MORRIS-ROSENFELD ECUMENICAL SHARED MINISTRY
ORDER OF SERVICE FOR SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2024
FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Due to copyright limitations, we are unable to print the words to many of the songs. However, our musicians have chosen music to fit the scriptures. We invite you to look up the words in your worship book and ponder them. If you do not have a worship book, ponder the words of one of your favourite hymns and listen for God’s voice. Those who have the internet may find the songs on YouTube.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
More than once Jesus deliberately addressed certain issues that quickly diminished the number of onlookers. It was commitment that thinned the ranks.
– Chuck Swindoll
Before we worship, we reflect…
When clay becomes a pot, it must first have a center. As a potter spins, pushes, and pulls the clay into its final form, it can easily lose its center and become misshapen. Having lost its center, it fails to fully be what it is being created to be—a pot, a pitcher, a plate, a thing of beauty, a vessel for others.
Faith and religious practice have lost their center in today’s readings. What really matters is how one’s faith is expressed in mercy, in words and actions that build up rather than tear down the neighbor.
At the heart of the Christian assembly is Jesus—in word, in song, in prayer, in the neighbor, in water, bread, and wine. Jesus, who embodies forgiveness and mercy, is the heart. Again and again, life becomes misshapen. Again and again, the potter reshapes the clay. The splash of a watery cross, the taste of bread and wine: these things center life in Christ. God’s mercy washes over us. God’s mercy is implanted in us. God creates life anew; deformed hearts are reformed for works of mercy and love.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge we gather and worship on Treaty 1 Territory, the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Anishininew, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.
O God, Great Spirit and Creator, make us stewards – of one another’s dignity, of one another’s safety, of one another’s lands, of one another’s right to a cultural identity: … as unique peoples, … as gifts to the human family, … as your beloved children.
Give us one heart and one mind to walk forward together along this path in the love and strength of your Spirit, In truth, reconciliation and peace. We make this prayer in the power of your Most Holy Name. Amen.[1]
CALL TO WORSHIP
God has set this day before us,
A day set apart, a day of rest and praise.
God has set our lives before us,
A span of years in which we love, and learn, and serve.
God has set God’s seal upon our hearts,
So that we might live fully in deep love.
Let us worship God.[2]
GATHERING SONG: Voices United #506 Take My Life And Let It Be
CENTERING PRAYER
O God our strength, without you we lose our center. Protect us from all distractions and imbalance. Cleanse us from all hurtfulness that arises from within ourselves, that we may be preserved through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
CANADIAN LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF
When floods ravaged the camp for internally displaced people in Wadajir, Somalia, eighty-year-old Bishar Hassan was among those left without proper sanitation facilities. The situation for him was particularly difficult due to his disability – despite his limited mobility, Bishar was forced to use a makeshift toilet in the nearby bushes along with other members of his family. This not only had a negative impact on health and hygiene, but also posed an added risk of attacks from wildlife. Diarrhea was common for the children in his family, putting added pressure on their inadequate resources.
With your support, our partner LWF Somalia constructed two latrines for Bishar’s family – one of which is accessible and tailored specifically to accommodate his needs. “Women, children, and disabled people have borne the brunt of the latrine shortage in our settlement. One of the children was bitten by a snake while relieving himself, and although it was not lethal, he was very distressed by the incident,” said Bishar.
“This will ensure sufficient access to sanitation services which we did not have before,” he continued. “The intervention has restored and strengthened the dignity of the most vulnerable populations displaced by the climate crisis in our district.” Thank you for helping improve the quality of life for Bishar and others living with disabilities!
CHILDREN’S CHAT
Hand sanitizer. You know what it is. It is clear, has a strong smell and kills germs. We used it a lot during COVID. It dried out the skin. I used to carry a small bottle of hand lotion in my purse because my skin was raw from the sanitizer.
One product sucks the moisture out of our skin, the other puts it back. Kind of like faith and life.
Jesus is talking to some people who believe that we have to follow every ritual and rule in order to be perfect for God. He is trying to point out that to be that meticulous with every single ritual and rule still does not make us perfect. Only God can do that. In fact, forcing people to follow all the teeny tiny rules makes them actually DISLIKE God because they know they can never be good enough for God on their own. The rules suck the life out of their love for God. They are sanitized to the point of anger.
Jesus tells the people that God loves them just as they are. Period. If they choose to follow all the rules, good, and while doing so, stay loving to yourself and your neighbour. There is joy in following the rules, and that gives life to our love for God. Moisturized into a deep love. Wonderful.
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
God of mercy, you promised never to break your covenant with us. Amid all the changing words of our generation, speak your eternal Word that does not change. Then may we respond to your gracious promises with faithful and obedient lives; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
READINGS AND PSALM
First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
The Israelites believed the law was a divine gift that provided guidelines for living out the covenant. Moses commands the people to obey the law and to neither add to nor subtract from it. The Israelites are also to teach the law to their children and their children’s children.
1So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.
6You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” 7For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? 8And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?
9But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.
Psalm 15
1Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle? Who may abide upon your holy hill?
2Those who lead a blameless life and do what is right, who speak the truth from their heart;
3they do not slander with the tongue, they do no evil to their friends; they do not cast discredit upon a neighbor.
4In their sight the wicked are rejected, but they honor those who fear the Lord. They have sworn upon their health and do not take back their word.
5They do not give their money in hope of gain, nor do they take bribes against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be overthrown.
Second Reading: James 1:17-27
The letter of James was intended to provide first-century Christians with instruction in godly behavior. Here Christians are encouraged to listen carefully and to act on what they hear, especially by caring for those least able to care for themselves.
17Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
22But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
26If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Mark’s gospel depicts Jesus as challenging traditional ways in which religious people determine what is pure or impure. For Jesus, the observance of religious practices cannot become a substitute for godly words or deeds that spring from a faithful heart.
1Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around , 2they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
7in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
8You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
14Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.
21“For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
HYMN: Voices United #560 O Master, Let Me Walk With Thee
SERMON – Rev. Christie Morrow Wolfe, Assistant to the Bishop, Eastern Synod
The Gospel reading for today picks up on a conversation between Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees who had called out Jesus and his followers for not obeying the purity laws prior to eating a meal. The religious officials were objecting to more than simply bad manners. It was common belief that those perceived to have ignored or dismissed the laws were then unclean which left one vulnerable to the forces of evil and ultimately risked the destruction of their lives and livelihood.
You see, for some, the 10 Commandments had evolved into a series of complicated actions tied to the original commandments. There were now rules behind the rules and following the rules took more than just simply obeying them at face value. Prior to eating, hands were to be washed with water kept pure in specific stone jars … hands had to be held in specific positions at certain times during the ritual – facing down and then up. And if you were touched by someone who hadn’t washed, then you were considered to be unclean and needed to wash your entire self, including your clothes. There were additional rules to this ceremonial process but I think you get the picture of how complicated things had become. It’s not only the very nature of these additional rules that Jesus calls into question, but also what’s motivating the Scribes and Pharisees in terms of their policing of these rules
I think it’s important to keep in mind that what Jesus is doing here really was revolutionary. Ritual purity and impurity were considered spiritual states which were inextricably linked to physical processes. In the book of Exodus, before God gave the Israelites the law, God calls the Israelites to be a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. The Pharisees took this call very seriously and applied it to all people, meaning it wasn’t just the priests who needed to purify themselves. The Pharisees believed this was a direct call from God for EVERYONE to engage in purifying actions. Wars had been fought and people had died upholding these additional rules. So for Jesus and his followers not to engage in appropriate ritual prior to breaking bread, was, for the Pharisees, calling into question Jesus’ respect for God’s law and, in their minds, threatened to undermine Jewish tradition and way of life.
I think it’s also important to remember that Jesus wasn’t against upholding the 10 Commandments, in fact, I believe that Jesus was trying to safe-guard against people following the rules behind the rules so rigidly that they ended up ignoring or sometimes disobeying God’s original 10 Commandments. Jesus showed the Scribes and Pharisees the irrelevance of elaborate handwashing by saying that THINGS cannot be clean or unclean in a religious sense, but only people can be defiled by their actions and the motivation of their hearts. The Pharisees were making judgments and creating barriers between those they labelled as clean and unclean. As someone who was raised in this tradition, Jesus confronts the religious officials as an insider to the faith, and he calls into question the validity of these rules and implores the Scribes and Pharisees and everyone listening, to have a look at their own hearts and motivations, first.
The Word of God is really timeless. It is so amazing to me that this ancient gift to us is still so darn applicable. Today, we’re learning that the problem with the religious officials of Jesus’ day is that according to Jesus, they had become too fixated on the external trappings of what they deemed to be faithfulness that they were neglecting what was happening internally … in their hearts. Scholar and theologian, Elizabeth Johnson says that “their efforts to live faithfully were putting up walls of alienation instead of drawing them closer to God and to their neighbours. The rituals they observed created a spiritual hierarchy between the ‘clean’ and ‘unclean.’ Instead of expressing the holiness of God, ritual purity became a means of excluding people considered dirty or contaminated.”
Sound familiar? I think this is something that we, as God’s people, still wrestle with on a regular basis. How quick are we to sometimes make judgments and draw lines and exclude others? What does this say about the motivation of our own hearts? We’d like to think our hearts are home to our faith in God … along with our understanding of Scripture and what it is our faith calls us to – to love God and each other. But sometimes our actions are motivated by self-interest and a misguided sense of what God calls us to. Sometimes our own desires get in the way which can lead to things Jesus named in our Gospel reading, like: adultery; theft; avarice; envy; pride; wickedness; deceit; slander, and folly, among other sins. These things do affect our hearts and how we relate to each other and the world … if our desire for self-satisfaction is allowed to run rampant, we become insatiable consumers of things and people and life. We need the checks and balances of the commandments to keep our hearts focused and our actions grounded so that we can know God’s abundance and that we can help others to know it too.
I had a friend, who, when she was dying of cancer, would tell anyone and everyone who stopped in to visit, that she loved them to the actual bottom of her heart. Those were her words … ‘I love you to the actual bottom of my heart.’ No one left a visit with her without hearing these words leave her lips. Well, guess what? So does God. And furthermore, God already knows what’s in our hearts and what motivates our actions …Our deepest desires … our true motivation – both that which is holy and that which is unholy. And even though what God sees isn’t always great, God promises us to never leave us or look away. God simply reminds us of the true essence and the heart of our calling as God’s people … to love God and love our neighbours. And when we sin and fall short, God picks us up and calls us to learn and grow and do better, and to trust in God’s love and grace because God loves us and wants nothing more for us than live a full, complete and abundant life in God’s presence.
Despite what really motivates us some days, God calls us to learn more and love more and trust God more so that we too may know the promise of abundant life that God holds out to each and every one of us. That’s the true story behind the story. May it be so with us. Amen.
HYMN: Voices United #253 Sing Your Joy
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
Drawn together in the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray with confidence for the church, God’s good creation, and all who are in need.
God of every generation, give the church a sense of purpose and belonging. Sustain and build up leaders and lay people as we accompany one another in our life with Christ. Merciful God,
receive our prayer.
God of creation, you named humans as co-creators with you. Where the earth cries out in pain, bring wholeness. Guide governments and industry, that environmental laws and practices seek to heal and not harm. Bring relief and justice to people and places suffering from climate catastrophe. Merciful God,
receive our prayer.
Sovereign God, we pray for local communities of every kind: rural and urban; established and new. Lead those in authority to seek the good of all through their words and actions and to mentor others in honest and generous ways. Merciful God,
receive our prayer.
Healing God, you draw near to all who are hurting. Be with all who desire relief from chronic and acute illness, cancer, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Strengthen health care workers, therapists, and caregivers. Tend to those who are close to our hearts. Merciful God,
receive our prayer.
On this Labor Day weekend we remember and give thanks for all who have fought for workers’ rights around the world. Continue to improve working conditions and establish fair wages so that all people may thrive. Merciful God,
receive our prayer.
Comforting God, console us as we mourn our departed. We hold fast to the promise that death has been defeated by our Savior Jesus Christ. Merciful God,
receive our prayer.
We entrust these and all our prayers to you, holy God, in the name of your beloved child, Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
SENDING SONG: Voices United #232 Joyful, Joyful
BENEDICTION
The love of God be the passion in your heart.
The joy of God your strength when times are hard.
The presence of God a peace that overflows.
The Word of God the seed that you might sow. Amen.