WELCOME
OPENING PRAYER
Masters,
two and more,
competing for our money
clamouring for our time
creating chaos in our lives.
Master,
one God,
quiet us and draw us near.
PRELUDE “Prayer for Peace” Paul Taylor
CALL TO WORSHIP
God has set this day before us,
A day set apart, a day of rest and praise.
God has set our lives before us,
A span of years in which we love, and learn, and serve.
God has set God’s seal upon our hearts,
So that we might live fully in deep love.
Let us worship God.
*HYMN No. 693 “Though I May Speak With Bravest Fire”
1 Though I may speak with bravest fire,
and have the gift to all inspire,
and have not love, my words are vain,
as sounding brass, and hopeless gain.
2 Though I may give all I possess,
and striving so my love profess,
but not be given by love within,
the profit soon turns strangely thin.
3 Come, Spirit, come, our hearts control;
our spirits long to be made whole.
Let inward love guide every deed;
by this we worship, and are freed.
*CALL TO CONFESSION
Jesus calls us to enter the joy of discipleship, the joy of following in his way. But sin clings closely, and we struggle to respond fully to Christ’s invitation. Let us seek God’s forgiveness so that we may know more deeply the joy God intends.
*PRAYER FOR CONFESSION
O God, we want to have our cake and eat it, too:
we want to be a friend of the world and still be your friend.
Yet, Jesus taught us: “No one can serve two masters.”
Give us strength and courage to get our priorities straight:
help us to seek your kingdom first.
Help us to live faithfully and joyfully in the world,
and to be friends with the people you call us to serve.
Help us also to remember that our best relationship
is the one we have with you,
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
*SILENT PRAYER FOR CONFESSION
*ASSURANCE OF PARDON
“The wisdom from above is first pure,
then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield,
full of mercy and good fruits,
without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy” (James 3:17).
In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven,
and we are given a new way to live.
Let us accept God’s grace,
and live new lives of faith, obedience, and joy.
*RESPONSE No. 562 “Holy Holy Holy”
Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might,
holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full,
full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest,
hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes
in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest,
hosanna in the highest.
*PASSING OF THE PEACE OF CHRIST
When Jesus left his disciples, he did not leave them alone. He promised that the Holy Spirit would be present in their lives, and he gave them an amazing gift: his peace, the peace of Christ. Through the Spirit, this gift lives still, and it is ours to share with others. May we be reminded of the gift Christ offers with these words:
“The peace of Christ is yours today!”
And also with you.
ANTHEM “Those Who Wait Upon the Lord” Craig Courtney
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE
UNISON PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Gracious God, illumine these words by your Spirit that we might hear what you would have us hear and be who you would us be, for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. Amen.
SCRIPTURE Matthew 6:24-34
24 “No one 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.[a]
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,[b] or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?[c] 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For it is the gentiles who seek all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God[d] and his[e] righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
Pause…
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!!
SERMON “What do we do with our time?”
Poet and essayist Wendell Berry remarks,
“Jesus thought he was living in a holy world. Much of the action and talk of the Gospels takes place outdoors: on mountainsides, lakeshores, riverbanks, in fields and pastures, places populated not only by humans but by animals and plants. And these nonhuman creatures, sheep and lilies and birds, are always represented as worthy of, or as flourishing within, the love and care of God.”
Jesus speaks of the birds and lilies as poetic symbols of God’s care; showing us that like them we matter. We are a valued, beloved part of God’s plan, an ongoing plan of abundance and beauty, of love and relationship, with God at the center.
The problem is that so often God isn’t at the center. We get distracted. Lose focus. We get overwhelmed with the demands all around us and before long our priorities get messed up, our loyalties divided. And we begin to live with our agendas, our worries, and wants and needs at the center.
Jesus knew this…And so we find that our passage today begins with the stark warning:
“No one 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(money, time and skills).”
Let’s be clear, Jesus isn’t saying here that these resources are evil. He knows however that if this gift is our target and overarching focus, then God is not. Jesus knows that like so many other things, money, time & skills – competes with God for the human heart.
Here Jesus is reminding his followers that what they’ve signed up for isn’t going to be easy. Being a disciple doesn’t come with a Gold Card, or special perks and privileges.
No, Jesus is making it perfectly clear that his followers need to choose which master they serve and where their allegiance will be. And then Jesus says to them, “Don’t worry.”
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”
Here Jesus addresses the worry about survival and the basics of food, clothing, shelter.
It’s important to understand the audience here. First Jesus is talking to his friends and followers. The ones who have just left their nets and boats, family, and income to follow him; To learn from him and be in the presence of this man who does miracles and seems to have a healing touch and an uncommon love and acceptance for all.
And because the word has spread about this unusual man named Jesus, others have started to gather around too. For the most part the crowds were made up of the poor. One writer describes it this way:
“[Many] of the people were merchants, fishermen, artisans, and farmers. Today these are respected professions-lucrative in some cases. Then, however, these workers operated at a bare subsistence level. Also in Jesus audience were those on the bottom rung of the social ladder- beggars, cripples, prostitutes, and criminals who lived off the land outside the cities.”
These are the people who first heard Jesus say, “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?”
At the heart of this message is the love of God for each person, the inherent value and dignity of each individual. “Are you not of value to God?” goes Jesus’ rhetorical question. And the answer is, yes.”
But to the gathered crowds listening, feeling valued and loved was tricky. All around them were messages telling them that they were less than nothing, expendable. The Roman Empire had the power to take them as slaves at will and the religious leaders had set things up so that the people had to continually wonder and worry about their state of ritual purity-whether they were good enough or clean enough.
And to this crowd, and to us, Jesus brings this transforming, anxiety managing message of Good News. In the eyes of God, he says, you have value, you are enough.
Jesus doesn’t say, “Be like the lilies. Be like the birds.” Rather, he says, “Look at them…Consider them.” The Greek word for “consider” here is an emphatic verb that shakes us by the shoulders and says, “No, really look.
For the flowers and birds don’t need anything to make themselves more glorious or cherished or precious in sight. By God’s design they are enough. And like them, the grace of God comes to each of us, whoever we are, and grants us worth and value and identity that far outweighs our own voice or the voices all around us that weigh in on our worth.
Friends, here the good news of THIS Gospel…As children of God you are enough. You are loved unconditionally and accepted for who you are not by virtue of what we you’ve done or not done, but by virtue of the One who loves us.
You are worth loving and redeeming and you have an important role to play in God’s unfolding kingdom. That’s what Jesus says to us. And he calls us to take these words to heart. To redirect our vision and our lives in much the same way that the lives of the first hearers needed to be redirected. As beloved children – who have important roles and gifts to share, we are invited to participate in kingdom work!! We are called to use our resources – treasures, talent, and time:
If God has given us 168 hours each week, a tithe (10%) of our time would be about 17 hours. If we believe in giving tithes to God because every cent of our finances came from God and if we believe that every minute and hour is a gift as well, should we not also give to God a portion of our time as we do with our income?
How do you give of your time to be about God’s business?
How much of your time each week do you spend at church services, communing with God, serving in the life of the church, or intentionally growing alongside other believers? Being about God’s business?
This is why Jesus calls the disciples-calls us-to seek God’s kingdom first. To take seriously caring for one another, to take responsibility for befriending the poor, the neglected, the most vulnerable among us. And then we would never let our friends go hungry, or sleep on the street, or go without a coat in the cold, or feel as though no one cares about them.
Jesus begins this message with the verse about resources because in order to do this we have to let go of our desire to accumulate and consume. Treasure as a central focus can isolate and it can easily lead to a sense of scarcity. Talents as a central focus can isolate and it can easily lead to a sense of scarcity. Time as a central focus can isolate, and it can easily lead to a sense of scarcity. As preacher and author John Buchanan says, “When you depend on treasure, talent or time for our salvation, there is never enough.”
SOOO….what do we do with our time? Because we are love, we don’t have to worry…we are called to share our time to grown God’s kingdom! Amen.
Commentary and Liturgy from the Book of Common Worship (PCUSA), “Call to Worship” Website, Michel Quoist, John Wurster, Heather Koontz, John Davies, and Stephen McClelland, Mary F. Foskett
*AFFIRMATION OF FAITH Adapted from the Confession of 1967, 9.32–33
The life, death, resurrection,
and promised coming of Jesus Christ
has set the pattern for the church’s mission.
His human life involves the church
in the common life of all people.
His service to men and women
commits the church
to work for every form of human well-being.
His suffering makes the church sensitive
to all human suffering
so that it sees the face of Christ
in the faces of persons in every kind of need.
His crucifixion discloses to the church
God’s judgment on the inhumanity
that marks human relations,
and the awful consequences
of the church’s own complicity in injustice.
In the power of the risen Christ
and the hope of his coming,
the church sees the promise
of God’s renewal of human life in society
and of God’s victory over all wrong.
The church follows this pattern
in the form of its life
and in the method of its action.
So to live and serve
is to confess Christ as Lord.
*HYMN No. 700 “I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me”
1 I’m gonna live so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
I’m gonna live so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
2 I’m gonna work so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
I’m gonna work so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
3 I’m gonna pray so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
I’m gonna pray so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
4 I’m gonna sing so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
I’m gonna sing so God can use me
anywhere, Lord, anytime!
THE PASTORAL PRAYER & THE LORD’S PRAYER
Great God, in you is more love than we can imagine and more grace than we can fathom. You have shown yourself in Jesus Christ as a God who meets us where we are and loves us as we are. We are glad for this day and grateful for your many gifts. You bring good things into our lives, more than we can name, more than we can number. You give us the bread of life, sustaining our souls and feeding our deepest hungers. You accompany us on our way. Thank you for your abundant faithfulness.
Our hearts are full with many things today. Disease and death and pain and sorrow are constantly among us. The journey through these days is marked by uncertainty and heartache. We are frequently overwhelmed by the needs around us and within us. Some need healing, some need encouragement, some need comfort, some need assurance, we all need hope. So, we turn to you asking you to hear our prayers and grant what we need for the living of these days.
We pray for our nation. We pray for renewed commitments to our com- mon life. Refresh us in the values of your heart: justice, righteousness, compassion, mercy, peace. Help us to find a unity of purpose as citizens and neighbors.
We pray for your church in places near and far. May the waters of your grace continually refresh and empower us to extend the love of Jesus to all people. We pray for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), for the clarity of our witness and the success of our mission. We pray for our congregation, for our life together, and for our efforts to follow in the way of Jesus. Hear us. Hold us. Heal us. Help us. For the sake of our Savior, our Lord, Jesus Christ who taught us to pray like this: “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. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
STEWARDSHIP MOMENT Lynn Dickerson
OFFERING OF TITHES & OFFERINGS
With gratitude for God’s faithfulness and with thanksgiving for all that we have received, let us bring our gifts to God.
OFFERTORY
*RESPONSE N0. 607 “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow”
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
praise Christ, all people here below;
praise Holy Spirit evermore;
praise Triune God, whom we adore. Amen.
*PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Knowing that many voices clamour and compete,
we pray that these offerings given
may become symbolic of our decision
to serve one master, one God.
*HYMN No. 712 “As Those of Old Their Firstfruits Brought”
1 As those of old their firstfruits brought
of vineyard, flock, and field
to God, the giver of all good,
the source of bounteous yield,
so we today our firstfruits bring,
the wealth of this good land:
of farm and market, shop and home,
of mind and heart and hand.
2 A world in need now summons us
to labor, love, and give,
to make our life an offering
that all may truly live.
The church of Christ is calling us
to make the dream come true:
a world redeemed by Christ-like love,
all life in Christ made new.
3 In gratitude and humble trust
we bring our best today,
to serve your cause and share your love
with all along life’s way.
O God who gave yourself to us
in Jesus Christ your Son,
help us to give ourselves each day
until life’s work is done.
*BENEDICTION
God does not ask us to solve all the world’s problems,
nor even to carry all of a neighbor’s burdens.
God knows our frame, and remembers that we are made of dust.
But we are asked to go out into the world in good spirits,
sharing to the best of our ability
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
With God’s help, we will.
God then in peace and joy,
with the blessing of the Companion God
upon you, around you, and within you.
Amen!