. But God chose us for a purpose to
live a holy and blameless life, offering our lives as a living sacrifice to
that purpose.
One
of the catechisms asks, What is the chief end of man? Or in other words, “What is our purpose?” And the answer is to praise God and enjoy God
forever. That is the highest function of
the life that God has blessed.
Being
chosen by God for a purpose is the first affirmation that Paul makes in this
opening letter to the Ephesians. The
second affirmation and another word to explore is that we are redeemed. That for us, through the work and word of
Jesus Christ, we are brought back into communion, into a relationship with
God. This act, this sacrifice gave us
redemption. And the primary purpose of
redemption is forgiveness.
You
can’t be forgiven, you can’t feel forgiven, you can’t know what it means to be
forgiven if you aren’t in relationship with the person who is forgiving you.
Let’s
say for instance that a friend of yours did something awful to you and broke
off all communication afterwards. You
have attempted to contact her. You have
written notes. You have called and left
messages. All you want to do is talk
about what happened, find out her side of the story and perhaps, being
generous, forgive her for what she did.
But nothing. Years go by and you
have had to move on. Silently and in
your own way, you’ve forgiven her but there is not relationship between the two
of you. There is therefore, no
redemption. Does she know that you’ve
forgive her? Is she still afraid of what
you might think of her? How you might
treat her after all these years?
One
day another person comes and you befriend this person. In fact, you become best of friends. You go to lunch, you learn all about each
other’s families, your past and one day the name of your old friend comes
up. It just so happens that this new
person is also a friend of hers.
And
quietly, gently, this person brings the two of you back together. That is redemption – being brought back
together in communion with someone. You
now have the opportunity to express your forgiveness and your old friend can
know that she is forgiven and all is well.
That is the purpose of redemption and although Jesus Christ did this in
a much more dramatic and permanent way for all eternity – it is exactly what
Jesus did for all of us.
Finally,
a rather simple word, but becomes so much greater in the context of this
passage is the word, plan. And
not just any plan, but a divine plan in verse 10; “that as a plan in the fullness of time, to
gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
This
is where the study of another language becomes kind of fun – the Greek word for
plan here is oikonomia, which
literally translates “household management.”
It can mean in noun form, the household steward – the person who saw to
it that the family affairs were kept in order and functioned smoothly and
efficiently. Christ literally became the
household steward, where Christ worked out God’s policy or project for the
household. That in the fullness of time
– God had a goal, a plan for his household, that all history has been a
preparation for that goal. And the goal was
that the whole world would be brought together as one family; chosen for a
purpose, redeemed and brought back into communion like the prodigal son and
forgiven of all that separated us in the beginning.
Terrible
things can happen in the world. Horrible
things can work to separate us as a family, but Christ’s love and redemption
should call us to act out our purpose in the world. We are called to live a holy and blameless life. To give and share, to do all the things that
the world thinks are ridiculous. To be
distinct and different, to strive for something more, because we know we have
been chosen – not just left over – but picked and chosen by God and to spread
that same love, acceptance and blessing to others as one family under heaven.
AMEN.
Offertory
Doxology
Prayer of Dedication
Bountiful God, accept our
gifts: the gifts of our lives, our souls, and our treasure. Multiply and bless them. Consecrate them to the praise and work of
Your glory. In Jesus’ name we pray. AMEN.
Closing Hymn – My Faith Looks Up to Thee
Benediction
God’s love for you is real and
alive in your hearts today. Go in peace,
knowing that the Lord of Love and Life is with you. Bring God’s peace to all you meet, this day
and always. AMEN.
Postlude
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