The Celebration of the Gospel
Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 29, 2014
Caravaggio, The Sacrifice of Isaac
“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah,
and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”
—Genesis 22.2
9:30 am
______________ We Gather as The Body of Christ______________
GREETING
PRELUDE Prelude Henry Purcell
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Eternal God, Spirit of Love, we worship you.
All: Creating God, Renewing God, we worship you.
Transforming God, Bewildering God, we worship you.
Disorienting, Re-orienting God, we worship you.
Come, upset our ways and reshape us according to your Spirit. Amen.
* SONG How Like a Gentle Spirit Blue hymnal #115
CHILDREN’S TIME
_____________________ We Attend to the Word_____________________
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, we confess that we have acted
on our beliefs and impulses,
and not always by your leading.
All that we have done, and not done, we hold up to your light.
Forgive us, heal us, and form us more deeply
to your image in Christ, by your Spirit in us.
SILENT PRAYER … THE WORD OF GRACE
RESPONSE
God in your mercy you are forgiving.
Now in our living we give you praise,
bearing your grace that blesses and frees us,
following Jesus all of our days.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Eternal God, you who call us to hear and obey, we still our hearts to listen for your voice, coming to us now, coming to us new, to give us life and set us free. Speak to us, for we are ready. Amen.
OLD TESTAMENT Genesis 22.1-14
[Abraham begins to sacrifice his son Isaac, but offers a ram instead. This might be the story not of an individual, but a culture coming to reject child sacrifice.]
After these things God tested Abraham. God said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” God said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.”
Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together. When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.
But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
PSALTER Psalm 13
[A lament that gives voice to our feeling of being abandoned by God, yet trusts in God’s grace.]
God, have you forgotten me forever?
Do I even matter to you?
Why are you so hard to find?
How long will I argue with myself about you,
this dark pit in my heart all day long?
How long will this dark adversary
loom over me?
Give me an answer, God—any answer.
Let there be light in my eyes,
not this sleep, this death.
I can hear my adversary now: ” I win.”
I can see them gloat over my lifeless soul.
But I trust your kindness like the earth itself.
You rescue me, and I rejoice.
I will sing to you, Beloved,
because you always so lovingly pick me up.
NEW TESTAMENT Romans 6.12-23
[We are slaves: we give ourselves over to some power or other. But in Christ we are no longer slaves of sin, but slaves of justice.
Don’t let selfish anxiety rule over you and trap you in its desires. Don’t offer yourself as a tool of injustice, but—mindful that you have been brought from death to life—make yourself available to God as instruments of justice. Self-centered fear won’t have any power over you, because you are not subject to requirements, you are recipients of God’s grace. Now, if we’re not accountable to some rule book, but receive God’s grace, then shall we just haul off and do whatever we want? By no means! You will either enslave yourself to anxious fear, which leads to death, or to harmony with God, which leads to justice. Thanks be to God that even though you were once slaves of injustice, you have become obedient deep in your hearts to the way of living taught to you: freed from your sin, you became forever committed to justice.
I use these human metaphors because of your weak human nature. You used to let yourself get all bound up in selfishness and hurtfulness; but now, allow yourselves to be made holy by being used as instruments of justice. When you were slaves of sin you felt no need to work for justice. But what did it get you, other than being ashamed? The end of all that is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and have offered yourselves to God in obedience, you are made holy. You experience eternal life. The wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
GOSPEL Matthew 10.34-39
[Jesus says he has come to bring a sword: not a violent weapon, but a force for change and a truth that divides us from things we cling to—and that causes division and disagreement even among loved ones.]
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a son against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be members of one’s own household.
“Whoever loves father or mother, son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
SERMON
SONG God of Mystery
God of mystery, always calling,
in my heart your love has stirred,
calling me to follow humbly,
and obey the voice I’ve heard,
giving you my all, my treasure,
trusting in your gracious Word.
God of mystery, still creating,
move my spirit as I pray.
Give me faith to change my living,
paths I’ve followed all my days.
Stay my hand from ill, providing
grace to walk in blessed new ways.
God of mystery, now redeeming,
still is Isaac bound in me?—
dear, yet sacrificed to duty?
Speak your Word and set me free.
Give this child your life, your blessing,
freedom for eternity.
* AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
We love and trust God, Eternal Creator, the Source of all Being and the giver of the laws of life, whose word of love is unchanging, though our understanding is imperfect and incomplete.
We follow Jesus, God’s Christ, who embodied God’s love, who taught and healed, who enacted God’s law of love in new and radical ways. He gave himself completely in love; he was crucified; yet God raised him from death, transforming the law, and even life and death. He sets us free and leads us in lives of radical self-giving.
We live by the Holy Spirit, the living breath of God in us, who empowers us to live lives of grace and compassion, trusting in the power of forgiveness, the blessing of community, the reality of resurrection and the coming of God’s Reign of mercy and justice. In all, we give God thanks, and we give God our lives. Amen.
* SONG
Christ, your good news we share in thanksgiving,
gratefully living as you have done.
Make us your Body, faithfully sharing,
loving and caring, serving as one.
THE WORD IN MUSIC Premiere Arabesque Claude Debussy (trans. Renie)
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
PASSING THE PEACE
___________ We Are Sent in Ministry to the World___________
OFFERING OUR GIFTS Rouet Alphonse Hasselmans
* OFFERING SONG
Send us in love now, Great Holy Spirit.
All we inherit is ours to give.
Set us to healing, humbly expressing
your gracious blessing that makes us live.
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. Send us with hearts full of 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 Are Marching Black hymnal # 2235
* 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 Oriental Dance Aram Khatchaturian
[During the postlude there are companions by the prayer candle
who will pray with anyone who so wishes.]