Worship Service for July 4, 2021
Here is today’s worship
service in its written form. Click here
(when highlighted) for the YouTube link for today’s worship service at Bethesda
which will be posted after the service has been recorded and uploaded to YouTube.
You can join us for corporate, in-person worship at Olivet
(9:45am) and Bethesda (11:15am).
Prelude
Announcements
Sounding of the Hour (at Bethesda only)
Call to Worship
L: Come!
Listen to the Word of the Lord!
P: Help us receive God’s word and direction
for our lives.
L: Proclaim the goodness of God’s love!
P: Let our voices and our actions be filled
with love.
L: Come!
Now is the time to worship.
P: Open our eyes, our hearts, and our spirits
this day, O Lord.
Opening Hymn – Come, Thou Almighty King
Prayer of Confession
Merciful
God, we hear the Gospel Message of love for all people, but sometimes we lack
the conviction of caring for people who are different from us. Help us, Lord, to pay attention to the words
and actions of Christ as He sent His disciples out into the world for healing
and compassion. Forgive us when we turn
our backs from those in need or respond with indifference. Remind us that success is not measured in the
cures, but in the striving. Forgive us
when we don’t strive strongly enough. Let
us trust in Your power and presence with us.
Guide our lives and our journeys all our days. (Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: Do not be afraid of the derision of
others. Place your trust in God’s call
and guidance. Know that the Lord is with
you always, even to the ends of the earth.
P: 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
God of wondrous love,
you have touched us and never left us in despair. You have held us in our grief and chaos. You have never deserted us. You paid us a visit and your visit has never
ended. You clung to us when we were
given up for dead. In life and in death
– you raise us anew; healing our diseases, calming our souls, binding up our
hurting hearts, and restoring us each and every day. This we know!
This we experience! This is your
word of assurance to us!
God of wondrous love,
God also of the thunderstorm and of the sun, we come before you grateful for
your love – not understanding it but holding fast to it. We are in complete awe that you love us so
much when we do not love either ourselves or one another; that you love us not
only in our pain, not only in our rejoicing, but even in our confusion about
love itself, about life and all of its trials.
God of wondrous love –
your whisper heals our wounded knees and your song heals our frightened hearts,
your love reaches deep within us and heals our very souls. We come before you and ask for healing. We ask that your healing, wondrous love come
into our world which is in great need.
We pray that it reach the victims of floods and fires, homelessness and
joblessness, the victims of loneliness and pain. We pray, O God, that your wondrous love touch
people in all corners of the earth, people whose names we do not even know, but
whose very lives are as precious to you as our own.
God of wondrous love,
we also pray for those whose names and lives we know so well. We pray for…
God of wondrous love,
touch us again in this time, as we seek to listen as much as we want to be heard. In this time of silence reveal your truth and
love to us.
God of wondrous love,
we celebrate your blessings and proclaim your everlasting hope as we pray
together …
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 – America, the Beautiful
Scripture Reading(s):
OT – Psalm 48
NT – Mark 6:1-13
Sermon –
Mt.
Zion
(based
on Psalm 48)
I’ve
been a part of internet discussion groups nearly as long ago as the internet
itself. Shortly after graduating from
seminary, I joined the online service of PresbyNet and EcuNet – these were
established a few years even before AOL existed. You dialed a number on your computer and
received all the messages that others had left and were able to respond. I’ve loved that part of the internet and even
social media, since the beginning, being able to discuss interesting topics
with other people all over the world.
Well,
one of the major discussions/debates among my colleagues on the internet this
week was what to talk about this Sunday in regard to the lectionary passages
and for our sermons. Of course, the
biggest discussion starter was about whether or not to acknowledge the national
holiday of July 4th/Independence Day or to steer clear of it. What message we’d send, what hymns we’d
choice, what responsive readings we’d have, or what prayers we’d offer, etc…
There
were some valuable and very interesting discussions. Some of my colleagues were leaning completely
to the whole God Bless America, I pledge allegiance type of a worship service
with Red, White and Blue banners, and Flag waving, etc… to the totally opposite
extreme of not mentioning it at all, as if it was just another Sunday for us to
be here in church worshiping God; and then there was everything in between
those two polar opposite approaches. If
you’ve known me long enough you might know where I fall on that spectrum, and
today’s worship service might give you a clue, if you don’t. (If you need a hint; I fit securely in the
center of that debate.) While I
acknowledge nearly all national holidays in some way during worship – such as
Thanksgiving, New Year’s, Memorial Day, Mother’s and Father’s Day, etc… I don’t
generally center the worship service or sermon on them.
Thankfully,
Independence Day or July 4th has fallen on a Sunday only 32 times in the last
245 years (I actually looked that up!) and only 5 times, including this Sunday,
since I became a pastor 35 years ago.
Why do
some ministers and congregational members steer clear of making any references
to Independence Day on a Sunday morning, even if it falls on July 4th? Although there are probably multi-level
answers to that question, probably the number one answer is the whole concept
that we are here to worship God. We’re
not here to worship country.
And we
could ask the opposite question, as well; why do some ministers and
congregational members expect national recognition in church on Sunday,
especially if Independence Day falls on a Sunday? Again, there are probably multi-level answers
to that question as well, but I think it boils down to a rather simplistic
answer that many people truly believe that the United States has been divinely
blessed as a beacon of Christianity to the rest of the world.
Here’s
what I find fascinating and why I’m squarely in the middle of it all; it comes
directly from our Psalm text today, Psalm 48, first verse:
“Great
is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is
the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great
King.”
Mount
Zion was a physical place in Israel.
Over the years, however, the name was used for three different locations
– first the name was given to the Jebusite city on the lower part of ancient
Jerusalem’s Eastern hill, also known at that time, as the City of David. As the newly conquered Jebusite city expanded
to become Jerusalem, the highest part of the hill became the site of Solomon’s
Temple and the name migrated to that section of the hill, generally referred to
as the Temple Mount. However, there was
a higher and more prominent hill in the area on the Western side of the city
which by now had expanded and had included this hill, as well. It seemed to first century Jerusalemites that
this was a worthier location for the lost palace of King David and so today,
the Western Hill is now called Mount Zion.
There
are references throughout 1 and 2 Samuel, Isaiah, and the Psalms to these
physical locations, including a reference in our Psalm this morning that this
hill was to the far north, which is true geographically, for the conquered
lands of all Judea. But, these books
also mention Mount Zion in a more metaphorical way to refer to the heavenly
Kingdom of God or New Jerusalem, which is how Mount Zion is referenced in
nearly all of the New Testament.
Why is
this important? This psalm is a hymn to
be sung and used during communal worship and Mount Zion. For the Hebrew people, it was a physical
location of special importance which included a metaphorical reference to the
more highly sought after Kingdom of God, where God would one day dwell,
mentioned as early as Deuteronomy, with God’s people who would come from every
town and nation.
Throughout
history hymns have been written about holy cities. From the earliest records of Mesopotamia,
cities were associated with various deities and hymns were written to honor
them. The same is true of ancient Egypt
where hymns emerged extolling the virtues of different gods that were
associated with different cities. In
this practice, the psalmist in Psalm 48 is doing the very same thing as the
hymn writers throughout the ancient world.
It is
no great stretch to see the very same practice take place for America. For hymns to be written and created to extol
the virtues of a land and a people who believe themselves to be blessed by God
as a beacon of Christianity to the world.
It is simply history repeating itself.
So, for the same reason that I have no problem with reading Psalm 48
during worship as part of our Scripture reading, I have no serious problem
extolling the beauty and wonder of our own land and nation making the
connection to God’s blessing upon it.
However,
the danger in doing this comes from crossing a line. And it is a very fine line. The purpose of Psalm 48 was not to uplift
Mount Zion as the purpose of our praise, but rather to use Zion as a pointing
mechanism for where the true adoration lies.
In other words, it is the indirect object that points to the
subject. If you notice, the Psalm begins
with “Great is the Lord and greatly to the praised” and ends with, “Walk about Zion, go all around it, count its towers, consider well its ramparts; go through its citadels, that you may tell the next generation that THIS is God, our God forever and ever...”
We do
cross that fine line when we flip the narrative and make the Mount the object
of our praise or if we make America our praise and many, unfortunately, have
done just that. When we put country
before God, when we flip that narrative (and it is so easy to do, when you’ve
linked them that closely) we end up using God to justify the purpose of the
nation, rather than using our nation and its resources for the purpose of
God. It is one of the reasons why I
prefer to not CENTER worship on this national holiday, (even though I have done
exactly that this morning, in a way) but would prefer to simply make mention of
it within the context of worship as I do with most other national holidays.
It is
also one of the reasons why I prefer to use a different hymn on the Sunday
closest to July 4th. We’ve used it in
the past, but I want you to pay close attention to its words.
This
is My Song
This
is my song, O God of all the nations
A song
of peace for lands afar and mine
This
is my home, the country where my heart is
Here
are my hopes and dreams, my holy shrine
But
other hearts in other lands are beating
With
hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
My
country's skies are bluer than the ocean
And
sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine
But
other lands have sunlight, too, and clover
And
skies are everywhere as blue as mine
O hear
my song, thou God of all the nations
A song
of peace for their land and for mine
I like
the words to this hymn, particularly because it doesn’t deny the wonder and
virtual of a homeland, the blessing that God has for it, in fact, it praises
them, but it acknowledges the truth that God is the God of all nations, that
there is blessing and wonder in all of them and that God cares deeply for the
hopes and dreams of others, too.
We are
greatest when we look to God first, making sure that the narrative we offer
does exactly that and not the other way around, using the resources and
blessings that we’ve received in order to bless others, whether that is as an
individual or whether that is as a group, a church, an organization, a
community, a town, a city, a state, or a nation.
Offertory
Doxology
Prayer of Dedication
Gracious God, we have nothing
to give You that You have not first given to us. Help us use Your gifts according to Your will
in the service of Your children and in the name of Your Son. AMEN.
Closing Hymn – God of Our Fathers
Benediction
Go in confidence. Know that God goes with you to give you words
of hope, comfort, and peace. May God’s
love flow through you to all those whom you meet. AMEN.
Postlude
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