MICAH 6.8

For A Service Of Remembrance For 09/11/2001 (Click Here) Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time ❖ Proper 19 ❖ Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost September 11, 2022 A Liturgy For Worship and Meditation CALL TO WORSHIP The promises of the world are fleeting, But the promises of God are eternal. Worldly measures of success, wealth, and power tempt us; The commandments of Christ lead us into new life. Enen though we are swayed by the ways of the world, God calls our name. Jesus says, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.” Enter this time of worship, leaving behind the desires of this world; May our desire be for God, and to love one another. Amen. SONG A Spendthrift Lover Is Our God (Click Here For Music) Author: Thomas H. Troeger (b. 1945) Tune: SPENDTHRIFT LOVER Composer: Carol Doran b. (1936) A spendthrift lover is the Lord who never counts the cost or asks if heaven can afford to woo a world that's lost. Our lover tosses coins of gold across the midnight skies and stokes the sun against the cold to warm us when we rise. Still more is spent in blood and tears to win the human heart, to overcome the violent fears that drive the world apart. Behold the bruised and thorn-crowned face of one who bears our scars and empties out the wealth of grace that's hinted by the stars. How shall we love this heart-strong God who gives us everything, whose ways to us are strange and odd: what can we give or bring? Acceptance of the matchless gift is gift enough to give. The very act will shake and shift the way we love and live. PRAYER God of salvation, who sent your Beloved and Anointed One to seek out and save what is lost, hear our prayers on behalf of those who are lost in our day, receiving these petitions and thanksgivings with your unending compassion. CONFESSION Persistently forgiving God, we are a stiff-necked and stubborn people who try your patience; yet, instead of giving us up for lost, you seek us out until we return to you. Break our willfulness and bring us back from our wanderings; bend our pride and create in us pure and faithful hearts, which rejoice in your forgiveness made known through Jesus Christ. Amen. WORDS OF ASSURANCE AND BLESSING Our God is the one who would leave ninety-nine others to find you. Our God is the one who would search everywhere for you and then rejoice when you are found. Our God is the one who, despite everything you have done, all that you have squandered away, all that you have forgotten and lost, all that you have destroyed—is right there, still with you, and is loving you into repentance and transformation. Know that God is with you, loving you in only the way God can, and you are forgiven and restored. God has changed you permanently because of God’s love. You are not the same—you are forever loved by God. Go share the good news and rejoice that you are found. Amen. READING—Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28 4:11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A hot wind comes from me out of the bare heights in the desert toward my poor people, not to winnow or cleanse—a wind too strong for that. 4:12 Now it is I who speak in judgment against them. 4:22 "For my people are foolish, they do not know me; they are foolish children, they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good." 4:23 I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. 4:24 I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. 4:25 I looked, and lo, there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled. 4:26 I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before God, before God's fierce anger. 4:27 For thus says God: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. 4:28 Because of this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above grow black; for I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn back. Desolation in the history of human experience is so widely spread and deeply unforgiven. How can such massive destruction be without attributing it to God? I mean, the desolation as known in this text of Jeremiah is so terrible and tremendous who else but God could pull it off? Certainly, it is far beyond the scope of any human endeavor. Even in the modern world, with nuclear weapons and almost constant warfare at some place in the world, humankind's ability to bring this mega-scale destruction to the world is found lacking. Still, the human mind not only wonders from whom such devastation comes, but also questions the cause such annihilation. Again, it is beyond human reason and provenance to ascribe why such desolation. Yet, the biblical witness places the blame in human hands. It is due to humankind forgetting God, forgetting the good that God has done and is doing, forgetting to be thankful and worship the One who is praiseworthy. When humankind becomes so lost and far from the core of what it means to be human, desolation occurs. What the Scripture leaves us to discern it that all the devastation we experience in life is not directly from the hand of God. Rather, as experience proves, while God is responsible, God is only responsible by the natural laws and dynamics that are within the system of creation. We live is a reality of consequences. For every act there is a response or reaction. Nothing comes free of this reality. So, when God looks across the wide scope of society and sees all the ways that we as a people are not seeking justice, loving kindness, or walking humbly with God there is a consquence that God knows will happen, because we bring it upon ourselves. Foolishness, ignorance, the inability to see the larger picture, the skillfulness given as a gift being manipulated and used for harm and harming, this is what God sees. Thus, in our unawakened state there is darkness; darkness everywhere. In this darkness there is the exact opposite of when God said, "Let there be light..." or, as promised in the Gospel of John, "the true light has come into the world..." or again as taught by the psalmist, that there is "light upon our path." But, if we stop. If we be silent. If in the silence we listen. We might the sound of God crying; weeping in the darkness. God, sobbing over a creation and a people who were created to be light and life and blesssing that have brought upon themselves a darkness within which they are lost. Nonetheless, as it is the character of God's own personality and being, there is mercy and compassion. There would be no point to send the prophet to these people with a message for them to hear and understand unless God had an answer. And, in the tears of God we see that love provides, love wins, love heals, love redeems, love reconciles, and love is forever. PSALMODY—Psalm 14 14:1 Fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is no one who does good. 14:2 God looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God. 14:3 They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one. 14:4 Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon God? 14:5 There they shall be in great terror, for God is with the company of the righteous. 14:6 You would confound the plans of the poor, but God is their refuge. 14:7 O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion! When God restores the fortunes of God's people, Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad. God is righteous. To be righteous is to be of justice (the two English words come through the translation of the same Hebrew word). In this justice God is who God is and God does as God does because God is God and we are not. Therefore, God is our refuge. Like a safe place where we are protected on all sides from any harm or harming, a mighty fortress is our God. Our refuge and strength is our God. Our shelter is our God. Our safe harbor is our God. Our sanctuary is our God. Our security is our God. Our retreat is our God. These very things about our God is what the psalmist celebrates while also lamenting the reality of why a refuge is something we all need. There is no one doing good. There is no one with the knowledge of God. There is no one who gives thanks for the bread they eat. But, God is in the company of the righteous...God is with those who are of justice. Hence, justice wins out over all injustices. God will be known for God's justice. God will be known by the doing of good because of justice. God will be the center of life and worship because of justice. It is like making all the wrongs right. Righteousness would define that. And, in the rightful ordering of life and creation there is justice. May justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. For such is the Kin-Dom of God. READING—1 Timothy 1:12-17 1:12 I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Redeemer, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, 1:13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 1:14 and the grace of our God overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 1:15 The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. 1:16 But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. 1:17 To the Sovereign of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. For Paul, God's activity in a person's life, while it may be experienced as something very personal, is a means for touching all life. Paul knows that the benefits of grace, God's love freely given, is the exemplar in that he may serve as an example for those who will come to faith. As God's love is not withheld from anyone, every person included in God's act of mercy and compassion—the larger contest is important to remember. God does these godly deeds for the whole of creation. As the bible notes: Jesus makes the claim—"When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all creation to myself.” (John 12.32) And, again—"through [the Christ] God was pleased to reconcile unto [God-Self] all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace." (Colossians 20) It brings to mind the classic hymn, "Christ For the World We Sing": Christ for the world we sing; the world to Christ we bring with loving zeal: the poor and them that mourn, the faint and overborne, sin-sick and sorrow worn, whom Christ doth heal. Christ for the world we sing; the world to Christ we bring with fervent pray'r: the wayward and the lost, by restless passions tossed, redeemed at countless cost from dark despair. Christ for the world we sing; the world to Christ we bring with one accord: with us the work to share, with us reproach to dare, with us the cross to bear, for Christ our Lord. Christ for the world we sing; the world to Christ we bring with joyful song: the newborn souls whose days, reclaimed from error's ways, inspired with hope and praise, to Christ belong. Indeed, God's love is to be treasured and cherished, but it is not to be kept within as if it is given simply for our own pleasure and redemption. What we have been given, we share. What has been given to us as an inward and invisible gift, we bring forth is our days as a very visible and outward example of what God will and is doing in humankind and the whole of creation. READING—Luke 15:1-10 15:1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 15:2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." 15:3 So he told them this parable: 15:4 "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 15:5 When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 15:6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' 15:7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. 15:8 "Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 15:9 When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' 15:10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Jesus tells two parables in Luke 15:1-10, after some religious leaders grumble about the people Jesus was hanging out with, including tax collectors and sinners. Jesus asks them a rhetorical question—wouldn’t you go after one lost sheep if you had ninety-nine who were safe? The truth is, no one would. It would be expected to lose a sheep along the way. But God doesn’t work the way we do. God is extravagant with God’s love and forgiveness. God is somewhat ridiculous about rejoicing over each of us. In the same manner, Jesus tells a story of a woman who has ten coins and loses one. And even though a woman might sweep her entire house until she found it, most likely she wouldn’t go out and tell her neighbors and celebrate, because that would seem foolish. But God is foolish with love. God is a God of extravagant, overflowing, even foolish love. We are a people who sometimes don’t seem to know what we are doing or where we are heading. We are a people given the entire earth and in a short amount of time have polluted it and started the course of destruction. We’ve been short-sighted, focused on upholding the systems of this world even when they harm us, because we can’t see outside of them. God still loves us, even though we sin against others, and we participate in the systemic sin of the world. God still loves us, offers us forgiveness, and the hope of new life now, eternal life to come. And God is still calling us away from evil, to do good, and to love one another and care for creation. PRAYER Merciful God, your desire to bring us into your commonwealth is so great that you seek us in the places of our ignorance, and the forgotten corners where we hide in despair. Gather us into your loving embrace, and pour upon us your wise and holy Spirit, so that we may become faithful servants in whom you rejoice with all the company of heaven. Amen. PRAYER OF DEDICATION Redeeming Sustainer, visit your people and pour out your strength and courage upon us, that we may hurry to make you welcome not only in our concern for others, but by serving them generously and faithfully in your name. Amen. SONG Lord, You Came To The Seashore (Click Here For Music) Author: Cesáreo Gabarain Adaptions: Gertrude C. Suppe, Raquel Gutiẻrrez-Achón, and George Lockwood TUNE: PESCADOR DE HOMBRES Composer: Cesáreo Gabarain Lord, you have come to the seashore, neither searching for the rich nor the wise, desiring only that I should follow... O, Lord, with your eyes set upon me, gently smiling, you have spoken my name; all I longed for I have found by the water, at your side, I will seek other shores. Lord, see my goods, my possessions; in my boat you find no power, no wealth. Will you accept, then, my nets and labor? O, Lord, with your eyes set upon me, gently smiling, you have spoken my name; all I longed for I have found by the water, at your side, I will seek other shores. Lord, take my hands and direct them Help me spend myself in seeking the lost Returning the Love for the Love you gave me... O, Lord, with your eyes set upon me, gently smiling, you have spoken my name; all I longed for I have found by the water, at your side, I will seek other shores. Lord, as I drift on the waters be the resting place of my restless heart my life's companion my friend and refuge... O, Lord, with your eyes set upon me, gently smiling, you have spoken my name; all I longed for I have found by the water, at your side, I will seek other shores... at your side, I will seek other shores. DISMISSAL WITH BLESSING/GOING FORTH Love of Love, Peace of Peace, may You fill us, mold us and shape us, for new life now and for eternity. Reshape our hearts to be full of love for our neighbor, especially those on the margins, those who face oppression, those who have fallen, those who have been forgotten. Reshape our lives to be open to living for others instead of ourselves, to reject selfishness and worldly gain. Reshape our lives to be free of violence and to embrace Your ways of justice and peace. Love of Love, Peace of Peace, may Your love free us in this world to be a people of peace. Amen.