Before I left for part of my Sabbatical in January, I had some difficulty uploading the YouTube recording of our worship service at Bethesda. I'm not sure how things will go today. If there is a recording, Click here, will be highlighted later this afternoon/early evening and you'll be able to click on it and go to the YouTube recording. If not, the full service is provided below. We celebrate communion at our church's today and invite you to join us at home with your own bread and choice of beverage. You are also invited to join us in person at Olivet Presbyterian Church in West Elizabeth at 9:45am or at Bethesda United Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth at 11:15am.
Worship
Service for March 6, 2022
Prelude
Announcements:
Sounding of the Hour
Call to Worship
L: Today the journey begins. Are you ready?
P: There is much we still have to do. We’re not sure if we’ll ever be ready.
L: Let go of those things that chain you to
despair.
P: Lord, help us look and see the ways in
which we have abandoned You.
L: Come, let us worship and feel the power of
freedom in God.
P: Open our hearts today to receive Your
freeing love, O Lord.
Opening Hymn – Spirit of God, Descend Upon My
Heart #326/390
Prayer of Confession
God of
infinite patience and love, we come to You this day, having just gone through a
season of commercial greed. We embark on
this Lenten journey not sure if we want to make the spiritual trip. It is easy for us to get caught up on our own
needs and our own anxieties. We are a
people of great “want”, and we need to become a people of great “faith”. Stop us and remove us from the
self-destructive journey on which we are living. Place us on Your track of hope and
salvation. Forgive our stubbornness and
heal our sorrowful souls. For we ask
this in Jesus’ name. (Silent prayers
are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: This is the good news in Jesus Christ: God
loves us more than we love ourselves.
God forgives us, encourages us, and frees us to love others.
P: In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God!
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
Choir: Given For You
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s
Prayer
Jesus Christ, light of the world, we dare to bring our
whole selves before you this morning, asking that you shine your purifying
light on us once again. Illumine the
dark corners no one else sees – the shadows of doubt, the pockets of
loneliness, the specters of fear, the gloom of discouragement. Lift our face to behold you in the full
radiance of your light, that something of your perfect love, truth, and peace
may radiate into our lives and awaken us to the full truth of who we are, by
your grace and in your mercy.
Gracious Lord, shine your healing light into every place of
darkness and despair. Shine your light
of peace in places of violence in our neighboring streets, and around the
world. Today, we especially prayer for
our brothers and sisters across the globe in Ukraine. Loving God, we lift up to you all the people of
Ukraine, for all those suffering or afraid, that You will be close to them, shelter
them, and protect them. As bombs and
missiles hail down, shield Your people, O God.
We pray for world leaders, for compassion, strength and wisdom to guide
their choices, to make every effort to come to the aid of the Ukrainian
people. We pray for the world that in
this moment of crisis, we all may reach out in solidarity to our brothers and
sisters in need. May we walk in Your
ways so that peace and justice become a reality for the people of Ukraine and
for all the world.
We also lift up to you our friends and loved ones…
As we open our hearts, souls, and minds to you in this holy
hour, hear the deepest movement of our inner selves – listen to our silent
prayers this day….
Help us Lord, hear your challenge anew for us to be the
light of the world, and to let our light so shine that it brings thankful
praise to You, the source of all light in heaven and earth as we pray together
saying…
Our Father who art in
heaven, Hallowed by 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 – Great
Is Thy Faithfulness #276/139
Scripture Reading(s):
First Scripture Reading – Deuteronomy
26:1-11
Second Scripture Reading – Luke
4:1-13
Sermon
– Tested
(based
on Luke 4:1-13)
Our Lord lived most of
his earthly life in community. He called
his disciples alongside him and was with them nearly nonstop. But there were very intentional times of
solitude. Jesus often went off by
himself to pray. God does certain work
in our lives only through community. He
does other work only through solitude. We
need both.
And
today we look at a specific forty-day period of isolation that was for Jesus
most unpleasant also most necessary as he began his ministry. Today’s scripture reading is a familiar one
where Jesus was led out into the wilderness for 40 days and nights. While he was there, he ate nothing and was tested
by the Devil. It was a necessary time
for Jesus to be alone, to face the Devil, to conquer is own doubts and insecurities. There in the wilderness was a stretch of
Judea about 35 miles long by 15 miles wide called, Jeshimmon, which means Land
of Devastation. It’s been described in
this way, “The hills are like dust heaps.
The limestone looked blistered and peeling. The rocks were bare and jagged.” And it was in this terrible land of
devastation that Jesus went, led by the Holy Spirit, to pray. And it was here that the Devil found ways of
tempting him.
The
forty days that Luke mentions Jesus spent in the wilderness mirror Israel’s
forty years wandering in the nearby wilderness areas where, time and time
again, they refused to trust God in the lean times. God had made a covenant with the people
promising them that he would be with them, but that covenant was marred by
human unfaithfulness. Here, in Christ,
God offers a New Covenant with the people of God based on the faithfulness of
God’s own Son.
A lot
of the commentaries about this passage move to the three temptations that the
Devil offered Christ. But what’s curious
to me is that the scriptures actually say, “that he was tempted by the devil
during all those 40 days”, but it wasn’t until the 40 days were over that we
have the three specific temptations that Jesus went through.
The first was about economics (turning
stones into bread), the second was about politics and power (all the kingdoms
of the world could be yours), and the third was about religion (you are the son
of God, right? God as given his angels to
guard over to you so that you cannot be harmed, then throw yourself down off of
this temple). I’m going to talk about
those three in a moment, but what about all those other days? What other temptations did the Devil try on
Jesus, first?
I’m much more interested in knowing
those. To be truthful, the big three
that Luke lists don’t really do it for me in terms of temptations. Maybe they we big temptations for Christ, but
they certainly aren’t mine.
So,
for 40 days and nights what do you think Jesus might have been tempted
with? What are some of your
temptations?
I
don’t want to get too personal, but for me, it might have been something like
oh, have another cupcake, it’s Sunday, calories don’t count on Sundays. Or, why walk when you can take the car, yes,
it’s only two blocks, but it will be so much faster to just zip in and out. And the last one I’m willing to reveal is
that about 30 years ago, I had renewed my interest in drawing architectural
buildings and houses and had even gone ahead and designed a few and was tempted
for a brief moment to go back to school for architecture thinking that I’d
probably be making a whole lot more money than being in ministry.
What
are some of your temptations? What would
the devil have taken his time to torture and tempt you with for 40 days and
nights?
What
were they for Christ? Maybe to go back
to being a carpenter, a skill he’d learned well from his earthly father. One that had provided for his growing
up. A trained skill that was always in
demand, always needed regardless of town or village; bowls to hollow out,
spoons to carve, broken chairs to mend, a door to fix, a staircase that
continued to screech. He could solve the
everyday annoyances of so many people. Maybe
the temptation was to have a family of his own with children to raise. A house that he could call a home, a loving
wife that cared only for him and he only of her, children that scurried around
his feet during the day, but also those whom he could tuck into bed at night
and whisper, I love you, into their ears.
Maybe the temptation that the Devil tormented him with night and day was
to simply not be in the limelight all the time, to take a day off and not have
crowds gathering around wanting more and more of him. Did Jesus know that he’d have to die? Did he know that he’d be crucified? Were those the tempters words that occupied his
thoughts day and night in the wilderness? Did Jesus know that all of his efforts of
starting a new movement of forgiveness and love would depend on just a few
faithful followers, that those large throngs of people would fall away? And even those faithful few wouldn’t be so
faithful? Were those the things that the
Devil tempted him with?
We
aren’t given any details about that.
Instead, we’re simply told that the Devil tempted him during all those
40 days and when the 40 days were over, he was really hungry, not having eaten
anything and the Devil said to him, “You’re famished, if you are the son of
God, turn these stones into bread. Go
ahead do it.” It’s as if they devil was
taunting him, knowing that he is weak and vulnerable. “Look, you’ve just denied yourself for 40
days, having eaten nothing. It’s your
right. You deserve it.” But this temptation isn’t about bread. It’s really about economics and what we
deserve to have. The devil wants Jesus
to feel entitled and make decisions based on that. It’s always dangerous to go around telling
yourself what you deserve. That’s where
credit card debt comes from: “I deserve a little splurge.” That’s where embezzlement comes from: “I am
worth more than they pay me.” That’s
where drug and alcohol addiction can come from, too, “I deserve a little break
from all this.” But Jesus understood his
role as the Son of God, even while the Devil tempted him and he knew that his
role was to be a servant to others, not one who was to be served. His life would be that of giving, not one of
privilege. In different accounts of this
story, Jesus mentions the manna that God provided for the people of Israel to
eat. In the Lukan account, he simply
rebukes the Devil with these words, “One does not live by bread alone.” Jesus knew that throughout scripture, when
the people of God put their trust in God, God always provided for them. He had no doubts that God would do the same
for him.
Next
the Devil takes Jesus to a high point and shows him all the kingdoms of the
world. The kingdoms of the world have
always been run by powerful politics, by men and women that have often given up
their soul on the pathway to the privilege and power that come with the
leadership of nations. And the Devil is
willing to give them all to Christ, offering him a shortcut to all that power,
no cross needed, if Christ will do one thing, “Kneel to me, worship me,” the
Devil says, “and I will give it all to you.”
Sometimes
we are tempted to believe that the end justifies the means, saying to
ourselves, “I might have to stab somebody in the back to get ahead, but once I
am in that job I’ll use my influence for the good.” Chris Ritter, a fellow pastor says, “You
can’t do God’s work with the devil’s playbook.
God’s work done God’s way will never lack God’s blessing. God’s work done our way always leads to
trouble.” And I think she’s right. There are no shortcuts, they often lead to
trouble. There are no compromises, they
often end up costing us plenty more than we bargained for.
Jesus
responds immediately with, “You shall worship the Lord your God and serve only
him.” He didn’t think twice. Jesus knew that regardless of the pain that
might come or the difficult road he might have to face, no shortcuts would be
worth it.
You’d
think that would be the end of it; Jesus denying the Devil the power to rule
the kingdoms of the world and not willing to kneel down and worship him. But the Devil has one more temptation to try
on Christ at the place where God himself was said to dwell and where the people
of Israel worshiped. The Devil took
Jesus to the top of the temple. The
Devil doesn’t bother tempting us with things we don’t want. He goes right to the center of our heart’s
desire. And here was Christ’s. This is the temple where Zechariah prayed for
the baby Jesus. This is the temple where
Mary and Joseph presented their son for blessing, where Jesus sat at the feet
of the rabbis when he was twelve years old.
The Devil knew that Jesus’s destiny was tied to this city and this
temple. Jesus had a huge heart for
Jerusalem and a zeal for God’s house. He
would one day weep over this city.
“If
you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, ‘he will command his angels
concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so
that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”
The
Devil wants Jesus to succumb to the spectacular, to show these people in the
seat of religious power, and any doubters, who he really is…in glorious
fashion. But God’s plan was for him to
enter this city on the back of a donkey, not on the wings of angels. And Jesus responds, “Do not put the Lord your
God to the test.” In other words, in
simple terms, “Don’t be stupid.” There’s
one thing about putting our trust in God, but there’s something quite different
about not using the God-given brain we have to not do stupid things.
At
this the Devil retreats until an opportune time. Temptation is never far away and will always
take advantage of our weak moments.
Friends, guard your hearts and minds against foolishness and
temptations.
Thanks
be to God! AMEN.
Offertory –
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication - Lord, with these gifts we say
a resounding “Yes” to you; work in us and through us, that we may reflect your
light, your truth, and your love into this world that gropes in the
darkness. May the light of your Love
shine brightly in our hearts and set the world aglow with the power of your
grace. AMEN.
Lord’s Supper
Invitation:
Let us pray.
It is right, and a good and
joyful thing,
always and everywhere to give
thanks to You,
Almighty God, creator of
heaven and earth.
You brought all things into
being and called them good.
From the dust of the earth You
formed us into Your image
and breathed into us the
breath of life.
When we turned away, and our
love failed, Your love remained steadfast.
When rain fell upon the earth
for forty days and forty nights,
You bore up the ark on the
waters, saved Noah and his family,
and made covenant with every
living creature on earth.
When You led your people to
Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights,
You gave us Your commandments
and made us Your covenant people.
When Your people forsook Your
covenant,
Your prophet Elijah fasted for
forty days and forty nights;
and on Your holy mountain, he
heard Your still small voice.
And so, with Your people on
earth and all the company of heaven,
we praise Your name and join
their unending hymn:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of
power and might,
heaven and earth are full of Your
glory. Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord. Hosanna in the
highest.
Holy are You, and blessed is Your
Son Jesus Christ.
When You gave him to save us
from our sin,
Your Spirit led him into the
wilderness,
where he fasted forty days and
forty nights to prepare for his ministry.
When he suffered and died on a
cross for our sin, You raised him to life,
presented him alive to the
apostles during forty days,
and exalted him at Your right
hand.
By the baptism of his
suffering, death, and resurrection
You gave birth to Your Church,
delivered us from slavery to sin and death,
and made with us a new
covenant by water and the Spirit.
Now, when we Your people
prepare for the yearly feast of Easter,
You lead us to repentance for
sin and the cleansing of our hearts,
that during these forty days
of Lent we may be gifted and graced
to reaffirm the covenant You
made with us through Christ. For all of
this we give you thanks. AMEN.
Words of Institution:
On the night in which he gave
himself up for us, he took bread,
Blessed it, giving thanks to God,
broke the bread and gave it to his disciples, saying:
"Take, eat; this is my
body which is given for You.
Do this in remembrance of
me."
Eat the Bread
When the supper was over, in
the same way, he took the cup,
Giving thanks to God, gave it
to his disciples, and said:
"Drink from this, all of
you; this is my blood of the new covenant,
poured out for you and for
many for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this, as often as you drink
it, in remembrance of me."
Drink the Cup
Closing Prayer:
Again, let us pray.
Holy God, in remembrance of
these Your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we offer ourselves in praise
and thanksgiving,
as a holy and living sacrifice,
in union with Christ's offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of
faith.
Christ has died; Christ is
risen; Christ will come again.
We ask, O Lord, that You pour
out Your Holy Spirit on us gathered here,
and on these gifts of bread
and wine and the gift of our communion with one another and with You. By your Spirit make us one with Christ,
one with each other, and one
in ministry to all the world,
until Christ comes in final
victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.
Through Your Son Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit in Your holy Church,
all honor and glory is Yours, Almighty
God, now and forever. Amen.
Closing Hymn – Jesus Shall Reign #423/375
Benediction –
Postlude
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