(Used with permission from the Wikimedia Commons) If you don't take a Sabbath, something is wrong. You're doing too much, you're being too much in charge. You've got to quit, one day a week, and just watch what God is doing when you're not doing anything. -Eugene H. Peterson www.colonialucc.org 913-362-7735 10:15 a.m. December 28, 2014
2 The Colonial Church in Prairie Village United Church of Christ New Year s RESTolution Please silence your mobile phone in preparation for worship. * Please rise in body or spirit. WE GATHER AS GOD S PEOPLE PRELUDE Pastorale 'Gesú Bambino' -Pietro Yon WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS (Please sign and pass pew pads and fill out Prayer Request cards you may have. You can place the Prayer Request cards in the offering plates later in the service.) * OPENING HYMN #598 On River Jordan s Banks I Stand MOMENT TO LAY YOUR BURDENS DOWN MEDITATION 1 Versets on Away in a Manger -Mark Blatchly During this period of contemplation, allow your mind to take stock of all the things you have left to do before Monday rolls around once more. * CALL TO WORSHIP Leader: People: Leader: People: Leader: People: Leader: People: Leader: People: Leader: People: There is so much work left to be done. We cannot find the time to do it. The fields are ripe. Let us harvest them. Our driveways are white. Let us shovel them. The office is calling. Let us answer. But there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy. Humans were not created to serve the Sabbath. But The Sabbath was given to serve humanity. MEDITATION 2 Versets on Away in a Manger -Mark Blatchly In this time, consider how your life would be impacted if you took your list of things to do today and allowed them to wait until tomorrow.
* SONG OF PRAISE GLORIA #759 ADAPTED Glory to the Creator, and to the Christ, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen. Amen. 3 * SHARING GOD S WELCOME (Greet everyone in the hope of peace and friendship.) CHILDREN S CONVERSATION (Children of all ages are welcome to come forward to the chancel steps. Following the Conversation, children are welcome to remain to worship or to attend our Sunday School.) This little light of mine, I m gonna let it shine, this little light of mine, I m gonna let it shine, this little light of mine, I m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. A WORD PROCLAIMED WE HEAR GOD S WORD Shea Zellweger Matthew 12:1-8 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath. He said to them, Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath. Express your thoughts by Tweeting to #ColonialUCC.
4 WE RESPOND WITH THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER MEDITATION 3 Versets on Away in a Manger -Mark Blatchly In this final meditation, allow yourself to be still. Sit and know you are sitting. Rest and know you are resting. Be still, and know that is enough. * HYMN #489 I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say CALL TO OFFERING AND OFFERTORY Sweet Little Jesus Boy -Macginsey -Kathy Huey, alto * Doxology As with Gladness Those of Old (#159 verse 3) As they offered gifts most rare at that manger plain and bare, So may we with holy joy, pure and free from sin s alloy, All our costliest treasures bring, Christ, to you from whom they spring. * Prayer of Dedication God who rests, and invites us to do the same, May we always find respite from our work, And the compassion to grant the same to others. Help us to find the source of our replenishment That we might be renewed once more. In Christ our Hope, Amen TIME OF PRAYER Prayers of the People Believing that each joy and/or concern expressed is indeed a prayer, after each expression, the pastor will say: Lord, in your mercy. And the people may respond: Hear our prayer. Praying in Silence Our Lord s Prayer ( Our Father is the traditional way this prayer begins. You are invited to use whatever name for God you find most meaningful (Father, Mother, Creator, God, etc.). Together our names for God create a beautiful chorus.) 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 debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
WE DEPART TO SERVE 5 * HYMN #95 The Day You Gave Us, God Has Ended * RENEW OUR COVENANT (Turn towards the center aisle as we bless one another with the promise of our covenant.) We covenant with the Lord and with one another and do bind ourselves in the presence of God to walk together in Christian Love. We seek to worship God in spirit and in truth and to love our neighbors as ourselves. With God s help we will honor Colonial Church in our conduct, support its program, and extend the influence of Christ throughout the world. * CONGREGATIONAL SONG OF BLESSING #809 God Be With You God be with you, God be with you, God be with you till we meet again. O God be with you, God be with you, God be with you till we meet again. * BENEDICTION AND POSTLUDE Noël Suisse -Louis-Claude Daquin Liturgist: Marianne Foster Children s Conversation: Darren Carpenter Greeters: Benjamin, Heather, Tessa and Nora Brasel Head Usher: Sally Huggins Ushers: Sally Huggins, Bill Yohn Guest Organist: Jo Kraus
6 United Church Mission Moment Luke 2:22-40 Long Awaited Gift Through this past holy season, Christians all over the world re-experienced the coming of our savior Jesus Christ. His gift to us was peace. But in the land Jesus called home, peace remains elusive. Our Global Ministries the shared overseas ministry of the United Church of Christ and the Christian, Church Disciples of Christ has sponsored several mission trips to the Middle East so that people can experience, firsthand, both the sacredness and the separateness that is Palestine-Israel. The Rev. Nancy Fowler, co-chair of the Disciples of Christ Global Ministries Committee of Southern California, has led four trips in the last ten years, most recently last May. I try hard to help [participants] process what s happening while they re there, she said. We do so much in a short time that we don t often process what is happening. But toward the end of the trip, I ask them, What are you going to do when you get back? We can be writing letters to our representatives, we can be writing the story of the people there and publishing it. Part of what the groups experience while on the mission trip is visiting places that are sacred, such as the Church of the Nativity and the Sea of Galilee. Then they visit Palestinian refugee camps and see the military checkpoints and the wall that separates Palestinian and Jewish communities. In Israel-Palestine, we have many [partners], and it is important to combine the very moving spiritual journey to the places of our faith history and encountering the worshipping and witnessing community of Christians that trace their roots to the beginnings of Christianity, said Peter Makari, Global Ministries executive for the Middle East and Europe. To experience with them the context in which they live is integral to our understanding of our faith.
7 Colonial Church Study Guide Monday Read 2 Kings 23-25 Josiah reforms the Temple Cult, bringing Judah to its religious zenith just before its military fall. Judah is taken over by Babylon, and its king (Jehoiachin) is exiled. Kings concludes with the release of Jehoiachin and an uncertain future. Biblical scholars believe the book of Deuteronomy was written at the time of Josiah s reign, and served as the theological basis for the Deuteronomistic History, of which Kings is a part. In many ways, the kings of Israel are held to the standard of Josiah, despite living before he could set that standard. How might these two facts be related to one another? Josiah s reform died with him, as his immediate successor Jehoiakim returned Israel to its former practices of syncretism. If this reform was such an improvement over what came before, why didn t it last? Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon first subjects, then conquers Judah during Jehoiakim s reign, and 24:2 tells us that God sided with Babylon in this fight. How does this divine abandonment fit into the theology of Kings? Tuesday Read Isaiah 1-4 Israel and Judah are blamed for their own destruction, but a future restoration is promised to those who survive the period of Exile. As Isaiah describes the destruction of Judah he points out that, unlike Sodom and Gomorrah, this destruction left survivors. Does this could be worse observation feel helpful to you? Chapter 2 promises a day to come when people of all nations will be welcomed into the temple of God. How does this universalist depiction of the Temple Cult compare to the nationalistic ideals of Kings?
8 Wednesday Read Isaiah 5-8 Isaiah promises foreign invasion as punishment for the iniquities of Judah. The call of Isaiah is described. Isaiah reassures King Ahaz, then predicts foreign invasion once more, using his son as an example. Among the crimes of Judah is that of joining house to house and field to field, which means re-drawing property lines such that what was once two ancestral plots is now a single plot. This violates the command of Jubilee, in which all ancestral lands, whether purchased or forfeit, were to be returned to their ancestral owners. Are there analogous sins being committed today? Isaiah s call is often understood as 6:1-8, and read by many as an inspirational depiction of faithful response to the call of God. How does the remainder of the chapter confirm or alter that depiction? In the course of the familial narrative of chapter 8, Isaiah refers to his sons mother as the prophetess. The prevailing interpretation of this title is that it is an honorific given to the wife of a prophet, but it s worth noting that its other three appearances in the Hebrew Bible all refer to women with the gift of prophecy. How then might we understand the relationship between Isaiah and this woman? Thursday Read Isaiah 9-12 A future righteous ruler is predicted. Isaiah turns his angry oracles toward other nations. The promise of peace is reiterated, as is the preservation of Judah and Israel. Isaiah 9 is read in Christian contexts as a messianic prophecy pointing toward Jesus. How might the people of Israel have understood this passage? Up until chapter 10, Isaiah s prophecies have been concerned exclusively with Judah and Israel, and his focus returns there before the chapter concludes. Can you think of a reason why the oracle against Syria is included in the middle of a prophecy about the future of Israel? Chapter 12 concludes a sub-unit of the book of Isaiah with a brief song of praise. What do you see in chapters 1-11 for which you believe praise is warranted?
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