Worship Service at Church of the Dawntreader Thursday May 9, 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.
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"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.
O God, form the minds of your faithful people into your one will.
Make us love what you command and desire what you promise, that, amid all the changes of this world,
our hearts may be fixed where true joy is found, your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen

First Lesson: Acts 16: 16 - 34 (NRSV)
16 One day, as we were going to the place of prayer,
we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling.
17 While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, "These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation."
18 She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit,
"I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And it came out that very hour.
19 But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone,
they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.
20 When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, "These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews
21 and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe."
22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods.
23 After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely.
24 Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
26 Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken;
and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened.
27 When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself,
since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped.
28 But Paul shouted in a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here."
29 The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
30 Then he brought them outside and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31 They answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."
32 They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
33 At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay.
34 He brought them up into the house and set food before them;
and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.
Here ends the First Lesson

Psalm 97 (NRSV)
1 The LORD is king! Let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!
2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him,
and consumes his adversaries on every side.
4 His lightnings light up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness;
and all the peoples behold his glory.
7 All worshipers of images are put to shame,
those who make their boast in worthless idols;
all gods bow down before him.
8 Zion hears and is glad,
and the towns of Judah rejoice,
because of your judgments, O God.
9 For you, O LORD, are most high over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.
10 The LORD loves those who hate evil;
he guards the lives of his faithful;
he rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light dawns for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name!
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: Revelation 22: 12 - 14, 16 - 17, 20 - 21 (NRSV)
12 "See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone's work.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.
16 "It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches.
I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star."
17 The Spirit and the bride say, "Come."
And let everyone who hears say, "Come."
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
20 The one who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon."
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
Here ends the Second Lesson.

Gospel Lesson: John 17: 20 - 26 (NRSV)
20 "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,
21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us,
so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,
23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one,
so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am,
to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 "Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me.
26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."
Here end the Readings from Holy Scripture.

 - Sermon -

Our Gospel lesson for this week is a portion of the High Priestly Prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This prayer is a glimpse into His loving heart.
He is praying not only for His beloved disciples,
but also for all of us who will come to believe in Him through their testimony.
The central prayer that He prays
is that we may all be one.
If we only look around us at the world in which we live,
we will not see a lot of oneness among the followers of Jesus,
to say the least.
There are divisions over every fine point of doctrine.
There are divisions over politics.
There are divisions over matters of human opinion.
The most ridiculous division I ever heard of
was over the sign of the cross.
After moving the hand from the head to the solar plexus,
do we move it first to the left shoulder, or to the right?
That will determine if we move the hand in the sign of the cross from right to left or from left to right.
Western Christians move from left to right.
Eastern Christians move from right to left.
Wars were found over this difference!
The second most ridiculous division I am aware of
has to do with racial and ethnic difference.
To this day,
the most divided hour in countries where Christian churches are common
is the hour of Sunday morning worship.
Churches are severely segregated by language and ethnicity
as well as race.
Sadly, I even heard (on NPR) of a church in the southern United States
where a woman of Hispanic origin was so ostracised
that the members of the church near her
refused to pass the peace to her
at the time to do so in their worship service.
She was heartbroken, and I have no doubt that our Lord Jesus was even more heartbroken.
Another story is also important to remember in this regard:
At the time of the Boer wars in South Africa,
a young east Asian Indian man by the name of Mohandas Ghandi was an ambulance driver.
He was deeply moved by the story of Jesus and His teachings as presented in the Gospels.
He went to a Reformed church in South Africa to learn more.
He was turned away at the door because he was the wrong race.
He said that the followers of Jesus had gone so far astray from His teachings
that he wanted no part of their churches.
He went on to be regarded as the greatest national and religious teacher of modern times in India.
We know him as Mahatma Ghandi, the Great Soul,
and the division of Christians
means to this day
that millions of people in India who believe in Jesus,
in part because of Ghandi's testimony,
are not baptized
and so are not members of Christ's church.
What are we to make of all this?
Is the prayer of our Lord a failure?
Absolutely not!
He prayed that we may be one,
and we are one,
whether we like it or not.
We do not live up to it,
but the truth is
that we are all members of Him.
Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ
is a member of His body,
regardless of participation in any particular church,
and regardless of any other ethnic, racial or political considerations.
The same Christ lives in us.
So we who belong to Him
belong also to each other.
His prayer is the truth of God.
We are one in Christ.
I read a post on Facebook this morning that summarizes the truth spoken in our Lord's High Priestly Prayer:
"Humanity is like the fingers on a hand.
Each one is different.
But we are all connected as ONE."
We can choose to live in that oneness or not,
but we are truly one in Him,
now and 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 +