Prelude - “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings” [by J. McGranahan] - Sarah Park
We are a community seeking to have open minds, open hearts, and open arms, building community in a fragmented world. Welcome to the Mantua Center Christian Church
Opening Scripture - 2 Corinthians 5:16-20 - Rev. Chad Delaney
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. 17So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to 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 Ryan & Karly Lind
ONE: We gather together to remember, to once again tell the wonderful stories of our God—
ALL: passed down from generation to generation; stories of faithfulness and love, of mercy and compassion
ONE: We tell these stories so that we don’t forget.
ALL: We tell these stories to remember who we are—people of God.
ONE: We tell these stories so that our children and our children’s children can also come to know and love the God we serve.
ALL: Let us remember and let us worship together!
*Opening Hymn - "All Creatures of Our God and King" #22, v.1&3
1 All creatures of our God and King,
lift up your voice and with us sing
Alleluia, Alleluia!
O burning sun with golden beam,
O silver moon with softer gleam:
Refrain
O praise God, O praise God,
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
3 O flowing water, pure and clear,
make music for your God to hear,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
O blazing fire who lights the night,
providing warmth, enhancing sight: [Refrain]
Invitation to Generosity
Invitation - Ryan & Karly Lind
Offertory - “Encamped Along the Hills of Light” [by I. D. Sankey]
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 - Ryan & Karly Lind
Children’s Moment - Rev. Chad Delaney
Pastoral Prayer - Rev. Chad Delaney
Open our Hearts Loving God, help us remember who we are
Gracious God, In love You created us, and in love You sustain us, day after day. So it is with confidence that we bring our prayers to You, knowing that You hear us, and will respond. In our daily living help us to pray for and remember the world around us, for the many who continue to suffer and call out for help:
for those without enough to eat in East Africa and war zones;
for those picking up the pieces after a natural disaster;
for those desperate to find work to support their families.
for women who have felt dismissed and ignored or even attacked.
For those living with stereotypes and prejudice constantly
Open our Hearts Loving God, help us remember who we are
We pray for our family and friends who are suffering:
those struggling physically or emotionally,
those working to overcome mental illness;
those facing challenges at home or at work;
those grieving the death of a loved one.
In this pain, move us to respond in your likeness. To heed the call of Christ to care for one another.
Open our Hearts Loving God, help us remember who we are
God, You have called us to pray for our enemies;
to bless, rather than curse, those who deliberately seek to harm us.
those who have hurt us, physically or emotionally;
those who have stolen from us, or cheated us of what was rightfully ours;
those who have spread rumours about us, or turned our friends against us.
In faith, we ask You to bless them. We may not be able to forgive them or love them, but we place them in your hands as Jesus taught us to love our enemies.
Open our Hearts Loving God, help us remember who we are
We pray for Your church around the world,
that it would be a living demonstration of Your coming kingdom:
offering hospitality to all, to fight for the rights of all human beings
ready to help in times of need, showing love to friends and enemies alike,
seeking to live in peace with all.
God, we praise You for Your faithful love, Give us grace to hear Your call, and courage to follow
Open our Hearts Loving God, help us remember who we are
In the name of Jesus, our Saviour and Lord, Amen.
Communion
Meditation - Drema Herron
Communion Hymn - When you do this, Remember Me #400, v.1-2
1 You my friend, a stranger once, do now belong to heaven.
Once far away, you are brought home into God's family.
""When you do this, remember me.""
2 Now my Lord is also yours, my people are your own;
embraced together in God's arms, I enfold you now in mine.
""When you do this, remember me.""
Prayer & Lord’s Prayer - Drema Herron
Words of Institution - Rev. Chad Delaney
Music: “I Must Tell Jesus All of My Trials” [by E. A. Hoffman]
Scripture - Exodus 4:18-26
18 Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, ‘Please let me go back to my kindred in Egypt and see whether they are still living.’ And Jethro said to Moses, ‘Go in peace.’ 19The Lord said to Moses in Midian, ‘Go back to Egypt; for all those who were seeking your life are dead.’ 20So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt; and Moses carried the staff of God in his hand.
21 And the Lord said to Moses, ‘When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. 22Then you shall say to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. 23I said to you, ‘Let my son go that he may worship me.’ But you refused to let him go; now I will kill your firstborn son.” ’
24 On the way, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord met him and tried to kill him. 25But Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’ feet with it, and said, ‘Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!’ 26So he let him alone. It was then she said, ‘A bridegroom of blood by circumcision.’
Sermon - “Remember Who You Are” - Rev. Chad Delaney
Here we are back in the book of Exodus again encountering Moses in this very strange story. Once again, not a story that has typically shown up in our preaching lectionaries as pastors.
Moses, from our youth, is traditionally celebrated as the grandest hero in the story of Exodus and indeed his actions and leadership were profoundly important. After all, he was one who killed an Egyptian taskmaster, listened for God in the Burning Bush, confronted Pharaoh to “Let my people Go,” leading them over the Red Sea, and received the 10 Commandments. Of course, it is good to celebrate Moses and all he did and symbolizes in the history of our faith.
However, as the great and late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote: “The Torah is a deep and subtle book…Just beneath [the story of Moses] is another far more remarkable story, not about a hero but about six heroines, six courageous women without whom there would not have been a Moses.”
A weeks ago we talked about the story of Shiphrah and Puah. We might remember Yocheved (Moses’ mother) and his sister Miriam who helped get Moses into a thatched basket and down the river. And Pharaoh’s daughter who would bring that basket out of the water and then raise Moses in the Pharaoh’s palace.
And now we hear about Zipporah and this odd event in our scripture this morning!
Zipporah was one of 7 daughters of a Midianite shepherd and priest named Jethro. Moses and Zipporah met at a well with a little drama. After Moses killed the Egyptian taskmaster and fled, he came upon a well in the desert where Zipporah and her six sisters were drawing water. Other local shepherds accosted the 7 sisters and drove them away from the well. Moses interceded on their behalf and helped water their flock. The sisters went back to their father and gave report of the kind Egyptian man who had helped them. Soon after, Zipporah and Moses were married and had two boys.
So that all happened in Exodus 2. Moses comes to the rescue of these Midianite women, gets married, has children, and settles for a time there. Life is good.
Then comes Exodus 3. The Burning Bush story. God calls Moses to go BACK to Egypt as God’s representative to confront Pharoah to let God’s people go.
On the way BACK to Egypt is when our story happens…one many of us have never heard before.
Strangely, right after God calls Moses to go save the Israelite people, the scripture says…“24 On the way, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord met him and tried to kill him.”
I had to read that sentence several times. Yep…it says the Lord tried to kill Moses. Well, now it's Zipporah’s turn to come to the rescue. Somehow, she deciphers what is happening and then goes with a sharp flint, cuts off her son’s foreskin (circumcises him), and touches it to Moses’ feet. And if not for Zipporah’s quick thinking and action we may not have the story of the Exodus today. Unreal.
Now it is not abundantly clear on the why’s and what’s of what happened here. Many scholars, rabbis, theologians have tried to figure out why in the world God would try to kill Moses literally right after calling him to Egypt and why this action was necessary. Certainly, obedience to the law of circumcision was important, but maybe God could have given him a heads up at the Burning Bush or something. What are we missing here?
So here is where I want to give a HUGE shout-out to Rev. Dr. Denise Kingdom Grier of a Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan. She offered her perspective on this passage in a bible study series called “She is Called.” She reminds us that Moses was an Israelite, going to free the Israelites, but he was raised in the Egyptian Palace, he had forged a whole other identity as part of his life, and so even after his sons were born he had forgotten to circumcise them. Unthinkable as this was a sign of the covenant and promise given to his ancestors. And so it was Zipporah’s extraordinary springing to action that jolted him to this reality. She writes:
With the prowess of The Lion King’s Mufasa to his son, Simba, Zipporah’s actions roar, “Remember who you are.” You, Moses, are of the bloodline of Abraham….The trappings of Pharaoh’s house made it easy for Moses to forget Abel’s sacrifice, the ram who saved Isaac, and the Hebrew blood that ran through his veins. These people he was going to save were his own people…. In order to complete his assignment, Moses had to die. At least, the Egyptian in him had to die in order for the Israelite Moses, in his truest identity, to fulfill the purpose for which he was born.
In order to complete his assignment, a part of Moses had to die…
It is easy to name things that must “die” in others so that they may be a good person or get on the right track. It's easy to name the clear things. But we have to remember that Moses was pretty comfortable where he was. He had gotten used to another life and his memory of the passion for his people and for God’s mission in the world was fraying. As people of faith and as a church we must always keep our eyes, ears, and hearts open. Have we become too absorbed in our own selfish desires? Have we put our hearts and minds on serving ourselves and not sacrificing for others? Have we forgotten who we are as an individual? Our identity in Christ who calls us to servanthood, radical welcome, and bearing good fruit.
So together as God’s people we might reflect together…what NEEDS to die in us so we can fulfill our purpose? Perhaps we learn it dramatically through another person like Zipporah, who shares a truth with us in a way we would NEVER expect! Thanks be to God for people and leaders in our life like Zipporah. Or perhaps it will be--instead--through the voice of a child, a scripture, a song, a prayer, a stranger, a friend…a still small voice. God finds a way--sometimes unconventionally--to get us back on track. Are we looking and listening? What might be holding us back or getting in the way?
For we are part of God’s creation, children of the Promise, baptized in the name of Jesus Christ…in what we say, what we do, what we fight for, what we care about…let us always remember who we are…
*Closing Hymn - Be Thou My Vision #595, v.1,2,&4
1 Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
naught be all else to me, save that thou art
thou my best thought, by day or by night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
2 Be thou my wisdom, and thou my true word;
I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord;
thou my redeemer, my love thou hast won,
thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.
4 Great God of heaven, my victory won,
may I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's Sun!
Heart of my heart, whatever befall,
still be my vision, O Ruler of all.
Benediction - Rev. Chad Delaney
May no obstacles be put in your way.
Wherever there is death, may the Holy Spirit bring hope and resurrection!
May you remember who you are
So that you might live and love in the Name of Jesus Christ
That you might always rejoice in knowledge, patience, kindness, genuine love, and the power of God. Go in peace.
Postlude - “I Can Hear My Saviour Calling” [by J. S. Norris] - Sarah Park