Worship
Service for November 7, 2021
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Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: God, You have been our dwelling place in
all generations.
P: Before the mountains were brought forth,
before You had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting
You are God.
L: A thousand years in Your sight are like
yesterday.
P: Satisfy us in the morning with Your
steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
L: From everlasting to everlasting You are
God.
P: Praise be to God, now and forever. AMEN.
Opening Hymn – O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing #466/21 (4 verses from Blue Hymnal)
Prayer of Confession
To know You,
to love You, to serve You, This, O God of time and eternity, is our call. This, O God of love and compassion, is our
challenge. Open our minds and hearts,
our ears, our hands, that we might see and feel You in the strengths and needs
of others and Your world. Transform our
self-centered ways into self-giving lives settled on faithfulness, service, and
joy. Then, may Your love blossom in our
lives and in the lives of those with whom we share this life. In the name of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
may it be so. (Silent prayers are
offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: You have always been loved by God. Know that you are healed and forgiven, that
God has placed a special blessing in your life.
Rejoice! For God is with you. Serve God in all that you say, think, and do.
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
Choral Anthem: When Morning Gilds the Skies
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s
Prayer
In celebration of All
Saints’ Day (which is normally celebrated on Nov 1 or the first Sunday
following) we will lift up the names of those who have gone ahead of us to the
Church Triumphant, as you wish.
God of all creation, we bless
you for calling the world and all its peoples to come and share your love,
blessing, forgiveness, and healing. We
praise you for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, for his ministry and
passion, for his dying and rising to free us from sin, and for the gift of your
holy church that lives to tell the whole world this good news.
In this
season of thanksgiving we give thanks, O Lord, for all those who look to you
for guidance and strength, or have fashioned their very lives after that of a
compassionate savior, who have taught us the meaning of love, and have shared
with us the lessons of wisdom and grace.
We pray for
the gift of peace with liberty and justice for all people everywhere. We especially we pray for the children of the
world victimized by war, trapped in many kinds of slavery, orphaned and left
motherless or fatherless and homeless, who need your loving care. We pray for refugee families struggling for
food and housing, for the sick, the helpless, and the lonely. Remember them and deliver them.
We pray for
those who are ill in body, mind, or spirit.
Be with all who fight chronic disease or crippling disability. Ease suffering from pain, stress, and
isolation. Comfort the despairing. Renew caregivers so they may continue their
healing ministries to those under their care. We
especially lift up to you in prayer…
As we
celebrate today the gifts of all your saints, for their faithfulness and for
their giving of themselves and of their resources for the benefit of their
families, others, and the generations that came after them. We remember all those who have had an impact
on our lives. And we remember them by
name:
In the following moments of silence hear our inner
groanings, listen carefully to our heartfelt thanks and also our prayers, O
Lord, to heal us inside and out…
All these
things we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Savior, who taught us
to prayer 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 – Soon
and Very Soon #screen/757
Scripture Reading(s):
OT – Psalm 127
NT – Mark 12:38-44
Sermon – The Clink of the Coin
Today’s story from Mark has been
called the story of the widow's mite. We
are all familiar with this event in the life of our Lord in which a widow gave
all the money that she had to an offering in the
But there is another element to this
story that perhaps we fail to see. Jesus
had just been watching the Pharisees in their giving practices. Here’s where we’re talking big bucks. And they were quite open about their giving. Everyone knew their giving record; indeed,
they made a point that everyone knew it.
It was in the light of that that Jesus pointed out this widow. Picture Jesus sitting now with the leaders of
the temple—the Sadducees— observing the people as they come in and watching
their donations. There was no such thing
as paper money back then, money was only exchanged by coin; gold, silver, bronze. The widow’s mite was most likely a bronze
coin, called a lepton or a prutot, which was smaller in size than our current dime.
So, it all makes a terrible clang as
it rolls down this long horn shaped object and falls into the pool of
coins. And here comes this little old
lady who has two small coins worth nothing and drops them in. They barely make a noise, just a tiny clink.
Language is fascinating when you
study it. And in English I find it immensely
intriguing that we have a word for a loud metallic sound – clang and a separate
word for a soft metallic sound – clink.
These two words describe exactly the essence of what is going on here –
the big, bold, loud clang of the heavy metals, gold and silver being deposited
into the treasury by the equally big, bold, and loud personalities of the Pharisees
and Sadducees and all others who were rich and well known in the city. And then the tiny, soft clink of the softer
metal of bronze, barely making a sound deposited almost in embarrassment for
their impact on the treasury by the equally tiny, soft old woman who barely
makes an impression on the world around her.
You can almost see the Temple
leaders as they roll their eyes and hope for better results with the next
person who walks in the door. But Jesus,
who is watching the proceedings, notices and he calls his Disciples over and says,
“This poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.” To the Pharisees and Sadducees who were
concerned with the budget of the temple, the running of the entire religious operation,
and the perception of their own status, this woman is a waste of time but to
Jesus she is the stuff by which Kingdoms are erected.
Why was her contribution so much
more important? Isn’t the budget
important? Isn’t meeting the expense of
bills and ministry, heating costs, and electricity, staff and programs
important? Of course, and Jesus wasn’t
denying their importance. He was just
looking at it from a different perspective.
It’s really not about money, but rather about motivation.
Why do we do what we do? What do we hope to achieve by our
giving? The Pharisees and Sadducees gave
to receive peer recognition. And, as Jesus
said, they received their reward. People
praised them. The woman, on the other
hand, gave out of love for God. And
according to Jesus, she also received her reward. And what reward is that?
During our prayer time this morning,
we lifted up in prayer, the names of saints who have gone before us. Did any of us name a deceased famous person;
a president, a king, a queen, a nationally recognized singer or movie star or a
pop culture influencer? No, we mentioned
grandparents, parents, children, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, dear friends.
Did those deceased famous people we
didn’t mention or pray for make an impact on the world? Yes, in various and amazing ways that we
probably have benefited from. But the
people we mentioned in our prayers as part of the great cloud of witnesses that
now reside in the Church Triumphant were our heart and soul even in no one else
knew them. They were the ones that
helped make us who we are. They are the
ones that still influence us today. Their
clink in our lives was more than the clang of all others.
What is the motivation behind our
giving? It’s not to be famous or worldly
known. We give of ourselves to those
around us, to make their lives better, to make our life together, collectively,
better.
I’ve told this story before, but I’ll
tell it again because I like it.
There was a very wealthy man who had
never been known for his generosity to the church. The church was involved in a big financial
program and they resolved to pay him a visit.
When the committee met with the man one afternoon, they said that in
view of his considerable resources they were sure that he would like to make a
substantial contribution to this program.
"I see," he said, "so
you have it all figured out have you.? In
the course of your investigation did you discover that I have a widowed mother
who has no other means of support but me." No, they responded, they did not know that. "Did you know that I have a sister who
was left by a drunken husband with five children and no means to provide for
them." No, they said, we did not
know that either. "Well, gentlemen,
did you know also that I have a brother who is cripple due to an automobile
accident and can never work another day to support his wife and family." Embarrassingly, they responded, no sir, we did
not know that either. “Well,” he
thundered triumphantly, “I've never given any of them a cent so why should I
give anything to you."
Giving is an outgrowth of who we
are. It is the inevitable result of the
warmed heart. As we surrender ourselves
to God and to loving our neighbor then we will want to give not only ourselves
but our time, our energy, and our financial resources too. It’s because we’re followers of Christ that
we give.
We give not because the church bills
need to be paid but because we are moved by a sense of gratitude. I have long suspected that the church
universal has taken the wrong approach to stewardship and it’s one of the
reasons why I don’t push stewardship drives very much. In most stewardship campaigns people see a
line item budget that details what our expenses will be for the coming year –
and we’ll be doing the very same thing soon.
It’s mostly boring unless you’re the kind of person that likes numbers. Or depressing when you see once again that
our expenses will exceed our income. Most
of us will just look at the bottom line, but that perpetuates the concept that
you are to give in proportion to what the bills/expenses are going to be and it
becomes depressing when we realize that we can’t give enough to cover our expenses.
Regardless of what our bills are
going to be, we should be giving out of a sense of thanksgiving and joy, not
out of a sense of obligation or guilt or to just pay the bills. Too long our appeal in the church universal when
it comes to stewardship campaigns has been – we need to come up with this amount
of money to pay the bills. When people
give only on that level they miss the great joy of giving, especially when it’s
still not enough.
The widow in our story today,
trusted God completely knowing that her existence was in the palm of God’s
hands and that God would provide for her, would take care of her. And her pitifully small clink in the treasury
could never be enough to pay the enormous ministry and programing costs of the
temple and the work of the church. And
yet, Jesus knew that her giving was more important than all the rest for her
giving builds kingdoms.
Just as a reminder; we are all in
God’s hands, at all times.
The widow’s mite; her two small
coins, aren’t just about giving money. It’s
about giving of ourselves, following our hearts, out of generosity for all
that’s been given to us. If a dirt-poor
widow (one of the lowest on the economic and social order of Jesus’ day) can
give all that she has out of generosity for what has been given to her, we can
certainly give because of who’s we are, where our heart leads us, and out of
our extravagant abundance.
Thanks be to God.
AMEN.
Offertory
Doxology
Prayer of Dedication
Giver
of life and all the gifts of our lives, receive now these tokens of our
appreciation which we set before you as signs of our love and
thanksgiving. We rejoice with thankful
hearts for all your blessings. Help us
to live our lives in service to you as our continuing gift of thanks. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. AMEN.
Closing Hymn – For All the Saints #526/767 (4
vs. only – in Blue Hymnal)
Benediction
Bless us, O God, and renew us
with Your Spirit as we go from this service to serve You and Your church in the
world. Go in peace. AMEN.
Postlude
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