Long Green Valley Church of the Brethren
Long Green & Kanes Rds., near Glen Arm, Md.
November 10, 2013
Worship 10:00 am          Sunday School 11:10am

  Beginning with Praise (9:50 am)          "My hope is built on nothing less"          343
  Announcements
  Prelude

   Call to Worship

*Hymn                               "This is the threefold truth"                                 335

*Litany of Hope                                                                       (back of bulletin)

  Scripture                                    Haggai 2:1-9

  For Children                        "The Peace Bell"                     by Margi Preus

  Special Music                        "Be thou my vision"

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

  Hymn                             "In the bulb there is a flower"                               614

  Pastoral Prayer

  Scripture                                   Luke 20:27-38

  Returning our Tithes and Offerings

  Offertory              (Please sign the attendance pad and pass it on)

  Scripture                             2 Thessalonians 2:1-17

  Message              "Feet on the ground and head high" (mp3)

*Hymn                                "How firm a foundation"                                   567

*Benediction

*Postlude

*Rise in body or in spirit

#'s are from Hymnal: A Worship Book

Worship leaders - see basic guidelines

Call to Worship

             We gather as a people of God, drawn together in faith. We recognize our individuality as we celebrate our oneness in Christ. As different as we are, we rejoice in good hope together. Even when our faith is but a crevice in the complexity of life’s journey, the goodness of hope nurtures us. As our faith receives nourishment here in this place, may we blossom in the strength of every good work and word, through our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father.

by Mike Fike
Morgantown, West Virginia
     

Litany of Hope

Leader:    As we open our lives to your power, O God, may we recognize the joy and peace you offer us.

People:   May the goodness of hope guide our worship.

Leader:    As we strive to serve the world you have made, O God, may we be strengthened in our resolve.

People:   May the goodness of hope guide our service.

Leader:    Help us, O God, to remember those in need, that they will not be forgotten.

People:   May the goodness of hope drive our compassion.

Leader:    O God, may our discipleship be lifted to new heights, as we refine the Christlike patterns of our lives.

People:   May the goodness of hope reflect Jesus Christ in us.

Leader:    As we pray as one people, O God, empower us to be a living church.

All:         May the goodness of hope give us strength and comfort as people of faith.

by Mike Fike
Morgantown, West Virginia
      

Scripture

             We turn now to the prophet Haggai, who spoke God’s Word to the people of Jerusalem who have returned home after many years of exile in Babylon. “Pay attention to rebuilding your spiritual dwelling, the Temple,” was his cry to folks who were just trying to get by, putting a roof over their own heads, depressed by the shape their once glorious city was in. Haggai’s message, then and now, is one of hope and encouragement from the Lord. Listen.

Haggai 2:1-9 (CEV)

For Children
"The Peace Bell"
by Margi Preus

            Recommending this book in Storypath (a great resource!), Noell Rathbun-Cook writes, In Haggai, "we encounter God speaking words of consolation to the exiles who have returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. In her commentary on this text, Wil Gafney comments that while the people believe their efforts do not live up to those of their ancestors, 'God is satisfied with their best efforts… Perhaps most importantly, God is with them, temple or no temple. God is with them and God has been with them… And in the days to come, God’s presence will be marked by not mere prosperity as it is translated in the NRSV, but shalom – peace, well-being, security, wholeness, and restoration.' The Peace Bell serves as an example of the shalom described by Gafney. After being silenced and lost through the war, the bell is eventually returned to its home. In being rung again, 'it sang of the hope for peace in the hearts of people all over the world.'"

Pastoral Prayer

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

Luke 20:27-38

1 - Shifting to the Gospel of Luke to hear a word from Jesus, we find him being asked a question by some religious bigwigs who really didn’t care about his answer. They were setting a trap for him, using the Law of Moses as bait. Listen:  (pause)
       Some Sadducees came up. This is the Jewish party that denies any possibility of resurrection. They asked,

2 - “Teacher, Moses wrote us that if a man dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother is obligated to take the widow to wife and get her with child. Well, there once were seven brothers. The first took a wife. He died childless. The second married her and died, then the third, and eventually all seven had their turn, but no child. After all that, the wife died. That wife, now—in the resurrection whose wife is she? All seven married her.”

1 - Jesus said,

2 - “Marriage is a major preoccupation here, but not there. Those who are included in the resurrection of the dead will no longer be concerned with marriage nor, of course, with death. They will have better things to think about, if you can believe it. All ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. Even Moses exclaimed about resurrection at the burning bush, saying, ‘God: God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob!’ God isn’t the God of dead men, but of the living. To him all are alive.”

scripture text from The Message.
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002.
Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group
  

Returning our Tithes and Offerings

             The question Jesus was asked involved an important part of the Law of Moses, that we bear responsibility for one another. The wife of a brother who dies needs to be taken care of, and not left to die hungry and poor. All through the Bible we find the admonition to care for widows, and children, and the poor, and all who live on the margins of existence. We are to be responsible now for their welfare. They should not be used as bait. As we do so, we remember what Jesus said:

                                              "You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all,

                                              God’s kingdom is there for the finding.

                                              You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry.

                                              Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal.

                                              You’re blessed when the tears flow freely.

                                             Joy comes with the morning."                                     (Luke 6:20-21 from The Message)

                         That’s true now, and in the life to come.

             Ushers, please assist us in this moment of responsibility, as we return our tithes and offerings.

Benediction

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself
        and God our Father,
                    who loved us and by his grace
                            gave us eternal encouragement and
                                         good hope,
             encourage your hearts and
             strengthen you in every good deed
                                                   and word.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, from the New International Version®,
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.