Bulletin – January 30, 2022 (Fourth Sunday after Epiphany)
Sunday, January 30, 2022
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Approach
Lighting the Christ Candle
We light this candle today to remind us that we are called, to remind us that we are chosen, to remind us that we are challenged to follow. We have been invited to follow and bring light, symbolized in this candle, of Christ to the world. Let us answer that call today.
Response
Many are the lightbeams from the one light.
Our one light is Jesus.
Many are the lightbeams from the one light;
We are one in Christ.
Call to Worship
One: Listen—Do you hear the voice of the Holy One?
All: Inviting, daring, challenging, celebrating, creating—you and me.
One: I form you.
All: I know you.
One: I consecrate you.
All: I appoint you.
One: I send you.
All: Fear no one. I am with you.
One: I will deliver you.
All: I have put my words in your mouth.
One: God, may we have ears to hear and voices to speak this truth.
All: Let us worship.
Hymn – “You, Creator God, Have Searched Me”
You, Creator God, have searched me and you know my ways.
You perfectly understand me, it’s my cause of praise.
I cannot escape your presence in air, land or sea.
Your arms of love and protection are always with me.
You know me, O God, you have made me.
I am proud I’m the work of your hand.
In my waking and sleeping moments,
With my being I will praise your name.
You created light and darkness and you love them both.
You blessed the womb of my mother, you brought me to birth.
In your image and your likeness wonderfully made.
I will lift my voice to praise you, you are God indeed.
You know me, O God, you have made me.
I am proud I’m the work of your hand.
In my waking and sleeping moments,
With my being I will praise your name.
Prayer of Approach and Confession
Holy God, you knew us before we knew ourselves. You consecrate us even now to be your people. Create in us hearts worthy to be your prophets that we might go where you send us, and speak the Word that you give us. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, place your words upon our lips and your grace upon our hearts so that we might pluck up and pull down, destroy and overthrow, build and plant, as you, alone, have commanded.
Yet, before God and one another, we confess our reluctance to receive your calling for us to come and follow to live as God’s people, made by God and chosen as witnesses to God’s dream of justice and joy. Remind me, God, that you have made me to be one of your people in the world, recharge me with your Word. Renew us, God. Grant us courage to live out your Way of peace and grace. This we ask in Jesus’ name; Amen.
(adapted from Steven M. Fearing)
Words of Assurance
Time for All Ages
Hymn – “Open My Eyes”
Open my eyes, that I may see glimpses of truth thou has for me;
Place in my hand the wonderful key that shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for thee, ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!
Open my ears, that I may hear voices of truth thou sendest clear;
And while the wave notes fall on my ear, everything false will disappear.
Silently now I wait for thee, ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!
Open my mouth, and let me bear gladly the warm truth everywhere;
Open my heart and let me prepare love with thy children thus to share.
Silently now I wait for thee, ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!
The Word
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 4:1-10
1 If you return, O Israel, says the LORD, if you return to me, if you remove your abominations from my presence, and do not waver, 2 and if you swear, “As the LORD lives!” in truth, in justice, and in uprightness, then nations shall be blessed by him, and by him they shall boast.
3 For thus says the LORD to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. 4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, remove the foreskin of your hearts, O people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or else my wrath will go forth like fire, and burn with no one to quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
5 Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: Blow the trumpet through the land; shout aloud and say, “Gather together, and let us go into the fortified cities!” 6 Raise a standard toward Zion, flee for safety, do not delay, for I am bringing evil from the north, and a great destruction. 7 A lion has gone up from its thicket, a destroyer of nations has set out; he has gone out from his place to make your land a waste; your cities will be ruins without inhabitant. 8 Because of this put on sackcloth, lament and wail: “The fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.”
9 On that day, says the LORD, courage shall fail the king and the officials; the priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded. 10Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD, how utterly you have deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘It shall be well with you,’ even while the sword is at the throat!”
Scripture Reading: Luke 4:21-30
21Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” 24And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. 25But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God!
Meditation – “Are You Ready?”
Anthem – “All I Have”
The Response
Prayers of the People
One: You, O God, love us from the moment of our conception, You know us and you love us in the womb, You love us and you call us from before the moment of our first breath, and you love us when we first see the light of day. As a mother/father loves her/his child before she/he ever sees it, and then embraces it gently from the moment of its birth, so you love us—and we thank you. Help us dear God to love one another in this way…
All: Lord hear our prayer…
One: You love us, O God from the time of our naming. You love us in our growing and hole us as we take our first steps. You love us and walk beside us as we explore the world with eager hands and eyes. As a mother/father loves her/his child as she/he sees it grow and develop, so you love us—and we thank you. Help us dear God to love one another in this way…
All: Lord hear our prayer…
One: You love us, O God, as we mature and seek our way, You love us as we become aware of the world around us, You love us as we smile and play, You even love us when we say no and when we begin to stray. As a mother/father loves her/his child as she/he sees it become proud and tall, so you love us even when we sing and fall… Help us dear God to love one another in this way…
All: Lord hear our prayer…
One: We thank you God for loving us when we are unloving for caring for us when we are uncaring, and for calling to us when we go far away… Help us dear God to love one another in this way…
All: Lord hear our prayer…
One: Lord hear our prayers of love this day for those around us, for those we have held before you in our time of sharing, and for those we have thought of in our moments of caring:… Help us dear God to love one another in this way…
All: Lord hear our prayer…
One: We ask all these things in the name of Christ Jesus, who calls us to follow. Amen.
All: Lord hear our prayer…
(adapted from Richard J. Fairchild)
Hymn – “Take My Gifts”
Take my gifts and let me love you,
God who first of all loved me,
Gave me light and food and shelter,
Gave me life and set me free,
Now because your love has touched me,
I have love to give away,
Now the bread of love is rising,
Loaves of love to multiply!
Take whatever I can offer—
Gifts that I have yet to find,
Skills that I am slow to sharpen,
Talents of the hand, and mind,
Things made beautiful for others
In the place where I must be:
Take my gifts and let me love you,
God who first of all loved me.
Benediction
Here is the place. Now is the time. God call. We answer. Let us go and answer as church, as people sent to root up injustice and to plant the seeds of peace, that together with the Spirit, we would renew the face of the earth. Amen.
Response
Lead me, Lord, I will follow.
Lead me, Lord, I will go.
You have called me, I will answer.
Lead me, Lord, I will go.
