For the week of September 1 – 15th Sunday after Pentecost
Morning Prayer: Creating God, You are the source of nature’s splendor—the beauty and fragrance of delicate flowers, and sweet sound of birdsong. We come to You this morning with delight and gladness, grateful for all of Your wonders. As the fields produce their harvest, may Your love grow within us, that we too may produce a harvest of love, hope, and joy. Amen. Adapted from The Abingdon Worship Annual 2009, © 2008 Abingdon Press.
Opening Hymn: #402 Lord, I Want to Be a Christian
- Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart, in my heart;
Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart.
In my heart, (in my heart) in my heart, (in my heart)
Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart (in my heart).
- Lord, I want to be more loving in my heart, in my heart;
Lord, I want to be more loving in my heart.
In my heart, (in my heart) in my heart, (in my heart)
Lord, I want to be more loving in my heart (in my heart).
- Lord, I want to be more holy in my heart, in my heart;
Lord, I want to be more holy in my heart.
In my heart, (in my heart) in my heart, (in my heart)
Lord, I want to be more holy in my heart (in my heart).
- Lord, I want to be like Jesus in my heart, in my heart;
Lord, I want to be like Jesus in my heart.
In my heart, (in my heart) in my heart, (in my heart)
Lord, I want to be like Jesus in my heart (in my heart).
Invitation to Worship Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries
Welcome, Beloved of God! For truly, you are deeply, wonderfully, beautifully loved by the God of all creation! Whether your week was filled with mountain-high joys or valley-low sorrows, peace like a gently flowing river, or stress like a stormy gale, this is the time to rise and come away to worship God who sustains and tends to you.
In a world that pulls us this way and that, God’s love is our True North, guiding us with an uncommon wisdom through all that life brings us. Beloved, the time for singing has come, because God’s love, care, and wisdom sustain and guide us wherever we go.
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: On this Labor Day weekend, praise God for the work of your hands and minds and your faithfulness to give offerings and tithes. Praise God for your financial blessings and for the time, skills and talents that you bring to worship and to the ministries of Lightstreet United Methodist Church.
Offering prayer: Gracious God, we bring these offerings with hearts full of love and gratitude, inspired by the beauty of Your creation and the love that binds us. We dedicate these gifts to further Your kingdom with joy and patience. May they bring hope, peace, and transformation, reflecting Your love for all. Help us to be stewards of Your grace and love in the world. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Hymn of preparation: #177 He Is Lord
He is Lord. He is Lord. He is risen from the dead and He is Lord.
Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Scripture: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 (CEB)
7 The Pharisees and some legal experts from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. 2 They saw some of His disciples eating food with unclean hands. (They were eating without first ritually purifying their hands through washing. 3 The Pharisees and all the Jews don’t eat without first washing their hands carefully. This is a way of observing the rules handed down by the elders. 4 Upon returning from the marketplace, they don’t eat without first immersing themselves. They observe many other rules that have been handed down, such as the washing of cups, jugs, pans, and sleeping mats.) 5 So the Pharisees and legal experts asked Jesus, “Why are Your disciples not living according to the rules handed down by the elders but instead eat food with ritually unclean hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah really knew what he was talking about when he prophesied about you hypocrites. He wrote,
This people honors Me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from Me.
7 Their worship of Me is empty since they teach instructions that are human words.
8 You ignore God’s commandment while holding on to rules created by humans and handed down to you.”
14 Then Jesus called the crowd again and said, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand. 15 Nothing outside of a person can enter and contaminate a person in God’s sight; rather, the things that come out of a person contaminate the person.”
21 “It’s from the inside, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come: sexual sins, thefts, murders, 22 adultery, greed, evil actions, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, insults, arrogance, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from the inside and contaminate a person in God’s sight.”
Message: Good Manners Pastor Ron
You may remember reading several years ago about a pair of polite gunmen with British or Australian accents robbing homeowners in the moneyed neighborhoods of Montgomery County, MD. The masked duo struck several times, usually entering the homes through the garage or unlocked doors. The intruders were unfailingly polite and as far as we know, no one was hurt. One homeowner in Potomac, MD, was robbed after letting his dog outside at 5:30 AM and leaving a sliding glass door unlocked. Instead of the dog coming back in, the homeowner was confronted by one of the robbers, who pointed a gun at him. The gunman “was quite polite throughout the whole episode,” the homeowner told THE WASHINGTON POST. “We got into a conversation as if he was a buddy,” the homeowner said. “By the time he left, I put my arm on his shoulder and said, ‘I’m sorry I didn’t have more money.’ ”
We are impressed, aren’t we when people show good manners? And we are turned off by the person who is rude or inconsiderate. Walking into an office, a know-it-all salesperson demanded to see the manager without delay.
The secretary informed him, “I’m sorry, he’s not here. Can I help you?” The man snapped at the secretary, “I never deal with underlings. I’ll wait until the manager returns.” “Very well,” responded the secretary as she returned to her work. After an hour had passed, the salesperson became impatient. With anger in his voice, he wanted to know, “How much longer do I have to wait?”
Without looking up from her computer screen, the secretary answered, “About two weeks. He left for vacation yesterday.”
Good manners will take you a long way. If you are a doctor, they may even keep you out of court. Why is it that the vast majority of people who are injured as a result of medical negligence don’t sue for malpractice? It all comes down to interpersonal skills, say researchers at Vanderbilt University. According to a study which was reported in the Journal of The American Medical Association, doctors who are sued tend to be ones who make patients feel rushed or ignored on their visits, or that fail to answer patients’ questions. The lawsuits have nothing to do with competence. They have everything to do with curtesy.
Good manners make a difference. We admired people with good taste and good manners.
You do understand, don’t you, that good manners are not the same as good religion. There are many people who have good manners whose hearts are corrupt and cold. There are many people who have good manners, who have no regard for God or for humanity. Let me ask you this: If you saw two people listening to music, one was listening to an opera by Wagner and the other was listening to Rap, how would you regard them? Would you say the opera listener was better educated, perhaps, had better taste? But do you know what, I have never heard of people listening to Rap while they sent their neighbors to be gassed by the millions in ovens. The Nazis listened to opera music as they killed millions of Jews. Some of those same Nazis had impeccable taste and manners. Good manners are not the same as good religion.
Jesus’ disciples were criticized for their lack of good manners. Specifically, they failed to wash their hands before eating. Now, today, that would be considered poor hygiene. In Jesus’ time, it was considered poor religion. The Jews of that day had a ritual of ceremonial cleansing which they performed before eating their meals. Isn’t it interesting, by the way, how many of the practices of the Jews have turned out to be beneficial? Very recent research indicates that many of the common illnesses that plague us could be eliminated if people would simply wash their hands before eating. The disciples didn’t know about germs. Evidently, they were not too well-steeped in religious traditions, either. We need to remember that these men were not religious professionals when Jesus found them. They were men of the world from the backwater region of Galilee. They didn’t have the polished sophistication of London, Paris, or New York. They hadn’t read Amy Vanderbilt’s “Book of Etiquette.” They were rather crude men even by the standards of their day.
But Jesus saw possibilities in them that those who criticized them did not see. And Jesus decided to turn this into a teaching opportunity. In verse 6 Jesus says, “Isaiah really knew what he was talking about when he prophesied about you hypocrites.” Jesus said this to those who were criticizing His disciples. Jesus continued: “These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from Me. Their worship of Me is empty since they teach instructions that are human words.” (6-7)
So, what do you think Jesus meant by that? Is He not saying that there is a difference between good manners and good religion? There is a difference between the core truths of our faith and the trapping that have accumulated around those truths. Christian faith is not a matter of keeping traditions as much as it is caring about people. It is not a matter of sacred ceremony as much as living in a vital relationship with the Creator. The disciples were not sophisticated men, but there was nothing wrong with their hearts, and that was what counted.
Did you know that this is a battle that continues in the church even today?
We are continually having to balance traditions with our responsibilities to reach out in love and service to the world. There are many of us who prize a certain decorum in worship. We value silence and earnestness. Yet there are prominent voices within the church who say that if you are going to reach the world today, you need loud music and more lively worship. How do we balance the two? How do we blend the values of the old, which many of us consider sacred, with the dynamic needs of a world in turmoil? Let me tell you a true story of a church that faced this dilemma between maintaining good taste, or at least proper decorum, and good religion.
During worship one day the pastor was reading the Scripture passage when suddenly a strange noise erupted in the church. It was a strange honking and sputtering sound that erupted, then went away for a few minutes, then erupted again. Members of the choir scooted to the edge of the choir loft to see what all the commotion was. There was a visitor in the congregation, a middle-aged woman with brown hair, dressed in a white uniform. She was the one making those strange noises. She sat as still as stone and clenched her fists beside her. She seemed to be exerting great inner energy to stop the noises, but they still came. The pastor went right on reading, as if nothing had happened. The choir director was a bit ruffled after the service. She was not pleased that someone had been making strange noises in church. No one thought it would happen again. The next Sunday, the choir was going to perform a new and difficult arrangement of “Amazing Grace,” and the choir director wanted it to be perfect. The choir was doing an excellent job until suddenly they heard the noises again. The visitor was back. The choir got so distracted by the noise that they had to start all over again.
After the service, people gathered to discuss the disturbance in church.
The choir director spotted the visitor as she was leaving and called her over.
She started to explain to her that, even though she knew the woman didn’t mean to make those sounds, they were still disturbing the worship service.
The woman seemed to physically be trying to hold back more of the sounds. In a trembling voice, the visitor apologized and said that it wouldn’t happen again. Over the next several weeks, the woman did not return to worship. Some in the church began to feel that they had been insensitive in objecting to the woman and her strange noises.
Then one Sunday, the pastor told the congregation a story. That week he had visited a dying woman in a nursing home. As the pastor stood by her bedside, the woman asked him to find Estelle, she was one of the nurses.
She also happened to be the visitor who had made strange noises at the church. Estelle soothed and comforted that dying woman much more than the pastor ever could have done. The dying woman didn’t even notice Estelle’s strange noises. She only knew that Estelle loved her. Then the pastor explained to the congregation that Estelle had Tourette’s Syndrome, a condition in which the sufferer may suddenly blurt out strange noises or even obscenities. The person suffering from Tourette’s cannot control these outbursts at all. The outbursts often come in response to strong emotion.
When Estelle was in church worshiping, she often felt very emotional, especially when listening to beautiful music. Unfortunately, this brought on her uncontrollable outbursts.
The congregation felt awful about what they had done. They had denied a woman the ability to worship with them because she had disturbed them.
The pastor asked them to join him in a prayer asking for forgiveness, when suddenly they heard a noise from the back of the church. It was that strange honking and sputtering noise, and everyone recognized it immediately. They turned to see Estelle standing at the back of the church. A woman walked over and placed her arm around Estelle and led her to a pew. Another member handed her a hymnal. Then the congregation rose to sing a hymn, and Estelle sang along, occasionally making her strange noises. But this time nobody minded. These had become part of the joyful noises of their worship services.
I wonder if that could happen here at Lightstreet United Methodist Church.
Could we make someone feel unwelcome because of some infirmity, or because of the way they looked or how they talked? God doesn’t expect us to be the largest church in the area, or even the most impressive. All God expects is that people will find on the inside of our church what the cross indicates they have the right to expect. And that is love, acceptance, and genuine Christian caring. So, what’s most important? Good manners or good religion?
Hopefully here at Lightstreet we have both good manners, and good religion.
Closing Hymn: #568 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,
sinsick and sorrow-worn, whom Christ doth heal. - Christ for the world we sing, the world to Christ we bring, with fervent prayer;
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.
The blessing: May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you this week.
