For the time being, we will be using FaceBook Live for the video of our worship services. You can find that under my name on Facebook. We are in the process of revamping our entire on-line presence.
Worship
Service for January 22, 2023
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: The Lord is our light and our salvation.
P: Why should we be afraid?
L: The Lord is the stronghold of our life!
P: What have we to fear?
L: Let us shout with joy to God!
P: Let us sing and make music before our God.
Opening Hymn – Holy, Holy, Holy Hymn #138/3
Prayer of Confession
All too often, merciful God,
we have not recognized Your presence among us.
All too often, we have not seen You in one another, particularly in
those we consider different from ourselves.
All too often we have failed in proclaiming You to others through the
way we live and act. Forgive us and open
our eyes of faith that we may see You more clearly in the many ways You come to
us. Help us to act toward our brothers
and sisters as we would act toward You.
Forgive us when we fail. May we,
by Your wisdom, recognize and learn from our failures that we may serve ever
more faithfully day to day. (Silent
prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: Anointed with the Holy Spirit, Jesus
brings us the good news of salvation – that we are released from the oppression
of all our sins. And so, I declare to
you in Jesus Christ we 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
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s
Prayer
Stir us, O Lord, when
we are too well-pleased with ourselves; when our dreams have come true because
we dreamed too little; when we have arrived in safety because we sailed just
off the shore. Stir us, O Lord, when
with the abundance of things that we possess, we have lost our thirst for the
water of life; when having fallen in love with time, we have ceased to dream of
eternity; and, in our effort to build the new earth, have allowed our vision of
heaven to grow dim. Stir us, O Lord, to
dream and to dare more boldly; to venture on wider seas, where storms will show
your mastery and, where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. Lord, we are not perfect people, but we are
made perfect in your eyes. We often lose
sight of the ultimate goal and settle for less than perfection – for a lesser
prize, for a half-hearted finish.
Instill in us this day, a yearning for more – not more
things, not more personal accolades, not more stuff and not just more
happiness. Instill in us a yearning for
more understanding of our purpose in life, more acceptance of the paths you’ve
chosen for us, more interest in the journeys of our fellow travelers, more
concern for the injustice of the world, for the poor and the homeless.
We often pray for our loved ones and the struggles that
they are going through, but do we ever stop to pray for our enemies, Lord? Not a prayer of harm, but a prayer of concern
for them. Do we ever put ourselves in
another person’s shoes and show empathy?
Help us, Lord, be more self-conscious of our words and our actions.
We lift up to You our personal prayers of joy and concern
for our loved ones this day. We
especially pray for…
In this time of
silence, we offer up our personal prayers…
Most holy Lord, we now lift
our collective voices to you, praying 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 – Savior,
Like a Shepherd Lead Us Hymn #387/688
Scripture Reading(s):
First Scripture Reading – Isaiah
9:1-4
Second Scripture Reading – Matthew
4:12-23
Sermon – A Bigger Ripple
(based on Matthew 4:12-23)
Last
week our lectionary passage had us read the story from the gospel of John when
Andrew hears that Jesus is the Lamb of God from John the Baptist and decides to
go listen to what Jesus has to say and becomes a disciple of Christ. Andrew told his brother Peter about
Jesus. And then brought two other
brothers; James and John to hear Jesus, too.
Supposedly, Andrew and John, the one
known as the beloved disciple, were both disciples of John the Baptist and he directed
them to Jesus. John the Baptist knew
that they had difficult, seeking questions.
He knew that these two men were worthy of a new master. As a teacher, a mentor, you must know when
your students have outgrown you and encourage them to move on and find a more
advanced teacher. And that is exactly
what John the Baptist did with Andrew and John, the beloved. They listened to John’s advice, met Jesus and
followed him. Not only did they follow
him, but they recruited others; their own brothers, to come and listen to Jesus
as well.
But
here in the gospel of Matthew we have Andrew, Peter, James and John all working
hard at the seashore, casting out their nets or mending them, going about their
daily business. As if they’d
never met, seen, or even heard of Jesus.
So how are these two stories related?
Well, some say they aren’t related at all and others think they are part
of the same story.
Perhaps these brothers were only
peripheral disciples of John the Baptist, but not fully dedicated. On and
off again disciples because they really didn’t have time to listen and follow
someone who was always shouting about repentance, they had a business to run
after all. But perhaps one day, when
they were mending their nets by the seashore, John came preaching and they
heard him talk about Jesus. Questions
began to formulate in their minds about their own faith, about all they had
been taught and then suddenly this Jesus shows up a few days later. And now they’re ready to follow.
So, one account says that Andrew and
John, the beloved, heard about Jesus through John the Baptist and told their brothers
about him and they all followed. Another
account says that Jesus came to them and called all four of them to
follow him.
Some scholars say that both stories
are true. Perhaps Jesus met with Andrew
and John first, who told their brothers, as it says in the gospel according to John. But they hadn’t truly made a commitment to
following Christ yet. It isn’t until (as
we read in Matthew) when they were still going about their daily business that Jesus
sort of ups the ante, so to speak, and says to them, “Okay, you can’t really go
back to doing business as usual. I’ve
called you to be one of my disciples, which means that you have to put down
your nets and follow me.”
In that way, the stories are sort of
justified as both separate and at the same time, related. The point of the story though is what really matters. Jesus called them to be disciples, to be
fishers, to learn all he had to teach them and then to share that information,
knowledge, and faith with others.
Now, I’m going to sort of stretch
the subject of fishing, fishermen, and nets for a moment and then we’ll come
back to Jesus and the disciples. Let me
tell you about three different fishing experiences ranging from my very first
experience to one of my last fishing experiences growing up.
Story about my first catch: Aunt Marie’s farm and the minnow
plastic
bag and bread
Story about my family going fishing:
Deep Sea fishing
Long
pole with multiple hooks and a heavy sinker
Story
about my Salmon fishing in New York:
Large
net
Over the years, did I get better at
fishing? Not really. In all those years between the two, I didn’t
really get any better or any worse, in each instance I got exactly what I went
fishing for; using the right tools for the right fish.
Jesus
called his first disciples; Peter, Andrew, James and John, from their own
fishing nets and told them that he would make them become fishers of men and women. Likewise, Jesus calls us today to do the same
and as we do, a larger net or ripple is cast in the waters. The question is; How do we do that?
There
are a variety of tools and nets to use; some people feel comfortable going from
door to door introducing themselves and sharing their faith. Some people feel comfortable standing up on a
soapbox downtown, proclaiming the gospel to anyone who would listen. Some people feel comfortable sharing their
faith at work, at social situations, at clubs and organizations. Some people enjoy going to other countries,
visiting people around the world and doing missionary work. Some people would prefer to do missionary
work right here at home. Some volunteer at
food banks or soup kitchens distributing food to those who hunger, or build
houses for the disadvantaged, demonstrate or protest for the plight of the
downtrodden, break bread with children and share the message of the
gospel. Some do ministry in prisons, at
nursing homes, at hospitals, in parks.
Some give rides to the elderly, participate in Bible Study with other
seekers, listen with an attentive ear to the griefs and sorrows of a friend,
pray without ceasing for the needs of the world.
The
most important aspect of our faith, the most important part of being a
Christian is sharing Christ’s love and God’s forgiveness with others. And there are so many ways to do that. The ones I’ve listed are only the tip of the
iceberg of ways people share their faith.
Pick
your audience, then choose your correct tool.
You can’t go fishing for minnows with a rod and reel and you can’t go
fishing for salmon with a sandwich bag and large rubber band, or fish for
minnows and salmon with a multi-hook rod that’s weighted with sinkers to go
done to the depths of the ocean. It just
doesn’t work.
Likewise,
you can’t stand on a soapbox to preach the gospel in front of your friends, and
you can’t open up the Bible and tell someone what they are missing if all they
can think about is their next meal, a place to live, medicine for their
children. It just doesn’t work.
God
has called you as a disciple. God has
called you to be one of his fishers. God
has called you to be a disciple that shares your faith with others and brings
people to an understanding of God’s great love for them, God’s forgiveness of
them, and God’s great sacrifice for them.
However,
the world has changed since I began in ministry and since most of you joined
the church. Today, the world connects in
entirely different ways. The world
connects through social media, through on-line avenues, and chat groups. The world connects via Facebook, Snapchat,
Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Unfortunately,
we’ve only relied on the old standbys and the church simply ages and gets
smaller. We need to figure out how the
new connections work.
Was Jesus a fisherman? No. He
was actually the son of a carpenter and more than likely learned that
trade. Are there stories in the scriptures
about Jesus going to a carpenter’s workshop to recruit people like him? No.
Jesus went to places that were unfamiliar to him and yet figured it out,
like how to connect with fisherman. We
might not be well-versed in the new connections that people make in the world
today, but we too can figure it out.
Certainly,
we can continue to make connections the way we’ve always done it and honestly,
must continue to make those connections through our ministry and missions and
the ripple we make will hopefully be felt by those we come into contact with
that way. But, it’s time for us to make
a bigger ripple and learn new tools, too.
Your session at both churches have made a commitment to figure this out.
I hope over the next few months ahead
you join us in that effort, as well.
Let’s
make a bigger ripple together and learn some knew tools. Thanks be to God. AMEN.
Offertory –
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
Gracious God, with joyful
hearts, we offer You our gifts. Having
heard Your call, we offer You our lives and our service. Bless them, most precious Savior, and use
them to Your glory. In Jesus’ name we
pray. AMEN.
Closing
Hymn – Be Thou My Vision Hymn #562
Benediction –
Jesus, the light of the world, calls us to follow. Go and tell the good news of God’s love. Cast the news of grace wide, that all may see
the glory of God. Go and shine with
God’s light!
Postlude
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