Worship
Service for February 11, 2024
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: The Lord has called you here this day.
P: Lord, reveal to us Your purposes for us.
L: Open your hearts to receive God’s good
news.
P: Lord, make us ready to serve You.
L: Come, let us worship God!
P: Let us sing our praises to the Almighty
One.
Opening Hymn – Near to the Heart of God #527/617
Prayer of Confession
Patient Lord, You know how
accustomed we are to “magic” tricks. Our
spirits and our senses get fooled easily.
We would be just like the disciples, at first not believing what we were
seeing and then wanting to make a monument to the event. Thank You for being so patient with us. Forgive us when we get so wrapped up in the
moment that we don’t take time enough to understand its significance. Help us pause, reflect, think, and thank You
for the blessings of unexpected revelations.
Give us wisdom and strength to be Your disciples, proclaiming Your
transforming love to all people. This
morning we offer our heartfelt thanks and ask for forgiveness. (Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: Friends, to you the light of love and
ministry has been revealed. Rejoice!
P: We have been blessed by God to be
witnesses; proclaiming God’s love to all.
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
Lord, we give you
thanks for giving us the opportunity to worship You this morning. May this time of prayer refresh our spirits
and help us to regain perspective in our lives.
Lord, you know that we keep falling short of our good intentions. Even though we have heard over and over that
love is the answer, we keep falling back into ruts of selfishness. And yes, even though we know it is best to
live one day at a time, we keep worrying about tomorrow and what it may bring.
We pray that you will come among us and minister to our
needs. Through our worship, teach us
again how to forgive and to be forgiven; teach us again how to love and how to
be loved; teach us again how to need and how to be needed; teach us again how
to help and how to be helped.
There are so many needs in the world, Lord. So many people that hunger for something, yet
find life bland and pointless. So many
people searching for kindness, gentleness, compassion and all they find is
frustration and harshness. Allow us to
be your ministers of peace on earth.
Allow us to be your hands and feet – where there is hatred, let us prove
that there is love. Where there is
doubt, let us show great faith. Where
there is despair, let us provide hope.
Where there is darkness, let us shine brightly to light someone’s
way. Where there is bitterness, let us
provide pardon, solace and the true taste of life.
We pray for our loved ones, especially we pray for….
In this time of silence we also ask that you look deep in
to our souls and hear our inner prayers.
We pray all these
things through your Son who taught us to pray 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 – A
Mighty Fortress #151/260
Scripture Reading(s):
First Scripture Reading – 2
Kings 2:1-12
Second Scripture Reading – Mark
9:2-9
Sermon – A Double Share
(based on 2 Kings
2:1-12, Mark 9:2-9)
Each one of us gathered here today comes bearing the echoes of
great people in our lives. Each one of
us bears the mark of someone who probably influenced and touched us in a deep
and powerful way. It might be a mother
or father, a grandparent, or an aunt or uncle. It could even be a neighbor who took you under
his or her wing, or a teacher, or some other influential person in your life. If you’re really blessed, you might even
receive more than one such fellow traveler. The blessings of such people walking with us
on our journey cannot be underestimated.
Such people come as mentors and partners. They come willing to give of themselves, and
they come eager for you to grow into who you are meant to become. For me there were many such blessings, my
grandparents, quite a number of teachers, both of my parents, but there was one
person that stands above them all – an older woman who asked me to call her
Aunt Margaret. She managed the art
gallery in the complex where my mom had a retail store when I was in junior
high school.
I would sit, hours on end, listening to her tell stories about
the far away places she’d been, about the people she’d met, and the lessons
she’d learned. She never tired of
telling me about what mattered more or the most in life. Her favorite phrase after she was done
telling me about something was always, “so, my young friend, what do you think
of that?” urging me to process what she’d said and make some sense of it for my
own life. I think it was because of her
that I’ve been a critical thinker most of my life, with a spirit of adventure
and wonder, focusing on how to interpret the world around me and what meaning
it holds.
I haven’t seen her in over 45 years, but I think about her
often, knowing that she is long gone from this world by now. But I think that if I could ask for one more
thing from her, it would be for a double measure of her spirit.
I would stand with Elisha, who was bidding his master and mentor
farewell. And rather than more time with
her; rather than one more lesson or story; rather than some codification of all
the learning, it would be a deeper taste of her spirit, of the world she’d
travelled in, experienced, and made her own. A double measure of that.
Think with me for a moment. What would it mean in your own life to receive
a double measure of the spirit of your mentor, best friend, or teacher? What would it mean to receive a double dose of
that spirit of helpfulness, caring, attentiveness, and affection? Think how much it meant for you to have
received the Spirit already, and then multiply it times two.
For my own part, it is hard to imagine what that would look
like. Some of you might feel indulgent
or even selfish when you think of that. Others
of you might say, “Open the gates; I can use all I can get!” What would you say? How would you feel? What would happen with this flood of abundance
that would come your way in a double measure of that spirit?
Do you know what Elisha did? He picked up the mantle of Elijah. He stepped into his master’s shoes. He took that double measure of the spirit and
went on to his own journey of greatness and service to the Lord and the people.
To us who have had the benefit of great teachers and friends
like this, the question comes as to what we have done with the great gifts we
have received. What will we do with the
gift of spirit, double measure or not that we have received as pure grace? Are we to go on and try to fill the shoes of
our benefactors? Are we to take the gift
and use it on our own unique journey? Or
are we take that gift and offer it to someone in the same way it was offered to
us? What do you think?
Perhaps our answer is found in each of these three. Perhaps some of us receive the call to fill
the shoes of our mentors. How many of us
have chosen our work because of someone else who did that work? How many teachers are teachers today because
of a teacher they once had? How many
people saw someone who was admirable doing admirable work, and were influenced
by that? Elisha moved on to take up the
mantle of Elijah because of what he saw Elijah doing, and because he knew who
Elijah was as a person.
It could be, of course, that we might take the beneficence and
gifts offered to us and use them in our own unique way as we move through our
life’s journey. I wonder sometimes if my
dear friend, Aunt Margaret, would be surprised if she knew I’d become a
pastor. I don’t think she had been
terribly religious, in fact, probably quite the opposite. And yet, I took her spirit of wonder and
questioning into the ministry and even into my own study of theology, never
satisfied with easy answers.
Finally, of course, we can receive these gifts and then turn
around and offer them out again. We can
make it a point to work with young people, to mentor and guide them. We can be the heroes we had when we were
younger. We can give the gift of self, a
double dose of our spirit to those who are starting their journey. Perhaps the best way to honor those who gave
themselves to us is to turn and give ourselves to others.
Of course, all three of these responses intermingle and join in
our lives as we respond to the goodness of others around us. Consider how you give that gift of mentorship
to others. Maybe there are others around
you who could still use your knowledge, your wisdom, your own stories and your
spirit.
As we move to the New Testament
reading for today we are reminded of Elijah’s sudden disappearance from the
earth in a fiery chariot and then his reappearance in the glowing
transfiguration event with Jesus. The
symbolism of these two events is rich with analogies as we think about how in
the world these biblical events begin to apply to faith-filled living in the
twenty-first century.
Since the days of
Moses and the commandments, God’s people have valued mountaintop experiences,
those seasons when our spirits have been lifted and our hearts encouraged. We long to continue in the presence of God. Whether those places have been retreats,
camp-meetings, civil rights protests, ministries of justice and peace,
revivals, lay missions, Walks to Emmaus, or Volunteer in Mission projects—you
name it, we don’t want to come off our mountaintops.
We have a similar
emotional response when a trusted spiritual leader— who has mentored us, led
us, and imparted spiritual wisdom to us— leaves. Our anxiety rises. We fear that if our leader leaves (or much
worse, suffers some moral failure), then so also might our spiritual blessings.
Without our spiritual head we feel lost,
with no momentum and no clear vision. We
feel alone. But God reminds us, “I am
with you.”
Time and time again
Elijah says to Elisha, “Stay here.” In
the same spirit, the voice from the transfiguration cloud says, “This is my
Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”
One can almost hear
Jesus say as the cloud lifts, “Okay, let’s go, time’s wasting.” There’s too much to do, too many places to go,
too many people to feed, and too many who need the gospel. We can’t linger too long on the mountaintop.
Doing ministry is
often that constant pull, “Stay here.
And, ok, let’s go.” We need to
always find a balance between the two. Jesus
took time away. Jesus took his three
friends up to the mountaintop. Jesus
understood the necessity of time for prayer, meditation, reflection, and
spiritual rejuvenation. But Jesus also
spend hours teaching, and healing, being with his closest disciples and being
among the crowds.
So following Christ
takes us to:
• quiet places of
prayer
• long days of feeding
the hungry
• nights in lonely
gardens and angry storms
• the ecstasy of
mountaintop retreats
• back down the
mountain into the valley of need
To follow Christ
requires that we:
• deny ourselves
• watch after
ourselves
• take up our crosses
• remember that we are
never alone, but always in the power of the Holy Spirit
To follow Christ means
that although we are to stay behind, we are never left behind. To follow Christ means that although we may
feel alone, we are never left alone.
As we approach the season of Lent, maybe it’s a good time to
seek how, with God’s guidance, you might offer a double measure of your spirit
to someone in your life, someone in your community, someone who will benefit
beyond measure.
As we teach and model patience, as we teach and model love, as
we teach and model compassion, as we teach and model the ability to laugh and
sing, we pass on the Spirit of the living God! As we do this, person by person, the world is
healed a little more each day.
Offertory –
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
Lord, we bring not only our material gifts, but
also our very lives. We bring not only
our offerings, but also our love. In
Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
Closing
Hymn – Precious Lord, Take My Hand
#404/684
Benediction –
Get ready to
serve the Lord. Go in peace and joy,
sharing the good news of Jesus’ transforming love and power for all. AMEN.
Postlude
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