The Bulletin is at: 07-02-2017 – Bulliten
The Service in PDF is at: 07-02-2017 – 4th Sun a Pentecost
or the service is as follows:
FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
July 2, 2017
PRE-SERVICE MUSIC
AS WE GATHER: We live in a world where leadership is lifted up, yet we forget that leaders first learn to follow. Following is never easy, especially when the going gets tough. It can be hard enough to follow people we know, respect, and trust. It can be even harder to follow an unseen God who speaks to us through His eternal Word, strengthens us through bread and wine, and leads and guides us by His Spirit. Yet, that is our calling. In the midst of struggle, persecution, famine, joblessness, and conflict, we listen to the One we know, respect, and trust because He is our Creator, our Savior, and is always with us to the end of the age.
OPENING WORDS
P: This is the day which the Lord has made;
C: Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
P: From the rising of the sun to its setting,
C: the name of the Lord is to be praised.
P: Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere;
C: I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
OPENING UP TO GOD AND ONE ANOTHER
P: Let us confess our sins to God, our Father.
C: Lord God, as we look into the mirror of Your Law, we see ourselves as we really are.
P: We each see a person who struggles to control their tongue.
C: We find ourselves saying things we shouldn’t and not saying what we should.
P: We each see a person who struggles to live as one who is dead to sin and alive in Christ.
C: We find ourselves wanting to live according to Your will and to walk according to Your ways; but instead, we miss the mark.
P: Lord Jesus, we bring these sins to You this day, the sins we have spoken out loud and the ones that cry out from the depths of our soul.
C: We come seeking the forgiveness You won for us. Create in each one of us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within us. Amen.
P: Jesus died to sin and rose to life again so that we might do the same. As God’s chosen people, we are dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus. As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
C: Amen! Thanks be to God!
HYMN OF PRAISE – “The Trees of the Field” TOSB 59 (2x)
You shall go out with joy and be let forth with peace.
The mountains and the hills will break forth before you;
There’ll be shouts of joy,
and all the trees of the field will clap, will clap their hands.
And the trees of the fields will clap their hands,
And the trees of the fields will clap their hands,
And the trees of the fields will clap their hands,
While you go out with joy.
You shall go out with joy and be let forth with peace.
The mountains and the hills will break forth before you;
There’ll be shouts of joy,
and all the trees of the field will clap, will clap their hands.
P: Let us Pray. Almighty God, open our ears, our hearts, and our minds to hear Your Word and lead us by Your Spirit to follow it, especially when doing so creates challenges and hardships for us as Your people, through Jesus, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
C: Amen.
SCRIPTURE LESSONS
Old Testament: Jeremiah 28:5-9
How do you know when someone is speaking God’s Word?
Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the LORD, and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the LORD do so; may the LORD make the words that you have prophesied come true, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the LORD, and all the exiles. Yet hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the LORD has truly sent the prophet.”
Dead to sin; alive in Christ
Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
A sword and a reward
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”
C: I believe in God, who has created all things and continues to create new life within us.
I believe in Jesus, son of God, son of man, the Savior of the world. By His life, His death and resurrection, I can know the true depth of human possibility, and experience the true joy of an abundant life.
I believe that the Holy Spirit is present, now and always, calling us to faith, giving us gifts and empowering us for service. I believe that the community of believers called the church can experience the fullness of life through the word, the sacraments, and all that we do. Amen.
SERMON – “Leaders Lead Themselves First”
HYMN – “God of Our Fathers” LBW 567
- God of our fathers, whose almighty hand
Leads forth in beauty all the starry band
Of shining worlds in splendor through the skies:
Our grateful songs before your throne arise.
- Your love divine has led us in the past;
In this free land by you our lot is cast;
Oh, be our ruler guardian, guide, and stay;
Your Word our law, your paths our chosen way.
- From war’s alarms, from deadly pestilence,
Make your strong arm our ever sure defense.
Your true religion in our hearts increase;
Your bounteous goodness nourish us in peace.
- Refresh your people on their toilsome way;
Lead us from night to never ending day;
Fill all our lives with heav’n born love and grace
Until at last we meet before your face.
OFFERING – (We offer our thanksgiving for what God has first given us— ourselves, our time, our possessions.)
P: God, our Father, we experience conflict in our families, with husbands and wives struggling to stay together until death parts them, brothers and sisters at odds with one another, and further conflict within extended families.
C: Almighty Father, heal our families.
P: Almighty and gracious God, You want all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Magnify the power of the Gospel in the hearts of Your people that Your Church may spread the good news of salvation. Today we especially pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who attend College United Methodist in Philomath. Protect, encourage, and bless their efforts to proclaim the saving cross of Jesus. Lord, in Your mercy,
C: hear our prayer.
P: Holy Spirit, Comforter, there are those among us who are struggling in their hearts, with their strength, in their souls, and with their minds. We name before You all those who are in need, (including………..). Lord, in Your mercy,
C: hear our prayer.
P: Almighty God, You have given us this good land as our heritage. Grant that we remember Your generosity. Bless our land with honest industry, truthful education, and an honorable way of life. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil course of action. Grant that we, who came from many nations with many different languages, may become a united people. Support us in defending our liberties and give those to whom we have entrusted the authority of government the spirit of wisdom, that there may be justice and peace in our land. When times are prosperous, may our hearts be thankful; and in troubled times do not let our trust in You fail; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
C: Amen.
THANKSGIVING
P: Welcome to the celebration! God who supplies our every need has given us this meal to share.
C: Lord, we thank You for the bread of eternal life.
P: We come to the Table, acknowledging our shortcomings and our need to experience Your presence in bread and wine.
C: Lord, we thank You for the bread of eternal life.
WORDS OF INSTITUTION
LORD’S PRAYER
DISTRIBUTION
“Beautiful Savior” TOSB 9
- Beautiful Savior, King of creation,
Son of God and Son of Man!
Truly I’d love thee, Truly I’d serve thee,
Light of my soul, my joy, my crown.
- Fair are the meadows, Fair are the woodlands
Robed in flow’rs of blooming spring;
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
He makes our sorrowing spirit sing.
- Fair is the sunshine, Fair is the moonlight,
And the sparkling stars on high;
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer,
Than all the angels in the sky.
- Beautiful Savior, Lord of the nations,
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor, Praise, adoration,
Now and forevermore be Thine!
“We Will Glorify” TOSB 142
- We will glorify the King of Kings;
We will Glorify the Lamb;
We will glorify the Lord of Lords,
Who is the great I Am.
- Hallelujah to the King of Kings;
Hallelujah to the Lamb;
Hallelujah to the Lord of Lords,
Who is the great I Am.
- Lord Jehovah reigns in majesty;
We will bow before his throne;
We will worship Him in righteousness;
We will worship Him alone.
P: The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor and + give you peace.
C: Amen.
CLOSING HYMN – “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” LBW 566
- My country, ‘tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing:
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
From every mountain side
Let freedom ring.
- My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills
Like that above.
- Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom’s song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.
- Our fathers’ God, to thee,
Author of liberty,
To thee we sing:
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light.
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our king.
P: Go in Peace. Serve the Lord.
C: Thanks be to God.