Bulletin: Golden Calf by Pastor Katy Stenta

Golden Calf
Exodus 32:1-14
Luke 23:34 Opt Psalm 97:6-9

Call to Worship

God you are more precious than Gold, more powerful than Kings

Help us to worship you

You remember us, even when we forget you

Let us remember and worship you today. 

Hymn: Amazing Grace  Sweet the Sound

Prayer of Confession: Lord God, we hate to admit how many idols live in our lives. We long so much for dependability that we mistake money or power or stocks as security. We forget that these things belong to Caesar, help us to render unto Caesar and human institutions that which belong to them and to instead focus on Sabbath, nourishment, servanthood and grace as the means to embody your love. And when we slip and fall, encourage us too to look at the stars and be assured by the covenant promise, that you will always be our God and we will always be your people. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen

Assurance of Pardon: God promised us grace over and over: to Abraham and Sarai, to Moses, Tzipporah and Miriam, to the grumbling Hebrews in the desert. It is in this assurance of your promise that we know, through Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Amen.

Exodus 32:1-14

(1 finger) When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and said to him, ‘Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 

(2 Fingers) Aaron said to them, ‘Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.’ 

(3 Fingers) So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold,^* and cast an image of a calf; and they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ 

(4 fingers) When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, ‘Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.’ 

(5 fingers)They rose early the next day, and offered burnt-offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.

(6 fingers) The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” ’ 

(Pastor Katy) The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.’

(7 fingers) But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, ‘O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 

(8 fingers) Why should the Egyptians say, “It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth”? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 

(9 fingers) Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.” ’ 

(10 fingers) And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

Children’s Sermon

Sermon               “God For Us”             Pastor Katy Stenta

Communion: Invitation

The Lord be with you

And also with you

Lift up your hearts

We lift our hearts to the Lord

Let us give thanks to the Lord

It is right to give our thanks and praise!

Communion Invitation: God is forever inviting us to come, come and taste and see the Lord. And so it is on behalf of not the church or even PCSUSA, but on behalf of Christ that I am able to say, come all those who are hungry for I will give you nourishment. Come all you who are weary, for I will give you rest. Come let us feast with Jesus.

Communion Prayer: Dear Holy Spirit we are asking you to come and be present in the elements that we have here, make your presence known, we pray. For at times, we know that we are lost in the desert, grasping at straws and idols to give us what we need. When often, when we are lost and lonely and worried you invite us to stop, rest and eat. Let us take this moment to sit with the Holy Spirit and with each other, becoming one through communion we pray…and we continue our prayer

(prayer continues…) as your son taught us to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by 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 Power and the Glory Forever. Amen.

Hymn: the Day of Resurrection

Passing of the Peace

Prayer can be used/adapted with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

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