Worship July 16
Let us worship!
God stands with waiting arms to welcome us into God’s embrace!
Let us come!
God stands ready to love us as we are, whole and perfect in God’s sight!
Let us come!
God stands awaiting us, with love, grace, and joy!
Let us come!
Come let us worship God.
A prayer to center you
God of Grace and love,
You have shown to us radical hospitality and yet we have not shown that same grace and love to others.
We have built walls of division instead of building bridges of hope.
Help us to set aside our own walls brick by brick that we may build those bridges that welcome all people into our homes and our hearts.
May we be radical vessels of your hospitality and love through action and deed, word and warmth.
May you help us to turn over the worries and fear that lead us to cling to the idea of scarcity, the ways of the world, and help us cling to your promise of abundance in you.
Amen
Holy Scripture: Ephesians 2:11-22
New Life Version
Followers Now Become the Body of Christ
11 Do not forget that at one time you did not know God. The Jews, who had gone through the religious act of becoming a Jew by man’s hands, said you were people who do not know God. 12 You were living without Christ then. The Jewish people who belonged to God had nothing to do with you. The promises He gave to them were not for you. You had nothing in this world to hope for. You were without God.
13 But now you belong to Christ Jesus. At one time you were far away from God. Now you have been brought close to Him. Christ did this for you when He gave His blood on the cross. 14 We have peace because of Christ. He has made the Jews and those who are not Jews one people. He broke down the wall that divided them. 15 He stopped the fighting between them by His death on the cross. He put an end to the Law. Then He made of the two people one new kind of people like Himself. In this way, He made peace. 16 He brought both groups together to God. Christ finished the fighting between them by His death on the cross. 17 Then Christ came and preached the Good News of peace to you who were far away from God. And He preached it to us who were near God. 18 Now all of us can go to the Father through Christ by way of the one Holy Spirit. 19 From now on you are not strangers and people who are not citizens. You are citizens together with those who belong to God. You belong in God’s family. 20 This family is built on the teachings of the missionaries and the early preachers. Jesus Christ Himself is the cornerstone, which is the most important part of the building. 21 Christ keeps this building together and it is growing into a holy building for the Lord. 22 You are also being put together as a part of this building because God lives in you by His Spirit.
Reflection:
Peace!
What a wonderful word. This scripture passage talks a lot about peace.
— verse 14— We have peace because of Christ.
— verse 15 — He stopped the fighting between them. He made peace.
—Verse 16 — He finished the fighting between them.
— verse 17 — He preached the Good News of peace.
Peace! A peace that comes from and through Christ Jesus. A peace that God desires for ALL of God’s people. Peace that is a reflection of God’s good and perfect kingdom. Peace!
Paul speaks to the people of Ephesus with words encouraging peace; peace between the Jew and the followers of Christ, peace between those who knew God, those who know know God and those who are yet to know God, peace between all peoples.
What a glorious vision, peace.
Can you imagine a world in which ALL of God’s children are at peace with one another, those that have known God, those who have just come to know God and those yet to know God-All of God’s children! What an example that would be of God’s kingdom.
So often we put up walls between ourselves and ‘others’, however we define other for ourselves. Humanity too often try to differentiate ourselves from other groups of people to make ourselves feel better or more secure, maybe even more successful or of more value than the other. However God sees value in all people. God desires for us to be for one another not against. Each person is made to reflect a part of the image of God—each a small part of the greater whole. Each one of us is loved and cared for by that creator who made us in their own image. Thus we are called to care for each person as each one is a small reflection of God.
Yet time and time again humanity tries to see not the God in others but the humanity. We look for the broken and the flawed not the radiance and wholeness that dwells within. God calls us, each and everyone of us, to love one another, to extend to one another the grace, love and compassion that God offered to each of us through Christ Jesus. Jesus did not shun the sinner or put up barriers for the least of these. Jesus reached out and carried for all people—especially those on the outskirts, the neglected and the ignored. Jesus acted out of abundance. Jesus practiced risky and radical hospitality to all people and that is what we as followers of Christ should display in our actions…risky and radical hospitality out of the abundance of grace and generosity that God has shown to us.
The world around us clings to this idea of sacristy. If you will remember just less than a year and a half ago when toilet paper flew off the shelves as everyone hoarded it away with no actual reason why except that others were taking it as well. People did not want to be without, even though at the beginning there was no reason that one would be without. It was not until people jumped to fear that a shortage occurred.
Paul J. Wadell, in an article for the Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University entitled ‘Toward a Welcoming Congregation’ points out that “fear of scarcity closes our hearts and tightens our grip on what we have. Anxiety’s central message is that we cannot afford to share because we can never have enough. Put more strongly, in a culture marked by anxiety and fear, the very things we have traditionally called sins or vices (hoarding, greed, suspicion) become wise and prudent virtues. Fear, rather than love, governs our lives. But such fear is a kind of idolatry because it suggests we are giving more attention to our own security than we are giving to God.”
Scott Bader-Saye warns, “the ethic of security produces a skewed moral vision. It suggests that suspicion, preemption, and accumulation are virtues insofar as they help us feel safe. But when seen from a Christian perspective, such ‘virtues’ fail to be true virtues, since they do not orient us to the true good—love of God and neighbor. In fact, they turn us away from the true good, tempting us to love safety more than we love God.”
So how do we live into the peace and abundance that God desires?
We trust in God’s abundance and care and we act out the risky and radical hospitality that Christ modeled.
We witness to the virtues of Christ himself, not those of fear and division, but those of justice, mercy, compassion, forgiveness and endless generosity. We feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, and care for the needy. We show radical love to those that we know and those we have yet to get to know. We lay our fears and worries aside and trust in a God who is powerful beyond all measure. We open our hearts to the ‘other’ and see them too as a reflection of God, beloved and worthy.
Let us work towards peace by practicing risky and radical hospitality.
Prayer of sending
Holy God,
Too often we build walls not bridges.
We judge others from a place of fear and uncertainty.
We let anxiety and worry overcome our calling to live like Christ.
Help us to step out in the world from a place of trust and abundance.
Help us to step out bravely and enact your risky and radical hospitality in the world so that we may see glimpses of your kingdom come to light around us.
May your peace descend and joy arise through us.
Amen
