Church Family! Welcome to the Mantua Center Christian Church and blessings to you and yours this New Year. This morning we are concluding our Advent/Christmas theme of “How does a Weary World Rejoice?” Together we will explore the story of the Baptism of Jesus and contemplate whether we really trust in our belovedness. Thank you for joining us and may God’s Spirit fill you in this time of worship.
Prelude “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty” [by J. B. Dykes] Sarah Park
Welcome - Rev. Chad Delaney
Welcome to the Mantua Center Christian Church on this Peace Sunday. We are a community seeking to have open minds, open hearts, and open arms.
Thank you for joining us here in the house and online. Welcome to everyone!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Welcoming Song - “Sister, Let me Be Your Servant” #490, v.2
We are pilgrims on a journey, fellow trav'lers on the road.
We are here to help each other, walk the mile and bear the load.
*Call to Worship - Pam Baynes
One: There are some days when I need the reminder that I belong to God.
Do you ever feel that way?
All: Yes. We do. The world can be a harsh place;
we often need that reminder.
One: Well then, let us care for one another. Let us speak the truth we each need
to hear. Church, you belong to God. You are God’s beloved.
All: Friend, you belong to God. You are God’s beloved.
One: Let us worship the God who knows our names.
All: Let us worship the God who calls us beloved. Amen.
*Opening Hymn - As with Gladness #173, v.1-3
1 As with gladness sages bold did the guiding star behold;
as with joy they hailed its light, leading onward, beaming bright,
so, true Morning Star, may we evermore your splendor see.
2 As with joyful steps they sped to that lowly manger bed,
there to bend the knee before One whom heaven and earth adore,
so, may we with willing feet ever seek your mercy seat.
3 As they offered gifts most rare at that manger plain and bare,
so may we with holy joy, pure and free from sin's alloy,
all our costliest treasures bring, Christ, to you from whom they spring.
Invitation to Generosity
Invitation - Pam Baynes
Offertory
Music: “I Come to the Garden Alone” [by C. A. Miles] Sarah Park
*Response“- Make Me a Blessing”
[Refrain]
Make me a blessing, Make me a blessing.
Out of my life may Jesus shine;
Make me a blessing, O Savior, I pray.
Make me a blessing to someone today.
Offering Prayer - Pam Baynes
Children’s Moment - Rev. Chad Delaney
What does it mean when someone “calls someone names”?
Why does “calling names” matter so much?
In the scripture, God calls Jesus some new names “My son” and “beloved”
God calls you beloved and a child of God.
God of Grace, You love and cherish every single child. You designed them with a purpose, and You gave them unique personalities that contribute meaningfully to their families, communities and our world. We pray today each may know your love and presence. Draw them closer to you and guide those who guide them. We pray that each child will find fulfillment and joy in life and that You will guard their hearts against burdens too heavy for them to carry. Bring people into their lives that will know, love and protect them, challenge them and help them develop to their full potential so they can thrive today and into the future. In all things, we place our trust in you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen
Special Music
Sing We Now of Christmas [by Mark Hayes/Marvin Gaspard] - Jan Green
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer - Rev. Chad Delaney
God of Christmas, God of Incarnational Love, God of New Beginnings, God of Epiphany,
There could be so many other places we could be right now, but we chose to be here. The beauty of Christmas may be starting to fade around us. We and the world are transitioning. Yet, still we are singing of Christmas. We are still remembering the story. Still seeking to be your incarnate love in the world. And we know we need to be here and to meet you in this place. We need to hear, again and again, that we are created in your image—that your love is alive within us. That we are uniquely called to be your hands and feet in the world. We need to hear your words of love today because the world can be an exhausting place. Over and over again we are bombarded with reminders that we should be doing more, we should be doing better, should be working harder. But in you we find rest. In you, we experience delight. That we are your beloved. So in this love and connected by your Spirit, we gain perspective. We are reconnected. We are reminded that we are worthy of rest, worthy of grace, worthy of love and belonging.
Today, we have many griefs and joys among us. Together we have our own story of delights and pains. In the silence…we give them to you…
Gracious God, we also lift up our friends and neighbors and strangers around us that all might know and trust they are beloved of God. In particular, today we pray for … the war in Israel, Gaza, and the violence in the Middle East. We pray for those seeking a new start in their year, their relationships, their jobs, their families. We lift up to you those who are lonely and searching. Those in need of affirmation and compassion. Be with them. Renew their spirits. Remind them, just as you remind us, that they all are loved by you.
Today we return to the water’s edge. The story of christ birth echoing in us. The manger, the shepherds, the star, and the wise men. And now moving to our response of faith. Recalling our own baptisms and remembering that newness we experienced in the waters. Remembering that you still baptize us even today with the Holy Spirit. We will continue to look for you in our midst, and we will continue to affirm belovedness in one another. Now with united voices, we lift our hearts to you in prayer, using the words your son taught us to pray, saying: Our Father…
Communion
Meditation - Roger Cram
Communion Hymn #387, vs. 1-2 - “Bread of the World, in Mercy Broken”
1 Bread of the world in mercy broken,
wine of the soul in mercy shed,
by whom the words of life were spoken,
and in whose death our sins are dead:
2 Look on the heart by sorrow broken,
look on the tears by sinners shed;
and be thy feast to us the token
that by thy grace our souls are fed.
Prayer - Nora Brant
Words of Institution - Nora Brant
Music: “Would you be Free From your Burden of Sin?” [by L. E. Jones]
Scripture- Luke 3:21-22
Epiphany and Baptism
Beloved God,
Through the pages of scripture, you have sprinkled your love for us like an echoed refrain. Despite its repeated truth, we too often allow that good news to roll off of us like water, barely allowing it to touch us. Make today different.
As we read your Word aloud, let the truth of your love for creation seep into our bones. May we hear your echos of “beloved” deep within us and respond with overflowing joy. We are here. We are listening. Amen.
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
Sermon - We Trust our Belovedness - Rev. Chad Delaney
A story shared by Josiah Ruff…I don’t know if this happened, but I know that it is true.
Before he died, a father said to his son;
“Here is a watch your grandfather gave me… It is almost 200 years old. Before I give it to you, go to the jewelry store in the city. Tell them that I want to sell it, and see how much they offer you.”
The son went to the jewelry store, came back to his father, and said; “They offered $100 because it is so old.”
The father said; “OK, try the pawnshop.”
The son went to the pawnshop, came back to his father, and said; “The pawnshop offered only $20 because it has a scratch”
The father asked his son to go to the museum and show them the watch.
The son quietly questioned his father’s judgment, but still, willing to act on his last wishes he went to the museum, when he came back he said to his father; “The curator offered $375,000 for this very rare piece to be included in their precious antique collection.”
The father responded;
“I wanted to show you that the right place will value you in the right way. Never stay in a place or give over your heart to someone or something that doesn’t know your true value as a child of God. In relationships, your job, family, friendships…don’t settle for someone else’s definition of your worth. Instead, see the Light that God Sees in You.”
When I was a youth pastor in Nashville, Tennessee I recognized that many of the youth had voices around them saying “You are not enough” and the youth internalizing the message. Many adults experience it too though. Sometimes people receive the message we don’t have value from the world. Sometimes our peers. Sometimes teachers. Sometimes churches. Sometimes parents or family members. We can start to believe that our value is dictated by another’s definition of what is acceptable or good or perfect. So every week with the youth we would remember the 139th Psalm together. 2 verses stuck out.
13 For it was you, God, who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.”
In our closing circle we would go around and say our name and a part of the verse. “My name is _ and I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
The scripture gives testimony to how God sees us…BUT…..do we really believe it? REALLY trust it in our heart of hearts?
Who gets to decide your value to the world and to life? What criterion do we use? Who do we let establish our worth? The Jewelry Shop? The Pawn Shop? The Museum? Those who love us and we them? Our Creator?
One of the mysteries of the Gospel story in the New Testament is the story of Jesus’ baptism. We have this incredible story of his birth. Angelic pronouncements, the miraculous birth in a lowly manger, the shepherds watching their flocks by night. Mary is told that Jesus “will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High…He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ Jesus is the promised One of God who will scatter the proud and bring down the powerful! And as John the Baptist would say in the Gospel of John, “the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’
Yet…..in Luke 3…he comes to be baptized. Why? We normally think of baptism as washing our sin away, being covered in the Grace of God, and welcomed into the church. Does Jesus--the Son of the Living God--need that? Well…perhaps as a human being he did. But what else could be going on?
Perhaps in this moment, despite all the prophetic pronouncements, despite all the expectations, despite the deep connection he already experienced with God…Jesus himself still needed to know, needed to be reminded, needed to have confirmed in his own mind and heart and spirit…that he was known and claimed and LOVED by God. That he was beloved by God. The baptismal waters to be an unconditional affirmation and reminder and blessing from God. You are mine and you are enough!
“Heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, my Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’”
So…what about us? Do we let the pawn shops of the world decide our beauty, our meaning, our worth? OR…do we hear God’s voice?
Henri Nouwen wrote:
“It certainly is not easy to hear that voice in a world filled with voices that shout: ‘You are no good, you are ugly; you are worthless; you are despicable, you are nobody—unless you can demonstrate it otherwise.’ These negative voices are so loud and so persistent that it is easy to believe them. That’s the great trap.”
Have you ever fallen for the great trap? It is a sneaky one. Self-degradation, masked in humility. Doubting your worth and questioning your belovedness? Scolding ourselves and being our own worst enemy?
Would that the HEAVENS would open up to remind us “You are my child, my beloved, with you I am well pleased.”
We have to remember that this baptism story comes in the Gospel of Luke before Jesus lifted a miraculous finger or fed the 5,000 or gave the sermon on the Mount or told a parable. At this point in the story he’s only frustrated his mother and father because they couldn’t find him because he was dropping knowledge at the temple. Yet, we see here that who Jesus was already…it was enough…God was pleased with him and calls him beloved.
As we conclude our Advent and Christmas season and prepare for a new year of being human on planet earth…could we begin by simply rejoicing in the idea that God loves us? Right where we are. Our warts and wins. Our struggles and vices. Our past and present? Could we try for a moment to really trust in our belovedness? Really believe that God made us for Good Works. Really believe that God has given us gifts to love and bless others. As Christin told me one time…to tell the Negative Committee in my heart and mind to sit down and be quiet! Part of this is actively resisting the basement voices in our lives (including our own) that are dragging us down.
For--let’s remember!--our belovedness is NOT just about us. Remembering we are beloved hopefully will warm us and bless us and make us feel good…AND it is only the beginning. It is only a foundation for our cup to be one that overflows in the service of others.
Henri Nouwen said it beautifully: “I must tell you that claiming your own blessedness always leads to a deep desire to bless others…It is remarkable how easy it is to bless others, to speak good things to and about them, to call forth their beauty and truth, when you yourself are in touch with your own blessedness. The blessed one always blesses.”
Today, let’s learn to trust in our belovedness. Many in the world will try to place a value on our life and worth…but it is GOD who establishes this from the very beginning of our existence. At our baptism. In our life. May we see and trust the Light that God sees in us. To remember that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. That we are blessed by God and called to be a blessing to others. May it be so for you and for me and for all of us together as the Mantua Center Christian Church, and all of God’s children. Amen.
*Closing Hymn - Go, My Children, with My Blessing #431, vs. 1-3
1 Go, my children, with my blessing, never alone.
Waking, sleeping, I am with you; you are my own.
In my love's baptismal river I have made you mine forever.
Go, my children, with my blessing—you are my own.
2 Go, my children, sins forgiven, at peace and pure.
Here you learned how much I love you, what I can cure.
Here you heard my dear Son's story;
here you touched him, saw his glory.
Go, my children, sins forgiven, at peace and pure.
3 Go, my children, fed and nourished, closer to me;
Grow in love and love by serving, joyful and free.
Here my Spirit's power filled you;
here his tender comfort stilled you.
Go, my children, fed and nourished, joyful and free.
Benediction - Rev. Chad Delaney
Stay for fellowship and Sunday School
As we conclude this Christmas season, hear this affirmation of Faith from Rev. Sarah R. Speed:
We believe that the God we see in scripture is a God of love.
We believe that God created us and delights in that creation.
We believe that God’s light SHINES in each one of us.
We believe that no matter our earthly challenges, nothing can change that
We could fail every test, miss every goal, drop every ball,
and we would still be God’s beloved.
Therefore, let us cling to this promise like a rock in the storm.
Let us anchor ourselves with this good news,
Though we are weary, may we rejoice in knowing we are children of God.
We are beloved. And together we will strive to live this way, as a blessing to others in the likeness of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Postlude - “Encamped Along the Hills of Light ” [by I. D. Sankey ] Sarah Park