The Celebration of the Gospel
Sunday, October 12, 2014
8:15 & 10:30 am
In recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month
Let your gentleness reach out to everyone.
— Philippians 4.5
_______ We Gather as The Body of Christ_______
GREETING
PRELUDE Larghetto Samuel Wesley
[As we listen to the music we quiet our minds and bodies,
listen for our hearts’ deepest desires,
and become present to the Holy One who is lovingly present for us.]
* CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: God of grace, grant us your peace.
All: Gentle Christ, grant us your love.
Holy Spirit, grant us your courage.
Beloved God, we worship you.
May we make this space, and our lives, a gentle home. Amen.
* SONG How Like a Gentle Spirit Blue hymnal #115
(10:30) CHILDREN’S TIME
___________ We Attend to the Word___________
(10:30) THE WORD IN SONG What a Friend We Have in Jesus arr. Gilbert M. Martin
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
PASSING THE PEACE
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Spirit of Love, speak your Word to us, that your grace may fill us, and flow to those around us, and fill the world. Make us instruments of your peace. Amen.
OLD TESTAMENT Exodus 32.1-14
[Moses has been up on the mountain so long, the Israelites decide to take matters into their known hands. Aaron directs them in creating a golden image to worship. God is not amused, and wants to torch them all. But Moses pleads with God to be merciful to the people.]
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.” They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.
The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ” The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.” But Moses implored the Lord, and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, “It was with evil intent that God brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” And the Lord relented, and chose not to bring disaster on the people.
PSALTER from Psalm 106
[ We praise God’s great deeds, and confess that like our ancestors we have sinned. As Moses convinced God to spare the people, we seek God’s mercy]
Praise the Lord!
O give thanks to the Beloved, who is good,
whose steadfast love endures forever.
Blessed are they who do justice,
whose lives are full of goodness.
O Power of Love, include me
as you set your people free.
Like our ancestors, we have done wrong;;
we have strayed from your delight.
Our forbears, when they were in Egypt,
distrusted your steadfast love.
God prodded the Red Sea and it dried up;
God led them through the deep as a desert.
But they made a calf in Horeb,
and worshiped an image they themselves had made.
They went along with everybody
and served the popular idols.
Save us, O Lord, from among the clamorers,
that we may honor you alone.
GOSPEL Matthew 21.33-46
[Jesus tells a parable: the workers in a vineyard rebel against the landowner, withholding the produce and beating his servants, and even his son. Leaders hearing the story assume the owner will also retaliate with violence, continuing the tragic spiral. Jesus suggests that another way, that has been rejected, is actually God’s preference. Nevertheless, his opponents still seek the way of force.]
A landowner planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
SERMON
SONG When Fear Lives Close Steve G-H
We pray for those who live in fear,
where secret hurt and shame live near,
that they may know your loving grace,
and find their way to freedom’s space.
And God of love, we pray for those
whose inner darkness overflows,
that those who wound, control or use
may be healed, too, their demons lose.
We pray, O God, that we may be
your gentle ones who set them free,
with deep respect, with love and prayer,
create a world of gentle care.
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
THE PRAYER OF JESUS
Our Mother and Father in heaven,
holy be your name.
Impose your Reign,
that we may do your will, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today this one days’ bread.
Forgive our wrongs
as we forgive those who do wrong against us.
Save us from our temptations
and keep us from doing evil.
For the Realm, the power,
and the glory are yours,
now and forever. Amen.
_____ We Are Sent in Ministry to the World______
OFFERING OUR GIFTS The Gifts We Bring David Paxton
OFFERING SONG Doxology Blue hymnal # 95
PRAYER
Gracious God, we give you these gifts as symbols of our lives. Receive them with love, bless them with grace and use them according to your delight. Use us and all our gifts, and make us gentle, strong and courageous, for the sake of the healing of the world, in the name of Christ. Amen.
NEW TESTAMENT Philippians 4
[Paul asks two women who are leaders in the church in Philippi to work together. He then exhorts us to be gentle, to rejoice in all things, and to fill our consciousness with whatever is good. In this way we will know God’s peace.]
My brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness reach out to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
* SONG Make Me a Channel of Your Peace Black hymnal #2171
* THE BLESSING AND SENDING FORTH
RESPONSE We stand and sing to our neighbors:
POSTLUDE All Glory Be To God On High J. S. Bach, arr: E. Power Biggs
[During the postlude there are people ready to pray with you at the candles in the corners.]