Fax Inheritor Digital Sign with airSlate SignNow

Fax digital sign inheritor

good morning and welcome to the worship for the fourth sunday after the epiphany blessed be god father son and holy spirit and blessed be his kingdom now and forever amen almighty god to you all hearts are open all desires known and from you no secrets are hid cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your holy spirit that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through christ our lord amen glory to god in the highest and peace to his people on earth lord god heavenly king almighty god and father we worship you we give you thanks we praise you for your glory lord jesus christ only son of the father lord god lamb of god you take away the sin of the world have mercy on us you are seated at the right hand of the father receive our prayer for you alone are the holy one you alone are the lord you alone are the most high jesus christ with the holy spirit in the glory of god the father amen the lord be with you let us pray almighty and everlasting god you govern all things in heaven and on earth mercifully hear the supplications of your people and in our time grant us your grace through jesus christ our lord who lives and reigns with you in the holy spirit one god for ever and ever amen our first reading is from the book of deuteronomy beginning in the 18th chapter moses summoned all israel and said to them the lord your god will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people you shall heed such a prophet this is what you requested of the lord your god at horeb on the day of the assembly when you said if i hear the voice of the lord my god anymore or ever again see this great fire i will die then the lord replied to me they are right in what they have said i will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people i will put my words in the mouth of the prophet who shall speak to them everything that i command anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name i myself will hold accountable but any prophet who speaks in the name of the other gods or who presumes to speak in my name a word that i have not commanded the prophet to speak that prophet shall die the word of the lord our psalm today is psalm 111 hallelujah i will give thanks to the lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright in the congregation great are the deeds of the lord they are studied by all who delight in them his work is full of majesty and splendor and his righteousness endures forever he makes his marvelous works to be remembered the lord is gracious and full of compassion he gives food to those who fear him he is ever mindful of his covenant he has shown his people the power of his works in giving them the lands of the nations the works of his hands are faithfulness and justice all his commandments are sure i stand fast forever and ever because they are done in truth and equity he sent redemption to his people he commanded his covenant forever holy and awesome is his name the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom those who act accordingly have a good understanding his praise it endures forever our second reading is from the first letter to the corinthians beginning in the eighth chapter now concerning food sacrifice to idols we know that all of us possess knowledge knowledge puffs up but love builds up anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge but anyone who loves god is known by him hence as to the eating of food offered to idols we know that no idol in the world really exists and that there is no god but one indeed even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth as in fact there are many gods and many lords yet for us there is one god the father from whom all things and for whom we exist and one lord jesus christ through whom are all things and through whom we exist it is not everyone however who has this knowledge since some have become accustomed to idols until now they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol and their conscience being weak is defiled food will not bring us closer to god we are no worse off if we do not eat and know better off if we do but take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak for if others see you who possess knowledge eating in the temple of an idol might they not sense their consciences weak be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrifice to idols so by your knowledge these weak believers for whom christ died are destroyed but when you thus sin against members of your own family and wound their conscience when it is weak you sin against christ therefore if food is a cause of their failing i will never eat meat so that i may not cause one of them to fall the word of the lord the holy gospel of our lord jesus christ according to mark jesus and his disciples went into capernaum and when the sabbath came he entered the synagogue and taught they were astounded at his teaching for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes just then there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit and he cried out what have you to do with us jesus of nazareth have you come to destroy us i know who you are the holy one of god but jesus rebuked him saying be silent and come out of him and the unclean spirit convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice came out of him they were all amazed and they kept on asking one another what is this a new teaching with authority he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him at once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of galilee the gospel of the lord good morning this morning we have we have some interesting readings and the reading in deuteronomy is really closely tied to the reading in mark which is not to say that deuteronomy was written for mark because deuteronomy was written thousands of years before mark but but it's easy to see when you dig just a little bit why the people who created our lectionary the schedule of our readings why they would want to put the reading from deuteronomy chapter 18 and the mark and the the reading from the gospel of mark chapter one together because in deuteronomy 18 god is telling moses to tell the people and moses does that even though moses will die in the due course of time god will continue to raise up prophets who can hear him and who will advise the people and not to worry because god has a check and balance system if the prophet says something that god didn't say and the prophet says oh god said this god will kill the prophet it's a bit of a harsh check and balance but there we go and and the people are relieved because before this point in time before um deuteronomy 18. back in exodus god speaks not just to moses at one point but he speaks to the whole assembly and they don't understand all they hear is thunder and they're scared out of their wits and they say please don't overdo that again we cannot bear to hear the voice of god it is terrifying to us moses you go do it yourself go go speak for all of us because we can't we can't stand it now that was then that was many thousands of years ago but the point that is made with the mark reading in the first chapter of the mark reading is that god promised long ago to raise up prophets that would be able to hear god's voice and while modern christians think of jesus as the son of god and rightfully so um and he's got the title messiah which actually means anointed one but it also means that he is the inheritor of the legacy of of king david the second king of israel what is also true about jesus is that he is in every respect a prophet of god now we don't often think of him that way christians don't often think of him that way because he's got bigger titles than profit and at least in the old testament and in places in the new testament prophets they didn't really have status they they were not they were not rich they were not wealthy they were not they had a certain kind of influence if you will but it wasn't popular and god often raised up a prophet when god was fit to be tied with the people as my mother used to say i'm fit to be tied i don't even know what that means does it mean you're about to be tied up and nuts but you're not quite there yet anyway when god is fit to be tied and incredibly angry and wants the people to change he raises up a prophet who will tell it like it is and the prophet often died john the baptist died the prophet was often abused jeremiah was thrown down a well um and sometimes the prophet was just ignored and in the old testament in the hebrew scriptures you could tell the good kings from the bad kings and it wasn't necessarily how well they governed it was how well they listened to the prophets of god if they were willing to listen and moderate their rule even slightly or in the words of the old testament repent they were considered a good king even if they did a lot of things wrong and if they did a lot of things really pretty decently as governors go and as governments go but they refused to listen to the prophets of god when god called them into an even better way maybe had the prophets killed maybe just ignored them maybe had the prophets abused that meant that they were they went down in history as a bad king and so it's important to realize that when when jesus comes and he's starting to teach he's not teaching like all the teachers before him because all the teachers before him as best as i can figure out they taught like well lawyers they taught like scribes they taught like people who were well versed in the law and fully prepared to sight the law at you as a method of teaching it might work for lawyers but unless you want to go to law school it usually doesn't work for the rest of us he came and he taught and he explained the holy scriptures in new and strange and crazy ways and he said it with authority he said it with the full assurance and understanding that what he said was right which is to say he spoke like a prophet he spoke like one who had just received the word of god and had to go tell other people on pain of death this is your mission whether or not you choose to take it the prophets at least in their stories of call they're not always given a whole lot of choice you and i were often given a lot of choice and so it's very interesting to have these readings about knowing the mind of god and the heart of god and the voice of god and speaking with the authority of god here is the truth here is knowledge here is my sharing of the revelation i've had from god and it's clear and it's obvious and it's it's black or white if you will it is do this don't do that and to kind of compare that with the letter from paul to the church at corinth because paul is doing this wonderfully political waffling where he's dancing around the idea of what is right and what is wrong and it's it's not that paul's wrong to do that it's just a very different kind of teaching when we think about what does it mean to teach with authority as i thought about this week what paul is doing is not teaching with authority he's teaching like a lawyer which is maybe why it's a little difficult to follow also you know this was written in uh the dirty nasty common form of ancient greek uh and there are no commas in ancient greek and so there's a lot of run-on sentences but in case you got a little lost in the reading from first corinthians chapter 8 verses 1 through 13. the point paul's trying to make is like this listen you and i know that there's no such thing as other gods but all these new christians over here these new christians who were formerly worshippers of athena and minerva these new worshipers over here who were formally worshiping zeus and mars and mixing my greco-roman gods on purpose they don't know that there aren't any other gods they're they're slowly getting on board with that idea and they might they might say there is only one god but in their bones they still have that deep awareness that well maybe there are other gods but i'm going to worship the most powerful one and so meet almost every single bit of it which is butchered in sacrifice of a greco-roman god if it messes with their heads all those new christians to watch you eat meat why don't you consider not doing it because you and i both know that it doesn't matter it doesn't matter if the meat has been sacrificed to athena or if the meat has been sacrificed to minerva or if the meat has been sacrificed to meet ross or if the meat has been sacrificed to caesar you and i both know it doesn't matter because they're not actually gods but all those new christians over there it's a stumbling block for them they can't wrap their brains around it it hurts them emotionally to see you eat meat and it tempts them to eat the meat that has been sacrificed to their old gods and to feel as if they are taking it inside of them to feel as if they are having communion with their old gods and it's filling them with grief and worry and anxiety and yeah you're free to eat the meat and yeah there's no other god but god but have a little compassion people yes you have the freedom to eat meat but you also have the freedom to refrain and i wish you would and i will so there so that is my interpretation of paul teaching people to be kind to one another and to be compassionate to one another and to be understanding that just because they have the freedom to do something and even the right to do something doesn't mean that they should act upon it when it hurts other people now he might have just said that that's not how paul teaches but it was how jesus taught it was how jesus taught he spoke as one with authority and he cast out unclean spirits and how that relates to our own lives well it can be hard to just come out and say something sometimes it can be hard because maybe we don't want to hurt people's feelings it can be hard because maybe we really want people to like us and not be hurt or offended or even challenged by what we say it can be very very tempting [Music] to beat around the bush like paul says or like paul does and we've we've got some good ways to describe that uh we can we can talk about that kind of communication as well it's it's delicate communication it's you know gently leading someone to a thought or an idea except the thing is that works for some people and it doesn't work for others some people can't be gently led some people need to be gently led because they're rather more sensitive perhaps than we are and they get the idea way before we finish making our point and to do anything other than gently leading them there is to twist the knife other people don't get it they don't get it until you hammer it in they don't get it unless you are super clear and direct perhaps more than you or i are comfortable being and that's the tricky part of communication jesus managed to walk this fine and beautiful line being kind compassionate and gentle to some yelling at others praising some and more often than not you have this beautiful knack that i've not often seen in other people and you know i wish i could do it more often but i fail jesus had this wonderful knack of pointing out what was good and pointing people in the direction of what was good and what is good and what they need to do and giving them the encouragement they needed to go into it without criticizing or judging what all they've done wrong and his followers in their letters were not as good at doing that as jesus was his followers would often follow up really good advice very positive very affirming with a round judgment and denunciation and uh and if you don't beware but you know jesus didn't often do that he just clearly said do this do this because this path contains life now there's stuff unsaid there other paths contain death maybe but that's not what jesus said jesus said do this. this path contains life full stop i wonder what it would take for you and i to communicate with other people more like jesus and less like his students i don't know it would probably take a lot of practice it would probably take a lot of thoughtfulness and self-examination and you know the tricky part of self-examination is it can lead to really feeling dreadful about how you've been and i don't think jesus would be an advocate of that and i'm certainly not an advocate of that and so if we do decide maybe you do need to change the the point of that is not then to think oh i'm such a horrible person look at all i've done look at all the mistakes i've made no yes we've all made mistakes yes we've hurt people and if we are so busy wallowing in that guilt we will have no time to change we will have no energy to be different next time and so if you decide maybe i would like to communicate with other people a little more like jesus then i invite you to remember one of the key points of what he said we must do he said we must love our neighbors as ourselves and while i often talk about loving our neighbors you also need to love yourself fully deeply and with forgiveness you must love yourself and you must do that first amen our service continues with a nice increde we believe in one god the father the almighty maker of heaven and earth of all that is seen and unseen we believe in one lord jesus christ the only son of god eternally begotten of the father god from god light from light true god from true god begotten not made of one being with the father through him all things were made for us and for our salvation he came down from heaven by the power of the holy spirit he became incarnate from the virgin mary and was made man for our sake he was crucified under pontius pilate he suffered death and was buried on the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end we believe in the holy spirit the lord the giver of life who proceeds from the father and the son with the father and the son he is worshiped and glorified he has spoken through the prophets we believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church we acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come amen almighty god during this time of social distancing and self-quarantine we ask that you remind us of our deep connection with one another help us to reach out in love in safe ways to the sick the friendless and the needy fill our hearts with compassion for those who must work with others and risk exposure for those who need to work but cannot for those juggling child care and working from home for those who have been infected by coronavirus for all those who are suffering and in pain from other illnesses we pray that they may be made well and whole once more for all those who have died for those filled with hope and those filled with despair for those whose faith was clear and for those whose faith is known to you alone we pray that they may rest in peace we pray for our nation and all those in authority the president the governor our county executives our local leaders in the cdc that they may make wise decisions and have right actions for the welfare and benefit of us all we pray for trinity church for sarah michael and rose for andy joanne and bruce for linda and ernie for joan matthew and lynn for michelle jj alana and mariah for bob bonnie louise ted and reggie for lorraine deb rich linda lena freya parker jackson jocelyn jordan chris colin and kelly for cathy and joanne for walter and jane for chris and judy we pray for our families friends and neighbors especially holy apostles perry and saint luke's attica for local churches here in warsaw and for jaime pam david james and barb d ann george phil steve w bob m kathy and michelle and those others that you may name now we pray for all those in the military and for those in the national guard who have been mobilized for the safety and welfare of our nation and especially we pray for robert and now as our savior christ has taught us we are bold to say 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 and the power and the glory forever and ever amen go in peace to love and serve the lord alleluia alleluia