Liturgy for June 04, 2023
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Reflections
Our sorrows are all, like ourselves, mortal. There are no immortal sorrows for immortal souls. They come, but blessed be God, they also go. Like birds of the air, they fly over our heads. But they cannot make their abode in our souls. We suffer today, but we shall rejoice tomorrow.
Charles Spurgeon
Till God has been recognized as a Savior, the minds of men are not free to indulge in true and full joy, but will remain in doubt and anxiety. It is God’s fatherly kindness alone, and the salvation flowing from it, that fill the soul with joy.
John Calvin
Having read recently that there are more neurons in the human brain than there are stars in the Milky Way, and having read any number of times that the human brain is the most complex thing in the universe and that the mind is not identical with the brain but is more mysterious still, it seems to me this astonishing nexus of the self, so uniquely elegant and capable, merits a name that would indicate a difference in kind from the ontological run of things, and for my purposes, "soul" will do just fine. Perhaps I should pause here and clarify my meaning, since there are those who feel that the spiritual is diminished or denied when it is associated with the physical. I am not among them. In his Letter to the Romans, Paul says, "Ever since the creation of the world, God's invisible nature, namely His eternal power and deity has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made." If we are to consider the heavens, how much more are we to consider the magnificent energies of consciousness that make whomever we pass on the street a far grander marvel than our galaxy? At this point of dynamic convergence, call it self or call it soul, questions of right or wrong are weighed, love is felt, guilt and loss are suffered. And, over time, formation occurs, for weal or woe, governed in large part by that unaccountable capacity for self-awareness.
Marilynn Robinson from When I Was A Child, I Read Books
What can equal the surprise of finding out that the one thing above all others which mankind has been most enterprising and proficient in dragging through the dirt turns out in fact to be the most innocent thing in the world? Is there any other activity at all which an adult man and woman may engage in together (apart from worship) that is actually more childlike, more clean and pure, more natural and wholesome and unequivocally right than is the act of making love? For if worship is the deepest available form of communion with God (and especially that particular act of worship known as Communion), then surely sex is the deepest communion that is possible between human beings, and as such is something absolutely essential (in more than a biological way) to our survival.
Mike Mason from The Mystery of Marriage
Call to Worship
Adapted from Revelation 4 and 5
Leader: This day we join our voices with the seraphim, saying:
All: Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!
Leader: This day we join our voices with all God’s people saying:
All: Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.
Leader: This day we join our voices with all creation:
All: To him who sits on the throne and the Lamb be blessing and glory and might forever and ever!
Hymn of Praise: God, All Nature Sings Thy Glory
Prayer of Praise and the Lord’s Prayer
Confession of Sin
Scripture Reading
1st John 2:7-11
Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because[a] the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
Corporate Confession of Sin
Leader: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God:
All: I, a poor sinful person, confess myself before you, my Lord God and Maker, that sadly I have sinned much, with my senses, thoughts, words, and deeds, as you, eternal God, know very well. I regret and ask for your grace to become more and more real to me, that I may love as I have been loved in Christ.
Silent Confession and Reflection
Assurance of Pardon and the Peace of God
Leader: Romans 8:31-34 and Romans 8:1
People: What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right of God, who indeed is interceding for us. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Leader: Thanks be to God! May his peace go with you.
People: And also with you!
Hymn of Response: O Thou That Hear'st When Sinners Cry
And Collection of Tithes and Offerings
Offertory Prayer
Doxology
Affirmation of Faith
The Apostles Creed
People: I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there 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.
Hymn: Gloria Patri
Prayer of Intercession
Hymn: All That I Am I Owe to Thee - to the Tune of "Just As I Am"
Preaching of the Word
Psalm 16, Part III: Of Joy in Christ, Rev. Rich Lusk
Scripture: Psalm 16
Hymn: Jesus Lives, and So Shall I
Benediction
Hebrews 13: 20-21
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.
All: Amen!