On December 10th, I'll be outside the 60 day window of new accounts on Facebook and able to livestream again. So, we'll be up and running on Facebook next Sunday.
Worship
Service for December 8, 2024
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: Zechariah sang to his newborn son:
P: “You, child, will be called a prophet of
the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way.
L: You will tell his people how to be saved
through the forgiveness of their sins.
P: Because of our God’s deep compassion, the
dawn from heaven will break upon us,
L: to give light to those who are sitting in
darkness and in the shadow of death,
P: to guide us on the path of peace.”
L: Let us worship God.
P: With one accord we His name together
Lighting of the Advent Candles
L: Children of God, we come, tired of
waiting, burdened by the weight of watching.
We surrender to God’s holy “not yet,” embracing the stillness. We come, and God-with-us is present in our
longing. As we gather today, we remember
the promised gifts of the Messiah. In
the lighting of two candle, we set our gaze upon beacons that sustain us
through sleepless nights and restless days.
We bear this light together.
We call the first
candle – Hope. And we call the second
candle Peace.
(Light the candles.)
Let us pray:
Eternal Source, amid
life’s turmoil, we find our way by turning to You. When courage fades and trust feels fragile,
Your promises remain steady and true.
You are the unfailing light on our path, You, O God, are our hope and
our peace, the quiet strength in our deepest longing. AMEN.
With the Holy Spirit as
our guide, we join John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, in testifying to Your
timeless, unending faithfulness in the shadowiest of days.
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He
has looked favorably on His people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us in
the house of His child, David, as He spoke through the mouth of His holy prophets
from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and form the hand of all
who hate us. Thus, He has shown the
mercy promised to our ancestors and has redeemed His holy covenant, the oath
that He swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from
the hands of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and
righteousness in His presence all our days.”
At times our souls are
disquieted weary from our own expectations.
The anxiousness of life can pull us away from the promise of God’s
peace. Yet, God offers us peace, a gift,
not as the world gives, but a peace unencumbered by life’s demands or the chaos
of our souls. We say “yes” to the peace
God gives, and all that comes with it.
Opening Hymn – Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee #464
Blue
Prayer of Confession
Holy God, we confess we prefer
the crooked paths where we think we can hide from You. We’d rather You didn’t examine us too
closely, all we do and fail to do. Yet,
You are coming not to judge, but to save us from our sins and our love of
sinning. So come, Lord, by crooked path
or straight, to enter our aching hearts.
In the certainty of Your grace we make our prayer. (Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: Hear the good news! Christ is our peace. Through Him we have forgiveness and new hope.
P: He comes to break the power of sin and set
us free again. 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
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s
Prayer
Holy, beloved God, we
come before You seeking strength and comfort, someone to help us bear the load
or to give us a load worth bearing. In
our praying, give us open ears to hear Your assurances and open hearts to feel
Your peace. We pray for the church, this
family of hopeful people persistent in faithfulness and graciousness, marked by
a willingness to work in kindness and not count the hours or the cost. As the world darkens and the days grow short,
may Christ’s light in us shine with a steady flame, bringing light, bringing
healing, bringing reconciliation, and bringing peace. We pray for common sense, and the touch of
faithful humility that marked the life of Your son, our Savior, that we may
determine to live lives of kindness and grace.
God of faithfulness and
truth, we pray for the world around us, for peoples whose names we do not know
yet whose hurts fill the news, and whose afflictions touch us not nearly long
enough. We can change a channel, or turn
a page, but they endure the long days and months of famine and thirst, of war
and feud, of corruption and despair, of hatred and violence. Solutions may not be easy for all the ills of
this world, but in each hurting place send Your Spirit, that those who do have
the power to effect the changes needed for justice, peace and honor may use
their power for the well-being of all.
In this season of
Advent, where many watch and wait, be with those who at this time wait by a
hospital bedside, watch anxiously for results in exams and tests, wait for news
of health reports, watch for a loved one to return. May all who wait with anxiety find Your
peace, and all who watch with fearfulness be calmed by Your steady hand.
For ourselves, the
hopes and hurts, the brightness and gloom that populate our waking and our
sleeping hours, help us separate our needs from our wants, that we may discern
where priorities in our ordered lives should be. In a world where consumption rules and many
come accustomed to plenty, remind us of the privileges we take for granted, and
the bounty we believe is our right, and not Your gift. Soothe our spirits, and fill us with good
things – the things which make for peace.
Lord, we pray for those
who lie close to our hearts…
In this time of
silence, we pray also for the burdens of our hearts…
And now, Holy One of
Israel, we pray as Jesus taught us, 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 – Break
Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light Hymn
#264 Blue
Scripture Reading(s):
First Scripture Reading – Leviticus
2:1-16
Second Scripture Reading – Matthew
5:1-16
Sermon – The Salt of Life
The
Salt of the Earth
(based on Leviticus 2:4-16, Matthew 5:1-16)
I
began working on my Sabbatical theme a couple of years before I even took my
sabbatical. To apply for a Lilly Grant
that would help fund it, you needed to come with a tangible outline, research ideas,
plans for study by the congregation while you were gone and further work when
you returned. Although I didn’t receive
that grant, I kept the plan for the sabbatical intact and used it for when I went
away. I’m sure you’re tired of hearing
about it, but even three years later, the concept of food being used in the
scriptures in a variety of categories and how those categories continue to
shape our consumption of food in community, continue to inspire me.
In
2018, a cookbook was published entitled The Bread and Salt Between Us:
Recipes and Stories from a Syrian Refugee’s Kitchen, by Mayada Anjari. The book itself contains just over 40 recipes
that keep the memory of the author’s homeland alive and spreads the tastes and
smells of her childhood to new kitchens. Sharing recipes from long ago over great
distance is an act of hospitality mediated through time via paper and ink.
Anjari’s
story is moving: As refugees to the U.S. in the winter of 2016, she and her
family were welcomed and supported by a Christian congregation in New York. After settling in, Mayada wanted to show her
appreciation, and, without speaking much English, expressed her thanks by
inviting 75 members of the congregation to a meal that she prepared for them. From this dinner and those that followed, the
idea for a cookbook came about. The book
is titled after an ancient saying of welcome, hospitality, and friendship:
“There is bread and salt between us.” These
words express the special kind of loyalty associated with a covenant or a
cherished relationship. Let me repeat
that, in Syria, the words, “there is bread and salt between us” means that you
are welcome at this table, that we offer one another hospitality, there is a
special bond between us, a covenant of friendship, and a cherished relationship.
In
our reading from Leviticus, we see what may be the earliest reference to the
sentiment of this saying: “You shall season all your grain offerings with salt.
You shall not let the salt of the
covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your
offerings you shall offer salt” (Leviticus 2:13). The Lord had covenanted with Israel, but
Israel was a forgetful people, like we are. Thus, they were reminded, in their offerings,
of the covenant relationship they continue to have with God through their ancestor
Abraham, who showed three visiting angels of the Lord hospitality and served
them at the table. The offer of salt
with grain is a gesture of friendship and alliance. “Abide with us, O Lord,” it says. “Pitch your tent among us. We are your people, and you are our God.”
Likewise,
Paul advises the Church at Colossae in Colossians 4:6 to be “seasoned with salt.”
He compares Christian speech to this act
of sacred hospitality. For Paul,
Christians are wise and know how to respond because they have first been
hospitable listeners, committed to sharing the Good News in love. Salt also has purifying, preserving, and
flavoring properties, so Paul is saying that Christian speech, like the grain
offerings of old, should be pure, life-giving, pleasing to those seeking truth,
and hospitable.
Jesus
also exhorts his disciples in Mark 9:50 to “have salt [among] yourselves, and
be at peace with one another.” He
invokes the very same covenantal meaning. “Remember our friendship and our common
purpose,” he is saying.
In
another more famous passage, from the Gospel of Matthew that we read this
morning, Jesus tells his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt
has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be
thrown out and trampled under people’s feet” (Matthew 5:13). Here, Jesus is bringing up the fact that salt
is flavorful. As a flavoring agent, salt
suppresses bitterness and brings out and balances sweetness, and in greater
quantities, it makes us thirsty. Years ago,
when I first started cooking, and in particular baking, I couldn’t understand
why there was always a pinch of salt in something sweet like a cookie
recipe. It really didn’t make any sense
to me. So one day, I decided to experiment
and leave out that quarter of teaspoon of salt.
The cookies were still good, but they had lost a certain depth of flavor. They just weren’t as good without the salt.
Jesus'
words in Matthew 5:13, part of the Sermon on the Mount, come just after he has
proclaimed the blessedness of all those who are poor in spirit, meek, mourning,
or who hunger and thirst for righteousness. The blessed are merciful, pure in heart,
peacemaking, and endure persecution. These blessed people are the salt of the
earth. They are the people who suppress
bitterness, who bring out the sweetness of creation, and awaken a thirst like
their own—a thirst for righteousness. To
be salt in this way is to come to a special recognition of Christ’s presence in
the world, to become disciples who, by their own enjoyment of creation, bring
about this joy in others.
The
17th-century English poet and preacher Thomas Traherne writes movingly about
savoring and enjoying creation in his work entitled, Centuries of
Meditations. I’ve changed the 17th
century language a bit, so it is more easily understood, but in it, he writes,
“You
never enjoy the world correctly, till you see how a grain of sand exhibits the
wisdom and power of God: And prize in everything the service which they do you,
by manifesting His glory and goodness to your Soul, far more than the visible
beauty on their surface, or the material services they can do your body. Wine by its moisture quenches my thirst,
whether I consider it or no: but to see it flowing from His love who gave it to
us, quenches the thirst even of the Holy Angels. To consider it, is to drink it spiritually. To rejoice in its diffusion is to be of a
public mind. And to take pleasure in all
the benefits it does to all is Heavenly, for so they do in Heaven. To do so, is to be divine and good, and to
imitate our Infinite and Eternal Father.”
Even
something as small as a grain of sand, he writes, or a grain of salt, can show
us the wisdom of God. If we truly want
to savor the world, he writes, we need to try to see the glory of God in even
the smallest portion of creation, not because of the good it does to me,
although that is also part of God’s goodness and glory, but simply because it
is a gift to us. To rejoice in this
gift, and to want to share it, Traherne writes, is to imitate the divinity and
goodness of our infinite and hospitable God, who has made a place for us in
creation, and set a table before us. By
bringing flavor to the world, and rejoicing in the gifts that the Incarnate,
Creative Word has set before us, we imitate and thus participate in God’s
divine hospitality. “You are the salt of the earth,” Jesus says. You will bring about a depth of meaning and
character by your very nature. You will
suppress bitterness. You will bring out the sweetness. You will purify, and preserve. You will awaken a thirst for righteousness in
others. And, you are a sign of
friendship and hospitality. Don’t lose
your saltiness! A disciple who does not
have these characteristics is good for nothing but to be trampled under foot.
In
Jesus’ “salt of the earth” metaphor, we see the important link between
Christians’ place in creation, their vocation, and the centrality of Christ as
the Incarnate Word. As disciples, we are
to practice poverty of spirit, mercy, and peacemaking, to welcome the stranger,
whether that be our neighbor, or the parents of a babe, otherwise to be born in
a manger.
Hospitality
is at the center of the Bethlehem story when Mary and Joseph could find no room
for Mary to have her child, but a lowly manger and cattle stall. Who would welcome the child? Who would see beyond the human face of
dimpled cheeks and baby spittle, the face of God?
To
welcome Christ, this act of hospitality, requires us to look at all creation,
as gifts of God to be received with gratitude, and offered back in love. When Christ, the Word through whom all things
were made, exhorts us to be salt, he calls us to attend to his own presence,
deep inside ourselves, and in each created thing, to savor it and to flavor it,
so that when we make of ourselves an offering, God will greet us with those
ancient words of friendship, “There is bread and salt between us,” the offering
of hospitality and kinship.
Thanks
be to God. AMEN.
Offertory –
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
Generous
God, we thank You for all our blessings, and offer these gifts back to Your
service, that this church might continue to shine Your light into the
world. AMEN.
Closing
Hymn – How Great Our Joy Hymn
#269 Brown
Benediction –
Go out in
peace. Not an empty peace, or an
ignorant peace, or an easy peace. Go out
with the peace of God to change the world.
And as you go may the love of God who made you, the strength of Christ
who saved you, and the wisdom of the Spirit who enlivens you, go with you now
and always. AMEN.
Postlude
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