For the week of August 10 – 9th Sunday after Pentecost
Morning Prayer: God of justice, Your word is light and truth. Let Your face shine on us to restore us, that we may walk in Your way, seeking justice and doing good. Amen. (Lectionary Prayers)
Opening Hymn: #92 For the Beauty of the Earth
- For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth over and around us lies;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise. - For the beauty of each hour of the day and of the night,
hill and vale, and tree and flower, sun and moon, and stars of light;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise. - For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and mind's delight,
for the mystic harmony, linking sense to sound and sight;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise. - For the joy of human love, brother, sister, parent, child,
friends on earth and friends above, for all gentle thoughts and mild;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise. - For Thy church, that evermore lifteth holy hands above,
offering up on every shore her pure sacrifice of love;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise. - For Thyself, best Gift Divine, to the world so freely given,
for that great, great love of Thine, peace on earth, and joy in heaven:
Lord of all, to Thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.
Romans 8:31b-39 (CEB)
If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He didn’t spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all. Won’t He also freely give us all things with Him?
33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect people? It is God who acquits them. 34 Who is going to convict them? It is Christ Jesus who died, even more, who was raised, and who also is at God’s right side. It is Christ Jesus who also pleads our case for us.
35 Who will separate us from Christ’s love? Will we be separated by trouble, or distress, or harassment, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
We are being put to death all day long for your sake.
We are treated like sheep for slaughter.
37 But in all these things we win a sweeping victory through the one who loved us. 38 I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers 39 or height or depth, or any other thing that is created.
Sharing gratitude:
Psalm 118:1–2, 14–24 :
118 Give thanks to the Lord because He is good,
because His faithful love lasts forever.
2 Let Israel say it:
“God’s faithful love lasts forever!”
14 The Lord was my strength and protection;
He was my saving help!
15 The sounds of joyful songs and deliverance
are heard in the tents of the righteous:
“The Lord’s strong hand is victorious!
16 The Lord’s strong hand is ready to strike!
The Lord’s strong hand is victorious!”
17 I won’t die—no, I will live
and declare what the Lord has done.
18 Yes, the Lord definitely disciplined me,
but He didn’t hand me over to death.
19 Open the gates of righteousness for me
so I can come in and give thanks to the Lord!
20 This is the Lord’s gate;
those who are righteous enter through it.
21 I thank You because You answered me,
because You were my saving help.
22 The stone rejected by the builders
is now the main foundation stone!
23 This has happened because of the Lord;
it is astounding in our sight!
24 This is the day the Lord acted;
we will rejoice and celebrate in it!
Ponder the questions below, and contact Pastor Becky with your answers. She would like to get your input. She wants to know what you are grateful for and what has inspired you here at LUMC.
Where have we seen God’s goodness and strength shine through in our congregation?
What can we point to as a praise to God in our past and present?
Prayer of Thanksgiving – O Generous God, we come before You today dedicating all that is good and life-giving to Your glory. We lift before You the milestones that mark Your faithfulness, the ministries that have brought healing, the worship that has stirred hearts, the relationships that have grown in grace, and the steps we’ve taken, despite uncertainty, to follow Your call. These moments are marvelous in our eyes, not because of what we have done, but because of what You have made possible. We dedicate our joys, our labor, our dreams, and our future to You. May Your Holy Spirit continue to empower us, that every act of love and every word of hope might be a testimony to Your enduring love. Amen.
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: Back to school and college. Our students have expressed gratitude for the support, both financial and otherwise, for their continuing education. In the spring scholarships were awarded. Thank you for designating some of your offering to Missions. A portion of funds designated specifically to Missions is given to support our youth. The full list of university students is included in the bulletin prayer list so that you can pray for these people and the challenges they face as they strive to fulfill their careers.
Offering prayer: Faithful and Gracious God, You have called us to be a people of hope, to trust in what we cannot see. As we bring these gifts before You, we offer not only our resources but also our faith -- faith that You are at work in our giving, building a future of justice, mercy, and love. Bless these offerings, that they may be signs of our longing for Your kingdom and our trust in Your promises. May our generosity inspire others to live with courage and conviction, seeking that better country You have prepared for us. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Hymn of Preparation: #327 Crown Him With Many Crowns
- Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne,
Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing of Him who died for thee,
and hail Him as thy matchless King through all eternity.
- Crown Him the Lord of life, who triumphed o'er the grave,
and rose victorious in the strife for those He came to save.
His glories now we sing, who died, and rose on high,
who died, eternal life to bring, and lives that death may die.
- Crown Him the Lord of peace, whose power a scepter sways
from pole to pole, that wars may cease, and all be prayer and praise.
His reign shall know no end, and round His pierced feet
fair flowers of paradise extend their fragrance ever sweet.
- Crown Him the Lord of love; behold His hands and side,
those wounds, yet visible above, in beauty glorified.
All hail, Redeemer, hail! For Thou hast died for me;
Thy praise and glory shall not fail throughout eternity.
Scripture:
Ephesians 4:9-10 (CEB)
9 What does the phrase “He climbed up” mean if it doesn’t mean that He had first gone down into the lower regions, the earth? 10 The One who went down is the same One who climbed up above all the heavens so that He might fill everything.
1 Peter 3:18-20 (CEB)
18 Christ Himself suffered on account of sins, once for all, the righteous one on behalf of the unrighteous. He did this in order to bring you into the presence of God. Christ was put to death as a human, but made alive by the Spirit. 19 And it was by the Spirit that He went to preach to the spirits in prison. 20 In the past, these spirits were disobedient—when God patiently waited during the time of Noah. Noah built an ark in which a few (that is, eight) lives were rescued through water.
Revelation 1:18 (CEB)
18 and the living one. I was dead, but look! Now I’m alive forever and always. I have the keys of Death and the Grave.
Affirm your faith by reciting the Apostles’ Creed: I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontus Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; the third day He rose from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. (UM Hymnal #881)
Message: Why does the traditional Apostles’ Creed omit the line, “He descended to the dead (hell)?” Pastor Becky
We are continuing in our August series of answering your submitted questions. This week we are going to take a look at this question: Why don't we acknowledge Christ descending to the dead in the Apostles Creed, as Peter testifies in his letter?
The question points to Peter's testimony, but Paul in Ephesians and John in Revelation also speak to Jesus’ descent into the realm of the dead or to hell. We have scripture that points us to this reality that Jesus did descend. Now, if you were raised in any other mainline denomination or Catholicism, I know that it can make you wince at the exclusion of that statement, or at the very least puzzled and if you're a raised Methodist, you might twitch to hear it included. So I thought it would be best if we went to the authority on Methodist worship, Taylor Burton Edwards.
Pastor Becky used this video as part of the worship message August 10 to explain the wording of different versions of The Apostles’ Creed. https://youtu.be/xMO5oMn7rlk?si=ntmZ3exPYRl-pLEh
So in a nutshell, it's a printing omission in the second edition, which at the time in the pews, the folks would have acknowledged the omission and would have just used the line. It's like a churchgoer shorthand; it’s inside talk. We know what happened within the parish. There wouldn't need to be a reprinting. We wouldn't need to speak to it. We would all just acknowledge it and continue and worship the way that we knew it was to be.
But then in 1792, worship changed drastically. What I want to point you to is the fact that John Wesley died in 1791, so he had no oversights or input into how worship got changed. We went from having a very structured order of worship to a more casual order of worship. Our rituals, like our communion, our baptism, ordination, and services of death and resurrection moved from the hymnal to the Book Of Discipline, which meant you couldn't change them and the Apostles’ Creed moved with those services, with the printing error. Now the assumption or overriding presumption as to why our structure and worship changed so drastically would have been to separate us from the Anglican form of worship that was coming out of Britain. Remember Methodism is a reform of Anglicanism and the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States is forming in the shadow of the American Revolution and the War of 1812, so anything that would have had a British influence would have been rejected. Which means from 1792 onward the Apostles Creed gets omitted from the printed resources. The only place you're going to find it in print is going to be in the baptismal ritual, which we already know was printed incorrectly.
Well, in 1896, more than 100 years later there's a call to revive, reclaim, the inclusion of The Apostles Creed in morning worship. So they go to the Apostles Creed that is printed in the baptismal service, which is missing that line “He descended to the dead.” It's returned in our baptismal ritual in the 1989 edition of our Hymnal, the one that we have in our pews today.
This reminds me of another story about something lost and then found. The story is about King Josiah. Well actually it comes from the reign of King Josiah which was 640 to 609 BCE. King Josiah is the 16th king of Judah, which is the southern Kingdom. It contains the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. Its power and religion is centralized in Jerusalem within the temple system. After King Solomon's death, the two kingdoms were split under his son Rehoboam. The north does their thing and the South does their thing.
What's important to note is loyalty to God gets put on the back burner depending upon who is on the throne in either Kingdom at either time. So they're swinging back and forth between loyalty to the God of Israel and worshipping other local gods.
In the 300 years between Solomon and Josiah, Judah becomes a hot mess and the Temple goes into disrepair. Josiah turns 18 years old, which is 10 years after he ascended to the throne. He looks to refurbish the temple. King Josiah's story can be found in 2 Kings:22-23. There's a lot of names that I can't pronounce and lots of back and forth, so allow me to briefly summarize that story.
Josiah instructs the priests to go into the treasury of the temple to gather up the tax money. People are still offering money to be connected to the Temple. The priests are instructed to go gather that money because they need to do some repairs. Now, while the priests are there in the treasury room, they discover a lost scroll. Scripture refers to it as the Scroll of Instruction, thought to be an early version of Deuteronomy. The priests read it. They take it to the King's secretary who reads it, and the King's secretary takes it to the king. Once the king hears it, he decides that everyone should hear it because it gives them the law, it lays out the feasts, it talks about offerings, all the fundamentals that he will need to revitalize faith in the God of Israel. It was the underlying document that held up why they did what they did, who they were, and it was direction for the lost. It was, for lack of a better term, a playbook that was missing.
The priest reads it aloud to the people and they all repent and pledge fidelity to God. I wish I could tell you that it stuck, but I'm sure that you know how the story goes. Because we too are living in that balance between allegiance to God and living with empire goals. Yet the restoration of the scroll, its inclusion in the Torah, makes all the difference in Jewish understanding.
So we come back to the line, “He descended into the dead.” I'm not equating scripture and the Apostles’ Creed, but I want to draw on the parallel of what ends up lost. The line, “He descended into the dead, into hell,” is biblical. It upholds what we know about God, and it fulfills the promise that there is nowhere God won't come after us. In the same way, Deuteronomy holds up what the folks in the southern kingdom would have been doing but didn’t know why until the rediscovery.
I point to Psalm 139:7-9 “Where could I go to get away from Your presence? Where could I go to escape Your presence? If I went up to heaven, You would be there. If I went down to the grave, You would be there too.” What about Psalm 23:4-5 , “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.” Jesus tells a whole story about leaving 99 to find the one that's lost. Affirming these statements contained in the early creed reminds us of who God is and who we are together. We may disagree on everything from A-Z but this, these tenants within this creed, this we agree upon and in agreement. We can be the body of Christ and we can live within the Kingdom here. They are foundational to our beliefs because they reflect God and we can attach scripture abundantly to each. These are not one off statements, but solid blocks on which we build because there is no time for standing still. We have a powerful, life changing message for the world, the good news of Jesus Christ. We can affirm each of these statements within the Creed for ourselves, personally, intimately and corporately. Because of what the Church believes, we are able to live into the lives God has ordained us to live. We can be the support for those who question or doubt or are troubled. We can assure one another that this is who God is. So beginning next week, we'll be using the ecumenical version of the Apostles Creed within worship, the one that aligns with the baptismal service that's contained in the 1989 edition of the United Methodist Hymnal. We'll be reminded there is nowhere God will not go to be where we are. Amen.
Closing Hymn: #707 Hymn of Promise
- In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree;
In cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
- There’s a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;
There’s a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
- In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity;
In our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity,
In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
The blessing: May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you this week.
