We are a community seeking to have open minds, open hearts, and open arms, building community in a fragmented world.
Prelude - All Creatures of Our God and King [by Geistliche Kirchengesang ] - Sarah Park
Opening Scripture - Psalm 77:1-2, 11-13
1 I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, that he may hear me.
2 In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted.
11 I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord; I will remember your wonders of old.
12 I will meditate on all your work, and muse on your mighty deeds.
13 Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God?
*Response - Weave
Weave, weave, weave us together, Weave us together, in unity and love.
Weave, weave, weave us together, weave us together, together in love.
*Call to Worship - Aspen Baynes
ONE: With friends and strangers, with family and neighbors, we gather:
ALL: Come among us, Healing God, with that love which never ends.
ONE: With faith reaching out to touch, with hearts straining to trust, we hope:
ALL: Come among us, Friend of the broken, with your compassion which makes us whole.
ONE: With word and wonder, with silence and song, we wait:
ALL: Come among us, Dryer of our tears, to lift us to our feet to follow you.
~Written by Thom Shuman
*Opening Hymn - Love Divine, All Loves Excelling #517, v.1-2
1 Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven, to earth come down,
fix in us thy humble dwelling, all thy faithful mercies crown;
Jesus, thou art all compassion, pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation, enter every trembling heart.
2 Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast;
let us all in thee inherit, let us find the promised rest;
take away the love of sinning, alpha and omega be;
end of faith, as its beginning, set our hearts at liberty.
Invitation to Generosity
Invitation Aspen Baynes
Offertory - “Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart” by Henry Smith
The Doxology #46
Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise God, all creatures here below;
praise God above, ye heavenly host: Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Offering Prayer
Children’s Moment - Liz Meeker
Pastoral Prayer - Liz Meeker
Communion
Meditation - Pam Baynes
Communion Hymn - Be Known to Us in Breaking Bread #398
1 Be known to us in breaking bread,
but do not then depart;
Savior, abide with us, and spread
thy table in our heart.
2 There sup with us in love divine;
thy body and thy blood,
that living bread, that heavenly wine,
be our immortal food.
Prayer & Lord’s Prayer - Pam Baynes
Words of Institution - Liz Meeker
Music: “I Hear Thy Welcome Voice” by L. Hartsough
Scripture - Exodus 20:12-16
12 Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
13 You shall not murder.
14 You shall not commit adultery.
15 You shall not steal.
16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Sermon - "Commanded to Live in Love" - Liz Meeker
At the start of this message, I am sure I will be repeating Nancy a little but had to give myself context in order to get started. The first question that I had was why did God give us the 10 Commandments? They aren’t legal laws; we actually don’t have to follow them; although most Christians do. But they were given to us “just as a loving parent lays down ground rules for his child to follow; to lead a safe and successful life. God the Father gave us the Ten Commandments to help us to lead our best lives with regard to our relationship with Him and our relationship with each other.”
Since the Garden of Eden, man has rebelled against God. To help free humanity from the likelihood of our sinning and to help us lead our best lives, God handed down the Ten Commandments as a sort of code of moral lives for us to live by. We should not follow this code out of fear or guilt but rather as signposts that point us to the straight and narrow path of righteousness. The path is clearly marked but stray we will. I am going to be talking about 5 of the last commandments that deal with how we form and maintain our relationship with each other. Here we go, buckle up!
The 5th commandment is “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you." This simply means to do as one is told. To honor means to respect and love. This will only happen if both parents and children put the other’s interests above their own, that is, if they submit to each other. So my question is this: how do you honor your parents if they are not honorable. Not everyone has stellar parents; and mine bordered on abusive. Oddly, while both parents occasionally did not honor the four of us; I dearly loved my mother. I wanted nothing more than to please her. Throughout my life; I have missed her a lot. My Dad, on the other hand, was a different story. Now, I am not going into stories about why Liz Meeker is the way she is; but suffice to say, I have long struggled with the honor your parents commandment. As a christian, I am asked to follow this commandment but how? I think it is ok to honor the role that both parents played in my life. After all, they were my parents! I focus on the happy memories and remember that it is right and expected that I do no harm, important note to them or to me. It is ok to make space; to stand alone and still show respect.
The 6th commandment is “Thou shall not murder”! The commandment is explained “if you suffer being a Christian, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler.” We can suffer as a Christian, and as we already know, Jesus will be with us all the way. Let your light shine before men, that they may see you're good deeds and praise your father in heaven (Matthew 5:16) Now, this commandment, in the New Revised Standard version, refers to murder specifically. If you swat a fly, you are ok. If you are a hunter, that is acceptable. The commandment asks, though, that we not kill each other. I watched a video about the “Do not murder” commandment. There are three questions to ask before you pull the trigger, hit someone with a hammer etc: What is your direct action, (2) what is your direct intention and (3) what is your direct result. If someone has invaded your home, your direct action is probably your safety, direct intent is again yours and your families safety, and direct result is that either the guy ran out of the house or he is laying on the floor with a huge bump on his head. All three questions do not result in being a murder. Now, we all need to think twice about killing anyone but this helped me understand the terminology.
As I write this, we are a little more than 2 weeks passed the massacre in Uvalde, Texas. I almost don’t know what to say about this! Does it make sense that God would hand us a commandment about not killing, expecting to have it ignored the way that it is? Is this commandment open to exceptions: like ok to kill if you are mentally ill, ok to kill if you can be sold a gun two days before the event. Ok to kill if you are a politician that cares more for your voter base than small children. I know I am being ridiculous here; but something has to be done so we CAN honor this commandment. Our first response in any life threatening situation should not be to reach for our weapons. Personally, I would probably be so frightened that I would shoot my foot off. I am going to close on this tough commandment with a thought that a friend asked. “What if Jesus came to earth right now? What if he came to rewrite this commandment? How would it be rewritten? And lastly, can you see or sense his tears? We are failing our Jesus….
The 7th commandment is “You shall not commit adultery”! “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” (Hebrews 13:4). Christians must have a great respect for their marriage vows. Love between husband and wife must be nurtured throughout life. Marriage partners must make sure that their love runs deep enough to affect their hospitality, sympathy, fidelity, and contentment. I also viewed the Hebrew definition of adultery. Described with different wording, adultery is much the same but there are two additions: One, “adultery, in scripture, idolatry or apostasy from the true God” (Jeremiah 3:8) I wish I had bet my husband $5 on this one because I would have one more gallon of gas for having done that. I had thought adultery might be the turning away from Christianity, more specifically of Christ. The definition of apostasy is: “the rejection of Christianity by someone who formerly was a Christian and/or who wishes to administratively be removed from a formal registry of church members. The second difference is “among ancient naturalists, the grafting of trees was called adultery being considered an unnatural union. This one was a real surprise!
The 8th Commandment is "Thou shall not steal." From (Ephesians 4:28) “He who has been stealing, must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.” Now stealing comes in many formats: shoplifting, fraud, robbing someone, insider trading etc! Here is one that is easy to get caught on: once during the summer, I took all three kids to Kent Roosevelt pool to swim. I think at that time, it cost $1 per kid unless you were a Kent resident. It was free, if you lived in Kent. As we went through the turnstile, a high school kid said to me “you are from Kent, right”? No, I said, we live in Mantua. I honestly didn’t give it a thought; after, I realized the look on the high school boy was “boy, this one is a doozy”! While I felt sort of dumb, I shortly realized what a good message that was for our kids. After all, they knew where we lived! Honesty has always been something I value very highly and by God’s grace, our kids are that way too! God’s grace and the fact they have been chased around the block a few times by their mother!
The 9th commandment is my personal favorite! “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor (Exodus 12:16.) “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” (Colossians 3:9.) This commandment is widely understood as moral imperatives by Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant scholars. It was definitely a top moral imperative in the Meeker house. I have a gift for spotting a liar. Just ask my children…they have the brown-eyed curse. Two of them have dark brown eyes; and one has green. Not one of them can lie. Brown eyed people just cannot pull it off. But in reality, there are a couple of things going on here: truthfulness and trust. Having both of these qualities, is part of God’s plan to love each other and be good neighbors.
Well, we have made it through 5 commandments. Phew! I have studied a lot and learned more. God’s hope and wish for all of us to live in love with one another. These 10 commandments, while seemingly simple rules to love by, are a tapestry of who we are to be with one another. Soldiers from opposing sides found it 50 years after they fought against each other. The hope is for that son or daughter to find reconciliation with his/her father. Perhaps the homeless man will no longer covet his neighbor’s house when he finds a home of his own to live in. Whatever the case may be, God gave the commandments so long ago so that we could be a people living for and within the Kingdom as one body fully knowing love and peace. May you find wholeness and peace as you live and worship with the gift God has given us called “the Ten Commandments”.
*Closing Hymn - Seek Ye First #354, v. 1 & 2
1 Seek ye first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness
And all these things shall be added unto you.
Allelu, Alleluia
2 Ask and it shall be given unto you Seek and ye shall find
Knock and it shall be opened unto you.
Allelu Alleluia
Benediction - Liz Meeker
Postlude - “Far Away in the Depths of my Spirit” [by W. G. Cooper ] - Sarah Park