The Celebration of the Gospel
July 24, 2016 —10th Sunday after Pentecost
Ask and you will receive. Search and you will find.
Knock and the door will be opened.
—Luke 11.9
________We Gather as the Body of Christ______
PRELUDE Canon in D Sebastian Quist
GREETING
CENTERING MUSIC We Are God’s People Johannes Brahms, arr: Fred Bock
[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: Ask, and it will be given to you.
All: Loving God, we ask for life and peace. Grant us your grace.
Search, and you will find.
Christ, we are searching for your Way, searching for Life. Grant us your grace.
Knock, and the door will be opened.
Spirit, we come knocking at the door of this moment.
Open to us, as we open our hearts to you, and grant us your grace.
* SONG Come Down, O Love Divine Blue hymnal # 475
CHILDREN’S TIME
____________ We Attend to the Word__________
THE WORD IN SONG Brother James’ Air Tune: MAROSA, arr: Gordon Jacobs (Summer Singers)
PRAYER OF THE DAY
God of love, Jesus has promised that you will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. We are asking you. In your Word, proclaimed here and pondered together and lived out in our lives, give us your Spirit. Amen.
NEW TESTAMENT Colossians 2.6-15
[Paul describes life in Christ. (“Christ” is not just a title for Jesus, but God’s physical presence, the Second Person of the Trinity. Jesus embodied that presence, and so does the Church, the Body of Christ. “Christ” refers not only to the person of Jesus but to the cosmic-yet-intimate presence of God that Jesus models.) Here Paul describes how we let Christ be the guiding power in our lives; other forces have no power over us.]
You received as a gift
God’s presence embodied in Jesus,
the captain of your soul.
Live as part of God’s embodied presence.
Root yourself deeply in Christ.
Grow and become more whole in your trust,
true to your experience, overflowing with gratitude.
Don’t let anyone hijack your faith with fear and lies, with selfish agendas,
with human prejudices and power structures.
Keep your trust in Christ.
Christ is a higher power than any ruler or authority.
Christ is the physical presence of divinity, in whom your lives are whole.
In Christ you have received God’s Covenant
through a transformation by the Spirit:
stepping beyond the limits of your fleshly bodies,
you became part of the Body of Christ
when you were buried with Christ in baptism and raised with Christ,
trusting in the power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
When you were dead, buried alive under your sins,
disconnected from the Covenant,
God gave you new life together with Christ:
God forgave all your sin,
ignoring all accounts of your failure to meet legal demands.
God destroyed these accounts, nailing them to the cross.
God disarmed all oppressive powers and spirits
and made a public display of them,
triumphing over them in the cross.
So hold fast to Christ, the head,
from whom the whole Body,
nourished and joined by the Spirit’s ligaments and sinews,
grows with a growth that is from God.
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GOSPEL Luke 11.1-13
[Jesus teaches a prayer. We have come to know Matthew’s version of the prayer, slightly amplified, as the Lord’s Prayer or the Prayer of Jesus. Jesus speaks of God’s generosity: ask and it will be given. Even a selfish person will go to the trouble to get up and give bread to a neighbor at midnight; won’t God be even more generous than that?]
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Abba, hallowed be your name. Your Empire come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of the neighbor’s persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will Abba God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.”
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SERMON
Our Mother, our Father, Source of our being,
your presence is heaven.
All Creation sings of you, “Holy!”
May your Realm unfold among us,
your desire be fulfilled,
this world blossoming out of your delight.
Give us the breath of life, one breath at a time.
Accept our brokenness;
give us acceptance of others who are broken.
Lead us beyond our desires
and save us from the grip of evil.
For the world is within you;
all power is from you,
and all glory is about you,
in eternity, which is in the present moment.
Amen.
SONG Seek Ye First Blue hymnal # 405
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
[Anyone who wishes may share a prayer concern at the microphone.]
THE PRAYER OF JESUS
Our Mother, 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.
PASSING THE PEACE
______We Are Sent in Ministry to the World____
OFFERING OUR GIFTS Gavotte G. F. Handel, arr: Joseph Prentiss
* OFFERING SONG Doxology 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. Root us in your love and send us in your peace for the sake of the healing of the world, in the name of Christ. Amen.
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
* SONG Sent Forth by God’s Blessing Blue hymnal #664
* 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 Lift Every Voice and Sing arr: Michael Ryan
[During the postlude there are people ready to pray with you at the candles in the corners.]