The Celebration of the Gospel
June 30, 2019 — Third Sunday after Pentecost
Go and declare how much God has done for you.
—Luke 8.39
________ We Gather as the Body of Christ______
GREETING
PRELUDE
[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: The Holy Spirit has given us life and pours on us the power to become new people!
All: The winds of the Spirit have given us breath
and the fire of the Spirit has kindled in us a love for God and each other.
Come here in faithfulness and be ready for the surprises that God’s Spirit brings.
We open our lives to the presence of God and trust God’s promises to us that we can live new lives of freedom and grace. May God help us to be true people of the Spirit, letting holy surprises fill our days.
* SONG – Come and Find the Quiet Center – Black hymnal # 2128
____________ We Attend to the Word__________
PRAYER
O holy God, we know the beauty of this June day and we are grateful. We experience the warm stirring of summer and the fullness of bountiful earth, and we are grateful. We share the love of family and friends and the family that is our church, and we are grateful. Through the grace of Christ Jesus, we know of the opportunity to bring new selves to this new day that we might worship with our community in joy and thanksgiving and be filled with the good news we would offer to everyone. For all these things we are deeply grateful. In Jesus’ love. Amen.
EPISTLE — Galatians 3.21-29
[The law has been our tutor, teaching us right from wrong, but we are justified before God not by our obedience, but by God’s love. Our faith, our trust in God’s grace, is what saves us. There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile—those who follow the law and those who don’t. There aren’t any distinctions at all. We are all God’s children.]
Is the law contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! If following laws could make us truly alive, then righteousness would come through following the law. But scripture makes clear that all things are imprisoned under the power of sin—that’s why we so desperately need the promise of faith we receive through Jesus Christ.
Before faith came, we had to be chaperoned by the law until faith would be revealed. The law was our disciplinarian. But then Christ came so that we might trust our belovedness in God. Now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God. All we have to do is trust that. You who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. God makes no distinctions—and we shouldn’t, either— between Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham and Sarah’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
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GOSPEL – Luke 8.26-39
[Jesus goes across the Sea of Galilee to the Gentiles, where he heals a man possessed by evil spirits. He sends the spirits into a herd of pigs (probably kept to feed the Roman Army) who rush into the lake and drown. The people are so upset they make him leave. The healed man wants to come with him, but Jesus sends him out on a new mission.]
They arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As Jesus stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”— for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.)
Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. Now there on the hillside, a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned.
The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.
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SERMON – Go and Tell (Rev. Wendell Luke)
SONG – Walk with Me – Black hymnal # 2242
* AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
from the Korean Methodist Church – Blue hymnal # 884
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 Ministry to the World____
OFFERING OUR GIFTS
* OFFERING SONG – Doxology – Blue hymnal #95
* 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. Send us into the world, eager to tell of your grace, ready to share 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 – We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations – Blue hymnal #569
* 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