Worship
Service for January 16, 2022
Click Here for the YouTube link when highlighted.
Prelude
Announcements:
·
You can join us for in-person worship at Olivet
Presbyterian Church in West Elizabeth, PA at 9:45 or at Bethesda United Presbyterian
Church in Elizabeth, PA at 11:15.
·
Beginning on Tues/Wed, Jan 18/19, you can
follow along at this blog address on a daily basis for pictures and experiences
of my Sabbatical leave. There will NOT
be a Sunday morning post of worship again until March.
Call to Worship
L: Do we dare place our trust in God?
P: God has promised to be with us and to
guide us.
L: Are we willing to continue on the journey
when we don’t know the dangers and are not sure of the destination.
P: No matter what, God is with us. That’s the promise and the hope.
L: Let us step forward boldly, listening for
God’s call in our lives.
P: Let us place our trust in God always. AMEN.
Opening Hymn – All Creatures of Our God and
King #455 verses 1,5,6 in Blue Hymnal
Prayer of Confession
Lord, like
Jesus changing water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana, we need a miracle
today. We are tired, Lord, of the hurts and
pain of this world. We are discouraged
in the face of injustice, war, poverty, and indifference. We need a miracle today, Lord. Your steadfast love, like a mighty mountain,
will not be moved. Your gifts, as many
as the mighty winds, cannot be counted.
Your glory, like a mighty torch, will not be put out. Lord, crown us with Your love. Show us Your glory, that in You we may be
moved to acts of kindness, love, justice, and mercy. Lord, we need Your miracles today. (Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: God’s love is continually poured out for
us. God’s cup of forgiveness and
compassion has been given to us.
P: In Jesus’ name, we are forgiven. 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
Choir: See Among the Winter’s
Snow
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s
Prayer
Lord of Light and Joy,
the daylight hours are becoming longer for us.
Evening comes a little later, and the dawn is earlier, but the darkness
in our hearts persists. We continue to
look at the miraculous ways You work in our lives as mere stories or
happenstance. How foolish we are! From the beginning of all that is, You have
poured Your love and light into this world and into our lives. You have offered us countless blessings and
opportunities for service, some of which we have followed, and others that we
have ignored. You have forgiven and
healed our spirits. We continue to bring
before You the names and situations of people that are in direst need.
We pray for…
We ask for Your healing
mercies and yet we wonder if You really are with us. Turn our moaning and crying into songs of
praise and hope. Give us spirits of
trust and rejoicing, that we may truly be Your people all of our days. Prepare us for joyful service in Your world;
for we ask this in Jesus’ name.
As we pray in silence
hear the groaning of our hearts, O God…
We give You thanks, O
Lord, for hearing our petitions this mornings, as we now pray 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 – Here
I Am, Lord #525/589
Scripture Reading(s):
OT – Isaiah 62:1-5
NT – John 2:1-11
Sermon –
Water
Into Wine
(based
on John 2:1-11)
Our
scripture reading from the New Testament this morning records Jesus’ first
miracle that the disciples witnessed and it helped plant those seeds of belief in
Him, but what are we to learn from this specific miracle and the circumstances
that brought it about?
I’d like
to suggest that there are three lessons for us to learn from this story in John:
The first
one was a bit of a surprise to me, as I’ve been reading this story and interpreting
the words quite differently for many years. To our modern ears, Christ’s response to His
mother may seem flippant or unfeeling: “Woman, what concern is that to you and
to me? My hour has not yet come.” But further study opens the real intent and
true impact of this response to our hearts and minds because a different
translation of that passage shows Christ’s deep respect for women. A different translation of this passage says,
“Woman, what will you have me to for you?
That I will do, though my hour has not yet come.” This difference in translation brings to light
Jesus’ loyalty and deference to His mother. Not only does He say He is willing to do
whatever she needs, but He also gives her an opportunity to specify a request
in faith rather than just telling her what He will do for her. As you see in the text, it is she, not Jesus, who
then turns to the servants to direct the next move.
Additionally,
even the very title with which He addresses her is significant. I’d always read it with a condescending tone
because we, in our modern age, don’t address our mothers as “woman” without
that tone. But, evidently, it was more
of the Old English translation that has gotten lost here from the Original
Greek, meaning, “Lady”, or rather “My, Lady”, as you would address a woman of
deep respect, or even a queen. If we
change the translation to a more accurate one with the proper tone, it will
read something more like, “My lady, whatever you ask of me in faith, I will
grant it to you.” Jesus Christ honored His mother by doing whatever she needed
done.
Now this
passage is much more in line with how Christ showed respect for women throughout
his ministry, doesn’t it? He
demonstrated it through his gentle treatment of the woman of Samaria at the
well. He knew the details of her life
that made others shun her and He still testified of her potential for purity
and salvation through the living water that He could offer. He demonstrated it through his compassion for
the woman taken in adultery even in the face of great disdain and judgment from
all those that surrounded Him. He
demonstrated it as he wept with Mary and Martha about the loss of their brother
He knew He would be able to bring back. He
demonstrated it by noticing the touch of His hem by the hemorrhaging woman. Even in a bustling crowd, He felt and cared
for the distresses of one woman. And of
course, He demonstrated it by making Mary Magdalene the first witness of the
resurrection, reminding us that women are central to the gospel message.
The second
lesson is that Christ’s miracles were simply a reflection of the miracles God
performs around us everyday.
We
gasp in wonder at the one-time miracle of Christ being able to change simple
water into wine in those clay pots, but what about the miracle and beauty of
taking a tiny, hard, round seed of nothing, planting it in the soil, and watching
it grow to produce grapes that create the wine.
Isn’t that the real miracle that surrounds us everyday, which we often
forget to acknowledge?
Too
often we take for granted the everyday splendor of the vineyard, waiting instead
for our water to be turned to wine. When
Jesus took on the mantle of Messiah, he stepped into His father’s shoes. And everything he would do would be to help
us better understand and glorify His Father in heaven. And this first miracle was only the beginning
of that.
The third
lesson goes back to the context of the exchange between Mary and Jesus. Christ mentions that His hour had not yet
come. It is undeniable that Christ’s
hour would be the performance of that greatest act of love, Christ’s atonement
and redemption on the cross, for our sins.
So, how is the conversion of water to wine a symbol of the atonement?
It
says right in the verses that the water pots being used were made of stone
“after the manner of the purifying of the Jews”. In the first century most temple rites and
rituals were performed with stone vessels because it was believed that unlike
ceramic or clay, a stone vessel couldn’t be rendered impure. If Christ is the pure vessel, one made of
stone, and we are the water surrendering ourselves to Christ for the purpose of
being made new, then the transformation that occurs is not only symbolic, but
authentic and real.
The
power to convert water to wine might parallel the power of Christ’s redemption
and atonement to change us from our old natures to a new creation, pure and
holy, as the vessel by which we are transformed is pure. Sometimes we probably fear fully giving
ourselves over to Jesus Christ.
I hope
that when you come across this story in our scriptures again, you no longer
think of the wedding at Cana as a miracle with not much to explore or study. I hope you remember the way Jesus showed his
respect for women in that place, how He modeled his miracles after the cosmic
miracles of His Father in Heaven, and how we—like the wine—can be changed
completely through the purity and atonement of Jesus Christ.
Offertory
Doxology
Prayer of Dedication
We
give You thanks for all our many blessings, take these and bless them for Your
work in the world. As we give our
offerings as gifts, we ask that You give us hearts and spirits for service to
You. Amen.
Communion
Invitation:
Prayer
of Thanksgiving
L: The Lord be with you.
P: And also with you.
L: Lift up your hearts.
P: We lift them up to the Lord.
L: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God
Words of
Institution
Breaking
of the Bread/Drinking of the Cup
Closing
Prayer
Closing Hymn – Have Thine Own Way, Lord #591
Brown Hymnal
Benediction
Go and proclaim that God’s
love is here; Go in the power of God’s Holy Spirit to make all things new.
Postlude
