READING: I Samuel 3:1-20 and John 1:43-51 SERMON : "Who Is It For" Rev. Richard J. Fairchild b-or02sn.y-b 711 The following is a more or less complete liturgy and sermon for the upcoming Sunday. Hymn numbers, designated as VU are found in the United Church of Canada Hymnal "Voices United". SFPG is "Songs For A Gospel People", also available from the UCC. * WORDS OF WELCOME AND CALL TO WORSHIP L The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. P And also with you. L God is with his people. He dwells in their midst. Listen and hear him speak. P Our hearts long for his word. We wait upon the Lord so that we may renew our strength. L God is our help and our support. His spirit moves among us to lead us in holiness and in righteousness all our days. P With joyful hearts we sing God's praise. With rejoicing we call upon Him. The Lord is our hope and our salvation. * HYMN: "Spirit of The Living God" - Vu 376 * PRAYER OF APPROACH Loving and creative God - most holy and wise Lord - we open ourselves to receive your life-giving Spirit, to hear your guiding word and to see your signs and feel your touch in our midst. Forgive O God, those things which we have done or failed to do which have hindered our relationship with you and with our neighbours and bless us that we might be blessing to you and to your world. Come, Lord, and make us new. We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen ANNOUNCEMENTS AND SHARING JOYS AND CONCERNS - Announcements - Birthdays and Anniversaries - Sharing Joys and Concerns * HYMN: "Teach Me God To Wonder" - Vu 299 CHILDREN'S STORY AND MUSIC TIME Title: Sharing The Story Object: Whispered Secret Source: Adapted from Christianity is Organic (Latimer Memorial UMC website - sermon for The Second Sunday After Epiphany, 1993) Good morning. I want us to engage in a little exercise to demonstrate what I am talking about. I need two volunteers who will be willing to come us here. I promise I won't embarrass you. I want to thank our volunteers first of all for being so brave. In a moment I will ask all of you who can to stand. I will whisper a secret into the two volunteers ears. Then they will go to the first row of pews and tell them the secret. Once you hear the secret you tell two people in your pew or, the pew behind you. So the secret will progress through the congregation. Sit down once you have heard the secret and had a chance to tell it. Of course we will run out of people so those on the sides and back will not have a chance to tell anyone so just sit down as soon as you hear the secret. To recap: I will tell these two the secret, they will tell two people, each of you will tell two people if possible, then you will sit down. O.K. everybody stand.... (whisper "Jesus is Lord" into volunteers ears. And wait until everyone is seated.).... O. K. what's the secret...? (Congregation - "Jesus is Lord!") But that's no secret. It's not a secret because you have heard it. But that is how Christianity spreads. It grows like an organism as one person tells another. An organism grows by adding cells. In the same way the Kingdom of God grows by adding people who have heard and believed that Jesus is Lord. Let's take a look at that process at work in Jesus' ministry. Our Scripture lesson from John today tells about Jesus calling Philip. Jesus found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." But it also tells us that Philip was from the same home town as Peter and Andrew. That means that Philip already knew what kind of people Peter and Andrew were. He understood their character. Just the day before Peter and Andrew became Jesus' followers. When Jesus came to Philip he probably already had heard that Peter and Andrew were following him. That information probably had a profound impact on Philip's reaction to Jesus. Something had a profound impact because of what Philip did. Philip immediately ran to Nathaniel and said, "We have found the one spoken of by the prophets." You notice he said "We have found..." I suppose that "we" included Peter and Andrew. So Nathaniel came to meet this prophet Philip had told him about and he also decides to follow Jesus. SO - Andrew and Peter decided to follow Jesus. Their decision moved Philip. Philip tells Nathaniel. This chain of events demonstrated how God reaches people. God uses other people to call us to become disciples. And he asks us to tell the good news to still others. Let us pray: Dear Lord God -- make us so excited by the gospel -- that we can't wait to tell everyone -- about Jesus and his love -- amen * HYMN: "This Little Light of Mine" - Blue Booklet 7(a) A READING FROM I SAMUEL 3:1-20 Our Old Testament Reading this morning concerns the first time that God spoke to the prophet Samuel, when he was still a youth, and the effect that it had on Eli - and then later, as God blessed Samuel, upon many others. (NIV) The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions. {2} One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. {3} The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was. {4} Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, "Here I am." {5} And he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." But Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down." So he went and lay down. {6} Again the LORD called, "Samuel!" And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." "My son," Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down." {7} Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. {8} The LORD called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. {9} So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place. {10} The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening." {11} And the LORD said to Samuel: "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. {12} At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family--from beginning to end. {13} For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them. {14} Therefore, I swore to the house of Eli, 'The guilt of Eli's house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.'" {15} Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the LORD. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, {16} but Eli called him and said, "Samuel, my son." Samuel answered, "Here I am." {17} "What was it he said to you?" Eli asked. "Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you." {18} So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, "He is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes." {19} The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground. {20} And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD. L: This is the Word of The Lord. P: Thanks be to God. ANTHEM: "God, You Meet Us" A READING FROM JOHN 1:43-51 Our Gospel reading today concerns how Jesus calls first Philip and then through Philip, Nathaniel, to be his disciples. (NIV) The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me." {44} Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. {45} Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." {46} "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip. {47} When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false." {48} "How do you know me?" Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you." {49} Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." {50} Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that." {51} He then added, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." L This is the Gospel of our Risen Lord. P Praise be to you, Lord Jesus Christ. * HYMN: "I Am The Light of The World" - VU 87 SERMON: "WHO IS IT FOR?" Bless O God the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts, and when we go from this place - help us to continue to hear and to see, and to do and be - all that you would have us hear and see and do and be. We ask it in the name of the blessed one - Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Two passages today about the "call of God" - Samuel - as a youth - called in the night from the midst of his sleep to hear a message; - and Philip and Nathaniel - called in the day from the midst of their busy lives to and follow Jesus. Next Sunday, as well, we will hear from the Gospel of Mark about the calling of Simon and Andrew and James and John - to leave everything and to follow Jesus and become ones who fish for people. There are a lot of ways talk about God's Call to the prophets and to the first Disciples could be played - but today - thanks in part to Charlene - who first asked me a set of provocative questions about today's reading from the First Book of Samuel - I want to take an unusual approach and ask you the question: WHO IS IT FOR? When God speaks to someone - be it to Samuel as the scriptures today record or to Moses at the burning bush or to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsamane or to the Apostle Paul on the road to Damacus who is the speaking for? Or to put it another way -- when we see God doing something in someone else's life - - when we see a healing performed - as it was before Christmas when a man we know who was under a sentence of death if he did not receive a lung transplant - a man who had to go everywhere with a tank of oxygen and who could not move a few feet without serious difficulties - not only got that transplant - but twenty days later - on Christmas Eve - climbed our steep stairs and walked through our doors - and praised God for the Messiah's birth with us - WHO IS IT FOR? - or when we see a prayer that someone has prayed - perhaps we ourselves - answered - as it has in the case of one our senior member's who for over 75 years has prayed for God to keep her safe - and safe he has kept her - even from a fire that last week that set her robe and night gown ablaze - burning a large hole right through it - and which could have, should have, harmed her severely, but did not... WHO IS IT FOR? - or again when we see someone is moved by God to do make an usual sacrifice - or simply, of a sudden, give their life to Christ - and so begin to recover from a long period of darkness and despair - as has been the case recently with a young woman afflicted with self doubt and uncertainy - WHO IS IT FOR? The answer may seem obvious - - The word to Samuel - was his awakening to the reality of God - was for him - to speak. -The word to Moses - his dramatic calling was for him - to wake him to his mission - God speaking in the garden to Jesus - was for his strengthening before the cross - and so on - And equally it may seem equally obvious that the healing of the man who needed a new lung the ring of protection for the old woman who could of died in a fire and the spiritual awakening of the young woman were for them. But this is not the whole story - the whole matter. What God does, and what God says to others - is also meant for us; - for us to whom, perhaps, God has not spoken so directly, but to whom God wishes to speak.... IT is meant for our hearing - for our understanding - for our encouragement. IT is meant for our building up - as much as it meant for the other person's good or ill IT is meant for our conversion - as much as it meant to waken or alert the person who first received it. Listen again to the first two verses of I Samuel, chapter 3: "Samuel served the Lord by helping Eli the priest, who was by that time almost blind. In those days, the Lord hardly ever spoke directly to people, and he did not appear to them in dreams very often." Now listen to the last two verses, verses 19 and 20, which come as a summary after the story of how God spoke to Samuel concerning Eli... "As Samuel grew up, the Lord helped him and made everything come Samuel said come true. From the town of Dan in the north to the town of Beersheba in the south, everyone in the country knew that Samuel was truly the Lord's prophet." There is a quite a change here is there not - - a change from not knowing the word of the Lord - not seeing him in action - to everyone, from Eli the priest to the citizens of Beersheba and of Dan - all knowing that the word of God is being spoken and that God is active and faithful. What God does, and what God says to others is also meant for us - for us to whom, perhaps, God has not spoken so directly, but to whom God wishes to speak.... This is clear in the case of a prophet like Samuel, whose call is after all to repeat what God has said and done in his presence to everyone he meets - but is also meant for us in the case of every act of God - in case of everything that God has done or said to the people around us each day. I haven't had a lung transplant recently - and recovered from it so quickly that I could climb the stairs of our church 20 days later without a twinge - Nor have I been saved from burning up in a fire recently - Nor have I even suddenly awakened to the Lord and started to recover from a period of darkness But I have been mightily encouraged by how these things have happened to others -- I have seen the Lord perform a miracle by seeing that miracle in a man climbing a set of stairs --I have understood that God protects me by being told about how he has protected one that we all love -- I have heard the Lord speak by how he has spoken to a young woman.. And how about you? Have you seen and heard the Lord lately? Have you understood what our God is about? Samuel we are told lived in a time - he began his ministry in a time when the Lord hardly ever spoke directly to people, and he did not appear to them in dreams very often But we live in a time - according to Jesus - and Peter - and all the disciples - "Your sons and daughters will prophecy. Your young men will see visions and your old men will have dreams." (Acts 2:17-19) A time of miracles in the sky above and wonders on the earth below, - the time of the Spirit, - the time of the end of the ages, - the time when God's kingdom is near to hand and the word - the word is written in hearts of men of women. (Jeremiah 31:33) So what do you see? What do you hear? The Apostle Paul - in another context - another kind of discussion - says this about the word of God and our experience of Christ - our experience of salvation: "People whose faith makes them acceptable to God will never ask, 'who will go up to heaven to bring Christ down?' Neither will they ask 'Who will go down into the world of the dead to raise him to life?' All who are acceptable because of their faith will simply say, 'the message is as near as your mouth or your heart.' And this is the same message we preach about faith." (Romans 10:6-8) My friends, I sometimes long to have the clarity of the prophet's vision. I sometimes desire to have the sudden ecstasy. I sometimes wish God would speak to me words that I could hear with my ears I daresay like you -I sometimes long for someone to go up into heaven and bring Christ down - so that I may see him; to rouse him, as it were, so that I may have action, now, on some issue or other that I deeply care about, that I am anxious about - that I fret about. But then - the faith that God has given to me begins to work; God touches me and I realize that all round me God is acting - and is speaking - and that those acts, and those words, are meant for me as much as they were meant for those who at first experienced them - that they are - in so far as I am open to them and the message they have - God's word to me. My friends - consider this: There were tears shed in our church on Christmas Eve, tears of joy and of understanding and gratefulness and their was incredible exhilaration as a man who was touched by God and healed came among us as a witness to us - and as another man - one whom I have not mentioned yet in this sermon, entered the church and by his presence confirmed for a farmer that we know well, that God indeed touches those who seem untouchable - and acts through individuals that some think God cannot act through. If you are starved for hope - If you despair and long to hear a word from God - If you can't see any good - if you can't see the Lord acting - stop for a minute, look, listen, and feed upon what God has already given - what God has already done - done not only in the PAGES OF THIS BOOK but in THE LIVES OF THOSE AROUND YOU. What he has done - and what he is doing. Have faith - but more than have faith - exercise your faith by stopping, by looking, by hearing, and by feeding and with Paul, and I dare to say, with me you will discover that the word is near to you - in your heart and in your mouth, and that word, being in your heart and your mouth, will soon go forth from you as a testimony to others. Who is it for? It is for you. And when it is for you - and you make it yours - it is for others. Such is the way that God lights the world Such is the way that God salts the earth Such is the way that God leavens the earth. LET US PRAY Father, at the beginning of our worship we sang "teach me, God, to wonder, teach me, God to see". As part of that hymn we prayed as well "Teach me God, to know you, (to) hear you when you speak, (to) see you in my neighbour when we meet." That is our prayer still, Lord; our prayer for now, and for always. We do not ask, O God, that you speak to us - we ask that we might hear what you have already spoken and be open to what you are even now doing and saying all round us..... Lord hear our prayer..... Merciful and gracious God, we pray today for those who struggle with doubt and unbelief, for those who do not have the eyes to see or the ears to hear - but who long to see and hear. Send us - send someone - to touch them with the reality of your love and care - to speak to them your word - to inspire them to new faith - and grant that so these uncertain ones might so claim that love, that word, that faith - that they in turn become ones whose experience speaks to others... Lord hear our prayer... We pray too, today, O Lord, for others who are in need today - for those of us and of the larger community who suffer in body, if not in soul, or who have some other need that we remember before you. We pray for those I name before you at this time - and for those whom each of us names in our hearts, or aloud, at this time --- for Fred and Merle,.... Florence and Marion,.... Philip and Peter, .... Scott and Kim,... and all those for whom we have a burden, be they near or be they far off..... Lord hear our prayer.... O God of infinite mercy, help us to open our lives to your power and to pour out your love upon the world around us -- Bless this your church and make it, make us, witnesses to your glorious grace. We ask it through Jesus, your Anointed One, he who first taught us to pray to you saying... Our Father... * MINUTE FOR MISSION: * SHARING GOD'S BLESSINGS: As the Offering is presented all stand for the Doxology (Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow - VU 541) and Prayer of Dedication Lord, as we share at this moment a portion of what we have received, help us open our lives to you and to all to whom you send us. Make us and all that we do and say a blessing to the world so that these offerings may be made complete by our obedience to your will. We ask it in the name of your son, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen * DEPARTING HYMN: "Lord, Speak To Me" - VU 589 * COMMISSIONING: In the power of the Holy Spirit, we now go forth into the world, to fulfil our calling as the people of God, the body of Christ. * BENEDICTION Go in peace; love and care for one another in the name of Christ, - and may the Spirit's power mould you and shape you according to the will of God;, - may the Father's love comfort and sustain you as you journey each day; - and may the grace, the mercy, and the faithfulness of the Son fill you to overflowing, this now and evermore. Amen * THREE FOLD AMEN & CHORAL BLESSING: "Go Now In Peace" - VU 964 copyright - Rev. Richard J. Fairchild 2000 - 2006 please acknowledge the appropriate author if citing these sermons.
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