Worship - October 4, 2009

Opening Prayer

We praise you, God, for positioning us just a little lower than you, even though we are unworthy. Make us wise stewards of creation and our relationships. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray by the power of the Spirit. Amen.

By David von Schlichten
from Lectionary Homiletics

For Children
“Flash Photography”

[Take a digital photo of each child, and show it to them, saying you wanted a picture of each one of them. As you do so, ask if the flash went off (it may, depending upon the day’s weather). What is a flash for? No in depth conversation of this, just small talk. Then tell the following story.]

3-year-old Jimmy was visiting his grandparents and he was playing in the garden just outside the back door while his grandmother was inside making tea. It was getting pretty dark and stormy and she was just going to call Jimmy indoors when there was a flash of lightning. Thinking that Jimmy would be afraid, she rushed to the back door just as he came running in, filled with excitement - “Guess what, Grandma,” he shouted “God just took my photo!”

Well, we know that lightning is not God taking photos of Jimmy or anyone else, but it’s not surprising that Jimmy thought the way he did. Photographs help us remember what a person looks like. Hold up the photo of yourself as a child - here’s a photo of me when I was your age - that’s not a bad likeness is it.

Just as we know that God isn’t taking pictures of us when we see lightning and hear thunder (tho’ that may help us not be scared), we know that we can’t take photos of God. Or can we? (What do you think?) So, how do we know what God looks like? In the reading we heard earlier from the bible, it says that Jesus is the exact imprint (NRSV) of God’s very being. So, that’s almost as good as a photo, isn’t it?

While we haven’t any photos of Jesus either, we have enough words written about him to know what he was like. A loving, caring, person who wants to put his imprint on us. As we learn more about his love and then live with his actual love in us, we realize we don’t need a picture of Jesus to know what he is like, because we’ll know- right here - in our hearts.

adapted from Moira B Laidlaw in Liturgies Online,
as well as Ann Scull in Mustard Seeds.
Both borrowed it from elsewhere.

Prayer of Confession

We read in Hebrews that God, “for whom and through whom all things exist,” made the pioneer of our salvation “perfect through suffering.”

Lord Jesus Christ, pioneer of our salvation, the lengths that you were prepared to go to defeat evil and to show us the depth of your love are almost too much for us to grasp. You surrendered any advantage you could have had over us in order to become as we are, and to suffer and even die for our sake.

For our sake.

So that we could live abundantly and joyfully, with your powerful life in us.

But we confess that we carry a multitude of unhealed wounds around with us, and within us.

So much of our personal landscapes are filled with the chronic pain of broken relationships and unfulfilled expectations; with emotional, spiritual and physical suffering.

Forgive us, Lord, for trying to meet our needs solely out of our own power.

Embrace our weaknesses with your strength,

our brokenness with your wholeness,

our suffering with your healing,

our fears with your peace.

Remind us that when we bring our weariness and heavy burdens to you,

you will give us rest.

Lord Jesus Christ, pioneer of our salvation, receive these our prayers, for we offer them in your name. Amen

by Moira B Laidlaw from Liturgies Online

Assurance of forgiveness

Through his suffering and death, Jesus rescued us from lives dominated by evil and sin. He is the source of our salvation. Hear then the good news that in and through Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Thanks be to God!

by Moira B Laidlaw from Liturgies Online

Pastoral Prayer

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

The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning
Job 1:1-22

1 - There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

2 - There were born to him seven sons

1 - and three daughters.

2 - He had seven thousand sheep,

1 - three thousand camels,

2 - five hundred yoke of oxen,

1 - five hundred donkeys,

2 - and very many servants;

1 - so that this man

2 - was the greatest of all the people of the east.

1 - His sons used to go and hold feasts in one another’s houses in turn; and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

2 - And when the feast days had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said,

1 - “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.”

2 - This is what Job always did.

1 - One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord,

2 - and Satan also came among them.

1 - The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

2 - Satan answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

1 - The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.”

2 - Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”

1 - The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!”

2 - So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

1 - One day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brother’s house, a messenger came to Job and said,

2 - “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell on them and carried them off, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.”

1 - While he was still speaking, another came and said,

2 - “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; I alone have escaped to tell you.”

1 - While he was still speaking, another came and said,

2 - “The Chaldeans formed three columns, made a raid on the camels and carried them off, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.”

1 - While he was still speaking, another came and said,

2 - “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house, and suddenly a great wind came across the desert, struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; I alone have escaped to tell you.”

1 - Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshiped. He said,

2 - “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

1 - In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong-doing.

The New Revised Standard Version,
copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

Returning our Tithes and Offerings

“You can’t take it with you,” we say, thinking about our money and other “things.” As Job put it, we were naked on the day of our birth and, when all is said and done, that’s pretty much how we will be on the day we die. Everything in between comes from the hand of the one who gives us life. This is “Stewardship 101,” a basic statement of our relationship to all our “stuff.” Yes, as the Psalmist affirms, we were made a little lower than God, crowned with glory and honor (8:5), a good word echoed by the New Testament author of Hebrews (2:7). However, that doesn’t mean that the one who dies with the most toys wins. Ultimately, it all belongs to God. Or, to put things into an even bigger perspective, we belong to God. Pray with me.

God, what we have is what you have first given us. Continue to teach us the wise use of our wealth, great or small, and help us not to lose our way and allow our wealth to own us. With these offerings we are seeking to get it straight. In Jesus. Amen.

Ushers?

The end of the beginning of the rest of the story
Job 2:1-13

1 - One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord,

2 - and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.

1 - The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

2 - Satan answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

1 - The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.”

2 - Then Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.”

1 - The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life.”

2 - So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

1 - Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes.

2 - Then his wife said to him, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die.”

1 - But he said to her, “You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?”

2 - In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

1 - Now when Job’s three friends heard of all these troubles that had come upon him, each of them set out from his home—

2 - Eliphaz the Temanite,

1 - Bildad the Shuhite,

2 - and Zophar the Naamathite.

1 - They met together to go and console and comfort him.

2 - When they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him, and they raised their voices and wept aloud; they tore their robes and threw dust in the air upon their heads.

1 - They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

The New Revised Standard Version,
copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

Benediction