The Celebration of the Gospel
September 2, 2018 — 15th Sunday after Pentecost
Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
—James 1.22
________ We Gather as the Body of Christ______
GREETING
PRELUDE Fairest Lord Jesus. Folk Melody, arr: Fred Bock
[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: What does this worship need?
All: Quiet where faith can grow, song that blossoms hope, scripture that remembers love,
honest words to untangle a small length of knotty existence, gifts offering service of the heart.
Who shall come to this worship?
All who have prayer in the center of their lives and all who are lonely for the touch of God.
* SONG I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me. Black hymnal #2153
__________ We Attend to the Word_________
CHILDREN’S TIME
THE WORD IN SONG What a Wonderful World. Heather and Maggie Fernald
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Pastor: The grace of God is with you.
Congregation: And also with you.
Christ Jesus, our teacher and our savior, we have not listened for your word amid the clamor of words all around us. We are more pleased to repeat familiar tunes than to listen for new melodies and strange harmonies. We try harder to defend what we think we know than to reach for that which is beyond our grasp. Slow to trust, afraid of the unknown, we are cautious to hear and do your will. We pray for ears to hear the cries of our neighbors and for hearts which resonate with your Spirit. Silence us and instruct us until we learn afresh to sing the songs and speak the words of faith, hope, and love. Amen.
SILENCE
THE WORD OF GRACE
Pastor: There is no greater joy in the heart of God than the moment when a daughter or son opens to the gift of forgiveness. God’s Spirit reaches out to assure us of welcome in Christ.
Congregation: In the name of Jesus Christ we are God’s by Grace. With great joy, we are made alive. Thanks be to God. Amen.
RESPONSE Give Me a Clean Heart Black hymnal #2133
PRAYER
As we rise in the morning, Beloved One, may we don the garments of your truth. May we wear the mantle of protective blessing and shoes that will guide us on your path. May our every breath be a prayer, so that we might truly and fully proclaim the mystery of the gospel. It is through you and with you that we design our day. Amen.
NEW TESTAMENT James 1:17-27
[The letter says several things: • Everything is a gift from God. • We are children of God’s truth and clear expressions of God’s creativity. • Be quick to listen and slow to speak, and slow to anger. • We do not just hear the Word of God; we do it. • Real religion is both inward and outward: attention to our inner lives and compassion for the poor.]
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Creator of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of God’s own purpose, God gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of firstfruits of God’s creatures.
You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not serve God’s harmony. Therefore rid yourselves of every bit of filth in you, every vestige of hurtfulness, and humbly welcome the word God has planted in you, which has the power to save you.
Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they look like. But those who are mindful of the perfect law of God’s freedom, and actively put it into practice, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
Those who do not control their tongues deceive themselves. They may think they are religious, but their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Life-Giver, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their need, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
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GOSPEL Mark 7:1-8; 14-23
[Some religious authorities criticize Jesus for not observing religious traditions around cleanliness— which really was “next-to-Godliness.” But Jesus responds that it’s the inner life, and choices and actions that flow from it, not external circumstances, that define our spiritual state and our closeness to God.]
Now when the Pharisees and some of the religious scholars who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe: the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
and their doctrines are merely someone’s ideas.’
You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can make you unclean, but the things that come out are what make us impure. If you have ears to hear, then listen.”
When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come; promiscuity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, obscenity, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they are what make us impure.”
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SONG How Shall They Hear the Word of God Blue hymnal # 649
SERMON A Word to the Wise and the Wicked Rev. Wendell Luke, Jr.
SONG Heal Me, Hands of Jesus Blue hymnal # 262
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
[Anyone who wishes may share a prayer concern at the microphone.]
THE PRAYER OF JESUS
SHARING THE PEACE OF CHRIST
______We Are Sent in Ministry to the World_____
OFFERING OUR GIFTS Christ is My Life Johann Pachelbel
* OFFERING SONG Thank You, Jesus
Black hymnal #2081
* PRAYER
Holy One, whose heart abounds with gifts, receive this offering as sign of our intention to live surrounded by your mercy, inspired by your Spirit, open to the joy of your presence, hospitable to one another, and generous toward all of your world. Amen.
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
* SONG The Spirit Sends Us Forth to Serve
Black hymnal #2241
* 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 Allegro from Sonata No. 5 Benedetto Marcello