Worship
Service for March 27, 2022
Click Here when highlighted for the YouTube link to the service:
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: Come, let us celebrate the forgiving,
reconciling love of God.
P: For once we were lost and felt so far
away; now we have been found and welcomed home.
L: Know that God’s love is lavished upon you
forever.
P: We rejoice at the news of forgiveness and
hope!
L: Come, let us celebrate and praise the God
of Love.
P: Amen!
Opening Hymn – Hallelujah, What a Savior Hymn #311
(Brown Hymnal)
Prayer of Confession
Lord, it is interesting
that it is easy for us to identify with today’s scripture about the Prodigal
Son. Some of us are easily reminded of
our own selfishness and stubbornness when we willfully sought our own way. Others are reminded about how angry we were
when others were not held accountable for their actions, when we have been so
careful not to displease anyone. Still
others can identify with the father who, feeling the loss of his son, welcomes
him home again, reminding the brother that he has always been in the love and
care of the Father. We hear this story
and it's a pleasant memory. But do we
really understand what it is about? Do
we know that we have also been stubborn and selfish, angry and unforgiving,
sorrowful and caught between two conflicting factions? We are no different from these characters, in
our own unique way. Yet, in God’s
infinite love, we also are forgiven and healed.
We are called to turn our lives back to God’s care, which is always
extended to us. Forgive us and heal us,
gracious God. Open our hearts and our
spirits to truly receive the blessings of Your healing love. For it is in the name of Your Son, Jesus
Christ, that we pray. (Silent prayers
are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: Once we were “dead” to all things that God
hoped for us; but in God’s love we are again brought to life. Rejoice, dear friends, you are forgiven!
P: 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: I Will Remember Thee
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s
Prayer
Gracious Lord, we put everything off until the last
minutes. You have invited and encouraged
us on this journey, reminding us of the struggles and of the hope. You ask us to let go of the things that bind
us from serving freely, but we have a terrible tendency to wait until it’s
almost too late – until the last minute.
We can’t seem to let go of the hurt, fear, and pain. On this journey, remind us again of Your
healing love, Your forgiving power. Help
us trust the goodness and potential for good that You have placed in all of
us. We have come to this place to hear
Your word, to sing and pray to You in hope.
Enable us to find the courage to really believe in You, that Your
healing love may permeate our souls and prepare us for true witness, as You
welcome each of us home.
Today, we pray for….
And in silence we offer up our most heartfelt prayers…
Gracious God, with thanksgiving, we lift our voices in
unison 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 – When
I Survey the Wondrous Cross Hymn #101/324
Scripture Reading(s):
First Scripture Reading – Joshua
5:9-12
Second Scripture Reading – Luke 15:3,
11b-32
Sermon “Love
Divine”
Unlike last Sunday, when I mentioned
that in all the years I’ve been preaching that I’d never preached on that text
before, today’s text includes one of the parables that I’ve probably preached
on the most during my years as a pastor – the story of the Prodigal Son. We know it well. In fact, we probably all know it so well
that, at this point, you could tell me the story and what it means. So, how do you take such a familiar story and
find something new in it to learn?
Several of my colleagues asked that very same question among themselves
in a variety of chat groups I’m involved with on-line. Each offered a different perspective from
things they’d read, or they’d heard, or they’d preached before. Yeah, yeah…been there, done that…was mostly
my reaction to what was shared.
Sometimes the problem with these
well-known Bible stories is that they’ve become too well-known and we think we
know what the story is about. So, I read
it again and again…trying to pretend that I knew nothing about the story or
what it meant from my past encounters.
And something kept nagging me.
The story started to have a familiar ring…not the same ring because I’ve
read or heard the story so many times before, but rather a familiar ring that I
knew this story, but in a completely different context. And it suddenly clicked, I knew this story
not from a parable that Jesus told, but rather from an experience he lived. Let me read it to you and see if you get the
connection, too.
Read Luke 10:38-42 –
Now as
they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named
Martha, welcomed him into her home. She
had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was
saying. But Martha was distracted by her
many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister
has left me to do all the work by myself?”
Tell her then to help me.” But
the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many
things; there is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Do you get the connection?
Two
brothers, or two sisters and an older father figure. What are the parallels and what are the differences
between these characters and their stories?
Well,
we have quite a few parallels in these two stories; we have an older and a
younger sibling. The older brother stays
home and does all the work for the running of an estate or is the older sister
in the kitchen making all the preparations necessary for the running of a
household. We have an older son who is
angry at the extravagance shown his younger brother when he gets home. And we have an older sister who is angry that
her younger sister does nothing to help.
Each of the older siblings owns all or a portion of their home or
estate. We have a younger brother who
goes off without a care in the world and enjoys the high life of prostitutes,
gambling, and parties or a younger sister who simply wants to sit and listen to
stories of Jesus’ adventures or his teachings without a care in the world. Each of the younger siblings either
squandered their inheritance or didn’t have anything to begin with. And finally, we have a father who welcomes
and embraces the wayward son home, throws him a party because he was lost and
is now found and Jesus who welcomes and embraces Mary, who values learning and
spending time with him and in Christ’s own words, “knows what is more
important”.
What
about the differences?
In the
case of the brothers; the servants and the father do all the party plans, the
older brother is left out of it entirely.
In fact, he didn’t even get an invite to the party and only learns about
it when he gets home after a full day of working in the fields and hears the
sound of joy and excitement inside the house, realizing that this party is
probably being taken out of his own portion of the inheritance now.
In the
case of the sisters; Martha is responsible for everything. She is cooking and cleaning, making all the
preparations for her guests, while everyone else does nothing – including Jesus
(who was like family to her) and her younger sister. They just sit around chit-chatting in the
living room enjoying each other’s company, while she slaves away in the
kitchen. Oh wait. That sounds more like a similarity than any
difference.
Ok –
well: in the case of the brothers, the younger son was lost and is now found,
while the older brother had to be reminded that he had always been in the company
and good graces of his father.
In the case of the sisters, the
younger sister yearned for more instruction from Jesus, yearned to hear his
stories of love and acceptance, of grace and mercy, while the older sister had
to be reminded that these things are more important. Oh wait.
That sounds more like a similarity than a difference.
Oh, I know a difference. In the case of the brothers; the father, upon
seeing his younger son off at a distance, goes running to greet him. In the case of the sisters, Jesus doesn’t go
off running to welcome Mary, but as Luke tells us, he does let her sit at his
feet, which in ancient times designated the most intimate spot between a
disciple and their master. But, in
essence isn’t that the same thing?
Um…are there any differences in these
two stories?
I bet
you anything that over the years of hearing these stories, you’ve made a
personal connection with one or two of these characters. Are you the older brother, or the younger
brother? Are you Martha or are you Mary? Are you the welcoming Dad or dare we say it,
are you the Jesus figure?
In
many ways, we could merge Martha and the older brother into one character and
we could do the same with the younger brother and Mary. And finally, we could merge the welcoming Father
from the Prodigal Son story with Jesus from the Mary and Martha story. Now, if we merge the stories together as one,
what does this new story have to tell us?
First,
we’d have an older sibling who feels overly responsible for everything. An adult child who works hard to fill the
shoes of his/her father or mother. We’d
have a character who feels the weight of the world is on their shoulders, who
feels that they have sacrificed some portion of a wayward youth to making sure
that goals are met, actions taken to accomplish much in life. We’d have a person who has a type A
personality, a list maker, a go-getter, a doer, and an achiever.
Second,
we’d have a younger sibling who feels that they probably follow the beat of a
different drummer. An adult child who
feels entitled to what the world has to offer, someone who is more interested
in having experiences than in being responsible. We’d have a character who goes with the flow,
who finds the most interesting conversations and people in a room at a party
and outshines them all, a teller of tales; real or imagined. We’d have a person with a type B personality,
someone with their head in the clouds, a dreamer, a drifter, a
will-of-the-wisp, a clown (as one nun thought of Maria in the Sound of Music).
Third,
we’d have an older father figure who only wants what is best for his children,
that they know how much they are loved and that they are part of one larger
family. It is the reason for rejoicing,
for merry-making, for the sharing of those relationships together in an
intimate setting.
I like
what Barbara Brown Taylor said about the Prodigal Son story and I believe she’d
make the same connection with the sister’s story as well. She says that we should “recognize that we
need both as much as they need each other.
Each of them embodies at least half of what the gospel is all
about. As long as they remain estranged,
neither of them can live whole lives.”
She makes the case that, “if the younger son is going to survive, he
badly needs some of his older brother’s disciple and devotion.” And “if the older son is going to survive, he
badly needs some of his younger brother’s brokenness and humility.” I would say the same is true about the
sisters. They need each other and to
recognize the gifts and failures they bring to their familial relationship.
There
are no heroes or villains in either story, just two siblings who have grown up
as mirror images of each other. All
their lives they have defined themselves by their differences from one another.
Now,
at this penultimate moment, they all have choices to make. They can choose to be right in their own way,
for their own actions or they can choose to accept the invitation from the
Father and from Christ to come to the living room and join the party, forgive
one another, learn from one another and fully be in relationship with one
another.
Thanks
be to God!
Offertory -
Doxology
Prayer of Dedication
How grateful we are, O God,
for all the gifts of this life. You have
blessed us with an abundance of good things, not only fulfilling our needs, but
going far beyond. May our giving today
reflect your generosity, and may it be used to further your work, both in our
family of faith and throughout our community.
Through Christ, we pray. AMEN.
Closing Hymn – The Old Rugged Cross Hymn #327
Benediction –
Forgiven and
Beloved Ones of God, go now in peace, sharing with others the Good News of
God’s love. Help those in need. Give and receive from each other the joy of
peace. Amen.
Postlude
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