The Celebration of the Gospel
August 18 , 2019 — 10th Sunday after Pentecost
“Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division!”
—Luke 12.51
________ We Gather as the Body of Christ______
GREETING
PRELUDE – Breathe on Me – Kurt Kaiser (Marie Machacek, Trombone)
[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, you have made us in your image.
All: Our being is your praise.
Loving Christ, you have blessed us with your mercy.
Our lives are your thanks.
Holy Spirit, you fill us with your grace.
Our service is our worship. In the power of your presence,
we bear your grace into the world, in the name of Christ.
* SONG – The God of Abraham Praise – Blue hymnal # 116
___________We Attend to the Word___________
PRAYER
God of Truth, you are who you are, not who we want you to be. Jesus was who he was, not who others pressured him to be. Your Spirit is in us as it is, not as others wish. You know us as who we are, not what others think of us. Speak to us now your truth; call us to your Word, that coming close to you we may come close to ourselves, and live out our true calling in this world. We pray in the name and the company and the courage of Jesus. Amen.
HEBREW BIBLE – Isaiah 5.1-7
[God asked us for justice but we produced bloodshed— as if we area vineyard that was planted to yield grapes but has produced bad fruit instead: So God wants to uproot the vineyard and start over.]
Let me sing a song concerning my friend’s vineyard: My friend had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. They dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; and built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it. They expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded bad fruit. And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield bad fruit?
And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the God above all is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are God’s pleasant planting; God expected justice, but saw bloodshed; expected righteousness, but heard a cry!
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* PSALTER – Psalm 80
[The psalm likely comes from the time of the exile in which Israel felt God’s “punishment.” Like Isaiah it uses the image of a vine: we are like a vineyard that is being plundered by our enemies, and we cry to God to restore us.]
Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock!
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim,
shine forth before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh.
Stir up your might, and come to save us!
Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
You have fed them with the bread of tears,
and given them tears to drink in full measure.
You make us the scorn of our neighbors;
our enemies laugh among themselves.
Restore us, O God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.
You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches;
it sent out its branches to the sea,
and its shoots to the River.
Why then have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
The boar from the forest ravages it,
and all that move in the field feed on it.
Turn again, O God of hosts;
look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
the stock that your right hand planted.
They have burned it with fire,
they have cut it down;
may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,
the one whom you made strong for yourself.
Then we will never turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call on your name.
Restore us, O Lord God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.
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NEW TESTAMENT Hebrews 11.29 – 12.2
[Remembering our spiritual ancestors who lived by faith—trusting God’s grace even when they couldn’t see it coming—and recalling the power of that faith. We should have courage and follow Jesus who is the “pioneer of our faith,” going on before us, showing us the way that we should follow.]
By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace.
And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were beheaded, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats. They were homeless, persecuted and tormented, yet the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. Yet all these, heroes of the faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not be made perfect. apart from us
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.
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GOSPEL Luke 12.49-57
[Jesus warns us: if we follow him in the way of peace and justice, healing and grace, people will be offended. Even loved ones will be against us. But Jesus urges us to ignore other people’s anxieties and instead stand firm and stay true to God’s truth and love.]
Jesus said: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!
Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?
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SERMON – You, not their idea of you
SONG – O Young and Fearless Prophet – Blue hymnal # 444
* AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
We trust in you, God, Creator of all; you have made each living being as an utterance of your Word; you call us to be true to the Word in which you have created us.
We follow Jesus, who fulfilled his calling as your Anointed One and embodied your love. He fed the hungry and healed the broken. He taught your truth when others did not want to hear; he loved and forgave those whom others rejected. He stood against systems of injustice, and for his resistance he was killed. But you raised him from the dead, and he reigns with you, and his mercy is our only judge.
We live by the power of your Spirit, enabling us to forgive unendingly, to trust radically the power of resurrection, to serve the world humbly yet fiercely as the Body of Christ. We thank you and we give ourselves to you, that in all things we may be true to the Gospel, by your grace. Amen.
* SONG – In God Alone – Jacques Berthier; based on Ps. 62
In God alone my soul can find rest and peace, in God my peace and joy.
Only in God my soul can find its rest, find its rest and peace.
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
THE PRAYER OF JESUS
(Ecumenical version, Blue hymnal # 894)
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours,
now and forever. Amen
SHARING THE PEACE OF CHRIST
______ We Are Sent in Ministry to the World_____
OFFERING OUR GIFTS – Be Thou My Vision – Irish Traditional, arr. James Curnow (Marie Machacek, Trombone)
* OFFERING SONG – Let There Be Peace On Earth – Blue hymnal #431
* 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. You have created us in your image; you have called us in your Word. Now send us out to serve, for the sake of the healing of the world, in the name and Spirit of Christ. Amen.
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
* SONG – How Firm a Foundation – Blue hymnal #529
* 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 – Foundation – arr. Bonnie Barrett