Sundays at All Hallows (Sunday, March 5, 2023)
Opening Hymn:
Open this link in a new tab to hear Natalie Sleeth’s “Come! Come! Everybody Worship.” [TFWS # 2271]
Come! Come! Everybody worship with a prayer or song of praise!
Come! Come! Everybody worship! Worship God always!
1 Worship and remember to keep the Sabbath day.
Take a rest and think of God; put your work away!
Come! Come! Everybody worship with a prayer or song of praise!
Come! Come! Everybody worship! Worship God always!
2 Worship and remember the Lord’s unending care,
reaching out to love and help people everywhere!
Come! Come! Everybody worship with a prayer or song of praise!
Come! Come! Everybody worship! Worship God always!
3 Worship and remember your blessings great and small.
Give to God an offering; show your thanks for all!
Come! Come! Everybody worship with a prayer or song of praise!
Come! Come! Everybody worship! Worship God always!
4 Worship and remember how Jesus long ago.
Taught us how to talk to God; something we should know!
Come! Come! Everybody worship with a prayer or song of praise!
Come! Come! Everybody worship! Worship God always!
5 Worship and remember that God is like a light,
showing you the way to go; ever burning bright!
Come! Come! Everybody worship with a prayer or song of praise!
Come! Come! Everybody worship! Worship God always!
Confession of Sin:
Hear these words of scripture.
As God who called you is holy,
be holy yourselves in all your conduct.
Spirit of God, search our hearts.
Let us bow our heads and, in silence,
remember our need for God’s forgiveness.
Silence
Let us confess our sins to God.
Almighty and merciful God,
we have sinned against you,
in thought, word and deed.
We have not loved you with all our heart.
We have not loved others
as our Savior Christ loves us.
We are truly sorry.
In your mercy forgive what we have been,
help us to amend what we are,
and direct what we shall be;
that we may delight in your will
and walk in your ways,
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
Almighty God, who pardons all who truly repent,
forgive our sins, strengthen us by the Holy Spirit,
and keep us in life eternal;
through Jesus Christ our Redeemer.
Amen.
Medley of Praise:
Open this link in a new tab to hear David Haas’ Mass of Light setting of “Glory to God in the Highest.” [TFWS #2276]
Glory to God in the highest,
Sing glory to God!
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to his people on earth!
1 Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father,
we worship you,
We give you thanks,
we praise you for your glory!
Glory to God in the highest,
Sing glory to God!
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to his people on earth!
2 Lord Jesus Christ, Only Son of the Father,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sins of the world:
have mercy on us;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father:
receive our prayer!
Glory to God in the highest,
Sing glory to God!
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to his people on earth!
3 For you alone are the Holy One,
you alone are the Lord,
the Most High, Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God the Father!
Glory to God in the highest,
Sing glory to God!
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to his people on earth!
Glory to God in the highest,
Sing glory to God!
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to his people on earth!
In The faith We Sing version “God’s people” is substituted for “his people.”
Open this link in a new tab to hear Deborah D Smith and Michael W. Smith’s “Great Is the Lord.”
Great is the Lord, He is holy and just,
By His power we trust in His love.
Great is the Lord, He is faithful and true,
By His mercy He proves He is love.
Great is the Lord, and worthy of glory.
Great is the Lord, and worthy of praise.
Great is the Lord, now lift up your voice,
Now lift up your voice.
Great is the Lord.
Great is the Lord.
Great is the Lord, He is holy and just,
By His power we trust in His love.
Great is the Lord, He is faithful and true,
By His mercy He proves He is love.
Great is the Lord, and worthy of glory.
Great is the Lord, and worthy of praise.
Great is the Lord, now lift up your voice,
Now lift up your voice.
Great is the Lord.
Great is the Lord.
Great are You, Lord, and worthy of glory.
Great are You, Lord, and worthy of praise.
Great are You, Lord, I lift up my voice,
I lift up my voice.
Great are You, Lord.
Great are You, Lord.
Great are You, Lord.
Great are You, Lord.
Great are You, Lord.
Opening Prayer:
Let us bow our heads in prayer.
Silence
Come Holy Spirit, to all baptized in your name,
that we may turn to good
whatever lies ahead
Give us passion, give us fire;
make us transform the world from what it is,
to what you have created it to be.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Scripture Reading:
A reading from the New Testament (John 3:1-17)
There was a Jewish leader named Nicodemus, who belonged to the party of the Pharisees. One night he went to Jesus and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent by God. No one could perform the miracles you are doing unless God were with him.”
Jesus answered, “I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again.”
“How can a grown man be born again?” Nicodemus asked. “He certainly cannot enter his mother's womb and be born a second time!”
“I am telling you the truth,” replied Jesus, “that no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. A person is born physically of human parents, but is born spiritually of the Spirit. Do not be surprised because I tell you that you must all be born again. The wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
“How can this be?” asked Nicodemus.
Jesus answered, “You are a great teacher in Israel, and you don't know this? I am telling you the truth: we speak of what we know and report what we have seen, yet none of you is willing to accept our message. You do not believe me when I tell you about the things of this world; how will you ever believe me, then, when I tell you about the things of heaven? And no one has ever gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from heaven.”
As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the desert, in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior.
Silence
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Spirit-Born
In today's New Testament reading John tells us that Nicodemus visited Jesus under the cover of darkness. He went at night because he most likely did not want people to see him. He wanted to keep the visit a secret. In Jesus’ time people did not stay up late at night or wander the streets at night. Only robbers and other criminals were abroad at night. Nicodemus in visiting Jesus took some risk. He might have been attacked by robbers. He might have also been seen by someone of his own party, the Pharisees.
Today in many parts of the world those desiring to learn more about Jesus may visit a Christian in secret just as Nicodemus visited Jesus. In India they may fear their neighbors, the people of the village in which they live. In China they may fear informants and the police. In Muslim countries they may fear the religious authorities. In the United States and Canada, the most they would have to fear is the disapproval of their family, friends, and coworkers if their family, friends, and coworkers do not have a high opinion of Christians and Christianity.
The exception might be an ethnic neighborhood in which a large concentration of adherents of some other religion lived in which case they might also face the disapproval of their neighbors. They might experience unpleasant encounters with neighbors in the street. Once friendly neighbors might become openly hostile or avoid them and not speak to them. Different religious communities will show their disapproval in different ways as will individual adherents of that religion.
Some other communities to which they belong may also show disapproval. They may experience pressure from this community not to persist in their exploration of the Christian faith. University students may face this kind of pressure from faculty members and fellow students. By and large, however, they are free to talk openly with Christians about their beliefs and practices without fear of negative repercussions. They are not going to face the kind of persecution that they might in Indian, China, or Pakistan.
We do not know a lot about Nicodemus. What we do know is that he was a Pharisee. He was also a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious council that also acted as a governing body of Jerusalem in certain matters. Based upon what Jesus says in the today’ New Testament reading, he appears to have enjoyed some reputation as a teacher. In his Gospel John tells us that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea would ask for Jesus’ body at great risk to themselves after Jesus’ death on the cross and would bury Jesus. In handling a corpse, they also made themselves ritually unclean. They appeared to have done this not just out of a desire to avoid desecrating the Sabbath but also out devotion to Jesus.
What I would like to consider in this talk what Jesus was telling Nicodemus when he told him, “I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again (or from above).” Nicodemus had just finished saying, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent by God. No one could perform the miracles you are doing unless God were with him.” What Jesus is telling Nicodemus is that he would not have recognized Jesus as a teacher sent by God or that God was with Jesus, if God had not spiritually opened his eyes and his mind, enabling Jesus, while imperfectly, for who he was. Spiritual rebirth was not something that Nicodemus would have to experience. Nicodemus was already experiencing it. Nicodemus, however, did not grasp what Jesus was telling him.
One of the reasons that we get confused about being born again or born from above is that we try to separate a process into discrete events that follow each other in perfect sequential order. We like everything neat and tidy. I personally think that the process is messier than that. Repentance, faith, and spiritual rebirth cannot be separated. It does not occur in an orderly progression as we would like it to do. What I believe matters most is that we experience spiritual rebirth. As Jesus points to Nicodemus’ attention, we first experience physical birth. We are born of water when our mother’s water bag bursts. We are born of the Spirit when God spiritually awakens us. We see God, Jesus, our fellow human beings, and the world through new spiritual eyes.
What Jesus is telling Nicodemus is that he is on the right track. He gently chides Nicodemus for not fully grasping what he is saying but he is not speaking unkindly.
Jesus goes on to compare those who born of the Spirit to the wind.
“…The wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
A breeze may spring up suddenly and then die away just as suddenly. It appears to have a will of its own. In Jesus’ time people observed that the wind might blow at particular time of day or the year in a particular direction. At some times of the day or the year the wind might be stronger than at other times. A very strong wind might precede a storm. However, they did not know what caused the wind or what controlled its direction. They could not see the wind. They could feel it. They could observe the movement of clouds in the sky and the movement of the branches of trees. The wind might also send dust and wheat chaff whirling into the air. Jesus is comparing the Spirit-born person with these experiences. What he is essentially saying is that the new birth, or spiritual rebirth, is wholly God’s doing. It is not something that we can do A, B, and C in succession or any particular order to cause. It is a gift from God and God determines how and when it will happen in an individual. It is something given by God and is not the result of our own efforts.
How then do we know whether we are Spirit-born? It manifests itself in what may be described as a change of perspective, a change of the particular way that we consider things. We take a greater interest in not just spiritual things but in Jesus. He becomes a major focus of our attention. Like Nicodemus, we come to the realization that Jesus is no ordinary person.
I do not believe that everyone has the exact same experience and if we have not had that experience, then we have not experienced the new birth. There is awakening in us, a stirring in us, which, when we look back at it, we conclude that it was God’s grace, the power of the Holy Spirit, working in us.
If we feel concern that this experience has so far been missing from our lives, this concern itself is a sign that God’s grace is working in us. Some of us may have the expectation that God will work in us in a very dramatic manner. However, God does not always work in that way. What God may do is gradually reorient our lives away from what is often called “the world” and toward God so that Jesus increasingly becomes a larger part of our lives and a stronger influence upon us.
Among recent events that caught the attention of Christians in and outside of the United States is what has been dubbed the “Asbury Revival,” which began as a chapel service at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky and lasted for several days. I have not formed an opinion about what happened beyond concluding that if it was indeed genuine revival, we will be able to tell only after the passage of time and then by the fruit it may yield. In the meantime, I have urged my fellow Christians to pray for revival in their community, in their church, and in their personal lives. I have also drawn attention to the difference between revival and a revival meeting or service. Revival is a movement of the Holy Spirit. A revival meeting or service involves the use of human means in an attempt to stir up greater interest in the Christian faith and way of life or to keep alive a renewal of such interest. Revival is spontaneous. A revival meeting or service is intentional.
The reason that I mention the “Asbury Revival” is to point out that if we do not have the kinds of experiences that those who were involved had, it does not mean that God’s grace is not working in us and that we are not Spirit-born. What is far more important than these kinds of experiences is the fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in us, the transformation that the Holy Spirit causes in our attitudes, our ways of thinking, our feelings and emotions, and our behaviors.
Just as God gives different gifts of the Spirit to different members of the Body of Christ to build up that body, God gives different experience to different Christians to enliven and strengthen their faith. God determines what spiritual gifts that he gives us, based upon what he determines to be the needs of a particular local expression of the Body of Christ. God also determines what experiences that he give us, based upon what he determines to be our individual needs. While we may have different gifts and different experiences, we do have the same Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit works in all of us to perfect us and sanctify us, making us into our true better self, the better self that is a gift from God too.
Silence
Hymn of Response:
Open this link in a new tab to hear Scott Wesley Brown’s “More Like You.” [TFWS #2167]
More like You Jesus
More like You
Fill my heart with Your desire
To make me more like You
More like You Jesus
More like You
Touch my lips with holy fire
And make me more like You
More like You Jesus
More like You
Fill my heart with Your desire
To make me more like You
More like You Jesus
More like You
Touch my lips with holy fire
And make me more like You
More like You Jesus
More like You
Fill my heart with Your desire
To make me more like You
More like You Jesus
More like You
Touch my lips with holy fire
And make me more like You
Lord You are my mercy
Lord You are my grace
All my deepest sins
Have forever been erased
Draw me in Your presence
Lead me in Your ways
I long to bring You glory
In righteousness and praise
More like You Jesus
More like You
Fill my heart with Your desire
To make me more like You
More like You Jesus
More like You
Touch my lips with holy fire
And make me more like You
Lord you are compassion
And never ending love
Lord, you have redeemed me
By your priceless blood
Create in a clean heart
A spirit that is pure
The joy of my salvation
Is only found in you
More like You Jesus
More like You
Fill my heart with Your desire
To make me more like You
More like You Jesus
More like You
Touch my lips with holy fire
And make me more like You
More like You Jesus
More like You
Fill my heart with Your desire
To make me more like You
More like You Jesus
More like You
Touch my lips with holy fire
And make me more like You
Touch my lips with holy fire
And make me more like You
Concerns and Prayers:
The following is prayed, during which any person may offer a brief prayer of intercession or petition.
After each prayer, the leader may conclude: Loving God and all may respond: Hear our prayer.
Pray for the Church throughout the world – that the Spirit will revive and refresh the Church in every part…
Pray for our local church and the churches in our area – that we may be waiting attentively for the ways God is speaking through the Spirit…
Pray for those who come to our church, and for those on the fringes - that they may have an assurance of God’s love and know that they are saved through Christ…
Pray for those who are in leadership in the Church - that they may be strengthened and upheld in their ministries…
Pray for those whom we know who do not know of God’s love – for friends or family, for neighbors or colleagues, that God’s Spirit may fill their hearts…
Pray for the Kingdom of God - that it may break through in us and among us, that the earth may be filled with the glory of God…
Pray for ourselves - that God’s Spirit will speak in our hearts, that we may be bold to proclaim the gospel in our words and actions…
Other biddings may be added here to reflect local circumstances.
We make our prayers in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, as we join in the words that he himself has taught us:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Open this link in a new ab to hear Marty Haugen’s “Healer of Our Every Ill.” [TFWS #2213]
Healer of our ev’ry ill,
light of each tomorrow,
give us peace beyond our fear,
and hope beyond our sorrow.
1 You who know our fears and sadness,
grace us with your peace and gladness;
Spirit of all comfort, fill our hearts.
Healer of our ev’ry ill,
light of each tomorrow,
give us peace beyond our fear,
and hope beyond our sorrow.
2 In the pain and joy beholding
how your grace is still unfolding,
give us all your vision, God of love.
Healer of our ev’ry ill,
light of each tomorrow,
give us peace beyond our fear,
and hope beyond our sorrow.
3 Give us strength to love each other,
ev’ry sister, ev’ry brother;
Spirit of all kindness, be our guide.
Healer of our ev’ry ill,
light of each tomorrow,
give us peace beyond our fear,
and hope beyond our sorrow.
4 You who know each thought and feeling,
teach us all your way of healing;
Spirit of compassion, fill each heart.
Healer of our ev’ry ill,
light of each tomorrow,
give us peace beyond our fear,
and hope beyond our sorrow.
Benediction:
May the Lord bless us and keep us,
May the Lord make his face to shine on us and be gracious to us,
May the Lord look on us with kindness and give us peace. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment