Longwood Presbyterian Church
January 10, 2021
Prelude:
Announcements/Prayer Requests/Praises:
Opening Prayer, followed by the Lord’s Prayer
Call to Worship from Psalm 29 (The Living Bible)
Leader
Praise the Lord, you angels of his; praise his glory and his strength.
People
Praise him for his majestic glory, the glory of his name. Come before him clothed in sacred garments.
Leader
The voice of the Lord echoes from the clouds. The God of glory thunders through the skies.
People
So powerful is his voice; so full of majesty.
Leader
It breaks down the cedars. It splits the giant trees of Lebanon. It shakes Mount Lebanon and Mount Sirion. They leap and skip before him like young calves!
People
The voice of the Lord thunders through the lightning.
Leader
It resounds through the deserts and shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
People
The voice of the Lord spins and topples the mighty oaks. It strips the forests bare. They whirl and sway beneath the blast. But in his Temple all are praising, “Glory, glory to the Lord.”
Leader
At the Flood the Lord showed his control of all creation. Now he continues to unveil his power.
All
He will give his people strength. He will bless them with peace.
*Opening Hymn: “To God Be the Glory”, #634
Prayer of Confession
Leader
Merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.
People
We have not loved you with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
Leader
In your mercy, forgive what we have been, help us amend what we are, and direct what we shall be, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name.
All
Amen
Declaration of Forgiveness, from Romans 8:34; 2 Cor, 5:17
Hear the good news! Christ died for us, Christ rose for us, Christ reigns in power for us, Christ prays for us. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old life has gone; a new life has begun. Believe the good news of the gospel: In Jesus Christ you are forgiven.
Thanks be to God!
*Gloria Patri
Time for Children
Hymn: “There’s a Sweet, Sweet Spirit”, #408
Prayer for Illumination
Reading of the Word: Mark 1:4-11 (The Living Bible)
4 This messenger was John the Baptist. He lived in the wilderness and taught that all should be baptized as a public announcement of their decision to turn their backs on sin, so that God could forgive them. 5 People from Jerusalem and from all over Judea traveled out into the Judean wastelands to see and hear John, and when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. 6 His clothes were woven from camel’s hair and he wore a leather belt; locusts and wild honey were his food. 7 Here is a sample of his preaching:
“Someone is coming soon who is far greater than I am, so much greater that I am not even worthy to be his slave. 8 I baptize you with water but he will baptize you with God’s Holy Spirit!”
9 Then one day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized by John there in the Jordan River. 10 The moment Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens open and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending on him, 11 and a voice from heaven said, “You are my beloved Son; you are my Delight.”
Leader: This is the Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God
Message: “Mistaken for Jesus”
(Permission to use the following article is granted through a subscription to Sermon Writer. Copyright for this sermon 2008, The Rev. Charles Hoffacker. Used by permission.)
Mark 1:4-11 Mistaken for Jesus
By The Rev. Charles Hoffacker
Have you ever wondered who it is that holds back the advancement of society? Have you ever wondered who’s responsible for the mediocre performance of many of our institutions? Have you ever wondered who stands blocking the road that leads us all to a better tomorrow?
Various answers are offered. The problem, some say, is with evil people or stupid people or apathetic people. The problem is people who have sold out to the system. The problem is people who refuse to get with the program.
There are people who fit all these descriptions, and they tend to make the job harder, whatever it may be. But the real problem lies elsewhere. Author and management consultant Robert Greenleaf puts it this way: “the enemy is strong natural servants who have the potential to lead but do not lead, or who choose to follow a non-servant.” [Robert K. Greenleaf, The Servant as Leader (Robert K. Greenleaf Center, 1991), p. 35.]
Let me repeat that uncomfortable observation from Robert Greenleaf: “the enemy is strong natural servants who have the potential to lead but do not lead, or who choose to follow a non-servant.”
So the problem is not with people who are stupid or evil or apathetic. The problem is not people who refuse to get with the program or people who sell out to the system. The problem is a lack of leadership by servants. It results from strong natural servants failing to take the lead or allow one of their own to do so.
But wait a minute! Greenleaf’s statement fuses two things we don’t usually see together: servant and leadership. Usually we see these two in sharp contrast to each other. Greenleaf places them together. His entire view of the way institutions work best can be summed up in a single phrase: servant leadership.
Greenleaf took his inspiration from a book by the German writer Herman Hesse entitled Journey to the East. The central figure in this story is Leo. He accompanies a party of travelers as their servant doing menial chores, but he also sustains them with his spirit and his song. He is a person of extraordinary presence. All goes well for the travelers until Leo disappears. Then the group falls into disarray; they abandon their journey. Without Leo they cannot make it.
The story’s narrator, who is one of the travelers, wanders for years until he is taken into the order that had sponsored the journey. There he is surprised to discover that Leo, whom he had known as a servant, was in fact the head of the order, its guiding spirit, a great and noble leader.
Christianity tells a similar story. Its central figure appears first as a poor child, then a man without worldly power. He moves among the poor, the marginalized, and the sick. He heals, teaches, encourages, and points to the kingdom of heaven. He is a person of extraordinary presence, a servant helping a world in need.
Throughout this story, the leadership of this remarkable figure becomes increasingly apparent. He sets food before the hungry, washes his followers’ feet, accepts death on a cross, and is raised up in power and glory. He is manifest as both servant and leader to all who dare recognize him.
The story does not end there, however. He pours out his Spirit on his followers, people of every sort and condition, empowering them to live out in their circumstances his paradoxical reality as both servant and leader. He expects the community that bears his name to be a servant leader in the world.
Certainly there are forces working in the world that cause leaders to focus on their own enrichment and their own advancement. Certainly there are forces working in the world that turn servants into people who are timid, passive, and fearful. Often a great divide looms between servants and leaders, to the detriment of both. That divide does not run only through the ranks of societies and corporations and institutions. It runs through the interior landscape of each of us. Often enough each of us is alternately servant or leader. We are controlling or controlled, dominating or dominated. Rarely are we the synthesis: the servant leader who grows more powerful by giving power to others.
These destructive forces also come into play when we look for leadership. Sometimes we want our demands satisfied at little cost to ourselves. We want a fearful servant who dares not lose votes or popularity or the support of stockholders. At other times, we want to abdicate our responsibilities. We enthrone a leader who will dictate to us, tell us what to do, live our lives for us. If by grace a servant leader appears instead, we won’t know how to respond. We will drive that one from our midst. Too often we get the leadership or service we deserve, and not the servant leadership we need.
One reason the Church baptizes people is in the hope that they will become servant leaders after the pattern of Jesus. Sometimes this happens, and sometimes it does not. We may believe this is too much to ask of people. God seems to believe otherwise.
(We recall our baptismal vows) in the hope that we might become better at being servant leaders after the pattern of Jesus. To take as our guide the Baptismal Covenant, its beliefs and practices, is to leave ourselves susceptible to being reshaped and re-formed after the model of Jesus the Servant Leader. It is to commit ourselves to recognizing and accepting and supporting this servant leadership in others because we know that it is needed.
Have you ever mistaken somebody for somebody else? When you realize you have done so, you usually find there is some point of resemblance between the two that is the basis for your mistake.
We are baptized as persons and as a community so that we can be mistaken for Jesus. The resemblance between us and him has nothing to do with the details of Jesus as a thirty-something first-century Jewish male. The resemblance runs deeper than that. It comes from Jesus inviting us to share his baptism, to become what he is: a servant leader.
The Church needs to move about in the world and individual Christians need to move about in the world so that we are mistaken for Jesus. Today we hear again the story of his baptism, and we know about the servant leadership that follows from it. Today we recall our own baptisms, asking that servant leadership may be sufficiently manifest in how we move about in the world that we may be mistaken for him.
Amen
Apostles Creed (Page 35)
*Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
*Closing Hymn, “Come, Thy Fount of Every Blessing”, #475
*Benediction/Passing the Peace
Leader
May the love of Jesus Christ bring us wholeness, the grace of God the Father grant us peace, the breath of Holy Spirit instill passion and the unity between them give us strength for this and every day. And may the Peace of Christ be with you. Amen
People
And also with you, Amen
Hymn: “Amen”
January 10, 2021
Prelude:
Announcements/Prayer Requests/Praises:
Opening Prayer, followed by the Lord’s Prayer
Call to Worship from Psalm 29 (The Living Bible)
Leader
Praise the Lord, you angels of his; praise his glory and his strength.
People
Praise him for his majestic glory, the glory of his name. Come before him clothed in sacred garments.
Leader
The voice of the Lord echoes from the clouds. The God of glory thunders through the skies.
People
So powerful is his voice; so full of majesty.
Leader
It breaks down the cedars. It splits the giant trees of Lebanon. It shakes Mount Lebanon and Mount Sirion. They leap and skip before him like young calves!
People
The voice of the Lord thunders through the lightning.
Leader
It resounds through the deserts and shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
People
The voice of the Lord spins and topples the mighty oaks. It strips the forests bare. They whirl and sway beneath the blast. But in his Temple all are praising, “Glory, glory to the Lord.”
Leader
At the Flood the Lord showed his control of all creation. Now he continues to unveil his power.
All
He will give his people strength. He will bless them with peace.
*Opening Hymn: “To God Be the Glory”, #634
Prayer of Confession
Leader
Merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.
People
We have not loved you with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
Leader
In your mercy, forgive what we have been, help us amend what we are, and direct what we shall be, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name.
All
Amen
Declaration of Forgiveness, from Romans 8:34; 2 Cor, 5:17
Hear the good news! Christ died for us, Christ rose for us, Christ reigns in power for us, Christ prays for us. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old life has gone; a new life has begun. Believe the good news of the gospel: In Jesus Christ you are forgiven.
Thanks be to God!
*Gloria Patri
Time for Children
Hymn: “There’s a Sweet, Sweet Spirit”, #408
Prayer for Illumination
Reading of the Word: Mark 1:4-11 (The Living Bible)
4 This messenger was John the Baptist. He lived in the wilderness and taught that all should be baptized as a public announcement of their decision to turn their backs on sin, so that God could forgive them. 5 People from Jerusalem and from all over Judea traveled out into the Judean wastelands to see and hear John, and when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. 6 His clothes were woven from camel’s hair and he wore a leather belt; locusts and wild honey were his food. 7 Here is a sample of his preaching:
“Someone is coming soon who is far greater than I am, so much greater that I am not even worthy to be his slave. 8 I baptize you with water but he will baptize you with God’s Holy Spirit!”
9 Then one day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized by John there in the Jordan River. 10 The moment Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens open and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending on him, 11 and a voice from heaven said, “You are my beloved Son; you are my Delight.”
Leader: This is the Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God
Message: “Mistaken for Jesus”
(Permission to use the following article is granted through a subscription to Sermon Writer. Copyright for this sermon 2008, The Rev. Charles Hoffacker. Used by permission.)
Mark 1:4-11 Mistaken for Jesus
By The Rev. Charles Hoffacker
Have you ever wondered who it is that holds back the advancement of society? Have you ever wondered who’s responsible for the mediocre performance of many of our institutions? Have you ever wondered who stands blocking the road that leads us all to a better tomorrow?
Various answers are offered. The problem, some say, is with evil people or stupid people or apathetic people. The problem is people who have sold out to the system. The problem is people who refuse to get with the program.
There are people who fit all these descriptions, and they tend to make the job harder, whatever it may be. But the real problem lies elsewhere. Author and management consultant Robert Greenleaf puts it this way: “the enemy is strong natural servants who have the potential to lead but do not lead, or who choose to follow a non-servant.” [Robert K. Greenleaf, The Servant as Leader (Robert K. Greenleaf Center, 1991), p. 35.]
Let me repeat that uncomfortable observation from Robert Greenleaf: “the enemy is strong natural servants who have the potential to lead but do not lead, or who choose to follow a non-servant.”
So the problem is not with people who are stupid or evil or apathetic. The problem is not people who refuse to get with the program or people who sell out to the system. The problem is a lack of leadership by servants. It results from strong natural servants failing to take the lead or allow one of their own to do so.
But wait a minute! Greenleaf’s statement fuses two things we don’t usually see together: servant and leadership. Usually we see these two in sharp contrast to each other. Greenleaf places them together. His entire view of the way institutions work best can be summed up in a single phrase: servant leadership.
Greenleaf took his inspiration from a book by the German writer Herman Hesse entitled Journey to the East. The central figure in this story is Leo. He accompanies a party of travelers as their servant doing menial chores, but he also sustains them with his spirit and his song. He is a person of extraordinary presence. All goes well for the travelers until Leo disappears. Then the group falls into disarray; they abandon their journey. Without Leo they cannot make it.
The story’s narrator, who is one of the travelers, wanders for years until he is taken into the order that had sponsored the journey. There he is surprised to discover that Leo, whom he had known as a servant, was in fact the head of the order, its guiding spirit, a great and noble leader.
Christianity tells a similar story. Its central figure appears first as a poor child, then a man without worldly power. He moves among the poor, the marginalized, and the sick. He heals, teaches, encourages, and points to the kingdom of heaven. He is a person of extraordinary presence, a servant helping a world in need.
Throughout this story, the leadership of this remarkable figure becomes increasingly apparent. He sets food before the hungry, washes his followers’ feet, accepts death on a cross, and is raised up in power and glory. He is manifest as both servant and leader to all who dare recognize him.
The story does not end there, however. He pours out his Spirit on his followers, people of every sort and condition, empowering them to live out in their circumstances his paradoxical reality as both servant and leader. He expects the community that bears his name to be a servant leader in the world.
Certainly there are forces working in the world that cause leaders to focus on their own enrichment and their own advancement. Certainly there are forces working in the world that turn servants into people who are timid, passive, and fearful. Often a great divide looms between servants and leaders, to the detriment of both. That divide does not run only through the ranks of societies and corporations and institutions. It runs through the interior landscape of each of us. Often enough each of us is alternately servant or leader. We are controlling or controlled, dominating or dominated. Rarely are we the synthesis: the servant leader who grows more powerful by giving power to others.
These destructive forces also come into play when we look for leadership. Sometimes we want our demands satisfied at little cost to ourselves. We want a fearful servant who dares not lose votes or popularity or the support of stockholders. At other times, we want to abdicate our responsibilities. We enthrone a leader who will dictate to us, tell us what to do, live our lives for us. If by grace a servant leader appears instead, we won’t know how to respond. We will drive that one from our midst. Too often we get the leadership or service we deserve, and not the servant leadership we need.
One reason the Church baptizes people is in the hope that they will become servant leaders after the pattern of Jesus. Sometimes this happens, and sometimes it does not. We may believe this is too much to ask of people. God seems to believe otherwise.
(We recall our baptismal vows) in the hope that we might become better at being servant leaders after the pattern of Jesus. To take as our guide the Baptismal Covenant, its beliefs and practices, is to leave ourselves susceptible to being reshaped and re-formed after the model of Jesus the Servant Leader. It is to commit ourselves to recognizing and accepting and supporting this servant leadership in others because we know that it is needed.
Have you ever mistaken somebody for somebody else? When you realize you have done so, you usually find there is some point of resemblance between the two that is the basis for your mistake.
We are baptized as persons and as a community so that we can be mistaken for Jesus. The resemblance between us and him has nothing to do with the details of Jesus as a thirty-something first-century Jewish male. The resemblance runs deeper than that. It comes from Jesus inviting us to share his baptism, to become what he is: a servant leader.
The Church needs to move about in the world and individual Christians need to move about in the world so that we are mistaken for Jesus. Today we hear again the story of his baptism, and we know about the servant leadership that follows from it. Today we recall our own baptisms, asking that servant leadership may be sufficiently manifest in how we move about in the world that we may be mistaken for him.
Amen
Apostles Creed (Page 35)
*Doxology
*Prayer of Dedication
*Closing Hymn, “Come, Thy Fount of Every Blessing”, #475
*Benediction/Passing the Peace
Leader
May the love of Jesus Christ bring us wholeness, the grace of God the Father grant us peace, the breath of Holy Spirit instill passion and the unity between them give us strength for this and every day. And may the Peace of Christ be with you. Amen
People
And also with you, Amen
Hymn: “Amen”