​Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
 
Lighting the Advent Candle of Hope     Bonnie Draper and Nancy McIntosh  
 
Reader 1: Advent is a time of holy expectation. Of waiting. Of preparing for the coming of Christ Child.
For the four Sundays before Christmas, we prepare ourselves by recalling both the prophecies that foretold of Christ’s coming and the gospel stories of his birth. In prayer, we examine our hearts and reflect on our life of faith. We consider the needs of the world, as well as the needs of those close to home. We seek a fresh sense of God’s presence and power for the year ahead.
 
Reader 2: On this first Sunday, we light the candle of hope.
We light this candle as a sign of the coming light of Christ.
The prophet Isaiah announced:
We are preparing ourselves for the days when the nations shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up swords against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.  Isaiah 2:4 
 
Reader 1: Prayer
Eternal God, through long generations you prepared a way for the coming of your Son, and by your Spirit, you still bring light to illumine our paths.
Renew us in faith and hope that we may welcome Christ to rule our thoughts and claim our love, as Lord of Lords and King of Kings,
To whom be glory forever.  Amen.
 Book of Common Worship, Westminster, John Knox Press, 1993, Louisville, Ky.
 
*Hymn  82   Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
 
Prayer of Confession
God of the future, you are coming in power to bring all nations under your rule. We confess that we have not expected your kingdom, for we live casual lives, ignoring your promised judgment. We accept lies as truth, exploit neighbors, abuse the earth, and refuse your justice and peace. In your mercy, forgive us. Grant us wisdom to welcome your way, and to seek things that will endure when Christ comes to judge the world.  Amen.
 
Hymn   698       Take, O Take Me As I Am 
Assurance of Pardon
Surely God is our salvation. We will trust in God and not be afraid, for the Lord God is our Strength and Might. Shout aloud and sing for joy…for great in our midst is the Holy One of Zion, and he will save the people from their sins. Know you are forgiven and live in God’s peace.
 
Old Testament Reading       Isaiah 64:1-9
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading    Mark 13:24-37
The Morning Message
 
“In my beginning is my end.”
 
These are the words of TS Elliot in Four Quartets. Much of what we believe about God and Jesus is reflected therein: the God who made us will be the God who judges us; Christ is the Alpha and the Omega; the God who created the world out of nothing will at its consummation be “all in all.”
 
So, with ritual cycles. We begin them where we end. The Advent season begins the liturgical year and the lectionary cycle with stories about the end times. In fact, we’ve been visiting those scriptures for a few weeks now. These scriptures say, “Stay awake! Live in expectation!” Watch for the signs of God!” Watch for the signs of the reign of God!” But in our end is our beginning: the signs of God’s reign point us to something new and unfamiliar.
 
The colors for Advent are deep blue or purple. For some, the blue reflects the color of late Autumn’s night, a sky lit by moon and stars. The days are short. The long nights mark the end of the year’s growing season. But the long nights are fertile ground for dreaming- imagine the desert blossoming and sheltering a mother and child; imagine peace prevailing; imagine God all in all. Joseph dreams in this season-of the child to be here soon, whom he is to name Emmanuel, God-with-us.
 
Advent is a perfect time to enrich your experience of the birth of Jesus. Whether it is visiting a museum, or attending a concert, taking a cooking class, reading Christmas stories to your grandchildren, making crafts- whatever it is, find some way to enjoy and appreciate the creative aspect of Christmas. The birth of Jesus has inspired amateurs and masters. It will inspire you.
 
Sometimes we find hope closer to home. Our neighbors across the street have a set of 7 year-old twin grandchildren-a boy and a girl. Their father posts their activities on Facebook and I love to see them. Their arrival was a grand surprise. Their mother was diagnosed with cancer a few years before she married. Her treatment was successful and she moved on with her life. She pursued a good career. She married. She and her husband started a family. They were over the moon about the promise of becoming parents of not one, but two babies. So, every time I see those Facebook posts, I silently give thanks for this tremendous blessing.
 
Maybe you find signs of God’s in-breaking reign in doing for others, helping in a time of crisis, being the friend who listens, or sitting with the suffering, simply bearing witness to their pain.
 
Maybe you work for needed change in a public way. This takes heaps of courage. Last week, during lunch, I learned that Charlie Seay has changed jobs. He is not on patrol any longer for the Barboursville Police Department. He is a Resource Officer for two elementary schools in our community. He is working within the school system to inspire positive student behavior, hoping to prevent some of the behaviors that rob young people of success later on in life.
 
Last night we had run to Kroger for a few staples in case we got snow. I had stayed in the truck with the dog while Ed shopped. When he came back to the truck to load the groceries, I heard a man approach my husband and ask if our Thanksgiving was a nice one. And then he thanked him for looking out for his daughter. The daughter is a high school student and had been in one of Ed’s choirs. They live across the street from my mother and we had watched her grow up. Of course he would be watching out for her. I know that warmed Ed’s heart and it reminded me that even though our kids had flown the nest years ago, he didn’t stop caring about young people.
 
Advent is a fertile time to watch and dream, to look for surprises, to notice Christ-like behavior in others and thank them for it, to go out of your way to demonstrate you care. The world’s needs are great. God is greater.
 
It was for this season that Miriam Therese Winter penned these lovely lines:
Root of Jesse
Rising
From many an ancient prophecy
Promised child
To all who would be reconciled
Breaks through at last.
A virgin shoot accepts
God’s seed
Bows to the Mighty Deed.
One branch
Bears bud, flower, fruit:
Christ blossoms on David’s root.
Lord, you are stem, stalk, tree!
Let your fruit take root in me.
 
 
*Hymn    106   Prepare the Way, O Zion
*Affirmation of Faith      The Apostles’ Creed  p. 35
*Hymn   581   Gloria Patri
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
Offertory
*Christmas Doxology      Tune: Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
Glory be to God the Father, glory be to Christ the Son.
Glory to the Holy Spirit, glory to the Three in One.
Here we offer to you gladly all the gifts that you impart,
as we glory in your presence, giving from a grateful heart.
              Copyright @ 2003 Brenda J. Heard
 
*Prayer of Dedication
Holy One, in this season, we wait in hope and we give in hope:
hope for your coming reign,
hope of your presence with us even now.
Receive our gifts, that they may be used to bring hope to our much-loved community and beyond.  Amen.
 
*Hymn 92     While We Are Waiting, Come
*Blessing
Go now, and let the Lord steer you in the way of truth.
Be on your guard so that you will not be caught up in the anxieties of the world.
Be alert at all times and pray for strength to avoid the obstacles that would keep you from God.
 
*Postlude

Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
 
*Call to Worship      Psalm 100
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come into God’s presence with a song.
Enter God’s gates with thanksgiving and God’s courts with praise.
Give thanks to God, bless God’s name.
For the Lord is good. God’s steadfast love endures forever;
and God’s faithfulness is sure to all generations.
 
*Hymn  336    We Gather Together to Ask the Lord’s Blessing
 
Litany of Thanksgiving
For the beauty and wonder of your creation, in earth and sky and sea.
We thank you, Lord.
For all that is gracious in the lives of people, revealing the image of Christ.
We thank you, Lord.
For our daily food and drink.
We thank you, Lord.
For minds to think, and hearts to love, and hands to serve.
We thank you, Lord.
For health and strength to work, and leisure to rest and play.
We thank you, Lord.
For the brave and courageous, who are patient in suffering and faithful in adversity.
We thank you, Lord.
For all valiant seekers after truth, liberty, and peace.
We thank you, Lord.
For the communion of saints, in all times and places.
We thank you, Lord, and give you thanks for the great mercies and promises given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
To him be praise and glory, with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
 
Prayer of Confession
Holy and merciful God, in your presence we confess our failure to be what you created us to be.
You alone know how often we have sinned
in wandering from your ways,
in wasting your gifts,
in forgetting your love.
By your loving mercy, help us to live in your light
and abide in your ways,
for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Savior.  Amen.
 
Assurance of Pardon
The grace of God overflows for us through Jesus Christ who came into the world to save sinners.
In God’s mercy, we have been forgiven.  Alleluia! Amen.
Hymn      698               Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
First Reading                 Deuteronomy 8:1-18
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading              Luke 12:13-21
Morning Message
 
I have two questions for us to consider today. I raise them every year on Christ the King Sunday:
 
1. Do you choose to live in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ…or not?
2. How can you make your choice real?
 
I confess that this is not an original idea, but one I heard during a presbytery meeting.
 
I ask these questions, because, we have come to the end of the liturgical year, the very last Sunday. Advent, preparing for the birth of Christ, begins next week. As we move through the months, we celebrate Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter- meeting Jesus at the mileposts of his life- his birth, ministry, death, resurrection. Then comes Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the early believers and the Church was established. Kingdomtide, or Ordinary Time, follows Pentecost and brings us to today. When we get to this Sunday, Christ the King, or Reign of Christ, we are called on to consider the year we’ve traveled, how we have related to Christ, and how we have exhibited his kingdom on earth.
 
Christ the King Sunday also makes us stop to consider our concept of time. The time is surely coming for Christ’s second Advent, though we do not know the day or the hour. But we do know this: time moves forward and our time on earth is finite. We have experienced that in painful ways through the deaths of friends and loved ones. I lost my first and best friend, my cousin, Melody. Many of you have endured a similar loss.
 
Christ the King Sunday may mark the end of the church year, but it does not mark the end of our challenges.  The war in Ukraine continues, the mayhem in Israel/Palestine rages, and their people suffer new atrocities daily. The news from Charleston and Washington doesn’t always inspire confidence. Every trip to the grocery store gets more and more expensive. There is need all around us.
 
But, there is good news. While the past three holiday seasons have come with warnings about travel and the dangers of large gatherings, we aren’t hearing that so much now. Last weekend we saw one of our daughters; families and got to hug three out of four grandchildren. Yesterday our daughter Caroline texted me to ask when I could facetime our grandson, Tad, who is asking questions about Christmas and Hannakah. For me,  it’s like filling up at the emotional fuel station. And I needed that. Like many of you, our family has had some challenges this year. That 6-letter word that strikes terror in all of us, cancer, struck us this year, too. We are reminded  of how fragile and uncertain life is.
 
There is nothing like being in the embrace of your loved ones to be reminded that through it all we are family and love is our creed. Even if the visit is a brief one and the highlight is witnessing the delight of a two year-old feeding baby goats.
 
So, here we are. Christ the King Sunday, the feast day that celebrates the fact that, earthly rulers come and go, and even at the height of their power, they only rule over a very small part of the created universe. Their reign is time-sensitive. It will end. But, Jesus’ reign is eternal and cosmic in its proportions. His platform doesn’t change and there are no maps to tell us who is and who isn’t in Jesus’ district. We all are.
 
Jesus’ realm is founded on the principals of justice and integrity-where those who live according to the values of the Kingdom will feel at home- and those who do not will find it an alien place. Christ knows us, all of us, no matter our circumstances.  And Christ knows that how we live our lives, day in and day out, reveals what kind of person we are.
 
In this text, Jesus identifies people based on their actions, how they live out their days on this earth. Those who do the tasks of Kingdom living-feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned- are acting as though they are ministering to Jesus himself. This shouldn’t have been earth-shaking news. This is what they had witnessed Jesus himself doing.
 
Jesus also said that when they, or we, refuse to help a person in need, we are refusing him. This was a surprise, too, but, it shouldn’t have been.
 
Jesus was teaching, or re-teaching-a fundamental rule of kingdom-living: We are the body of Christ. We are united with him- in life, death, and resurrection. What we do, one for another, builds up, enriches, and heals the body. What we fail to do, when we fail to serve as Christ serves, weakens and diminishes the body.
 
Jesus is a king unlike any ruler of this earth. For which we can truly thank God. Jesus is not a despot who orders his subjects to be at his beck and call. A tyrant who wields insults and inflicts pain to intimidate and control.  Nor does he abandon or betray his people. Ever.
 
No. Jesus, is the king who throws open the doors of his dwelling-place and invites us all in. Jesus welcomes us into the fullness of his life. A life that could compel the friends of a paralyzed man to cut a hole in the roof of a house so he can be lowered into Jesus’ presence. To follow Jesus is to sign up for a life of spiritual adventure.
 
Christ the King Sunday asks us if we will choose kingdom-living in the year ahead.  It asks how  we will  use the gift  and limits of time.
 
This time question has created a sense of urgency for me. Not long ago I learned that a friend of long-standing has been diagnosed with dementia. At a time in life that most of us expect to be enjoying retirement, playing with our grandkids, maybe taking that dreamed-about vacation.
This husband, father and grandfather is losing his memory and losing touch with reality. He has no memory of the many accomplishments of his life and work that improved the lives of those who came seeking his counsel.
 
Instead of more time together, he and his good wife are separated. Not by choice. This is for his safety and security, and his family’s peace of mind. They are devastated. He has some precious grandkids but I don’t know if he is even aware.
 
All this makes me very sad but it prompts me to do whatever I can to be present in the lives of my loved ones for as long as possible…to share moments special and mundane…to make memories, to celebrate milestones…to comfort one another when life turns hard, and it will.
 
Yesterday the women in our family celebrated the upcoming 60th birthday of one our cousins, Kim. It was a grand time altogether. She is the sister to my cousin who died earlier this year. The last time we were together, there were tears and overwhelming sadness. Yesterday was filled with laughter and gratitude and a lot of food. Kim asked for donations for organizations helping the homeless in our community instead of gifts for herself. The results were 20 blankets, socks, hats, gloves, snacks, thermal underwear, emergency tents, and emergency blankets. From 8 women. That’s some pretty good Jesus math.
 
What were your highs and lows this year? Did you acknowledge God in the high moments? How did you cope with the lows? How did that affect your faith?
 
Are there changes you want to make in your life? What steps are you taking toward that? Does someone you love need your help in taking steps toward a better life?
 
What can you do to advance the kingdom?
 
How will you use your time?
 
Will you know the joy of a peaceful heart, deep peace that comes from God?
 
I think we know how 2024 ends. What we don’t know is what the future holds. But we know who holds the future. And we know who holds our hand.
 
*Wellspring of the Gospel
 
 
*Hymn   643   Now Thank We All Our God
 
*Affirmation of Faith   The Apostles’ Creed   p. 35
*Hymn    581   Gloria Patri
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
 
The Sacrament of Communion
Words of Institution~Invitation~Great Prayer of Thanksgiving including the Lord’s Prayer Communion of the People   
The elements will be served by intinction. Please come to the Table to receive the elements. If you prefer, you may be served in the pew.
 
Prayer After Communion
God of abundance, with this bread of life and cup of salvation you have united us with Christ, making us one with all your people.
Now send us forth in the power of your Spirit
that we may proclaim your redeeming love to the world and continue forever in the risen life of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.
 
 
 
Presenting our Tithes and Offerings
Offertory
*Hymn  607   Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
Gracious, God, your gifts are unending. The smallest of seeds can produce great blessing. With thankful hearts, we offer our gifts and our lives to you that they may bring hope and promise to a world in need. In Jesus’ name and for his realm.  Amen.
 
*Hymn    366   Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
*Blessing            John F. Kennedy
On this day, let us gather in sanctuaries dedicated to worship and homes blessed by family affection, to express our gratitude for the glorious gifts of God; and let us earnestly and humbly pray that he will continue to guide and sustain us in the great unfinished tasks of achieving peace, justice, and understanding among all men and nations, and ending misery and suffering wherever they exist.
Go now in peace, to love and serve the Lord. Amen.
 
*Postlude

​Prelude
*Call to Worship                            
Let us open our minds to God’s teaching
and tune our ear to God’s word.
Let us listen to the stories of the faith of our ancestors;
and share our stories with our children.
We put our trust in God.
We worship the One who gives us life.
 
Prayer of the Day
God of heaven and earth, God of sunrise and sunset, God of the highest mountain and the deepest valley, hear our prayers as we come before you. Declare your message to us and grant us the courage to listen. May our listening turn to action.  May our actions touch the hearts of those who need to hear your voice. We live today and every day confident of your everlasting presence, care, grace, and love. Amen.
 
*Hymn   39   Great Is Thy Faithfulness
 
Call to Confession
The proof of God’s amazing love is this:
While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Because we have faith in him, we dare to approach God with confidence.
 
Prayer of Confession
We confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done and what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart and mind and strength.
We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
In your mercy, forgive what we have been, help us amend what we are,
and direct what we shall be,
that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your holy name. Amen.
 
*Take, O Take Me As I Am
Assurance of Forgiveness
Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old life is gone and a new life has begun. Friends, believe the good news of the gospel: our sins are forgiven and we may live this day and every day in peace.
 
Old Testament Reading     Joshua 24:14-25
 
Moments With Our Young Disciples
 
New Testament Reading            Acts of the Apostles 2: 14-22; 36-47
 
The Morning Message
 
*Hymn   14    For the Beauty of the Earth
 
*Affirmation of Faith   The Apostles’ Creed   p. 35
*Hymn  581  Gloria Patri
 
Prayers of the Faithful and the Lord’s Prayer
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
Offertory
*Hymn  607   Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
 
*Hymn   719   Come, Labor On
*Blessing
Go now and follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before us in Christ.
Love the Lord.
Serve God in sincerity and faithfulness.
Teach those who come after you to trust in God.
And may God protect you along the way;
May Christ Jesus keep you alert and prepared.
And may the Holy Spirit fuel the lamp that guides your path.
 
*Postlude

Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
*Call to Worship
Come and worship, you who love the Lord with all your heart,
and with all our souls, and all our minds, and all our strength.
Come into the community of God’s people and worship with the neighbor you do not know:
the stranger seeking welcome,
the hungry, the homeless, the hurting.
Come, and worship, you who love the spirit of the law,
and the One who showed us how to live in kin-dom.
 
Prayer for Veterans
Holy and loving God, we give you thanks for the veterans among us, those living, and the saints who have gone before. Thank you for their service and sacrifice. We thank you for those now serving and ask your protection over them and their loved ones.
Guide us, Lord, as we seek to love our neighbors who are veterans and deal honorably with them. Heal all brokenness and bring us together as your people.
Lead us to work together toward your promised reign, when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and neither shall we learn war anymore.  Amen.
 
*Hymn   336   We Gather Together to Ask the Lord’s Blessing
 
Prayer of Confession
O God, Rock of our salvation,
you give children to the barren,
and strength to the feeble.
You exalt the poor and lift up the needy.
We praise you from morning to night,
yet we build walls that separate us from you,
from one another,
and from the world.
We place stumbling blocks in the way of goodness and truth.
We are led astray by promises of earthly desires.
We confess our failings,
and seek solace in the source of our joy, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Guide us in our efforts
to encourage one another,
to work together for good in the world you made,
and to prepare for the coming day of the Lord.  Amen.
 
Hymn 698     Take, O Take Me as I Am
Assurance of Forgiveness
Our hearts are sprinkled clean with the water of God’s love.
Through salvation won for us by Jesus Christ, God assures us that we are forgiven, absolved, and released from the sin that binds us. Alleluia! Amen.
 
First Reading     Psalm 78:1-7
Time With Our Young Disciples
Second Reading    Matthew    25:1-13
Morning Message
 
I have been singing an old spiritual all week:
Keep your lamps trimmed and burning,
keep your lamps trimmed and burning,
keep your lamps trimmed and burning,
the time is drawing nigh.
 
In these simple lines, you hear and feel an urgency. Something very significant is anticipated and you wouldn’t want to miss it.
 
Rev. Janet Hunt offers this story from her childhood. I think it gives us a glimpse of what is meant by this parable.
 
“I was in third grade. Our classroom was on the second floor. There were two entries into that classroom. The one we normally used and the one we used for recess. The one we used for recess was actually an old iron fire escape. Without a key, the door only opened from the inside.
It was afternoon in the fall of the year, and we were outside for recess. Normally, I would have been playing with friends in my own class, but the second grade class was having recess at the same time that day. My sister, Martha, was in that class and I got to playing with her. When I looked up again, my class was gone.
 
Now ours was a new teacher, and no doubt, she was still learning how to best corral the energy of 40 eight and nine year olds. Her method for gathering our attention and signaling it was time to go back to our lessons, was to stand in the middle of the playground and hold one hand in the air. We were to make a single file line in front of her and she would lead us inside.
 
I was not the first one to miss it. In fact, just a week before two boys had gotten busy and had not looked up at the right moment. When they realized they had missed it, they went around to the school’s front doors and came in. She sent them back outside and ordered them to sit at the top of the fire escape steps until the end of the school day.
 
That day was my turn. I ran as quickly as my nine year old legs would take me to the top of the stairs. I peered through the window to see my classmates taking off their coats and hanging them on their assigned hooks. I saw our teacher tell them to ignore me…not to open the door to let me in. By the example of others, I knew it would do no good to enter by another way. I was something like those foolish bridesmaids we hear about today. And so I sat on those top steps and waited until the end of the day and I was finally let in.
I was told to sit down at my desk where our teacher told me to make up the work I had missed. I will never understand her surprise that by now I was choking back tears.
 
I offer this now because it ends in a similar way to the parable Jesus tells today. Recalling my third grade experience of being locked out helps me test the point Jesus offers now.
 
But here is my struggle with the words before us today. While the words of the parable end with Jesus telling his listeners to “keep awake,” my sense is that is not really his point. At least not in the way we might normally understand it. For as the story is told, both the wise and foolish girls fell asleep. So it seems to me that “keeping awake” must not be that of a third grader keeping her eyes glued to her teacher so as not to miss her silent signal. But this keeping awake does have to do with being prepared…always aware that the end of “recess” is right around the corner…that the bridegroom could come at any time.”
 
I agree with her statements.  In that way, the waiting has a joyful and life-affirming purpose. That does not seem to be the objective of the new third grade teacher, who was conducting her class in a way that turned punitive if one missed her hand in the air.
 
Jesus is expected…even if he is delayed. And somehow our living should reflect that.
I confess, this is a subject on which I rarely focus. Life is good and life is short. I have always known the love of Jesus and the grace he has lavished on me for over sixty years…through good times and bad…through tragedy and heartache, and yes, in times of temptation and sin. I don’t doubt his presence today. I think very little about the eschaton, or the second advent of Christ.
 
But, each and every Sunday, we stand together and profess our faith that points to a realm beyond this one, where the whole creation is redeemed and we shall see our Savior, Jesus Christ, face to face.
 
So, what do Presbyterians believe about “end things?”
 
This is a very complicated subject and the topic of prolific volumes of Christian thought through the ages. In an attempt to simplify things, the Presbyterian Mission Agency offers this explanation:
 
“The Jesus story is also our story. That Jesus died, was raised, ascended into heaven, and sits on God’s right hand, prefigures our own story. We will follow him. This means our confessions often describe the future of individual Christians by how they tell the story of Jesus. In the earliest confessions it is understood that we are destined, when we die, to follow Jesus into God’s presence.
 
If there is a Presbyterian narrative about life after death, this is it: When you die, your soul goes to be with God, where it enjoys God’s glory and waits for the final judgment. At the final judgment, bodies are ae reunited with souls, and eternal rewards and punishments are handed out. As the Scots Confession notes, final judgment is also “the time of refreshing and restitution of all things.”
 
The core meaning of the Greek word for faith is “trust.” Each section of one of our contemporary affirmations, A Brief Statement of Faith, begins with the words, “We trust.”  As we trust God with our present, we can trust God with our future.
 
A friend of mine was born and raised in a Jewish family. He was faithful. When he went to college, he met a young woman who was Christian. He eventually came to claim the Christian faith himself. He told me that he went to tell his beloved mother that he was becoming a Christian. To which his mother simply said, “Then you be a good one.”
 
I believe that our call is not to fully articulate what the end times will look, sound, or feel like, but to trust both the present and the future to God, a God that would never leave you quivering on the fire escape.
 
 
*Hymn   625  How Great Thou Art
 
*Affirmation of Faith        The Apostles’ Creed
*Hymn 581           Gloria Patri
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
Offertory
*Hymn  607  Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
 
*Hymn  8   Eternal Father, Strong to Save
*Blessing
Go out in peace, for the Lord has heard your prayers.
Do not allow anyone to lead you astray.
Hold fast to the hope you have claimed.
Continue to meet together, encouraging one another and provoking one another to put love into action.
And may God be your rock of strength.
May Christ Jesus usher you into God’s presence.
And may the Holy Spirit write the laws of love and life upon your hearts. Amen.
                        
*Postlude

​Prelude
 
*Call to Worship
Holy God of wind and fire,
dance through our worship today.
Holy God of earthquakes and illness,
share our memories, our tears of sadness and loss.
Holy God of creation and new beginnings,
show us again your vision of healing and wholeness
and the promise of life here and in the world to come.
 
*Hymn   326    For All the Saints
 
Opening Prayer
Eternal God, you have knit together your people of all times and places into one communion in the mystical body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grant us your Holy Spirit that we may be encouraged and strengthened, seeking your forgiveness in our moments or seasons of failure, persevering in our part of faith’s course, until such time as we join the great cloud of witnesses in our eternal home.  Amen.
 
*Hymn  Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
Assurance of Forgiveness
Jesus said, “For the Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
Friends, believe in the good news of the gospel. Our sins are forgiven. Alleluia! Amen.
 
First Reading    Revelation 21:1-6
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
New Testament Reading              Matthew 5:1-12
The Morning Message                 Saints Among Us
Who knows who Saint Dympha is?
 
That’s what I thought. No one. I didn’t either until I read an article by Nadia Bolz-Weber, a Lutheran minister.
 
Nadia says St. Dympha is her favorite saint. In her, we can clearly see the Beatitudes enacted. Dympha was the daughter of a pagan Irish king and his Christian wife in the 7th century.
 
Before her death at the young age of fifteen, Dympha and some other Christian missionaries founded a home for the anxious and mentally ill in Belgium. Reports were positive about the home. Many who suffered from mental and emotional problems became less afflicted having been cared for in the mission.
 
Dympha is officially the patron saint of the anxious, the patron saint of the emotionally disturbed, the patron saint of the mentally ill, and the patron saint of those with neurological disorders.
 
Nadia Bolz-Weber says that with those things to her credit, Dympha seems like just her kind of saint. Nadia’s history makes quite a story. Suffice it to say, she has waged her own mental, emotional and spiritual battles. She suffered from debilitating drug addiction and it seemed she was headed for certain destruction and an early death. But God had other plans and so she clings to the faith of Dympha, with whom she identifies.
 
But today we celebrate All Saints, not just some saints, most of whom will never have a prayer card made with their likeness on it or their name carved on the front of a church.
 
We Presbyterians do not ascribe to the belief that we need special people to intercede for us as if God listens to them more than God listens to us because they are advance placement Christians or something. What we celebrate today is not the superhuman faith and powers of a select few but rather God’s ability to use flawed people to do divine things.
 
We celebrate all on whom God has acted in baptism, sealing them, as Ephesians says, with the mark of the Holy Spirit. We celebrate that God engenders faith within us, and through ordinary acts of love, the Kingdom of Heaven moves closer to earth.
 
We celebrate the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us, and that the faithful departed are as much a part of the body of Christ as we are.
We are connected to so much faith; so many witnesses; so much courage and sacrifice and adventure and daring and so much trust and so much divine love it is overwhelming.
 
In this turbulent age, when we are always looking for “our” people, we desperately need to hang onto this fact: what connects us in a real and lasting way is not Facebook, or what school we graduated from, what we do in our leisure time, what political party we belong to, or anything other than this truth. We have membership in the body of Christ, the Church with a capital “C.”
 
And even more importantly, what connects us isn’t so much our beliefs about God, or our theology, or our doctrinal positions. No. It’s God and God gathers up all of God’s children into the Church eternal. We are all sinners saved by grace to glorify God and enjoy God forever.
 
So, today, for a little while, let’s remember all the deeply faithful saints through whom the glory of God has been revealed and will be revealed as year succeeds to year.
 
Yesterday dawned bright and sunny, the temperature mild for a November day. Ed suggested we go to the Marshall game and so we did. You all know this-you can’t be anonymous in Huntington, West Virginia. As soon as we found our seats, a couple we’ve known for over forty years sat right in front of us. We chatted for a few minutes, catching up. Then one of them said we were sitting in special seats. The whole row of seats had been occupied for years by a group of church folks who call themselves the Pea Ridge Bible Study. Meeting on Thursday nights for at least forty years. Many of them community leaders, government office holders, teachers and principals, volunteer leaders who guided major charitable organizations like Habitat for Humanity and the Boys and Girls Clubs. They were good and faithful people who worked to make their part of the world shine. They were cheerleaders for hope and optimism. Blessed are the cheerleaders.  Most of them are in heaven now. Saints for sure, although they began that service while still on terra firma.
 
The election is Tuesday. It makes me anxious. We’ve heard the pitches, the speeches, the commercials. I dread each day’s coverage. Why can’t they stay on the high road? Nothing is sacred. Nothing is too vile or vulgar.
 
People speak or write in the most provocative and strident ways possible.  Every situation is somehow seen as the most consequential event in history. We demonize those who disagree with us and sever relationships. Reasonable thinkers know this further divides a conflicted public, but reason is often in short supply.
 
But, we’re experienced enough to know that regardless of the outcome of the election, life will go on. When I doubt that or think that I just don’t have the energy to adapt, change, or cope, I am reminded of the Sunday many years ago, two days before the Presidential election, when I wished I were anywhere other than behind the pulpit. As usual, the Presbyterians were plugged into politics and tension was high.
 
As the prelude began, into the sanctuary marched a woman proudly wearing a John Kerry t- shirt. She sat in her usual place-right up front on the left side.
Simultaneously, another woman marched in to take her place on the right side of the sanctuary wearing a red, white, and blue rhinestone pin that said, “Bush.”
 
And because I always think the worst thing will happen, I prayed my most strident prayer, “Help!”
 
And help came.
 
The two women walked out of the sanctuary together, fussing at each other a little, their very distinct voices rising above the others. They each got cake and coffee during the fellowship time. They sat together, still sparring. Sometime later, I saw them walking out of the church, each with an arm around the other. I think it was their testimony that what binds us together is greater than anything that could divide us.
 
When I am sick and tired of the ugliness in life, and especially in campaigns, I recall that morning. Both of these women are in heaven now, even though they deviled each other in this life. Saints.
 
Saint Dympha was a very young girl when her mother died. Her father was inconsolable. His courtiers decided what he needed was a new wife. But no woman in his kingdom pleased the king. Eventually, someone dared to suggest the unthinkable: the king should marry his daughter.
 
Terrified at the prospect, Dympha fled with some others to Belgium where she established her mission, a home for the mentally and emotionally challenged. She was suffering great anxiety and found meaning in helping others.
 
Unfortunately, Dympha died at fifteen by her father’s hand. That’s another way people become saints-through martyrdom, to give one’s life for one’s faith.
 
People of faith still find themselves in life-threatening situations. And some indeed give their lives for the cause of Christ. But, thanks be to God, death is not the final word.
 
In 1985, as a sign of shared faith and purpose, the General Assembly of the newly re-united Presbyterian Church, adopted the Declaration of Faith. This was a welcome and celebrated accomplishment, as the church worked to heal the split that had deeply divided north from south for over one hundred years.
 
Many scoffed at the idea of re-union, declaring the church irreparably fractured, as good as dead. I would go as far as to say some preferred death to forming a relationship with those they considered infidels.
 
But, the church is the body of Christ and he is very much alive.
 
In part, the Declaration states:
“In the death of Jesus Christ, God’s way in the world seemed finally defeated.
But death was no match for God.
The resurrection of Jesus was God’s victory over death.
Death often seems to prove that life is not worth living, that our best efforts and deepest affections go for nothing.
We do not yet see the end of death.
But Christ has been raised from the dead,
Transformed, and yet the same person.
In his resurrection is the promise of ours.
We are convinced the life God wills for each of us
is stronger than the death that destroys us.
The glory of that life exceeds our imagination,
but we know we shall be with Christ.
So we treat death as a broken power.
Its ultimate defeat is certain.
In the face of death we grieve.
Yet in hope we celebrate life.
No life ends so tragically that its meaning and value are destroyed.
Nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
Jesus is Lord!
He has been Lord from the beginning.
He will be Lord at the end.
Even now he is Lord.”
 
Glory be to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.
 
 
 
*Hymn   37   Let All Things Now Living
*Affirmation of Faith              The Apostles’ Creed  p.35
*Hymn  581  Gloria Patri
 
Prayers of the Faithful and the Lord’s Prayer                        Romans 6:3-5
This morning we remember family, friends, and loved ones who have joined
 the blessed company of the saints in light during this church year.
When we were baptized into Christ Jesus, we were baptized into his death.
We were buried therefore with him by baptism unto death, so that, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life.
For if we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.     
 
Members of Kuhn Memorial received into the Church Triumphant this year:
Sue Yoak
Other recently departed loved ones and those who have inspired our faith:
Alice Bias
Ben Klusty
Paul Adkins
Marsha Wilson
Jake Sharp
Tyler Blankenship
Braxton McComas
Brody Reynolds
Linda Reid
Jimmy Edmunds
Alice Harold
Dove Vititoe
John and Mattie Morgan
Joy Morgan
George and Lula Wilson
Stan Napier
Jean and John Porterfield
                                                                             
Eternal God, we bless you for the great company of all those who have kept the faith, finished their race, and now rest from their labor. We praise you for those closest to us whom you have received into your presence… and others we name now in our hearts…
We lift our concerns for our community, our nation, and the world, that all may be supplied their daily needs and know the security of freedom, safety, and peace. We pray for those who suffer from illness and other circumstances which prevent them from living whole and blessed lives. We give you thanks for all gifts of healing and compassion offered in your name.
Help us to believe where we have not seen, trusting you to lead us through our years.
Bring us at last with all your saints into the joy of your home, through Christ Jesus who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father… Amen.
 
Presenting Our Gifts of Tithe and Offering
Offertory
*Hymn  607   Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
 
*Hymn 730    I Sing a Song of the Saints of God  
          
*Blessing
Go out in the confidence that your lives are safe in God.
Keep your hands clean and your hearts pure.
Do not act falsely or deceitfully.
Trust in the Lord, even in the face of death,
and follow in the footsteps of all God’s saints.
And may God keep a protective eye on you;
May Christ Jesus show you his grace and mercy;
And may the Holy Spirit give you a vision of the life of the world made new.
 
*Postlude

​Prelude
*Call to Worship                                                Psalm 46:1-3, 8-11
God is our refuge and strength
 a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
 though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
 though its waters roar and foam,
  though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
 Come, behold the works of the Lord;
 see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
 he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
 he burns the shields with fire.
The Holy One says,
“Be still and know that I am God!
 I am exalted among the nations,
 I am exalted in the earth.”
The Lord of hosts is with us;
 the God of Jacob is our refuge.
 
*Hymn 275           A Mighty Fortress Is Our God       
                                                                                             
Prayer of Confession
Almighty God,
We confess that we have taken your commandments and turned them into rules.
We have criticized those who have fallen short
 and selfishly proclaimed ourselves righteous.
We have failed to understand the spirit of the commandments
 and the way you showed us to live-
loving God and loving neighbors.
Forgive us for turning your law into burdens
 and ignoring the glorious freedom from sin, gained by the
 saving death and resurrection of  our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
Hymn  698                     Take, O Take Me As I Am
Assurance of Grace                             1 John 4:16
God is love.
Those who abide in love, abide in God,
and God abides in them.
Friends, believe the good news of the gospel.
Know you are forgiven and be at peace.
 
First Reading      Psalm 46
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Scripture Readings       
  Romans 1:17; Ephesians 2:8; 1 Peter 2:5; 2 Timothy 3:18; Matthew 11:29-30             
 
The Morning Message    
 
This is a special day in the life of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches. It is Reformation Day. Some churches may celebrate this day with a traditional “Kirkin’ of the Tartans,” or parade of tartans, or colors, in the church, by which each Scottish clan is identified. This is a nod to our Scottish history and a fun way to remember our forebears in the faith.  I don’t own a tartan, although there is a good Scottish presence in my family. So, I might just enjoy some tea and shortbread.
 
Until the Renaissance of the 15th century, the authority of the Roman Catholic Church remained largely unquestioned in Western Europe. The invention of the printing press in Germany around 1440 made it possible for common people to have access to printed materials including the Bible. At this time in history, the language of the church was Latin, an academic language, and unknown to the general public. The ability to read the Bible in one’s own language enabled many to discover religious thinkers who had begun to question the authority of the church. Martin Luther was one such person. He was a German priest and professor. Luther started the movement known as the Protestant Reformation.
 
In 1517, Luther posted his list of 95 theses – grievances against the Roman Catholic Church- on a church door in Wittenburg, Germany. Some twenty years later, a French-Swiss lawyer and theologian, John Calvin, further refined the Reformers’ way of thinking about the nature of God and God’s relationship with humanity in what came to be known as Reformed theology. John Knox, a Scotsman who studied with Calvin in Geneva, took Calvin’s writings back to Scotland. Other Reformed communities developed in England, Holland, and France. And we shouldn’t leave out the Waldensians of Italy in this movement toward a Protestant way of life and faith.
 
Important to the Reformers are what became known as the Five Solas, or Solae. These ideas shaped the doctrine of the early Protestant churches.
The five solas are:
Sola Scriptura. “Scripture alone.”
Sola fide.  “Faith alone.”
Sola gratia.  “Grace alone.”
Solus Christus.  “Through Christ alone.”
Soli Deo Gloria.  “Glory to God alone.”
 
That little word, “alone,” set Reformed theology apart from Roman Catholicism. Reformers held that authority in the church came via sola Scriptura, or, Scripture alone. Rejected were the elements of tradition and experience, to which the Roman Church adhered.  Reformers held that we are saved by faith alone that comes through the grace of God alone. Good works were not efficacious to our salvation. Reformers taught that Jesus Christ is the only mediator between human beings and God. Rejected were any other mediators- saints, the Virgin Mary, priests. And that our salvation is won for us, by God, through the saving death of God’s Son, Jesus, and not due to any merit on our part.
 
The result, at least in Presbyterian circles, was to reject or eliminate what some Reformers believed were unnecessary or ostentatious accoutrements of the church. Protestant worship could seem austere. Gone were the icons, incense and bells, and the Mass from every service of worship. Only two Sacraments were acknowledged: Baptism and Communion, because these were the Sacraments Jesus instituted. Calvin taught that the congregation was the primary choir for worship and so the choir went to the back of the congregation. The original choir loft at Kuhn was located in the back, what we now call the balcony. It was Calvinistic in its placement.
 
A lot has changed in the world and in the church in the last five hundred years. I’m writing this message on Wednesday afternoon in my kitchen. Just looking around the room I see a refrigerator that keeps our milk and eggs cold; I see a television that keeps me up-to-date with a twenty-four-seven news feed; a tea kettle, a crock pot, a toaster, and a stove which eliminate the need to keep a fire going in the backyard. I am working from a laptop computer on which I compose sermons and newsletter articles and committee reports. It also connects me to the session and my grandchildren in North Carolina. On it, I can chat with friends all over the world. I shop on-line. It is safe and convenient. Twenty years into the 21st century, it seems progress leads us to limitless possibilities. And that’s just the view from the kitchen in an average home.
 
We have made huge social advancements: on Thursday I drove to Milton City Hall and voted in the US General Election. Maybe you have voted early, too, or by absentee ballot. Maybe you will exercise your right to vote on Election Day, November 5. It is important. We are participants in democracy. You have probably heard me say that we take our citizenship too lightly. I urge you to re-think that. We enjoy tremendous blessings in this country and I pray we continue if we want to sustain our democracy.
 
What are some other steps forward since the Reformation?  Probably the greatest change is that I am speaking to you as an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament. Ordination for women in the Presbyterian Church was not adopted until the latter half of the 20th century. It took me eight years to earn my Master of Divinity Degree. It was an additional five years before I was ordained because my seminary did not offer Hebrew. Hebrew proficiency is a requirement for ordination in the pcusa. God made a way for me to study Hebrew and I am grateful for that gift.
 
And the icing on the cake, for me, was that early in my ordained service, I was elected Moderator of the Presbytery of West Virginia.
 
All unheard of in any earlier era.
 
The Canon of Scripture was closed in the 4th century. But the traditions and practices of the Church have changed due to culture and necessity. The Church is a dynamic living organism. It has grown and gained prominence. It has failed and suffered losses in adherents and reputation. While the Church has sometimes failed to act, it has typically rushed to the side of the suffering, even at the peril of losing its own life.
 
The result is we have a more global orientation. Our children are in school with children of other faiths, cultures, and languages. We find meaning and value in meeting our neighbors of other faiths and even with those who claim to have no faith. Learning what is important to our neighbors and friends is important to us.  Often we discover that we share common understandings of the Holy One who created the world and every man, woman, girl and boy who lives upon it. Our common understandings and our shared challenges, even our common tragedies, increase our capacity for compassion, lead us to better trust one another, and to work toward those things we all hold dear, like peace and freedom.
 
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul writes these words about the church, the body of Christ:
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were baptized into one body-Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-and we were all made to drink of one Spirit…If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”
 
One of the great realities of the New Testament church was that it was diverse, Sometimes diversity led to conflicts, as was true in Corinth. But Paul viewed diversity as a tremendous gift. To Paul, the church was stronger when the God-given gifts are shared to build up the church and strengthen its ministry.
 
In our Book of Order we read, “Christ calls the church into being, giving it all that is necessary…Christ alone rules, calls, teaches, and uses the church as he wills. Each member of the body of Christ is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
 
Our mission in the world is the ministry of Christ. Just as Christ was called to bring good news to the poor…to proclaim release to the captives and …to let the oppressed go free, this is our call, as attested in Luke 4:8.
 
A motto of the Presbyterian Church (USA) is “The Church reformed, and always reforming.”  We would add these words, “ According to the Word of God and the call of the Spirit. (Book of Order.)
 
So it is no surprise, that as opportunities, controversies, and problems occur in the life of the world, the Church and her people will engage it, struggle with it, and faithfully discern how God is leading the church to speak and act.
 
We have not shied away from such topics as abortion, genetic engineering, divorce, sexuality, the role of women in the church, war, ecology, economy, health care, public policy, criminal justice, and more. They are all works in progress. The more we learn, the more we understand, the better we respond and adapt. I am confident that issues we’ve never dreamed of will emerge in the future to command the faith and practice of those who follow us.
 
And confident of all these things, I offer these words attributed to Paul:
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 8:38-39.
 
May it be so for all of us.
 
 
*Hymn   630     Fairest Lord Jesus
*Affirmation of Faith       The Apostles’ Creed p. 35
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
Offertory
*Hymn    Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
We give Thee but thine own,
whatever the gift may be.
All that we have is Thine alone,
a trust, O Lord, from Thee. Amen.
 
*Hymn  643  Now Thank We All Our God
 
*Blessing
For all that God can do within us,
for all that God can do without us.
Thanks be to God!
For all in whom Christ lived before us,
for all in whom Christ lives beside us.
Thanks be to God!
For all the Spirit wants to bring us,
for where the Spirit wants to send us.
Thanks be to God!
The blessing of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
 be with you today and always.  Amen.
 
*Postlude 

Click here to download printable PDF for October 20, 2024​

​Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
*Call to Worship
God’s greatness is beyond our understanding, yet we proclaim…
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
God stretched the heavens across the sky;
let us marvel at the stars that fill it.
God raised mountains above the depths;
let us gather in wonder before them.
 
*Hymn   667  When Morning Gilds the Skies
 
Prayer of Confession
O, Lord, you have taught is that whoever wishes to become great
must be a servant,
and whoever seeks to be first
must be last and servant of all.
Still, O Lord, we are like James and John,
seeking seats of glory.
We organize our lives around ladders to climb,
not realizing that we are stepping on people whom you love.
Forgive us, O Christ, and teach us to follow in your way,
for the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
 
*Hymn    Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
Assurance of Forgiveness
Now stand firm in your faith,
covered by the saving grace of God and ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.
In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.
Thanks be to God.
 
First Reading     Psalm 91
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading   Mark 10: 35-45
Morning Message
*Hymn  644   Give Thanks, O Christian People
*Affirmation of Faith    The Apostles’ Creed  p. 35
*Hymn  Gloria Patri
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
Offertory
*Hymn   Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
To you, O God, we offer our lives-
in times of abundance and in times of scarcity.
All that we have and all that we are testify to our great thanksgiving
for the treasure of your grace.
Take and use us for good in the world that you so love.
In Jesus’ name and for his glory.  Amen.
 
*Hymn   314    Christ, Be Our Light
*Blessing
Go now in peace to love and serve the Lord
with heart and soul and mind and strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself.  Amen.

​Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
 
*Call to Worship                                                     
Praise the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good;
For the Lord’s steadfast love endures forever.
Who can utter the mighty doings of the Lord,
or declare all God’s praise?
Happy are those who observe justice,
who do righteousness at all times.
 
*Hymn  305   Come, Sing, O Church, in Joy!
 
Prayer of Confession
O God, who alone can probe the depths of the heart,
you hear the prayers of the faithful;
you justify the repentant sinner.
Grant us the gift of humility,
that we may see our sins clearly
and refrain from judging our neighbor.
We make our prayer through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
 
*Hymn  698  Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
Assurance of Forgiveness
God pours out mercy and grace, never giving up on us, but freeing us to live lives worthy of our calling.
Friends, believe the good news of the gospel: Jesus Christ saves us from sin and sets us free to enjoy newness of life.
Know you are forgiven and be at peace.  Amen.
 
First Reading   Joel 2: 23-32
 
 
Moments With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading   Luke 18:9-14
Morning Message
 
You reach into your mailbox and pull out a stack of paper and envelopes. You find an ad for the local grocery store, a power bill, a magazine you will never read, and something different. In a stiff, thick envelope, with your name in an embellished script, is an invitation. How intriguing. What could it be?
 
When that happens at our house, I open everything else before I open the mysterious envelope. I let the suspense build. Maybe it’s a wedding invitation…or a graduation announcement…or an invitation to a party for a famous person coming to town. I’m still hoping for that one.
 
Imagine how you would feel to receive a personal invitation to join Jesus in his life and work, to be a disciple, walking alongside him daily. Sit with that a moment. How would you answer?
 
In our text, the man we have always called “the rich, young ruler” kneels in sincerity before Jesus and asks the central question of the faith: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
 
This man is apparently a Jew and Jesus reminds him that he knows the Law, the Ten Commandments, he has been raised in the tradition of the Torah.  And the young man says, “I get that, Jesus. I have kept them faithfully my whole life long.”
 
Yesterday I was scrolling though Facebook and came upon a livestreamed worship service from Temple Immanuel in New York City. It must be one of those old temples ornately decorated and packed with a throng of men and women who had gathered for the final worship service of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the most holy of the high holy days in the Jewish faith. It was glorious. There was a female rabbi, a cantor, an orchestra, and lots of little children. I just caught the last fifteen minutes or so and was sorry when the broadcast ended before the blowing of the shofar, the ram’s horn. The shofar represents God’s voice going forth in the world. This is a tradition that has been practiced for as long as God claimed the Israelites as his own. The shofar sounded at creation, at the revelation of the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. This tradition is rich and deep.
 
Jesus credits this young man before him as someone who is a faithful practitioner of the Jewish faith, yet one whose education is incomplete.
 
What the text says next is perhaps one of the most revealing moments in all the gospels: we get a glimpse into the heart of Jesus. Jesus, looking at him, loved him. The text doesn’t say he looks at him with pity. It doesn’t say Jesus looks at him with disapproval. No. Jesus looked at him the same way he looks at us: Jesus loved him.
 
Jesus extends an invitation to come and follow him. But not before he points out that the young man lacks one thing. Jesus says, “Go sell your stuff, and come back ready to travel, ready to bring people into the fold so they, too, can have eternal life.”
 
How would you respond? Run back to your house and put a for sale sign in the yard? Call Goodwill or Habitat and ask them to send a truck?
 
What does this young man do? Does he ask Jesus to give him a few days to get his affairs in order?  No. After hearing how much it costs to become a disciple, the man slumps his shoulders and sadly walks away.
 
Many others have been called to follow Jesus by this time. And, according to scripture, they have left kith and kin, their jobs, their comforts, their possessions, and have become disciples. This may be the only example of someone refusing the call to discipleship in all of scripture.
 
This man rejected Jesus. Because to follow Jesus meant he would pay too high a price. He would have to give up his wealth. And that is no small thing.
 
And I can really identify with the problem. Perhaps this man had a family. What would happen to them? We know he had a prominent position in the community. He would have to give that up.  He probably enjoyed more creature comforts than the common folk. No doubt he had tickets on the 50 yard line of the sports arena.
 
And Jesus tells him to unburden himself of all these distractions if he wants to find true treasure: life that never ends.
 
The gospel, the New Testament scripture, is our witness to just how risky it can be to be met by Jesus. I think, instead of criticizing this poor fellow, we might give him credit for being honest.
 
I read a story recently, a first-hand account of a man who had converted to Catholicism from the Evangelical branch of the Christian faith. He spoke about how much it had changed him. He intended to live out his faith by applying those things he had been taught in his Confirmation classes. He said it was not easy. In fact, at times, he knew he was making different choices than he did before he converted. He lost some friends. He lost some business contacts. His faith did cost something. But, it was worth the cost for the peace he felt in his heart. Jesus gave his life for him. He would gratefully give up something for Jesus.
 
Clarence Jordan, the renowned preacher of the social gospel, an African-American, is said to have once visited a large integrated church in the deep south in the 1960’s. Well, you can imagine how unusual that would have been.
 
Jordan is said to have asked the old country preacher how he had accomplished this. “How did you get the church this way?”
 
“What way?” the preacher asked.
 
Jordan went on to explain his surprise at finding a church so thoroughly integrated, not only with blacks and whites, but rich folk and poor folk all in one warm, hospitable fellowship.
 
The preacher said, “Well, when our preacher left our small church, I went to the deacons and said, “I’ll be the preacher. The first Sunday as preacher, I opened the book and read, “As many of you as has been baptized into Jesus has put on Jesus and there is no longer any Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, males or females, because all of you is one in Jesus.’
 
Then I closed the book and I said, “If you are one with Jesus you are one with all kind of folks. And if you ain’t, well, you ain’t.”
 
Jordan asked what happened next.
 
“Well,” the preacher said, “the deacons took me into the back room and told me they didn’t want to hear that kind of preaching no more.”
 
Jordan asked what he did then, “I fired them deacons,” the preacher roared.
 
“Then what happened?” asked Jordan.
 
“Well,” said the old preacher, “I preached that church down to four. Not long after that, it started growing. And it grew. And I found out that revival sometimes don’t mean bringin’ people in, but getting’ people out that don’t dare to love Jesus.”
 
Friends, I think that is the issue before us today, the question the text is asking of us:
Do we dare to love Jesus with our whole heart, and soul, and mind, and strength? Or do we need to let go of something, lose something, in order to deepen our relationship with Jesus?
 
Listen to the wisdom of Saint Francis of Assisi:
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand.
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
 
May it be so for all of us.  Amen.
 
*Hymn   475  Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
*Affirmation of Faith                 A Declaration of Faith, PCUSA, 1985
We are certain that Jesus lives.
He lives as God with us,
touching all of human life with the presence of God.
He lives as one of us with God.
Because he shares our humanity,
He has bound us to himself in love.
We declare that Jesus is Lord.
We have an advocate in
the innermost life of God.
His resurrection is a decisive victory
over the powers that deform and destroy human life.
His lordship is hidden.
The world appears to be
 dominated by people and systems that do not acknowledge his rule.
But his Lordship is real.
It demands our loyalty and sets us free from all the lesser lords who threaten us.
We maintain that ultimate sovereignty
now belongs to Jesus Christ.
In every sphere of life,
Jesus is Lord.
He has been from the beginning.
He will be Lord at the end.
Even now he is Lord.
 
*Hymn  581 Gloria Patri
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Presenting Our Gifts of Tithe and Offering
Offertory
*Hymn  607   Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
 
*Hymn 36     For the Fruit of all Creation
 
*Blessing
May the God of endurance and encouragement, grant you to live in such harmony with one another that with one voice we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Go now in peace to love and serve the Lord. Amen.
 
*Postlude

​Click here to download printable PDF for October 6, 2024​

​Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
*Call to Worship
To those who are hungry, Jesus says:
“Come and eat! There’s more than enough for all!”
To those who are thirsty, he says:
“Come and drink! It’s free for the taking!”
Stop wasting your money on food that doesn’t satisfy.
Come to me and you will find everything you need!”
 
*Hymn  2   Holy, Holy, Holy
  
Prayer of Confession
Merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done and what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart and mind and strength.
We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
In your mercy, forgive what we have been,
help us amend what we are,
and direct what we shall be,
that we may walk in your ways,
to the glory of your holy name. Amen.
 
*Hymn           Take, O Take Me As I Am
Assurance of Forgiveness
The mercies of the Lord are from everlasting to everlasting.
They are new every morning and sure as the sunrise.
I declare to you, in the name of Jesus Christ,
our sins are forgiven. Be at peace with God and one another.  Amen.
 
Passing the Peace   Please offer a sign of peace to those seated near you in the pews.
 
First Reading     Micah 6: 1-8     
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
New Testament Reading         John 21:15-17
Morning Message
 
The air conditioning in my car went out last summer. It was finally scheduled for repairs, meaning Ed and I made two trips in three days to the Honda dealership in South Charleston. On our way home after picking up the car, we stopped for dinner at a place we like in Teays Valley. Ed arrived first, but, he told the hostess I may have beat him because I had a head start. Could he just walk thru the restaurant to see if I might already be there?
 
To which the hostess replied, “Well. Do you know what she looks like?”
 
We got a lot of mileage out of that.
 
When we entered the chapel today, we probably noticed something different. The paraments have been changed to white. The Table is set for Communion, the holy meal to which Jesus calls us.
 
We know what it looks like.
 
Bread and wine. Simple. And profoundly filling. Food and drink were important to Jesus. The first of the miracle stories happened at a wedding in Galilee. He turned water into wine. Then he multiplied a little boy’s lunch of bread and fish to feed thousands of hungry people. We remember the poignant story of Jesus being the dinner guest at the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha.
 
After the resurrection, Jesus shows up on the beach to cook breakfast. This event is important if we are to be resurrection people. We have a witness to the world: Jesus rose from the dead. And in his death is the promise of ours.
 
Jesus never misses a teachable moment. In our scripture text, Jesus connects the act of feeding hungry people to love. If we love one another, we show it by feeding one another. Food is important to Jesus and to us and to every man, woman, and child who ever lived.
 
I love infants. The family joke used to be, “Don’t let Cinda hold your baby-you may not get it back!”
 
I love the way they smell, their soft skin, the wisps of downy hair, the way you cradle them in your arms to feed them. Early on, they begin to make eye contact with the mother or whoever is privileged to feed them. And in those fresh, clear, innocent eyes are the sweetest, purest expressions of love and devotion.
 
“If you love me, feed my sheep.”
 
Today Christians around the globe are celebrating World Communion Sunday, a day when we are urged to embrace the Biblical vision of unity and peace. Not as a far-off dream, but as Christ’s calling to us.
 
World Communion Sunday is a gift of the Presbyterian Church to the larger ecumenical body of Christ. The first observance was at the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, in 1933. The Rev. Dr. Hugh Thompson Kerr was the pastor. It was from his vision that the day was set apart for the purpose of promoting peace and global witness. Years later, his son, the Rev. Dr. Donald Kerr, reflected on his father’s vision.
 
“The concept spread very slowly at the start. People did not give it a whole lot of thought. It was during the Second World War that the spirit caught hold, because we were trying to hold the world together. World-wide Communion symbolized the effort to hold things together, in a spiritual sense. It emphasized that we are one in the Spirit and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
 
It seems to me, we are trying to hold the world together right now. Hurricane Helene wrought destruction and death upon thousands in the US last week. It will be months and maybe even years before some communities are restored to their former functionality.
 
Military aggression has intensified in Israel-Palestine. We are painfully aware that war anywhere could unfortunately lead to war everywhere.
There is a palpable tension in the country that we know will not be relieved on November 5.  It would do us well to decide now how we will respond no matter which team prevails. Could we set aside our loyalty to the blue team or the red team and take on allegiance to a re-imagined red, white, and blue team, the one that will lead to peace, justice, security, progress for all of us?
 
 Noted theologian, Karl Barth, is remembered for saying this about preaching: “Hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” His point is that faith, apart from real life, is irrelevant.
 
There is a taught tension between the Bible’s vision for the world and the world’s news, isn’t there?  Let’s consider some current news:.
 
NBC News reports:
Israel and Iran are on the path toward a catastrophic war.
The Bible says: “No more shall there be the sound of weeping, or the cry of distress.”
 
The Logan Banner reports:
Bluestone Dam keeps Hurricane Helene’s New River Waters at Bay. The 75-year-old Summers County flood control project may well have saved Charleston and other downriver communities from catastrophy.
 
The Prophet Isaiah says:
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
 
The Herald Dispatch headline yesterday:
Annual Survey Shows Snapshot of Homeless Population
The average person experiencing homelessness in Huntington is a 44-year-old white male taking occupancy at a shelter.
 
 
Jesus says to his friends in Matthew’s Gospel:
When you saw me hungry, you fed me; when you found me thirsty, you gave me drink; when I had no place to stay, you invited me in; and when I was poorly clothed, you covered me; when I was sick, you tenderly cared for me; and when I was in prison, you visited me.
 
And in Joyce Spencer’s column, some news from this village:  The Barboursville High School class of 1969 is planning a 55-year reunion. What a milestone!
 
The psalmist reminds us of God’s benefits:
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all my inmost being, praise God’s holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies you with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
 
We find these competing truths all around us.  What are we supposed to do? On the one hand, we can see signs of God promise of peace, but violence still exists, poverty exists, disease and death exist.
 
One way we can respond is to just look the other way. Don’t concern ourselves with the world’s brokenness.  Ignore the Bible. It’s irrelevant today. It certainly doesn’t compel many people to action. Judging by the inactivity in my own neighborhood on Sunday mornings, I’d say this is the prevalent attitude.
But, Christians have to do better than that.
 
We could take the eschatological approach and lean into the time to come when Christ returns to make all things new and establish the peaceable kingdom. God will take care of this in God’s good time. No worries.
 
This approach reminds me of a high school friend of mine who decided not to apply for college admission because he believed the Rapture, or Christ’s return, was imminent. That was in 1974.
We could concentrate on our personal salvation.  It is important. Jesus saves. Our eternal security is sealed. But, Jesus saves us for what purpose? What is the work or mission to which Jesus has called us?
 
We could set all those approaches aside and try another way- the prophetic way. “A way that lifts up God’s end game vision and at the same time, opens our hearts to let Christ make a difference now.”
 
The churchy term for this is “inaugurated eschatology.” The reign of Christ the King was begun through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus over two thousand years ago. His kingdom is here, but it is not here in its fullness. We still have that to look forward to.
 
That’s the prophetic way, the Gospel way-where God’s reign can be real, even now. Where peace is not a pipedream, where God assures that none of his beloved sheep go hungry.
 
Is that too naïve, too idealistic? Or is there a way to embrace that vision for the world God created and loves?
 
Seminary Professor Fred Craddock shares this story of how the reconciliation of faith and current events came together in his classroom.
 
At the beginning of many seminary classes, a student leads the class in prayer or shares a brief devotion. Maybe the student brings along a guitar and invites everyone to sing a hymn or chorus. This was a part of seminary education that I loved. Every lecture, every assignment, was wrapped in the Word read and proclaimed, and sealed with prayer.
 
On this particular day the student leading devotions stepped up to the front of the class with her yellow legal pad. It had a lot of writing on it. Fred thought this could take a long time.
 
The student spoke softly, first in one foreign language, then another-one sentence repeated over fifty times in different languages. Fred said it was only when she spoke in German, Spanish and French, that he began to understand what she was saying. She ended in English with these words: “Mommy, I’m hungry.” And then she sat down.
 
Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me? Feed my sheep.”
Jesus asks all of us here, “Do you love me? Feed my sheep.”
 
Preacher Christine Chakoian offers these thoughts to us who are even now praying about the world’s great problems and waiting in hope for the coming kingdom:
“Cynicism is the fate of realists who clearly see the present, but see nothing of God’s vision for the way the world could really be. That vision is before us now: where wolves and lambs can feed together; where all of God’s hungry children are fed at the table of grace.”
 
It takes some imagination and not a little courage to live into God’s vision. But, that is the call of Christ on our lives: to feed his sheep, so that every single one of the children of earth is fed- fed with security, fed with love… and bread.
 
*Hymn   We Gather at Your Table, Lord (insert)
 
*Affirmation of Faith    Apostles’ Creed
*Hymn     Gloria Patri
 
Celebrating the Sacrament of Communion With Our Global Family
Prayer After Communion
Holy One,
we have been strengthened at this table, by loaf and cup,
and will live in gratitude for the dying and rising of Jesus Christ, our Savior and friend.
And we will become bread for a hungering world.
And we will become drink for those who thirst.
And the blessed will become the blessing,
and everywhere will be the feast. Amen.
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
Offertory
*Hymn   Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
Merciful God, we make our offerings, small and large, with the hope and confidence that all we do, all we offer, all we say, all we think, and all we hope will take root in this world. May this be the source of new expressions of God’s love, of God’s justice, of God’s character, of God’s mission, and of God’s reign. May God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven through us, alongside us, despite us, and for us.  Amen. (Adapted from Mustard Seed.)
 
*Hymn  487   Amazing Grace  
*Blessing
This is a vision of the way it can be, the way it should be:
Shouts of welcome, a joyful procession,
a community celebrating Christ’s transforming power in unity.
As we go out, may we hold fast to his vision of goodness,
giving ourselves to God’s love,
pouring it out into the world in God’s name.  Amen.
 
*Postlude

Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
*Call to Worship
To your name, O Lord,
help us to bow the knee and all its worshiping,
bow the will and all its choosing,
bow the heart and all its loving.  Amen.
 
*Hymn  619     Praise My Soul the King of Heaven
 
Prayer
God of love,
you have willed that the last be first and you have made a little child the measure of your kingdom.
We may be reluctant to embrace humility and service, for to do so may imply work and will require a spirit of cooperation and compromise.
Forgive us for our complacency, hesitation, or indifference and
give us the wisdom which is from above,
so we may understand, that, in your sight, the one who serves is the greatest of all.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ,
whose service gives us life and hope.  Amen.
 
Hymn   698                  Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
Assurance of Forgiveness
God’s Word is truth: That Jesus Christ came into the world to redeem and re-form our lives.
The old life is gone and a new life has begun.
Your sins are forgiven.
Be at peace with God, one another, and yourselves.  Amen.
 
First Reading        Psalm 78:1-8
Time With Our Young Disciples
Gospel Reading         Matthew 20:1-16
Morning Message
 
*Hymn    
*Affirmation of Faith   The Apostles’ Creed  p. 35
*Hymn    581       Gloria Patri
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
Offertory
*Hymn   607   Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
We give with gratitude for all our God has given us. In the upside down world of the Gospel, we measure our wealth not by what we have but by what we can give away.
Lord, God, receive our offerings today to bless your church, your creation, and your children, wherever there is need.  Amen.
 
*Hymn  596  A Charge to Keep I have
*Blessing
And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be upon you today and always.  Amen.
 
*Postlude