March 1, 2026
CHIMING OF THE HOUR
WELCOME
PRAYER
God, you loved the world so much
that you embraced it in all its suffering
in your beloved Son Jesus Christ,
who sought the way of the cross
that he might come to Easter
and offer us the way back to you.
We thank you for this space apart,
not just on this Sunday morning
but in the weeks that are to come –
space to become more receptive
to the incredible promise of new life:
life to challenge all that is deathly in our world,
life to challenge all that is dull in our hearts.
Help us to use this time,
not just in prayer at worship,
but in the thoughtfulness
in which we go about these coming days,
listening for your voice in all we do,
as you challenge the habits that restrict us
and the assumptions that close our minds.
Help us also to be aware of others
who at this time are examining themselves,
whether from religious duty
or because they have reached a turning point,
in a career, or in a relationship, or in a crisis.
Give us an ear that listens
that we may find the words to sustain
and the openness to learn
through Jesus Christ,
our deliverance and our hope. Amen.
PRELUDE “Prelude on ‘Beach Spring’” William Pasch
CALL TO WORSHIP
The Lord God keeps us, saves us,
and protects us in times of trouble.
Our help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
Even when fear strikes us,
we know that we are safe,
for we belong to God.
We shall never be shaken or moved,
for we are shadowed by God’s almighty hand.
We lift our voices together in thanks and praise.
*HYMN No. 442 “Just as I Am, without One Plea”
1 Just as I am, without one plea
but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou biddest me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come; I come!
2 Just as I am, though tossed about
with many_a conflict, many_a doubt,
fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come; I come!
3 Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
because thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come; I come!
4 Just as I am, thy love unknown
has broken every barrier down;
now to be thine, yea, thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come; I come!
CALL TO CONFESSION
We need God’s help. Therefore, let us approach God’s throne of grace and honestly confess all that keeps us from right relationship.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Gracious God, as we wander through the wilderness this Lent, we are aware of our need for your presence, your love, your guidance on life’s journey. Forgive us for turning away from you. Forgive our doubt and uncertainty that led us to place our faith in worldly comforts that don’t run deep enough and don’t last. We come to your well this Lent desperate and thirsty for Christ’s living water. Quench our thirst, we pray. Grant us your forgiveness and your grace. Amen.
Silence is observed
RESPONSE AFTER CONFESSION NO. 575 “Lord, Have Mercy Upon Us”
Choir Lord, have mercy upon us;
Christ, have mercy upon us;
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Congregation Lord, have mercy upon us;
Christ, have mercy upon us;
Lord, have mercy upon us.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Know that you are forgiven in Jesus Christ, and be at peace. Amen.
RESPONSE AFTER ASSURANCE NO. 603 “Lamb of God”
Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world:
have mercy, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world:
grant us, O grant us your peace.
*PASSING OF THE PEACE OF CHRIST
Before the foundation of the world Christ forgave us, and forgives us still today. Let us forgive as we have been forgiven and share the peace of Christ.
May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
And also with you.
Worshippers are invited to briefly “pass the peace” of Christ to those directly seated around them thus keeping our worship time “decent and in order” with a focus upon being part of God’s community.
ANTHEM “Take My Life” Craig Courtney
UNISON PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Loving God, fountain of every blessing, open us to your life-giving Word, and fill us with your Holy Spirit so that living water may flow through our hearts — a spring of hope for a thirsty world. Amen.
SCRIPTURE John 3:1-17
3Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 3Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”10Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Pause…
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!!
SERMON “Questions of Faith”
This morning I’d like to talk with you about faith questions. And, if I can, I would like to say a blessing to all of us who ask questions about our faith. Especially when, maybe, we feel guilty for asking, or doubt our own integrity in asking, or who wonder if we – who have questions – are really imposters in the community of faith, where everyone else seems to be so confident.
Nicodemus is perhaps the typical seeker and questioner of the Gospels, and he only shows up in John’s account. He was a Pharisee, meaning that he was a leader in the Jewish community and a religious scholar. Nicodemus was well-versed in scripture and tradition. He could have answered many questions, but he also had his own questions. He had encountered Jesus as a rabbi sent from God, and so came to Jesus for a heart to heart talk. John often tells us the time of day in many of his stories, and I think the time of day here is telling. Nicodemus came at night, in the dark, in private… because he wanted to ask his questions in private, away from the eyes and ears of others.
I’ve met Nicodemus so many times, and so have you. After a service, someone will hang back to talk for a minute, and say, “I understand what you were saying, but I’m not sure I believe it. I wrestle with this part. What about this?” A person once asked me to come to their home for a cup of coffee because there was something he needed to share one-on-one. After we sat down and made some small talk, the conversation went like this:
“I’m afraid you’ll think I’m an imposter, but I just don’t know what I believe. I was raised a Christian; I’ve been active in the church all my life. The church reflects my values, my tradition, I love the people, the music – but I have a lot of questions about what I believe. If I had been born in Asia, I might have been a good Buddhist. I could probably be a good Reformed Jew. But I happen to be a Christian, and I feel sometimes like an imposter. I see others believe, and I admire them; but I have a lot of questions.”
Some version of that conversation has happened so many times, I wish I could get you all in the same place. Everyone thinks they’re the only one. “It’s just me.” “I’m the one who doesn’t fit.” “Everyone else sings the hymn with confidence.” “Everyone else says the creed and doesn’t trip over any lines.” “I’m the only one.” But you’re not alone. The tribe of Nicodemus is large.
Sometimes we think that having faith is the opposite of having questions, that faith provides the answers to questions. But the truth is that questions are a part of faith. Every statement of faith contains the seeds of a hundred and more questions.
“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth….” Is there really a God, and if so, what is God’s nature? Is God really a personal being, as the Jewish and Christian creeds insist? Does the world have meaning; and do our individual lives in it have meaning; or are we just perpetually spinning? Why do earthquakes decimate impoverished places? Why do good people get terrible cancers?
“I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord….” Jesus was a wise teacher, one of the best the world has ever known, but was he divine? Did he work miracles? Did he rise from the dead? Can we believe in a resurrection for ourselves, and what on earth would that look like?
“I believe in the Holy Spirit, and the holy catholic church….” And what about the church? How can an institution that calls itself the body of Christ be so fallible, be so often unloving, and sometimes do so much harm?
Every statement of faith contains within itself the seeds of a hundred and more questions.
When he was talking with Jesus, Nicodemus – who was himself a teacher – asked two questions, and Jesus pushed him into deeper both times. He began by giving the group consensus that Jesus was a good rabbi sent from God. That’s why he was there. But Jesus pressed him further, saying, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” This language, this way of talking about the kingdom, confused Nicodemus and he asked his first question: how can someone be born twice?
To that, Jesus gave an even more puzzling answer, about the Spirit and the wind blowing where it will, to which Nicodemus was clearly astonished and confused. In the firelight, alone with Jesus, astonished, Nicodemus, asked his second question, “How can these things be?” Jesus responded to him again, with more questions and more metaphors. Far from giving him answers, Jesus pushed Nicodemus deeper into what he really believed and into the mystery of God’s saving love.
The first time that I was pressed to ask my own deeper faith questions, I was a freshman at Hampden-Sydney College. I took religion courses thinking it would be an easy start, maybe an “easy A.” Boy was I wrong. I signed up for two courses with a senior professor named Gerry Carney.
Dr. Carney had been an ordained Catholic priest before leaving the priesthood to marry the love of his life and go into teaching. In a course on early Christianity, I recall that he told us, “I’m not here to tell you whether Jesus was raised from the dead. You need to think for yourself about that. I can only tell you what the early church believed.” In a course on Jesus in the gospels, he said, “I’m not here to tell you whether Jesus did all the things recorded in this book. That’s a question you need to answer. I’m here to tell you what Mark and Matthew and Luke and John believed, and what their communities thought. You need to think for yourself about what you believe.”
He knew we were there for an easy A, and he was there to push us into deeper questions. He was there to be a professor, but he doubled as a pretty good pastor to young men.
This past week, I ran across some statistics, as part of a webinar, that I thought might be helpful for us all to hear. This is according to a survey of 2000 adults by the Barna Group, which frequently does religious polling. Of all adults:
51% would say, “I believe there is a supernatural or spiritual side to life, but I don’t believe any one faith system works for me.”
49% say, “I’ve gone through a prolonged period of time where I significantly doubted my faith.”
43% say, “I am disillusioned by my experiences in Christian churches.”
47% say, “My experiences have led me to take apart and deconstruct the faith of my youth.”
The tribe of Nicodemus is large, maybe even the majority. The startling thing about the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus, especially given Jesus’ puzzling responses, is the clarity of the statement at the end. After speaking in what seems like riddles, Jesus says one of the clearest statements in all the Gospel of John. “For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believe in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.”
If there is one sentence that sums of the message of this gospel more than any other, it’s this: The love of God is limitless. For God so loved the world. God’s love embraces all of us and each one of us. Just as we are. There are no questions or doubts that can be the limit of God’s love. Even those who doubt our faith. Even those who are deconstructing what we believe. Even those who are disillusioned. Especially those who have been hurt by the church. God’s love is limitless and is for you. You belong in the circle of God’s love.
No sacrifice was too great to bring home to each of us the unmeasured intensity of God’s love: God’s own well-beloved Son gave up his life that each of us and all of us might live. If there is one thing God wants us to know clearly, with no puzzles and no riddles, it is that – that is how Jesus ends his conversation with Nicodemus. That is how he ends his life at the cross. The limitless love of God.
As the fire died down, Nicodemus slipped away in the dark and we never know what Nicodemus ever believed; John doesn’t give us his statement of faith. But we do get to see what Nicodemus does. He shows up three times in the Gospel of John. Once, here, to ask his questions. Later, he stands up to defend Jesus before his friend about the time of Jesus’ arrest. And one last time, when he helps Joseph of Arimathea lay Jesus’ body in the tomb. His beliefs are hidden from us, perhaps they were hidden even from him. But his actions must speak louder than his words.
We are all friends of Nicodemus. Every statement of faith contains within itself the seed of a hundred other questions. Having faith is not the opposite of having questions, it is the beginning of having questions.
Like Nicodemus, I pray we will find that Jesus is one who so embodies the wisdom of God that we can trust him with our questions, even when the answers leave us astonished. Like Nicodemus, I pray we will find that Jesus is one who so embodies the way of God, we can walk beside him as a friend, speak up for him when possible, and serve him when we are needed.
Like Nicodemus, I pray we will trust that Jesus so embodies the limitless love of God, that we will find welling up within ourselves a childlike trust that runs deeper than all our questions. Perhaps something that feels very much like being born from above.
*AFFIRMATION OF FAITH Patmos Abbey—The Order of Saint Columba
We believe that our lives are held within the encircling love of God, who knows our names and recognizes our deepest needs. We believe that Christ is the divine Child of the living God, and that his grace is like living waters that can never be exhausted. We believe in the birthing, renewing, enabling Spirit of God who yearns over our welfare as a mother yearns for her child. We believe that God is in the arid desert as well as in green pastures, and that hard times and disciplines are also loving gifts. We believe that our journey has a purpose and a destination, and that our path leads to a human glory we cannot yet imagine. We believe that in the church we are fellow pilgrims on the road, and that we are called to love one another as God loves us. This is our faith and we are humbled to profess in Jesus the Christ. Amen
*HYMN No. 518 “Your Only Son”
1 Your only Son, no sin to hide,
but you have sent him from your side
to walk upon this guilty sod,
and to become the Lamb of God.
Refrain:
O Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God,
I love the holy Lamb of God!
O wash me in his precious blood,
my Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
2 Your gift of love, we crucified;
we laughed and scorned him as he died;
the humble King we named a fraud
and sacrificed the Lamb of God. (Refrain)
O Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God,
I love the holy Lamb of God!
O wash me in his precious blood,
my Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
3 I was so lost, I should have died,
but you have brought me to your side
to be led by your staff and rod,
and to be called a lamb of God. (Refrain)
O Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God,
I love the holy Lamb of God!
O wash me in his precious blood,
my Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY COMMUNION
Invitation
Friends, if your seeking has led you here,
if your weary heart followed breadcrumbs all the way to this sanctuary,
then I have good news:
you do not have to seek anymore.
This table is God’s Table.
So if you came here looking for justice,
then rest in the comfort that all will be fed here.
If you came seeking beauty,
then let your spirit marvel at the beauty of a community coming together.
If you came seeking a brush with the Divine,
then know that God is present in this ordinary meal.
So kick off your walking shoes.
Let your weary heart stop the search.
We are standing on holy ground.
This is God’s Table.
All are invited.
Come.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
God of the lost and the found,
surely it is right for us to give our thanks and praise;
for day after day we look for you,
and day after day we find you:
in the laugher of children,
in the sun rising over the horizon,
in the flowers of spring.
Our seeking does not go unanswered,
and for that we are grateful.
So first and foremost, we come to you in prayer to say thank you,
for when we’re seeking beauty,
you give us mountains and freckles, green eyes and brown eyes.
When we we’re looking for reason to hope,
you give us rainbows after the storm, and candles flickering in the window.
When we’re seeking peace,
you give us three-part harmony and the sound of the rain.
And when we’re seeking justice,
your life reminds us that everyone is welcome at your Table,
and none shall be turned away.
For all these reminders we are deeply grateful.
And yet, gracious God, our seeking does not stop.
For even though your fingerprints are all over this world,
we are not yet at your promised day.
So in addition to our gratitude, we also pray today for conviction.
Do not let us get comfortable with half-hearted seeking.
Do not let us grow numb to the suffering of this world.
Make us relentless in our pursuit of justice—
relentless in our consoling of the grieving,
in our welcoming of the stranger,
and in the feeding of the hungry.
Like a dog with a scent,
may we walk toward your kingdom,
never giving up, never wandering off the path.
And as we see and as we seek, pour out your Spirit on this ordinary bread and cup.
May this meal be the nourishment we need to continue seeking you in the world.
Until your promised day, we will pray.
Until your promised day, we will seek, saying:
The Lord’s Prayer
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.
Words of Institution
On the night before our Lord Jesus died, he took bread, and after giving thanks to you, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying: Take, eat. This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
In the same way, he took the cup, saying: This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me.
Communion
Closing Prayer
God of manna and mustard seeds,
we came to this Table hungry
and we leave feeling full—
full of hope,
full of promise,
full of what could be.
For we not only found glimpses of you at this Table,
but we caught a glimpse of the way things could be:
in a meal where all are welcomed and all are fed.
Is there anything holier than that?
So thank you for nourishing our curiosity
alongside our spirit and our conviction.
May we always seek you the way you seek after us.
With grateful hearts we pray, amen.
PASSING OF FELLOWSHIP PADS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
TITHES & OFFERINGS
God gives generously. Let us honor God by giving generously in return.
OFFERTORY ANTHEM
*RESPONSE N0. 620, v.4 “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven”
Angels, help us to adore him;
you behold him face to face.
Sun and moon, bow down before him,
dwellers all in time and space:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Praise with us the God of grace.
*PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
God of grace, you provide for all our needs. Accept these offerings as signs of our gratitude and bless them to further Christ’s ministry and mission among the poor, the despairing, and the destitute. Amen.
*HYMN No. 498 “Loaves Were Broken, Words Were Spoken”
1 Loaves were broken, words were spoken
by the Galilean shore.
Jesus, Bread of Life from heaven,
was their food forevermore.
By your body broken for us,
by your wine of life outpoured,
Jesus, feed again your people.
Be our Host, our Life, our Lord.
2 Loaves were broken, words were spoken
in a quiet room one night.
In the bread and wine you gave them,
Christ, you came as Light from Light.
By your body broken for us,
by your wine of life outpoured,
Jesus, feed again your people.
Be our Host, our Life, our Lord.
3 Loaves are broken, words are spoken,
as in faith we gather here.
Jesus speaks across the ages:
“I am with you; do not fear!”
By your body broken for us,
by your wine of life outpoured,
Jesus, feed again your people.
Be our Host, our Life, our Lord.
4 By the loaves you break and give us,
send us in your name to share
bread for which the millions hunger,
words that tell your love and care.
By your body broken for us,
by your wine of life outpoured,
Jesus, feed again your people.
Be our Host, our Life, our Lord.
*BENEDICTION
As you go from here into the week ahead,
with whatever joys and challenges it holds,
do not be discouraged or disheartened.
Remember the glory that awaits you as a child of God.
Hold on to that truth;
live in that hope.
And may the peace of God,
the blessing of Jesus Christ,
and the presence of the Holy Spirit
be with you and among you.
May the love of God,
the grace of Jesus Christ,
and the presence of the Holy Spirit,
be among you and within you.
Amen.
*POSTLUDE