22nd Sunday after Pentecost - Year C - Worship Service - 11:00 AM Service -- Pastor Naomi Carriker
We are a small church, but big on Grace. We gather each Sunday at 11:00 am for worship by singing hymns, hearing readings from the bible, praying together and a celebration of Holy Communion. Communion is the spiritual bread our bodies need to live. All are invited to join us at the Lord's table to be fed by his heavenly food, There are no strangers in God’s house, and if you choose to worship with us, we would be honored by your presence.
Introduction
We worship on the first day of the week because Jesus was raised on that day. Every Sunday is a little Easter. This Sunday feels more like Easter than many as the appointed texts celebrate the reality of the resurrection. Live it up this Lord’s day. Our God is the God of the living.
Prayer of the Day
O God, our eternal redeemer, by the presence of your Spirit you renew and direct our hearts. Keep always in our mind the end of all things and the day of judgment. Inspire us for a holy life here, and bring us to the joy of the resurrection, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Amen.
First Reading: Job 19:23-27a
Job suffers the loss of children, wealth, and health. Accused by his companions of wrongdoing, he knows himself to be innocent. Here, in the midst of his suffering, Job clings to the radical hope that his vindicator, his redeemer, lives; and that one day he himself will see God.
Psalm:17:1-9
Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me under the shadow of your wings. (Ps. 17:8)
Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
This portion of the letter provides encouragement for the church at Thessalonica during a time of confusion and opposition, as some allowed their concern over Jesus’ imminent return to divert them from the central teachings of the gospel.
Gospel: Luke 20:27-38
Some Sadducees, who do not believe in the resurrection of the dead, try to trap Jesus. They formulate the convoluted case of a serial widow who marries a succession of seven brothers. Jesus responds by teaching about God to whom all are alive and in whom all relationships are fulfilled.
27 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to [Jesus]
28 and asked him a question: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.
29 Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman and died childless;
30 then the second
31 and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless.
32 Finally the woman also died.
33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”
34 Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage,
35 but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.
36 Indeed, they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.
37 And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.”
After the Sermon, Holy Communion will be offered. Come as you are, the gift of the Table of the Lord has been prepared as Jesus has requested and now we are invited to the meal. Come to the table like Peter, with m ore enthusiasm than resolve and like James and John, disappointed and the priorities of God’s reign. Come to the table like Martha, hosting and leading with confidence like Mary, full of love and grief. Come to the table like Judas, disillusioned and rebellious and like Mary Magdalene, faithful till the end. Come to the table, because it is God who invites us and it’s God’s will that those who want to should meet God here.
Blessing for the day (Our blessing is an adaptation of a Franciscan Prayer)
May God bless us with discomfort at a Easy answers, half truths and superficial leaderships so that we may live out God’s will deep in our heartland in our world.
May god bless with anger at injustice, oppression and exploration and the environments that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, hunger and war so that we may reach out with hands and hearts to help them, walk with them and turn their pain into hope and joy.
And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done. To bring justice, peace, hope and love to all children, the poor and all others in any need.
God be your comfort, your strength;
God be your hope and support;
God be your light and your way; and the blessing of God Creator, Redeemer and Giver of Life, remain with you now and forever.