First Presbyterian Church Tucumcari

Worship 11:00AM
Sunday, August 14, 2016, the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Hymns:
Call to Worship
What are you looking for?
A better job, a bigger house, a smaller car, my cell phone.
What are you looking for?
A vacation spot, a quiet moment, my coffee mug.
What are you looking for?
Peace, wholeness, love, acceptance
What are you looking for?
You, Jesus, we are looking for you, but we are too busy to realize it.
Let us worship the One in whom all things are possible.
Prayer of the Day
You, O Jesus, are the source of all that we need.
You, the Word of Life, bring us everything that is important to our lives,
We thank you for pursuing us down the difficult and confusing paths we take,
As we seek idols that we believe bring us wholeness and peace,
When in fact it is you we really need.
Call to Confession
Prayer of Confession Based on Isaiah 5 (Responsive)
Beloved, God, you had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. You dug it and
cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines. You built a watchtower
in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it.
You expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
What more could you do for your vineyard that you had not done in it?
When you expected it to yield grapes, why did our lives yield wild
grapes? What now will you do, Lord?
We confess that we stray from the way you call us, choosing to trust in what
is temporary:
do not remove your hedge, or we shall be devoured.
We confess that we build our own walls through injustice and indifference to
others:
do not break down your wall, or we shall be trampled down.
We confess that we are destroying this earth you created:
do not make it a waste.
When we confess our many sins to you, Lord, may the Spirit of Truth change
our hearts:
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prune us so that we shall not be overgrown with briers and thorns.

When we cry out to you in humility:
send your living water so that we may be cleansed.
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the words of Jesus: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask
for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. When we offer our
confession to God with a humble and contrite heart, we will receive
forgiveness.
In Jesus Christ we are forgiven!
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Responsive Reading Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19
Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock!
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth
before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh.
Stir up your might,
and come to save us!
You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches;
it sent out its branches to the sea,
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and its shoots to the River.

Why then have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
The boar from the forest ravages it,
and all that move in the field feed on it.
Turn again, O God of hosts;
look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
the stock that your right hand planted.
But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,
the one whom you made strong for yourself.
Then we will never turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call on your name.
Restore us, O LORD God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.

Prayers of the People

James in hospital (again)
Sims, Bowens and Cherries
Loving God,
O God, you have been our help in ages past,
and you are our hope for years to come.
We give you thanks for calling us together to worship,
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and for hearing us when we pray.

Before the word is on our lips, you know the desires and cries of our hearts,
your healing balm covers our hurt and your spirit of joy dances in our midst.
We celebrate together, rejoicing with those who rejoice,
for life and family, health and opportunity.
Help us to live in gratitude, recognizing all you have done for us.
And we lift up to you a world in need
people in need of healing,
communities in need of comfort,
nations in need of guidance.
Where there is violence, give us courage to make peace.
Where there is fear, give us courage to stand with hope.
Where there is illness and disease, give us courage to reach out with healing
hands.
Open our hearts, O Godbreak our hearts open for what breaks yours.
Pour in your hope, and then lead us into your world unafraid,
ready to stand with your people near and far,
as signs of your kingdom here on earth, among us and within us,
hope overflowing,
until all creation sings your grace.
We pray these and all things in the name of Jesus the Christ, who taught us
to pray: Our Father, who art in heavenAmen.
Time out for Teaching:

A Cloud of Witnesses

What are witnesses? Why are they a cloud?

Who are they?
Prayer for Illumination
Gospel Reading
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Luke 12:49-56

"I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!

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have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it
is completed!

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Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?

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No, I tell you, but rather division!

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From now on five in one household will be

divided, three against two and two against three;

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they will be divided:

father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and
daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and
daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."
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He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you
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immediately say, 'It is going to rain'; and so it happens.

And when you see

the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat'; and it
happens.

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You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of

earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
Epistle Hebrews 11:29-12:2
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By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but

when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned.

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By faith the

walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days.

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By faith

Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient,
because she had received the spies in peace.
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And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak,

Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets-33who through

faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the
mouths of lions,

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quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won

strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to

flight.35Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured,
refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection.

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suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

Others

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They

were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword;
they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted,
tormented-38of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts
and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

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Yet all these, though

they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was
promised,

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since God had provided something better so that they would not,

apart from us, be made perfect.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us

also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run
with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus the pioneer
and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right
hand of the throne of God.
Sermon: A Head Start
I joined the cross country team in my freshman year of high school. I
dont know what I was thinking. I hated distance running. Even though I
enjoyed other sports, running in a three-mile race was a lot less fun. It felt
like eternity. The problem was I didnt know how to pace myself so I could at
least finish the course. Even though I have learned more in my older age
how to pace myself on a treadmill, I still get a little anxious going outside for
a jog.
The early Christians knew a lot of anxiety too. Though they confessed
their faith in Christ and pledged their lives to Him for the long haul, it was
getting a little scary for them.
This Letter to the Hebrews addresses Christians who used to be Jewish.
They were evolving as Jewish Christians, to the point of seeing increasing
division with their old friends of the Jewish faith. They knew Jesus as their
Lord and Savior. While this was good news, the disagreement and hostility
was becoming more and more painful and probably a confusing.
We are no strangers to division and hostility.
We might also have similar troubles with people because of our faith.
Its hard to talk about faith with someone who is hostile towards Christianity.

Hard to talk about our faith with people who are ambivalent about religion,
who say, Im spiritual but not religious. Hard to talk about our faith with
those who feel organized religion is unnecessary or evil. There are people
who are angry at the Church for the sins it has perpetuated, for its history of
Crusades and discrimination. What may be the most painful is talking with
those who also claim Jesus as Lord but who think they are too different from
us to even share a worship space or a common mission! That hits very close
to home.
These types of things make us fearful for the future of Church, and
whether in the long haul, there will be anyone left in the church.
Hebrews says, however, even if your heart has been broken, to keep
running the race. It says to keep your eyes fixed on the pioneer and
perfecter of faith. Remember that there were others before us who also
experienced persecution and pain. Those others who did it out of faith alone,
like Rahab the prostitute, Barak, Gideon and others, and they didnt even
know the blessing of what it means to belong to God in Jesus Christ.
They had faith, but didnt yet see final vision of the Messiah born. The
author of Hebrews points to them as examples of people who lived in faith
throughout times of division, hostility and imperfection. In spite of those
situations, God kept pace with them.
Hebrews tells its readers to lay aside the things that weigh them down,
that prevent them from running the race. For it is with the grace of Jesus

Christ, that they could even run the race at all. His grace gave them a head
start that those first faithful Jews did not have.
Because of our knowledge of the grace of Jesus Christ, we have a head
start. And if we run it with joy, we can do amazing things.
Grace allows us to run without anything holding us back. We know we
have a history of screwing things up. As a mainstream religion in society, we
are guilty of perpetuating wars on other religions. We are guilty of looking
the other way. We are guilty of experimenting with morality, when we arent
absolutely certain of what God wants. We and I mean the universal Church
- have a centuries-long history of making mistakes and yet God still uses us
to bear the Good News.
Its true for us on the personal level too. We cant allow ourselves to
be held back from being at our very best. The difference between us and the
world out there is that we know God loves us and His grace leads us to a new
way of life. We are free of the burdens that others have allowed to hold
them down. We are free, of the burdens that others believe make them
unworthy to give or receive Gods love.
There are people out there who feel that way because they have not
yet learned the lesson of grace, but we know its by grace alone that we can
be so much more.
Thats the head start God has given. This is not a competitive race.
Our head start is to lead others to understand the power of love and grace.
And show them what freedom looks like in Jesus Christ.
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So, set aside that which weighs you down, so you know where your
freedom lies. Whenever your heart is heavy, it could help to remember that
simple prayer we call the Serenity Prayer, which goes like this: Lord, help
me accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference. Friends, you are called in faith to a
life of freedom. Once youve identified in your heart where you have gone
wrong, and sought forgiveness, let it go. You are free to run this race, in
spite of all thats wrong. Thanks be to God! Amen.
Benediction
We have heard and claimed Gods Good News in worship.
Now we go into the world to serve, to forgive,
to work for justice, and to give praise to God.
As we go, may we be filled with the Holy Spirit,
so we might recognize Jesus Christ in all people,
to the glory of God the Father,
now and forever. Amen.