The Celebration of the Gospel
March 24, 2019 — Third Sunday in Lent
Unless you repent you will perish.
—Luke 13.5
________We Gather as the Body of Christ______
GREETING
PRELUDE – Here At Your Table, Lord – Tune: BREAD OF LIFE, arr: Mark Hayes
[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: Creator God, we come before you in humility and awe.
All: You receive us with love; you bless us with grace.
Loving Christ, you invite us to your table. We come with hunger and gratitude.
You welcome us gently; you feed us abundantly.
Holy Spirit, you work in us to re-shape us according to your will.
We open our hearts to your gracious work.
* SONG – Just As I Am – Blue hymnal # 357, v. 1, 3, 62
____________ We Attend to the Word__________
(10:30) CHILDREN’S TIME
(10:30) THE WORD IN SONG – Now All The Vault of Heaven Resound
arr. Cathy Moklebust (Bells of St. Mattew’s)
PRAYER
God of love, you call us to repentance: you offer us love we decline to receive, and fail to share with others. Help us reclaim your love in our hearts. By your loving spirit re-shape us as vessels of your love. You are the potter; we are your clay. In the Spirit of Christ, speak to us and make us new. Amen.
HEBREW BIBLE Isaiah 55.1-3, 6-9
[Today’s scriptures speak of repentance, and hunger for God’s grace. Isaiah calls us to repentance, to stop working for what does not nourish our souls. God says, “My ways are not your ways.” We need to change our ways, not to avoid punishment, but because our sin is starving us, while God’s ways truly nourish us.]
Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live.
Seek Yahweh while you can;
call on God, who is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways and the evil one their thoughts.
Let them turn to Yahweh, and God will have mercy on them,
turn to the Holy One, for God will freely pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares God.
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
+
(10:30) NEW TESTAMENT 1 Corinthians 10.1-6, 12-13
[Paul warns that simply “being a Christian” will not satisfy our hunger and thirst for righteousness, any more than simply being with Moses and eating the divinely provided food was enough to save the Hebrews on the way to the Promised Land. We have to truly change our ways.]
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did.
So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing God will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.
+
GOSPEL Luke 13.1-9
[Jesus opposes the belief that God punishes sinners with suffering. God is like a patient gardener who will give an unfruitful tree another year to produce. God does not punish sin, Jesus says, but gives life. Therefore unless we repent, that is, turn to God, we will perish. To bear fruit, first we ourselves need to be nourished.]
There were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
Then he told this parable: “A landowner had a fig tree planted in a vineyard; and they came looking for fruit on it and found none. So they said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ The gardener replied, ‘Boss, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
+
SERMON The gift of repentance
SONG – Change My Heart, O God – Black hymnal # 2152
SILENT MEDITATION
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Pastor: The grace of God is 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 gentle mercy,
we confess our sin,
for even the brokenness we don’t see
keeps us from loving perfectly.
Receive us, forgive us,
relieve us of our burdens,
and set us free.
Forgive us, God; in your infinite grace forgive us.
SILENT PRAYER … THE WORD OF GRACE
RESPONSE- O Lord, Your Tenderness – Black hymnal #2143
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
[Anyone who wishes may share a prayer at the microphone.]
SHARING THE PEACE OF CHRIST
___________We Share at Christ’s Table _________
OFFERING OUR GIFTS
8:15: Breathe On Me, Breath Of God – arr. Jason Krug (Ringtones)
10:30: My Faith Looks Up To Thee – Lowell Mason
* COMMUNION SONG – This Is a Day of New Beginnings
Blue hymnal #383
THE GREAT THANKSGIVING
THE PRAYER OF JESUS
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
SHARING THE HOLY MEAL – At the Table arr. Jason Krug (Ringtones)
[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. You have fed us with your love, and made us into vessels of your love. Send us into the world to bless and to serve, in the loving spirit and company of Jesus. 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 A Mighty Fortress arr: Hal Hopson