Worship
Service for June 15, 2025
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: Let us worship the eternal God, the Source
of Love and Life, who creates us.
P: Let us worship Jesus Christ, the Risen
One, who lives among us.
L: Let us worship the Spirit, the Holy Fire,
who renews us.
P: To the one true God be praise in all times
and places, through the grace of Jesus Christ!
Opening Hymn – This Is My Father’s World
#293/143
Prayer of Confession
O Holy God,
we acknowledge to you, to ourselves, and to one another that we are not what
You have called us to be. We have not
stood by our faith, shared our hope, or reached out with love. We have done unkind and shameful deeds, and
we have left undone deeds which could have made a difference in the lives of
those around us. We have failed to speak
and act for peace and justice in our world.
Have mercy upon our repentance, forgive our sin, and change our lives,
for we pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior. (Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: There is no greater joy in the heart of
God than the moment when a son or daughter opens up to the gift of
forgiveness. God’s Spirit reached out to
assure us of welcome in Christ.
P: In the name of Jesus Christ, we are God’s
by grace. With great joy we are made
alive. Thanks be to God. 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
God of all
hope, your hope for us enfolds us in promise.
Inspire us to accept the gift of your loving compassion, which accepts
us and cherishes us even in our sinfulness and in our darkest moments. Inspire us to grow into the people your love
hopes we will be. Empower us to be
people of courage in the face of lies, people of service in the midst of
selfishness, people of generosity in a culture of greed, people of fellowship
in a world of prejudice, and people of peace in answer to violence.
God of all
hope, uplift us out of fear to incarnate hope for all persons, that your realm
may be revealed among us even here and now.
We pray
this morning for fathers and father figures as we honor them today; those who
are still here with us and for those we honor in memory, who have gone on from
this world to live with you.
We pray
for those on our prayer list, we pray for those whose names we have offered one
another this morning to care about, we especially lift up to you…
In these
moments of silence hear also our inner-most prayers.
God of
all hope, we are bold enough pray these things because your Son taught us how
to pray by saying…Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed by 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 – O
For a Thousand Tongues to Sing #466/21
Scripture Reading(s):
First Scripture Reading – Psalm 8
Second Scripture Reading –
Romans 5:1-8
Sermon –
Suffering into Hope
(based on Romans 5:1-8)
In chapter 5 of Romans, Paul makes a rather
strange and bold affirmation - that suffering produces endurance, endurance
produces character, character produces hope, and hope doesn’t disappoint
because it is packaged in God’s love. I
think we probably all have some favorite passages and this is one of mine. I have pondered the truth of this statement
on many occasions, especially in my own moments of suffering.
I will admit that its full understanding has
often been a struggle and often in the midst of that struggle, I wonder why it has
to be that way. Why does suffering have
to occur in order for us to eventually find hope. Why, do we have to go through trials and
tribulations in order to come out the other side of it with more endurance,
with more character, and with more hope.
Why can’t we get those things through gentle living, unprovoked humor,
and a lasting innocence of hope. In
other words, why do bad things have to happen to good people?
In the midst of a difficult moment, I would
honestly rather stop all the suffering, all the pain, all the anguish and
anxiety, rather than build up even one more aspect of my character. Whenever I feel this way, I am reminded of
the past moments of difficulty. I am
reminded of previous struggles and always realize that I am looking at the
situation from the wrong side of it.
Abraham Lincoln is the mythical, towering
figure of American history, and whatever one thinks of his accomplishments, he
was indeed a fascinating character. He
truly fulfilled the "anyone can make it in America" ethos; he was the
man of little means or education, born in a one-room log cabin, honest and
hard-working, who overcame numerous obstacles and failures to become President
of the United States when the nation was confronted with one of its gravest
crisis. His failures have been blown
somewhat out of proportion in stories that like to enhance his failures in
order to accentuate his success in getting to the White House, but he indeed
suffered much and had a great many failures. And not once did he give up. Each setback only proved to push him more;
for a better job, for a better education, for better opportunities, and finally
for the highest political position in our land.
At any one point, he could have looked at the problem, at his failure
and said, “forget it.” At any one point,
he could have quit.
But, he didn’t.
And I think he didn’t stop because he was a
forward thinker. His own life and his
journey seems to prove that he was able to look at things from the end point,
not the beginning point. Not from the
perspective of failure, not from the perspective of suffering. But rather from the side of success and from
the side of hope. Which is exactly what
Paul reminds us of in this passage from Romans.
That the production side of suffering is hope.
In the New Testament, just after Jesus is
born, there’s a small story about the prophetess Anna. She had been a young bride herself, like
Mary. Seven years into the marriage, her
husband died and she devoted herself to prayer.
At the age of eighty-four, she finds hope in the scriptures, in her long
prayer life with God, in the sufferings that she’s endured, the endurance to
return day after day to the temple to pray, the character that God has built
within her, to the hope of one day seeing the Salvation of the World, the
Messiah. In her day, women were merely
possessions. What worth did she have
without a husband? What good was she to
society? Imagine living in her day with
no future, no prospects of employment or a living. And yet she lived 60, maybe 70 years in that
state of feeling worthless. In that
struggle to stay alive. In that life of
endurance. In that build-up of proven
character. And that emerging prospect of
hope, not just for herself, but for everyone, finally rewarded through her great
faith in the tiny curled fingers of an infant boy, brought to her to hold;
Jesus.
Another example of suffering producing
character and character producing hope was my grandmother. I think I have probably mentioned her before
because she has always been a person of inspiration to me. When she was nine years old, her mother died
and being the only girl in a household full of boys, she was expected to take
up the place of her mother – cooking, cleaning, seeing to her father and her
brothers’ needs. When her father
remarried, she became the stepmother’s whipping girl until finally she just
couldn’t take it and ran away from home when she was only twelve. She spent time between various relatives
until she was able to find permanent employment at the age of 15. In spite of all that she managed to finish
high school and even attended model school, which was a sort of college for
young girls in the early part of the 20th Century. She married at the age of 20 and had two
girls of her own. When my mother was 7
and her younger sister was 3, my grandmother’s husband had a massive heart
attack and died – leaving her alone to raise two children. Even though my grandfather had been
vice-president for Standard Oil, at the time – he left my grandmother with huge
debt and a massive amount of bills. She
immediately went back to work and eventually found a way to pay-off the debt
and made a decent living for her two children.
Believing that her girls needed a father figure in their life, she
remarried. But he ended up being an
alcoholic who abused her and cavorted with anything on two legs, whereupon she
and her new husband became the scandal of the town when she finally decided to
divorce him in 1950 – something that women of her day, almost never did.
Through all of those years of suffering, it
was her faith that kept her going and only her faith that kept her strong. It wasn’t until the years that I worked with
her in her garden that I came to know the stories about her life and what made
her who she was. For her suffering
definitely produced endurance and endurance produced character and character
produced hope. Hope for her children and
grandchildren and in a world where things would be better. And that hope within her created the most
amazing faith. So much so that she named
one daughter Faith, my mother, and the other Hope, my aunt.
Last week, I was standing in line at the
coffee bar and a man about ten or fifteen years older than I am had a tattoo on
his arm that said, “Long story short; I survived.” I told him that I liked his tattoo, that we
probably all have those stories, but I’d love to hear his. He said, “Well, as it says, it’s a long
story. Maybe some other time. But, I can tell you this. It’s only because of the man upstairs that
I’m still here. It’s only because of
faith in him that any of us survive.”
One day, I hope to hear his story. But until then, we know this; we are
justified by God’s grace through faith.
Therefore, we have peace with God.
His love is poured out into our hearts.
Christ was raised from death so that we could live a new life in
him. That’s where our hope lies. It is in the glory of God and his choosing to
be our God not only here but in the heavenly realm. That is our reason for and only source of
hope. Can you imagine someone without
faith reading Paul’s words, scratching his head, and saying, “I don’t get
it. How can one get from suffering to
endurance, from endurance to character, and from character to hope. It doesn’t make any sense. The world doesn’t
work that way.” Which is true. The world indeed doesn’t work that way. To say suffering leads to hope is absurd. The only way it can make sense is if that
truth comes from someplace other than this world and its captivity to sin and
death. Didn’t Jesus say he brought good
news to the captive?
We are not captive to sin and death when our
hope lies in Christ. If our hope was
only focused on this present age we would remain captive. But instead, we have truly been set free. We live by faith that there is more to life
than meets the eye and ear and touch.
There is a life where suffering and tears no longer exist. We live in hope, and because of that we are
not disappointed.
There
was a man at the airport who overheard a conversation between a mother and
daughter, who were facing a final departure, because the mother had failing
health. Each wept as they said, “I pray you enough.” Later, the man asked the
mother, “I heard you say, 'I pray you enough.' May I ask what that means?” She
began to smile. “That's a prayer that has been handed down from other
generations in our family. My parents used to say it to everyone.” When we
said, “I pray you enough,” we wanted the other person to have a life filled
with just enough good things to daily sustain them. It
means... I pray you enough sun to
keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear. I pray
you enough rain to appreciate the sun even
more. I pray you enough happiness
to keep your spirit alive and everlasting. I pray you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in
life may appear bigger. I pray you enough gain to
satisfy your wanting. I pray you enough loss to
appreciate all that you possess. I pray you enough hellos to get you through the final
good-bye. Then, she began to cry, and walked away.
Friends,
this morning I pray you enough suffering that produces the endurance you need
for this life and enough endurance to create in you a proven character and
enough proven character that produces hope.
Because in our hope, we are not disappointed.
AMEN.
Offertory –
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
God of
hope and grace, accept these gifts we bring this day. Use them for the good of all. Bless the work of our hands, the thoughts of
our hearts, and the wholeness of our selves that, together, we may fulfill your
hope for a creation of abundance for all.
AMEN.
Closing Hymn – The God of Abraham Praise
#488/23 1-3 vs. Blue, 4 vs Brown
Benediction –
May the grace of God, the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and the love of Jesus Christ be with each of
you, now and always. Go in peace. AMEN.
Postlude
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