The Celebration of the Gospel
September 18, 2016 —18th Sunday after Pentecost
“What do you owe?” “A hundred vats of olive oil.” “Make it fifty.”
—Luke 16.6
________ We Gather as the Body of Christ______
GREETING
PRELUDE Improvisation On “COMFORT” Early American Tune, arr: Roy Brunner
[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: Creator God, for your infinite grace we praise you.
All: We praise you!
Loving Christ, for your amazing love we thank you.
We thank you!
Holy Spirit, in your life-giving power we worship you.
We worship you! Alleluia!
* SONG Your Love, O God Blue hymnal # 120
(10:30) CHILDREN’S TIME
____________We Attend to the Word__________
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Pastor: The grace of God is 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 love,
to see all that is in us that is loving,
and all that is not loving.
By the grace you show us in Christ,
forgive us, heal us, and perfect your love in us.
SILENT PRAYER … THE WORD OF GRACE
RESPONSE In the Lord I’ll Be Ever Thankful Black hymnal #2195
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Creator God, you speak the world into being. By your life-giving word you heal us and make us new. Speak your word to us now, lead us in the way of your grace. Amen
(10:30) OLD TESTAMENT Jeremiah 8.18-9.1
[The prophet utters a lament, an expression of anguish, but also of hope, and not despair, for God’s grace always prevails. Jeremiah laments the ruin of his people, because they are not faithful. Is there a balm, a source of healing, in the land? ]
My joy is gone, grief is upon me,
my heart is sick.
Hear the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion? Is our ruler not among us?”
God says, “Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,
with their foreign idols?”
The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.
For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?
O that my head were a spring of water,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
so that I might weep day and night
for the slain of my poor people!
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(10:30) THE WORD IN SONG Balm in Gilead Trad.; arr. Moses Hogan
NEW TESTAMENT 1 Timothy 6.6-19
[The writer warns against the love of money and invites us to practice contentment: to live faithfully with trust in Christ, whose dominion is eternal.]
There is great benefit in being content and centered in God. We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. If we have food and clothing, it is enough to be content with. Those who want to be rich are falling into temptation: they are letting themselves get trapped by senseless and harmful desires that plunge us into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. In hanging onto wealth some have wandered away from the faith and caused themselves a lot of pain.
But as for you, people of God, shun all this; pursue just relationships, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Stay true to the struggle of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Be mindful that God gives life to all things. Remember that Christ Jesus, in his testimony before Pontius Pilate bore witness to the truth. In their spirit I charge you to keep God’s commandment fully and faithfully until our Lord Jesus Christ appears. At the right time God will bring this about— God, who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the Ruler of all earthly rulers and power higher than all powers. It is God alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To God be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.
As for those who have worldly riches, command them not to look down on others, and not to set their hopes on their riches, which are uncertain, but to rely on God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share. In this way they will store up for themselves the kind of treasure they can live on in the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
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GOSPEL Luke 16.1-13
[Jesus tells about a manager who is about to be fired. He cooks his masters’ books, reducing the amount others owe him—and the master commends him. Luke then adds some zen koan-like statements about making friends with ill-gotten wealth (not likely uttered by Jesus in this context)—and Jesus’ aphorism that we can’t serve both God and wealth.]
Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich landowner who heard that a manager was squandering the property. So the landowner summoned the manager and said, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager thought, ‘What will I do, now that my employer is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’
So, summoning the landowner’s debtors one by one, the manager asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my employer?’ The debtor answered, ‘A hundred vats of olive oil.’ The manager said, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then the manager asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ They replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ The manager said, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And the landowner commended the dishonest manager for acting so shrewdly.
“The children of this age are more astute in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unjust wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with unjust wealth, who will entrust to you true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?
No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
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SERMON
SONG O Lord, Your Tenderness Black hymnal # 2143
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 Take Time To Be Holy arr: Lloyd Larson
* OFFERING SONG
We give Thee but Thine own,
Whate’er the gift may be;
All that we have is Thine alone,
A trust, O Lord, from Thee.
* 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 into the world as messengers of your forgiveness, for the sake of the healing of the world, in the name of Christ. Amen.
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
* SONG Freely, Freely Blue hymnal #389
* 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 Gloria Jean Titelouze
[During the postlude there are people ready to pray with you at the candles in the corners.]