Worship
for the Lord’s Day
July 5,
2020
A Note
before we begin this day’s worship:
Our sessions from both congregations
at Bethesda United Presbyterian Church and Olivet Presbyterian Church had hoped
to be worshipping together this day, but alas we are still worshipping from
home. It is our hope and desire to be
with you all soon, but not yet. Our
session members will meet again hopefully this week, via Zoom, to discuss
future options and possibilities and we will let you know. But, as of now, we will continue worshipping
from home until further notice. Most of
our members fall into the “at risk” categories and we DO NOT want to put them
at any additional risk, whatsoever.
Some additional announcements:
One,
from the Deacons – They had planned to host a summer Apple Dumpling sale just
within our own members and friends, to sell the remaining frozen Dumplings that
we had left over. I contacted them to
say that we wouldn’t be worshipping together to get those orders. An email went out to a few folks and within
24 hours all remaining Apple Dumplings were sold! Holy Cow, good work, Deacons!
Second,
Garrett Little will be celebrating his birthday on August 5. It is a milestone birthday for him because
last year he got to ring the bell at Children’s Hospital to celebrate his
remission from Leukemia. His favorite
things are Wendy’s Chili and Frosty. I
thought it would be great to help him and his family celebrate his birthday by
giving him a bunch of Wendy’s gift cards.
If you are able, please let me know.
Finally,
don’t forget to fill out your 2020 Census.
Be
patient. We will be together again, soon
and very soon!
Until
then, let’s begin:
Opening
Prayer
Lord
of love and mercy, we welcome this day and this hour to a time of rest. We come bearing burdens and cares and place
our lives in Your loving hands. This
should be a time of relaxation and restoration, like most other summers, but
this has not been like most other years or like most other summers. Our spirits still carry the burdens of the
year. Please give to us Your healing
love, healing our spirits and strengthen us for the continued journey. Lord, we come to you in faith and in trust
for Your healing mercies. AMEN
Prayer
of Confession
Wise
and loving God, You know how we are. We
spend so much time thinking and worrying about what might happen, yet we are
never prepared for what actually does happen.
Why? Because we rely too much on
ourselves. Forgive us for our
arrogance. Allow us to rest in You and
rely more completely on Your strength and sovereign grace. Lord, You know how we are. We care too much for ourselves and not enough
about others. Why? Because we are afraid that no one else is
looking after our best interests or that others might take away our power, our
property, our possessions. Again,
forgive us our arrogance. Help us rely
more completely on Your blessings to us so that we might be more free to give
to others. Be with us, O God and restore
us to Your side. In Christ’s name we
pray. AMEN
Words
of Assurance
Come
to the Lord, all of you. There is
healing and rest in the Lord. You are
given love and peace by God for all your days.
AMEN
Affirmation
of Faith – The 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
Thanks be to You, O God, for the
privilege of being able to come to You in prayer. Let us find our voice as we lift up our
prayers for all those affected by this pandemic; those who work in the health
care field – keep them safe, those whose elderly relatives are in nursing homes
and isolated from their families, those whose family members may have
contracted the virus and are struggling with symptoms. We lift up in prayer to You all those who are
suffering from other diseases and illnesses; we pray for their healing journeys
and that You provide them with strength and rest. We lift up our prayers for those afflicted by
poverty, war, injustice, and the deep pain of loss – all of them experiencing
grief in different ways. We lift our
prayers for those in leadership roles.
It is a difficult landscape to lead in, these days. We pray for Your guidance in their decision
making process, we pray for their wisdom
and for their strength of character to sometimes go against the tide of
popularity, but with conviction for what is right, moral, and good. And finally, we lift our prayers for the
Church, that we might be a voice of love, compassion and mercy.
Jesus,
Your Son, taught us a prayer that we often say together; 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.
Scripture
Readings
Old
Testament: Song
of Solomon 2:8-13
8The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. 9My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he
stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the
lattice. 10My beloved
speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; 11for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. 12The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has
come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. 13The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in
blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
New
Testament: Matthew
11:16-19, 25-30
16“But to what will I compare
this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to
one another, 17‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed,
and you did not mourn.’ 18For
John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; 19the Son
of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her
deeds.”
25At that time Jesus said, “I
thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these
things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26yes,
Father, for such was your gracious will. 27All
things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son
except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to
whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28“Come
to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give
you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my
yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Anthem – My Yoke Is Easy – this gentle ballad is by John Michael Talbot
and one of my favorites.
Sermon
– Take My Yoke Upon You
With today’s New Testament reading I
want to try to do two things. One, I’m
going to talk a little bit about some of the words used in this text in their
original language and what they mean.
Two, I’m going to go outside my comfort zone to talk politics. Yes, on Sunday. Yes, while preaching. Yes, from me!
But, it’s not going to be what you expect; I promise.
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 is a fascinating text
with so many levels of meaning. Let’s
start with verse 25: the “time” mentioned in this verse is kairos time,
not chronos time. There is a
difference between these two. Chronos
time in Greek is the passing of seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc…whereas kairos
time is that weighty moment, a decisive turning point. It was at that kairos moment that
Jesus said, “I thank you Father…”. Jesus
suddenly understands his own relationship with God. For Christ, Yahweh becomes both Lord of the Universe
and intimate Dad. And for young,
innocent children aren’t they the same?
Our parents are our everything. When
we are young and innocent, they bring the night and the day, they offer the
stars, the sun and the moon. They are
our world and the creators of everything we know. At the same time, they are intimately beside
us, calming our fears, gently washing away our hurts, and bearing our deepest sorrows
in their own bodies as they wrap us in their arms. This is the very parent Jesus calls Abba/Lord/God/Daddy.
It is the very parent that we, too, as
innocent children, should come to and worship in the same way.
Jesus then talks about things being hidden from
the wise and the intelligent. What is
most known about heavenly things, as my friend Rev. Jeff Tindall says, “it’s a
mystery”. If you think you know a lot about
God, it’s maybe half of 1% of God, and your understanding of that tiny fraction
is actually like looking in a foggy mirror with dimmed lights. But our seeking after knowledge of God is not
futile, but rather a quest, and knowing this makes you humble and curious. The solution to relational troubles, to what
fractures groups, is simply to be humbler, and more curious.
A yoke is a farmer’s tool, put around the neck
of the oxen. It links two of them
together, so that they share the burden. Christ says that his “yoke” is easy. But there’s still a yoke. It’s still hard. There’s heavy lifting involved. But our labor is for him, fulfilling our
purpose and truest selves. What is this
yoke? Delighting in Scripture, hanging
out with the people nobody else will hang out with, prayer, Sabbath, holy
habits, all those practices. Since this
was our Independence Day celebration weekend, what is freedom? It’s not Hey, I can do as I wish! But a diligent adherence to our Lord in all we
do, say, think, eat, walk and sleep. God
freed Israel and took them directly to Mt. Sinai so they would know how to stay
free. We’ve been freed, as well, from
the burden of tyranny, but with the responsibility FOR one another, not FROM
one another.
A good portion of the information I got for the
next section of today’s sermon is from an article by Mike Purdy*, a presidential
historian whose written over 100 articles and books about our past presidents. Ok, here’s where I get political, but we’re
talking politics from nearly 250 years ago.
In 1775, the 32-year-old Virginia born-and-bred
Jefferson traveled from his mountain-top Monticello mansion to the bustling
city of Philadelphia to serve as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress.
Jefferson arrived in the City of Brotherly Love
and met one of the most prominent and outspoken leaders of the resistance to
British domination – John Adams, a lawyer from Massachusetts, seven years older
than Jefferson. They forged a unique and
warm partnership, both serving on the committee to draft a Declaration of Independence
from British rule. According to Adams,
Jefferson had “the reputation of a masterly pen,” and was therefore tasked with
using his writing skills to draft the document. Jefferson was impressed with how Adams so
powerfully defended the draft of the document on the floor of the congress.
In the 1780s Jefferson and Adams traveled to
Europe as diplomats representing the new government of the United States. Adams and Jefferson became good friends and
spent time with each other’s families.
But by 1796, their friendship was stretched and tested by the rise of
political parties with starkly different visions of the new American experiment;
Adams on the Federalist side and Jefferson on the Democratic-Republican
side. With Adams election that year as
the nation’s second president, following George Washington, Adams found himself
saddled with his opposing party Jefferson as his vice president. During his term as president, tensions ran
high between the two men.
Just three months after their inauguration,
these two men, once friends, began an outright assault against one another. Jefferson privately groused to a French diplomat
that President Adams was “distrustful, obstinate, excessively vain, and takes
no counsel from anyone.” Weeks later, Adams spewed out his frustration, writing
in a private letter that his vice president had “a mind soured, yet seeking for
popularity, and eaten to a honeycomb with ambition, yet weak, confused,
uninformed, and ignorant.”
To add insult to injury, Jefferson ousted Adams
from the presidency in the election of 1800. At four o’clock in the morning on March 4,
1801, Jefferson’s inauguration day, the sullen Adams slipped out of the
Executive Mansion without fanfare, boarded a public stage and left
Washington. He wanted nothing to do with
the man who had publicly humiliated him by denying him a second term as
president, nor in witnessing Jefferson’s inauguration and moment of triumph.
For the next dozen years these two giants of
the American revolution largely avoided one another, still nursing wounds
inflicted by the poisonous partisan politics of their era. But on July 15, 1813, Adams made an overture,
reaching out to his former friend and foe, writing that “you and I ought not to
die until we have explained ourselves to each other.” That letter broke the dam
and began a series of remarkable letters between the two men that lasted for
more than a dozen years until death claimed them both on July 4, 1826 – the 50th
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence!
The story of Adams and Jefferson serves as a
model of what can happen when respect replaces rancor, friendships triumph over
political dogma, and we allow reconciliation to emerge from the ashes of
fractured friendships.
Adams and Jefferson ultimately listened to one
another, explaining themselves. Listening
to someone who thinks differently than we do can feel threatening and scary –
almost as if by listening to their thoughts we might become infected by their
opinions. So, we hunker down and lob
snarky tweets to attack the humanity and patriotism of others, foolishly hoping
such tactics will convince them to change.
But what would it look like if we could agree
on core values we share in common with one another? What would it look like if we took upon our
lives the yoke that Jesus offers? The
yoke of humility, grace, mercy, and the rest of the gifts of the Spirit like love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control; even in the political arena.
We could then have vigorous and civil debates about the best policies to
implement our values. We won’t always
agree with everyone. There will be a
wide diversity of opinions. But if we
could take upon our lives the yoke of Christ, listen deeply, forge friendships,
and understand the hopes and fears and humanity of others, we might actually
solve some of the problems that seem so intractable in our polarized society –
a society that seems to thrive on extremism on both ends of the political
spectrum.
Adams and Jefferson ultimately allowed their deep
friendship to triumph over their politics.
Their example can be a way forward for us, as a society, in public and
private. I don’t normally talk politics….ever. But thought that on this 5th day
of July after an enormous amount of polarizing policies and ideologies have
pervaded our public life, I thought I might just bring in a little politics –
from two of our nations forebears who found a way forward.
The way in which Christ makes his offering in
Matthew 11, makes it sound enticing as he says, “my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light.” But honestly, it isn’t easy. It takes courage to admit one’s faults and failures,
to become introspective about one’s own beliefs. It takes humility like Adams had when he
reached out to Jefferson. It takes
patience, sometimes through a lifetime, to see results. The yoke is easy only because we do it
together with Christ. We don’t do it
alone. But that end result is most
definitely JOY!
*What
the Feud and Reconciliation between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson Teaches Us
About Civility by Mike Purdy
Benediction
God,
who has given you rest and peace, will go with you all your days. Feel the healing love of God in your
life. Bring the good news of God’s love
to all whom you meet. Go in peace. AMEN
