The Presbyterian Church at Woodbury

September 18, 2022
15th Sunday after Pentecost
10:00 am

WELCOME

OPENING PRAYER

Faithful God, we give you thanks that in Jesus Christ, you have entrusted us with the richness of your glory and the treasure of your grace. Make us faithful stewards of your good gifts, that we may show your love to this generation and welcome us into your eternal home, where we will worship and serve you forever, through Christ our Savior. Amen. 

PRELUDE               “Partita on “Lyons”            Randolph Currie                

CALL TO WORSHIP

Jesus reminds us today that, “You cannot serve God and wealth.”
Open us to your truth, Lord. Open our hearts to honesty.
Let us enter worship humbly, ready to realign our faith according to God’s Word.

*HYMN No. 41 “O Worship The King, All Glorious Above!”

1 O worship the King, 
all glorious above!
O gratefully sing
God’s power and God’s love:
our shield and defender,
the Ancient of Days,
pavilioned in splendor
and girded with praise.

2 O tell of God’s might;
O sing of God’s grace,
whose robe is the light,
whose canopy space,
whose chariots of wrath
the deep thunderclouds form;
and bright is God’s path
on the wings of the storm.

3 The earth with its store
of wonders untold,
Almighty, your power
has founded of old;
established it fast
by a changeless decree,
and round it has cast,
like a mantle, the sea.

4 Your bountiful care
what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air;
it shines in the light;
it streams from the hills;
it descends to the plain,
and sweetly distills
in the dew and the rain.

5 Frail children of dust,
and feeble as frail,
in you do we trust,
nor find you to fail;
your mercies, how tender,
how firm to the end,
our Maker, Defender,
Redeemer, and Friend. 

*CALL TO CONFESSION

God is ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

*PRAYER FOR CONFESSION

Savior God, we are indebted to you and your generosity. But we fail to forgive our debtors. We confiscate and consume far more than our fair share. We neglect the
poor and trap people in poverty, claiming that debt forgiveness is unfair. God, liberate us from our spiritual and moral bondage. Grant us a season of jubilee. Reorder our communities so that all may contribute, and all may thrive. Amen.

Silence is observed

*ASSURANCE OF PARDON

God lightens the load of those overly burdened, supports and strengthens those who have been knocked down. Claim the forgiveness God so graciously offers. Know the new life Christ has given us. Amen.

*RESPONSE No. No. 581 “Glory Be To the Father”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.

*PASSING OF THE PEACE OF CHRIST

Since God has forgiven us in Christ, let us forgive one another. The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.  And also with you.

ANTHEM                 “How Beautiful”                  arr. Tom Fettke

CHILDREN’S MESSAGE

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION

Let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock, and our redeemer. As we approach your Word, may we be ready to receive the message you intend for us today. Amen.  

SCRIPTURE           Luke 16:1-13

16Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. ²So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ ³Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ ⁵So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ ⁷Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’⁸And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. ⁹And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. ¹⁰“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. ¹¹If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? ¹²And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? ¹³No slave 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.”

SERMON “Such Grace Is Costly” Rev. Dr. Philip W. Oehler, Sr.

I have to say that, today, Jesus shares with us one whopper of a story.  This is one of the most bizarre, most perplexing, and challenging parables in scripture. The root of the problem in trying to understand this story lies in the fact that the “hero” in this tale is so sleazy and crooked.  Theologian, Rudolf Bultmann, even said this particular parable has nothing edifying in it!  I tend to agree with him.  Yet, I find it interesting that, even though I am deeply puzzled by this tale, I am drawn into the world of this sleazy manager whose world has just crumbled.

As theologian, Robert Capon suggests, there are basically just two ways of interpreting this parable: you can make the steward out to be a hero or you can make him out to be a villain, and my initial reaction is to choose the latter.  But let’s dig deeper as we attempt to understand this weird story.  The manager in this peculiar tale is experiencing a crisis-situation as he faces great loss.  This slimy, disgusting fellow has been taking advantage of his position by running up huge personal expenses and he knows his time is short.  His boss is on to his sleazy financial dealings and has become aware of his scheming.  The world in which this slimy fellow has been operating, the world he has known, is essentially coming to an end.  This corrupt manager is shocked into attention as his boss wants a complete audit of his books.  This crooked guy knows he is about to lose his job.  And, as he faces his impending loss, he wants to make sure he has some friends because he knows he will need them in the future.  So, he goes rogue.  He goes one by one to the people who owe a debt to his master.  He asks each of them how much they owe and then considerably slashes their debts.  He fixes the books so that 100 jugs of oil are counted as 50 and 100 containers of wheat are written off as 80.  In essence, he ends up squandering the master’s goods all over again.  This scoundrel of a manager now builds his future by doing what he was accused of doing in the first place.  And, what happens as a result of such action?  The master praises and commends this crooked manager!

I am astounded, mystified, and perplexed, and I have to ask, “Jesus, what in God’s name is your point?  This is one of the most outrageous stories you have told us, and I am very uncomfortable with what you are saying!”

Well, Jesus’ stories were not meant to make us feel comfortable.
They were meant to confront, to challenge conventional wisdom and to shock, and this is one of the most shocking.  Today, we are stopped in our tracks and do not know what to make of this bewildering tale.  Jesus seems to turn our thinking on end with this weird story as he gives us a parable of reversal.  It is as though Jesus says to us, “You have been seeing the world one way.  Let me turn your world upside down.  The moral of my story is not what you think.  My ways are not the world’s ways.”

Jesus’ parables, his teaching and his very presence announced a different world, a reversal of the status quo.  Remember, Jesus told the people that God was not far off, but available to them: the “kingdom is at hand,” he said, right in our midst, not hidden away behind a veil in the temple.  This was radical stuff!  Jesus worked on the Sabbath; he sat down at table with the prostitutes and tax collectors, all the wrong people.  He was continually breaking the rules, and he was an affront to the morality and respectability of the status quo in the religious community.  That is why they had him killed.

So, what does this story mean?  Well, maybe, just maybe, this is a parable for us in this complex moment in time, a time when many look to the future and feel a real sense of uncertainty.  As we think about the future, many are experiencing anxiety.  And, during times of uncertainty, we always fear a certain kind of loss, a loss of the world as we have known it.  Yes, just maybe this crazy story is helpful for us right now.

Robert Capon, in his book The Parables of Grace, writes this about today’s passage: “The unique contribution of this parable to our understanding of Jesus is its insistence that grace cannot come to the world through respectability.  Respectability regards only life, success, winning; it will have no truck with the grace that works by death and losing – which is the only kind of grace there is.”

That is quite profound and truthfully, quite odd.  Grace works by losing – by death and losing?  Talk about reversal, talk about something that shatters our thinking.  However, that is the message of the gospel.  In the cross of Christ, a place of death and enormous loss, we discover grace.  We discover grace, love, and forgiveness beyond measure.  And we discover a world of grace where the God who loves us suffers with us in the depth of our pain, in the depth of the uncertainties we face, and even in the depth of the loss we experience.

If we look again at what this rogue manager does, we might discover that, as he faces his loss, he does something he does not have the authority to do – he forgives debts!  Yes, he forgives debts!  In that sense, Jesus is like the rogue manager.  Many, including the religious leaders, felt Jesus did not have the authority to forgive sin, but he did it anyway and it cost him his life.  He lived by embracing the lost, and he was nailed to a cross.  Such grace, such forgiveness, is not cheap.  Such grace is costly.  But such grace is the one thing that changes us, the one thing that heals us and the one thing that makes us new.

As I think about the life of this congregation, I cannot help but reflect upon the way God has graciously and lovingly been present to us through all that has happened over the past several years.  God has not only been drawing us into God’s love, but also drawing us ever more deeply into discipleship, and I hope that this will continue into 2023.

As we look to the future, we are called to live into God’s reign where grace, forgiveness and love outperform everything else.  As we look to the future, we are called to live into God’s reign where all are welcomed and loved, oblivious to gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, wealth, social rank, and place.

As we look to the future, we are called to live into a grace that shatters the prejudice that blinds us, a grace that gathers together people of every ethnicity and background and makes us one.

As we look to the future, we are called to live into God’s vision of peace for this world and announce the gospel good news of a God who is like that crazy manager and forgives sin.

And, like that crazy, shrewd manager in today’s story, we are called to use our gifts, our resources, and our skills in service to the master, our gracious God.  We are called to invest those gifts in returns that are priceless, not only for us, but for the sake of this very broken world.  As we do this, God can and will use us, use our creativity and even our shrewdness to benefit others and accomplish God’s mission and purpose in this world that God so deeply loves.

Liturgy and Commentary from the following sources: Robert Capon, Teri McDowell Ott, David Lose, Scott Hoezee, Larry Hayward, Eileen Weglarz and Rudolf Bultmann. 

*AFFIRMATION OF FAITH       From a Brief Statement of Faith

We trust in God, whom Jesus called Abba, Father.  In sovereign love God created the world good and makes everyone equally in God’s image, male and female, of every race and people, to live as one community.  But we rebel against God; we hide from our Creator. Ignoring God’s commandments, we violate the image of God in others and ourselves, accept lies as truth, exploit neighbor and nature, and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care.  We deserve God’s condemnation.  Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation.  In everlasting love, the God of Abraham and Sarah chose a covenant people to bless all families of the earth.  Hearing their cry, God delivered the children of Israel from the house of bondage.  Loving us still, God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant.  Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child, like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home, God is faithful still.

*HYMN No. 635 “Sing, Praise and Bless the Lord”

Sing, praise, and bless the Lord.
Sing, praise, and bless the Lord.
Peoples! Nations! Alleluia!
Sing, praise, and bless the Lord.
Sing, praise, and bless the Lord.
Peoples! Nations! Alleluia! 

Laudate Dominum,
laudate Dominum,
omnes gentes, alleluia!
Laudate Dominum,
laudate Dominum,
omnes gentes, alleluia!

PASTORAL PRAYER & THE LORD’S PRAYER

Thank you, God, for this new day; for the morning sun that rises in hope, a hot cup of coffee, the chance to kiss loved-ones goodbye on their way to school or work.

Thank you, God, for the purpose and meaning of our
lives; for your call to serve and love our neighbors; for the knowledge that we can make a difference through a smile, a gesture, a gift of time, talent or treasure.

Thank you, God, for moments of pause that frame our lives with spiritual meaning; morning meditation or evening devotions when we rest in your presence and recollect, with gratitude, your abundant blessings.

Thank you, God, even for the problems and pain; injustices frustrate and overwhelm, but also call us to collective action and inspire us to right what is wrong. Melt our hearts with compassion, God, for the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, for all those in need of your saving grace and your liberating love. Mold us as your hands and feet of action. Make us the answers to our prayers.

Finally, hear us, God of mercy, as we lift our heartfelt concerns to you and pray silently for those whose specific burdens weigh heavy on our hearts …

United as a community of faith and as the Body of Christ, we lift these prayers up to you, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Hear us as we join our hearts and our voices in praying the prayer Christ taught us to pray by saying, “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, forever. Amen.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The flowers today are given in the glory and honor of God by Nola Connell in memory of Bruce Connell.

OFFERING OF TITHES & OFFERINGS

Remember that Jesus said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

OFFERTORY

*RESPONSE

Praise God, from whom all blessing flow, Praise God, all creatures here below.  Alleluia, Alleluia Praise God in Jesus fully known; Creator, Word and Spirit one. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia. 

* PRAYER OF DEDICATION

Holy God, these offerings are only a portion of all that you have given us. We gratefully present these gifts and entrust them to your work in this world. May our gifts share the Good News of the gospel to those who are in need. May these gifts help unburden those with the heaviest of loads. Amen.  

*HYMN No. 353 “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less”                 

1 My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.

2 When darkness seems to hide his face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil. (Refrain)

3 His oath, his covenant, his blood
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay. (Refrain)

4 When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found,
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne. (Refrain)

*BENEDICTION

May we leave this house of worship strengthened by the Spirit, renewed by God’s Grace, and supported by the Body of Christ.  May the grace, hope, peace and love of God the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer be with us now and always. Amen.