Worship Order for Sunday

Long Green Valley Church of the Brethren
Long Green & Kanes Rds., near Glen Arm, Md.
June 6, 2010
Worship 10:00 am
 

The dead man sat up and began to speak,
and Jesus gave him to his mother.

(Luke 7:15)

  Beginning with Praise (9:50 am)
  Announcements
  Prelude

  Call to Worship                            Psalm 146

*Hymn                         "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty"                               37

*Opening Prayer

  For Children                "Reading from the scroll"

  Scripture                                    Luke 4:20-30

  Returning our Tithes and Offerings

  Offertory

(Please sign the attendance pad and pass it on)

  Hymn                             "We give thee but thine own"                                384

  Scripture                                  1 Kings 17:8-24

  Sharing a joy, a concern, a word of testimony or praise
                                 (please be brief, and aware of God's listening presence)

  Hymn                           "Breathe on me, breath of God"                              356

  Pastoral Prayer

  Scripture                                    Luke 7:11-17

  Message                      "A great prophet has risen" (mp3)

*Hymn                           "O young and fearless prophet"                               374

*Benediction

*Postlude


*Rise in body or in spirit

#'s are from Hymnal: A Worship Book

Worship leaders - see basic guidelines

Opening Prayer

Praise the One who hears the cry of the poor,
  who lifts up the weak and gives them strength.
Praise the One who feeds the hungry
    and satisfies the longing of those in need.
Praise the One who holds with tenderness the orphan and widow
   and gives the stranger a land and a home.

Hymnal #37, Psalm 146:7-9,
adapted from More Than Words,
by Pat Kozak, C.S.J., and Janet Schaffran, C.D.P.
First edition copyright © 1986 Pat Kozak, C.S.J., and Janet Schaffran, C.D.P.;
second revised edition copyright © 1988. Crossroad/Continuum Publishing Company.
Also adapted from New Revised Standard Version
  

For Children
Reading from the scroll

            Do you see anyone out in the congregation this morning who was you’re your Sunday School teacher this year? Who? Wave to them and say, “Thank you.” Do you know what makes a Sunday School teacher happy? I’m sure hugs and presents and a “thank you” help. I think, however, that what makes them the happiest is when they see you growing in Jesus. We are taking a summer break from Sunday School, but that doesn’t mean you stop growing.

            When Jesus was a boy, he had teachers. Did you know that the word, “Rabbi,” means “teacher”? When Jesus was growing up, he had a teacher, a rabbi who helped him learn how to read the Bible. Now the Bible back then didn’t look like this (hold up a Bible bound as a book), it looked more like this (hold up a scroll). The Bible in Jesus’ day was actually a collection of “scrolls” sort of like this (hold up the scroll again).

            When he was a boy, Jesus, studied along with other boys, to learn from a rabbi, a teacher how to read words in the scrolls. Later on, as men knowing how to read the words, they would talk about what the words meant. Notice I said boys and men. Unfortunately, back then girls and women weren’t allowed to do this. Do you think that was fair? I don’t either. I’m glad that’s not how it is today.

            Anyway, the goal of learning how to read from the scroll was to get ready for a Bar Mitzvah when, at age 13, a boy would stand up before the congregation and read out loud from the Bible. I think that that day made the rabbi, the teacher very happy. Here was a student doing as he had been taught, and growing up to be a man of God, literally a son (bar) of the commandments of God (mitzvah).

            Even today, Jewish boys stand up and read publicly from the scroll when they turn 13, at their Bar Mitzvah. And Jewish girls do the same thing when they turn 12 at the Bat (daughter) Mitzvah. Not only are their parents very proud, but so are their teachers. I can imagine Jesus going through his Bar Mitzvah when he was 13, and making his teacher happy as he read from the Bible.

            Many years later, when he had grown up and left his hometown, he returned for a visit. They asked him to again read from the Bible in front of the congregation. He had become a wise teacher, a rabbi, himself, and was traveling throughout Galilee telling about God and healing people. I can imagine that if his rabbi, who had spent time teaching him as a boy, was there that day, he was probably very happy to see his student reading from the scroll.

            Now, in the gospel of Luke it says that Jesus read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. This morning, I’d like us to read what he read. I know that some of you can’t read yet, but that okay. I’d like you to simply stand on a stepstool and imagine for a moment what it’s like. We’ll take turns. Okay? Let’s do it. 

(they read Luke 4:18-19)

            Thank you. You all did an excellent job. I think you just made your Sunday School teachers very happy! Now, quietly return to your seat.
  

Returning our Tithes and Offerings

Boy, were those people mad! They were so angry that they intended to throw Jesus off a cliff. Were you listening? Have you ever been that upset? One minute, Jesus was a favorite son. The next he was a pariah. All because he implied that with God, charity doesn’t always begin at home. The prophets Elijah and Elisha, he said, cared for outsiders – a widow in a foreign country, a general in an enemy army. The words of the prophet Isaiah applied to a much bigger world than anyone dared to imagine.

Now, before you get mad at those people from Jesus’ hometown who attempted to kill him, consider this: anger is not necessarily a bad thing. It is what we do with anger that matters. Strong emotion can motivate us to make a change. Perhaps that is what Jesus was after. Maybe, just maybe, charity did begin at home in this case, and truth spoken in love changed lives… Please pray with me.

We realize, O Lord, that prophets are not always well received in their own hometown. We pray for the grace of listening to the prophets you still raise up in our midst, perhaps one of our own children. Help charity to, indeed, begin at home as you unsettle our settled-ness and stir us to “do justice and love mercy,” as another of your prophets once nudged (Micah 6:8). Guide our application of these offerings to your work, near and far. In Jesus. Amen.

  

Pastoral Prayer

 

written closer to the time (if not at the moment)

 

Benediction

Brothers and sisters,
     the Spirit of the Lord is upon you,
          because you have been anointed in Christ
               to bring good news to the poor.
          You are being sent in Christ
               to proclaim release to the captives
                            and recovery of sight to the blind.
     As one whose eyes are daily being opened, as well,
          live in the liberty of God,
               seeking to let the oppressed go free.
     And in your daily work and walk
          simply proclaim the jubilee of the Lord -
               “thy kingdom come,
                 thy will be done,
                      on earth as it is in heaven.” Amen.
  

(para traducir a español, presione la bandera de España)

 

Interested in Sunday School?
Below is a growing list of possible sites to visit. As you discover others, please let us know.

International Lesson:
Faith and Life Resources

Mennonite Publishing House

International Lesson:
Mennonite Weekly Review

(scroll down on left to "Sunday School lessons)

International Lesson:
Christian Standard
(one week ahead)

International Lesson:
Living Web Sunday School Project

 
International Lesson:
Adult Bible Studies
from The United Methodist Publishing House
(click "supplemental resources" and "current events supplement" under both the "Student" and "Teacher" sections in the left hand column)
  

While one of our adult classes follows the International lesson above (see also), using
A Guide for Biblical Studies,
published quarterly by our denomination,
another class often uses one of the
Good Ground series.

For children and youth, we use the new
Gather Round curriculum
(developed jointly by the Church of the Brethren and the Mennonite Church)

 

©2010 Peter L. Haynes
(unless otherwise stated, worship resources were written by him)

 

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