The Celebration of the Gospel
August 26, 2018 — 14th Sunday after Pentecost
The whole body is joined and knit together.
—Ephesians 4.16
________ We Gather as the Body of Christ______
GREETING
PRELUDE As The Deer Martin J. Nystrom
[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 all Creation, you call us to this place to worship,
along with people of every nation and language around the world.
All: With all your Beloved, we praise you and worship you!
Loving Christ, you gather us in one community, young and old, rich and poor,
giving and receiving the gift of your grace.
Grateful for one another, we join in love and service.
Holy Spirit, you breathe in each person, and each community,
giving us all the gift of one another.
We open our hearts to your gracious presence and worship with joy. Alleluia!
* SONG We Are the Church Blue hymnal # 558
____________We Attend to the Word__________
CHILDREN’S TIME
THE WORD IN SONG
PRAYER
God of love, we thank you for the gift of your church. We are part of the Body of Christ, the embodiment of your love, around the world. You speak to us in scripture and sharing, in prayer and song, and so we open our heart to listen, to be filled, to be changed. We pray in the name and Spirit of Christ. Amen.
OLD TESTAMENT Isaiah 56.6-8
[God declares that the temple will be open to the prayers of all people, not just native Israelites.]
All the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
to minister to God,
to love the name of the Lord,
and to be God’s servants,
all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it,
and hold fast my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel:
I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.
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* PSALTER Psalm 122
[The Psalm imagines pilgrims streaming to Jerusalem. To pray for the peace of Jerusalem—holy city of three major religions, and site of much conflict— is to pray for all people, trusting in God’s peace.]
I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of God!”
Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.
Jerusalem—built as a city that is bound firmly together.
To it the tribes go up, the tribes of God, as was decreed for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of God.
For there the thrones for judgment were set up,
the thrones of the house of David.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May they prosper who love you.
Peace be within your walls,
and security within your towers.”
For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say,
“Peace be within you.”
For the sake of the house of Yahweh
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NEW TESTAMENT 1 Corinthians 12.12-27
[The church is Christ’s body: we are all connected; we all have something to offer, and we need each other.]
Just as the body is one and has many members,
and all the members of the body, though many, are one body,
so it is with Christ.
In the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—
Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.
If the foot were to say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body”,
that would not make it any less a part of the body.
And if the ear were to say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,”
that would not make it any less a part of the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?
If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as God chose.
If all were a single member, where would the body be?
As it is, there are many members, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,”
nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.
But God has so arranged the body,
giving the greater honor to the inferior member,
that there may be no dissension within the body,
but the members may have the same care for one another.
If one member suffers, all suffer together with it;
if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
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GOSPEL Mark 3.31-35
[Jesus radically redefines “family,” those to whom we are related, loyal and responsible: it’s not blood relatives, but all who join in the work of God.]
Jesus’ mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my sisters and brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my sisters and brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
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SERMON One body
SONG The Servant Song Black hymnal # 2222
* AFFIRMATION OF FAITH from Ephesians 2.14-22; 4.11-16
Christ is our peace; in his flesh he has made us all into one and has broken down every dividing wall between us.
Christ has created in himself one new humanity, making peace, and reconciling all to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death all hostility through it.
Jesus came and proclaimed peace to those who were far off and peace to those who were near; in Christ all of us have access in one Spirit to God. So we are no longer strangers and aliens, but citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
In Christ the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom we are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.
God has given us various gifts to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
So we grow up in every way into the one who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
* SONG We Are One in Christ Jesus Black hymnal # 2229
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 Seek Ye First The Kingdom Of God Karen Lafferty, arr: Fred Bock
* 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. By your grace may we blend our gifts with one another and all your faithful around the world to serve you, for the sake of the healing of the world, in the name of Christ. Amen.
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
* SONG Bind Us Together Black hymnal #2226
* 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 A Mighty Fortress Is Our God Jan Zwart
[During the postlude there are people ready to pray with you at the candles in the corners.]