Liturgy for July 09, 2023

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Reflections

There is much “spirituality” about us today that relates itself to the word god or to the idea god; but this not what we are talking about. Biblical truth and spirituality is not a relationship to the word god, or to the idea god. It is a relationship to the One who is there. This is an entirely different concept.

Francis Schaeffer
from The God Who Is There

A particular truth can be stated in words---that life is better than death and love than hate, that there is a god or is not, that light travels faster than sound and cancer can sometimes be cured if you discover it in time. But truth itself is another matter, the truth that Pilate asked for.... Truth itself cannot be stated. Truth simply is, is what is, the good with the bad, the joy with the despair, the presence and absence of God.

Frederick Buchner
from Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale

And now, writing my own memoirs, I know God is in the truth. Only by studying actual events and questioning your own motives will the complex inner truths ever emerge from the darkness… The convenient sound bites into which I store my sense of self are rarely accurate — whose are? They have to be unpacked and pecked at warily, with unalloyed suspicion. You must testify and recant, type and delete.

Call me outdated, but I want to stay hamstrung by objective truth, when the very notion has been eroding for at least a century…At one point, I wrote a goodbye scene to show how my hard-drinking, cowboy daddy had bailed out on me when I hit puberty. When I actually searched for the teenage reminiscences to prove this, the facts told a different story: my daddy had continued to pick me up on time and make me breakfast, to invite me on hunting and fishing trips. I was the one who said no. I left him for Mexico and California with a posse of drug dealers, and then for college.

This was far sadder than the cartoonish self-portrait I’d started out with. If I’d hung on to my assumptions, believing my drama came from obstacles I’d never had to overcome — a portrait of myself as scrappy survivor of unearned cruelties — I wouldn’t have learned what really happened. Which is what I mean when I say God is in the truth.

Mary Karr
from article in the New York Times

Call to Worship

from Psalm 16

Leader: Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

People: You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you!

Leader: The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.

People: You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you!

Leader: For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.

People: You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you!

Leader: You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

All: You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you!

Leader: Come. Let us worship Him!

Hymn of Praise: For the Beauty of the Earth

Prayer of Praise and the Lord’s Prayer

Confession of Sin

Scripture Reading

Galatians 3:10-12

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”

Leader: This is the Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God.

Corporate Confession of Sin

All: Lord, we come before you as a people who, if we stood alone before your holiness and righteous law, would condemn ourselves. We come before You knowing that we have sought our own righteousness. We come before You knowing that we constantly condemn others, judging them by a false standard. We come before You in the terrible sin of pride, pride in our station, pride in our intellect, pride in our "goodness", even pride in our faith.

Father, forgive us! Cause us to really examine and confess the depths of our sin. Take away our false standards for judgment so that we won't be judged by them. Take away our pride and show us the terrible fallacy of pride in anything but the cross of Jesus. Make this a time for us of true confession, confession that recognizes and understands that even our faith, the ability to believe and understand, is given us by our gracious Savior. Do this, O Lord in His name alone. Amen.

Silent Confession and Reflection

Assurance of Pardon and the Peace of God

Galatians 3:13, 14

Leader: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. Jesus Christ is the Righteousness of God, and through that Righteousness, the Peace of God. May that peace be with you always.

Leader: May the peace of God be with you.

People: And also with you.

Collection of Tithes and Offerings; Hymn of Response

Presentation of Tithes and Offertory Prayer

Hymn: Doxology

Affirmation of Faith

from the Heidelberg Catechism, Question and Answer 21

Leader: What is true faith?

People: True faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as truth that God has revealed to us in Scripture; it is also a wholehearted trust, which the Holy Spirit creates in me by the gospel, that God has freely granted, not only to others but to me also, forgiveness of sins, eternal righteousness, and salvation. These are gifts of sheer grace, granted solely by Christ’s merit.

Hymn: Gloria Patri

Prayer of Intercession

Hymn: Thou Art the Way

Preaching of the Word

What is Truth? -- Rev. Tim Lien

Scripture: John 18:33-40

Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. So Pilate went outside to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” They answered him, “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.

Leader: The grass withers, the flower fades,

People: But the Word of our God will stand forever!

Hymn: O Love of God, How Strong and True

Benediction

Jude 24, 25

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. And God’s People said:

All: Amen!