Worship Service at Church of the Dawntreader Thursday January 27, 2013 10:00 a.m. SLT
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
    Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™
    Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
    www.zondervan.com
"New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989,
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved." Designated by the initials, (NRSV).

Invocation:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen
Confession and Absolution
We come before you, our Loving Father, Mother God, confessing most of all our need of you.
We confess that we have not always acknowledged just how much we depend on you.
We confess that we have not always loved you with all our heart, soul and mind.
We have not always loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We ask that you will forgive us and grant us your strength to conform more fully to your loving will for us.
We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen.
In obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is my privilege to declare to you and to myself, the entire
forgiveness of all our sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Prayer of the Day
Let us pray.
Blessed Lord God, you have caused the holy scriptures to be written for the nourishment of your people.
Grant that we may hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that, comforted by your promises,
we may embrace and forever hold fast to the hope of eternal life, through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

First Lesson: from Nehemiah 8 (NRSV)
1 All the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate.
They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had given to Israel.
2 Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding.
This was on the first day of the seventh month.
3 He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday,
in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand;
and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.
4 The scribe Ezra stood on a wooden platform that had been made for the purpose.
5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it,
all the people stood up.
6 Then Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands.
Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.
8 So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.
9 And Nehemi'ah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Le'vites who taught the people said to all the people,
"This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep." For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.
10 Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared,
for this day is holy to our LORD; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."
Here ends the First Lesson

Psalm 19 (NRSV)
1 The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
4 yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,
5 which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy,
and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them;
and nothing is hid from its heat.
7 The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the decrees of the LORD are sure,
making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true
and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey,
and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
12 But who can detect their errors?
Clear me from hidden faults.
13 Keep back your servant also from the insolent;
do not let them have dominion over me.
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to you,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Second Lesson: from 1 Corinthians 12 (NRSV)
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.
15 If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body.
16 And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body.
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
19 If all were a single member, where would the body be?
20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."
22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,
23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect;
24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member,
25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another.
26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing,
forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues.
29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?
30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
31 But strive for the greater gifts.
Here ends the Second Lesson.

Gospel Lesson: from Luke 1 and 4 (NRSV)
1 Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us,
2 just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word,
3 I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you,
most excellent Theoph'ilus,
4 so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.
4:14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee,
and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country.
15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom.
He stood up to read,
17 and the scroll of the prophet Isai'ah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.
The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
21 Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
Here end the Readings from Holy Scripture.

 - Sermon -

What is the Holy Bible?
This may seem like a simple question with an obvious answer,
but it is one of the crucial questions of our time,
maybe more so than at any other time in human history.
There are many believing Christians who are led far astray
by what their teachers and preachers tell them about the Bible.
The first and most important thing I need to say today is
that no Bible you can hold in your hands is infallible.
Let me say that another way.
Any Bible you can get and read has mistakes of every kind in it.
It is of primary importance that we remember this
because many Christians make the claim that the Bible is the infallible word of God.
In fact, that claim is a practical impossibility, very nearly a contradiction in terms.
The claim can only be made of the original manuscripts,
and no original manuscript of any portion of the Bible exists.
For myself, I would go so far as to say that the claim of infallilibility for the Bible
is a form of idolatry.
Only God is without error,
and sometimes we might wonder if He doesn't wish that He had done certain things differently.
Whatever we may think about that,
only God is truly perfect.
Devout Muslim artists will always put a small error in an otherwise perfect work of art
because only God is truly perfect.
It is good to pay attention to that kind of witness,
because claiming God's perfection
for any object we can hold in our hands
is a form of idolatry,
making that object,
even a copy of the Holy Bible,
into an object of worship.
I call the Bible holy
because I believe that it is a reliable account of relationships:
first of all,
the relationships of people with God
as those relationships were understood in their own time,
and secondly,
the relationships among human beings.
As such, the Bible is the most excellent guide to meaningful relationships between you and me and God, our Father and Mother,
and to our relationships with each other.
Only if we allow the Bible to be what it is
and not try to tell it what it may or may not say
can we begin to enjoy the wealth of wisdom that it offers us every day.
The Bible is not infallible.
Therefore we can see it as reliable.
It is not a book of history or science,
and if we don't try to see history or science in it,
we can read it for the stories of relationships that are of value for all time.
In our first lesson, we read how the law book was interpreted so that it could make sense for the people.
That is always necessary.
We cannot understand the Bible
in ways that mean anything for our lives
without some help
by way of interpretation.
It is a wonder that we can understand anything at all
from documents that were first handed down in oral form
and later written within the constraints of a bronze age civilization so very different from our own.
Yet human nature has changed very little,
and in the stories of the Bible we can find a lot to identify with.
As we seek to interpret the words of Scripture
to apply them to our own lives,
we can be very careful to use the best tools of history, science, and literary scholarship
to try to understand what those words may have meant to the people who first heard them.
The word of God to Her children
is never nonsense,
then or now.
So it had meaning to those who first heard it.
It has meaning to us, too,
in very different circumstances,
and the two meanings will at least echo each other.
Yet everything must be taken with a grain of salt, so to speak,
and evaluated in the light of the living Christ
Who is revealed to us in the pages of Scripture.
"What would Jesus do?"
or
"What would Jesus say?"
may or may not be very useful questions in evaluating what we need to say or do in our own lives,
but they are most useful in evaluating and interpreting the meaning of the words of the Bible.
In our Gospel lesson for this week,
we hear first the words of St. Luke
as he introduced the purpose of his Gospel:
to give an orderly account of the Jesus story.
Likewise his second volume, the book of Acts,
is introduced as an orderly account of the story of the earliest days of the Christian church.
Theophilus, to whom the introductions are addressed,
is an unknown believer.
The name means "one who loves God,"
so the introduction could be addressed to you and me, too,
and to all kinds of people through the ages
who could be called people who love God.
Finally, in our Gospel lesson,
our Lord Jesus gives us a beautiful example of the fulfillment of prophecy in the Bible.
Jesus read promising, hope filled words from the prophecy of Isaiah,
and He told His hearers that those words were fulfilled there and then, in their hearing.
He filled the words of the prophet with new meaning,
centered on His own ministry,
and His words bring hope,
not for His own time only,
but for our time as well,
and for all of us
for all eternity.
Amen.

Prayer of the People
Please type your spontaneous petitions in chat.
Each prepared petition is intended to remind us of the things we need to pray about,
so a brief pause will be provided for us to pray our own petitions,
either sharing them in the chat window
or praying them in our own hearts.

Loving God, we pray for each other, for those who depend upon us for prayer, and for all people according to their needs.
We ask that your healing power may prevail in our lives.
We pray that those in positions of public trust may be worthy of that trust as they act as stewards of power and wealth
for the benefit of all.
We pray that conflicts may be resolved in the context of relationships,
so that violence of thought word and deed may be diminished all through our world.
We ask your blessing for all who bear witness to the Gospel, so that relationships with you may be deepened for all people.
All these things, and whatever else you see that we need, we ask that you will grant for the sake of your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whose name we pray.
Amen.
Our Lord's Prayer
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 sins as we forgive those who sin 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.
Benediction
May the Lord bless us and keep us.
May the Lord make His face to shine upon us and be gracious to us.
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, and give us peace.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen +