Jesus, help us listen.
The Celebration of the Gospel
March 16, 2014 — Second Sunday in Lent
No one can see the Realm of God without being born anew from above.
— John 3.3
________ We Gather as The Body of Christ
GREETING
PRELUDE Prayer René Vierne
* CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Holy One, you called Abram and Sarai and they listened.
All: Call to us. Lead us on.
Beloved, you led them to a new place.
Accompany us through the mystery.
Spirit of life, you promised blessing, and you have kept your promise.
Bless us, that we may hear and follow,
that we may be a blessing for all the families on earth.
We are yours. By your Spirit in us, birth us to new life.
SONG Holy, Holy, Holy Black hymnal #2007
_________________ We Attend to the Word
(10:30) THE WORD IN SONG
Aria for Handbells and Bass Clarinet – Marguerite Shaw
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Pastor: The grace of God be with you.
Congregation: And also with you.
Trusting in God’s tender mercy, let us confess our sin to God with one another.
God of love, help us to see ourselves with the eyes of love,
to see all that is in us that is loving,
and all that is not loving.
By the grace that we know in Christ,
receive us, forgive us, heal us, and perfect your love in us.
SILENT PRAYER … THE WORD OF GRACE
RESPONSE Bless the Lord, My Soul Black hymnal #2013
PRAYER OF THE DAY
O God of Mercy, your grace comes to us in darkness and mystery. Your call leads us into the unknown. We know we will resist. Speak to us anyway, Lord: let your Word come to life in us, and lead us into the Realm of your grace. Amen.
In today’s texts God calls us out of our established ways into new ways of living.
OLD TESTAMENT Genesis 12.1-4
[God calls Abram, at the ripe old age of 75, to leave his relatives and his homeland and journey toward a new land and a new life, in which, he is told, “you will be a blessing.” (He will even become a new person, with the name Abraham.) ]
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your parents’ house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
PSALTER Psalm 121
[This may have been sung by people, like Abram, on a journey: pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. The traveler looks at the mountains she must cross, where bandits hide, and asks, “Where does my help come from?” It comes from God, who is faithful.]
I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
The Holy One will not let your foot be moved;
your Keeper will not slumber.
The Guardian of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil;
God will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in
from this time on and forevermore
GOSPEL John 3.1-17
[Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the dark (so to speak) and Jesus tells him we must be “born from the top,” meaning both over again and also from above, from God. God’s judgment is light, which both reveals what is hidden, and also transforms it.]
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”
Jesus said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the Realm of God without being born anew from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can you enter a second time into your mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the Realm of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that God gave the Only Begotten, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ….. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world.
SERMON
SONG Always New Steve G-H
O God, you make me always new.
Each breath I breathe is life from you,
a gift of love that sets me free.
Beloved, breathe new life in me.
O Christ, you call me to new birth
like God’s creation of the earth,
to leave the things I’m fastened on
and walk into the rising dawn.
O loving Spirit, live in me.
Forgive my sin and set me free.
Give me new birth, life from above,
that I may live in your deep love.
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
PASSING THE PEACE
————————————We Share at Christ’s Table
OFFERING OUR GIFTS Blessed Assurance J. F. Knapp, arr: Fred Bock
COMMUNION SONG
O Lord, Our God, we come to you, to die and rise, and live anew.
Our hearts are weak; our souls near dead. Revive us with your wine and bread.
Forgive our sin, and heal and bless: our only life your life in us.
We bring our gifts, in love made one. Grant us your grace. Your will be done.
THE GREAT THANKSGIVING Black hymnal # 2257
SHARING THE HOLY MEAL [Everyone is welcome at the table of Christ’s self-giving love.
The bread is wheat-, soy- and dairy free. We dip the bread in the juice.]
PRAYER OF BLESSING
Gracious God, we thank you for this mystery in which you have given yourself to us. May the wind of your Spirit blow as it will and send us, re-made, into the world, to be a blessing for all peoples, in the name and the love of Christ. Amen.
_ We Are Sent in Ministry to the World
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
SONG Freely, Freely Blue hymnal #389
THE BLESSING AND SENDING FORTH
RESPONSE We stand and sing to our neighbors:
May the grace and peace of Christ be with you my friends.
Go and share the love of God, love that never ends.
POSTLUDE Voluntary in A Minor Maurice Greene