For the week of July 21 – 9th Sunday after Pentecost
Morning Prayer: Equip us, God, for the work of ministry. For the work involved with building unity of purpose and vision.
Equip us with saints who will say yes to Your will and yes to Your way.
Equip us, God, to journey with Jesus through life’s uncertain paths.
Equip us, God, with maturity that comes from knowing You.
Equip us, God, to speak the truth in love even when it’s uncomfortable.
Equip us to move beyond a childish faith that whines for more while giving less.
Equip us, O God, for the work of ministry that You have called us to do. Amen.
Written by Kwasi I. Kena, The Africana Worship Book, Year B (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2007), 136.
Opening Hymn: #358 Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
- Dear Lord and Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways;
reclothe us in our rightful mind, in purer lives Thy service find, in deeper reverence, praise. - In simple trust like theirs who heard, beside the Syrian sea,
the gracious calling of the Lord, let us, like them, without a word, rise up and follow Thee. - O sabbath rest by Galilee, O calm of hills above,
where Jesus knelt to share with Thee the silence of eternity, interpreted by love! - Drop Thy still dews of quietness, till all our strivings cease;
take from our souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of Thy peace. - Breathe through the heats of our desire Thy coolness and Thy balm;
let sense be dumb, let flesh retire; speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm.
2 Samuel 7:8-11
Say this to My servant David: This is what the Lord of heavenly forces says: I took you from the pasture, from following the flock, to be leader over My people Israel. 9 I’ve been with you wherever you’ve gone, and I’ve eliminated all your enemies before you. Now I will make your name great—like the name of the greatest people on earth. 10 I’m going to provide a place for My people Israel, and plant them so that they may live there and no longer be disturbed. Cruel people will no longer trouble them, as they had been earlier, 11 when I appointed leaders over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies.
Children’s Time Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters;
He restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for His name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff— they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
Children’s Message
King David is writing about what it feels like to be loved by God. He names all the ways God shows God’s love and all the places God’s love shows up. Not only is this an excellent example of the gift David has for writing poetry, but this psalm has comforted all of humanity for thousands of years. It has stood the test of time.
God gives us many gifts and one of David’s many gifts is writing. Creativity is a gift from God and we can use our creativity to express our love of God as well. The Exchange, the art gallery, on Main Street in Bloomsburg is a place where we can see creativity at work in the lives of the many artists that display their work there. Each season, the Exchange has an open call for any and all artists and this September’s theme is “What makes you happy? What brings you joy?” I invite you to think about those questions and consider entering a piece of your creativity to their show. The youth group has already begun their work and look forward to sharing with our community their gifts of creativity from God.
Prayers of Intercession: Thank You, Lord, for hearing our prayers for those dear to our hearts. We now pray as You have taught us: 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. Lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Offering spotlight: EOS Therapeutic Riding Center provides opportunities for children and military veterans to gain confidence and comfort. Members of this church work at EOS (volunteer and paid work) and some of our members are riders. EOS has had some financial setbacks this summer concerning the care of horses. To volunteer time or to donate, see Sarah Wolfe or Joan Powell.
Offering prayer: Holy God, in this moment of offering, we acknowledge Your timeless presence and boundless love. As we bring forth our gifts, may we be reminded of Your unwavering faithfulness and steadfast guidance in our lives. Grant us the wisdom to heed Your call to worship and live out our faith with humility and grace. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Hymn of Preparation: #540 I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord
- I love Thy kingdom, Lord, the house of Thine abode,
the church our blest Redeemer saved with His own precious blood. - I love Thy church, O God! Her walls before Thee stand
dear as the apple of Thine eye, and graven on Thy hand. - For her my tears shall fall, for her my prayers ascend,
to her my cares and toils be given, till toils and cares shall end. - Beyond my highest joy I prize her heavenly ways,
her sweet communion, solemn vows, her hymns of love and praise. - Sure as Thy truth shall last, to Zion shall be given
the brightest glories earth can yield, and brighter bliss of heaven.
Message Scripture: Mark 6:30-34
30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told Him everything they had done and taught. 31 Many people were coming and going, so there was no time to eat. He said to the apostles, “Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while.” 32 They departed in a boat by themselves for a deserted place.
33 Many people saw them leaving and recognized them, so they ran ahead from all the cities and arrived before them. 34 When Jesus arrived and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then He began to teach them many things.
Message: In Praise of Goofing Off Rev. Ron French
Have you ever noticed that different people have different attitudes about work? I heard about a congregation who had the same pastor for many years. He moved to a different church, and they hired a new, younger pastor. This new pastor had some very different ideas about pastoral responsibilities. The first suggestion he made to the trustees of the church was that they should hire a part-time person to take care of the church lawn. “I’ll have you know, pastor,” said the chair of the trustees rather indignantly, “that our former pastor always took care of the church’s lawn himself.” “I am aware of that,” said the new pastor. “But I called him, and he doesn’t want to do it anymore.”
Different people have different ideas about work. Some people’s attitudes about work are very different. They’re like the man who said, “I can’t stand an uncut, untrimmed lawn.” A man standing nearby said, “I never mow my lawn. I did it once, but it grew back.” “I don’t know how you can stand it,” said the first man. “What’s to stand?” answered the second man. “Why are you against what happens naturally?” “It’s not natural to have an uncut lawn,” answered the first man. Then the second man asked, “Who did the landscaping for the Garden of Eden?” “God did,” answered the first man. “He does mine too,” said the second man.
In Tennessee there is a farmer who said that lightning struck his old barn and thus saved him the trouble of tearing it down. He went on to say that the rain had washed off his car and saved him from having to do that chore too. When asked what he was doing now, he replied, “Waiting for an earthquake to shake the potatoes out of the ground. That’s a different attitude but my guess is that it is the attitude of more people that we might imagine. I’m not agreeing with the farmer, but I want to begin this morning by making one thing clear. YOU AND I HAVE A RELIGIOUS RESPONSIBILITY TO GOOF OFF FROM TIME TO TIME. That may sound like a strange point to be made by a pastor, but it’s true.
We have a responsibility to take time to rest, to relax, to take off our shoes, loosen our tie, and, as they used to say, let it all hang out. God did not create us to be busy bees all the time.
This is a truth incorporated in the very heart of the Judeo-Christian tradition with the idea of the Sabbath. At the heart of the Ten Commandments we read, “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.” The tradition of the Sabbath is too rich to boil down to a simple sermon. But let’s consider a couple of truths, one of which is often ignored. The Sabbath is to be a day of rest. This truth is based on the creation story. God worked six days and rested on the seventh.
God said that we are to rest one day in seven as well. The Jewish and Seven Day Adventist traditions celebrate Saturday as the Sabbath. Most Christians celebrate Sunday, in remembrance of Christ’s resurrection. I truly doubt that God cares which day is reserved for the Sabbath, but it is to be a day of rest.
It makes me kind of sad to see the number of events that are now scheduled on Sundays. This is not because I am legalistic, but these activities take people away not just from the church, but also from their families. It deprives people of the best opportunity in the week to rest and relax. The Sabbath is intended as a day of rest.
Secondly, we need to note that the Sabbath was created for our benefit.
It was not created for God, it was created for us. That is the point that Jesus made emphatically in chapter 2 of Mark’s Gospel. “Jesus went through the wheat fields on the Sabbath. As the disciples made their way they were picking the heads of wheat. The Pharisees said to Jesus, ‘Look! Why are they breaking the Sabbath law?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Haven’t you ever read what David did when he was in need, when he and those with him were hungry? David went into God’s house and ate the bread of the presence, which only the priests were allowed to eat. He also gave bread to those who were with him.’ Then He said, ‘The Sabbath was created for humans; humans weren’t created for the Sabbath.’” (2:23-27)
The point is this: You and I need one day a week in which we do not work. None. Nada. Absolutely nothing. God means for us to have one day a week in which we worship, visit friends and relatives, take a nap, go for a bike ride with the family. We need to do whatever it is that helps to refresh and rekindle our minds, our bodies, and our spirits. Sisters and brothers, we need one day a week for goofing off. That is our religious responsibility and that’s the first thing we need to see this morning.
Here is the second: GOOFING OFF IS NOT ONLY A RELIGIOUS RESPONSIBILITY, BUT IT IS ALSO A KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL LIFE. One of the great myths in life is that the people who succeed in the world are people who forever keep their nose to the grindstone. If you believe that, I am sorry to burst your bubble, but it simply is not true. Hard work, dedication, sacrifice are important attributes in life, but some of the most effective people who have ever lived have spent a considerable amount of time goofing off. We are told that influential people like Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and John Maynard Keynes only worked 2 to 3 hours a day. Their leisurely approach is not widely known because they seldom advertised it. As Ralph Keys notes in his book TIMELOCK, there is far more prestige in seeming harried and overworked than in being able to get a lot done in limited amounts of time. As a result, history’s nonworkaholics have covered up their apparent indolence in the most brazen way. “I have, all my life long, been lying down till noon,” Samuel Johnson once admitted. “Yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good.”
Benjamin Franklin was history’s greatest source of “early to bed, early to rise” types of sayings. Yet Franklin himself liked to stay up late playing chess or chatting with friends. He whiled away hours tinkering with kites, bottles, keys, and stoves. After introducing the first bathtub to this country in 1790, Franklin spent many hours inside his own, soaking and reading. Although he advised us to make productive use of even our leisure time, he himself took long, enjoyable tours of Europe. “We’ve taken Franklin’s advice,” says Ralph Keyes, “we should have followed his example.”
I am not encouraging you to be slothful. Not in the least. Most of you by necessity, and some of you by choice, will always work at least forty hours a week, and some fifty hours, and some sixty. Businesses today are requiring more and more productivity out of fewer and fewer employees. But, brothers and sisters, we are not robots. We are human beings who need time for rest and revitalization. In today’s world it is just as important to work smart as it is to work hard. We need to rest both our bodies and our brains. And over a lifetime we will be more productive if we allow ourselves time for relaxation.
Nobody was ever more committed to His work that Jesus of Nazareth. So much was at stake and there was so little time. Yet Jesus said to His disciples on more than one occasion, “Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while.” (6:31) Sometimes it did not work out as Jesus planned. Often the crowds would not leave Him alone. But Jesus recognized humanity’s need to loosen the strings on the bow from time to time. We all need to get away, we all need to rest and relax.
WE ALSO NEED A TIME FOR FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD. Often when Jesus took His disciples off by themselves, it was for a time of prayer. Jesus knew that we not only need to refresh our body and refresh our mind, but we also need to refresh our spirit as well. That is why the Sabbath has always been a time for worship as well as a time for rest. When we come into this room, we empty ourselves of the strain and toil of the week just passed. And we open ourselves to the new possibilities that God has in store for us. If we truly worship, we should leave here feeling refreshed and ready to face the world.
Two willow trees grew a short distance from a stream in New Mexico. One of them was sturdy and rich with leaves, while the other was smaller with a scarcity of leaves. Over the years the owner of the property wondered why the two trees should have such a different appearance. Unable to discover an answer he dismissed the puzzle from his mind. One day while digging near the trees his shovel struck something hard in the ground. Uncovering it he solved the mystery of the trees. Years earlier someone had buried large slabs of a stone wall in the spot. This underground wall prevented the roots of the frail tree from reaching the water in the stream. But there was no wall between the flourishing tree and the water. When we do not give ourselves time to worship God, when we do not spend time communing with God and having fellowship with God, then we are like the tree that was shut off from the life-giving flow of the stream.
The writer of a book called Beginnings put it this way: “Some folks in Holland call the Sabbath ‘God’s Dike.’ A helpful analogy. A dike is a protective sea wall that holds back the surging waves and allows people to live in areas that would otherwise be utterly uninhabitable. The Sabbath is like that. Just like a dike keeps the quiet Holland farmlands from being engulfed by the Atlantic Ocean, a day of rest can keep us from being engulfed by destructive value systems and the pressures of contemporary society. Humans are such pliable creatures. Immersed in the push-and-shove of daily living, we are squeezed into a misshapen caricature of what God intended for us to become. The Sabbath is God’s opportunity to remold us into his image.”
“Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while.” And that is good advice. We need time to relax with our families and friends and we need time to worship God. The most prolific of all poets, Anonymous, once put it like this:
Take time to laugh, it is the music of the soul.
Take time to think, it is the source of power.
Take time to play, it is the source of perpetual youth.
Take time to read, it is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to pray, it is the greatest power of earth.
Take time to love and be loved, it is a God-given privilege.
Take time to be friendly, it is the road to happiness.
Take time to give, it is too short a day to be selfish.
Take time to work, it is the price of success.
Take time for God, it is the way of life.
Closing Hymn: #672 God Be With You till We Meet Again
- God be with you till we meet again; by His counsels guide, uphold you,
with His sheep securely fold you; God be with you till we meet again.
Refrain: Till we meet, till we meet, till we meet at Jesus' feet;
till we meet, till we meet, God be with you till we meet again.
- God be with you till we meet again; neath His wings securely hide you,
daily manna still provide you; God be with you till we meet again. (Refrain) - God be with you till we meet again; when life's perils thick confound you,
put His arms unfailing round you; God be with you till we meet again. (Refrain) - God be with you till we meet again; keep love's banner floating o'er you,
smite death's threatening wave before you; God be with you till we meet again. (Refrain)
Go into your week with the blessings of The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit.
