September 29, 2024

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

10:00am

 

 

WELCOME

 

OPENING PRAYER

Christ Jesus,
we come into your presence
from many different places.
We come with songs of joy
and shouts of gratitude.
We come carrying heavy burdens
and sighs of suffering.
As you welcome us into your house,
lift our burdens
and receive our praise.
Salt us with your grace
and flavor us with your mercy.
Bind us together,
that we may be at peace with one another
and be strengthened to go forth
in service to the world.
In your holy name, we pray. Amen.

 

PRELUDE                 “Lead On, O King Eternal”              Robert Thygerson

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

Our help is in the name of the Lord,

who made heaven and earth.

In speaking, in silence,
in movement, in stillness,
God is with us.
God alone saves us.
God alone helps us.
God alone sets us on the path of peace.

Let us worship our Lord and Helper!

 

*HYMN No. 269                   “Lead On, O King Eternal”

1 Lead on, O King eternal!
The day of march has come;
henceforth in fields of conquest
your tents shall be our home.
Through days of preparation
your grace has made us strong,
and now, O King eternal,
we lift our battle song.

2 Lead on, O King eternal,
till sin’s fierce war shall cease,
and holiness shall whisper
the sweet amen of peace;
for not with swords’ loud clashing,
nor roll of stirring drums;
with deeds of love and mercy
the heavenly kingdom comes.

3 Lead on, O King eternal:
we follow, not with fears,
for gladness breaks like morning
where’er your face appears;
your cross is lifted o’er us;
we journey in its light.
The crown awaits the conquest;
lead on, O God of might!

 

*CALL TO CONFESSION

We long to gloss over the messy parts of our stories: the deceit, the an- ger and the heavy grudges. But nothing is hidden from God. We come before God and one another with complete honesty, naming our sins that we might reclaim our name as God’s beloved children.

 

*PRAYER FOR CONFESSION

God, do you go silent when we perpetuate cycles of retaliation and violence? Does your silence mock our own silence in the face of un- checked weaponization and loss of life? Forgive us for our failure to speak out and speak up for the victims of violence in our midst and around the world. Open our ears and hearts to hold space for your voice to return to us: the voice of a better way of healing and hope for all people. Show us this faithful path and give us the courage to walk in it, even if for the very first time. We pray in the name of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

*SILENT PRAYER FOR CONFESSION

 

*ASSURANCE OF PARDON

Hear the good news: our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. We are a people set free from the harmful patterns of the past for a future God builds in our midst even now. We are whole people who are called to make this world whole, with God’s help.

 

*RESPONSE No. 1                “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!”          v.4

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!

 

*PASSING OF THE PEACE OF CHRIST

Since God has forgiven us in Christ, let us forgive one another.

May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

And also with you.

 

ANTHEM                  “Lord Make Me an Instrument of your Peace”     Jonathan Willcocks

RECEPTION OF NEW MEMBERS

 

Introductions

Ryan Coleman

Kathryn Coleman

Ines Gaudio

Tracy Grimes

Matthew Grimes

Heather Hills

 

Affirmation of Purpose

Beloved, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we welcome you into this household of faith. You are no longer strangers or sojourners, but are equal citizens with the saints and members of this household of faith, all of us together serving the great head of the church, Christ Jesus our Lord. You have confessed your faith in Jesus Christ by your participation in his work here in this church. Now, with this formal service, you will join us in full communion, accepting all of the privileges and responsibilities that accompany such a step of faith.

 

Membership Questions

Do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in the sight of God, justly deserving God’s displeasure, and without hope except in God’s sovereign mercy?

 

Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of sinners, and do you receive and depend upon Christ alone for your salvation as offered in the gospel?

 

Do you now resolve and promise, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, that you will endeavor to live as a follower of Christ?

 

Do you promise to serve Christ in the church by supporting and participating in its service to God and its ministry to others to the best of your ability?

 

Do you submit yourself to the government and discipline of the church and promise to further its purity and peace?

 

Congregational Question

To the members of the Presbyterian Church at Woodbury, will you welcome these fellow travelers in the life of this church, accepting them as full members, extending your friendship and prayers to them and supporting them fully as one of your own?

We will, with God’s help.

 

Prayer

Almighty and everlasting God, may your hand ever be over these, your servants – Ryan, Kathryn, Tracy, Matt, Ines & Heather, who have made this commitment to membership here today. May your Holy Spirit always be with them, and with all of us. Lead us all, together, in the knowledge and obedience of your Word that we may continue to serve you in this life and dwell with you in the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Declaration of Acceptance

In the name of Jesus Christ, we extend a hearty welcome to you. You are now full members of this church. May we, together, grow in our love of, faith in and understanding of our God, made known in our Lord Jesus Christ. We extend the right hand of fellowship to you.

 

CHILDREN’S MESSAGE

 

UNISON PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION

Please join me in the unison prayer…

If we are uncertain and weary, speak to us, O God. If we are grounded and hopeful, speak to us. If our faith feels solid and steady, speak to us, and if our faith feels shaky and tentative, speak to us. Keep speaking through your holy Word, O God, that we may find our voice in yours. Amen.

 

SCRIPTURE              Mark 9:38-50

³⁸John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”³⁹But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. ⁴⁰Whoever is not against us is for us. ⁴¹For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

 

⁴²“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. ⁴³If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. ⁴⁵And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. ⁴⁷And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

 

⁴⁹“For everyone will be salted with fire. ⁵⁰Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

 

Pause…

 

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God!!

 

SERMON                  “Shall We Be Literal?”

A friend of mine often says, “Sometimes the good news is bad news before it is good news.” That sure fits today’s gospel (Mark 9:38-50). Today’s gospel tells us that the prognosis is good – life, and peace with one another. But before that comes there is the treatment. And that’s the bad news. The treatment is radical and painful.

Last week we heard the disciples arguing about who is greatest (Mark 9:30-37). It did not, as I said, bring out the best in them. Today, rather than making themselves “last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35) as Jesus had instructed, John tells Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us” (Mark 9:38).

Did you catch that? This guy is doing the work of Jesus. But John and the other disciples try to stop him because he’s not doing it their way. He’s not one of them and they don’t approve.

John is blaming this other guy for getting in their way. He can’t see that he and the other disciples are the ones getting in the way. I wonder if that’s ever happened to you. When have you gotten in the way of yourself or another?

Jesus will have none of it. “Do not stop him,” he tells John and the others. Then he moves the focus from this other guy to the disciples. “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off” (Mark 9:43). “And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off” (Mark 9:45). “And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out” (Mark 9:47).

Jesus isn’t talking about this other guy; he’s talking about his own disciples. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Don’t you worry about that other one. You worry about yourself. In what ways are you a stumbling block to yourself?”

What do you make of all that? What does that mean for your life and my life? Stumbling blocks, amputations, and tearing out eyeballs. What are we supposed to do with that?

Several things strike me about today’s gospel.

It’s Not Literal—First, to state the obvious, it doesn’t look to me as if any of you have amputated one of your limbs or torn out one of your eyes. So, I’m guessing that either you’ve never stumbled or you’re not reading today’s gospel literally. I’m betting it’s the latter.

Any stock we might put in a simplistic and literal reading of scripture loses its credibility and value with a story like today’s. That doesn’t mean we should interpret away the shock and harshness of Jesus’ words. It means that our interpretation must include and apply that shock and harshness in our lives.

Jesus is not administering a punishment; he’s prescribing the treatment. And it is radical. It cuts to the very core of our integrity and authenticity. We tend to focus on and cringe at the treatment, but Jesus is focused on the prognosis, on our future. He sees it as a matter of life or eternal separation from God. And you and I choose which we want.

Jesus is Serious—The second thing that strikes me is the graphic nature of the images Jesus uses: drowning by millstone, the amputation of hand or foot, the torn-out eyeball, the unquenchable fire, hell, the worm that never dies. Those images reveal just how serious and urgent this matter is for Jesus.

Jesus is trying to get our attention. He’s trying to wake us up. He wants us to see the ways in which we are unbecoming ourselves, like salt that has lost its saltiness. He’s showing us that sometimes we betray and turn away from our true selves. That’s when we stumble. And he’s showing us the way back to ourselves.

We don’t need to take those images literally, but do we need to take them seriously. Jesus uses those images four times to talk about what is better for us. “It is better for you,” he says. This gospel is not about condemnation. It is about getting better, about healing. And that means facing some difficult truths about ourselves.

Facing Ourselves—And that’s the third thing that strikes me about today’s gospel. I know exactly what Jesus is talking about. I know times in my life when I have tripped over my own two feet. And I know times when I have caused you or someone else to stumble and fall. And I’ll bet you know what that likes too.

I wonder in what ways you and I have become stumbling blocks to ourselves and one another? The two are related. Every time I stumble and fall, I take down someone with me. John and the disciples tripped over themselves before they ever became a stumbling block to the other guy doing Jesus’ work.

Think about it like this. When have you said to yourself, “I’m my own worst enemy?” Or maybe you’ve thought, “I just shot myself in the foot.” Have you ever cut off your nose to spite your face? Have you ever done the same old thing even though you knew it wouldn’t get you anything or anywhere new? Those are the moments that describe and point to ways that we have become our own stumbling block.

Think about the metaphors for stumbling blocks Jesus uses in today’s gospel: our hands, feet, and eyes. The very thing that becomes a stumbling block is intended to be a building block for our lives and the lives of others.

Our hands are meant to mold and shape life, to welcome and embrace, to reach out and care, to create, protect, and heal. They are a symbol of action. When have you mishandled a relationship or situation, fumbled the ball of life, held the wrong ideas or allegiances? When have your hands done violence to yourself or another? When have your open and receptive hands become closed fists? In what ways have your hands caused you stumble?

Our feet are meant to move us towards life and more life, to take us to new ways of being, to get us to a better place. They symbolize movement and growth. They can be the means by which we come together or the means by which we trip or kick another. In what ways have you tripped over your own two feet? What places have you gone that were not good for you? When have you stepped on, kicked, or tripped another? When and from whom have you walked away?

Our eyes are meant to see beauty, wisdom, and the holiness of each other and ourselves. They are intended to perceive and discern truth. They offer insight and give us a vision of what faith, hope, and love look like in our lives and relationships. In what ways has your vision been impaired and caused you stumble? When have you walked in the dark, unable to see what was right before you? When have you misperceived the truth and made a wrong judgment? When have you looked at another with anger, hatred, resentment, jealousy?

What is causing you to stumble today? How are your hands, feet, or eyes tripping you up or taking someone else down? In whatever ways you might answer those questions, let your answers be a diagnosis, not a judgment. Let them be a diagnosis of the broken, wounded, and hurting places in your life.

A Prescription—if we truly want to be better, we know what we need to do. That’s the bad news before the good news. It’s a hard prescription.

Jesus prescribes cutting off and tearing out. That’s pretty extreme but here’s the paradox in Jesus’ prescription. We amputate in order to become whole. We cut off in order to reconnect. And we separate in order to return. Maybe that’s what it means to have salt in ourselves – to regain our integrity and authenticity and be at peace with one another.

This gospel is not about good and bad. It’s a gospel of hope, healing, and wholeness. It’s a gospel about accountability to our better selves and to one another.

I wonder what Jesus’ prescription looks like in your life today. What do you need to let go of and empty your hands of? What do you need to walk away from? What places do you need to avoid? What do you need to close your eyes to? What is distorting your vision that you need to turn away from?

I think we came here today because at some level, whether we know it or not, we want to get well. We want to be whole and made better. We have the prescription for our healing and wholeness. Let’s not put it in the junk drawer thinking that we’ll get to it in a few days. What would it take for you to fill the prescription today?

 

 

 

Liturgy and Commentary provided by The PC(USA) Book of Common Worship, the Presbyterian Outlook, Nanette Sawyer, Whitney Wilkinson Arreche, Michael K. Marsh, Leonard Vander Zee, and Ludwig L. Weaver.

 

*AFFIRMATION OF FAITH

from the Barmen Declaration

As Jesus Christ is God’s assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins, so in the same way and with the same seriousness is he also God’s mighty claim upon our whole life. Through him befalls us joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to God’s Creatures.

 

We reject the false doctrine, as though there were areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ, but to other lords – areas in which we would not need justification or sanctification through him.

 

*HYMN No. 613                    “O Lord, Our Lord”              2xs

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
O Lord, we praise your name.
O Lord, we magnify your name:
Prince of Peace, mighty God;
O Lord God Almighty.

 

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
O Lord, we praise your name.
O Lord, we magnify your name:
Prince of Peace, mighty God;
O Lord God Almighty.

 

THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE & THE LORD’S PRAYER

God our creator,
Christ our friend,
Spirit our guide,
we spend so much time straining to hear your voice,
picturing a booming baritone from the heavens startling us with words of power.

 

But that is not how you often speak to us, is it?

You speak in the cry of a child who has lost her homeland.

You speak in the desperation of a mother who feels the thunder of bombings,
and who finds it in herself to sing a song of calm to her children. You speak in the terror of parents receiving alerts on their phones that their child’s school is on lockdown.

 

You speak in teachers putting their bodies on the line when they should never have to.
In all the heartbreaking moments of human history,
in the illness,

in the poverty,
in the racism,
in the bigotry,
in the injustice,
in the terrible cycles of violence, you are there.

 

You speak not as a booming voice,
but in the quietness of tears falling on stunned cheeks.
You speak in the quiet resolve of not one more lost life.
You speak in the quiet everyday heroism of people who act
for policies and protections against unfettered violence and weaponization.
You are still speaking in it all,
just as you were speaking in the time of Esther and Vashti.
Speak to us all a word of building a new world,
where tears and violence and even death are no more.
Where life is for all people,
not in a vague spiritual sense
but a material life of enough and safety
for all of your children.

Speak to our hardened hearts, O God.

We will listen and act.

Hear these prayers from your people, God, as we pray the prayer our Savior taught us, “Our Father….”

 

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. Forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.  For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

MINUTE FOR MISSION                JOHNSONBURG                 _____________________

 

OFFERING OF TITHES & OFFERINGS

We make our offering before God, not as payment for a grace we could never afford, but as an act of commitment and gratitude for the God who builds a new world in our midst, even now. We do not give out of guilt or pride. We give out of joy, trusting that God will use these gifts for the good of all people.

 

OFFERTORY

 

*RESPONSE N0. 609                      “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow”

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.
Praise God, all creatures high and low.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Praise God, in Jesus fully known:
Creator, Word, and Spirit one.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

*PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

Accept all that is offered in this place this day, O God. Accept our material commitments to build a more peaceable family on this earth and in our own communities. Accept our personal commitments to become a people who break cycles of hatred and retaliation, in both large-scale and everyday ways. Use these gifts, and use us messy people, for the rebuilding of a world of hope and healing in your name, Amen.

 

*HYMN No. 644                   “Give Thanks, O Christian People”

1 Give thanks, O Christian people,
for workers of our day
who heed the call to service
and make it their life’s way
to go to feed the hungry,
to tend to those in need,
to work for equal justice,
till all God’s folk are freed.

2 Give thanks, O Christian people,
for leaders of our years
who live to share with others
our joy when Christ appears,
to teach the ones who seek light,
to guide the faltering feet,
to lead the followers forward
our living Lord to meet.

3 Give thanks, O Christian people,
for all who love the Lord,
who live each day believing
in God’s eternal Word:
to share Christ’s love in living,
to witness with each deed,
to use the talents given
to plant the gospel seed.

4 Give thanks, O Christian people,
for life in fellowship
with all who trust our Savior
their serving to equip:
to ease another’s burdens,
to cope in joy and stress,
to magnify God’s message
and Christ’s great love confess.

 

*BENEDICTION

We will not always get this human story right.

But – even in silence – God never abandons us.

We are a people made for delight, and joy, and justice.

We are called very good.

We will walk with integrity.

We will speak with courage.

Blessed by God, we will change this world – and ourselves – for the better.

In the name of God in community, Three-in-One, may it be so. Amen.