Worship
Service for January 1, 2023
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: Some say that Christmas is for children.
P: Christmas is also for people of age and
experience.
L: Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin and Zechariah,
the priest accepted new birth breaking into all their familiar patterns.
P: Simeon the singer and Anna the prophet
hoped for many years to see the Messiah and then recognized the Messiah in a
poor couple’s baby.
L: How then shall we respond to Christ’s
promised coming?
P: With willingness for change, with patience
in long waiting, with silence and singing, with the ability to see Christ in
the least likely of our brothers and sisters.
Opening Hymn – Angels from the Realms of Glory Hymn #22/259
Prayer of Confession
Creative God, You make all
things new in heaven and on earth. We
come to You in a new year with new desires and old fears, new decisions and old
controversies, new dreams and old weaknesses.
Because You are a God of love, we know that You accept all the mistakes
of the past. Because You are the God of
our faith, we enter Your gates with thanksgiving and praise, we come into Your
presence with gladness and joyful noise.
We ask Your forgiveness of our sins of the past and ask that You turn us
by the simple wonders of Your love, to a rebirth of faith, hope and joy. (Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: God is with us this day and always. Coming to earth as a child, God found us and
embraced us with innocence and love. But
above all else, God has forgiven us our sins.
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 and Lord’s
Prayer
God of years past and
new beginnings, we throw our hands up to you, offering all that we have been
and hope to be. In the palm of your
hands, we have giggled and played, sang and danced to celebrate holidays, birthdays,
a snow day and a clear diagnosis. In the
palm of your hands, we have sought shelter and asylum, and shuddered at the
news of war and gun violence. Sickness and
strife turn round and round the same old news that we heard before. So, we pray, and we pray: Can this new year
really bring anything new? God of years
past and new beginnings, we want to close the door on ’22 and forget all the
fights that tore us apart, all thinking we were right. Yet with courage, we pray that you keep our
hearts open wide to truly believe and join in your strides, creating and making
all things new. We pray that out of the
rubble and flames, emerge new steps in caring for the earth and investment
change, conversations across the aisle
welcoming diversity and
doing justice. We pray the rights of all
people, colors, genders and nations be nourished, for equity, housing and daily
bread to flourish, and for mercy, humility and love to define a year of life
shared, not kept as yours or mine. God
of years past and new beginnings,
open our hearts to see
you in each headline, our souls to listen intently to one another, our fists to
find strength in openness and grace, and our minds to the hope that justice
will roll down. So that, as we carry the
old news into the new year, our lives will reflect our love for you and every
neighbor, and in every neighbor, your holy presence noticed and welcomed, and
in every neighborhood, signs of your new creation bursting forth. We also pray for our loved ones. We lift up to you….
In this time of silence
hear also the prayers of our hearts…
With one voice we
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 – I
Heard the Bells on Christmas Day Hymn
#267 Brown
Scripture Reading(s):
First Scripture Reading – Psalm
148
Second Scripture Reading – Matthew
2:13-23
Sermon – Jesus, Mary, and Joseph: Immigrants
(Based on Matthew 2:13-23)
The next couple of weeks the
lectionary readings are a little off kilter; meaning that chronologically, they
are out of order. Next Sunday is
typically known as Epiphany Sunday, as it is the Sunday closest to the day of
Epiphany which is Jan 6. Epiphany Sunday
is when we recall the visit of the Wisemen, who came to see Jesus, following
the star of Bethlehem. However, today as
per the lectionary readings, we read the story that came after the wisemen went
to see baby Jesus. To make things even
more confusing, the second Sunday in Christmastide is also usually known as
Baptism of the Lord Sunday. So, here’s
what we are doing this year; today we’re reading the story about Mary and
Joseph taking baby Jesus to Egypt and next Sunday we’ll talk about the Star of
Bethlehem for Epiphany Sunday even though those two stories are out of
order. I have a suspicion that sometime
in the near future we’ll be having a request for Baptism as we’ve had two
babies born in our Olivet church family this year. So, on whatever Sunday that falls, we’ll
revisit the story of Jesus being baptized in the Jordan river. (Pause)
For
most of us, we were brought up in the Christian faith; believing the message of
the gospel because it was taught to us at a young age. For many others, they have come to believe as
adults. But what makes Christianity a
vibrant faith for people to believe? Why
do people still believe in it and why do others adopt it as adults? I think these are a couple of the key
questions for us to always be asking. In
order for us to answer them, let’s take a look at the broader picture before we
get to the specifics of today’s passage.
Beginning
in our Hebrew/Jewish roots, the message of God’s promises for the future were
steeped in the idea that they were available to a people who were persecuted,
for people who were isolated and without power.
It was always a message of hope to a downtrodden, an often weak and
outcast people. It was a message that
one day Father Abraham’s offspring would number more than the stars; that one
day, through a savior such as Moses, they would be freed from slavery; that one
day, after wandering in the wilderness for many years, they would have a land
of their own; that one day after defeat and exile from Israel many times, they
would be a united and powerful nation; that one day an eternal savior would
come and save the people from their sins.
That message is woven throughout all of the Old Testament and has
continued through the New Testament; that one day, the weak would be strong,
the lame would leap with joy, the blind would see, the deaf would hear, the outcast
would be embraced, the lost would be found, the prisoner would be set free, the
hungry would be fed, and the foreigner
would be welcomed and treated like a brother or sister.
This
has been the hope of the ages that both Judaism and Christianity have clung to;
that our God was powerful enough to turn the world upside down and embrace the
weak and uplift them to victory; the whole concept that the first shall be last
and the last shall be first.
During
my year abroad, I had some astounding conversations with people I came into
contact with. One of them was on a bus
from the ferry terminal near Normandy, France to a little island called Mont St
Michele. My travel companion that
morning was a young adult from Italy who was on a two-week holiday. He asked me what I did back in the US. I learned, from experience, that saying I was
a pastor didn’t always make sense to people in Europe. That word, PASTOR, evidently for some reason is
a bit confusing. So, I would follow it
with additional English words such as; Minister, Priest, then switch gears to
Padre, Father. At least, one of those
words would strike meaning and they understood.
Then I would explain that I was a Protestant minister, not a Catholic
priest. That morning, my fellow traveler
leaned in closer and said, “How fascinating!”
He continued, “I was baptized in the Catholic religion, but I don’t
go. I have friends at the University who
are from the US and go to a Protestant Church.
I don’t remember which one, but I have gone to church with them.” After a pause, he continued, “It must be
difficult to give a message of hope each week.”
I shrugged off his comment at the time and spoke about why I was
traveling in Europe and taking a Sabbatical to recharge and refresh my own
thoughts and ideas. We then spoke of
other things until we were let off the bus.
His
comment didn’t really resonate with me until more recently, months later. The whole message of the gospel is to give
hope to the hopeless. It is why
Christianity thrives in places where there is oppression and outcast
groups. It is why the American slaves
quickly embraced Christianity when they heard about it and made the message of
the gospel their own. It is why
Catholicism grew by leaps and bounds in South American countries where they are
often politically oppressed. It is why
the message of the gospel and Christianity is so strong in Africa where many
people are starving, where lack of water is a daily struggle, where a different
type of political confrontation makes finding a job difficult. It is why the gospel is much more prevalent
among the poor, than among the rich. Perhaps
that is why Jesus said, it is easier for the a camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven. Because the message of the gospel is to bring
hope to the hopeless.
So, how
do you give a message of hope to a people who have pretty much everything? How do you give a message of hope to people
that don’t really need it? How do you
make the message of the gospel important to the person or to the people who are
in power, who really don’t have daily struggles, who aren’t in any of those
categories I listed earlier?
I’m
just connecting dots here….but, perhaps that’s why the message of gospel turned
into a message of paying your way into heaven in the 15th and 16th
Century Europe by people having to buy indulgences; the rising bourgeoises or
middle class and the elites didn’t need a message of hope, but the church
convinced them that they did need a message of how to get into heaven, if they
would just pay for it. Maybe that’s why
the message of hope turned into a message of Fire and Brimstone here and the 20th
Century focus turned from hope to a focus on sin and how a lot of televangelists
took advantage of that and prayed for people to remove their sin or to pray for
their addictions or to, basically, pray them into heaven from their sins if
they would just send in money.
So,
here’s where we need to reframe the message of the gospel for those who aren’t
in those categories – the lost, the lonely, the blind, the lame, the outcast,
the prisoner, or the foreigner. I think
we should reframe the message of the gospel for the 21st Century to
a people who already have hope, to a people who are those in power, who have
the basic needs in life and a little extra; basically, we should reframe the
message of the gospel for us.
I
think the message of the gospel for us, and to continue my message from
Christmas, isn’t that God will provide hope for us, that God will fulfill our
needs, but rather that we are to give hope to others, that we are to provide hope
to the hopeless. For centuries the
message to the downtrodden was that God would provide for them. That God saw them, heard their cries,
understood their needs and would one day give them all they hoped for. But, what if the message of the gospel to us
is that we are truly the hands and feet of Christ on earth, for us to see the
needs of others and to provide that hope to them? What if the message of the gospel to us is
that God is working through us and that we are the means by which people find
hope. That we are the ones that go out
and find the lost. We are the ones that
free the prisoner, befriend the outcast, feed the hungry, help the blind see
and the lame walk. That we are the ones
that welcome the foreigner with love and call them sister or brother.
To
come to our passage this morning and to preach the idea of embracing the
foreigner by using Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as an example of being immigrants, I
know is rife with political overtones. I
get that, I know that and I’m not going there.
I’m sticking with the message of the gospel and the story we have from
scripture. Jesus, himself says later in
Matthew 25 beginning in verse 35:
For I
was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to
drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me
clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited
me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you
hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and
welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in
prison and visited you?’ And the king
will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of
these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’
We
often talk about Jesus understanding us being fully human because He suffered
as we suffer. And one of the ways that
Jesus suffered and can empathize with our own pain is because he, too, was a stranger,
a foreigner. We read it in our passage
this morning.
When
the wisemen were warned in a dream to not return to Herod, he became so angry
that he sent an order to his army that all the boy babies under the age of two should
be executed in and around Bethlehem. Because
Bethlehem was a town and of little consequence his execution order probably
didn’t make much of a ripple in the rest of Israel to warrant a revolt. Some scholars believe that perhaps 20 male
infants were killed. In any case, Jesus,
Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt. Historically,
Egypt was not a friendly country to Israel nor to Jews, if you remember your
history. Remember, they had been slaves
of the Egyptians. So, Jews weren’t
terribly welcomed in Egypt. How long
were they there? It might be one thing
if they fled to Egypt for a month or two, but it might be another if they had
to live there for a number of years.
Historically,
this is what we know. Jesus was under
two years old when the wisemen came to visit.
The family fled to Egypt and sometime after Herod died and angel told
Joseph in a dream that he could take his family back Israel and settle in Nazareth. The next story we have of Jesus is when he is
12 years old and stays behind in the temple in Jerusalem while his parents are
frantically looking for him. Scripture
only tells us that this was an annual journey or pilgrimage that the family had
been doing, so it’s possible to assume that they’d been doing it for at least
two years. Knowing that there are no
other references to Jesus as a young boy, it is possible that the family stayed
in Egypt for as little as two years or as many as eight years – we just don’t
know. It was definitely longer than a
couple of months. Knowing this, we can assume
that the family needed to find housing, a way of supporting themselves and
perhaps some schooling for Jesus.
What
must that have been like in a land among people that didn’t want you? And how might that have affected Jesus as a
young boy? Jesus understands our every
pain. Jesus understands our
suffering. Perhaps that’s why he
included this category in his list of Matthew 25.
“I was
a stranger, a foreigner, and you welcomed me.”
As we
begin a new year, may we continue the work of Christmas, the work of Christ,
and bring light and hope to the world.
Thanks
be to God. AMEN.
Offertory –
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
God, you have given each of us
gifts to use as members of the body of Christ. Here are our gifts – the work of our hands,
our hearts, and our lives. We pray that
they may help to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to our world, today and
always, here and everywhere. AMEN.
Closing
Hymn – Break Forth, O Beauteous Heav’nly
Light
Hymn #26/264
Benediction –
Postlude
