​Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
*Call to worship
   We worship the God who inhabits our world and indwells our lives.
   We need not look up to find God…
   we need only to look around…
   within ourselves…
   beyond ourselves…
   into the eyes of another.
   We need not listen for a distant thunder to find God…
   we need only to listen to the music of life…
   the words of children…
   the questions of the curious…
   the rhythm of the heartbeat.
   We worship the God who inhabits our world,
   who indwells our lives.                       
 
*Hymn   39      Great Is Thy Faithfulness 
 
Prayer of Confession
God, you know us better than we know ourselves.
You know our thoughts,
our weaknesses,
our sins.
and you love us still.
Forgive us when we don’t believe such love is true or possible.
When we wonder how you could love us just as we are,
when we forget our intricate construction,
that we are fearfully and wonderfully made… in Your image!
Remove from our minds every thought that keeps us from You.
Break down the walls,
push aside the pride,
and help us trust anew.
You know our hearts
and You love us still.  Amen.
 
Assurance of Pardon
Nothing is impossible with God.
There is no place you can go.
No end of the earth to which you can run.
There is nothing on earth or beyond death
    that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You are forgiven and freed to live in God’s infinite love, grace, and peace.  Amen.
 
Moments With Our Young Disciples
 
Scripture Reading           Genesis 28: 10-19a
 
The Morning Message    “Building Spiritual Cairns”
 
Summer is travel and vacation season. For some, the beach beckons. My sister and some friends are at Destin Florida this week. For others, the great trees of the forest wave them into the respite of cool and shade and the music of streams and waterfalls. For still others, it’s a time to take the kids and grandkids to historic places, landmarks where something important happened in the life of the nation or state, or family. For some, it’s camp, although it would be challenging in this heat.
 
Ed remembers the summer his parents took him to every county in the state, where they stood him by the black and white historic marker sign and snapped a picture for their photo album.
A friend of mine took a trip out west recently and you could feel the sense of awe in her Facebook posts as day after day she filled it with pictures of snow in July, the magnificent Rockies and Mount Rushmore.
 
Memories are important to us. Can you close your eyes and remember your first car? Your first date? The day you walked across the stage to receive your diploma? The feel of a newborn baby in your arms?
A wave of nostalgia can wash over us at the thought.
 
But, not all memories are good ones and we have a tendency to avoid or shove out of sight those things that remind us of painful times. One day Sarah Beth and I were driving thru Milton, and passed the old middle school. I pointed toward the building and said something like, “We’re in your old stompin’ grounds. You had a great time there.”
 
To which she whipped her head around to face me and said something like, “Are you kidding?  I hated that place!”
 
And then there are the thin places, the holy moments of our lives, when the distance between this world and the next is as close as a whisper. We know that God is always near, but there are holy moments when the gossamer veil is lifted and we are standing in God’s presence in an intimate way.
 
In today’s Genesis text, Jacob receives a vision, a holy visitation, following an act of cunning and cowardice. He has hurt his brother and father in his selfishness. His cover story is that his mother has sent him off to find a decent wife, but, in truth, Jacob is running scared, as if putting distance between himself and his despicable behavior will save him.
On his way toward Haran, Jacob came to a place to rest for the night. Scripture says he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and lay down to sleep.
And he dreamed there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching into heaven, and angels of God were going up and down on it.
 
And he dreamed the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and bring you back to this; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
 
 Then Jacob woke up and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it.” It frightened him. It would frighten anyone to have an experience this intense.
 
Jacob took the stone that he had used as a pillow, and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on it. He anointed it, set it apart, and called the place Beth-el, even though the place was called Luz at the time. Kind of like re-naming 16th Street Hal Greer Blvd. or 20th Street for the victims of the tragic Marshall University plane crash.
 
“Beth-el” means place of God in Hebrew. This was a holy place, not just to Jacob, but to his descendents and all the children of the earth forever.
 
Jacob is no choir boy. He is narcissitic and self-serving. He has lied and cheated and schemed his way thru life. He is a scoundrel and the last person we’d think of as deserving God’s attention. But, God runs him to ground, so to speak, hotly pursuing Jacob, to tap him for holy work.
 
Barbara Brown Taylor says Jacob is on no spiritual quest; he has simply pushed his luck too far and left town in a hurry. He is between times and places, in a limbo of his own making. He stops in a place that isn’t distinctive at all, or so he believes. And it is here that God comes to meet Jacob. Our colorful history and misdeeds matter not one bit when God decides to call, when God comes pursuing us. Taylor writes, “Jacob is nowhere, which is where the dream touches down…not where it should be, but where he is.”
 
In this text, and in the Matthew text, God demonstrates an extraordinary capacity for grace. Here he reaches out to a man with a checkered past to set him on a path that leads to a future that will define a whole culture, race and religion. In the Matthew text, God allows the weeds to grow alongside the good wheat for a time, though they are detrimental to the crop and deserving of a bonfire.
 
Which brings me to a couple of ideas I’d like us to take away this morning:
 
One is the idea of nearness and distance. Jacob’s place in his family of origin is damaged thru his own sinfulness. Being in close proximity becomes dangerous for him and he runs away.  He is cut off from his own family and faith community and yet, through the mighty acts of God, Jacob becomes the link between their long history and their deepest hopes for the future. Later on in Jacob’s story, he will be re-named “Israel.” No matter how alone he may have felt, and even before he knew it, Jacob belonged to something greater than himself. He tricked his brother and father to gain an undeserved birthright and is now the one through whom the entire human family will be blessed.
 
But, let’s remember that Jacob is not an entirely new person. He is flawed and so are we. Even though we have devoted our lives to love and serve the Lord, we sin. We commit acts that harm others and we fail to come to the assistance of those who need us. We neglect our relationship with God.
 
 Day by day, I am reminded of the chorus of a little song that witnesses to that reality:
 
“Grace grace, God’s grace.
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within.
Grace, grace, God’s grace.
Grace that is greater than all my sin.”
 
I am thankful for that grace that never fails.
 
The other idea I want to lift up is the question of place, of the distance between God and human beings. All of our texts today testify to the very present nature of God. God is with us. Always. And everywhere. There is nowhere we can go to escape, hide or hope God forgets about us or gives up on us. This is our great good news.
 
Sometimes the presence of God overwhelms us. These are the thin places the Celts talked about. These are the moments that shape us, that tell us who God is and who we are to God.
Maybe these times are so profound that we feel compelled to do something to set them apart. We set up memorials. Like Jacob took his stone pillow and set it up as a monument.
 
My friend, David, says the little chapel that is secreted away on the ground floor of Trinity Episcopal Church is one of those places for him. It is a place that he experienced a vivid experience of God’s presence and love.
 
For me, it’s the moment the mountains come into view at the intersection of Black Mountain Road and Cherry Street in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It always takes my breath away.
Do you know what a cairn is? It is a pile of rocks set up as a memorial to a special person or place or moment of importance. Cairn is a Scottish word. Cairns have been made since prehistoric times.
 
In modern times, they are used as monuments, but they could also mark a burial site. They have been used for ceremonial purposes, to mark trails, or for use in astronomy.
 
This is one of my favorite pictures of Briar, our oldest grandson when he was about four years old. It was mid-summer and I was really missing our family. Ed surprised me by arranging to meet Katy and Briar at Pipestem, which is about half-way between here and Winston-Salem where they live. For the better part of three days we played, rode the tram, waded in waterfalls, watched baby raccoons and deer,and played in the cold, clean river that only came up to our knees.
 
On our last evening, Briar wanted to stay longer at the bottom of the hill by the river. So Ed and I came back to the lodge to get ready for dinner. We had a ground-floor room. There was a knock on the patio doors that opened onto the field outside our room. And by the door was this lovely cairn, fashioned from river rocks that Briar and Katy had gathered and carried to the lodge via the tram.
 
The meaning was clear: This was a holy moment, a holy place.  A time and place set apart to remember our visit and our love for one another.  
 
Friends of mine recently celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary by hiking a favorite trail, reflecting on their life and love in all its challenges. Then they built a cairn to remember this milestone, and their hopes for another forty years and to give thanks to God.
 
How would you build your cairn? What experiences do you want to remember forever? How do you want your family and friends to remember you? Where have you encountered God…where has God run you to ground?
 
This red brick building on the corner of Main and Park in Barboursville is a cairn of sorts. It is the testimony to the faith and vision of the first church members. A lot has changed since then. A few more stones have been added to the first pile. What are they? Where are they? Who carried them to this site and worked them into form and function?
 
Today, I invite you to consider building your own cairn. Think about your life and its milestones. Think about your faith and how it has been shaped by the worship, study, fellowship and service you have been blessed by here at Kuhm. Take a walk and gather some stones, if you can stand the heat, and leave a witness  to this place, and to our God who has been with us for over one hundred years, in our work and in our play, in our joys and in our sorrows, in our disappointments and in our dreams and in what is still to come.
 
 
*Hymn  353   My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less
*Affirmation of Faith   The Apostles’ Creed  p.35
*Hymn   Gloria Patri
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer
Lord God, of heaven and earth,
we praise you with thanksgiving and joy,
for you create and sustain and redeem all things.
We thank you for making us in your image,
and sending Jesus, your Son, whose life of love and mercy is the pattern for our lives.
We thank you for your energy behind all things,
for your Spirit to inspire us in this season of challenge and change.
Strengthen us in the days ahead,
show us how to adapt to new ways of worship, service, and fellowship.
We pray for those who lead this and all the nations of the world, that they may work for the well-being of the people entrusted to them, with hearts, minds, and intentions to improve the lives of all the world’s peoples;
for teachers and others whose plans for the fall cannot yet be confirmed;
for those in the healing professions, that they remain healthy, alert, and dedicated to their patient;
for all whose incomes have been diminished or lost as a result of the pandemic;
for families trying to cope with the stress of caring for restless children during a long, hot summer;
for young people, that they may not be tempted by destructive activities when boredom sets in;
for the poor, the hungry, those seeking shelter, the sick, the forgotten;
for those we lift now, who are in need of your presence and love and care…
Eternal God, keep us in the embrace of your care, that we mayserve you faithfully, with cheerful hearts, praying as Jesus taught us, saying, Our Father…Amen.
 
Presenting Our Gifts of Tithe and Offering
Offertoy
*Hymn  607  Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
 
*Hymn  443   There Is a Redeemer
 
*Blessing
Go now, with your hope set on Christ.
Let the Spirit guide you.
Let your righteousness shine like the sun
until darkness and light are one.
And wherever you go,
whether you scale the highest heavens or plunge to the depths,
may God’s presence be known to you,
may Christ Jesus welcome you into his embrace,
and may the Spirit assure you that you are beloved.
 
*Postlude

​Welcome and Announcements
Prelude
 
*Call to Worship
Come, sing praises to God!
Rejoice in God’s presence,
for he is our God:
Father to the fatherless,
and the defender of all who need protection;
the One in whom the lonely find a home,
and the prisoner finds release!
 
*Hymn   370      This Is My Father’s World       
 
Prayer of Confession
God of power and love,
we hear the stories in scripture, the ones that speak of your strength and miraculous power, and wonder if you still act to still storms and raise twelve-year-old girls from the dead. We still have storms that destroy and diseases that rob people of life. We still need your help, aware that help may come in ways we cannot imagine or expect.
Forgive us when our faith is trembling, when our hearts are troubled and our minds worn out. Help us to believe that we are your beloved children, whom you will never leave nor forsake. Amen.
 
Hymn   698     Take, O Take Me as I Am        
 
Assurance of Forgiveness
Fear not! God is always with us, stilling our storms, pointing us in hope’s direction, and restoring the joy of our salvation.
Believe the good news of the gospel: know you are forgiven and live in God’s peace. Amen.
 
Old Testament Reading    Psalm 133  
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading               Mark 4: 35-41   
Morning Message
 
Summertime has always been translated “pool-time” for our family. I think my kids were always happiest when we were at the pool or on the beach. Happy, carefree, laughing and playing with their friends or their sisters. Fueled with peanut butter sandwiches and juice boxes.
 
When our older two, Katy and Sarah Beth, were ten and five, we joined the Guyan Estates pool, mainly for swimming lessons. At the time, taking swimming lessons there led to participation on the swim team. We decided to give it a try and see what happened.
 
On the first day of lessons, at 9:00 in the morning, Katy gingerly made her way into the cold water, uncertain that she wanted to be there. Sarah Beth jumped into water over her head and came up ready to race.
 
Both girls learned quickly, and because everyone else was on the swim team, they joined in. Swim meets were posted on our calendar. We hoped it would be a good experience for the whole family.
 
Katy has asthma, so swimming was good exercise for her. She worked hard at every stroke, every kick. But, even though she expended great energy, she often finished last in her events, sometimes through tears.
 
I know some of you have experienced this: your heart hurts to see one child struggle while an- other excels in a skill or a sport. And that’s exactly what happened. It was humiliating for Katy to be out-done by her little sister and in front of a crowd. There were easily a hundred people gathered around whatever pool was hosting a meet. We were more than willing to let her quit, but she would not admit defeat. She would struggle on with our support.
 
We all struggle sometimes. The proverbial water turns choppy and threatening. Or we find ourselves in over our heads. We need to change course before it’s too late.
 
Our scripture text describes the disciples in a similar situation. Jesus is teaching and preaching and people are responding. His message is compelling. His miraculous works are drawing crowds. Teaching one day on the Sea of Galilee, the crowd grows so large that he has to speak from a boat on the water so that people can see and hear him.
 
At the end of a long day, probably in search of rest, Jesus has them cross to the other side. Now they set sail at the widest point of the sea. It is estimated to be thirteen miles across. And Jesus, exhausted from his work, falls asleep.
 
I have never been out in open water when a storm blows up. I have only been as close as the shore, the beach. But, that’s been close enough. The sky can change color. I’ve seen everything from gray to purple to a weird green announce an impending storm. The air changes from hot bursts to cold blasts. The air even smells different.
 
Have you been there, too? Do you rush to gather up your belongings and hurry off the beach, maybe prompted by cracks of thunder? Lightning slashing at the sky?
 
That’s what I imagine happening to the disciples that day. I can imagine their fear. And I can imagine their fear turning to anger as Jesus slumbers on, blissfully unaware of their plight.
 
“Wake up, man! Don’t you care that we’re about to die out here? Do something!”
The boat is rocking wildly. It is taking on water. Catastrophe is imminent.
 
And from Jesus, a stern command: “Silence! Be still!”
 
And the wind and the sea obey.
 
As he has sternly commands nature, he sternly demands an answer from his disciples:
“What’s the matter with you? Have you no faith yet?”
 
This is the most interesting part of the whole episode to me: Jesus sleeps through the storm and the disciples interpret that as he doesn’t care about them. They have witnessed his interaction with many other people in need by this time. They know first-hand that his love and compassion for people is genuine. They know the awesome nature of his power. They know its source is God.
 
They wake Jesus. Jesus has made them privy to every interaction he has had with people in need. He has demonstrated that his love and care and power are genuine. They know the source of all that is God. And now, the very ones who are closer to Jesus than anyone else on earth, are terrified and are accusing him of not caring.
 
I can imagine how Jesus responded to that. I can imagine him feeling angry. I can imagine he wonders if his ministry, his message, have been futile.
 
And, friends, I can imagine this scene playing out in families everywhere. A crisis hits and family members accuse one another of not caring or not responding appropriately. They doubt each other’s love. They question each other’s commitment. Soon, the crisis, whatever it is, increases in intensity, and the family is trapped in the cycle of fighting with each other instead of fighting the problem that is threatening their lives.
 
They forget that Jesus is in their boat.
 
It happens. It has happened to me, maybe to you as well. Facing a problem, a serious one, we do as our faith instructs us. We pray. We wait. We hold on and Jesus seems to be asleep. We ask our friends to pray. They call us to check in. They bring food. And Jesus is still sleeping.
 
Maybe we get so frustrated or angry that we shake our fists and shout, “What’s the matter with you, Jesus? We’ve been good and faithful, and you don’t even care!”
 
Jesus slept.
 
At the end of a long, crowded day, Jesus piled his friends in a boat and tells them to go to the other side. Then he retreats for rest. Could it be that Jesus, the rabbi, the master teacher, has so much confidence is his message, and so much confidence that his message has been taken to heart, that he trusts his disciples to cross the troubled waters relying on their faith, their skill, his blessed assurance that he will never leave them nor forsake them?
 
They don’t know it yet, but, Jesus has so much confidence in them that one day they will receive power to do mighty, miraculous things themselves.
 
When we consider the long arm of history, the centuries of information, knowledge, and wisdom God’s people have accumulated, the risks brave people have taken, the catastrophies that have shaped human experience, the threats that have prompted research, the discoveries, the developments, the inventions that have made our lives so rich and rewarding, I am  left with this one truth:
 
Jesus is in our boat.
 
And I’m counting on Jesus being there as we try to make our way to the other side of the communal angst of this time. I’m counting on Jesus to be there as we work out our differences, as we recognize our prejudice. I’m counting on Jesus being there when we change laws that have kept some of God’s children oppressed. And I’m counting on Jesus being there when we grow so weary and worn it hurts to breathe.
 
My little girl who wanted to swim in spite of asthma worked as a lifeguard all through college. My fearless middle child still jumps first and figures things out as she goes.
 
They’ve both suffered storms, hurricanes even. The kinds that leave homes lying like sticks strewn on the ground.  But, they made it to the other side.
 
Maybe you or someone you love has suffered deeply, with their lives lying like sticks strewn on the ground. You, and they, can make it to the other side, too.
 
This I know: Jesus is in your boat.
 
 
*Hymn   630   Fairest Lord Jesus
 
*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
All that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours, O Lord,
and of your own, we give you.
Use us, and what we have gathered,
in reaching the world with your love,
through him who gave his life for us,
Jesus Christ the Lord.  Amen.
 
*Hymn        The West Virginia Hills
 
*Blessing
Shine, O Lord, upon the homely mosaic of West Virginia’s land: upon her steep-hewn hills and angled draws, her maple-strewn valleys and ridges clad in mountain rhododendron.
Shine, Lord, upon her citizens, armed only with freedom, scrappers all for such measure of dignity as fearlessness and faith may win.
Shine, O God, into those deep recesses where thou hast abundant riches, that those who dig in the earth, and those who watch for their return, may know the radiance of thy light and the safety of thy love.
Bright be the cleaning fire of thy truth in the hearts of the people, and in the public weal of their common life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.
Washington National Cathedral, prayed for the week starting March 1, 2020.
 
*Postlude

​Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
*Call to Worship          1 John 4:9-10
In this is love,
not that we have loved God,
but that God has loved us
and sent God’s Son into the world
so that we might live through him.
 
Prayer
All powerful God,
in Jesus Christ you turned death into life,
and defeat into victory.
Increase our faith and trust in him,
that we may triumph over all evil,
relying on the strength of the same Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
One God, forever and ever.  Amen.
 
*Hymn  35   Praise Ye the Lord, the Almighty   
 
Prayer of Confession
Almighty God,
you love us fully, completely,
but, we have not loved you with our whole selves.
You call, but we do not listen.
We walk away from neighbors in need and we condone prejudice, conflict, and greed.
God of grace,
help us admit our sins, that we may turn from indifference and ignorance,
and turn toward you, see the needs of the world, and resolve to speak with your voice and walk in your ways. Amen.
 
Hymn   698   Take, O, Take Me As I Am            
Assurance of Forgiveness
Scripture declares that God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Friends, believe the good news of the gospel:
In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Be at peace.
 
Old Testament Reading     Hosea 6:1-6
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading    Luke 7:36-8:3
Morning Message
 
Anne Lamott is a gifted writer and I would call her a genious at practical theology. She is not a minister or religion professor in the traditional sense. Yet, the way Anne writes is like venturing into the mighty redwood forest of life…looking up the length of  an ancient tree to its distant leafy canopy, inviting us to catch a glimpse of God.
 
While she has written many books and regularly contributes to periodicals and magazines, makes personal appearances, and is frequently on tour inspiring new writers…she has not always enjoyed success. Far from it.
 
Here’s what she says in a recent blog post:
“Thirty-seven years ago, July 7, 1986, I got clean and sober. It is the great miracle of my existence, from which everything I love about life has sprung.
I had published three books, had a great persona and reputation, and everyone knew and loved me-my soul felt like Swiss cheese, full of holes, toxic and nuts, until I had that first cool refreshing beer of the day, just to get the flies going in one direction.
 
…I was dirt poor and could not go off somewhere and clean up. And I had run out of any more good ideas, which is what grace looks like sometimes.
But God is such a show-off, and I fell in with some kind people who were sober, who wondered if I might be sick and tired of being sick and tired, and if so, if I needed a ride.
 
I was broke for the first five years but I had a luscious little boy, and these people I’m telling you about. I was happier than I had ever been. They’re the exact same people who will be there for you with rides and cookies and wisdom and loyalty and love that will blow your mind Some of them are here today, and if you reach out to them, they will respond. You never have to hurt like you’re hurting now, and you will never again be alone.”
 
Anne was living in the San Francisco Bay area. Walking through town one Sunday morning, pregnant and scared and hungry, she heard the singing of an African American gospel choir coming from an ordinary-looking storefront church.  She recognized a few words of their song: Jesus. God. Love. The sounds were so compelling, that she opened the door and slipped in incognito. Or so she thought.
 
You can’t be anonymous in the community of faith. But she tried. She slipped in and out of the church a few times in the weeks that followed. After she attended several times, comfortable with what happened in worship and the faces more familiar, she cracked the door a little on her life. She was immediately embraced. Her yet-to-be-born child was embraced. One woman saved all the dimes she got from week to week and gave those to Anne.  She says those dimes saved her from starvation some weeks. It served as food for her body as surely as worship in a storefront church, hearing and feeling the energy of the gospel choir, being inspired, challenged, forgiven, and loved by the pastor and everyone else.
 
Once she was worn out and weary, afraid of the future, afraid of childbirth, nearly penniless, and the church opened its arms wide and took Anne in, and she found rest. It transformed her life. Being so grateful for their help, she has stayed faithful to this church, which, I’m happy to report, is Presbyterian USA, under the leadership of a dynamic pastor. With drinking and drugging behind her, she knows she will always hear a message that echoes with a note of grace.
 
California is a long way to go to find inspiration, but, I may have to figure out a way to tap into that energy, that sense of hope and optimism. The last several weeks have been challenging, if not, downright hard. I have become a little weary. The AC at our house was on its last leg and company was coming. Two of our family members were hospitalized. Ed had eye surgery and I am facing another eye procedure. And, with all of you, we are experiencing a period of loss and grief. Like a hot humid summer with no rain, I could use those showers of blessings they used to sing about at my grandmother’s church.
 
Soon after I spoke those concerns aloud on Friday morning, a prayer that kind of sounded like, “Help!” my phone started ringing and pinging. Offers of help, offers to do whatever it takes to care of things here and at home began pouring in. I was able to see things a little more clearly and figure out the way forward.   Showers of blessing had arrived at 167 Iroquois Trail.
 
And that’s the way it is when we are weighed down with concerns, questions, doubts, needs, burdens- and remember to turn to God and to recognize God working through others.  Help may not come in the way or in the shape of what we expect, but be assurred, God’s storehouse is never empty and never closed.
 
May you find it so for yourselves.
 
 
*Affirmation of Faith         The Apostles’ Creed   p. 35
*Gloria Patri   581                    
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
Offertory
*Hymn 607   Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
Gracious God, we dedicate these gifts and our lives to your service, that the hungry may be fed, the oppressed receive justice, and the stranger be welcomed.
That we may faithfully bear your good news into the world, we offer these gifts of time, talent, and resources.  Amen.
 
*Hymn   37   Let All Things Now Living
*Blessing
Go now at the call of God
and follow wherever the Lord leads you.
Love truth and justice
and share the healing mercy of God with all.
And may God bless you and make you a blessing to others;
May Christ Jesus take you by the hand and lift you to new life.
And may the Holy Spirit nourish you in hope so that you may grow in faith.  Amen.
 
*Postlude

Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
*Call to Worship
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits.
Our hope is in God’s Word.
My soul waits for the Lord, more than those who watch for the morning.
Our hope is in God’s Word.
 
*Hymn   38    How Firm a Foundation
        
Prayer of Confession
God of perfect love,
you continually bring forth life.
transforming sadness to joy, and despair to hope.
We are weak, but you are strong.
Our ways are flawed, but your ways are true.
Sometimes we stray from your way. You are always faithful.
Forgive us, redeem us, transform us.
Take away the sin that burdens us,
and restore us to the people you would have us be,
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
 
Take, O Take Me As I Am      
   Take, O take me as I am; summon out what I shall be.
   Set your seal upon my heart and live in me. Repeat.
 
Declaration of Forgiveness
God seeks us out relentlessly.
With abundant grace and boundless mercy, God seeks us out and calls us by name.
This is the good news:
in Jesus Christ we are loved and forgiven. Be at peace.
 
Reading from the Psalms    Psalm 138 
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading     Mark 3: 20-35    
Morning Message
 
Who remembers when Nik Wallenda walked a tightrope across the Grand Canyon gorge? He was1500 feet in the air with no special equipment, no special body gear to save him if he fell.
 
 I watched a video of that event yesterday. I had forgotten that Nik wore a microphone and he said a series of prayers and verses of scripture with each step to keep him focused, steady, and brave.
 
On the side where he would finish his feat was a popular TV evangelist praying out loud for Nik’s safety. The event was highly anticipated and advertised. I remember feeling conflicted about the whole affair.
 
Who does that? To tempt the forces of nature and pray that God would save you from disaster? I couldn’t be the only one watching that broadcast that night who thought, “He must be---crazy!”
 
In our text, it’s not a tightrope walker, it is Jesus, who seems to be tempting fate. The 1995 Contemporary English Version of the Bible says it this way:
 
“When Jesus’ family heard what he was doing, they thought he was crazy and went to get him under control.”
 
Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church says that Jesus wasn’t the only one considered crazy, so were those who would follow him, those who would be his disciples, those who would live and be the people of the Way, called and summoned and challenged to be just as crazy as Jesus.
 
Bishop Curry says We need some crazy Christians!”
I think what he means is that the gospel calls us to a different way of life, a life that is often against conventional wisdom and behavior.
For example, what the world calls wretched, Jesus calls blessed. And blessed are the poor and the poor in spirit. Blessed are the merciful, the compassionate. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst that God’s righteousness would prevail.
Blessed are those who work for peace. Blessed are you when you are persecuted just for trying to love and do what is good.
 
Jesus, according to Bishop Curry, was crazy. One of my daughters is a psychologist and she would insist we use another word to describe such folks. But, Curry presses on with the term, which will have to be ok for today.
 
Jesus said, “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, pray for those who despitefully use you.”
 
Even when he was hanging on the cross he called out to God to forgive those who were executing him, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”
 
By our standards and expectations, that’s pretty crazy.
Setting that term aside, I’d have to say I’m in full agreement with the good bishop. We do need some Christians, and people of other faith traditions who are courageous enough to love like Jesus, give and forgive like Jesus, to transform this conflicted nightmare of a world into the world of our dreams, the world God created it to be.
 
Some of Jesus’ first followers were just that daring and brave. Let’s consider Mary Magdalene. Mary followed him all the way to the cross. Crucifixion was public torture. It sent the message that revolution would not be tolerated. If you were a supporter or follower of the person being crucified, it was dangerous to stand too close by during the execution. The rational and sensible thing to do was to go into hiding or exile.
 
Who else from that inner circle bore witness to Jesus’ death? Simon Peter? No. James? No. Andrew? Absent. Bartholomew? Absent. But Mary was there. One of the least powerful people of that day witnessed the execution of her Savior. She was with him to the end.
Bishop Curry wrote a book about some of our saints, people who marched to the beat of a different drummer and who advanced the kingdom of God.
 
One of those people is Harriet Beecher Stowe. She was born in 1811 into a devout family committed to the gospel of Jesus in order to transform the world. She is best-known for her book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
 
She told a hard story in her book. She told about the practice of slavery and how it afflicted families held captive by it. She told of the brutality, the injustice, the cruelty, the inhumanity of the institution of slavery. Her book went the equivalent of 19th century viral. 
 
The book had such an impact that it was read by President Abraham Lincoln. Upon meeting Ms; Stowe, he is quoted as saying, “So this is the little lady who started this great war!”
 
Harriet Beecher Stowe marched to the beat of that different drummer. Sometimes that means we are pay attention when we are tempted to care less, we stand up when others sit down, we speak up when others go silent.
 
Back in 1997, Steve Jobs and company worked to re-brand Apple products. A commercial was created and the tag line was “Think different,” which is grammatically incorrect, but that was the point.
 
In the commercial, were photos and video images of well-known people who invented, created, and sacrificed to improve the world.
 
Bob Dylan, Amelia Earhart , Frank Lloyd Wright, Maria Callis, Muhammed Ali, Jim Henson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Mahatma Ghandi, and others appeared in that commercial.
 
As the images rolled by, a narrator says:
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels.
The troublemakers. The round pegs in square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
While some may see them as they crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world
are the ones who do.
T
The evening that Nik Wallenda inched his way across that very thin wire above the Grand Canyon gorge, my nephew, who was in high school at the time, tweeted a message that had us doubled up with laughter: Borrowing from a Johnny Cash hit, he quipped:
“Because he’s mine, (meaning Jesus), I walk the line.”
 
And, you know what, there’s truth in that statement.
Some of you walk a very dangerous line every day; some have walked it in your past, and some have yet to be tested.
 
If you are called on to make a difference in your neighborhood, break an unhealthy pattern in your family, re-create a work environment, serve as an elected leader, or serve dinner tonight, a challenge will eventually appear.
 
And, because you are a Christian, you can let your faith bear you up and say, “Because he’s mine, I walk the line.”
 
 
*Affirmation of Faith      The Apostles’ Creed               
*Gloria Patri   (inside cover of hymnal)                                                                         
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
With gratitude for God’s faithfulness and with thanksgiving for all that we have received, we bring our gifts to God. All contributions may be left on the Communion table in the plates provided.
 
Offertory
*Hymn   Doxology (inside cover of hymnal)
*Prayer of Dedication
O God, with faith and hope, we offer these gifts. Use them, even as you use us, to accomplish your purposes in Jesus Christ, the head of the church and the Lord of our lives.  Amen.
 
*Hymn   367    The Church in the Wildwood
*Blessing
Go forth from this place trusting that God is always with us and for us in every moment of every day. May you know the blessings of grace, love, and companionship through the Triune God. Amen.
 
*Postlude