Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
 
Lenten Reading    Michael and Stephanie Noel
Reader 1: Friends, once again we invite you to observe a holy Lent-by prayer and fasting, reading and meditating on the Word of God, by acts of service done in Jesus’ name.
On this third Sunday in Lent, we see Jesus in an unexpected way. We witness him overturning the tables of the money changers at the temple. His actions surprise us. Yet, in our lives and in our world, we find much that needs to be overturned and driven out that the kingdom of God may be more fully revealed.
 
Reader 2: In John 2:13-22 we read this account.
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple, he found people selling cattle, sheep, doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.       
 
Prayer
Merciful God, in Christ you make all things new. Transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace, and in the renewal of our lives make known your heavenly glory, through Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.
 
*Hymn    475     Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
 
Prayer of Confession
Holy God, you have called us to love you
with heart, mind, soul, and strength,
and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
But, if we are honest, we know
that sometimes we hurt each other and fail to keep our promises to you.
Forgive us, God of grace.
Teach us, day by day,
to turn away from what is wrong
and to turn to you in faith,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.
 
Hymn   698       Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
Assurance of Forgiveness
Hear the good news:
We are dead to sin and evil
and alive to God in Jesus Christ.
Friends, I urge you to walk in his light- forgiven, reconciled, and free!
 
Old Testament Reading      Exodus 20:1-20
 
Time With Our Young Disciples         
 
Gospel Reading     Luke 13:1-9
Morning Message
 
Is the Lord with us or not?
 
When calamity strikes, or a disaster occurs, when a loved one is hurt, when our jobs are in jeopardy, have you ever said, “Is the Lord with me or not?”
 
I sure have. Scripture teaches me that God is always present, but, when I am troubled by something that is too big for me to solve, I wonder if and when God is going to show up.
 
The Rev. Sarah Jackson Shelton says she was driving home from the church one day, after collecting her toddler son from the church’s day care center. She fastened him safely in his car seat and started toward home.
 
She says her son was quite active and was always talking. But he surprised her that with one of those questions- you know the kind you have to think though for awhile before answering. Why is that? Because children, especially very young children, think in concrete terms, not abstract ones.
 
So when he asked, “Mom, can we have a baby at our house?” Sarah was caught off-guard and barely stammered out what most parents say when asked such a question.
 
“Well, we’ll see.”
 
To which her son responded with, “How do we get a baby, Momma?”
 
Not wanting to get into a biology lesson, Sarah simply said, “God will give us a baby.”
 
Now this is turning into a real volley between mom and son.
 
“Momma, where is God?”
 
“Son, God lives in your heart.” And without missing a beat, the little boy stuck his head inside his shirt and shouted, “Hey, God! Can we have a baby at our house?”
 
And sure enough came this announcement: “God said, Yes!”
 
The next day, also while driving, her son had another probing question: “Momma, where is God?”
 
And Momma was prepared for this question. “Oh, son, there is nowhere you can go that God won’t be there. God loves us so much that God wants to be with us all the time.”
 
There was silence from the back seat. Sarah looked in her rear view mirror to see her son turning his head side-to-side as if looking for someone or something.
 
“Son, what are you doing?”
 
“I’m looking for God.”
 
“Well, did you find him?”
 
“No, Momma, my God ran away.”
 
This conversation was between a young child and his seminary-trained mother. On the surface, it seems like such a simple exchange, just a request for information. But it is a profound one, containing questions we may ask at all ages and stages and circumstances of our lives.
 
When God’s people, Israel, were traveling through the wilderness, they became weary, worn, hungry and thirsty. They begin to lose faith in their leader, Moses. So, they turn on him in this text and blame him for their plight.
 
And we hear them raising their voices, too:  “Did you just bring us out here to die? Is God with us or not?”
 
The late Rev. Dr. Andrew Greeley, a Catholic priest and academic, offers these thoughts in his book, The Great Mysteries:
“Life is filled with so many senseless events. Mindless tragedies fill our newspapers every day-airplane crashes, the murder of innocent children, insane terrorism, natural disasters. And much of our own lives seems without purpose or meaning-like a rainstorm on a picnic day, a bad cold when we are having a party, a handicapped child, the early death of a parent or spouse, a broken marriage, a car that won’t start in the morning, a wrong number in the middle of the night, the treason of friends and envy of our neighbors.”
 
We aften wonder why these things happen and if there is a purpose or point to them? Do they come as some kind of judgment on us for the sins we have committed?
 
Is God with us or not? Does God even care?
 
The Israelites aren’t the only ones to ask those accusatory questions, are they?
 
Many years ago, one of my church people, the mother of two children, a boy and a girl, called to inform me that her son, elementary school age, had tried to take his own life the day before. The conversation in the car on the way to the hospital went something like this, “Honey, what is wrong? Why are you so sad? How can Daddy and I help you? We love you. God loves you.”
 
“God does not love me. I have talked to God all my life and asked him for only one thing: I have asked God to give me a friend and he hasn’t. So, I don’t think God loves me.”
How do you respond to that pain?
 
The good news is that eventually things began to work out for this child but it took maximum effort. He is now leading a successful life and has been blessed with a family.
 
The Israelites in our text  have witnessed the presence and power of God.  God saved them from the plagues and recues them from Pharoah’s army, allowing them to cross the Red Sea. They have been led by the pillar of fire, and have been fed by manna and quail. They have experienced God’s work in the darkest of circumstances. They have evidence, but what they want now is personal satisfaction, according to author Peter Gomes.
 
“I’m hungry! I’m thirsty! I’m broke! I’m lonely! I’m mistreated!”
 
Sarah Shelton says the wilderness is no longer a geographic place. The wilderness has become a state of mind and faith.
 
But before we ridicule those ungrateful Hebrew children, we should probably stop and consider our own states of mind and faith.
 
How often do we think about what we want God to do for us, how we want God to conform to our needs, and to perform these things on our timetable? I admit that I have done this.
 
I remember one time years ago when the church I was serving was experiencing some turbulence. One of the women with whom I worked closely, who was one of the most troubled at the time, said, “Cinda, we just have to pray really hard for God to change this situation.”
 
To which, another wise friend and church member said, “Let’s just hope God wants the same thing we do.”
 
The truth is there are often long pauses when it seems God is not present and is not active in the world, much less in our lives. But that would be a wrong assumption.
 
Sarah Shelton says that when she shares glimpses of her own life, or her family’s experiences and challenges with her congregation,  it gives her flock permission to open up and share of their own experiences. What she has discovered is that their faith is deep and mature. Those who have endured the suffering of this world are those who see God not as a solution waiting to happen, or a quick fix to numb their pain. No. They see God as present in and with our challenges.
 
When we look for the bigger picture, when we think about how our hardships stretch and change us, then suffering is seen as an opportunity to discover the presence and activity of God.
 
When this happens, we practice what Paul encourages in Romans 5- that God neither leaves us in our problems nor attempts to solve them for us, but that God joins us in our darkness.
 
So then, we understand when Paul says, “We rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurances produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given us.
 
I’ve shared the story of Carrie ten Boom before, so I’ll just refer to her briefly. In the midst of the Holocaust, Corrie, a Dutch watchmaker, had the courage and strength of character to house endangered Jews in her home. That is what we could call radical hospitality. She was eventually arrested for this practice and she and her family were herded off to concentration camps, where most died. Corrie survived and upon her release, she established a post-war home for other camp survivors trying to recover from the horrors they suffered. She went on to travel widely as a missionary, preaching the gospel and encouraging forgiveness of sins and moving forward with life post-Holocaust. One Sunday she encountered one of the prison guards who had treated her so cruelly. It took every ounce of faith and courage to face this man with the love of God and offer him forgiveness.
 
If you want to learn more about Corrie ten Boom, read her book, The Hiding Place.
 
Where was God that morning as Corrie recognized her captor? God was with Corrie and the former Nazi guard and with all who had gathered to hear Corrie’s message and God was even with those who rejected the gospel that day. Because that’s who God is. God always initiates the relationship and we only love because God first loved us.
 
“Momma, where is God?”
“God is in your heart and everywhere.”
 
May it be so for all of us.
 
“
 
 
 
*Hymn     168   Within Your Shelter, Loving God
 
*Affirmation of Faith     Apostles’ Creed p. 35
*Hymn   580        Gloria Patri
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
*Hymn   606   Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
Thank you, Lord, for your many gifts-for the world’s helpers, peace and security,
recreation and rest, friends and family, life and health.
We thank you for your Son, Jesus, who came to embody your love and compassion for the world, calling us into lives of joyful service.  We offer these gifts in his name. Amen.
 
*Hymn   443   There Is a Redeemer
 
 
*Blessing
May God bless you and keep you safe.
May God smile on you with grace.
May God watch over you always
and give you peace.  Amen.
 
*Postlude

Prelude
Welcome and Announcements 
 
Lenten Reading      Jeremiah  31: 31-34     
Reader 1: Friends, once again, we are asked to observe a holy Lent, that by prayer and supplication, meditating on the Word of God, and being in service to others, we might grow closer to the heart of Christ and joyfully witness to his love and grace.
 
Reader 2:  Hear the words of the prophet:
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt-a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.  
 
Prayer 
God of the covenant, in the glory of the cross, your Son embraced the power of death and broke its hold over your people. In this time of repentance, draw all people to yourself that, we who confess Jesus as Lord, may put aside any deeds that deny the depth of his sacrifice and accept the life of your kingdom.  Amen.
                  
*Hymn    664    Morning Has Broken
 
Prayer of Confession
Merciful God, we are a people prone to wander, tempted to satisfy our immediate desires, or the most efficient solution to our challenges, instead of seeking a wider view that would lift up a just, peaceful, and plentiful world for all. Holy One, remind us of your love and purpose for all your children.  Restore all our relationships and guide us home. Amen.
 
 Hymn   698    Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
 
 
Assurance of Forgiveness
Our God is loving, just, and merciful. God delivers us from sin and restores us by grace. Friends, I declare to you, in the name and by the power of Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven and we can be at peace.
 
Epistle Reading    Philippians 3:17-4:1          
 
Moments With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading   Luke 13:31-35
Morning Message
 
I’m still trying to get used to reading the paper late in the day, as the paper is delivered with our mail now. I usually get to it after dinner with a cup of tea-Twinings English Breakfast, if possible.
 
And so it was that on a Thursday evening some time ago, I opened the paper to see that a very dear friend of ours had died. I had no idea what had happened. Though our families had been close for many years, brought together by our daughters and their school friendship,  he and his wife had moved to the Cincinnati area to be near their daughter and her family, which included their one grandchild.
 
The visitation was from 6 to 8, and it was 6 on the dot. So, I rushed upstairs and got myself put together enough to make a visit to the funeral home. I tried to reach Ed on the way. He was in Charleston for the All State Music Conference.  I knew this news would hit him hard. I was right. I finally reached him as I was walking into the funeral home. I could hear the grief and disbelief in his voice. I detected a note of regret that we had lost contact with our friends. I was feeling it, too.
 
When we confess our sins each week in worship, we sometimes ask God to forgive those things we have done that we should not have done, and to forgive those things we should have done, that we failed to do. I was feeling the full awful truth of that in those moments.
 
Feeling plenty convicted, I waited behind a long line of friends and neighbors and colleagues to speak to the family. Then I was wrapped in a fierce embrace that closed the gap that absence and neglect had created.
 
I started to apologize that I was so completely out of the loop and so sorry to learn of her husband’s death. She gave me one of those looks that said, “Stop. You need to hear the rest of the story.”
 
And so I did. I learned that for nearly the whole time they had lived in Cincinnati, her husband had been battling a brain tumor. He undergone surgery and radiation treatment to no avail. He suffered two massive strokes. The illness devastated his body and his mind.  His death was a blessing. His suffering and theirs was ended. He had been received into the arms of mercy and everlasting peace.
 
My friend further let me off my guilty hook by saying their lives had been consumed by her husband’s health issues. There was no time for much of anything else. And, the pastor and members of the church they had joined had been very supportive and helpful and present with them through the whole ordeal, just as their friends here would have done.
 
And then she said, “I want to tell you something. You will understand.”
 
“One Sunday, our pastor spoke about finding your purpose. And I spent a good deal of time that day really thinking about that. What was my purpose? What is my husband’s purpose?”
 
Now, I would have said she had found her purpose in being a devoted daughter, a sister, a wife and a mother, and for thirty years, a teacher. And her husband found his purpose in being a son, brother, husband and father and in his career as an engineer. And those are but minimal descriptions of their rich and meaningful lives.
 
Then she said the most interesting thing happened. “I went to the facility where my husband was a patient, and found myself at the nurses’ station asking them if they had ever thought of holding a worship service at the facility. The nurse said no, but, did I know of a church that might be approached about it?”
 
 My friend said, “See that church across the field? I go to that church. I’ll ask the pastor about it. The next Sunday, there was a worship service at the nursing facility and from then until now there has been an on-going relationship with the church and the facility that is far more than a single weekly service.
 
She said that was confirmation that she and her husband were exactly where they were supposed to be. Their lives still had purpose. In fact, they had a fresh purpose, even at 70 years of age.
 
Why do I tell you this story? Because the kingdom of heaven and eternal life are gifts of God and we don’t have to wait until life on the other side to appreciate them. They may be enjoyed now. Today.   
 
When we pray, as we will shortly, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we are affirming our belief that our lives are centered in a realm that began 2000 plus years ago, accomplished for us on the cross of Calvary, and now we can be living witnesses to that truth.
 
Remember when Nicodemus, in the Gospel of John,  asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life, how he could be born again. Surely, he couldn’t enter into his mother’s body to be birthed again.
 
That is a powerful, naked, question. It strikes at the heart of the matter. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, one of the most devout Jews of his day. He was one of the most highly educated people of his community. He was important, respected.
 
Now, it was believed that the most serious, most intense, study was a discipline to undertake at night. And so, here he was, a Jew, a scholar of the law, asking Jesus about life after death and how to secure it.
 
What do we understand in our reformed tradition about life after death?
 
We start with what we know of Jesus’ experience. The Jesus story is also our story. That Jesus died, was raised, ascended into heaven, and sits at God’s right hand prefigures our own story. We will follow him. This means our confessions of faith describe the life, death, and resurrection  of Jesus as we understand it.  From the earliest confessions, it is understood that we are destined, when we die, to follow Jesus into God’s presence.
 
We also take counsel from the church confessions of faith. The Scots Confession declares, “The chosen departed are in peace, and rest from their labors, not that they sleep and are lost in oblivion as some fanatics hold, for they are delivered from all fear and torment, and all the temptations to which we and all God’s chosen are subject in this life.”
 
Westminster is even more precise, declaring that ‘the bodies of men, (and women), after death, return to dust, and see corruption; but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God.” In heaven these souls “behold the face of God.”
 
If there is a Presbyterian narrative about life after death, this is it: when you die, your soul goes to be with God, where you enjoy God’s glory and wait for the promised day of Christ’s return.
 
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
 
This is the gospel in a nutshell, isn’t it? It is the most-often-quoted verse in the Bible. And this was the ultimate answer to the deep and probing questions Nicodemus asked of Jesus.
 
That verse says the origin of our salvation begins with God. God initiates a relationship with us. Why? Because God loves us. God sent his Son out of love to live among us, to be one of us,  and save us. So, behind everything is the love of God.
 
The Letter of First John says,  “God is love. Those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them.”
 
This is not the picture of God that some present, with God as an angry monarch whose subjects must follow strict orders to please God.  The God Jesus speaks of in his answer to Nicodemus is the Father who cannot be satisfied until all his wandering children come home.
 
This answer tells us of the width, the expanse, of God’s love. It was the world God loved. It was not a nation. It was not the good people. It was not only the people who loved God. It was for the world. The unlovable and the unlovely. The lonely who have no one else to love them. The person who loves God, and the person who never even thinks of God. The one who rests in the love of God and the one who spurns the love of God. All are included in this vast inclusive love.
 
Augustine said, “God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love.”
 
And that is the essence of the story my dear friend shared with me that Thursday night some years ago. God loved them so much that God used the opportunity of their suffering to bring the good news of the gospel of Christ to others who were in need of love and hope and courage and Christian fellowship, if even for a brief hour.
 
 And if that was God’s final purpose for Richard’s life, God’s kingdom did come.
 
 
*I Cannot Tell   (insert)
*Affirmation of Faith           The Apostles’ Creed p. 35
* Hymn   580                        Gloria Patri
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
*Hymn   606     Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
Gracious, loving, and abundant God, we praise you for the gifts presented today and for the intentions of your people in giving. Bless these offerings, of hearts and resources. May they equip the saints for their ministry and be a comfort to those in need.  Amen.
 
*Hymn  702         Christ Be Beside Me
 
*Blessing
The cross…we will take it.
The bread…we will break it.
The pain…we will bear it.
The joy…we will share it.
The gospel…we will live it.
The love…we will give it.
The light…we will cherish it.
The darkness…God will perish it.         
    From Stages On the Way: Iona Community, Wild Goose Worship Group
 
Congregational Meeting
*Postlude

​Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
Lenten Reading       
Reader: Brothers and sisters in Christ, I invite you to observe a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance, by prayer and fasting, by self-denial, and by reading and meditating on God’s Word. 
Congregation: Lent is a period of forty days- like Moses’ sojourn at Mt. Sinai, Elijah’s journey to Mt. Horeb, like the story of Noah and the flood, Jonah’s call to Ninevah, and of Jesus’ time of testing in the wilderness.
Reader: In Genesis 9:8-17 we read: “Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “I now establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you- the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you- every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you, never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood, and never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, a covenant for all generations to come. I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and all the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all the living creatures of all kinds.  Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
Congregation: So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
 
Prayer
Merciful God, in Christ you make all things new. Transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace, and in the renewal of our lives make known your heavenly glory, through Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
 
*Hymn  12   Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
 
Prayer of Confession
O God, our strength and fortress, forgive us when we fail to trust in you.
We fall easily to temptation,
swayed by false words,
and false statements of our own making.
We choose ease and comfort over the claims made upon us
as Christians devoted in faith and service.
In turning from you, we settle for less than the abundant life you intend.
We keep the Good News to ourselves and neglect to demonstrate your generosity to those desperate to find relief.
Forgive us, Lord, and do not put us to shame.
Show us your salvation when we call upon you.
In the name of Jesus Christ, who died that we might live.  Amen.
 
*Hymn   698      Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
Assurance of Forgiveness
The Lord is generous to all who call on him.
God does not turn us away, but, desires to bring us into the glorious freedom offered in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Friends, know you are forgiven and be at peace.
 
Moments With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading    Mark 1:9-15
Morning Message
 
It wasn’t until I walked into my bedroom Wednesday night and caught sight of myself in the mirror that it dawned on me why I’d received some funny looks when I stopped at a store on my way home from the Ash Wednesday service.
 
I had a black smudge right in the middle of my forehead. It was pretty unattractive.
And that’s as it should be, isn’t it?
 
Ashes, dark and grimy, traced on our foreheads in the shape of a cross. Two symbols in one: ashes to remind us of death and the sobering words, “From dust you came and to dust you shall return.” But in sort of a secret language, that truth is overlaid with the sign of resurrection…the empty cross.
 
Christians do not receive the sign of the cross to attract attention. They receive the sign of the cross to focus on who they are as human beings, bound in death and life to Christ.
 
Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent provide time to explore the mystery at the heart of the Gospel… that being a Christian means a new life through Christ.
 
And so Lent begins…forty days, except Sundays, between last Wednesday and Easter. The forty days remind us of other big events in the story of God and God’s people: the flood of Genesis, Moses’ sojourn at Mt. Sinai, Elijah’s journey to Mt. Horeb, Jonah’s call to Ninevah, and Jesus’ time of testing in the wilderness, as we read just now.
 
In the early church, Lent was a time of preparation for baptism, which was done at the Easter vigil.
 
Imagine for a moment what that may have looked and felt like. New believers, many of whom were converts from some other faith, or no faith at all, were given months of instruction before the final act of commitment, baptism.
 
We light candles each Sunday, and special candles for baptism. In the early church, because baptisms were done in living, or running, water, they were conducted outside, and held just after midnight.
 
I can close my eyes and visualize the scene. Believers lining the riverbank or the lakeshore with torches, maybe singing songs of the faith, praising God in prayer, witnessing the uninitiated wade into the water, plunged beneath the surface, washed clean, raised as new-born brothers and sisters in this great communion of saints we call the Church.
 
Men and women were baptized in separate ceremonies, and they were baptized without a stitch of clothing on. When they came up from the water, they were wrapped in new robes, to symbolize the new life they put on in Christ.
 
Today, we still observe Lent. Catholics and Orthodox Christians have observed it for centuries. Presbyterians are late in coming to the practice. As you remember from church history, the Reformers, like Calvin and Zwingli, tossed out rituals that could not be found in Scripture and anything that they deemed “too Catholic.”  That was unfortunate. Our rituals teach us form, they shape our practices. We find layers of meaning in them as the years, and our life experiences unfold.
 
I am most appreciative that we have re-claimed Lent as a time set apart in the church year. Unlike the four weeks of quiet expectation we observe in Advent, the outcome of which is Christ’s birth, Lent plunges us into six weeks of somber reflection on our humanness, our penchant for sin, and our mortality. Remember those ashes.
 
In the lectionary texts, we will walk through the final days of Jesus’ life, and feel the pressure building between spiritual power and civil power.
 
And we will pray, as Jesus prayed, and sought God’s purpose and will for his life those forty days in the wilderness, as he prayed that night in the garden when all his friends fell asleep, and as he cried out to God in agony, in those excruciating final hours on the cross at Calvary. All of it adding shape and texture to the purpose of Jesus’ life.
 
What is your spiritual purpose? How did you come to faith? Did God call you in a dramatic way to love and serve him? Or was it a more gradual process? I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know God. As you’ve grown and matured, has your faith been strained or has it grown stronger?  I’ve experienced both. How is your faith different from your earlier years?
 
Dr. Ernest Thompson was Senior Ministerat First Presbyterian Church for about ten years. He was in many ways, my spiritual father. I worked with Ernest as the Christian Education Director at First Pres for several years. Time with Ernest shaped my faith in specific ways. I learned so much about being a pastor from him. He taught me to be brave, to stretch for the next goal, and not to take myself too seriously. On his last Sunday at the church, we had Communion. It was a solemn occasion. You could hear sniffles and muted crying all around the sanctuary. ET himself looked at the floor while the trays were being passed through the congregation. We had already begun to mourn our loss.
 
But, Ernest would be the first to say as important as the moment was, we would always be connected through our faith, and we must remember that we do not live by bread, even holy bread, alone, but by finding our purpose in the true bread of heaven, Jesus Christ.
 
In a staff meeting one day, we were all called on to share something of our faith story. Ernest had grown up in faculty housing at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, where his father was an esteemed professor. He was also heavily involved in the civil rights movement and was instrumental in launching the Presbyterian Outlook magazine, which is still published today.
 
ET, as he was affectionately known, was fully immersed in the life of the church, but yet, he didn’t show much interest in cultivating his faith. He described it as superficial. That is, until one summer, while working at Montreat, he heard the gospel message in a way that woke him up to the good news of the gospel, of life and death, and life after death, all wrapped up in the irresistible love and grace of Jesus Christ.
 
Upon his return home, he sat with his father and shared this newly-ignited faith.
 
To which, with a tear coursing down his cheek, his father said, “Son, that’s what I’ve been trying to teach you all along.”
 
In the Companion to the Book of Common Worship, we find this description of the Lenten season.
 
“What we hear during Lent is the power and possibility of the paschal mystery, and that the way of the cross, the way to Easter, is through death.
 
To appropriate the new life that is beyond the power of death means we must die with Christ who was raised for us.
 
To live for Christ, we must die with him.
 
New life requires a daily surrendering of the old life, letting go of the present order, so that we may embrace the new humanity.
 
“I die every day!” asserts Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:31.
 
Resurrection necessitates death as a preceding act.
 
The church’s peculiar Lenten claim is that in dying we live, that all who are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death. To be raised with Christ means one must also die with Christ.
 
In order to embrace the resurrection, we must experience the passion of Jesus. The way of the cross, the way to Easter, is through death of the “old self.”
 
In dying, we live.
 
Therefore, at the beginning of Lent, we are reminded that our possessions, our rulers, our empires, our projects, our families, and even our lives do not last forever.
 
The difference in age between my daughters, Katy and Sarah Beth, is nearly six years. Like most kids who have enjoyed first or only-child status, Katy had a wee streak of jealousy that sometimes came out in devilish behavior.
 
When SB became mobile, I put her in a playpen while I took cooked or did something that required both hands to accomplish. She wasn’t pleased about that habitat, but she could tolerate it for a little while.
 
One day, I noticed she seemed to be crying a lot. I let that go for awhile, but, soon walked from kitchen to living room to see what the problem could be. And, what I saw made me laugh and it made me hurt: Sarah Beth had just learned to pull herself up to standing, her little fingers gripping the padded rail around the playpen, quite pleased with herself, her eyes firmly focused on her big sister, whom she adored. And her adored big sister was peeling those baby fingers off the rail, one by one, until SB lost her grip and fell backwards with a thud and let out a stunned cry.
 
I was concerned for years that she was irreparably scarred, until I caught SB lowering a giant stuffed clown down the wall from her top bunk-bed to the bottom bunk to scare Caroline, who had clown phobia. That’s the way it goes in the world of siblings.
 
I tell you this story because the liturgies throughout Lent try to pry loose our fingers, one by one, from presumed securities, and plunge us into unknown baptismal waters, that turn out to be not only our death tomb, but surprisingly, our womb of life. Rather than falling back into nothingness, we fall back on everlasting arms.
 
Death? How can we fear what we have already undergone in baptism?
 
It is the power of the resurrection on the horizon ahead that draws us into repentance toward the cross and tomb. Through the intervention of God’s gracious resurrection, lifelong changes in our values and behavior become possible.
 
By turning from the end of the old self in us, Lenten repentance makes it possible for us to affirm joyfully, “Death is no more!” and to aim toward the landscape of the new age.
 
Faithfully adhering to the Lenten journey of “prayer, fasting and almsgiving” leads to the destination of Easter.
 
So, I invite you to observe a Holy Lent. Take up a spiritual practice. Read one of the gospels from beginning to end. Take your time. Pray. Experience God in silence. Wait for a sense of God’s presence and listen with your heart. Help someone. Practice fasting if your health allows.
 
In all things, I urge you to ponder these words,
“Lent is the season of penitence. To be repentant is to be aware of your human nature, your tendency to sin, and the remorse you feel as a result. And, to repent means to turn around…to turn from sin and to turn toward Christ, that your life speaks of your love and devotion.
 
In our baptism and confirmation rites we are asked, “Do you reject sin and its power in your life, and is it your intention to turn from sin and toward God?”
 
And the answer is, “I will, with God’s help.”
 
And so, my dear friends, we will, with God’s help.
 
 
*Hymn   166   Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days
 
*Affirmation of Faith         Apostles’ Creed p. 35
*Hymn   580     Gloria Patri
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Prayers of the Faithful and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
*Hymn   606   Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
Gracious God, we give you thanks for all your gifts, including these forty days of Lent.
May they be to us a time of deep searching, be it during walks in the wilderness or by making courageous choices.
May we dedicate ourselves anew to discipleship, even as we dedicate our gifts to your kingdom.  Amen.
 
*Hymn   215   What Wondrous Love Is This?
 
*Blessing
These Lenten days will take us to the cross of Christ.
Go forward, knowing that you do not walk this way alone.
Do not fear, for the Word of God empowers us and the Holy Spirit sustains us.
May the God of the exodus lead us into freedom.
May the Holy Spirit bind us to God’s will and to fellowship with believers over time and space.
May Christ Jesus, God’s own Son, show us the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
 
Announcements
 
Please remain in the sanctuary after worship for a brief annual meeting.
 
The session will meet after worship and meeting today.
 
A congregational meeting will be held immediately following worship March 16 for the purpose of electing a member of the congregation to the Nominating Committee.
 
 
 
 
*Postlude

Prelude
*Call to Worship
“Listen to him!” Our God cries from the mountaintop.
It is good for us to be here. We bow before our God in worship.
May God’s Word resonate in our ears and sink into our innermost beings.
May our hearts be transfigured, our minds filled with understanding
 
*Hymn 1    Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!                       
 
Prayer of Confession
God of compassion,
in Jesus Christ you reveal the light of your glory.
But we turn away, distracted by our own plans.
We confess that we speak when we should listen,
and act when we should wait.
Forgive our aimless enthusiasms.
Grant us wisdom to live in your light
and to follow in the way of your beloved Son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
 
*Hymn  698          Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
Assurance of Forgiveness
Though we were blinded by sin,
God’s saving light has been beamed into our hearts
that we may see the radiant mercy of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.
Sisters and brothers, I declare to you, your sins are forgiven. Be at peace.  Amen.
 
Old Testament Reading       Exodus 24: 12-18                 
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading         Luke 9:28-36
Morning Message
 
Pastors love to tell their “war stories.” This is one of Rev. Janet Hunt’s.
 
She had officiated the funeral of a veteran. When the church service was over, they traveled in caravan to the cemetery. After prayers and some final words, Janet turned the graveside service over to the honor guard that they might do their part. If you’ve witnessed this, you know how moving that is. They played taps and gave a gun salute. Then, two of the honor guard removed the flag, folding it as they do before presenting it to the family.
 
Now, Janet has been a minister for a long time and was familiar with these rituals. She knows how much they mean to the families of departed loved ones. Everything had gone per expectation, until the folding of the flag. At that moment, the funeral director, someone with whom she hadn’t worked before, appeared at her side, explaining the ritual in a rote and practiced manner of what they were witnessing. She says she just wanted to kick the man.  There are times for words and times for silence and clearly this was a time for silence, in Janet’s opinion.
 
We aren’t very good at silence. It makes some people uncomfortable and we want to fill it, make some noise, assuring ourselves that we are not alone. Maybe that’s what the funeral director was attempting to do- make people less uncomfortable.
 
I’ve done some reflecting on this idea that there is a tme for words and a time for silence. I’ve experienced both amd you have probably, yourself as well.
 
One time in particular comes to mind. It is a painful memory, but it illustrates the point.
 
Years ago, the head of staff of a church I served was displeased with my performance. He asked me to come to his office on a certain day and time for a conversation, which I did. It soon became apparent that this conversation was really going to be a one-sided diatribe listing my offenses. I was simultaneously hurt, scared, insulted, and ridiculed. I could feel my blood pressure going up and tears threatened to spill down my face.
 
At the end of his strident remarks, he asked me for a response.  I couldn’t respond. I was stunned. If I opened my mouth, I don’t think I could have made a coherent remark. And then came these words, “Is no response your response?”
 
You bet. It was the best option if I wanted to deescalate the situation.
There is a time for words and a time for silence. And there would come a time for me to respond regarding this situation. There is also a time to speak up.
 
The text today reveals a most stunning event.  It was so extraordinary, so far beyond anything Peter, James, and John could possibly imagine. Jesus is transfigured in the presence of his friends and disciples. Miraculously, Moses and Elijah appear in this scene. They are awestruck. Peter hurries to fill up the silence. He jumps in and announces they must build tents for the greats of the faith. I think that’s ok. Peter recognizes the ethereal nature of what they have witnessed and wants to set it apart as a holy moment and a holy place.
 
But, in the end, they all fall silent.There are simply no words to explain what they had just experienced. They will make their way down the mountain, full of awe and wonder. What will they do in response?
 
Janet Hunt says even though she was perturbed by the interference of the funeral director during the honor guard ritual, she could see something of herself in the moment. She says she is often uncomfortable with silence, too, and may find herself compelled to jump in with words or stories or analogies to fill up the space. Later, she realizes that none of what she has interjected is necessary. It didm’t provide any helpful insights at all.
 
So, she invites us to add some silence to our days, to stand still and notice with her these things:
 
Jesus took his closest friends and together they climbed the mountain. A mountain is the  place where the Holy is often encountered.
 
Jesus prayed. In the midst of his praying, Jesus was transformed. Jesus became light itself.
Jesus is joined by Elijah and Moses, heroes of the Hebrew people, who had long since died.
 
And that they are in conversation about what is before Jesus nowL That Jesus will suffer and die on the outskirts of the city of Jerusalem. We are led to understand then that even though this path may be unexpected and tragic for his followers and his family and closest friends, Jesus has come to fulfill his mission, the one prophesied through the ages.
 
Peter, you gotta love him, wants to do something to preserve this moment, so they might stay there in this light, in this encounter with God. There’s a sermon in that, too. Sometimes we have mountain-top experiences, where our faith is deepened, but, upon returning home or work or school, the experience fades and seems to lose its meaning.
 
Notice at the same time, the disciples experience fear as the cloud descends upon them…I think that would be a rational response in view of this stunning scene. Have you ever driven through heavy fog? Or flown through it? We returned to Huntington from Charlotte in a smallish plane this summer. We were warned that turbulence was possible as we had to fly through a storm. Well, we were soon enveloped in a thick cloud, but we could still see fierce lightening. And then the shaking and shuddering commenced and some of the passengers cried out in fear. That’s a normal response. We landed safe and sound.
 
In this scene in our text, a voice is heard from the cloud…echoing the words Jesus heard at his baptism. Only this time the words are not meant for Jesus alone. They are also meant for Peter, James, and John, and for all of us. God says we are to listen to Jesus.
 
And listening implies that we fall silent and wait upon Jesus’ voice. That’s a challenge sometimes. We fill our days with work and obligations; we experience life in a community. Everywhere we live and move and have our being, there is noise. To be fair, it’s not all bad. But to connect with Jesus, we have to intentionally set aside time for silence and waiting. This is absolutely essential for prayer/
 
A member of our church family is navigating a cancer diagnosis. Things have not gone as well as hoped for. As we texted back and forth Friday night, she said all she can do right now is pray and wait. So I told her, we would pray and wait with her.
 
There’s a time for words and a time for silence.
 
I admit, I’m sometimes uncomfortable with silence. My habit of turning the TV on as soon as I walk in the door at home attests to that. I am comforted by the noise, even if I don’t pay much attention to what’s going on.
 
But, could it be that in filling the silence, I am missing out on hearing the voice of God?
Could we, in the six weeks of Lent, reflecting upon the last days of our Savior’s life, set aside time for quiet contemplation? Would this equip us to respond in confidence when we are asked to give witness to our faith? I think it might.
 
That is our challenge as we are about to enter a holy Lent.
 
I offer these verses by Rumi:
 
There is a silence into which the world cannot intrude.
There is an ancient peace you carry in your heart and have not lost.
There is a senxe of holiness on you the thought of sin has never touched.
 
 
*Hymn      Be Thou My Vision
*Affirmation of Faith     Apostles’ Creed  p. 35
*Hymn  581      Gloria Patri
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns 
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
O Lord, our God,
you are great indeed, clothed in majesty and splendor,
wrapped in light as with a robe.
In the solitude of a mountain height,
you revealed your glory in Jesus Christ
even as he faced his crucifixion.
We praise you for this glimpse of the mystery of our redemption.
Transfigure us by your Spirit,
and let your love shine in all we do and say
that all the world may see the radiance of your light,
Christ Jesus, your Son,
Who guides all creation to the fullness of your glory.
We lift up those in our community of faith, our friends, and family members who are in need of healing and wholeness, all those in need, the forgotten, lost, and abused,
and pray for the coming of your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
We pray as Jesus taught us, saying, Our Father…Amen.
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
*Hymn  606   Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
God of grace, you provide for us in more ways than we can know or understand. Accept these offerings as signs of our gratitude and bless them to carry out the ministry of Jesus Christ, that the radiance of his light may transform hearts and minds and wills.
 
*Hymn  193        Jesus, Take Us to the Mountain
 
*Blessing                      Nathan Nettleton, Laughingbird.net
Go now, and speak of what you have seen of God.
Do not cling to the holy moments when heaven overshadows you.
But, as the Lord lives, listen to Christ and follow him
from the places of revelation to the places of mission.
And may God shine the light of glory into your hearts.
May Christ be with you and never leave you.
And may the Spirit renew the image of God within you.
 
*Postlude

​Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
 
*Call to Worship
Happy are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the way of the Lord.
Happy are those who keep the Lord’s decrees,
who seek the Lord with their whole heart.
 
*Hymn 366        Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
 
Prayer of Confession
Almighty God, you gave the law to guide our lives.
May we never shrink from your commandments,
but, as we are taught by your Son, Jesus,
strive to fulfill the law in perfect love, aware of our occasions of hard-heartedness and sin.
Forgive us and set us free to live in the fullness of your love.  Amen.
 
*Hymn  698         Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
Assurance of Forgiveness
God is love.
Those who abide in love abide in God
and God abides in them.
Friends, God’s word is true and completely reliable.
We are loved, forgiven, and freed. Alleluia! Amen.
 
First Reading   Psalm 119:1-8
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading    1 Corinthians 13:1-13  
 
Morning Message
 
“I like steak, but, I love chocolate!” We’ll come back to that.
 
On this Sunday closest to Valentine’s Day, our thoughts turn to love. You have probably heard many times that there are a number of meanings for our word “love.”
 
In the Greek, the New Testament’s original language, we find these descriptions:
Philia refers to the love between close friends, or literally, brothers. It shows a personal attachment, it engages our emotions. This is Super Bowl Sunday, ironically played by the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. There will be a lot of love-the philia type-on display today, plus a bunch of other emotions, depending on how the game goes for your team.
 
Another word for love is eros, or romantic love, the love of passion and intimacy. One of my favorite stories about this kind of love was shared with me by a church member years ago. He had grown up in a different generation, with different expectations. So, he went to college, earned a degree, served our country during the Second World War, and eventually returned home. He was a person who acted deliberately. He didn’t wait for life to happen to him. He would set his face toward a goal and work toward it. So, one day when we were talking about our families, he said when it came time for him to be married, he approached it with great care. He made a list of all the potential candidates and proceeded to get to know each of them, one at a time, so as not to rush into things or miss something important. His method was successful and he and his wife enjoyed many years together, his profession taking them to many parts of the US, being active in church and good to their neighbors, and raising two fine sons.  All the result of eros.
 
Another word for love is storge. It refers to the love between family members. It is the love that calls us together at Thanksgiving. It points toward love that can withstand hardships and trials.The love that testifies to length of years and devotion.
 
And then there is agape-probably the word with which we are most familiar. It means unconditional, sacrificial love. It is the word that describes God in scripture-God is essentially love and God demonstrates love toward his creation. Agape is a love of choice, a love that serves others, and does it with humility.
 
Back to that comment about liking steak but loving chocolate. It was made by one of my seminary professors at the beginning of a class on church growth. His theory was that we should endeavor to learn the favorite activities, hobbies, interests, and foods church members really loved, and build a ministry around those things. Then people would flock to the churches and witness to their friends and neighbors that they loved the church.
 
I admit, I resisted that model, but, the professor did have a point. People who are actively engaged in their churches often say, “I love my church!” in the way someone may say, “I love chocolate!”
 
I’ve spent some time this week considering just what it is the prompts our love for the church. That is as individual as we are.  Recently a member shared with me that he loved sitting by one of our stained glass windows, reading scripture, and meditating. In those moments, he draws closer to God.
 
Closer to God. That is what I hope you love about your church. That being here each week and the dozens of other occasions you find yourself about the Lord’s work, wherever it may be, you grow closer to God. That in this fellowship of faith, you find meaning and purpose.  That is what I hope to leave with you when I retire in a few months. That you have grown closer to God and that process is eternal.
 
We have walked through the valley of the shadow here with Covid, with the passing of beloved members, with life-changing events here and around this vast world. Many of those things cause us grief for a time, but, they don’t steal our joy or diminish our love.
 
Why is this so?
 
The letter of First John says, “We love because God first loved us.” What we do as a congregation, what we focus our attention on may change with time and circumstances, but the origin of our life of faith is birthed in God’s love for us.
 
I am one of those people who has always known that God loves me, Jesus loves me. One of my earliest memories is of Sunday School when I was just four or five. We were Enslow Park Presbyterians back then. I remember the room, the curtains at the windows. I remember the way the room smelled. It smelled like spring. The teacher led us in a little game. It went like this: “There’s someone in this room that Jesus loves, and that person….”and then she named something that would identify one of the children.
 
Eventually she said, “There’s someone in this room that Jesus loves and she is wearing new black shoes.” I remember we all looked at our feet. I suddenly realized I was wearing new black shoes. It was me! Jesus loved me!
 
Being assured of God’s love has been the blessing of my life. My deep desire is that you know that Jesus loves you. And that you find security in his love.
 
Rachel Held Evans is one of  most significant Christian minds of our day. Rachel was an author, preacher, church organizer, wife, and mother. She kept a busy schedule. Rachel returned to her home in Tennessee from a conference at which she was a keynote speaker and leader.  She was not feeling well, quickly ending up in the hospital. Her health declined rapidly and Rachel died a few days later, leaving a husband and two young children, the youngest not even a year old.
 
Rachel struggled with her relationship to the church. She grew up in a fundamentalist church, her father was a pastor and professor in a church-related college. She and her sister attended a private Christian school from kindergarten to the twelfth grade. She went to the college where her father taught.
 
As Rachel entered adulthood, moving out of the family nest, she found herself wanting to leave the church of her childhood and look for another type of faith community. It caused a life crisis for her, but, as a result, she wrote about her experience and the joys and repercussions of that change.
 
Rachel left us with many gifts through her books and blogs.. She wrote these words:
“If  I’ve learned anything in this journey, it’s that Sunday morning sneaks up on us-like dawn, like resurrection, like the sun that rises a ribbon at a time. We expect a trumpet and a triumphant entry, but as always, God surprises us by showing up in ordinary things: in bread, in wine, in water, in words, in sickness, in healing, in death, in a manger of hay, in a mother’s womb, in an empty tomb. Church isn’t some community you join or some place you arrive. Church is what happens when someone taps you on the shoulder and whispers in your ear, Pay attention, this is holy ground; God is here.
 
May it be so for all of you.
 
 
*Hymn  693      Though I May Speak
 
*Affirmation of Faith                 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
*Hymn 606      Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
 
*Hymn  692     Spirit, Open My Heart
 
*Blessing
Go now, with your trust in the Lord.
Do not be influenced by the ways of cynics and scoffers,
but delight in the Lord’s company, day and night.
And may God raise you to new life with Christ.
May Christ Jesus heal you of all that troubles you.
And may the Holy Spirit nourish you from the deep well
and keep you faithful and fruitful in all you do.  Amen.
 
*Postlude

Prelude
Welcome and Announcements                                                         
*Call to Worship                    Psalm 147
How good it is to sing praises to our God.
For God is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
God heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.
God is our Lord, and abundant in power.
God’s understanding is beyond measure.
 
*Hymn   164   He Lives
 
Call to Confession
Isaiah exclaims, “Have you not seen? Have you not heard? “The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. God does not faint or grow weary,” but comes to us to renew our strength and restore us to right relationship with God and others.
 
Prayer
O God, our creator, redeemer, and sustainer, we confess our feelings of anxiety and uncertainty, doubt and fear, brought on by winter illnesses, extreme weather events, acts of senseless violence, and other threats. We mourn our losses, thinking of what might have been. We look for help, but, sometimes it seems you are far away. Remind us that you are present to us, and to all your vulnerable children, to comfort and to bless in times of suffering and need. Renew our strength and restore our joy that we might mount up with wings like eagles to carry out each day’s purpose.  Amen.
 
*Hymn  698              Take, O Take Me As I Am
Assurance of Pardon
The God who fashioned the stars and the moon has come close to each of us with mercy and love. Hear the good news of the gospel: We are forgiven and freed to run and not be weary, to walk and not faint. Know you are forgiven and be at peace.
 
Old Testament Reading                Isaiah 58:1-12
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading      Matthew 5:13-20
The Morning Message
 
Today we take a look at the Sermon on the Mount, according to the Gospel of Matthew. The words are beautiful and familiar and we may know certain phrases by heart. The hazard of that can be that they are so familiar we barely hear them anymore. But, sometimes we will hear or experience them in a new way which adds to our understanding.
 
So, that’s where I hope to lead us this morning.
 
One of my favorite authors is Ruth Everhart. Ruth is a Presbyterian minister, my age in fact, who grew up in the Reformed Church, one of our Formula of Agreement Churches, in the Midwest. Her father was a pastor, too. Ruth went to a church-related college and was a good and happy student until the night a serial rapist broke into the home she shared with several other female students and brutally assaulted them. Ruth wrote a book about her recovery from that experience called, Ruined, which was named “book of the year” by Christianity Today.
 
That experience has led her to be an advocate for the rights of women and girls, particularly on issues involving sexual assault and its fallout. She participated in the Women’s March of 2017 in Washington, DC. She wrote a reflection of that day which I would like to share with you:
 
“During an election cycle we citizens become familiar with stump speeches. These are the points that candidates repeat at every campaign stop. If the speakers are particularly adept, the refrains they use will echo even after they have moved on to the next stop. Indeed, certain phrases  become associated with a particular face and voice and agenda, so that even fragments of the speech will call to mind the candidate’s entire platform.
 
The Sermon On the Mount is Jesus’ stump speech, if you will, and the Beatitudes are nine refrains that echo long after Jesus has moved on. Picture the “blessed are” statements on placards, borne aloft in the sea of faces around Jesus. These fragments form the context about salt and light-which seem simple enough to be campaign slogans, but are followed up with the confounding exhortation about righteousness: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
 
Righteousness and blessing are the bookends to the Salt and Light passage.
 
“You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.”
Not, “You will be the salt of the earth or you will be the light of the world.”
You are now, and here, salt and light.
 
Who is Jesus addressing? Who is the salt of the earth? Those who are humble, those who mourn, those who are meek, and those who thirst after doing what is right.
 
Salt creates thirst, does it not? Our kids had a rabbit for over 10 years. It was grey and they named him Smokey. Smokey loved his salt wheel, but it made him thirsty. He would empty his water dispenser every day. Well, we’re not rabbits, but we do get thirsty.
 
Ruth Everhart says the righteous are blessed to thirst after doing what is right.
 
They are salty and so they thirst.
 
And who is Jesus calling the light of the world? Those who are merciful, those who are pure in heart, those who are peacemakers, and those who receive abuse for standing up for what is right.
Righteousness is a form of light, is it not? The righteous are blessed to show forth purity and peace as they stand up for what is right. They shed light through their actions.
 
Remember Ruth Everhart penned these words in 2017, but, they are still relevant, I think. She continues:

“Stump speeches may seem a sour topic right now, a far cry from the gospel and its good news. Our nation is in the midst of a particularly contentious political season, one shedding more heat than light. You might even say we’re embroiled in this season. Perhaps the word “embroiled” tickles my fancy because something embroiled begs for seasoning, it begs for salt. And surely it makes us thirsty to do what is right.
 
Perhaps the most difficult part of this passage is that it cycles us back to righteousness, which we understand in the abstract, but struggle within the particulars.
 
Any disciple worth her salt knows that righteousness is the goal. It forms our telos-that thing we drive toward, like a tool that has telescoping capability. But how will keeping the Pharisaic law drive us toward righteousness? Jesus does not elaborate.
 
The answer must be found in salt and light, these elemental things that are so multifaceted. Even though they are simple, there is nothing innocuous about either element.
 
Salt preserves. Salt flavors. But salt can also sting and burn and abrade.
Light dispels darkness. Light sheds illumination. But light can also blind, either temporarily or permanently.
 
Christians want to be salt and light, but we struggle to know how and when, and to what extent.
Take, for example, the political theatre which brought on the Women’s March in Washington, with sister marches around the country, and indeed the globe.
 
For some marchers, this was a way to be salt and light, while for others, the marchers were nothing but abrasive.
 
So, should we spend more time talking about being salt and light, or more time marching and clarifying the messages we carry? Which is easier for our churches to do? Which is a more direct response to the times we find ourselves in?
 
We don’t have to be marching in protest, or marching against something. Maybe we join a Walk for Alzheimers awareness, or the CROP walk for alleviating hunger, or a 5 K or a marathon to benefit our school or help for animals or some other organization or disease or school that needs the public’s attention.
 
What kind of march would Jesus have joined or led? We will re-visit this in a few weeks at the city gate of Jerusalem.
 
How does the gospel improve the flavor of our life together-as followers of Jesus, as congregations, as a nation? What if we weren’t afraid of the sting of salt?
 
What if we spent less time arguing about the design of our lampstands- as really, so much Christian talk amounts to-and spent more time shedding light on the darkness that surrounds us?
If you intend to be salty, well-lit disciple, be advised to re-read Jesus’ stump speech. The waving placards of “Blessed are” might seem quite inspiring until you realize Jesus actually means business. This righteousness is not for the faint of heart. What Jesus has in mind might be stinging, blinding righteousness!
 
Remember a couple of years ago when I was getting ready for cataract surgery? I remember telling you that the doctor requires his patients to go without eye makeup for 48 hours before an exam or surgery.  I’ve admitted before that I’m vain. I don’t like this rule. So, after my eyes had been dilated and examined and dates set for surgery, I went out into the morning sunlight. It was not a particularly bright day, but, I could barely open my eyes without sunglasses. Never-the-less, because I had to run some errands before going home, I pulled out my make-up bag and applied some eyeliner and mascara to make myself more presentable. Or, I tried to anyway. Like I said, I could barely see when I took off my sunglasses.
 
I ran those errands and made it home a couple of hours later. When I walked into the bathroom, the face looking back at me from the mirror looked like someone had applied magic marker to my eyes then I had fallen asleep with my face in a pillow. Pretty frightful.
 
Light can be enormously revealing and it isn’t always pretty. In fact, light can reveal a world of pain and injustice. But, the only way to overcome what is unsightly, what is disturbing, what is not right, is to throw on the light.
 
And then there is the matter of salt. We bought a new set of knives awhile back. I was using one to slice an orange and underestimated how much pressure I had to exert. They are very sharp. I sliced my finger as well as the orange. And for a couple of days, it burned and stung whenever it came into contact with an abrasive substance, usually salt or something acidic like the orange. And again, the only way to avoid the pain, was to cover it up, prevent contact with offenders.
 
And I find I do a lot of that. I avoid those things which abrade. And that cuts both ways, right? Something hurts, gets under our skin, maybe even tears us apart, and we need to act, to do something to set it right. Maybe we march or run for office or intervene in an abusive situation. May be we support someone facing a frightful diagnosis. We are salt when we are moved to act.
 
Last night was cold and dark. But the sky was filled with stars. It reminded me of when our dog was just a puppy and we were potty-training. Puppies need to be walked frequently, cold and dark, or not. So, on one of our trips outside that winter, I was shivering and hoping Maeve would make it snappy. I wanted to go back inside
 
But, Maeve got distracted easily in those days. She suddenly plopped herself down on the cold, hard ground and started barking. She was looking up toward the mall, which means, she was looking to the north west and barking her head off at a single star overhead. It wasn’t a threatening “This is my yard. Go away” kind of bark. It was a “Wanna play?” kind of bark. Pretty fascinating to see her discover something about the universe in which she lives and moves and has her being.
 
I turned her around so that she would see a whole constellation behind her and the moon waxing full. She ignored my efforts and went back to her conversation with the single star, the solitary light that stood out in the inky sky.
 
I was a yogi for years. One of my favorite moments in a yoga session was at the end of the hour when we would clasp our hands in front of our hearts, lean slightly forward and say, “Namaste,” which may be interpreted as “The divine light in me salutes the divine light in you.”
 Maeve seemed to be saying that to her new friend, the star.
Namaste, friends. May you be salt. May you be light. May you live in God’s divine light. Today and always.
 
 *Hymn   221   Love Lifted Me
 
*Affirmation of Faith   Apostles’ Creed 
*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
Blessed are you, O God.
Through your goodness, we have been blessed with the gifts of time, talent, and treasure. Use us, and what we have gathered, to strengthen your kingdom on earth and benefit those who have need in body, mind, or circumstance.
We offer our gifts through Jesus Christ, who died that we might live. Amen.
 
*Hymn    430   Blest Be the Tie That Binds
 
*Blessing
Go now, and follow Christ wherever he leads you.
By the grace of God, be all you have been called to be,
and cast wide the net of God’s love.
Remind one another of the good news, and hold fast to your saving faith.
In peace, go out to love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
 
*Postlude

​Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
*Call to Worship                                  Psalm 29:2-4
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due God’s name.
Worship the Lord in holy splendor.
The voice of the Lord is over the waters.
The God of glory thunders, the Lord, over mighty waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful.
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
 
*Hymn    475      Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing                     
 
Prayer of Confession
Lord, have mercy on us.
Remember the promises you made to us in our baptism,
forgive our sinful ways
and heal our brokenness.
Set us free from all that enslaves,
and raise us to new life in Jesus Christ,
that we may be your faithful servants,
showing forth healing love to the world,
to the glory of your holy name.  Amen.
 
Hymn   698  Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the good news!
In baptism you were buried with Christ.
In baptism you were also raised to new life with him,
through faith in the power of God
who raised Christ from the dead.
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:
your sins are forgiven. Be at peace.  Amen.
 
First Reading       Isaiah 42:1-9
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading      Matthew 3:13-17
The Morning Message
 
The Christian liturgical calendar offers a lot of options for worship between Christmas Day and Ordinary time that begins several weeks later. You can observe the Epiphany, when the wise men reached the Holy Family, the Slaughter of the Innocents, the Flight into Egypt, the Presentation in the Temple, and the Baptism of the Lord.
 
Last Sunday was the official observance of the Baptism of the Lord. We celebrate it today along with the renewal of our own baptisms.
 
Like many of you, I don’t remember my baptism in October of 1956 at Enslow Park Presbyterian Church, but there are mementos- a tiny white New Testament, a tiny white dress, a certificate of baptism, and at least one black and white picture.
 
While a person may be baptized at any age, we usually practice Infant Baptism, or Paedo-baptism.  It is a comfort and blessing to some and a frustration to others. It is a blessing to know you have been marked as God’s own from your earliest days and  will early in life  come to  understand that nothing in all creation can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 
But, infant baptism can be frustrating, because we don’t remember it and it is our practice to only administer baptism once. This can be unsatisfying  in some circumstances. Maybe we never received the Christian nurture our parents promised. Maybe we have had some spiritual experience and would like to mark it as a new beginning with baptism. Understandable, but not ordinarily done.
 
If you depart from the Presbyterian Church and affiliate with a church that practices Believer’s Baptism, you may be required to submit to baptism by immersion.
 
Full disclosure: I received all my seminary preparation for ministry through an American Baptist Seminary. That’s another story for another day, but, it is my reality. The trustees of the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia had a vision to prepare  ministers serving churches in West Virginia in the most thorough way possible. So they worked for years to establish a part-time program which would allow students to continue working while studying for a Master of Divinity Degree. And I was all by myself as a Presbyterian in a Baptist cohort. But, as iron sharpens iron, we all emerged with a better understanding and appreciation for the other’s faith and practices.
 
Baptism in American Baptist Churches, and that’s the only type of Baptist Church with which I am familiar, practices the ordinance of Believer’s Baptism, meaning  candidates for baptism have reached the age or maturity to make their own decision to follow Christ.  As an act of obedience, a person is fully immersed in water, making a public expression of an inward reality of having been united with Christ.
 
For our Baptist friends. baptism symbolizes death and burial of the old life; resurrection into the new life with Christ; unity with Christ; and remission of sins.
 
As to Presbyterians, we point to what scripture declares in Ephesians;  that God claimed humanity as God’s own “before the foundation of the world.” We point to additional texts that witness to believers, along with their whole households, being baptized.
 
Both believers and their children are included in God’s covenant love. We are a covenantal faith. The foundation of this faith comes from the relationship God established with Abraham and Sarah back in Genesis. God promised to be their God and they would be God’s people. So, with that as background, we Presbyterian and Reformed believers understand that we are always beloved children of God. Though we sin, we are never “lost.” We are always and forever God’s own unless and until we reject God.
 
So, the baptism of children witnesses to the truth that God’s love claims people before they are able to respond in faith. Baptism usually occurs in infancy, though a person may be baptized at any age. Usually parents bring their child to church, where they publicly declare their faith in Jesus Christ and their desire to have their child baptized. The parents promise to raise their child to know, serve, and love the Lord and the church promises to help the parents in that responsibility.
 
The water that is used symbolizes three accounts from the Old Testament Scriptures:The waters of creation, the flood described in the story of Noah, and the Hebrews’ escape from slavery in Egypt by crossing the Red Sea. All three stories link humanity to God’s goodness through water.
 
Baptism signifies:
The faithfulness of God
The washing away of sin
Rebirth
Putting on the garment of Christ, thus special clothes. In the early church, confirmands were baptized naked and then wrapped in a new white robe to symbolize “being clothed with Christ.”
Being sealed by God’s Spirit, recalling the Spirit descending on Jesus as a dove when he was baptized in the Jordan
Adoption into the covenant family of the Church
Resurrection and illumination in Christ
 
We accept as valid the baptisms of persons baptized in other Christian churches, so long as they are officiated in the Trinitarian Formula, which goes like this, “You are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
 
The Spirit’s work is not finished at the moment of our baptism. There is ordinarily a long and full life ahead. It due time, each baptized child should have the opportunity to move more deeply into the faith, through worship, education, fellowship and service, and profess their faith as believers in a rite of Confirmation. They confirm the earlier vows made for them.
 
If we receive the sacrament as children, we may recall it by witnessing the baptisms of other children, youth, and adults and by participating in a renewal service such as we will this morning.
 
I mentioned earlier that these Sundays after Christmas provide for a wide range of scripture lessons and sermons. We move quickly through the season of Jesus’ early life and arrive at his baptism by John in the Jordan as an adult. This was Jesus’ moment of commitment and obedience. The Holy Spirit descends upon him as a dove and the voice of God is heard declaring that “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”
 
So, at the beginning of both the calendar year and early in the liturgical year, we go back to our spiritual beginning as a way of identifying with Jesus, of being called and equipped to be God’s beloved children.
 
In the renewal rite we reject sin and promise to live in accordance with God’s ways, to remember God’s gifts of love, forgiveness, new life, and hope, and to re-commit ourselves to God through Jesus Christ.
 
Sometimes we invite folks to come to the baptismal font and dip their fingers in the water, maybe touching our heads or lips or hearts with that water, or to draw a shell or rock from the font to hold in your hand or place in a pocket to remind you of your baptism and the renewal of your vows.
 
My sister says we are currently in a “Quademic” with RSV, flu, Covid, and pneumonia all arriving at once. So, it would not be prudent for all of us to dip our fingers into the same water today. I will walk down the aisle and sprinkle some water with a sweep of my arm.
 
Last Sunday afternoon I had turned on EWTN, the Catholic Channel, hoping to catch some sacred music. They do beautiful concerts on Sundays. But what I found instead was a service in the Sistine Chapel. The Pope had invited members of the Vatican staff and guards to bring their infant children to be baptized in that old and glorious place, on the Baptism of the Lord Sunday.It is a Vatican tradition. I watched as these beautiful young couples brought their children to the font, stating their intentions,  before holding tiny, not so tiny, sleeping, wailing, still, and squirming babies over the water, receiving the sacrament which unites them with Christ and initiates them into the household of faith, a household of which we are also a part.
 
Twenty one. He baptized twenty one babies. And I felt completely drawn into this moment, remembering the baptisms of my own children, the baptisms of friends’ children, and those I have baptized.
 
All of them, and us, washed free of our sins, grafted unto the body of Christ, welcomed into the family of faith, and marked as Christ’s own forever.
 
 
*Hymn    482    Baptized in Water
*Affirmation of Faith             The Apostles’ Creed  p. 35
*Hymn   581    Gloria Patri  
 
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
 
Renewal of Baptism
Through baptism we enter the covenant God has established.
In that covenant God gives us new life.
We are guarded from evil
and nurtured by the love of God and God’s people.
In embracing that covenant, we choose whom we will serve,
by turning from evil and turning to Jesus Christ.
I ask you, therefore, to reject sin,
to profess your faith in Christ Jesus,
and to confess the faith of the church, the faith in which we baptize.
 
*Renunciations
Trusting in the gracious mercy of God, do you turn from the ways of sin and renounce evil and its power in the world?                  I do.
Do you turn to Jesus Christ, accept him as your Lord and Savior,
trusting in his grace and love?      I do.
Will you be Christ’s faithful disciple, obeying his Word and showing his love?
                                        I will with God’s help.
 
Water will be sprinkled over the congregation with the words,
              “Remember your baptism and be thankful.”
 
 
 
 
 
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings
*Hymn  606   Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
As your Son Jesus came to bring light to the world’s darkness, we bring our gifts to you this day. Transform them into light for the lost, bread for the hungry, relief for the hopeless, compassion and care for the forgotten and oppressed. In joyful service, let us bear Christ’s light into the world. Amen.
 
*Hymn   289    Blessed Assurance
 
*Charge and Blessing
Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
With all humility and gentleness,
with patience, bearing with one another in love,
making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit.
Go now in peace to love and serve the Lord.  Amen.
 
*Postlude

The snowy weather this week reminded of the snow, ice, and inconveniences that greeted us right before Christmas in 2022.
 
We were so excited to have a new baby in the family that year. I had purchased her first Madame Alexander doll. A soft-bodied creation, the right size for almost one-year-old Freya to hold and cuddle. A Lego village with at least 800 pieces for Tad. A telescope for Briar, safely packed in a box the size of a small piano.
 
But Christmas passed and New Year’s too and the gifts all sat in our living room unopened because they didn’t make it to their destinations. The weather and illness and blended family arrangements played havoc with our plans to visit children and grandchildren. We had to let it go…we would see them soon. And we’ve learned over time to be content with what is. We had many pleasures of the season to enjoy and were most thankful for the blessings which have came our way.
 
Do you remember the Christmas of 2022? All day long on the 23rd and 24th, I received texts and calls from church and neighbors and family reporting various problems being encountered due to the severe winter weather. On Christmas Eve I joked that some of you deserved extra credit for coming out on such a frightfully cold night, knowing you would be returning to a cold house or a cold house with frozen water pipes or a cold house with frozen water pipes and no electricity.
 
But, for those moments together, all was calm, all was bright.
 
In the moments following Jesus’ birth, all was calm, all was bright. The gospel writers have told us that Mary swaddled and fed her newborn son with tender care and Joseph guarded their safety. Stabled beasts and grazing sheep filled the place with pungent warmth. Lowing cattle and cooing doves sang lullabies to the newborn babe, a straw-filled manger for his bed.
 
And all was calm. All was bright.
 
But, not for long. Just a few days after singing Silent Night, the glow of candlelight on our faces, we come to Matthew’s story of terror and furtive flight.
The world into which Jesus is born is full of brokenness. The stain of human sin is all over the world God created and called “good.”
 
Real life involves pain and suffering. Not one of us is spared. Evil is real and every generation faces a Herod or two.
 
Back in December of 2013, the world watched with horror the atrocities taking place in Syria. The war produced record numbers of refugees…people fleeing for their lives. According to Unicef, one Syrian baby was born in a refugee camp every hour. The weather was bitterly cold and an outbreak of polio further threatened everyone. The need for medical care, food, clothing, and shelter overwhelmed relief organizations.
 
More than one million Syrian children in that year were declared refugees. Children. Children whose grandparents might have given them presents in some other year. Children whose parents and grandparents may have taught them to sing carols or entrusted little hands to place the Christ child in the family nativity set.
 
When all was calm and all was bright.
 
Rachel wept for the children of Israel. Who is weeping now?
 
Who is weeping for the young and the old and the sick and the bombed out in Gaza and Ukraine? Who weeps for those Central and South Americans who risk everything to find solace somewhere? Who weeps for the neglected and abused on our own blocks? Who weeps for all our brothers and sisters in California who have lost so much?
 
Who weeps that all is not calm. All is not bright.
 
Pastor Sharon Blezard says, in a sense, we are all refugees…aliens in a foreign land, a place that is not our ultimate home. Years ago, at the Beverly Hills Church, one of the beloved members told me about the song he wanted sung at his funeral. “This World is Not My Home.” I assured him that this world had benefitted by his presence and not to plan on leaving it anytime soon. He complied but we did eventually have to let him go to that other world, to the tune of his requested song.
 
The truth is, he had it right. We, who call ourselves Christian, are citizens of that other realm as surely as we are citizens of this one. We dwell in tension between discipleship and culture, faith and fantasy…the temporal and the eternal. Such is the story of faith.
 
Jesus escaped the death Herod sought for him. Thank you, God.  But, the powers of the Roman Empire and the powerful religious leaders of his day would seek to destroy Jesus for the duration of his brief life.
 
Sharon Blezard reminds us that most of us have some insulation against the harshness of life. We have family, or work, or a faith community to support us.
 
Jesus, as far as we know, never married. Although his mother, Mary, seems to have been present for the entirety of his life, we hear little of a relationship with Joseph, the man who raised him, who taught him the faith and a trade.
 
We don’t think Jesus had any children and we know he owned no property and depended on the hospitality of others for room and board.  Jesus, we are told, had no place to lay his head.
 
And yet, this infant king we celebrate, who grew in wisdom and stature, full of grace and truth, was God incarnate. The Savior of the world, Emmanuel, God-with-us, walking around in skin and bones. He modeled a way of life that lifted up the refugees and dispossessed, the needy, the un-loved and the un-lovely, all to usher in the reign of peace.
 
Jesus established the kingdom of heaven right here on the earth…laid out for us the possibility that all un-holy terrors of might and fright may be vanquished by selfless love and sacrifice.
 
If you have never heard me say this before, hear it now, on the first Sunday we gather in the new year, the world should not be divided over love and who deserves our help. The country should not be divided over love and who deserves our care. And the church, for heaven’s sake, should not be divided over love and being the hands, feet, and heart of Jesus Christ when people are in need.
 
So, on this 3rd Sunday after Christmas, as we sit among the season’s beauty, we acknowledge the disasters suffered by God’s children around the globe and right now in California. See the plight of today’s refugees, for so many have nowhere to go, no comforts, no work, and precious little hope. Weep for the children…and their mothers and fathers.  Pray for all those who are being called on to help. For those who are responsible for providing services. For all those in positions of authority, that they may work together to meet the peoples’ needs. Respond if you are moved to help.
 
But don’t stop there.
 
Set your intentions on hope, peace, joy, and love. Bow your knee, your head, and your heart, and lift them to God and God will fill you with purpose and power and praise for the Word made flesh, who came that we might live, never only for ourselves, and never only for Christmas and its innumerable blessings, but for its Christ.
 
May you be richly blessed in the days and months ahead.  Amen.
 

​Prelude
 
*Call to Worship      Isaiah 60:1-3
Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
Nations shall come to your light
and rulers to the brightness of your rising.       
 
*Hymn    132    Good Christian Friends, Rejoice!
 
Prayer
Eternal God,
A thousand years in your sight are like a watch in the night.
as you have led us in days past, so guide us now and always,
that our hearts may learn to choose your will, and new resolves be strengthened.
Forgive what we have done that denies our devotion to you.
and forgive us for failing to do kindness in your name.
Set us free to love and serve you in this new year,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.
 
*Hymn   Take, O Take Me As I Am
Assurance of Forgiveness                              Romans 8:34
Hear the good news!
Who is in a position to condemn? Only Christ and Christ died for us, Christ rose for us, Christ reigns in power for us, Christ prays for us.
The old life is gone and a new life has begun.
This is our peace.  Amen.
 
Old Testament Reading   Ecclesiastes  3:1-13
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading      Matthew 2:13-23
 
The Morning Message    Ring Out, Wild Bells
 
*Hymn   Away In a Manger
*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    Christmas Doxology
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.
 
*Prayer of Dedication
 
*Hymn   123    It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, verses 1,4, and 5
 
*Blessing
Go now, and bear witness to the light so others might believe.
Since you are chosen in Christ,
live before him in love, holy and blameless.
Live with hope in Christ, for the praise of his glory.
And may God fill the earth with peace;
may Christ give you grace upon grace from his fullness;
and may the Holy Spirit, the pledge of your inheritance,
lead you on straight paths where you will not stumble.  Amen.   Laughingbird.net
 
*Postlude

Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
Minute for Mission-Christmas Joy Offering
 
Lighting the Advent Wreath, the Candle of Love       Betty Dennison
 
Reader :
O Lord, open our lips and our mouths shall proclaim your praise.
The mountains and the hills shall break forth in singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
For behold, our Lord and Ruler is coming to reign forever.  (Isaiah 55:12)
 
Today is the fourth Sunday in Advent and we light the candle of Love.
It was out of God’s love for us that he sent Jesus to live among us, born into a home and family, sharing our life, with all its joys and challenges.
 
Scripture says: “We love because God first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
We learn this first as infants. Mary swaddled and fed and comforted the baby Jesus, in the same way as our parents comforted us. In their arms our fears are subdued, our cries quieted, our needs met. From our earliest days, we receive love, and in time, we come to return it.  
As we grow, in faith and experience, love compels us to do those things that exhibit the kingdom of heaven to the world.   
 
 The Apostle Paul said love never ends and of all God’s gifts, the greatest is love. Our hope for you this Christmas is that you are assured of God’s love, a love that never ends.
 
Prayer
Holy One, our hearts yearn for the warmth of your love,
and our minds search for the light of your Word.
Increase our longing for Christ our Savior,
and strengthen us to grow in love,
that at the dawn of his coming
we may rejoice in his presence
and welcome the power of his truth.  Amen.
 
*Hymn 133   O Come, All Ye Faithful
 
Prayer of Confession
God of grace,
You chose the Virgin Mary, full of grace, to be the mother of our Lord and Savior.
Though we have sinned and failed both you and our neighbors, we place ourselves before you in penitence, that you may fill us with your grace.
Like Mary, may we rejoice in your salvation, and in all things, embrace your will, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 
Hymn 698    Take, O Take Me As I Am
 
Assurance of Forgiveness
God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. This is our Good News. This is our peace. Alleluia! Amen.
 
First Reading   Isaiah 7:10-17
 
Time With Our Young Disciples
 
Gospel Reading   Luke 1:26-38     
Morning Message
 
“We are all called to be Mothers of God, for God is always waiting to be born.” These are the words of Meister Eckart, 13th century philosopher.
 
Theologian Nancy Rockwell says, “She enters our Decembers with an angel, gloriously winged, who honors her. The moment is spellbinding. We are entranced by the arrival of this woman, Mary, on the stage of Christmas and in the story of God.”
 
I’ve spent considerable time lately looking at images of Mary-paintings, sculptures, old and archived, new and freshly created in photographs, digital art, and in a gazillion pictures on Pinterest. I’ve researched the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters, the Met’s museum of medieval art. I was looking for a special sculpture I saw while visiting the Cloisters years ago. It was mounted on a wall. I was surprised by it and stood before it for a long time. Baby Jesus, plump and content, in the arms of his young, laughing mother.
 
There is an endless inventory of human interpretations of the central female figure of the Christian faith, the Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, the one that some like to call, “the God-bearer.”
 
The images come in all forms and shapes: Marys representing the world’s races and cultures. I have a collection of nativity sets.
 
I’m always on alert for new ones or old ones that show up in new places. One day I was browsing the Habitat for Humanity Restore and spied a tiny nativity. I recognized the small unfired clay figures, hand-painted, and distinctively Peruvian. I have a few of the same type at home. I love the simple form and the expressions on the tiny faces. They were a mix of uncertainty and mirth.
 
And that’s one definition of joy for me: uncertainty and mirth. Surprise. Kind of like a bride and groom on their wedding day-excited, eager, a little uncomfortable in their formal clothes, expectations high, taking a courageous step into a season, a lifetime we hope, that is largely unknown. A step that is motivated and empowered and energized by love.
 
Surprised by Joy: the Shape of My Early Life, is the title of C. S. Lewis’s autobiography.
Lewis’s purpose in writing this book was not primarily historical. It was to identify and describe the events surrounding his accidental discovery of, and consequent search for, the phenomenon he labled, “Joy.”
 
“Joy” was his best translation of the German word, sehnsucht, or longing, in English. This joy was so intensely good and so ecstatic it could not be explained in words. He just knew it when it happened.
 
He says he was struck with what he called “stabs of joy” throughout his life.
Lewis eventually discovers the true nature of joy, born of the unconditional love of God. This discovery leads to an overwhelming conversion experience from atheism to Christianity.
 
Lewis writes that this sense of joy is like a signpost to those lost in the woods, pointing the way, and that its appearance is not as important “when we have found the road and are passing signposts every few miles.”
 
Lewis’s life was consumed by learning, though he did participate in civic endeavors. He also served in the armed forces as a young man. His mother gave him a love of reading. She taught him Latin at a young age. He was devastated by her death when he was only nine years old.
 
In his late teens, he shed the Christianity in which he had been raised, studied widely, and declared himself to be an atheist. But, still, there was something unresolved troubling him.
 
He continued his quest for joy. He called it the “inconsolable longing for the real Desirable.” As a child, his joy came though reading, writing, and drawing. In his youth, he discovered Wagner’s Ring Cycle and Norse mythology. As he matured, he realized that pleasure did not equate with joy, neither physical nor aesthetic, nor music, poetry, or intellectual gratification.
 
Lewis studied in public and private schools, eventually studying with a private teacher in preparation for Oxford. His teacher, Mr. Kirkpatrick, was an atheist, a rationalist, and a logician. Under his tutelage, Lewis read great works in their original languages.
 
It was a dear friend, Arthur, who urged him to read books written in English. He read the Brontes, Jane Austin, Donne, Milton, Spenser, Yeats, and others, including George MacDonald.
He began to revise some of his worldviews. Ultimately, George MacDonald, the Scottish author and theologian, gave him glimpses of something other than the material world, the world that is neither seen nor felt but stirs in the human heart.
 
“Unde hoc mihi.” Unfamiliar with that phrase? Me, too. It’s Latin. I had to look it up and found this meaning: “And whence is this to me?” Or, “And why is this granted to me?”
 
These are the very words exclaimed by Elizabeth upon Mary’s arrival at her home. Surprised by joy. As Mary was surprised, honored, and yet terrified, not quite believing that God should come to her, conceive his Son through her, bear a Savior into the world through her body and through her humility. She asks, “And why is this granted to me?”
 
Lewis writes, “As I was reading, two-thirds into George MacDonald’s autobiography, these words leapt out: “Unde hoc mihi?” And why is this granted to me? In the depth of my intellect, all this was given to me without asking, even without consent.” Just like Elizabeth. Just like Mary.
 
Lewis describes this moment, this epiphany, as “holiness.” He was converted from atheism to belief in God. Lewis said he was the “ most reluctant convert in all England.” He hated authority, he had a deep need for independence, and was unsure of the one he called, “the Transcendental Interferer.”
 
To accept the Incarnation brought God near. He wasn’t so sure he wanted God all that close. But when Lewis finally came to faith, he said he submitted to divine humility, the Incarnation, Emmauel. God with us. Born in humility and love.
 
I learned of Lewis’s story first in the beautiful and stirring movie, “Shadowlands.” Here was a man whose life had been devoted to intellectual pursuits. A bachelor of many years. If he had once believed in God, he had set that belief aside, probably a result of his mother’s death.
 
Like many of us, Lewis may have concluded that getting close to others involved way too much risk, too much pain. But, when God pried his heart open, he found the earthly example of God’s love for us: the love of another. In Lewis’s case, it was Joy Davidman, an American author, whom he married. Their time together was much too short, but, for a time, Clive Staples Lewis knew and lived and celebrated love.
 
C.S. Lewis is often quoted in Christian circles. He was known for his prolific writing in defense of the faith, and, of course, the Narnia stories enjoyed by all ages. The words are beautiful and poignant. I looked for an appropriate quote for this day, the fourth Sunday in Advent, the Sunday of Love:
 
Here is what I found:
“Once in our world, a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.”
The Last Battle” (1956)
May you all find that stable this year.   Merry Christmas.  Amen.                       
 
 
 
*Hymn  113  Angels We Have Heard On High
 
*Affirmation of Faith         From A Brief Statement of Faith  
We trust in Jesus Christ, fully human, fully God.
Jesus proclaimed the reign of God,
preaching good news to the poor and release to the captives,
teaching by word and deed
and blessing the children, healing the sick, and building up the brokenhearted,
eating with outcasts, forgiving sinners, and calling all to repent and believe the gospel.
Unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition, Jesus was crucified, suffering the depths of human pain and giving his life for the sins of the world.
God raised this Jesus from the dead, vindicating his sinless life, breaking the power of sin and evil, delivering us from death to life eternal.
 
*Hymn  581     Gloria Patri 
          
Sharing Our Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
Presenting Our Tithes and Offerings including the Christmas Joy Offering
Offertory
*Hymn   Christmas Doxology (To the tune of 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.
 
*Prayer of Dedication
In gratitude for grace given, we offer our thanks and praise:
For this season and all its blessings.
For life and health and family and friends, we give you thanks.
For the witness of this congregation through the generations.
For the love and support of one another,
For the privilege of reaching out to others in Jesus’ name,
For the work of our denomination in the Christmas Joy Offering, and the ministry of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, in relieving suffering near and far.
In all these things, we lift our voices, prepare our homes, welcome loved ones, and show kindness to those in need. In the name of Jesus, coming to us as a helpless babe, who died that we might live.  Amen.
 
*Hymn   119   Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!
 
*Blessing
Go now, and celebrate God’s love all your days.
Give to Christ Jesus the obedience of faith,
offering yourself as the servant of the Lord
and allowing God’s Word to be fulfilled in you.
And may the only wise God establish you forever.
May the mysteries of Christ be conceived within you.
And may the Holy Spirit strengthen and encircle you.  Amen.
 
*Postlude