November 24, 2024
Twenty-seventh Sunday after Pentecost
10:00am
CHIMING OF THE HOUR
WELCOME
OPENING PRAYER
Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise
for all that you have done for us.
We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation,
for the beauty of this world,
for the wonder of life,
and for the mystery of love.
We thank you for the blessing of family and friends,
and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.
We thank you for setting us at tasks
which demand our best efforts,
and for leading us to accomplishments
which satisfy and delight us.
We thank you also for those disappointments and failures
that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.
Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ;
for the truth of his Word and the example of his life;
for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation;
for his dying, through which he overcame death;
and for his rising to life again,
in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.
Grant us the gift of your Spirit,
that we may know him and make him known;
and through him, at all times and in all places,
may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.
PRELUDE “Three Versets” Sister Maria Clara
CALL TO WORSHIP
What brings us together in this place?
To worship Christ, who loves us,
who freed us from our sins by his blood
and who made us a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father.
To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen.
Let’s prepare our hearts and minds to worship Jesus Christ, our king.
Amen.
*HYMN No. 367
“Come, Ye Thankful People, Come”
1 Come, ye thankful people, come;
raise the song of harvest home.
All is safely gathered in,
ere the winter storms begin.
God, our Maker, doth provide
for our wants to be supplied.
Come to God’s own temple, come;
raise the song of harvest home.
2 All the world is God’s own field,
fruit in thankful praise to yield,
wheat and tares together sown,
unto joy or sorrow grown.
First the blade, and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear.
Lord of harvest, grant that we
wholesome grain and pure may be.
3 For the Lord our God shall come,
and shall take the harvest home;
from each field shall in that day
all offenses purge away;
give the angels charge at last
in the fire the tares to cast,
but the fruitful ears to store
in God’s garner evermore.
4 Even so, Lord, quickly come
to thy final harvest home.
Gather thou thy people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin,
there forever purified,
in thy presence to abide:
come, with all thine angels, come;
raise the glorious harvest home!
*CALL TO CONFESSION
Christ sympathizes with our weaknesses. The one we call King in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Trusting in God’s grace, let us confess our sin.
*PRAYER FOR CONFESSION
Lord, however much we call you king, we fail to follow your call to us. We succumb to the political temptations of this temporary world, seeking power and security while you call us to service and hospitality, consuming your creation while you call us to care for it, hating our neighbors, who you call us to love. In our failure to claim you, we identify more with the nations on our passports than with your kingdom. We pray that you reclaim us as your people, forgive us as your children, and continue to be our Lord and our hope for salvation.
*SILENT PRAYER FOR CONFESSION
*ASSURANCE OF PARDON
Hear the good news:
Jesus Christ loves us
and has set us free from our sins.
In the name of Jesus Christ,
and by the certainty of God’s decree,
Know that we are forgiven!
Thanks be to God!
God has poured out love upon us,
and we have received forgiveness for our sins.
We can now live in peace!
May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.
*RESPONSE No. 643, v.3
“Now Thank We All Our God”
All praise and thanks to God,
who reigns in highest heaven,
to Father and to Son
and Spirit now be given:
the one eternal God,
whom heaven and earth adore,
the God who was, and is,
and shall be evermore.
*PASSING OF THE PEACE OF CHRIST
Christ is our peace. He has reconciled us to God in one body by the cross.
We meet in his name and share his peace.
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
And also with you.
ANTHEM “Come Let Us Worship” Douglas Nolan
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE
UNISON PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Please join me in the unison prayer…
Holy Spirit, we pray that you enter into the hearts, minds, and souls of those who hear these words of Scripture. Illuminate the eternal essence of your being through our hearing of it, and through your power, trans- form this ink into the stuff of new life. Amen.
SCRIPTURE John 18:33-37
33 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” 35 Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” 37 Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Pause…
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!!
SERMON “Monarchy”
I know, it’s an odd text for today, isn’t it? Not one we would expect on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, as we’re thinking ahead to Advent and beginning our preparations for Christmas. We’re thinking about giving thanks. Maybe we’re thinking Baby Jesus. But today’s scripture takes us to one of the last conversations Jesus will have before he’s crucified.
It’s a courtroom scene, really, with Jesus standing before Pilate, the representative of the Rome Empire who ruled over Judea. Jesus has been arrested, questioned by his own Jewish leaders, and then brought to Pilate’s headquarters for sentencing. Jesus has been a problem for some time now, and this claim of “kingship” is the last straw.
Pilate is interested in civil law and not concerned about religious disputes, but Jesus’ opponents are persistent. Pilate doesn’t want rioting in the streets or a phone call from his boss in Rome, questioning his ability to keep the peace among his charges in this desolate—and what Rome would consider a backwards place. So, Pilate calls Jesus to him and begins questioning him.
Pilate’s first question addresses Jesus’ identity as king of the Jews. The title of “king” is loaded with political and revolutionary meaning for the Romans, who have little tolerance for any king but Caesar. As Rome’s chief authority in that territory, Pilate is pressing Rome’s full authority against Jesus when he asks the question. But Jesus isn’t intimidated, and he doesn’t answer the question. Instead, Jesus challenges Pilate with a question of his own. He takes control of the conversation, asking the source and motivation behind Pilate’s question. Pilate’s response is revealing.
In verse 35, Pilate emphasizes the fact that he’s not Jewish and doesn’t have a personal interest in Jesus’ status among the Jews. He isn’t concerned about Jewish kings and messiahs. He basically asks Jesus, “What have you done to offend your people?”
It seems that everyone is aware of what Jesus is doing except Pilate.
Jesus again, doesn’t answer the question, but instead begins talking about kingship and kingdom. At one level, his words are assuring: his followers aren’t a threat to Roman rule, and yet what the religious authorities and the followers of Jesus have come to see is that his rule is profoundly subversive to any worldly authority that demands allegiance over loyalty to God.
“So, you are a king?” Pilate asks.
“That’s what you say,” Jesus responds. “It was for this I was born, and for this that I came into the world: to testify to the truth. Whoever accepts the truth listens to my voice.”
So, you are a king” Pilate wonders…
As Christians, we would say that Jesus is king, ruler of the world, ruler of our lives…Lord, Messiah, Savior.
But what does that mean? What difference does it make? How does that change our world? Our lives?
It’s Christ the King Sunday, which is a relatively new festival in the Christian year, dating back to the late 1800’s when the world’s great empires—British, American, Spanish, French, German, Russian, and Japanese—were all at war or about to go to war somewhere.
The pope of the Roman Catholic Church at the time wrote a letter in which he dedicated the world to Christ the King. In the letter, he reminded the empires that God is present with the whole human race, even with those who do not know God.
After World War 1, another pope designated the last Sunday of October as Christ the King Sunday, a day to remember that Christ received power and honor from God and was made ruler of the universe. Eventually, the day was moved to the last Sunday of the church year, which was a time when the church was already accustomed to reflecting on Christ’s return at the end of time to rule over all creation.
And so today, even though at first glance this scripture may seem out of place, I think it is a profoundly important question for us as we prepare to step into the season of Advent…as we make a way for Christ’s coming…as we get ready for Christmas.
Who is Jesus?
What difference does it make that he was born/that he came into the world?
Is there meaning beyond the parties and the presents and the sweet little baby in a manger?
How has his coming changed our lives, our attitudes, our behaviors?
Do we submit to his rule over all other rules?
Is our allegiance to God first and foremost in every decision we make?
Do we rely on the truth of scripture, or are we more inclined to accept the truth of the voices around us that seem to speak so loudly, so convincingly, and with such self-proclaimed authority?
Whose voice do we listen to?
It’s hard to decide sometimes, isn’t it? Sometimes it feels as though the world is unraveling around us and we want to protect ourselves from all that evil. Shouldn’t we do whatever is necessary to ensure that bad things don’t come our way?
What do we do? How do we decide? Who do we listen to? Who can we trust?
Are we willing to listen to/to trust the one whose kingdom is not of this world? The one who came to testify to God’s truth?
Scripture teaches us/offers us lessons:
What does Jesus tell us as he talks to the woman in Samaria, at the well, considered an outcast, off-limits to most proper Jewish men (John 4)? What does Jesus say about welcoming the stranger, about loving one another, about the joy in heaven in the recovery of one lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son? What does Jesus say about washing one another’s feet, about following him, about bearing fruit, about being his disciples?
Do we only listen when it’s convenient? Only when it’s easy? Does his word only stand true when the other person we’re talking about looks like us, believes like us, lives like us?
Jesus said, “It was for this that I was born, and for this that I came into the world: to testify to the truth. Whoever accepts the truth listens to my voice.”
How can you not think about the interchange between Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men”? Can we handle the truth?
The truth, for those of us in this world who are Christian, is found in Jesus. He is the one who we know as “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Christians believe that ultimate truth is found in Jesus Christ and is recorded in the gospel accounts of his life. We also believe that the Holy Spirit has inspired the writers to include everything in scripture about the truth that we need to understand. It’s all contained in the Old and New Testaments; but we have pruned that body of knowledge down to something that is more palatable, manageable and believable.
Maybe you’ve heard the story of how Thomas Jefferson longed to separate the authentic words and actions of Jesus from what he imagined were the “elaborations” of the Gospels. In 1803, soon after he became our 3rd president, he created his own New Testament. He sat down with 2 Bibles and a pair of scissors, cut out the passages he believed in and pasted them into the pages of a blank book. The virgin? Gone. The miracles? Gone. Christ’s divinity? Gone. The resurrection? Gone. He called his book “The Philosophy of Jesus,” and he read from it every night. It ran to all of 46 pages. A bit of a paring down, wouldn’t you say?
When I read that, I was surprised at Thomas Jefferson’s arrogance. Wondered how he could presume to know what belonged and what didn’t. But when we’re honest, we’ve done the same thing. Maybe not with scissors and glue—but we’ve edited our Bibles to what we can believe in. We pick and choose among the passages for what makes us comfortable. We edit out the parts that are difficult, obscure, or unlikely. We edit out the law and the wars, leave out God’s judgement of some people, or acceptance of others.
We create our own versions of truth.
What is truth?
Can we handle the truth? God’s truth?
Are we willing to listen to it? To let it guide our decisions, our lives?
Is Jesus truly the king of our lives? The one whose truth guides us?
Just beyond our reading today, Pilate asks that question of Jesus: What is truth?
And Jesus just stands there. He doesn’t answer. He just stands there…
Commentary and Liturgy from the Book of Common Worship (PCUSA), “Call to Worship” Website, PCUSA Book of Confession, The New Interpreter’s Commentary, Terri McDowell Ott, Lauren Hall, and Walter Canter.
*AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
(from A Declaration of Faith of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and The Shorter Catechism)
God bound his people to himself in covenant.
Freed slaves became the people of God
when they accepted the Lord’s covenant.
God charged them to respond to his rescuing love
by obeying his commandments.
Their life together was to express
the justice and compassion of their holy God.
Since we, too, are the Lord’s covenant people,
we know we must be holy as the Lord is holy.
We must keep God’s commandments,
not in order to earn or compel the Lord’s favor,
but to reflect the character of God
and to be his grateful and loving people.
What is the sum of the Ten Commandments?
The sum of the Ten Commandments is:
to love the Lord our God
with all our heart,
with all our soul,
with all our strength,
and with all our mind;
and our neighbor as ourselves.
*HYMN No. 707
“Take Thou Our Mind, Dear Lord”
1 Take thou our minds, dear Lord, we humbly pray;
give us the mind of Christ each passing day;
teach us to know the truth that sets us free;
grant us in all our thoughts to honor thee.
2 Take thou our hearts, O Christ; they are thine own;
come thou within our souls and claim thy throne;
help us to shed abroad thy deathless love;
use us to make the earth like heaven above.
3 Take thou our wills, Most High! Hold thou full sway;
have in our inmost souls thy perfect way;
guard thou each sacred hour from selfish ease;
guide thou our ordered lives as thou dost please.
4 Take thou ourselves, O Lord, heart, mind, and will;
through our surrendered souls thy plans fulfill.
We yield ourselves to thee: time, talents, all;
we hear, and henceforth heed, thy sovereign call.
THE PASTORAL PRAYER & THE LORD’S PRAYER
To the one who reigns over all creation,
the Almighty,
Lord of Peace,
Lord of Love,
Lord of Life,
Lord of Lords, King of our Hearts,
King of the Kingdom with No End, King of Kings,
Christ,
Messiah,
Anointed One,
Word of God,
we name our prayers to you
trusting that you,
the Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end,
hear them and intercede on our behalf.
Hear us as we pray saying, Come Lord Jesus,
hear our prayer
Time for the people to pray/time to lift up specific prayers from your congregation
We lift these prayers
to the One who is, who was, and who is to come saying, “Our Father…”
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.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
TITHES & OFFERINGS
The Lord God is Alpha and Omega,
the one who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.
All that is, all that was, and all there will be belongs to God.
Let us now return to God in part
what is God’s in whole.
OFFERTORY
*RESPONSE N0. 647 “Give Thanks”
Give thanks with a grateful heart;
give thanks to the Holy One;
give thanks because we’re given Jesus Christ, the Son.
Give thanks with a grateful heart;
give thanks to the Holy One;
give thanks because we’re given Jesus Christ, the Son.
And now let the weak say,
“We are strong”;
let the poor say,
“We are rich because of what the Lord has done for us!”
And now let the weak say,
“We are strong”;
let the poor say,
“We are rich because of what the Lord has done for us!”
Give thanks.
Give thanks.
*PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Holy One, we pray that you take these gifts of our labor, our wealth, our time, and our lives and use them to express your everlasting kingdom of love in this world. Amen.
*HYMN No. 242
“Day of Delight and Beauty Unbounded”
Day of delight and beauty unbounded,
tell the news, the gospel spread!
Day of all wonder, day of all splendor,
praise Christ risen from the dead!
1 Sing of the sun from darkness appearing;
sing of the seed from barren earth greening;
sing of creation, alleluia!
Sing of the stream from Jesus’ side flowing;
sing of the saints in water made holy;
sing of salvation, alleluia! (Refrain)
Day of delight and beauty unbounded,
tell the news, the gospel spread!
Day of all wonder, day of all splendor,
praise Christ risen from the dead!
2 Sing now of mourning turned into dancing;
sing now the mystery, hope of our glory;
sing with thanksgiving, alleluia!
Sing now of fasting turned into feasting;
sing the Lord’s favor lasting forever;
sing, all things living, alleluia!
*BENEDICTION
Love God,
Love yourself,
Love your neighbor.
Live as a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Alleluia! Alleluia!