Category Archives: Weekly Message

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Order of Worship

The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost

August 9, 2020

Welcome to new visitors and old friends; to believers, questioners, and questioning believers. Welcome to all people: any shape, size, color, culture, gender, age, ability, sexuality, and family type. We give thanks for the diversity of God’s family and our unity as God’s people. This is a safe place for celebration, healing, rejoicing and renewal. 

Welcome

Gathering Song

“Reckless Love”

Prayer of the Day

Scripture

Genesis 37: 1-4, 12-28

1 Kings 19: 9-18

Romans 10: 5-15

Matthew 14: 22-33

Sermon

 “Response to Entitlement”

The Apostle’s Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried;

he descended to the dead.*

On the third day he rose again;

he ascended into heaven,

he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and

he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.

Prayers of Intercession

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,

your will be done, on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.

Benediction

Closing Song

“Because of Your Love”

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Worship Leaders

Brooklyn and Riley Hanania – Musicians

Bryan Hanania – Scripture

Pastor Paul Campbell

What are you thinking these days, about venturing out into the world? Some of us are staying home as much as possible. Others are out and about, counting on the veracity of those who say that this virus is no big deal. And some people are going out because they must: they’re needed to restock grocery shelves or ring cash registers or diagnose the sick or handle the paperwork to admit more and more COVID-19 patients to the hospital.

How are you feeling about venturing out?

Our world looks less hospitable than it did before, and the coronavirus is not the only reason. Troubling issues roil our world, our nation, and our community. No need to give you a list when you already have the list in your head.

In the midst of all this mess I’m asking this: turn your attention to Christmas. This sad and plagued world is the same world into which God sent his only begotten Son. God looked out on this self-same world and said to himself, “That’s it, I’ve seen enough. I’m going in.”

God’s love, in the person of Jesus Christ, dropped into the middle of the mess that is the world. He embodied the straightened-out world that is to come: God’s kingdom. He embodied God’s love through interactions with the sick and sinful, through unjust persecution by the authorities, through a humiliating execution, all the way through to victory at the end: the triumph of God’s love over cruelty, disease, chaos and grief.

I am not (repeat: not) saying that followers of Jesus should walk out the door into the mess and sacrifice themselves. Jesus had divine authority over all of the anti-divine powers he encountered. But even he didn’t throw himself off the top of the temple to see whether angels would show up and save him.

What I want to say is this: God treasures this world and the people in it, so much that he sent his only Son, not to condemn this world but to save it.

Whether you are called upon, right now, to sit tight and do another jigsaw puzzle or to go out and serve, you need not despair. Humankind cannot create a mess large enough to eclipse God’s love. We have seen in Jesus the length to which God was willing to go to rescue us from the forces that threaten to drag us down, even when those forces come from within ourselves.

Jesus said to his disciples, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Peace despite trouble. Peace in Jesus Christ even in the middle of trouble.

May that be yours.

In Christ,

Pastor Carol