Joint Worship Service this morning at Bethesda United Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth - 11:15am
Worship
Service for February 1, 2026
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: Welcome!
Open your hearts to God’s love this day!
P: Praise be to God who has called us here!
L: Let the words wash over you and offer you
healing and hope.
P: Praise be to God who continually blesses
us!
L: Place your hope and trust in God!
P: With joyful hearts, we come to worship and
praise God who continually blesses and provides for us. AMEN.
Opening Hymn – Great Is Thy Faithfulness #276/139
Prayer of Confession
How can we look at this world
and not sing of Your praises, O God? The
beauty and majesty of the world is overpowering! Yet we have a tendency to take all that You
do for us for granted. We treat the
world with callous indifference, using its resources carelessly and with little
regard to the future. We insist on war
as solutions for problems rather than peaceful striving. We turn our backs on people in need, the weak
and downtrodden go unnoticed in our midst.
We always believe that someone else will care for those in need. How foolish we are, O God! How ignorant we have become! You have given us all that we need. You blessed us with the witness of Jesus
Christ who came so that we might learn how You would have us live, in honor and
peace. Forgive us. Heal our hearts and spirits. Make us fully aware of all our blessings and
our responsibilities. Give us again a
spirit of joy in serving You. Help us be
agents of peace and hope to others. We
offer this prayer in Jesus’ name. (Silent
prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: Jesus has come to heal our spirits and our
souls. The demons of arrogance,
indifference, and apathy are being cast out.
New life is offered to you in Jesus.
P: Let us rejoice and be glad for God’s love
is poured out to us this day and always.
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
Tragedies abound, O Lord. Our newspapers, television, newscasts, and
media all report the troubled happenings in our world. War and strife seem to be the order of the
day. And we are caught up in the midst
of this chaos. Calm our spirits,
Lord. Help us focus on the love You have
given to us in Jesus Christ. Remind us
again that His healing mercies extend to us this day as surely as they did to
the people of long ago. We have gathered
this day to hear Your word, to hear of Your forgiveness, and to be healed, to
find ways in which we may serve You in peace.
We have lifted names of those near and dear to us who stand in need of
Your healing mercies and compassionate love.
Some names we have spoken aloud; and others we have uttered only in our
hearts. You hear all our prayers this
morning.
We especially pray for ….
You know our needs and concerns before our
voices can frame them. Let us accept the
love You give to us. Empower us to take
that love and use it for good in Your world.
Let the message of hope and compassion flow forth from us again to this
world which focuses on tragedy and turmoil.
And once again, let us know fully that You are with us. Hear now our heart-spoken prayers in this
moment of silence.
Lord, hear all our prayers this day and turn your ear to our cries. We unite with one voice 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 – God
of Grace and God of Glory #420/435
Scripture Reading(s):
First Scripture Reading – Micah
6:1-8
Second Scripture Reading – Matthew
5:1-12
Sermon – What Does the Lord Require?
(based
on Micah 6:1–8 and Matthew 5:1–12)
This morning I’m going to weave the
message back and forth between our Old and New Testament passages. Our Old Testament reading from Micah 6 opens
with an unusual scene. God is not giving
advice or offering comfort; God is filing a lawsuit against God’s own people.
“Hear what the Lord says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let
the hills hear your voice.” The
mountains and the hills, those ancient witnesses to Israel’s history, are
called into the courtroom. God brings this
case against God’s own people, not because they failed to worship Him, but
because they forgot what faithful living actually looks like.
And our Matthew 5 text opens in a
very different setting. Jesus sits on a
hillside, not as a prosecutor but rather as a teacher. Instead of charges, he offers blessings. “Blessed are the poor in spirit… Blessed are
the meek… Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” While the
settings are different, these two passages are not opposites. They are deeply connected. Micah asks, What does God require? And Jesus shows us what that life looks
like when it is lived from the inside out.
Together, these texts confront us
with a hard and hopeful truth: God is not impressed by religious performance,
but God is deeply invested in who we become when we are living transformed
lives.
God begins the case in Micah by
reminding Israel of their shared history. “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!” This is not the voice of a distant judge; it’s
the voice of a wounded partner. God
recounts acts of liberation: bringing them out of Egypt, redeeming them from
slavery, providing leaders like Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. God even recalls protecting them from King
Balak and turning Balaam’s curse into blessing.
Before God ever talks about
obedience, God talks about grace. When
we forget who God is and what God has done, religion turns into either fear or
transaction. We start asking; “What do I
need to give God so God will, basically, leave me alone?” instead of “How do I
live in response to grace that God has already given?”
Jesus does the same thing in Matthew
5, though a bit more subtly. He begins by calling people “blessed” before they
have done anything at all. Poor in
spirit. Those who mourn. The meek. These are not spiritual achievements. They are honest descriptions of human emotions.
Here also, grace comes first.
After God’s reminder comes the
people’s anxious response. “With what
shall I come before the Lord? Shall I
come with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of
rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my
transgression?”
Notice how quickly things escalate. One sacrifice becomes thousands. Oil turns into rivers. Devotion turns extreme, even horrifyingly so. This is what happens when faith becomes
disconnected from trust. When we are unsure of God’s character, we try to buy
certainty.
But God never asked for
extravagance. God instead asks for
faithfulness.
Jesus addresses the same temptation
in the Beatitudes. He blesses those who
hunger and thirst for righteousness, not those who claim to possess it. He blesses the merciful, not the impressive. He blesses the pure in heart, not the publicly
pious. God is not moved by religious
spectacle; God is moved instead by hearts that are aligned with love.
Then comes one of the most famous
verses in Scripture: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does
the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk
humbly with your God?”
This is not new information for the
Israelites, God has told them repeatedly. “He has told you,” Micah says. The problem isn’t ignorance; it’s resistance.
To do justice means more than
liking the idea of fairness. It means
acting in ways that restore dignity, especially for those who have been denied
it. Justice is public and concrete.
To love kindness or steadfast
love means to delight in mercy, not treat it as an obligation. This is covenant love between us and God, but
also between one another: loyal, patient, forgiving.
To walk humbly with God means
recognizing that we are not the center of the story. Humility is not
self-hatred; it is being God-centered.
And these three things are not
separate virtues. They belong together.
Justice without kindness becomes cruelty. Kindness without justice becomes
sentimentality. And both collapse
without humility before God.
Jesus does not contradict Micah; in
fact, he takes the heart of Micah and incarnates them.
“Blessed are the poor in
spirit”—those who walk humbly with God.
“Blessed are those who mourn”—those
who refuse to ignore the pain of the world, a necessary beginning for justice.
“Blessed are the meek”—those who use
power without domination.
“Blessed are those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness”—those who long for justice as desperately as food and
water.
“Blessed are the merciful”—those who
love kindness.
“Blessed are the pure in
heart”—those whose inner life matches their outer actions.
“Blessed are the peacemakers”—those
who actively heal what is broken.
“Blessed are those who are
persecuted for righteousness’ sake”—because justice, mercy, and humility will
always challenge the status quo.
The most important aspect here is
that Jesus is not describing how to get into heaven. He is describing what life looks like here on
earth when God’s reign takes hold here and now.
Micah’s call to “do justice” and
Jesus’ blessing on those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are not
abstract ideals. They press directly
into the world we are living in.
In recent days, the city of
Minneapolis has once again been shaken by violent killings. Names, faces, families, and neighborhoods are
caught in cycles of grief that feel tragically familiar. Candles are lit. Vigils are held. Questions are asked, again, about
safety, policing, race, poverty, mental health, and the value of human life. We’ve been here before. Different day, different targets, but it’s
the same, nonetheless. We, as Christians,
if we stand by our values need to hold our government accountable, too.
Micah, however, will not allow us to
spiritualize this moment. To do
justice means we refuse to look away or reduce these deaths to statistics
or talking points. Justice begins by
telling the truth: that violence, whether on the streets or through systems
that neglect and devalue lives, is not God’s will for any community. I don’t think it matters what side of the
political aisle you stand on. There are
governmental laws, but then there are also God’s laws and what God wants.
Jesus says, “Blessed are those who
mourn,” and that blessing matters now. Mourning
is not weakness; it is faithful attention. It is the refusal to rush past grief in order
to feel comfortable. The church is
called to mourn with those who mourn, especially when the pain belongs to
communities that have carried it for generations.
To love kindness means more
than offering thoughts and prayers. It
means showing up with compassion that costs us something: listening before
arguing, serving before judging, standing with those who are afraid or
exhausted by a system that does not protect them equally. Kindness is not passive. It is courageous solidarity.
And to walk humbly with God
means that we admit we do not have easy answers. Humility resists the temptation to explain
away suffering or to assume we already know what justice requires. Instead, humility keeps us learning,
repenting, and asking how our own lives, assumptions, and institutions might
need to change.
Jesus blesses the peacemakers, not
the peacekeepers, not the conflict-avoiders, but those who actively work to
repair what is broken. Peacemaking is slow, relational, and often invisible. It involves advocating for accountability,
investing in communities, addressing root causes, and believing that
transformation is possible even when the evidence feels thin.
Neither Micah nor Jesus promises
that this way of life will be easy. In
fact, Jesus is very honest: those who live this way may be misunderstood,
resisted, or even criticized, even by those who consider themselves to be
faithful followers of Christ. They will
be criticized from the right and the left. But Jesus also promises joy. “Rejoice and be glad,” he says—not because
suffering is good, but because faithfulness means you are not alone. You are standing in a long line of prophets
and saints.
Micah speaks to a people tempted to
substitute religion for righteousness. Jesus
speaks to disciples tempted to seek comfort instead of courage. Let me repeat that. Micah speaks to a people tempted to substitute
religion for righteousness. Jesus speaks
to disciples tempted to seek comfort instead of courage. Both insist that God’s way is not about
excess, escape, or applause, but about faithfulness in ordinary, costly love.
Micah ends the courtroom drama not
with condemnation, but with clarity. Jesus
ends the sermon’s opening not with commands, but with blessing.
God is still asking the question: What
does the Lord require of you? And God is still offering the same
invitation: to live a life shaped by justice, soaked in mercy, and grounded in
humble trust.
May we hear the case honestly. May we receive the blessing gratefully. And may own our lives become the answer.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Offertory –
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
We thank You, Gracious God for our of the
blessings you bestow upon us and we give back a portion of those gifts for You
to use. Take them, O Lord, and multiply
their usefulness in the world that others might be blessed through our
giving. Amen.
Holy Communion
Closing
Hymn – Amazing Grace
#280/343
Benediction –
Friends, we
are being sent into a world in need of healing.
We have been given all that we need to be God’s messengers of
peace. Go now into the world, rejoicing
in God’s presence with You. Bring the
news of peace and hope to all you meet. AMEN.
Postlude
