The Celebration of the Gospel
February 2 , 2020 — 4th Sunday after the Epiphany
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
—Matthew 5.3
_____ We Are Received as Children of God_____
GREETING
PRELUDE – Gather Us In – Marty Haugen, 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: When we hunger and thirst for God,
All: God satisfies us.
When we are weak or brokenhearted,
God comforts and heals us.
When we seek to be peacemakers and do justice, and despair of our smallness,
God empowers us.
God we thank you; we praise you; we worship you. Alleluia!
* SONG – All I Need Is You – Black hymnal #2080
_____ We Are Transformed by the Love of Christ____
(10:30) CHILDREN’S TIME
(10:30) THE WORD IN SONG – Blest Are They – David Haas
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 love, we confess we are broken.
We are in need of grace.
We are brokenhearted, hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
We are not whole by ourselves, but only in you.
Receive us with grace, heal our wounds
and forgive the sin that rises out of them.
SILENT PRAYER … THE WORD OF GRACE
RESPONSE – Come and Fill Our Hearts – Black hymnal #2157
PRAYER
Reader: Beauty is all around us, offered without cost.
All: What a gift! God, we praise you.
Love and healing are given to us, without regard or exception.
What a miracle! Jesus, we thank you.
Power is placed in us—not our own, but the power of grace.
What a wonder! Holy Spirit, we give ourselves to you in humility and service.
Speak your Word, that we may do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with you.
HEBREW BIBLE – Micah 6.6-8
[God has delivered us from slavery. What, then, shall we give God in return? Obedience to religious rules? No: God wants us to do justice, be kind, and walk humbly with God.]
SUNG RESPONSE:
Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.
Oh, help us humbly live your justice, your love, your mercy.
Leader: With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
All: Shall I come before God with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
God has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you?
To do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with our God.
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NEW TESTAMENT – 1 Corinthians 1.18-31
[The world values power and accomplishment; therefore the cross seems to be a sign of powerlessness and failure. Yet the cross is the sign of our salvation, because it reveals God’s grace that overcomes our sin and failure. God uses what is weak in the world to overcome what is strong. Our wisdom is foolish when we try to use it to figure out God and God’s grace.]
The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are thinking about something other than life, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning
I will thwart.”
Show me one who is wise. Show me a scholar. Show me a debater of this age. When it comes to understanding God, all their PhD’s are useless. Reason doesn’t work to come to know God. So God uses this news about the cross, and even though it sounds foolish, it saves those who trust it.
Religious people demand to see signs from God, and intellectuals want to figure everything out. But we are proclaiming Christ crucified, which sounds awful to the pious and makes no sense to the smart. But to those whom God calls, both Jews and gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
Dearly beloved, consider how God has called you. Not many of you were exceptionally wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were born of aristocrats. But God chose what seems foolish to this world to expose the foolishness of what we call wisdom. God chose what is weak to outdo the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are nothing at all, to reduce to nothing things that seem like a big deal.
So no one can boast in the presence of God. God is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us the living wisdom of God. God makes us authentic to ourselves, makes us holy for God’s purposes, and makes our lives invaluable to God. So, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in God.”
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GOSPEL – Matthew 5.1-12
[The Beatitudes, delivered on a mountain like Moses’ commandments, are the core of Jesus’ teaching: trust in God’s grace to bring blessing and life out of what appears to the world’s eyes to be weakness, barrenness and failure. In this trust, we live lives that are radically gentle, compassionate and courageous, serving for the sake of peace and healing.]
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.
Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the realm of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
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SERMON
SONG – Blessed – Steve G-H
Dear God, receive me anew, mourning and poor in my soul,
hungry for what makes me whole.
Bless me by making me simple like you.
Refrain: Blessed are the ones who have nothing but God,
for God and God alone shall fill their lives.
Mercy please grant me anew. Make my heart pure by your grace,
humble, that I may see your face.
Bless me by making me gentle like you. Refrain
Courage please give me anew, peace in the world to make,
and to suffer for your Gospel’s sake.
Bless me by making me faithful to you. Refrain
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
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 PEACE OF CHRIST
____ We Are Sent in the Power of the Holy Spirit__
OFFERING OUR GIFTS – Do With Me According To Thy Goodness – J. S. Bach
* OFFERING SONG – Doxology – Blue hymnal #94
* PRAYER
Gracious God, we give you our lives, symbolized in these gifts. Receive them with love, bless them with grace and use them according to your will. Strengthen our hearts to trust your grace, to be your peacemakers, to do justice, practice kindness, and walk humbly with you, for the sake of the healing of the world, in the name of Christ. Amen.
SONG from PRAYERS BEYOND BOUNDARIES
IV: Song of protection – Josef Kotler
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
* SONG – Make me a Channel – Black hymnal #2171
* 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 – He Keeps Me Singing – Luther Bridges, arr: Bill Wolaver