The Celebration of the Gospel
August 30, 2015 — 14th Sunday after Pentecost
It is not what goes into your mouth that defiles, but what comes out.
— Mark 7.15
______ We Gather as the Body of Christ________
GREETING
PRELUDE I Surrender All W. W. Weeden, arr: Brian Buda
[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 and truth, by your Word we live.
All: Help us to hear your Word.
Christ, Living Word of God, you come to us in love.
Make us new by your Word.
Holy Spirit, Wisdom of God within us, guide us by your light.
Help us to embody your Word by your grace, in the name of Christ. Amen.
* SONG Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah Blue hymnal #127
___________ We Attend to the Word___________
THE WORD IN SONG
My Good Lord’s Done arr. Moses Hogan (Beth Bennett, soprano)
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 your love.
We bring to mind those ways that your grace is at work in us, and we give thanks.
[Silent prayer…]
We bring to mind all that is not loving in us, and ask your healing and forgiveness.
[Silent prayer…]
THE WORD OF GRACE
RESPONSE Holy, Holy, Holy Black hymnal #2007
PRAYER OF THE DAY
God of grace, you give us your law not to restrict us but to set us free. Help us by your grace to hear and understand, to listen and discern; to know and choose wisely. By your Holy Spirit, your Word in Christ, alive in us, guide us in the way of your Wisdom. Amen.
OLD TESTAMENT Proverbs 2.1-15
[Listen to God’s Wisdom—not a set of instructions or explanations, but the living Word of God who accompanies us, leads us in the way of compassion and justice.]
My child, if you accept my words
and treasure up my commandments within you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
if you indeed cry out for insight,
and raise your voice for understanding;
if you seek it like silver,
and search for it as for hidden treasures—
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom;
from God’s mouth come knowledge and understanding;
God stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
the Lord is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
guarding the paths of justice
and preserving the way of faithful people.
Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
enlightenment will whine on you;
and understanding will guard you.
It will save you from the way of evil,
from speaking perversely,
from forsaking the paths of uprightness
or walking in the ways of darkness,
from delight in doing evil
or pleasure in being hurtful;
My wisdom will save you from paths that are crooked,
and ways that are devious.
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PSALTER How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place, Steve G-H (Psalm 84)
[God’s “dwelling place” is the temple in Jerusalem, and also God’s presence with us. The song invites us to live in God’s presence, in God’s “house.” All of us, even wild creatures as insignificant as sparrows, are at home there. ]
How lovely is your dwelling place. We find our home in you, O God.
Even the sparrow finds a place in the perfect sanctuary of your grace.
- My heart and flesh sing out to you. My soul cries out to be with you.
Our love is in you….
2. Blessed are they who live in you, who put their trust in you alone.
Our hope is in you….
3. A day within your house, O Lord, is better than a year without.
Our joy is in you….
4. I’ll be a servant in your house, rather than rich and on my own.
Our heart is in you….
NEW TESTAMENT James 1.17-27
[This passage 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: it is 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 fulfilment of God’s own purpose God gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits 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 from Mark 7.1-23
[Some leaders criticize Jesus for not observing religious traditions around cleanliness, which 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.
“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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SERMON
SONG Be Thou My Wisdom Steve G-H
Be thou my Wisdom and grant me your sight.
Help me to see by your love’s perfect light.
Love, be my compass, my balance, my Way:
guide from within what I choose day by day.
Grant me the wisdom to seek and to learn,
to pray for your leading and wait and discern.
Help me to listen with all of my heart,
listen for all of the Truth you impart.
Grant me your Wisdom: a heart that’s made pure,
courage to follow a love that is sure.
Led by your Spirit, listening still,
help me to know and to follow your will.
* AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
We trust in God, whose Word creates all that is, whose Wisdom is life itself.
We follow Jesus, God’s Word made flesh, who taught and healed, who loved and liberated, and who continually renews in us the ways of God’s love. In love he gave himself and was crucified; in love he was raised from the dead. Christ will come again and again to give us wisdom and guide us in the ways of God.
We live by the power of the Holy Spirit, God’s loving Wisdom alive in us. By God’s Spirit, as the Body of Christ, we live in the way of Jesus, choosing love and forgiveness, healing and justice. To this we give our lives, praying that always God will unite us, redeem us, guide us and empower us in the name and Spirit of Christ. Amen.
* SONG Holy, Holy, Holy Black hymnal #2007
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
[Anyone who wishes may share a prayer concern at the microphone.]
PASSING THE PEACE
______ We Are Sent in Ministry to the World_____
OFFERING OUR GIFTS Pastorale On “Blessed Assurance” arr: Robert Lau
* OFFERING SONG Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow Blue hymnal #94
* 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 will. Plant your Word in us and send us to serve under the guidance of your love for the sake of the healing of the world, in the name of Christ. Amen.
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
* SONG Guide My Feet Black hymnal #2208
* 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 Postlude on “WEBB” arr: Jason D. Payne
[During the postlude there are people ready to pray with you at the candles in the corners.]