Home Worship for the week of January 11
Morning Prayer: Eternal God, at the baptism of Jesus, You revealed Him to be Your Son, and anointed Him with the Holy Spirit. Keep all who are born of water and the Spirit faithful to their calling as Your people; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Opening Hymn #189 Fairest Lord Jesus
- Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature, O Thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor, Thou, my soul's glory, joy, and crown. - Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands, robed in the blooming garb of spring:
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer who makes the woeful heart to sing. - Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight, and all the twinkling starry host:
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer than all the angels heaven can boast. - Beautiful Savior! Lord of all the nations! Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor, praise, adoration, now and forevermore be Thine.
Psalm of the day: Psalm 29:3-4, 10-11
3 The Lord’s voice is over the waters;
the glorious God thunders;
the Lord is over the mighty waters.
4 The Lord’s voice is strong;
the Lord’s voice is majestic.
10 The Lord sits enthroned over the floodwaters;
the Lord sits enthroned—king forever!
11 Let the Lord give strength to His people!
Let the Lord bless His people with peace!
Epistle Reading: Acts 10:38-43
38 You know about Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and endowed with power. Jesus traveled around doing good and healing everyone oppressed by the devil because God was with Him. 39 We are witnesses of everything He did, both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They killed Him by hanging Him on a tree, 40 but God raised Him up on the third day and allowed Him to be seen, 41 not by everyone but by us. We are witnesses whom God chose beforehand, who ate and drank with Him after God raised Him from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”
Prayers of Intercession: (Lectionary prayers, edited and adapted) Sisters and brothers, our baptismal vows call us to compassion and mercy on behalf of those in need. We offer our prayers for the church and the world. Lord in Your mercy, hear our prayers.
For those in need of physical healing whose names we hold in our hearts. Lord in Your mercy, hear our prayers.
For all who call upon the name of the Lord in their loneliness, bring them peace and move us into companionship. Lord in Your mercy, hear our prayers.
For the order of Your Church and her leadership. Lord in Your mercy, hear our prayers.
Equip the leaders of our world with wisdom and a deep desire to live in peace. Lord in Your mercy, hear our prayers.
Lord God, You revealed Your Son in the waters of the Jordan and anointed Him with the power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim good news to all people. Sanctify us by the same Spirit, that we may proclaim the healing power of the gospel by acts of love in Jesus and it is in the mighty name of Jesus we were taught to pray by saying…
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: Sunday evening we celebrated togetherness at Lightstreet United Methodist Church. Please lift up your brothers and sisters in Christ today and every day; that we are committed to forming disciples who are followers of Jesus Christ, who are in turn, committed to: BELONGING to the body of Christ, BECOMING more like Jesus, and BLESSING the world.
Offering prayer: Faithful and Calling God, continue to draw us into community, into covenant, and into new life through waters of grace and acts of justice. Just as Jesus stepped into the river to stand with us and for us, we bring these gifts today to stand with others—to serve, to uplift, and to proclaim Your kingdom. Use these offerings to fulfill Your righteousness among us. Help us, Your baptized people, to be instruments of healing, hope, and holy change in a world longing for good news. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Preparation Hymn: #334 Sweet, Sweet Spirit
There’s a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place, and I know that it’s the Spirit of the Lord;
there are sweet expressions on each face, and I know they feel the presence of the Lord.
Sweet Holy Spirit, sweet heavenly Dove, stay right here with us, filling us with Your love;
and for these blessings we life our hearts in praise;
without a doubt we’ll know that we have been revived when we shall leave this place.
Gospel Lesson: Matthew 3:13-17
13 At that time Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River so that John would baptize Him. 14 John tried to stop Him and said, “I need to be baptized by You, yet You come to me?”
15 Jesus answered, “Allow Me to be baptized now. This is necessary to fulfill all righteousness.”
So John agreed to baptize Jesus. 16 When Jesus was baptized, He immediately came up out of the water. Heaven was opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and resting on Him. 17 A voice from heaven said, “This is My Son whom I dearly love; I find happiness in Him.”
Message: Remembering Who We Are in Christ Pastor Becky
This Sunday we celebrated the baptism of Jesus. We also remember our own baptisms. It may seem odd to be asked to remember our baptism. After all, some of us were infants. How are we to remember something that happened before we have a memory. Remembering our baptism is to remind us that we are baptized. Baptized is the constant state of our being.
Let's begin with Jesus' baptism. I want you to imagine yourself standing alongside the Jordan River. The water is glistening under the sun. The air is heavy with the scent of dust and water. The riverbanks are crowded with people. You're going to have sunburned faces, small children running through the crowd and soldiers in their uniforms, with their weapons and their armor. After all, we are in an occupied territory, yet they've come to hear from this prophet. They've come to hear from John, this man clothed in camel hair, and his voice is like a trumpet in the desert. He's calling out to them, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near”.
One by one, they're lining up to step into the water to confess their sins and have a new beginning. The river becomes a place of hope, a place where the past is washed away and the future feels possible. Through the crowd comes Jesus. There's no royal procession. There's no herald that cries out, make way, make way. There are no trumpets. There's just Jesus. He is quiet, humble, and resolute. He steps into the water not because He needs cleansing, but because He chooses to stand with us in our humanity.
John was startled. “I need to be baptized by You and You come to me?” And Jesus' reply is gentle yet direct. “Let it be so. Now it's proper for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Here's the heart of the moment. Righteousness isn't about status or superiority; it's about obedience to God's will. Jesus identifies with sinners, though He is without sin. He steps into our story so that we can step into His.
In our Wesleyan tradition, we would call that prevenient grace. God's grace that goes before us, meeting us where we are, even before we even know that we need it. Jesus baptism is prevenient grace in action, God entering the muddy waters of our lives, unafraid to be touched by our brokenness.
As Jesus rises from the water, the heavens open, the Spirit descends like a dove resting upon Him, and then a voice is heard, the voice of the Father. It breaks into the air. “This is My Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Take notice of the order. Even before Jesus preaches a sermon, even before He heals the sick, before He calls a disciple – Jesus is named and claimed by God. His identity is rooted, not in what Jesus does, but in who Jesus is. Here's the good news: In baptism, God says the exact same thing to us. You are my beloved. I am pleased with you, not because you've earned it, but because you are Mine.
John Wesley taught that baptism is a sign of a new birth, a mark of God's covenant love. It's not just a ritual; it's a visual word of God's promise that we belong to God forever. For Jesus, baptism was not the end, it was the beginning. Immediately afterward, Jesus is led into the wilderness to be tested, and then He begins proclaiming the Kingdom of God and our baptism is the same. It's not just a memory to treasure. It's a commissioning to live out. Every day we are called to live into our baptism.
In Baptism, we begin with these words: Through the sacrament of Baptism, we are initiated into Christ's Holy Church, we are incorporated into God's mighty acts of salvation, and given new birth through water and the Spirit. All this is God's gift, offered to us without price.
We are asked in our baptisms if we renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, and reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of our sin. What we're saying that we're giving up. What we're acknowledging in the world and what it is that we don't want for ourselves. And what we're handing back over to God.
But then hear this, what is available to us in our baptism. We are given the freedom and power God gives to us, and that power is to enable us to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever form they take. It's a public confession of Jesus as our Savior, putting our whole trust in His grace and promising to serve Him as our Lord in union with the church, that Christ has opened to all ages, nations and races.
The other beautiful thing in baptism is that we are reminded of who the Church is. Here within our fellowship, as a body of Christ, we are a little Kingdom. We are here to equip and surround and encourage one another, to reflect the Kingdom of God. We promise to one another at baptism that we will nurture one another in Christian faith in life. We also declare with God's help, we'll proclaim the Good news and live according to the example of Christ.
At each of these baptisms we will surround this person with a community of love and forgiveness, that they may grow in their trust of God and be found faithful in their service to others. We will pray for them that they may be true disciples who walk in the way that leads to life. We make those vows to and for each other and we are bound together by the Holy Spirit.
We come together professing our Christian faith. Our first act together – as the Church and the one coming for baptism – the first thing that we do together is proclaim what we believe. We proclaim that we believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. We believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord. Who is conceived by the holy spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. Suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day He rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father and will come again to judge the living and the dead. We 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.
This is where we're forged together as a family of faith. This is where we're reminded that our baptism is not in our past, but it is our current condition. It's not that we were, it's that we are. In that statement, we proclaim Christ is present with us each and every day.
Some of us were baptized as infants and other as youth or adults. Some of us remember the day vividly, and others only know it through stories told by family or church. Yet whether we remember the moment or not, the covenant God made with us in baptism still stands. We reaffirm our baptism not because God has forgotten, but because sometimes we do. Life has a way of making us forget who we are and whose we are. This act of reaffirmation is a way of stepping back into the river – spiritually speaking – and hearing again the voice of God. The voice of God calling us Beloved and empowering us to live this day and all our days as children of the Most High God. Amen.
Closing Hymn: #428 For the Healing of the Nations
- For the healing of the nations, Lord, we pray with one accord;
For a just and equal sharing of the things that earth affords;
To a life of love in action help us rise and pledge our word, Help us rise and pledge our word.
- Lead us forward into freedom; from despair Your world release,
That, redeemed from war and hatred, all may come and go in peace.
Show us how through care and goodness fear will die and hope increase,
Fear will die and hope increase.
- All that kills abundant living, let it from the earth be banned;
pride of status, race, or schooling, dogmas that obscure Your plan.
In our common quest for justice may we hallow life’s brief span,
May we hallow life’s brief span.
- You, Creator God, have written Your great name on humankind;
For our growing in Your likeness bring the life of Christ to mind,
That by our response and service earth its destiny may find, Earth its destiny may find.
The blessing: May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you this week.
Go Now in Peace: Go now in peace. Never be afraid. God will go with you each hour of ev’ry day. Go now in faith, steadfast strong and true. Know He will guide you in all you do. Go now in love and show you believe. Reach out to others, so all the world can see. God will be there, watching from above. Go now in peace, in faith, and in love.
