Worship Service at Church of the Dawntreader Thursday February 21, 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.
God of the covenant, in the mystery of the cross you promise everlasting life to the world.
Gather all peoples into your arms, and shelter us with your mercy, that we may rejoice in the life we share in your Son,
Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen

First Lesson: Genesis 15: 1 - 12, 17 - 18 (NRSV)
1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield;
your reward shall be very great."
2 But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Elie'zer of Damascus?"
3 And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir."
4 But the word of the LORD came to him, "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir."
5 He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them."
Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be."
6 And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.
7 Then he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chalde'ans, to give you this land to possess."
8 But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?"
9 He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove,
and a young pigeon."
10 He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.
11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.
17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying,
"To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
Here ends the First Lesson

Psalm 27 (NRSV)
1 The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evildoers assail me
to devour my flesh--
my adversaries and foes--
they shall stumble and fall.
3 Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war rise up against me,
yet I will be confident.
4 One thing I asked of the LORD,
that will I seek after:
to live in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the LORD,
and to inquire in his temple.
5 For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will set me high on a rock.
6 Now my head is lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the LORD.
7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud,
be gracious to me and answer me!
8 "Come," my heart says, "seek his face!"
Your face, LORD, do I seek.
9 Do not hide your face from me.
Do not turn your servant away in anger,
you who have been my help.
Do not cast me off, do not forsake me,
O God of my salvation!
10 If my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will take me up.
11 Teach me your way, O LORD,
and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
12 Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they are breathing out violence.
13 I believe that I shall see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the LORD!
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: Philippians 3: 17 - 4: 1 (NRSV)
17 Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.
18 For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears.
19 Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.
20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
21 He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory,
by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.
4:1 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
Here ends the Second Lesson.

Gospel Lesson: Luke 13: 31 - 35 (NRSV)
31 At that very hour some Phar'isees came and said to him, "Get away from here, for Her'od wants to kill you."
32 He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me,
"Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.
33 Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.'
34 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!
How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
35 See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say,
"Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'"
Here end the Readings from Holy Scripture.

 - and -

Luke 9: 28 - 36
28 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.
29 And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.
30 Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Eli'jah, talking to him.
31 They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
32 Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep;
but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.
33 Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here;
let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Eli'jah"--not knowing what he said.
34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud.
35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!"
36 When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

 - Sermon -

You can see that I have chosen to use two Gospel lessons for this week.
I talked about the lectionary a little bit last week.
We are in the third year of a three year cycle,
the year of Luke.
Most of the Gospel lessons are written in the Gospel of Luke for this year of the cycle.
Most churches use the same lessons,
but some choose specific readings that apply more to their own particular traditions.
The Roman Catholic Church celebrates Transfiguration on the Second Sunday in Lent.
Most Protestant churches celebrate it on the last Sunday after the Epiphany, the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.
Maybe we should all just be more honest and call it Mardi Gras Sunday or Carnival Sunday,
since I'm sure that is on a lot of people's minds at that time!
This year, we did not use the Transfiguration lesson on that day,
so I wanted to use it today.
However, if I did so, I would miss one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible,
one that I consider especially important for our time.
So how was I to choose?
I didn't!
I chose to use both lessons!
They are both short enough
so I won't be keeping you way past the normal schedule today.
In the Transfiguration,
Jesus was revealed to the executive committee of His disciples,
Peter, James and John,
in the form in which He has been with the Father from all eternity:
glowing with dazzling light
so that even His clothing shone out brightly.
The disciples must have been protected in some way,
as Moses was when God appeared to Him on Mt. Sinai.
Otherwise mortal humans would have been utterly destroyed,
consumed as by fire,
seeing the uncreated Light of God
face to face.
The cloud appeared;
it often hides the face of God when he is revealed to His mortal children.
From the cloud the voice spoke words very similar to those heard at our Lord's Baptism:
"This is my Son, my chosen; listen to Him!"
A word of command from the voice of God speaks to our hearts to this very day.
When we listen, what is He saying?
Above all, He is telling us that He loves us unconditionally.
He loves us no matter what.
We hear that message in the other Gospel lesson,
how He says,
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!
How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!"
The holy city has all too often been the place of most unholy deeds,
as it is in our own times.
So much hatred is there now!
People are so eager to kill their enemies
that they are willing to die in the process,
and their friends and families celebrate their deaths
as though suicide were martyrdom.
Such is the hatred on the other side
that homes are demolished
and ancient olive groves are destroyed
to make room for settlements of the "right" kind of people.
Jerusalem is growing,
but the city is growing in many ways and directions that are very wrong.
Jesus still longs to gather her people
the way a mother hen gathers her brood under her wings,
and Jerusalem is still not willing.
I am not talking about Jesus as representative of a religion.
He was not so then,
and He is not so now.
He is God in human form,
and in His human and divine heart,
He longs to show us the absolute love of a Mother for Her child.
Yes, Jesus represents to us
the eternal love of God for us His children
as the unconditional and boundless love of our Mother.
She will nourish and care for us now and forever,
even beyond the end of our lives,
even beyond the end of the world itself.
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 +