Today's Worship Service - Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024

 

Worship Service for March 31, 2024

Prelude

Announcements:

Call to Worship

L:      Christ is risen!

P:      He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!

L:      Jesus has come that we may have abundant life.  After the crucifixion, God raised Christ from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

P:      Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ will come again.

L:      Christ is risen!

P:      He is risen indeed!

 

Opening Hymn –  Jesus Christ is Risen Today              #123 Blue

 

Prayer of Confession

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  We groan today because we have sinned and done what is wrong in the sight of the Lord.  We confess that we have succumbed to the temptations of evil in this world.  We seek to be restored in our relationship with Christ.  As a community and as individuals, we reflect on the sins that have cut us off from Christ.  (Silent prayers are offered)  AMEN.

Assurance of Pardon

L:      Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus we have been set free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of human flesh to be a holy offering for us.  Dearly Beloved, in Jesus Christ your sins are forgiven.

P:      Alleluia!    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

Anthem – He’s Alive! Sung by Ashley Mayersky

Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

God of Awesome Joy, be with us this day as we celebrate the resurrection of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.  Let the light of your love flood into our lives and through us to all those who have been captured by darkness, that the light may give them healing, freedom and hope.  As we witness the surprise of the women at the tomb, the appearance of the Savior to Mary, and her good news brought to the disciples, let us remember that this good news exists for us today.  Darkness does not win.  Death is not victorious.  Christ is Risen, for us, for you and for me.  We are raised with Christ to a new life of hope and service.  Let the joy of this good news swirl around in our hearts.  Let excitement for service and ministry burst forth from us.  Let us truly be the “Easter People” that you have called us to be.  Remind us again of the ministry and mission of Christ, who came that we might have life.  Make us ready to receive these precious gifts.  Walk with us on this pathway of service.  Help us look at the barriers that have prevented us from following Christ and guide us through them that we may become stronger in our faith and our service to you. 

We raise up the names of those we shared earlier this day during this time of prayer.  Hear us, O Lord.  We pray for….

 

Now, Holy Lord, hear the words of our hearts as we lift up to you our silent prayers.

 

God, we thank you for hearing us, we ask all these things in the name of the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ who taught us to pray, 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 –  Thine is the Glory                              #122 Blue Hymnal

Scripture Reading(s): 

First Scripture Reading – Isaiah 25:6-9

Second Scripture Reading – Mark 16:1-8

Sermon –    He is Risen!  He is Risen, indeed!

          There’s a quote that says, “In the end everything will be ok, if it’s not ok, it isn’t the end.”  John Lennon made this quote popular, but no one actually knows the originator of the quote.  It was also a line from the movie, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”.  There are some who believe that the quote came from a Brazilian writer by the name of Fernando Sabino.  Although he wrote over 50 books, he is not very well known among English speakers.  So, for us, it is John Lennon as the one who is attributed to making the quote famous.

Who’d have thought that I’d start an Easter Sermon with a quote by John Lennon?  But listen to the words of the quote again.  “In the end everything will be ok, if it’s not okay, it isn’t the end.”

That’s the message about the end of all things. 
“Everything will be ok.”

Yet, that’s not the message that most of us have gotten or grown up with.  With recent movies and novels, and by recent, I’m talking about the last 20-30 years or more, maybe going all the way back to the 1970’s with Hal Lindsey’s book, the Late Great Planet Earth and then the Left Behind series from the late 20^th Century.  All of these popular Christian prophecy books have all had an apocalyptic view of the end times as horrible with the rapture; the few faithful people being taken from the earth amidst fire-y hail, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, flood waters, and utter chaos, while the rest of us are left to fend for ourselves.

If this is true, that’s a horrible storyline of history and not at all the message that God lays out as a plan for humanity in the entirety of scripture.  Yes, you can go ahead and site some verses in Revelation about the end times, but to pose an entire theology on just a few verses from one book of the Bible that aren’t really backed up in any other part of scripture is not well reasoned theology, in my opinion.  But there are a lot of people that only believe in this understanding and even pray that the horrible events of Armageddon come quickly.  No wonder so many people live without hope today.  I mean, seriously, if the end is going to be so awful, why bother?  It’s not going to mean anything.

          But the real message about Easter is very different from this doom and gloom message that so many of us have lived with.

          Every Sunday our church reaffirms the faith that we believe in by reciting one of the Church’s Creeds.  There are a variety of confessionals and creeds that the church has adopted over the years to better pinpoint and explain what we believe in, to acknowledge people, ideas, an expanding theological understanding of what we believe, etc.  There’s the Nicene Creed, The Scot’s Confession, The Heidelberg Catechism, The Second Helvetic Catechism, The Westminster Confession of Faith, The Shorter and the Longer Catechism, The Declaration of Barmen, The Confession of 1967, The Confession of Belhar, and the most recent one, which was adopted in 1991 after the two largest branches of the Presbyterian Church reunited in 1983, A Brief Statement of Faith.  These Creeds and Confessions can be found in our Book of Confessions which is 473 pages long.  Most of them are not easy to use and recite during worship.  One of the most basic and concise creeds is the Apostle’s Creed and that is why we use it during worship.

          However, in this creed there is a line that gives some people pause.  It begins, he was crucified, dead, and buried, and then the kicker; he descended into hell.  Why?  Why would Jesus go to hell?  The ancient concepts of Hell, often referred to as Hades, are far different from ours.  The words were often used interchangeably.  However, Hades was the place of the dead.  Whereas, Hell was the concept of eternal damnation.

          The theological idea the Apostles Creed wanted to convey was that Christ, after he died, went down to the place of the dead.  Why?  To chat with Uncle Abraham?  No.  He went down to proclaim the eternal message of God’s redemptive love, then to bring people back from the dead to their glorious eternity.  Christ’s resurrection was everyone’s resurrection.

          Early Christian painters in the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrated this rising of the dead.  There are lots of paintings in churches like Turkey, Syria, Palestine, and Greece where Jesus’ resurrection isn’t just depicted with a lone Resurrected Christ, but rather with Jesus bringing everyone up from the grave.

          Richard Rohr says that “What it means to be God is to win.  God doesn’t lose.  The victory announced at Easter is total and universal for everyone. 

          If that is true we have a very different message to get out into the world than the one depicted in The Late Great Planet Earth or the Left Behind Series.  We have a message that filled with wonder and joy.  We have a message that should inspire, not just us, but everyone - to do good things for others.  To be the voice of peace, to care for the planet, to love our neighbors, to reach out to the lonely and dispossessed, to welcome the stranger, to feed the poor, to clothe the naked, and to embrace the widow and the orphan.  They were Christ’s directives while he was living and should be our directives, too.  Even more so with the concept of Resurrected Living.

          “He is Risen!”  (wait…..silence?  Repeat)

“He is Risen!”  (wait….response?)

          I think I might have seen some lips moving or heard a couple of people whisper a response.

          But the next time I say, “He is Risen”, your response is, “He is Risen, indeed!”

          “He is Risen!”  Response: “He is risen, indeed!”

          Oh no!  I’m sorry, but that’s not going to cut it.  I want to hear you really say it and mean it.

          “He is Risen!”  Response: “He is risen, indeed!”

Ok, one more time…and I want to hear it with gusto.

          “He is Risen!”  Response: “He is risen, indeed!”

That’s better!

The empty tomb isn’t really about Jesus being raised from the dead.  We like to think it is.  But it’s not.  The empty tomb is about us being raised from the dead.  What point is there for Christ to have been raised from the dead, if we don’t act like it.  The point of the empty tomb is about us being raised from the dead, because Christ went before us.  It’s about our own response to what Christ did for us.  It’s about our response to the world around us.  It’s about our response to the tragedies and sufferings of this world.  It’s about living a life with joy and wonder, with glory and praise.  It’s about living a life, raised from the dead.

The world doesn’t need a people of doom and gloom.  It has that enough already.  The world needs people filled with the joyful wonder of a risen Lord.  The world needs people filled with the Spirit of God.  The world needs people that are doing the Lord’s work and living a resurrected life.

I want to hear your Easter Joy.  I want to know that you have been raised from the empty tomb.  And I want the world to hear it.

“He is Risen!”  Response:  “He is risen, indeed!”

Thanks be to God.  Amen.   

Offertory –

Doxology –

Prayer of Dedication –

Gracious God, joy floods over our souls this day.  Take these offerings, use them for the work of peace and love in the world.  Open our hearts and our spirits to receive and give thanks for Your many blessings.  In the name of the Risen Christ.  AMEN.

Closing Hymn – Crown Him with Many Crowns   #45 Brown Hymnal

Benediction –

          Dance, celebrate, sing, and shout for joy!  Christ is Risen and He goes before us, into this world of fear and pain.  He has called us to bring the Good News of healing and hope, of redemption and grace.  Go in peace, and feel the presence of the Risen Lord with you, now and forever.  AMEN.

Postlude

Today's Worship Service - Palm Sunday - March 24, 2024

 

Worship Service for March 24, 2024

Prelude

Announcements:

Call to Worship

L:      Lord, You enter this space to encounter us as we also wish to encounter You.

P:      May we receive You willingly.

L:      You come to us with grace, mercy, and redemption in the gift of Jesus Christ.

P:      We come with burden and worries, sins and sorrows which we lay at Your feet.

L:      As an act of Thanksgiving with Palms and Praises, we welcome You this day.

 

Opening Hymn –  Hosanna, Loud Hosanna    #89/297

 

Prayer of Confession

Most caring Christ, so often we have wandered away from Your embrace and turned away from Your extension of love toward us.  Holy God, forgive us our sin and return us from our wandering ways, restore us to a right relationship with You through Your everlasting forgiveness, and grant us the peace and rest found only in Your grace and mercy.  (Silent prayers are offered)  AMEN.

Assurance of Pardon

L:      This day reminds us of Your deliverance.  With shouts of joy and songs of praise we proclaim our Alleluias and our Hosannas.  You have entered this place to save us.  For that we are indeed thankful.

P:      Alleluia and Hosanna, Loud Hosannas to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

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

Gracious God, the author of salvation, we give you thanks for Jesus Christ, our Lord, who came in your name and turned the lonely way of rejection and death into triumph.  Grant us the steadfast faith to enter the gates of righteousness, that we may receive grace to become citizens of Your heavenly kingdom.

Holy Father, who gave his only son so that we might find life and live it abundantly, awaken in us the humility to serve wherever creation is broken and in need.  By your Spirit, call us into the world as a holy people, dying to the things which separate us from your love, and being raised with the abundance and joy of hope and peace.  Through humility let us crucify our pride.  Through simple living let us crucify poverty.  Through solidarity let us crucify suffering.  Through faith let us crucify despair.

Patient God, be with us today as we witness again the entry of Jesus into the holy city.  Remind us that our "holy cities", our souls, need to welcome Jesus, truly in celebration and in commitment to his witness to us.  We can so easily get caught up in the noise and forget the Savior.  We can get so focused on the celebration and colors that we look past the solitary figure on the small donkey.  We stand at the gates this day to welcome Jesus.  May our welcome of Jesus also be reflected in our welcome of others who come into our midst.  Free us from judgment and prejudice, that we may be open to hearing your word through the ministry of Jesus and the disciples.  

Sovereign Lord, everlasting and almighty, in your tender love for your children, you sent your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility:  Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection.

Walk with us to the cross.  Stop us from running and hiding, from siding with the enemy because we are too afraid to speak the truth of Your love.  Help us look up at the figure on the cross, remembering how Jesus was faithful to the end of his earthly life.  Cause us to be as faithful in all that we do.  Then we can truly shout with the others in the parade.  “Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”

          As we have spoken the names of ones who are near and dear to us who need your healing love, O God, help us also remember that we need a good measure of your grace and mercy.  Bring us through this parade into the comfort of your love.  We pray this day especially for…..

 

          And in silence we offer up our unspoken prayers to you…

 

          We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, as we continue to pray 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 –  Ride On! Ride on in Majesty                     #91 Blue Hymnal

Scripture Reading(s): 

First Scripture Reading – Isaiah 50:4-9a

Second Scripture Reading – Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon –                                        Palm Sunday

          Over the years, I’ve preached about Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem that we celebrate on Palm Sunday.  The story about how the people lined the streets, waving palm fronds and shouting, “Hosannas!” from one of the entries into Jerusalem, welcoming Christ on the back of a donkey.  While at the same time another crowd lined the streets, at the eastern gate to welcome the political ruler to their city with legions of Roman soldiers marching down the grand promenade.  I’ve talked about the differences between these two parades and their meanings.  But, have we ever really talked about the importance of this day – beyond the parades, the shouting of Hosannas and the waving of palm fronds?

This Palm Sunday, I’ve chosen the Epistle reading in Philippians Chapter 2 as the sermon text.  This section in Philippians, verses 1-11 is probably the most well-crafted passage in all of Scripture.  It explains the very central concept and heart of Christianity.  It tells of the purpose of Christ.  It lays out the plan for humanity now that Christ has come into the world.  And it speaks to transforming suffering into joy through the mind of Christ demonstrated in his divine humility.

          God is calling us to receive the gift of joy in the midst of our suffering, just has he did for us, by putting on the mind of Christ.  How do we do that?  What are the divine features of this Palm Sunday mindset that can transform suffering into joy?

Philippians says that “Jesus was in the form of God but did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of a human being.”

          Before we can understand what this passage is saying, we should probably take the time to investigate what it is not saying.  This passage, which has often been misunderstood, is not saying that Jesus emptied himself of his divine nature in order to become human.  The author of Philippians is saying, rather, that Jesus shed his royal robe of prerogatives.  His divine rights for angels to swoop down from heaven and remove this obligation from him.  His divine rights to be worshipped and adored as God’s Son.  His divine rights to simply announce the salvation of all humanity.  Instead, he emptied himself of his rights of divinity not his actual divinity in order to become like one of us, to become human.  He chose not to “exploit” his rights in order to fulfill God’s plan to save.  Why?  So that we could have a model to emulate, “Let the same mind be in you as it was in Christ Jesus”, so that we would know how to choose on our own, which path to take, which way to turn.  So that each of us can figure out how to live in the suffering of this world without choosing hatred to counter it.  That’s why Christ chose the same pathway we would have; not allowing his divine rights to supersede his pathway.  Because we can’t.

Imagine that we were entomologists from Penn State who wanted to study insects and learn more about ants in Pennsylvania.  The greatest way for us to do this is to actually become an ant, live in an ant bed, subject ourselves to the same environment as other ants, and to experience life as an ant, yet we never stopped being humans. This is the most logical approach that C.S. Lewis took in teaching about the incarnation:

“The Eternal Being who knows everything and who created the whole universe became not only a human but (before that) a baby, and before that a [fetus] inside a woman’s body.  If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.”

And what does this say to us today?  The way to gain in life is to lose.  The study of “leadership” understands this intuitively.  Those who lead must always be down in the mud with the troops.  There are paintings of General Washington crossing the Delaware river to camp at Valley Forge in the fight against the English.  Or even a teacher, get down and sit on the ground next to a little boy who had received a pretty good beating from bullies on the playground (yes, those kinds of things still happen).  For a boy, there is nothing worse than getting bullied on the playground from other boys who tease and taunt.  That teacher knew this could impact every area of learning for that boy.  Rather than simply punish the bullies, the teacher’s act of compassion in sitting quietly by the student on the floor in the hall that day was as important as any paper he would grade that year.  This is not just a teacher, this is an educator, an inspiration, a hero, to that kid. 

These and so many others like them are examples of leaders who get their boots and shoes muddy.  They gain respect as they give themselves away freely to those they lead.

          A husband and wife gain esteem in each other’s eyes by giving themselves to one another, prioritizing the other above all else in small everyday ways.  They each gain the love and devotion they crave by honoring one another in small, everyday ways by supporting their mate.  

That is what Christ did for us.  He got down with the troops in the depths of icy winter.  He got down in the muckity-muck.  He got down in the ditches.  He sits with us on the floor of the hallway.  He sits with us in our sorrow.  He sits next to us on the park bench when we don’t have a clue about life.  He sits next to us on the hospital’s visitors room couch waiting to hear news.  He lies with us after the car crash or embraces us in the fire or takes our hand at our death bed.  He shares every pain and sorrow with us.

In a very similar way this church will find her place in this community by giving herself away to this community.  Imagine that we are all doing this to each other in an endless circle of giving and receiving: what a beautiful picture of Christ this would be among us.  

How many of you have injured a body part? 

As we get older, I think this happens more and more, doesn’t it? 

So, we take something for it.  We might take an Aleve or an Aspirin.  I think each of us have a favorite “go-to” for aches and pains.  We might rub some icy/hot cream on it.  If it is really bad, we might go to an Urgent Care center or to the Emergency room where a doctor might give us something a bit stronger to help take away the pain.  The injury itself doesn’t go away, but the pain of that injury is lessened.

What if we could do this with and for one another?  Help carry the pain.  Rub in a little salve to ease the suffering.  If we are doing that with one another within the church and in our communities, suddenly, even accumulated sorrows begin to be transformed.  Why, because we are being Christ to one another.  We are taking on the burden of sorrow for one another.  We are sharing that burden and transforming it into something else.  When we care for each other, a spark of laughter invades the space of pain.  A little joke shared among those in pain and the caregivers lightens the air.  A similar story told among the group is shared history.  In doing so, we are transforming pain into joy.  And joy is a powerful solvent that dissolves even the most resistant sorrow.  The sting is taken out.  The hurt is removed.  The cause of the sorrow doesn’t ever really go away, but the pain of that sorrow is lessened.

There are some that will tell you that you can go skipping through the tulips with exuberance from this life to the next with no problems.  But that is neither real nor true.  It is certainly not what the writer of Philippians is teaching here.  But there is a transformation based on the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that takes every sorrow, every defeat, every problem, every trial, every heartache, every tear and mixes it together with the love of God in Christ and causes the very things that would seek to destroy us to become the very things that heal us.  But only if we, together, have the mind of Christ.  You’ve heard it said that it “takes a village” to raise a child.  It also takes a village, a Christian one, to share the burdens of others and to receive the transformation of pain into joy.

This is the fullness of the message of Christ, why he came, what he was about, and what lessons we have to learn to further the message of the gospel.  This is the Gospel of Palm Sunday.  And the Lord rides not only into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, but also into your life and into mine with this message, “Give your life away in service to others that you may gain eternal life; go down to serve that you may be exalted” and those of us who have tasted the glorious paradoxical power of this Palm Sunday message will even answer, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

AMEN.

Offertory –

Doxology –

Prayer of Dedication –

Glory be to you, O God, for the gift of creation and for your everlasting mercy.  Praise be to you, O Christ, for your redeeming love and the promise of new life.  Thanks be to you, O Holy Spirit, for guidance, counsel, and abiding revelation.  We honor and worship you in presenting our offerings this day.  Take not only these monetary offerings but also our very lives and let them be consecrated to you, O God.  AMEN.

Closing Hymn – All Glory, Laud, and Honor         #300 Brown Hymnal

Benediction –

Friends, fix your eyes on the Lord.  Place your hand in God’s hand, trusting in God’s guidance and comfort.  Go into this world that needs to hear the words of healing love, and bring the good news of God’s absolute love and presence to all people.  Go in peace.

Postlude

Today's Worship Service - Fifth Sunday in Lent - Sunday, March 17, 2024

 

Worship Service for March 17, 2024

Prelude

Announcements:

Call to Worship

L:      O God, You have chosen us to be Your people.

P:      We have come together to give You praise and thanks.

L:      You know our hearts, our inner thoughts, and our very souls.

P:      Accept the worship we offer, and help us to see You more clearly, Lord, day by day.

 

Opening Hymn –  Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley    #80   Blue

 

Prayer of Confession

O just and forgiving God, You have called us to be Your people and to bear witness to Your love in our world.  We confess that we often judge by appearances rather than looking into the heart.  Forgive us for rejecting those who do not meet our expectations or please our desires, for assuming that their shortcomings are due to their own sin and failure, and for persisting in our private judgment when facts and the testimony of others show the opposite.  We confess that we easily overlook those who are not like us and neglect those who we assume, have nothing to offer.  Keep us mindful of Your choices and help us resist the temptation to judge.  We ask this confidently in the name of Christ Jesus.  (Silent prayers are offered)  AMEN.

Assurance of Pardon

L:      The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting.  In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.

P:      We give our praise and thanksgiving.  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

Loving God, in Jesus Christ You have shown us compassion, accepted us unconditionally, and given us a new set of values to embrace.  Help us to live in accordance with Your will and aspire to be Christ-like in our relationships.  Guide us in paths that lead to life and the peace that only You can give.  For without Your grace and guidance, we are lost. 

Healer of our every ill, through the power of Your Spirit and the words of Your Son, You bring life to the lifeless and hope to the hopeless.  You know our deep hurts and our needs – those things that drain life from our bodies and souls.  Stir us by Your Spirit, that we may be strengthened in body.  Blow through us with Your Spirit, that our souls may be new.

Even as we seek Your healing and life-giving power, we lift up those whose weakness brings them to despair.  We entrust to You those who are sick and dying; the homeless and those living in poverty; those without work and without food; those living in constant fear of persecution and oppression, particularly in other lands; those who live with the constant companion of violence and conflict.  May we not be silent accomplices, but rather vocal advocates against violence.   May we be empowered, O Lord, to live out each day as examples of Your Way, Your Truth, Your Life.  Allow us to teach with every breath and with every action, that we respect all human life, even as we pray for peace around the globe. 

Plant Your transforming love into our spirits.  Give us courage.  As we gather this day to bring before You our concerns, our joys and sorrows, give us hearts of peace and confidence in Your all-sustaining presence.  Help us set our feet on this pathway toward the cross and beyond.

We pray especially for….

…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 –  Jesus Paid It All                       #305 Brown Hymnal

Scripture Reading(s): 

First Scripture Reading – Jeremiah 31:31-34

Second Scripture Reading – John 12:20-33

Sermon – A Forward Looking Faith

(based on Jeremiah 31:31-34, John 12:20-33)

 

Jeremiah’s description is arresting.  God would set aside the old covenant.  In its place God would give his people a new covenant.  Its foundation would not be written laws and regulations.  Instead, the Lord would put his spirit directly into the hearts of people.  It would be based on his nearness.

How do we think about that new covenant?  A baby bird was heard to ask its mother, “Mother, what is air?”  To this she made no reply, but spread her wings and flew.  A baby fish asked its mother, “Mother, what is water?”  She made no reply, but swished her tail and swam.  A baby ant asked its mother, “Mother, what is dirt?”  She made no reply, but stretched her legs and dug the burrow a little deeper.  A child in a nursery asked her mother, “Mother, what is love?”  She made no reply, but picked up the child and hugged her.

Like water to a fish; like air to a bird; like dirt to an ant; like love to a child - such is the presence of God to those who love him.

The covenant described by Jeremiah would be natural and internal.  People wouldn’t be forced to learn of God.  Instead, they would simply know God naturally.  It means that God wants to be known by people everywhere and to that end, God has given knowledge of who God is to everyone – within their hearts, within their spirits.  Unfortunately, there is so much noise today that drowns that out, and yet people do know.

Helen Keller was blind and deaf from the age of two after a bout of scarlet fever or (perhaps) meningitis – she had lived a life of isolation, unable to speak words she could not hear, unable to even know what a word was.  A woman by the name of Ann Sullivan, aged 20, arrived at Helen Keller's house on March 5, 1887, a day Keller would forever remember as "my soul's birthday".  Sullivan immediately began to teach Helen to communicate by spelling words into her hand, beginning with "d-o-l-l" (do the sign language motions in your own palm) for the doll that she had brought Keller as a present.  Keller initially struggled with lessons since she could not comprehend that every object had a word identifying it.  She had no understanding of language.  When Sullivan was trying to teach Keller the word for "mug", Keller became so frustrated she broke the mug.  Keller remembered how she soon began imitating Sullivan's hand gestures and recalls in her autobiography, The Story of My Life: "I did not know that I was spelling a word or even that words existed.  I was simply making my fingers go in monkey-like imitation."

The next month Keller made a breakthrough, when she realized that the motions her teacher was making on the palm of her hand, while running cool water over her other hand, symbolized the idea of "water".  Again writing about the moment:

“I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers.  Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me.  I knew then that w-a-t-e-r meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand.  The living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, set it free!

Keller quickly demanded that Sullivan sign the names of all the other familiar objects in her world.

Later in life, Ann Sullivan introduced her to Philips Brooks, a bishop in the Episcopal Church, who had become well known for writing the lyrics to the famous song, O Little Town of Bethlehem.  In one of her letters, Helen told Brooks that she had always known about God, even before she had any words.  Even before she could call God anything, she knew God was there.  She didn't know what it was.  God had no name for her -- nothing had a name for her.  She had no concept of a name.  But in her darkness and isolation, she knew she was not alone.  Someone was with her.  She felt God's love.  And when she received the gift of language and heard about God, she said she already knew.  Now this is what is interesting to me.  People say that others impose and push there believe on people to make them believe.  But Helen didn't have any Christianity or any other religion, for that matter "imposed" upon her and yet she just innately knew there was a God!  

“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.  It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them b the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.  But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.  I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  No longer shall they teach one another,  or say to one another, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me.

Helen Keller, blind and deaf from the age of 2, knew God.  How can someone explain that?  She explains it herself, that even when she was most alone in her darkness, the Holy Spirit of God was with her, letting God’s presence be known to her, writing it upon her heart.

 

This comes about as we give ourselves to God through Christ.  Knowing God this way establishes us and strengthens us.  In times of trouble we will already have a relationship with God that we can count on.

Another important aspect of this passage from Jeremiah is that real faith looks forward.  While the people of God are told to remember what the Lord has done for them in the past, no real progress can be made by staring into the rearview mirror.  Jeremiah tells his contemporaries “a time is coming.”  He helped them look forward to a time in the future when their condition would improve.  Jeremiah promised a new covenant.  The new covenant would face the people forward and help them live life as it came toward them.

In the book Unfinished Business, Halford Luccock told a story of the little town of Flagstaff, Maine.  In the late 1940’s the Power Company wanted to flood the area to build a hydro-electric power plant along the river to bring more electric power to the area.  In order to do that, the town of Flagstaff would have to be flooded.  By Spring of 1949, most of the residents and businesses had settled with the company, but 25 families held out.  They were not interested in selling their homes, however all improvements and repairs in the whole town were stopped.  What was the use of painting a house if it was to be covered with water in six months?  Why repair anything when the whole village was to be wiped out?  So, week by week, the whole town became more and more bedraggled, more gone to seed, more woebegone until the waters finally came and wiped it out.  Then Luccock added by way of explanation, “Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present.”

They actually knew what the future held for them.  What could they have done in the present that would have been powerful and brilliant?  Perhaps any number of things – thrown a party!  Painted their houses outrages colors, strewn the town with toilet paper and ribbons.  I don’t know.  They could have done any number of things, but instead they allowed the sorrow of knowing the past would be forgotten with no faith in a future, that it gave no power to their present.  They just simply let the town fall to ruin and die without even a whimper of acknowledgement.

Jeremiah concludes the passage about a forward-facing faith by saying in verse 34 that God “will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more”.  Gaining God’s forgiveness is not a matter of following minute rules or loathsome regulations.  It is knowing and trusting God.  That trust can help us walk through incredible times. 

Christ also calls us to a faith that looks forward.

From our New Testament reading this morning from John chapter 12, Jesus concludes his public ministry and announces that his hour has come.  Even Gentiles seek this rabbi, perplexing his followers.  Jesus’ explanation is to announce his death as part of God’s greater plan.  What could be gained by dying?  Jesus answer: the conquering of evil and the salvation of the world!  Even now, in retrospect, the significance of what Christ did, and what Christ does, staggers our understanding.

This text precedes the betrayal and crucifixion of Christ.  The world is poised to nail Jesus to a tree.  Both the religious leaders and Jesus’ followers will conclude that his ministry ends at the cross.  They will think him finished, but as we know post-Easter Christianity, and what we will celebrate in a few weeks - God is not finished.

By Christ’s death, God’s power is revealed.  The One who seemed powerless was the one power on whom the world depended.  The world is often slow to recognize its need for God.

But evil met its match in the power of the Christ.  John’s Gospel emphasizes that “the ruler of this world will be driven out” (v. 31).  Christ’s power comes in what is revealed after death.  As is true with one seed that falls to the ground and brings forth abundant life, Christ’s death yields abundant living for those who follow Him. 

It is most definitely a future forward facing faith.  Who would grasp the concept otherwise, that death is beginning of life?

What a paradox is this power of God!  It does not happen when we look backward to the past as in a rearview mirror, but rather forward into the future.  But, it can only happen if you are facing in the right direction.  What way are you facing?

Thanks be to God.  AMEN.

Offertory –

Doxology –

Prayer of Dedication –

Your gifts to us are abundant, O God.  You give light and life to your people, strengthening us for your mission in this world.  Receive from us, we humbly pray, these offerings, that they may be used to both serve you and establish your will within the body of Christ.  We pray in the name of your Son, Jesus.  AMEN.

Closing Hymn – I Will Sing of My Redeemer        #309 Brown Hymnal

Benediction –

Friends, fix your eyes on the Lord.  Place your hand in God’s Hand, trusting in God’s guidance and comfort.  Go into this world that needs to hear the words of healing love, and bring the good news of God’s absolute love and presence to all people.  Go in peace.

Postlude