Faith, Love and Grace

Faith, Love and Grace is our worship theme for Reformation Sunday, October 28, 2012. Our focus scripture is Jeremiah 31:31-34.

As a United Church of Christ in the reformed tradition, the Church of the Nativity emphasizes the love of God for all people, and the desire of God to call each person into a relationship of love.

Martin Luther, who began his ministry as a monk, was famously concerned about his salvation. He worried that every sin he committed must be confessed to his confessor and pardoned, lest he end up damned. He then worried that he might forget to confess a sin, or that he might commit a sin without realizing it. His worry became so obsessive that his confessor finally told him to stop bothering him about every little sin and wait until he had done something truly wrong – like committing a murder! Finally as he pondered the teachings of the Apostle Paul, Luther came to the realization that we are not saved by works, but by grace. That it is not whether we confess every detail of sin, but whether we confess Jesus as Lord, and thereby enter the circle of his saving love. So in the traditional formula of Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”

To me, the life of Jesus is a living love letter from God addressed to the deepest part of our souls. He embodies God’s revolutionary love. Like the prophets, he works to reverse the fortunes of the poor, the sick, the prisoners, the victims of discrimination and violence, and those who suffer from hopelessness. He seeks to prepare the way for God’s reign of love and justice and peace. In his presence, people of all kinds can experience God’s reign if they have eyes to see. His death on the cross reveals the full depth of God’s love. His resurrection reveals the full power of God’s love. When we fall in love with Jesus his living presence gives us courage to act as citizens of heaven even as we live as citizens of earth. Reformation churches express his radical love in their ministries. The Reformation is not a long ago historical event that we dust off once a year on Reformation Sunday. It is an ongoing revolution based in God’s constantly working love as we discover it in Jesus. And it means that we continually work with God’s guidance to reform ourselves, our churches, and the world that God loves.

Here is a Call to Worship and a Litany based on Psalm 126, and a Call to Worship based on Jeremiah 31:31-34. Please use or adapt anything helpful to you.

 

Call to Worship      From Psalm 126

L: Sisters and brothers, we serve a gracious God,

     whose glory is revolutionary love!

P: When God called the people out of slavery in Egypt, then we     

     were like those whose dreams come true.

L: When God brought Israel home to a land flowing with milk and

     honey, then our mouths were filled with laughter.

P: When God restored the fortunes of Zion and freed them from                             

     captivity in Babylon, then our tongues shouted for joy.

L: When God raised Jesus and shattered the power of death,                                         

     then we danced the dance of life.

P: And now, when the blind see, the lame walk, the sick are         

     healed, the deaf hear, the lonely are welcomed, and the poor                

     are fed, then we celebrate God’s amazing love.

L: Sisters and brothers, we serve a gracious God, 
     whose glory is revolutionary love!

All: Let us worship God! Amen.

A Litany Based on Psalm 126

L: When God brought our people back from captivity in Babylon,                                 

     we were like those who dream.

P: Then we shook with laughter, then we shouted for joy!

L: When God came to us in a poor baby born in a stable...

P: When God spoke to us from a mountain top...

L: When God shattered the power of the tomb...

P: When God poured out Spirit from the heavens...

L: When God built our church on a farm field...

P: When God blessed us with children and a church school...

L: When God called us into small groups...

P: When God empowered us to serve the hungry...

L: When God comforted our broken hearts...

P: When God helped our youth build houses for the poor...

L: When God strengthened us in a time of illness...

P: When God joined our voice for justice with other churches...

L: When God inspired us to create wonderful music...

P: When God moved our 3^rd & 4^th graders to raise a mile of pennies...

L: When God started us thinking about an elevator...

P: When God opened the way for us to welcome all kinds of people...

L: Then we shook with laughter, then we shouted for joy!

P: May we always trust in your goodness, Loving God!

L: May our tears of sorrow water seeds of joy.

All: May our times of tribulation bear a harvest of justice and peace.

Note: This litany refers in some places to events in the life of the Church of the Nativity. Please substitute events that your people will recognize from the life of your church.

 

Call to Worship   From Jeremiah 31:31-34

L:  Sisters and brothers, let us remember the Living Word of God

     as it came to the prophet Jeremiah: “The days are surely coming,

     when I will make a new covenant with my people.

P: It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors

     when I led them out of slavery in Egypt –

     a covenant which they broke, though I was their husband.

L:  This is the covenant I will make with them:

I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts.

P: I will be their God and they will be my people.

     No longer shall they have to teach one another about me,

     for they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest of them.

L:  And I will forgive all their offenses, and remember their sin no more.”

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

The Path to Greatness

The Path to Greatness is our worship theme for the twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, October 21, 2012. Our focus scripture is Mark 10:35-45.

In this passage the disciples respond badly yet a third time to Jesus talking with them about his impending death. After the first passion prediction in 8:31-32, Peter takes Jesus aside and tries to scold him for thinking something so outrageous. After the second prediction in 9:30-32 the disciples argue with each other about which one is the greatest. And now, following Jesus’ third prediction in 10:32-34, James and John come to Jesus to ask for the chief places of honor when he comes into his glory.

Each time Jesus starts talking about his death, the disciples respond like they’ve never heard a sermon he preached or witnessed a healing. They are clueless. Jesus talks to them about taking up their cross, or how a child is the greatest in the kingdom, but it doesn’t sink in. Rolf Jacobson points out that Mark bookends the three passion predictions with stories of Jesus healing blind men! And we know the ones Mark thinks are blind.

This passage is as relevant to our times as it was when Mark wrote it. We live in a day when multi-millionaires argue that it is just and fair for them to pay a much smaller percentage of their income in taxes than the secretaries who work for them. And on top of that they claim to be Christians! Evidently, they missed reading chapters 8-10 of Mark. 

Jesus' path to greatness is not measured in bank accounts or places of honor or possessions. Jesus' path to greatness is measured by our ability to give ourselves over to God's leading as God's Spirit works to create love, justice, and peace.

None of the other lectionary passages for this Sunday lend themselves to a Call to Worship that fits the passage from Mark. So here is one first printed on September 16th from Mark 8:34-37. If anything in this post is helpful to you, please feel free to use or adapt it.

Call to Worship    from Mark 8:34-37

L: Sisters and brothers, as we worship let us remember Christ’s challenge:

P: If you want to follow me you must give up selfishness and embrace the cross.

L: If you try to save your life yourself, you will lose it.

P: But lose your life for me and the good news of the kingdom, and you will save it.

L: For what good is it to gain the whole world, but lose your soul in the bargain?

P: Do you think that anything is worth more to you than your soul?

All: Let us follow Christ along his narrow way –

       the way of the cross -- the way to eternal life!

God's Two-Edged Sword

God’s Two-Edged Sword is our worship theme for the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, October 14, 2012. Our focus scripture is Hebrews 4:12-16.

In chapters 3 and 4, the author of Hebrews presses his readers not to miss the opportunity that God is presenting to them to enter into God’s rest of eternal life. He believes that his ancestors missed this chance back in the days when they wandered in the wilderness and rebelled against God at Meribah. The author of Hebrews cites Psalm 95, saying that God was angered by their rebellion and vowed to give that generation no rest. Rather, they wandered until they died because not one of them was fit to enter the Promised Land. Yet the author does not believe that God’s promise of rest has ended. In Jesus’ death and resurrection, he believes that God is opening the door again and he wants to be sure that his readers keep their faith in Jesus until the end of the journey.

Coming to the end of the chapter, he then says that God’s Word is like a two-edged sword, laying open our lives so that nothing is hidden from God or from ourselves. Yet despite the threatening sound of this, he goes on to say that we have a sympathetic priest and teacher. For Jesus experienced all the difficulties that we experience, except that he resisted the temptation to sin. Yet he knows how we are tempted, and he is ready to come to our aid and give us the mercy we need. Indeed, in an essay on this passage Bryan Whitfield uses the ministry of Harriet Tubman, the famed “Black Moses”, to help us understand what the author of Hebrews wants us to know about Jesus. Tubman, a slave who had made it to freedom in the north, returned some 19 times to the south to lead other slaves to freedom at great risk to herself. She used the knowledge she gained on her own journey to help others. Jesus, who knew exactly the challenges of the lives we lead, has blazed a trail to the highest heaven and opened a path for us to follow.

Here are several Calls to Worship based on the passage from Hebrews and the two Psalms of the day. Please use or adapt anything helpful to you.

Call to Worship    From Hebrews 4:12-16

L:  Sisters and brothers, we gather this day to hear and learn

from God’s Living Word!

P: For God’s Word is alive and active,

sharper than any two-edged  sword.

L:  It cuts through our spirits and souls,

through our joints and marrow,

until it discovers the desires and intentions of our hearts.

P: Before God, none can hide.

All are naked and exposed to the eyes of the One

who requires us to tell the truth of our lives.

L:  Yet we have a great High Priest who has soared to the heights of heaven,

     and he is Jesus, the Son of God!

Let us therefore hold fast to our faith in him.

P: For he understands our weaknesses.

He faced all our temptations, yet without giving in to sin.

L: Let us go boldly to his throne of grace.

There we will receive mercy and grace to match our every need.

P: In the shelter of Christ’s mercy and grace,

let us dare to hear and explore

the truth of God’s Living Word for our lives.

All: Let us worship God!

Call to Worship (From a paraphrase of Psalm 90 by Basil E. Bridge)

          L: O Lord, you are the refuge of each generation,

               you reigned before the universe began.

          P: A thousand years in your sight are but a passing day,                                      our transient glory but the fading of a flower.

          L: O holy Lord, forgive our self-deceiving,                                                    

              our secret sins are clear before your face.

          P: Time rushes on. Teach us to count our days                                           

              that we may gain a wise heart.

          L: Satisfy us with your steadfast love                                                                         that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

       All: Look upon us with kindness and peace,                                                   

              work out your timeless purpose through our hands. Amen.

Call to Worship     From Psalm 22

L:  My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

     Why are you so far from helping me?

P: My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer;

     and by night as well, but find no rest.

L: Yet you are holy, praised by the people of Israel. 

     Our ancestors put their trust in you, and you rescued them.            

P: But as for me, I am a worm and not human,

     scorned by others and despised by the people.

L: All who see me mock me;

     they wag their tongues at me and shake their heads.

P: They say, “Trust in the Lord; let the Lord deliver;

     let God rescue the one in whom God so delights."

L: You are the one who knew me from the womb;

     you kept me safe on my mother's breast.

P: From the day of my birth I have been in your care.

     Since my mother bore me you have been my God.

L: Do not be far from me, for trouble is near,

     and there is no one to help.

P: My enemies are all around me;

     they circle like wild bulls.

L: They are like lions, roaring and attacking.

     Their jaws are wide open.

P: I am poured out like water; my bones ache.

     my heart within my breast is like melting wax.

L: My mouth is dried up;

     my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;

     you have left me to die in the dust.

P: They pierce my hands and feet.

     They divide my garments;

     they cast lots for my clothing.

L:  Be not far from me, O God;

     you are my strength; come quickly to my aid.

P: Save me from the lion's mouth,

     rescue me from the wild bulls.

L:  I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters;

     in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.

P: Praise the Lord, all who fear God;

     stand in awe and give God glory.

L: For God does not despise those in need; neither does God hide from them;

     when they cry, God hears them.

All: All the ends of the earth

       shall remember and turn to God.

    All shall proclaim God’s salvation

    to people of future generations.