Worship for the week of September 25, 2022

Let us worship!

Friends, because we call, God answers.  We are delivered and saved by the good Grace of God’s eternal love.  As we gather in this time and space, let us turn our hearts to God.

A prayer to center you

Living God

You soar among us

You breathe life into our lungs

You surround us with your grace and compassion

You have extended forgiveness to us time after time

As we gather in this space

May we will your love filling our lungs with each breathe

May we sense your grace and compassion to our very core

May we know deep within us the depth of your forgiveness

That we may come to you, just as we are

Loved

Living

And

Forgiven

Move us closer to you

Whisper a new your Good News to us

And fill us with Your Good Hope

Amen

1 Timothy,

Chapter 6,

verses 6 through 9

Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment;  for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it;  but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.  But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

Reflection:

Contentment. 

An easy word to say, but not one that is so easy to live out.  It seems like we can always find something else to want for.  More money, more free time, more freedom, more youth.  Finding a way to settle into the here and now to be fully present is not always easy.  These words from 1 Timothy call us back to contentment, however.  Reminding us that God created us and brought us into the world with nothing and that when we leave this world, nothing will go with us.  A humbling fact indeed.  The author of Timothy is good to remind us however that there are basic needs to be meet.  Food and clothing are necessities, but four-star restaurants and high-end fashion are not a measure of a person’s value as a child of God. 

Too often in this modern age we fall into the trap of the prosperity gospel, believing that those around us with wealth have been blessed by God.  Society has taught us in so many ways that wealth is evidence of a positive judgement by God.  This too often leads to a belief in the counter point that those who are suffering poverty have been held in negative judgement from God. 

However, this text takes me somewhere else when you pair it with the overarching theme that God calls us to care for one another.  In that light, we are reminded that we are all in this together.  God does not reward or punish with wealth, but calls us to us our wealth to care for one another. 

This text also reminds me of the saying that is often misquoted as “money is the root of all evil.”   The real saying is that “the LOVE of money is the root of all evil.”  Money is a way that humanity has chosen to order our wellbeing.  It is a human construct and therefore a flawed one.  Since we are straddled with this system of being it is then up to us as Christians as to who we should use that system in a health and God like manner.

Money is not evil, it has become a human made necessity.  It is the love of money, the desire to hoard it, the temptation to take more than our fair share that is evil.  Perhaps even proving the opposite of the prosperity gospel.  Perhaps it is those who give freely and lovingly of what they have that God really bestows treasures upon, and perhaps that treasure is not monetary, but perhaps the treasure that our hearts really seek, the treasure that God really desires to give us is the treasure of contentment.

Where can contentment be found, perhaps it can be found in knowing that we are working for God.  Perhaps it comes in the caring for the orphan or the widow.  Perhaps it comes in helping even the least of these.  Perhaps it comes from counting our many blessings which come from heaven above and sharing with those that we see that have less.  Perhaps contentment comes in accepting God’s grace and love as comes to us and sharing that with all our neighbors. 

God created us in love and placed us in this time and space.  When we leave this world, we take nothing with us, but what we do leave behind is how we treated others, how cared for those around us.  That is what others take with them from us when we go.  May we leave love and light.

The Word in Action…

What are your treasures?

When we pause to look around, we can see the many blessings that we have been given. Even in the worst of circumstances, there still exists some grace somewhere around us. What are your treasures. Name them! God’s grace is a good start.

How will you share your treasure this week?

Now that you have listed all the blessings that surround you, what can you share with others? How can you be a blessing to your family? to your neighbors? to your community? Go be grace!

Prayer of sending

As we go from this time,

God,

Help us to count our many blessings that have been given by your hand and help us to share those blessings with others

guide our hands to do your work,

open our hearts to our neighbors

and our minds to your ways.

May your Spirit guide each step on the journey

and may we see glimpses of your kingdom come to life before us and through us.

Amen

Going out.

Be faithful in a little, that you may also be found faithful in much.

Be faithful in much, that you may be entrusted with the true riches that come from above.

Go to be faithful children of light,

And come to know the deep grace, hope and peace of the one who is truly faithful at all times.

Let all God’s people say: AMEN