Worship
Service for October 19, 2025
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: The days are surely coming, says the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant…it will not be like the old covenant:
P: Written on stone.
L: This will be a radically new covenant; my
laws will be within you
P: Written on hearts.
L: And God added these wonderful words –
P: I am your God and you are my people.
L: Imprint these words anew on our hearts, O
God, so that we know You in all Your fullness, love You as You love us, and
worship You as You deserve.
Opening Hymn – Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee #464/90
Prayer of Confession
Merciful God,
You bring our lives in harmony with Yours because of Your righteousness and
justice, Your steadfast love, mercy and faithfulness. These are the qualities of Your life which
were clearly imprinted on Jesus’ heart and which have been written on our
hearts not in ink but with Your Spirit.
We confess that while we readily accept the joy of living Spirit-filled
lives, we all too often fail to live up to the challenges that it brings. When we alienate others by our judgmental and
hard-hearted attitudes: Living God, forgive us and renew our lives with Your
Spirit. When our witness fails to reveal
a heartfelt desire to spread the good news of peace, love, justice and mercy to
a world sorely in need of such news: Living God, forgive us and renew our lives
with Your Spirit. Living God, we come to
You in penitence and faith, praying that Your love will be rewritten on our
hearts and revealed in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Silent
prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: If anyone is in Christ, there is a new
creation: everything old has passed away, see everything has become new! We have been reconciled to God through Christ
and all this is from God who does not count our trespasses against us – but
entrusts us with the message of reconciliation.
P: The good news therefore is this: In Jesus Christ we are renewed, we are loved,
and we are forgiven. 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
O God, our strength and our shield, we gather today to worship the
grandeur of the created world and our place in it. You have created us to till
and keep your garden and we thank you for the privilege of being stewards of
all that you created. As we sing and
worship, make us mindful of the perfection in which the world was created. As it is in our power, make us agents of
reconciliation. Make us people who not
only speak words of peace; make us peaceful people. Make us people who not only speak words of
hope; make us hope-filled people. Make
us people who not only speak words of love; make us loving people. As we hear the words of life in Scripture,
song, and sermon, may the seed of the gospel take root in our lives and may we
be the people you created us to be.
Heavenly Lord, we seek answers to life’s most difficult questions when
we gather together in praise and honor of your name. Know that our questions come with great
wonder and awe at who you are and whose we are.
In our journeys to find the right path for each of us, we have stumbled
and fallen, risen and been renewed. We
have floundered on treacherous paths and have sailed on smooth seas. In this morning’s worship we have named loved
ones and cherished friends that are currently in need of smoother waters and
calmer seas. We pray for…
In this time of silence hear also the words and meditations of our
hearts.
In Jesus’s name we 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 – Rejoice
Ye Pure in Heart #145/169
Scripture Reading(s):
OT – Jeremiah 31:27-34
NT – Luke 18:1-8
Sermon – Written on the Heart
(Based on Jeremiah 31:24-37)
Going to our Old Testament reading this morning for
today’s sermon text, we find in it a promise of a “new covenant” in the passage. The first thing we need to keep in mind as we
read the Old Testament is that not all the words familiar to us like God’s
promise of a “new covenant” refer to our understanding of the future. For us, Christians, familiar with the New
Testament, this may evoke the Christian scriptures, the Christian stories, and the
Christiam promises in the Messiah. Yet
in their original context to the Jews, these words in Jeremiah signified to
them, the promise of a faithful God to a devastated people for restoration,
perhaps even in their lifetimes.
Let’s talk for a moment about the historical setting in
this passage. Jeremiah lived through the
demise of his civilization when the Babylonians invaded the Southern Kingdom of
Israel which was known as Judah, assaulted Jerusalem, which was the capital
city, and reduced the temple to rubble, exiling or killing the royal family,
priests, prophets, and the majority of the population. Centuries earlier, the Northern Kingdom of
Israel had already fallen to the Assyrians.
The resulting chaos in Jeremiah’s time may be
unimaginable to those of us who have never lived through war and its aftermath
in our own land. However, the current
status of those fleeing Syria and those in the Gaza region today would
understand this destruction full well. We
don’t have any equivalent story here in the modern US for us to even understand
or empathize with this kind of invasion and devastation.
In Judah in 586 BCE, broken families would have been
ravaged by grief and loss; those left behind would have had to scramble to find
surviving relatives and a place to sleep if their homes had been destroyed.
Produce and livestock were either destroyed or taken. Every object of value was plundered. Anyone with any authority or skill to help
rebuild the society was dead or gone.
And for those who asked “Why?” there were the words of
Jeremiah (26:18), and Micah (3:12), whom he quoted, predicting the extent of
this destruction for God would destroy Judah and Jerusalem for their sin,
specifically the injustices of their officials. Now the day of Zion’s destruction had come
upon them. They had only to look to the
north to see the remnants of the fallen Northern Monarchy that had never risen
from its defeat and destruction at the hands of the Assyrians. Surely all hope was lost.
Yet God promised the people of Israel
that He had not abandoned them. God
spoke to and through Jeremiah. The same
God who planted the garden of Eden and crafted humanity from its soil will
replant Judah. God will replant, tend,
and nurture human and animal life amid the ashes of Judah, Jerusalem, and the
temple.
Perhaps most significantly, in verse 29,
God promises to cease holding subsequent generations responsible for the
transgressions of previous ones: “In those days they shall no longer say, ‘The
parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.'” Which means, according to verse 30, “all shall
die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set
on edge.” Here God promises that the sins
of past generations will no longer be counted as sins upon future generations
and gives the survivors and their descendants an opportunity to start their
lives over with God as they rebuild their homes and nation. This promise was so important that God also
sent it to Ezekiel, who lived and preached at the same time, who was exiled in
Babylon.
This new beginning will be at a time not specified—only
as ”the days are surely coming”—accompanied by a new covenant. God will make, literally engrave, this new
covenant on the hearts of the people, instead of on tablets that can be lost,
stolen, or broken. Of course, hearts can
be broken, and God alludes to God’s own heartbreak with previous generations of
Israelites in verses 32–34.
The language God uses through Jeremiah is not harsh judgment
any longer, but is tender: “I took them by the hand” and “I married them” in
verse 32 or in our translation “I was their husband” in the New Revised
Standard Version. God is willing to
start over with them and make it easier for God’s people to keep the covenant;
this time God will engrave the Torah (“revelation,” “teaching,” and “law”) on
their hearts (verse 33). They will not
have to be told to know the Lord, or be taught how to get to know the Lord for
the knowledge of the Lord will be planted within them.
In our house, when Tyler was growing up, we all had our
chores to do. Each night, I would make
dinner and when dinner was over, Tyler was given the chore of clearing the
table and putting away the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. For years, after dinner was over, I’d need to
tell Tyler, “Okay, it’s time to clear the table.” And then one day, Tyler just got up and
cleared the table – on his own.
One day, we’ll not have to be told what to do, how to
behave, what right action to take – it will be planted in our hearts and we’ll
just do it.
In another example of this in Harry Potter and
the Order of the Phoenix, Harry once again finds himself in trouble —
though this time it isn’t his fault. At
the end of the previous book, he witnessed Voldemort’s return and told the
truth, even when many refused to believe him. Because he won’t take back his words, a new
Hogwarts teacher reprimands him with detention.
During his punishment, Harry is told to write the
sentence: “I must not tell lies.” But as
he writes, he feels pain in his hand. Each
word he writes on the paper appears carved into the back of his hand, leaving
the words cut into his skin, bleeding, and eventually scarring. The teacher insists this cruel punishment will
ensure Harry never forgets the “lesson.”
I was reminded of that scene as I read Jeremiah
31:27-34. The opening verses indicate that a new day is dawning. After years of a liminal existence in exile,
God now announces that the time is coming to build and to plant. The future includes a new covenant that God
will “cut” with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
At the time, covenants were made and recorded in stone,
much like the tablets of the Ten Commandments, with the covenant literally cut
into the rock. But here God has
something more in store. Not just stone
commandments or a visual reminder that you might see from time to time if you
happen to be in the right place. No, God
is going to write, to cut, to carve, or even better, to engrave this covenant
on the hearts of God’s people. And this
new covenant is one they will never forget.
It’s a powerful image: God’s promise and covenant
engraved on our hearts – not painfully as in Harry Potter –
but instead lovingly. Hearts transformed
by the love of God seem especially appropriate and vital for this moment in the
church and the world. Our faith in Jesus
Christ is so much more than just knowledge in our heads, or words that we
speak, or a checklist of things to which we approve. Our faith is embodied; it
is lived. God’s intention and law permeate our lives through our actions.
As theologian Lee Camp describes in Mere Discipleship:
Radical Christianity in a Rebellious World, or
in the book that we are reading now in Bible Study by Phillip Gully, If the
Church were Christian, we are set apart from the world by a radical
discipleship. Just imagine if we and our
churches truly loved our enemies, practiced forgiveness, and shared our
provisions as Jesus did — if we just followed Jesus as our model and guide, we
would be regarded as far-out, as extreme by the status quo. But even more than that:
The word radical simply means ‘to the
root.’ And it is in this sense
that the Christian faith is radical: it demands a thorough
transformation, conversion of every realm of human endeavor, in personal
relationships, in economics, and politics, in homes, culture, and social order.
The gospel demands radical discipleship.
Yes, a theology “to the root” is embodied. This seems to be God’s intention in engraving
a new covenant on human hearts. Being in
a relationship with God means consenting to a transformation of your mind,
life, and community for love, peace, reconciliation, justice, and joy.
There are times when Jeremiah’s vision sounds like a
fantasy — particularly after watching
the evening news or scrolling through social media feeds. The forces of exclusion, fear, and hate have
returned, (or have they ever really left?) And yet, God’s call, not just to the exiles in
Babylon, and not just to the remnant left in devastation in Judah, but to us,
as well, God’s call remains the same: Embody a covenant of love and grace,
transform to the root, a discipleship of following God’s and Christ’s commands.
Perhaps the Lord’s final promise in these verses can
encourage us: “I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.” Our sins are forgiven. Each and every day, we might begin fresh and
new.
Thanks be to God.
Amen!
Offertory -
Doxology
Prayer of Dedication
Lord
of all, remind us of the sacredness of the moment when our offerings are
presented. Remind us that our offerings
are like our prayers of confession: they represent what we have to give and our
willingness to give to further your kingdom and the proclamation of it. Bless both the gifts and the givers. We pray this in the name of Jesus. AMEN
Closing Hymn – Savior, Like a Shepherd, Lead Us #387/688
Benediction
May the living word of the Lord dwell with you.
May it live
through you.
May it fill
your thoughts and deeds.
May it fill
your mouth with God’s message of love.
May it
sustain you in good times and bad.
May it
equip you for a ministry of peace and hope!
AMEN.
Postlude
