Epiphany 3
Worship
Lectionary Worship Workbook
Series II, Cycle C Gospel Texts
Liturgical Color: Green
Gospel: Luke 4:14-21
Theme: Jesus Quotes Isaiah About His Mission, and Makes a Startling Claim About Himself. As a follower of his, what kind of a claim do you make about yourself?
The Gathering
Choral Invitation
"Let's Go!" Avery and Marsh. (See Epiphany 1).
Pastoral Invitation
Pastor and Ministers
In the name of the one who made outrageous claims for himself, welcome to the third Sunday of Epiphany. As always, we celebrate Good News, which remains the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, unlike the newspaper news which keeps changing each day. Rejoice!
M: We praise the one who made outrageous claims for himself!
P: Be aware that, in a sense, he passed on those claims to us!
M: You're kidding! Really! How?
P: Pay attention, and you will learn before the end of worship.
M: We're all ears!
Hymn of Praise
"Holy God, We Praise Your Name," attr. Ignaz Franz, c. 1774; trans. Clarence Alphonsus Walworth, 1858; alt. Johann Gottfried Schicht, 1819.
Prayer of Praise
Invite the people to offer sentence prayers of praise.
The Introspection
Introduction to the Act of Recognizing Our Humanity
I invite us to look at our mission, as persons, as the church, by looking at the mission with which Jesus identified himself. (Read Isaiah 61:1-2.) In the light of those words, consider this statement by Albert Belden: "You are not saved by Christ if your blood does not boil at the gross injustice and injury to humanity of the slums, or of unemployment, or of war, or of the maldistribution of the means of life." (Two minutes of silence to consider how that applies to us.) Sin is any form of human self-expression that disaffirms the infinite worth of persons. How do we do that in our daily walk? (Two minutes of silence. Conclude with a prayer which brings together these thoughts.)
Response
"O For a Closer Walk with God," William Cowper, 1772; Scottish Psalter, 1635; harm. The English Hymnal, 1906; alt.
Introduction to the Act of Receiving New Life
Repentance begins with the kind of insight expressed by Barbara Brown Taylor, in a Christian Century article, "The Perfect Mirror" (March 18-25, 1998). She was at a retreat where the leader asked people to think of someone who represented Christ in their lives. One woman said, "I had to think hard about that one. I kept thinking, 'Who is it who told me the truth about myself so clearly that I wanted to kill for it?' According to John, Jesus died because he told the truth to everyone he met. He was the truth, a perfect mirror in which people saw themselves in God's own light." Is that Christ for you? If so, confess your I-centeredness, receive the truth, and praise the Lord! Shout your favorite praise and thank-you words!
The Act of Receiving New Life
With your new insights and affirmations, respond with this hymn: "Live Into Hope," Jane Parker Huber, 1976; Thomas Williams, 1789; harm. Lowell Mason, 1792-1872. As you sing, identify two ways that you will put the truth of this hymn into practice.
The Teaching
Message with the Children of All Ages
When your mother or father calls you, what do they want you to do? (Wait. If no response, give a couple of examples, "Time for dinner! ... Come in out of the cold.") How do you suppose Jesus calls you? Any ideas? (Take your time. If no response, ask someone in the congregation who didn't come forward. You may want to prepare this person in advance. Share your own call, briefly. Point out many ways that God calls.) One of them is found in today's Scripture, a call which begins with Jesus and reaches out to all of us.
Response
"I Have Decided to Follow Jesus," traditional, from Let the People Sing. (See Appendix I for address.)
Reading from the Scripture
Use a reader and a "Jesus." Have Jesus memorize his part, and enact the passage as reported.
Proclamation of the Good News
Begin, "Today, this Scripture is fulfilled! Today! Now! Right here! How impossible this sounds! Could all of the dreams, promises, come true in this moment?" (1) Include a summary of Sam Beckett's play, Waiting for Godot. Are we still waiting? If we are, we know, sooner or later, that Christianity can dry up and become nothing more than the inconvenient dust on the surface of life. (2) I have lost the source of this event. Nevertheless, contrast it with Beckett's drama. Several years ago, a group of prominent scholars met in New York to relate to each other the case histories of what they called "Moments of Personal Discovery." Harold Taylor, president of Sarah Lawrence College, told of his experience while studying in London at the British Museum. He had been concerned with the economic revolutions and Marxist theories of society. Then one day, he stood on a street curb and saw a company of Welsh miners who had walked from their shutdown mines in Wales to knock on the door of the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street, and to speak with the voice that suddenly gave flesh and blood, iron-set faces and hunger-bitten eyes, to the abstract principles with which he had been concerned. History was transfigured. The words became living men. Their grim silence as they walked was pronouncement that could not be smothered. They were history. That, Jesus did! That, we are called to do!
Prayer
Conclude with a prayer of power which calls us to continue the mission of the living Christ.
The Dedication
Stewardship Challenge
Have we ever considered how we live out the message of the poster, "Not to decide is to decide"? (One minute of silence.) Fact, if we fail to become involved in the world, in the social, economic, political, human issues, then someone, whom we may or may not approve, will do it for us.
Prayer
Summarize the stewardship challenge.
Charge to the Congregation
In the name of Jesus of Luke and Isaiah, we are called to take risks, to live on the growing edge of life, and to do so for the right reasons, on behalf of the same kinds of people to whom Jesus ministered. No one promised us a rose garden; most of us will not need to face a literal cross.
Hymn of Obedience
"Arise, Your Light Has Come!" Ruth Duck, 1974; William H. Walter, 1894.
Meditation
Someone has said that "the early Christians were persecuted, not because of what they believed, but because of what they actually practiced." What are we practicing that makes us criminals in the sense that Jesus and the early disciples were criminals?
Music Possibilities In Addition To Those Already Suggested
Music for Preparation: Medley of Epiphany hymns.
Hymns of Praise: "As with Gladness Men of Old," William Chatterton Dix, c. 1858; Conrad Kocher, 1838; abr. William Henry Monk, 1861; harm. The English Hymnal, 1906.
Response to the Good News: (Choir and Congregation) "The New Is Old," Lloyd Pfautsch.
Offertory: "Eternal Purposes," Messiaen.
Music for Dismissal: Medley of Epiphany and Obedience hymns.
Gospel: Luke 4:14-21
Theme: Jesus Quotes Isaiah About His Mission, and Makes a Startling Claim About Himself. As a follower of his, what kind of a claim do you make about yourself?
The Gathering
Choral Invitation
"Let's Go!" Avery and Marsh. (See Epiphany 1).
Pastoral Invitation
Pastor and Ministers
In the name of the one who made outrageous claims for himself, welcome to the third Sunday of Epiphany. As always, we celebrate Good News, which remains the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, unlike the newspaper news which keeps changing each day. Rejoice!
M: We praise the one who made outrageous claims for himself!
P: Be aware that, in a sense, he passed on those claims to us!
M: You're kidding! Really! How?
P: Pay attention, and you will learn before the end of worship.
M: We're all ears!
Hymn of Praise
"Holy God, We Praise Your Name," attr. Ignaz Franz, c. 1774; trans. Clarence Alphonsus Walworth, 1858; alt. Johann Gottfried Schicht, 1819.
Prayer of Praise
Invite the people to offer sentence prayers of praise.
The Introspection
Introduction to the Act of Recognizing Our Humanity
I invite us to look at our mission, as persons, as the church, by looking at the mission with which Jesus identified himself. (Read Isaiah 61:1-2.) In the light of those words, consider this statement by Albert Belden: "You are not saved by Christ if your blood does not boil at the gross injustice and injury to humanity of the slums, or of unemployment, or of war, or of the maldistribution of the means of life." (Two minutes of silence to consider how that applies to us.) Sin is any form of human self-expression that disaffirms the infinite worth of persons. How do we do that in our daily walk? (Two minutes of silence. Conclude with a prayer which brings together these thoughts.)
Response
"O For a Closer Walk with God," William Cowper, 1772; Scottish Psalter, 1635; harm. The English Hymnal, 1906; alt.
Introduction to the Act of Receiving New Life
Repentance begins with the kind of insight expressed by Barbara Brown Taylor, in a Christian Century article, "The Perfect Mirror" (March 18-25, 1998). She was at a retreat where the leader asked people to think of someone who represented Christ in their lives. One woman said, "I had to think hard about that one. I kept thinking, 'Who is it who told me the truth about myself so clearly that I wanted to kill for it?' According to John, Jesus died because he told the truth to everyone he met. He was the truth, a perfect mirror in which people saw themselves in God's own light." Is that Christ for you? If so, confess your I-centeredness, receive the truth, and praise the Lord! Shout your favorite praise and thank-you words!
The Act of Receiving New Life
With your new insights and affirmations, respond with this hymn: "Live Into Hope," Jane Parker Huber, 1976; Thomas Williams, 1789; harm. Lowell Mason, 1792-1872. As you sing, identify two ways that you will put the truth of this hymn into practice.
The Teaching
Message with the Children of All Ages
When your mother or father calls you, what do they want you to do? (Wait. If no response, give a couple of examples, "Time for dinner! ... Come in out of the cold.") How do you suppose Jesus calls you? Any ideas? (Take your time. If no response, ask someone in the congregation who didn't come forward. You may want to prepare this person in advance. Share your own call, briefly. Point out many ways that God calls.) One of them is found in today's Scripture, a call which begins with Jesus and reaches out to all of us.
Response
"I Have Decided to Follow Jesus," traditional, from Let the People Sing. (See Appendix I for address.)
Reading from the Scripture
Use a reader and a "Jesus." Have Jesus memorize his part, and enact the passage as reported.
Proclamation of the Good News
Begin, "Today, this Scripture is fulfilled! Today! Now! Right here! How impossible this sounds! Could all of the dreams, promises, come true in this moment?" (1) Include a summary of Sam Beckett's play, Waiting for Godot. Are we still waiting? If we are, we know, sooner or later, that Christianity can dry up and become nothing more than the inconvenient dust on the surface of life. (2) I have lost the source of this event. Nevertheless, contrast it with Beckett's drama. Several years ago, a group of prominent scholars met in New York to relate to each other the case histories of what they called "Moments of Personal Discovery." Harold Taylor, president of Sarah Lawrence College, told of his experience while studying in London at the British Museum. He had been concerned with the economic revolutions and Marxist theories of society. Then one day, he stood on a street curb and saw a company of Welsh miners who had walked from their shutdown mines in Wales to knock on the door of the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street, and to speak with the voice that suddenly gave flesh and blood, iron-set faces and hunger-bitten eyes, to the abstract principles with which he had been concerned. History was transfigured. The words became living men. Their grim silence as they walked was pronouncement that could not be smothered. They were history. That, Jesus did! That, we are called to do!
Prayer
Conclude with a prayer of power which calls us to continue the mission of the living Christ.
The Dedication
Stewardship Challenge
Have we ever considered how we live out the message of the poster, "Not to decide is to decide"? (One minute of silence.) Fact, if we fail to become involved in the world, in the social, economic, political, human issues, then someone, whom we may or may not approve, will do it for us.
Prayer
Summarize the stewardship challenge.
Charge to the Congregation
In the name of Jesus of Luke and Isaiah, we are called to take risks, to live on the growing edge of life, and to do so for the right reasons, on behalf of the same kinds of people to whom Jesus ministered. No one promised us a rose garden; most of us will not need to face a literal cross.
Hymn of Obedience
"Arise, Your Light Has Come!" Ruth Duck, 1974; William H. Walter, 1894.
Meditation
Someone has said that "the early Christians were persecuted, not because of what they believed, but because of what they actually practiced." What are we practicing that makes us criminals in the sense that Jesus and the early disciples were criminals?
Music Possibilities In Addition To Those Already Suggested
Music for Preparation: Medley of Epiphany hymns.
Hymns of Praise: "As with Gladness Men of Old," William Chatterton Dix, c. 1858; Conrad Kocher, 1838; abr. William Henry Monk, 1861; harm. The English Hymnal, 1906.
Response to the Good News: (Choir and Congregation) "The New Is Old," Lloyd Pfautsch.
Offertory: "Eternal Purposes," Messiaen.
Music for Dismissal: Medley of Epiphany and Obedience hymns.
