Tag: Psalm 89

Dec 4th Love and Justice

Justice, Mercy & Light Extended Advent

Dec. 4
Esther Love Candle
Esther 4:1-17
For Such a Time as This, Esther was Made Queen
Matthew 5:13-16 Salt and Light 
Psalm 89:1-13

Advent Candles Liturgy

Topical Prayer: Love, A Prayer for Such a Time as This

Call to Worship
God we need your justice
For such a time as this to light our way
When salt and light is not enough, Jesus we need you
Come, let us look for God
God we are looking for your love
Come, let us love God together

Call to Confession: God you call to your love in the good and the bad times. Come let ourselves to God

Prayer of Confession: God, we confess that it is hard to come to you in uncertain times. How can anything be worthy of love at such a time as this? Who can sort out there feelings in this mess? We want time, to clean up, to get things in order, to research, to know things. God, you remind us that you are the city on the hill, not us. You are the salt in our food, not us. Be our salt and light, and remind us that we are allowed to be a mess and still love we pray. Amen

Assurance of Pardon: Jesus comes in the midst of emergencies, full of grace, so we know the truth: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven, right now. Amen. 

Prayer of the Day, Dedication: God, remind us the Grace does not wait, because we need its immediacy. Let us go forth full of grace we pray. Let it spill from our hands, our mouths and feet as we go, so that we may become the very embodiment of your love. May this be our prayer as we go about the world. Amen.

Hymns: We Are One In the Spirit, Here I am Lord, O Come O Come Emmanuel, I Love the Lord Who Heard My Cry, I Wonder as I Wander, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

With Children: Warm Fuzzies https://reenchantements.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/warm-fuzzy-tale.pdf Sharing Love vs. Hate in times of Trial
I feel its very important to note that we call Dandelion fuzz: Wishies in my family and also link “warm fuzzies” to dandelion seeds

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Full Extended Advent Resource

God’s Promise: Bulletin by Pastor Katy Stenta

October 25
God’s Promise to David
2 Samuel 7:1-17
Luke 1:30-33 Opt. Psalm 89:1-6

Announcements

Call to Worship (Psalm 89)

I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord, forever

With my mouth, I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations

I declare that your steadfast love is established forever

Your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens

Great is Thy Faithfulness

2 Samuel 7: 8-16

(1 finger) Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; 

(2 fingers) I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 

(3 fingers) And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; 

(4 fingers) and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies.

(5 fingers) Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, 

(6 fingers) I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 

(7 fingers) He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

(Pastor Katy) I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. 

(8 fingers) But I will not take* my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 

(9 fingers) Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me;* your throne shall be established for ever.

Children’s Sermon 

Sermon  Life-giving Covenants Pastor Katy

Lord some days I cry out like David “Will you hide yourself forever?” and I remember how short my time is. Lord please give us the signs we need to know that we are loved and beloved. It is so hard to remember when we see the world is suffering. And help us know how to respond to those in the margins, the hungry and the homeless, the sick and the helpless. Help us to build up all that is good we 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.

My Hope is Built on Nothing Less

More Narrative Lectionary Resources

Rejected Sermon Titles: Jesus and the demons of our mind

Mark 5:1-20

Psalm 89:1-4

by Pastor Katy Stenta

“Legion: for We are many”

I think it is amazing that Jesus gets the man to name his demon…or the demon to name itself before Jesus expelled it from the poor man.

How many times do we need to name our demons before we can get rid of them? If it’s something that is (typically) smaller like jealousy or self-righteousness or something all encompassing like mental illness or addiction, so often we humans need to name a problem before we can even work on it.

And don’t we all have demon voices, terrible self-erasing voices in our heads twisting the way we see the world.

Whether they are the kind of demons that self-aggrandize (though I don’t think that is this demon’s way) telling us that we are better than everyone else, telling us we deserve more than others, dismissing others as meaningless, insignificant (or worse of all) dehumanizing them so that we don’t have to care for each other. There are strong echoes of the need for Anti-racists and Anti-Terf and Anti-Ageist work across the board. It’s the voice that tells us we are better Christians (or patriots or workers or whatever) and don’t need to listen to anybody else. Martin Luther King Jr looked towards the humanization of all people and basic humans rights, beyond the dehumanizing results of institutions and systems the include the church and capitalism and nationalism.

Or there is if it is the demon voice that points out every one of our anxieties and failings. It harps on our imperfections and plays our mistakes on repeat in our heads. It gets us to focus on all that is wrong with us and the world so that we cannot hear the voice of God anymore. We devalue ourselves, and can no longer see ourselves as the image of God.

Demons dehumanize.

They erase and X out our names and existence (Madeline L’engle covers this well in her Time Quartet)

When I hear the story of the man tormented by legion–even though no details are given as to how they are making him feel and act crazy only the side effects. When I hear he can’t stand still, and he is driven to live alone, uncleanly with the dead. When I hear that he is cast out as better to be with the dead than the living. I have no trouble hearing those doubting and harping demons in this man’s mind.

In essence that is what the Screwtape Letters is about. The demon has the human focus on the high pitch voices, the gum smacking neighbor and the squeaking shoe fidgeted until these people are no longer seen as community but as annoyances, and all of church is seen as annoying and there is no room to focus on God.

But when we name these problems in our lives, when we lift up our imperfections and sins for prayer, when we ask for support from others and talk about our insecurities. Then people can help us to name all that we did do that day, and how our imperfections are small compared to being a beloved child of God. They lift up that people care for us even when we make mistakes. And remind us of our friends and neighbors good qualities even when (especially when) they are driving us to distraction.

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Maybe then it is no surprise that Jesus restores the Gerasenes Man to his community. I do not think it is about if this man is good enough to follow Jesus, nor about his will to follow for he wants to follow Jesus. I think that Jesus has decided that to complete the healing, this man needs to be restored to his community–so he says “god back to your friends…” The community that hopefully can counter the years of bad and do a better job of nurturing and supporting this man. And I hope we as the church can do the same.