Worship Service at Church of the Dawntreader Thursday June 19, 2014 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.
Teach us, good Lord God, to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for reward,
except that of knowing that we do your will, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Amen

First Lesson: Genesis 21: 8 - 21 (NRSV)
21:8 The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
9 But Sarah saw the son of Ha'gar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac.
10 So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac."
11 The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.
12 But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you,
for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you.
13 As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring."
14 So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Ha'gar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away.
And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Be'er-she'ba.
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes.
16 Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, "Do not let me look on the death of the child."
And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.
17 And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Ha'gar from heaven, and said to her, "What troubles you, Ha'gar?
Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.
18 Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him."
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.
20 God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow.
21 He lived in the wilderness of Par'an; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
Here ends the First Lesson

Psalm 86: 1 - 10, 16 - 17 (NRSV)  
86:1 Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.
2 Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you;
save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God; 3 be gracious to me, O Lord,
for to you do I cry all day long.
4 Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.
6 Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer;
listen to my cry of supplication.
7 In the day of my trouble I call on you,
for you will answer me.
8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
nor are there any works like yours.
9 All the nations you have made shall come
and bow down before you, O Lord,
and shall glorify your name.
10 For you are great and do wondrous things;
you alone are God.

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me;
give your strength to your servant;
save the child of your serving girl.
17 Show me a sign of your favor,
so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame,
because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.
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: Romans 6: 1b - 11  (NRSV)
6:1 Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.
7 For whoever has died is freed from sin.
8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
10 The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Here ends the Second Lesson.

Gospel Lesson: Matthew 10: 24 - 39 (NRSV)
10:24 "A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master;
25 it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beel'zebul,
how much more will they malign those of his household!
26 "So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.
27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.
28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted.
31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
32 "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven;
33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
34 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35 For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and one's foes will be members of one's own household.
37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
Here end the Readings from Holy Scripture.

 - Sermon -

In our lessons and Psalm for this week we learn once again how much our Lord God loves us, and as a result,
how God calls us to live in response to His love.
Our first lesson tells the story of God's love for Abraham's whole family.
According to the ancient Jews, the compilers of our Old Testament,
Abraham's favored son was Isaac.
According to the Arabs, the people of Muhammad the Prophet (pbuh),
Ishmael was the favored son, and Abraham was henpecked.
Right here begins the family conflict that continues with the fight between Israel and the Palestinians in our time.
Israel represents the people of Isaac, and the Palestinians represent the people of Ishmael.
The important point for us is that God loved them both, Isaac and Ishmael, Israel and the palestianians, Arabs and Jews.
No matter where we draw the lines to divide us,
God looks beyond those lines to love His children.
Hagar was near despair,
but God took pity on her and sent His messenger to rescue her and her son.
Likewise God takes pity on us all when we are in troubling times and situations.
Always look for the signs of God's mercy.
Those signs may not always be easy to find,
but the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is with us
even when we are at our lowest moments,
and strength is given to bear the unbearable.
Our Psalm sings of the reliable, steadfast love God has for each and every one of His children,
and our knowledge of His love insprires us to pray to Him to help us.
This unconditional love of God will help and comfort us.
The words of verse 7 of our Psalm are words of promise we can hold on to:
"In the day of my trouble I call on you,
for you will answer me."
In our second lesson we learn how God's love begins to transform us from death to life already,
even while we are in this world, in this life.
When we are baptized we are united with Christ in His death and His resurrection.
Since we have been raised to new life with Christ in Holy Baptism,
we are called to live in that new life.
This is why Christians live lives of constant repentance.
We have not yet arrived at a state of perfect reflection of God's love for us
in our love for each other.
So we still have room for improvement.
The recognition that we still have room for improvement
is one way of interpreting the traditional concept of repentance.
It is a good one, I think.
In our Gospel lesson for this week,
the Lord Jesus addresses the fears of people who are being persecutedfor their faith in Him.
In some cases, the newly converted believers were opposed by members of their own families.
This is a very old problem, and it still happens.
If you hear or read the news,
you will know that Christians in many places are in danger of mistreatment and even death
because of their faith in Christ.
I'm not talking about the foolishness we sometimes hear in this country,
where conservative Christians feel persecuted because they are not allowed to impose their beliefs
on people who do not share those beliefs.
I'm talking about actual danger of being driven from their homes
and even being killed
because they are of the Christian faith.
Jesus promised that they have nothing to fear.
Those who lose their life for my sake, He said, will find it.
He also warned us that there is nothing hidden that will not be made known.
Nothing secret will remain secret forever.
Even this is a sign of God's love for us.
There is a word of promise from Jesus right here.
Do not be afraid!
The One who knows all your secrets, from Whom you cannot hide anything
is the One Who loves you most of all, unconditionally.
In Him is the forgiveness of your sin
and the hope for better things in the future, now, in this world, and especially in the world to come.

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 +

Worship Service at Church of the Dawntreader June 5, 2014 10 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

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,
on this day
you open the hearts of your faithful people
by sending into us your Holy Spirit.
Direct us by the light of that Spirit,
that we may have a right judgment in all things
and rejoice at all times in your peace,
through Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen

First Lesson: Acts 2:1-21 (NIV)
 1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind
came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire
that separated and came to rest on each of them.
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment,
because each one heard their own language being spoken.
7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?
8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?
9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites;
residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene;
visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism);
Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
 14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd:
“Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem,
let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.
15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning!
16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
 17 “‘In the last days, God says,
   I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
   your young men will see visions,
   your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women,
   I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
   and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heavens above
   and signs on the earth below,
   blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness
   and the moon to blood
   before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls
   on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
Here ends the First Lesson

Psalm 104:24-34 (NIV)  
 24 How many are your works, LORD!
   In wisdom you made them all;
   the earth is full of your creatures.
25 There is the sea, vast and spacious,
   teeming with creatures beyond number—
   living things both large and small.
26 There the ships go to and fro,
   and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.
 27 All creatures look to you
   to give them their food at the proper time.
28 When you give it to them,
   they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
   they are satisfied with good things.
29 When you hide your face,
   they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
   they die and return to the dust.
30 When you send your Spirit,
   they are created,
   and you renew the face of the ground.
 31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
   may the LORD rejoice in his works—
32 he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
   who touches the mountains, and they smoke.
 33 I will sing to the LORD all my life;
   I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
   as I rejoice in 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: 1 Corinthians 12:3-13 (NIV)
3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,”
and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
 4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.
5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom,
to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
9 to another faith by the same Spirit,
to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy,
to another distinguishing between spirits,
to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,
and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit,
and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
 12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts,
but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.
13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body —
whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free —
and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Here ends the Second Lesson.

Gospel Lesson: John 7:37-39 (NIV)
 37 On the last and greatest day of the festival,
Jesus stood and said in a loud voice,
“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.
38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said,
rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
39 By this he meant the Spirit,
whom those who believed in him were later to receive.
Up to that time the Spirit had not been given,
since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Here end the Readings from Holy Scripture.

 - Sermon -

This week marks something like the 1985th anniversary
of the founding of the Christian church.
Next Sunday is Pentecost,
the 50th day after Easter,
10 days after Ascension Day,
and the anniversary of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
that marked the beginning of the explosion of faith
in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah,
the Son of God,
the Incarnate Word of God
and the Savior of the world.
Our faith in Him is made possible
purely and simply by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit,
there would be no faith in Jesus our Lord.
The words of our Second Lesson are patently obvious:
No one speaking by the Spirit of God can pronounce a curse on Jesus.
Less obvious, but equally true,
no one can say, "Jesus is Lord,"
apart from the agency of the Holy Spirit.
Of course, the Holy Spirit did not come to our world for the first time
on the day of Pentecost.
The Holy Spirit was present and Participant
in the act of Creation.
In Genesis 1:2, we read, "The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." (NIV)
What wonderfully poetic words!
I sometimes find myself arguing with people that the account of Creation is a poem,
but soon I'm going to give up on that.
If one cannot see the poetry in Genesis 1,
nothing I can say can reveal it to him or her.
Hovering over the water is a wonderfully descriptive phrase,
evoking the tender care of a Mother Who has given birth to the offspring that She loves.
Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote one of the greatest poems of the English language,

"God's Grandeur:"
"The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
        It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
        It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
        And all is seared with trade; Bleared, smeared with toil;
        And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
        There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
        Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
        World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings."

Here, Hopkins echoes that first chapter of Genesis,
reminding us of the Divine Mother of us all,
the Holy Spirit of God,
Whose tender care enables our every breath
until she receives our human spirits back to her loving Breast,
where we will be loved and perfectly tended through all eternity.
We know this by Her own inspiration,
and we are able to trust it
because She calls for our trust
by the power of her love.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was unique
because the Spirit was poured out on all humanity
in a new way
for the first time ever.
Because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God,
She is our Creator.
Because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and of His Resurrection,
She is also our Redeemer.
Again, we know this by faith,
by the witness of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts,
and this is the new thing for all humanity.
In the context of the very early Christian sermon,
preached by St. Peter himself,
recorded in our First Lesson,
the words of the Prophet Joel are given a whole new meaning:
"I will pour out my Spirit on all people."
In other words, the words of Joel were fulfilled
by the events of Pentecost
and the birth of the Christian church.
The church, created by word and sacrament,
is the means by which the Spirit of God chooses to work in the world,
but it is certainly not the only means.
Every word spoken by any person
reflecting even the tiniest mustard seed of faith
is made possible by the Holy Spirit's work.
Every opportunity that God can find
to show love for any person who needs God's loving care
is an opportunity for the Holy Spirit's work.
For you and me right now,
the Holy Spirit is at work,
comforting our hearts with loving care
and deepening and strengthening our faith and trust in God.
As we breathe,
the Holy Spirit is at work,
giving us life,
and that free gift of grace will never come to an end.

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 +