Real Religion

Real Religion is our worship theme for the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 2, 2012. Our focus scriptures are Mark 7:1-23 and James 1:17-27.

Both passages focus on what it means to take God’s Word seriously. In Mark, Jesus is accused of letting his disciples neglect the laws pertaining to cleanliness. They should be washing their hands before meals, especially after returning from the market. Likewise pots and pans should be washed in particular ways. But, as Jesus says to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:24, complaining about not keeping these laws is like straining out a gnat, and then swallowing a camel! To drive his point home, Jesus cites the ways that the Pharisees allow children to escape Moses’ command to honor their parents. Money that they would have used to care for parents in need can be given instead to the temple. And nothing further for the parents is required. Finally Jesus goes on to make the point that true obedience to God’s law is a matter of the heart. However we eat our food, it simply passes out of us. It goes through the stomach and does not lodge in the heart. The things that truly defile us are the result of evil intentions which corrupt our hearts and come from within.

James makes the same point. God’s Word is meant to re-create us so that we can be true children of God. It needs to lodge in our hearts and souls and change us from within. But sometimes the impurities that are already there keep us from hearing God’s Word. Or, having heard the Word, we don’t bother to act on it. Real religion means being hearers and doers. It means caring for the poor and keeping our souls clean.

Here is a Call to Worship from James 1:17-27 and a Communion Liturgy for Labor Day. Please use or adapt anything that is helpful to you.

Call to Worship    from James 1:17-27

L: Sisters and brothers, every good gift comes from above.

    All we possess is given by the Father of Light, who can always be trusted.

P: God’s Word of Truth re-births us as God’s children, the crown of creation.

L: We must be quick to listen; slow to speak; and slower still to get angry.

P: For anger never creates the justice God intends.

L: Indeed, let us clean out our evil intentions.

     Then we can hear the Word God plants in our hearts which can save our souls.

P: But we can’t stop there! We must not only hear the Word, we must act on it.

L: Those who are hearers, but not doers, fool themselves.

P: They glance in a mirror, walk quickly away, and forget what they look like!

L: So look into the mirror of God’s law and see your own true self.

P: Then don’t forget what you saw, but act on it.

L: Pretending to be religious by talking about it is just so much hot air.

P: Real religion means caring for the poor; not allowing the world to corrupt you.

All: Thanks be to God for all God gives to us. Let us worship God!

Communion Hymn        “Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ”        Linstead                    

                                                                                                         

Invitation

Communion Prayer

L: God of majesty and love, we give thanks for the many ways that  

     you call to us in the midst of our lives.

P: We praise the way you express your wisdom in scientists,                                             

     philosophers, and teachers.

L: Your creativity in dancers, musicians, and artists.

P: Your energy in farmers, fishers, laborers, and workers.

L: Your truth in prophets, courageous journalists, poets, and preachers.   

P: Your love in caregivers, friends, parents, and church family.

L: Your humanity in Jesus Christ who lived among the poor and oppressed.

P: Who walked in countryside and market streets.

L: Who shared our joys and sorrows, our hopes and disappointments.

P: Who offered himself as a living lesson of all that you want to teach.

L: Who opened an eternal way from your heart to ours.

P:  As we come to Christ’s table, bless us with his living Spirit:

     Shape our hearts and wills so that our lives may express your love.

     Transform our sense of how we work so that our vocations may serve your will.

     Use us to hasten the day when all will be well in heaven and on earth. 

     Empower us with Christ’s Spirit to create your justice and lasting peace.

     In his wonderful name we pray. Amen.           

Words of Institution

Receiving the Elements 

Unison Prayer of Thanksgiving

Loving God, thank you for inviting us to Christ’s table and feeding us with his powerful Spirit! Send us forth now to do his ministry in this your world! Amen.

Over the Edge

Over the Edge is our worship theme for the thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, August 26, 2012. Our focus scripture is John 6:56-69.

This Sunday concludes five opportunities that the Lectionary gives us to explore the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. Over that time we investigate Jesus feeding a huge crowd with nothing but five barley loaves and two fish, and then consider an arresting dialogue with a part of that crowd that probes who Jesus is and what his miracle of feeding the crowd really means. The crowd remembers the stories of Moses in the wilderness, prevailing on God to feed the people not once, but day after day with manna from heaven. Jesus counters by claiming to personally be the true bread from heaven. “Your ancestors ate the manna,” he tells them, “but they still died. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live forever.” As compelling a promise as that is, it is deeply offensive to those who hear it, including Jesus’ own followers. Why?

In Leviticus 17:10-14, which is part of the Torah – the five books of the law considered to be written by Moses – we read:

If any Israelite or foreigner living among them eats blood, I (God) will disown that person and cut him off from his people, for the life of an animal is in the blood. I have provided the blood for you to make atonement for your lives on the Altar; it is the blood, the life, that makes atonement. That's why I tell the People of Israel, 'Don't eat blood.' The same goes for the foreigner who lives among you, 'Don't eat blood.' Any and every Israelite—this also goes for the foreigners—who hunts down an animal or bird that is edible, must bleed it and cover the blood with dirt, because the life of every animal is its blood—the blood is its life. That's why I tell the Israelites, 'Don't eat the blood of any animal because the life of every animal is its blood. Anyone who eats the blood must be cut off.' (The Message)

According to Leviticus, the life force of any animal is in its blood. It is God who gives life, and therefore the blood is sacred. It can only be handled in two ways. It can be poured back into the earth that God fashioned at creation and then covered over with dirt. Or it can be poured upon the Altar as a sacrifice to God to make atonement for sins committed. To eat the blood is to debase something that is sacred and it results in being cut off from God.

But now Jesus is re-interpreting the Torah based on his conviction about who he is. In John 6:51 he has told his listeners: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” What he means is that his blood spilled upon the altar of his cross in his crucifixion and death will be the sacrifice that prepares the whole world to be at one with God. Then those who eat his flesh and drink his blood will be taking into themselves his life force, his living Spirit, in such a way as to become aligned with him. As John says in his prologue, they will become Children of God.

Now John may see the eating of Jesus’ flesh and the drinking of his blood as happening in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper which was certainly being practiced at the time he wrote his Gospel. But Jesus pushes many who hear him say this over the edge, including some of his own followers who leave him. And his words about seeing the Son of Man ascending to where he was before the creation of the world are no easier. If you are already on John’s wavelength and have read the prologue to his Gospel, his incarnation and ascension make perfect sense. But if you are not on John's wavelength then, Jesus' words call for a spiritual imagination that not many possess.

In the end, many fall away from Jesus, with their loyalty to the Torah winning out over their sense that there is something special about him. The Twelve, however, affirm their faith. “Lord,” Peter says, “to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” The choice they make is the choice that remains before us today. Who is Jesus? Does he push us over the edge? Or is he the key to eternal life?

Here is a Call to Worship based on Ephesians 6:1-18. Please use or adapt anything that is helpful to you.

Call to Worship    Ephesians 6:10-18

L: Sisters and brothers, let us be strong in the Lord and in the strength of God’s power!

     Put on the whole armor of God, so that you can stand against all the tests of the devil.

P: For we struggle not with mortals, but against cosmic powers of darkness;

     against spiritual agents from the headquarters of evil.

L: Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may stand your ground.

P: Let us fasten on the belt of truth, and the breastplate of justice.

L: Let us plant our feet in the Gospel of peace, and pull on the helmet of salvation.

P: In one hand we will grip the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

     And in the other hand, the shield of faith to quench every flaming arrow of evil.  

L: And always, let us pray in the Spirit, asking help for all God’s children.  

All: Thanks be to God! Let us worship God!

True Food, True Drink

True Food, True Drink is our worship theme for the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, August 19, 2012. Our focus scripture is John 6:51-58.

In the three previous weeks we have explored passages in John 6. First Jesus literally feeds a huge crowd; then he presses those who come seeking him to reflect on the spiritual meaning of what he has done; and finally he proclaims that he is the Bread of Life, sent by God to open the way for God’s children to enter Eternal Life. As is usually the case in the encounters John records between Jesus and those who do not follow him, there is skepticism on the part of Jesus’ hearers. In the passage we take up today, the confrontational tone begins to escalate until Jesus says something that is patently offensive to them: “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.” (vs. 56-57) Just as Nicodemus starts to take Jesus literally when Jesus says that a person must be born again and asks if he means that an adult somehow goes back into his mother’s womb, so now the crowd thinks that Jesus is insisting on cannibalism. According to the teachings of their scripture this is an abomination. (See God’s words to Noah’s family in Genesis 9:3-4 and Leviticus 17:10-14.) And as if to make his words even more outrageous, the Greek word for eat that John uses in vs. 56 means to gnaw, like a lion gnawing the bones of a gazelle that she has just killed. It is eating flesh with relish!

By the time John writes his Gospel, many of his readers would make a natural association between his words and the sacrament of Holy Communion. But to those who first hear Jesus say these words, he crosses an unforgivable line. Jesus reveals what he is actually saying in his next sentence: “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” (vs. 58) He is not speaking of cannibalism, but of the deepest participation in his being that is possible. In the same way that part of the food that we eat literally becomes a part of us, Jesus is saying that by sharing in communion, his essence joins with ours so that we become like him. He is indeed, true food and true drink!

It is good to remember that there may well be newcomers in our worship services who do not really know about communion, and who certainly will never have heard this passage. They may well be shocked at Jesus’ words, just as his first hearers were. What a wonderful opportunity to interpret Holy Communion specifically, and spiritual nourishment generally.

Here is a Call to Worship based on Proverbs 9:1-6. Please use or adapt anything that is helpful to you.

Call to Worship    from Proverbs 9:1-6

L: Sisters and brothers, as we gather to learn from Jesus, let us recall Proverbs:

    Lady Wisdom has built her house. She has supported it on seven pillars.

P: She has prepared a great feast. Her meat is roasted.

    Her wine is mixed. Her beautiful table is spread.

L: Now she sends out her servant girls with invitations.

    She goes herself to the center of the city and calls to everyone.

P: “Are you confused about life’s meaning? Do you need understanding?

     Come share the dinner I’ve prepared. Eat my food and drink my wine!”

All: Turn from your foolish ways and live! Walk in the way of understanding.

Who Is Jesus, Really?

Who Is Jesus, Really? is our worship theme for the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, August 12, 2012. Our focus scripture is John 6:35, 41-51.

Last Sunday we explored the contrast between work and belief. Jesus feeds a huge crowd of five thousand men plus women and children. The next day members of that crowd come looking for him, not for who he is, but to be fed again. One of John’s peculiar but spiritually fascinating dialogues follows. The crowd members are intrigued by Jesus’ talk about bread from heaven and want to know what work they must do to receive this bread. “Just this,” Jesus tells them, “your work is to believe in the one whom God sends to you.” As Eugene Peterson translates this in The Message, what Jesus is asking them to do is to align with him. So belief is not an abstract, intellectual thing. Rather, it is a spiritual joining. Their hearts and souls will connect to and come under his influence, and they will be transformed. But the crowd is only dimly aware of what he is telling them. They are not expecting to hear him say that their work is to believe in him, and they grow suspicious about Jesus’ identity. Is he as good as Moses, who day by day gave their ancestors manna in the wilderness? Jesus points out that it was not Moses who fed their ancestors – but God. Now he says, God is blessing them with something even more important: living bread that can give life to the world. And that is where we left the dialogue last week.

This week the concern about just who Jesus really is continues. “Look,” the crowd members say to each other, “what can he possibly mean about being ‘the living bread who comes down from heaven?’ We know his father and mother. We know where he grew up. This makes no sense!” But Jesus persists. “It may be a mystery to you,” he says in effect. “But if people see who I really am, it is because God draws them to me. And whether you can get it or not, God is doing a new thing here. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and all of them still died. The bread I am sent to give is the bread of eternal life. Eat it and you are impervious to death, for at the right time I will raise you from death. Whoever eats this bread (aligns their selves with me) will live forever. And the bread I will offer so that the world may have life is my flesh.”

In John, eternal life is both a present and a future state of being. As we align our selves with Jesus, we become citizens of heaven even while we live on earth. Jesus lives and comes into the world as a sign of God’s blessing and love. And he dies and returns to God as a sign of God’s blessing and love. Understand the signs and we understand a whole new roadmap to the meaning and conduct of life. It has everything to do with who Jesus is, really.

Here are several Calls to Worship and two Unison Prayers based on the Lectionary passage from Ephesians 4:25-5:2. And there is a Call to Worship based on one of the psalms for the day, Psalm 130. It is somewhat different than the one first printed for June 10, 2012. Please feel free to use or adapt anything that is helpful to you.

Call to Worship    from Ephesians 4:25-5:2

L: Dear ones, as we gather in community, let us recall how the Bible teaches us to act!

P: Tell the truth. No more lies. No pretending. In Christ’s body we’re all one.

L: Get angry, but don’t take revenge. Anger is the devil’s tool. Don’t go to bed angry!

P: Don’t steal. Use your hands for honest work. Then be generous to others.

L: Watch your mouth! Don’t swear. Don’t cut others down. Build them up.

P: Don’t grieve God. Revere God’s Spirit moving in your soul. It’s who you are.

L: Be kind and tenderhearted to each other. Forgive others as Christ forgives you.

P: Imitate God in everything you do. You are a child of God!

All: Follow the example of Christ. Live a life of love!

Call to Worship

L: We gather to be nourished again by the grace of Christ,

     which is for us and for all people.

P: We come to be changed by his love.

L: May we bless the world and each other with kindness,

     tenderheartedness and forgiveness.

All: Let us strive to let Christ’s love grow to rule our lives in everything.

Unison Prayer

We come to this time of worship, eternal God, trusting your love that has no end.  We confess that sometimes our lives do not reflect the abundance of your love. 

Our selfishness and anger get the best of us. 

If you kept a list of the things we did wrong, we would not stand a chance. 

But you don’t: you forgive us. 

You call us to be loving, forgiving, tenderhearted people. 

And so we come to worship to praise you; 

To be renewed by your Word and Spirit.  

Cleanse us. 

Transform us and make us new. 

In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

Call to Worship

L: God calls us here to meet Jesus Christ and one another.

P: We are all to be gifts to one another – knitted and joined together in Him.

L: God invites us to receive the love of Christ which is for us and for all people.

P: We desire to be changed by this love that we might bless the world

     and each other with kindness, tenderheartedness and forgiveness.

L: We come today to celebrate the living God and be built up in faith and love.

All: May Christ’s love grow to rule our lives in everything.

         

Unison Prayer

Merciful God, we are so grateful for your love.

Your love defines our lives, giving shape and direction to our days.

Give us the wisdom and the courage to live according to the                              

graceful, challenging, exhilarating rule of your love. 

Empower us to speak the truth in love

Help us encourage and equip one another to serve.  Amen.

Call to Worship   From Psalm130

L: Out of the depths we cry to you, O God! Lord, hear our call!

P: Look beyond our faults, and see our needs.

L: If you, Great God, should keep track of our sins,

    none of us could survive in your presence.

P: But you offer us forgiveness, and we bless you for that.

L: In times of darkness, let us wait for the Lord.

    May our souls rest in God’s promise of hope.

P: Our souls look for the Lord to act

    more than sentries search for the dawn.

L: Sisters and brothers in Christ, let us hope in the Lord!

    For God holds us in covenant love; God has all power to redeem.

All: It is God who redeems our church from all our sins.

    Praise God!