Worship on the Lord’s Day
10:00 am 15 September 2024
Online & Onsite (Mixed Presence) Gathering as a Worshipping Community
Led by the Rev Brad Childs
Music director: Binu Kapadia Vocalist: Rom Rhoad
Elder: Shirley Simpson
We gather to worship God
Music prelude
Greeting
L: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
P: and also with you.
Lighting of the Christ candle
Welcome and announcements
A Time of Sharing Gratitude by Peter and Darlene
Silent preparation for worship
Call to Worship
L: Come, people of God, worship the One who listens to our prayers.
P: We will worship the One who hears us.
L: Come, people of God, worship the One who watches over us.
P: We will worship the One who cares deeply for us all.
L: Come, people of God, worship the One who offered his life for us.
P: We will offer thanks and praise to the One who gives us life.
Opening praise: Come, now is the time to worship
Prayers of approach and confession
God ever creating, God ever leading, God ever wise: We come seeking to connect with something beyond ourselves. We come from north, south, east, and west and come to you in various stages of life.
But we come believing that we can hear Your word and that Your word is truth when circumstances are twisted.
Your way is freedom when we are lost.
Your calling gives us direction and provides us with a way of life.
We come to say that Your cross shows us the limitlessness of your grace and the span of your love.
And so, for you have been for us in the past and who you will be for us in the days ahead and for the callings you have placed on our lives, we worship you this day.
But we don’t worship with all we do, Lord.
We have sinned with our thoughts, In our words, with our actions by what we need to say or do.
We have not loved you with our whole hearts; we have not fulfilled all of our responsibilities; we have spoken harshly and unkindly.
We have been too quick to judge, angry, and impatient.
We have rejected your ways and calling because we don’t want to give up control.
We want to control every aspect of our lives and bow to no one. In short, we want to be our gods.
But it cannot be. We make too many mistakes to be gods.
And so we bow a knee, call you Lord of our lives, and say we will follow your paths for us.
For mistakes, errors, and sins of the past, God, Have mercy upon us and forgive us so that we may begin again to walk in your ways, free from any guilt and ready to do better. Amen
Response: Glory, glory, Hallelujah
Assurance of God’s love
God’s grace is without end or limit;
Know that you are forgiven and loved by God;
love and forgive one another and rise up now to follow Christ. Amen
Music Offering: O God of love (Singers)
We listen for the voice of God
Children’s time
Response: Open our eyes, Lord (445)
Story
Children’s time started with an object lesson. Brad had two of the children empty a can of shaving soap into a box – then had two other children try to put the shaving cream back in the bottle. Of course they couldn’t.
Then Brad told the following story: “When I was 16 years old my older brother was maybe not the nicest older brother. He did pick on me a lot, but one day, in particular, I told him: ‘I can’t wait until you graduate and move away, because I won’t have to see you anymore.’
“And I would say, 25 years later, that is still remembered. Something that I couldn’t put back.
“Some things you say are just too strong and too powerful to go back in the bottle where they came from.
“I’m gonna tell you this verse from the Book of James that we’ve been reading here on Sunday mornings lately.
“This verse says how a great forest can be set afire by a small spark, and the tongue is just like fire.
“The tongue is placed among the members of the world, but it strains the whole body and sets the whole thing on fire.
“Every species of beast and bird and reptile and sea creature can be tamed in some way, but not the human tongue – which is ‘restless and deadly.’
“With it we bless the Lord and our Father, and with it we curse the people made in His likeness.
“James is pretty powerful on the fact that your tongue sets a fire, and you say things you can’t take back.
“So the lesson today is: Just remember: Some things said are pretty much permanent.
“Let’s take a moment and let’s pray.
“This is a repeat after me, prayer…”
Prayer
“Our God, “Help us, in the coming weeks” to control our tongue.
“To use it “For kindness.”
The Lord’s Prayer (535)
Transition music
Song: I sing the almighty power of God (333)
Today’s Message
Scripture reading: Psalm 115:1-9; James 3:1-12;; Mark 8:27-38
Response: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet
Message: A bird in the hand
An ancient story from India says a young man once wanted to challenge the most respected wise man in his village. The older man was said to be exceedingly wise. But the young man was confident his wisdom exceeded that of this frail older adult. And so the boy devised a scheme. He went out looking for a bird’s nest, and when he found it, he took it home and nurtured the eggs until they hatched. He fed the three tiny birds and cared for them for a few days. Then he went to the town market and announced that he was, in fact, the wisest man in town. Then he asked everyone to follow him to the older man’s home. Carrying the smallest of the three birds, hidden and cupped between his hands, the young man went to the wise man’s house with a crowd of followers to prove the Wiseman a fool.
As he approached the older gentleman with his hands behind his back, he said, “Here is a riddle for you, old man,” “I have in my hands a bird. Is it alive? Or is it dead?” Of course, the boy thought there was no way the old man could win. And there wasn’t. If the older man said no bird, he would reveal it. If the old man guessed “dead,” the boy would open his hands and reveal the living bird. And if the old man guessed “alive,” the young man would crush the bird in his hands with the tiniest amount of pressure. When he opened them … there would be a dead bird inside. The older adult would lose no matter what he said, and the boy would prove that Wiseman was not wise.
With that, the Wiseman looked the young man over; he tilted his head, shuffled his feet in the dust and looked lovingly into the boy’s eyes with a face of sadness. And then he responded, “The answer, my child, is in your hands.”
Caesarea Philippi, situated 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee and at the base of Mt. Hermon, is the largest spring feeding the Jordan River. It was and is lush with greenery. This location, rich in history and religious significance, provided the perfect backdrop for the unfolding events.
Jesus, walking ahead of His disciples, was silhouetted against the city of Caesarea Philippi in all its Roman glory. Rising out of its center was a translucent temple of white marble built by Herod the Great in honour of the Caesars (a man known by the title Lord and Savior). This city, with its grandeur and history of worship, provided a significant backdrop for what was about to unfold.
The power of Rome was in the air, but so were the hauntingly vivid memories of ancient worship. The area and the road we are told that Jesus travelled north along was cluttered with the shines of Baal used for orgy worship. They were everywhere. And, of course, the half-goat/half-man god Pan of the Greeks (for which the city had previously been named Pania) also had his temple there. On the slope of Hermon, a cliff filled with ancient inscriptions and niches containing statues of countless pagan gods sat, and the famous’ Gates of Hades’, a site associated with pagan worship and sacrifice, at the beautiful grotto mouth sat there as well. It was a city littered with saviours.
And this is where it all happened.
Mark 8:27–33 serves as the turning point in the Markan Gospel. Mark designed his book with an obvious point built right into the center. His entire letter is built upon a chiastic poem structure that puts mirroring stories at opposite ends of the book, with each tale slowly moving towards the central point of the whole work. The second section says that the heavens split and words were proclaimed, and in the second story to the end, it says that the excellent temple veil was split and words are proclaimed. Do any of you keeners out there happen to know the opening line of Mark’s Gospel from Mark 1:1? It says, “This is the beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the son of God.” Near the end, when Jesus dies, a man proclaims, “Truly this was God’s son.” Right smack at the center of Mark’s book, it has Jesus standing at the pagan center with alters, shrines, and temples to various gods and kings -asking a fascinating question… who do the people say I am? Followed by Peter’s confession in chapter 8:29 that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God.
At this point, Jesus had just left Bethsaida, and probably a few hundred to a thousand people were following along the way, especially as caravans were making their way to the festival in Jerusalem. The broader group of 77 disciples is undoubtedly there, but Jesus’s teaching is generally reserved for the inner 12 in Mark’s memory. In Caesarea Philippi, Jesus does something odd, though much of what he does is weird. But here, instead of letting the Talmadim (the students) beg questions from the master as was the custom, Jesus sits down as teachers did to teach and asks them a question instead, “Who do the people say I am?” he says, inviting them to reflect on their understanding of his identity.
“John the Baptist,” one says. Others no doubt rummage around for what they have heard – “Elijah” is another example. “One of the prophets” comes up from another disciple. They pull the names out of the air like interesting little stones they have found on the beach and hand them over to Jesus for appraisal. However, no excellent skill is involved in repeating what you have heard when reporting what others have said they believe. But in the end, they are all just other people’s answers. This is just a consultation among friends, a staff meeting to decide how Jesus’ ministry was going, right?
The answers are not very surprising. Even Herod Antipas, when he first heard reports about this Jesus of Nazareth, speculated with fear, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” Interestingly, Josephus, the 1st-century historian (and decidedly non-Jesus follower), also records these exact words of Herod’s. Elijah’s not a bad guess either, as by this time, most of the Jewish tradition taught that a messiah would be preceded by the return of the prophet Elijah or at least an Elijah-like figure. In popular lore, Elijah was considered a part of a tremendous eschatological drama in the “last days.”
The famous Dead Sea Scrolls are packed with these speculations about Elijah and other prophets and predecessors.
No doubt, Jesus is not surprised by these answers. But it’s not exactly what he was looking for, either.
You can almost see the expectation on the disciples’ faces as they turn over the tidbits they have heard. So which is it, Lord? What is the correct answer? A? B? C? Who’s right? But Jesus does not give them his answer. He wants their answers; again, you can almost see their faces when he turns the question back on them. “But who do you say that I am? Here, he asks them, his nearest and dearest, the ones who have received the best he has to offer, the ones who spend time with him, those who know him, who are his own. But who do you say I am? What is it that you believe?
As I’ve often said, it’s too bad that the Bible hasn’t come down to us like a musical score with all the pauses written in or the script of a play that tells us what happens while something is being said. It would be helpful to have the stage directions, like Center stage; as soon as Jesus asks the question, the disciples all look away from him while some of them study the backs of their hands and others move little piles of dirt around with their feet. The original Koine Greek gospels don’t even have punctuation to help us.
When I picture this scene, I see them all so proud as they offer up what the crowd thinks. But when they have to answer for themselves, I see their eyes widen like deer in the headlights. And I don’t picture a Jesus meek and mild, either. I hear: (with force) But who do you say I am? Or perhaps disappointment: (sad) But who do you think I am?
Do you think they answered right away? In Mark’s writing, there is no way to tell. But I feel like a great black cloud of awkward silence fell over them.
Who knows how long that odd cricket-chirping moment would have lasted? That is before Peter breaks in with his answer?… “You are the Messiah” (which I would bet he shouted). [1]
Thank goodness for Peter, right? Right or wrong, that guy is always the first one out of the gate. [2] He was the first to drop his net, the first out of the boat at sea, the first one inside the tomb, and the first to give his answer. Always first. Always. Sometimes, it is hard to say whether he is courageous or just plain reckless, but in any case, his answer is the one Jesus sought.
When Clive Lewis was lecturing at Oxford University, he noted this story and addressed it in a way that has since become quite famous and is generally called the Trilema.
He said, “I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God, messiah or Savoir. That is the one thing people must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. It would be best if you made your choice. This man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. … Now it seems apparent that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend, and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have come to accept the view that He was and is God.
Like Peter on the road before Jesus, Lewis asked himself if the Jesus he knew was just a prophet teaching good things and pointing to someone else. Like Peter Lewis, he came to the personal conclusion that it was not an option for him.
Now, if I’m being intellectually honest, I’d have to say that Lewis’ Trilima is not without its holes. Still, his central point holds. Jesus asked the disciples who other people thought he was and asked them the same question. And through Mark, he asks us.
And just like the pivotal movement in the Book of Mark on which all the rest sit, the same questions sit at pivotal movements in history and our lives. It is that same question that, too, to a large degree, defines who we are and what path of faith we will follow.
You may conclude that he is a Great moral teacher or a prophet. You may conclude any manner of things. That is the freedom we have. After all, in the end, this one thing is very true – Like with the disciples, it is simply not enough to know what others think or how they feel; you must know, understand, and accept for yourself what you believe.
The question is: Who do you say Jesus is?
But for my part, I’ll leave this with you. We all have to answer that question for ourselves. The answer to that question… is in your hands.
Song: Teach me, God to wonder (704)
We respond to serve God: Our time of giving
Reflection on giving: Dayspring is empowered to carry out our mission of worship, service, and care by generously given volunteer time, talent, and treasure. Many thanks to all who give so generously!
Prayers of the People
God of life and freedom.
When Abraham’s family wandered, when Moses took refuge in the desert, when the Hebrew people fled into the wilderness, when the Israelites lived in exile, you called them, and gave them words of comfort and promises of hope.
In Christ, you crossed the border.
You put on frail flesh, were born and lived your life constantly on the move in a dangerous world.
From your first night, you slept in a bed; it was in a place that was not your own.
You and your family fled terror and found refuge in foreign lands.
You were always the guest in the homes and tables of strangers.
You were not always sure of your next meal.
This day we remember before you those whose lives are more like yours than we can imagine or care to acknowledge: those who are without homes,who have been uprooted from their communities and countries, who have had to flee for their lives, who have left families and friends behind, who live precarious lives.
We pray for your protection and care for those who suffer and must take refuge because of war, politics, natural disaster, status, race, gender, faith and all manner of alienation.
We mourn, we are moved, and we are angered by the loss that marks the lives of so many: the loss of dignity, respect, security, community, family, and simple stability.
You have called us to be citizens of your kingdom – a land with no borders.
We pray also for the people of this country and of the church, that we may not be indifferent or naïve, afraid or overwhelmed, discouraged or blind to hope and options to help, or silent in the call for justice.
God open our hearts and our doors to the stranger, to the widow and the orphan and all that are dear to you, to your presence that we may encounter in the foreigner and strengthen us to witness the love of God for all people.
Lord, where you lead – we will follow. Amen
Song: Be thou my vision (461:vss 1,2,4,5)
Sending out with God’s blessing
“Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers.”
Go with these words in your hearts,
and may the God of wisdom guide you;
the Christ of mercy walk beside you;
and the Spirit of hope inspire you each day,
now and always. Amen.
Response: God to enfold you
Music postlude
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Numbers in brackets after a song/hymn indicate that it is from the 1997 Book of Praise of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Those and other songs are being used in accordance with the specifications of Dayspring’s licensing with One License (3095377) and CLC (A735555).
The Rev. Brad Childs retains the copyright (© 2024) on all original material in this service. As far as Brad Childs is aware, all of the material that has not been attributed to others is his own creation or is in the public domain. Unacknowledged use of copyrighted material is unintentional and will be corrected immediately upon notification being received.
[1] He responds in Aramaic you are the “Messiah” – chosen one which is the same as the Greek word Christos (Christ). Christos in Greek took on a more political slant and it’s worthy of note that Jesus himself generally does not use the term outside of Matthew’s memory.
[2] Peter of course is not really his name. His name is actually Simon Bar-Jona. Here Jesus especially nicknames him Peter (see Matthew’s version); the word for Rock or more accurately the word for a small rock or a piece of rock broken off of a large rock.