Trusting
Everything
is our worship theme for Stewardship Sunday (the 24th Sunday after
Pentecost), November 9, 2012. Our focus scriptures will be Mark 12:38-44 and
Psalm 146.
On
what will be Stewardship Sunday in many churches the Lectionary gives us Mark’s
account of the Widow’s Mite. The point of this simple story is that the widow trusts
everything to God. Jesus notes the fanfare of the scribes who strut around
displaying their piety while devouring widows' homes behind the scenes. He also
watches wealthy people putting large sums into the temple treasury. But when he
sees a poor widow offering two copper coins, he knows exactly what it means to
her. This is all she has to live on, yet she trusts the promise in Psalm 146
that God will uphold the widows and those who are poor. The wealthy give out of
their excess without threatening their own standard of living. The widow gives
all she has. In our society this story continues to be played out this very
day.
Here
is a Call to Worship based on Psalm 146. Please use or adapt anything that is
helpful to you.
Call to Worship From
Psalm 146
L:
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
P: Let us praise the Lord
as long as we live!
Let us sing praises to God every day of our
lives!
L:
Do not put your highest trust in human leaders,
in mere mortals in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to
the earth.
On that very day their plans perish.
P: Happy instead are those
who hope in the Lord their God,
the One who made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that lives;
the One who keeps faith forever;
the One who executes justice for the
oppressed and feeds the hungry.
L:
God, you set the prisoners free. You open the eyes of the blind.
You lift up those who are bowed down.
You love those who keep your ways.
P: You watch over the refugees.
You uphold orphans and widows.
But the way of the wicked you bring to
ruin.
All:
The Lord our God will reign forever! Praise the Lord!
Let us worship God.
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