Opening Prayer
In scripture we are reminded that to everything there is a season. There are seasons for beginnings and endings. This week we begin a new season, a new year. Some of us have made resolutions to do better in the new year. Be with us as we gather today and look forward to the future together. Teach us in this new year to love one another in all that we do.
(Prayer Requests prayed for)
Lord’s Prayer
Call to Worship (based on Ecclesiastes 3)
To everything there is a season,
There are seasons of beginnings and endings
There are seasons of gathering together and moving away from one another
There are seasons of life and death
Today we gather in a season of new beginnings
Today we gather asking your presence throughout this New Year.
* Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee 38/611
Prayer of Confession (based on Matthew 25)
Lord, too often we are caught up in our own troubles and worries,
Too often we ignore the sick, the lonely, the oppressed
We do not see your face in their faces
We do not understand that we turn our back on you.
In this new year, restore our vision so that we can see as you see.
In this new year, restore our hearts to be a people who care for others because we love you. Amen
Declaration of Forgiveness
We don’t have to read to the last page of the Bible to hear the good news, but the promise is written there. There will come a time when there is a new earth with no more crying and separation. In this new world all have accepted God’s forgiveness and live as children of God. As we begin this year, know that you have been forgiven and go forth in peace.
Gloria Patri
Children’s Time: “Saying I Love You”
Prayer for Illumination
Reading of the Word: Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
3:1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
3:2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3:3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
3:4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
3:5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
3:6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
3:7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
3:8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
3:9 What gain have the workers from their toil?
3:10 I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with.
3:11 He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
3:12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live;++
3:13 moreover, it is God's gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.
Matthew 25:31–46 (NRSV)
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’
37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’
40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,[g] you did it to me.’
41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’
45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
This is the word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Amazing Grace 236/649
Sermon: Loving One Another
As I considered what message to give to you on my last day, I realized that the New Year lectionary passages most closely fell into line.
The most obvious thought when we look at the Ecclesiastes passage is thinking about the fact that the season we have had together is over. But my choice was much deeper than that simple fact. This particular passage is often used at funerals. It gives comfort to know that things, like lives, have seasons of beginnings and of endings.
We are at the ending of a year that has turned all of our lives upside down. For those who remember Jeanne Dixon, who claimed to have forecast the shooting of John Kennedy, before she died she predicted the world would end in 2020. She was pretty close.
It began, back in the beginning with the impeachment of the President. Then it morphed almost immediately into a season of Pandemic.
As of yesterday, worldwide, the pandemic has been diagnosed in more than 80 million people, killing more than 1,700,000 of them. We have personally all lost someone we know to the disease. In California, they are in the midst of a huge surge, overwhelming hospitals, and Missouri was at near capacity in hospitals. The vaccine program is a hope that this will end.
The West Coast found this to be a fire season like no other. In California alone, there were 9, 619 wildfires, destroying 4,229,317 acres. Colorado saw 1.070 blazes, which burned 625,317 acres. Other states saw similar patterns, although not all maintained their statistics in a way that I could report.
Then, on the opposite end of the spectrum, 2020 was the most active Tropical Storm Season on record, with 31 tropical cyclones, all but one of which became a named storm. Twelve of those storms made landfall in the United States, six as hurricanes. So, while the west coast was burning, the Southeast was hit again and again.
No wonder we want this season to end, 2021 can’t come fast enough for each of us.
But there is a piece of the scripture about seasons that is important in our passage. Not only are there seasons for things to happen, Not only has God put the seasons in place, with a beginning and ending, but God has made them “suitable for their time.”
These seasons we have passed through, and are passing through, aren’t random. They will begin and they will end.
Early in the pandemic, President Trump said something that some people made fun of. He said, “Someday this disease will just disappear.” Those words might have irritated some in the midst of the pandemic, but our Governor said something similar in his first call to faith leaders. He said to tell you that this will be bad, but that it won’t be forever.
While neither President Trump nor Governor Parson was thinking of these verses when they made these statements, the verses today say that this is true. Nothing is forever. The key question is not will it end, but what will be left behind when it passes.
So too, I counsel loved ones and friends at funerals. We may be in a season of grieving, but it is not forever. God is still in charge. There will be a day when death will be no more, and we will all be reunited in the presence of God. This is the message I want you to hold in your hearts as we separate from one another.
Which leads us to our second passage. This is the passage where Jesus spoke of this coming event.
He gathers the people before him and separates them into two groups. The first group cared for others. One might say that the first group followed the greatest commandment. They showed their love for God by loving their neighbors, whoever they were, as themselves. Jesus accepted their love for others as a gift to himself.
The second group had hardened hearts. They turned from their neighbors and held onto what they had. They loved neither God nor their neighbor. Jesus let them know that without love in our hearts we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We do not change merely by having the end come, who we are at judgement is who we are every day of our lives.
A lot of people will tell you that you only have to proclaim Jesus as Lord to get into heaven. And that is true.
But those who claim Jesus as their Lord and Savior in truth are internally changed by who Jesus is.
Which is why I put the passage on the front of the Bulletin today. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35
I want you to remember when Jesus said these words. He had gathered his disciples together for a last meal before he would be crucified. He knelt and washed their feet. While we more often remember the Last Supper, that is not what we celebrate on Maundy Thursday. We celebrate these words, because the word “Maundy” means Commandment. The night before Good Friday we gather and remember that at the end, Jesus gave his disciples a commandment, and that commandment was to love one another.
To everything there is a season. Our time together was a season. This year was a season. Next year will be a new season, where you go on to do incredible new things. But do them with this in mind. God has called you to love one another as God has loved you. These then are my own final words to you.
Prayer for blessing of the people:
Beloved creator, I thank you for the privilege of serving these people in your name for this season of all of our lives. Thank you for all that we shared together, during the good times and for the hard times. We have worked together, and laughed together, and cried together. But in the center of all of it, we have held onto your commandment to love one another.
As we go forth to the future, we ask that you go with us. We ask that you lead and guide us in every way. I ask for personal guidance for me, and both personal and corporate guidance for this your church. And I go, knowing that you will always be with them, always loving them, always helping them to grow into the future you have for them.
Help them, Lord, through this new season in their lives, that they might find new hope and new ways. But most of all, help them to remember your final command, to love one another as you have loved them. In Jesus name I pray. Amen
Let us join together and affirm what we believe:
Apostles Creed
Dedication of Offerings/Doxology
* Jesu, Jesu Insert/203
* Benediction/Passing the Peace
Go into this new year with your hand securely in the hand of God. Go into this new year, remembering that Jesus Christ is your savior. Go into this new year, open to the Holy Spirit working in and through you. And may the blessings of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit rest upon you and be with you, each and every day of this year and forevermore.
May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
And also with you
Pastor: Rev. Bobbie Karchner
Ministers: The Congregation
Web Site: http://tricountyministries.weebly.com
In scripture we are reminded that to everything there is a season. There are seasons for beginnings and endings. This week we begin a new season, a new year. Some of us have made resolutions to do better in the new year. Be with us as we gather today and look forward to the future together. Teach us in this new year to love one another in all that we do.
(Prayer Requests prayed for)
Lord’s Prayer
Call to Worship (based on Ecclesiastes 3)
To everything there is a season,
There are seasons of beginnings and endings
There are seasons of gathering together and moving away from one another
There are seasons of life and death
Today we gather in a season of new beginnings
Today we gather asking your presence throughout this New Year.
* Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee 38/611
Prayer of Confession (based on Matthew 25)
Lord, too often we are caught up in our own troubles and worries,
Too often we ignore the sick, the lonely, the oppressed
We do not see your face in their faces
We do not understand that we turn our back on you.
In this new year, restore our vision so that we can see as you see.
In this new year, restore our hearts to be a people who care for others because we love you. Amen
Declaration of Forgiveness
We don’t have to read to the last page of the Bible to hear the good news, but the promise is written there. There will come a time when there is a new earth with no more crying and separation. In this new world all have accepted God’s forgiveness and live as children of God. As we begin this year, know that you have been forgiven and go forth in peace.
Gloria Patri
Children’s Time: “Saying I Love You”
Prayer for Illumination
Reading of the Word: Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
3:1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
3:2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3:3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
3:4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
3:5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
3:6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
3:7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
3:8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
3:9 What gain have the workers from their toil?
3:10 I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with.
3:11 He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
3:12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live;++
3:13 moreover, it is God's gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.
Matthew 25:31–46 (NRSV)
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’
37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’
40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,[g] you did it to me.’
41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’
45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
This is the word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Amazing Grace 236/649
Sermon: Loving One Another
As I considered what message to give to you on my last day, I realized that the New Year lectionary passages most closely fell into line.
The most obvious thought when we look at the Ecclesiastes passage is thinking about the fact that the season we have had together is over. But my choice was much deeper than that simple fact. This particular passage is often used at funerals. It gives comfort to know that things, like lives, have seasons of beginnings and of endings.
We are at the ending of a year that has turned all of our lives upside down. For those who remember Jeanne Dixon, who claimed to have forecast the shooting of John Kennedy, before she died she predicted the world would end in 2020. She was pretty close.
It began, back in the beginning with the impeachment of the President. Then it morphed almost immediately into a season of Pandemic.
As of yesterday, worldwide, the pandemic has been diagnosed in more than 80 million people, killing more than 1,700,000 of them. We have personally all lost someone we know to the disease. In California, they are in the midst of a huge surge, overwhelming hospitals, and Missouri was at near capacity in hospitals. The vaccine program is a hope that this will end.
The West Coast found this to be a fire season like no other. In California alone, there were 9, 619 wildfires, destroying 4,229,317 acres. Colorado saw 1.070 blazes, which burned 625,317 acres. Other states saw similar patterns, although not all maintained their statistics in a way that I could report.
Then, on the opposite end of the spectrum, 2020 was the most active Tropical Storm Season on record, with 31 tropical cyclones, all but one of which became a named storm. Twelve of those storms made landfall in the United States, six as hurricanes. So, while the west coast was burning, the Southeast was hit again and again.
No wonder we want this season to end, 2021 can’t come fast enough for each of us.
But there is a piece of the scripture about seasons that is important in our passage. Not only are there seasons for things to happen, Not only has God put the seasons in place, with a beginning and ending, but God has made them “suitable for their time.”
These seasons we have passed through, and are passing through, aren’t random. They will begin and they will end.
Early in the pandemic, President Trump said something that some people made fun of. He said, “Someday this disease will just disappear.” Those words might have irritated some in the midst of the pandemic, but our Governor said something similar in his first call to faith leaders. He said to tell you that this will be bad, but that it won’t be forever.
While neither President Trump nor Governor Parson was thinking of these verses when they made these statements, the verses today say that this is true. Nothing is forever. The key question is not will it end, but what will be left behind when it passes.
So too, I counsel loved ones and friends at funerals. We may be in a season of grieving, but it is not forever. God is still in charge. There will be a day when death will be no more, and we will all be reunited in the presence of God. This is the message I want you to hold in your hearts as we separate from one another.
Which leads us to our second passage. This is the passage where Jesus spoke of this coming event.
He gathers the people before him and separates them into two groups. The first group cared for others. One might say that the first group followed the greatest commandment. They showed their love for God by loving their neighbors, whoever they were, as themselves. Jesus accepted their love for others as a gift to himself.
The second group had hardened hearts. They turned from their neighbors and held onto what they had. They loved neither God nor their neighbor. Jesus let them know that without love in our hearts we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We do not change merely by having the end come, who we are at judgement is who we are every day of our lives.
A lot of people will tell you that you only have to proclaim Jesus as Lord to get into heaven. And that is true.
But those who claim Jesus as their Lord and Savior in truth are internally changed by who Jesus is.
Which is why I put the passage on the front of the Bulletin today. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35
I want you to remember when Jesus said these words. He had gathered his disciples together for a last meal before he would be crucified. He knelt and washed their feet. While we more often remember the Last Supper, that is not what we celebrate on Maundy Thursday. We celebrate these words, because the word “Maundy” means Commandment. The night before Good Friday we gather and remember that at the end, Jesus gave his disciples a commandment, and that commandment was to love one another.
To everything there is a season. Our time together was a season. This year was a season. Next year will be a new season, where you go on to do incredible new things. But do them with this in mind. God has called you to love one another as God has loved you. These then are my own final words to you.
Prayer for blessing of the people:
Beloved creator, I thank you for the privilege of serving these people in your name for this season of all of our lives. Thank you for all that we shared together, during the good times and for the hard times. We have worked together, and laughed together, and cried together. But in the center of all of it, we have held onto your commandment to love one another.
As we go forth to the future, we ask that you go with us. We ask that you lead and guide us in every way. I ask for personal guidance for me, and both personal and corporate guidance for this your church. And I go, knowing that you will always be with them, always loving them, always helping them to grow into the future you have for them.
Help them, Lord, through this new season in their lives, that they might find new hope and new ways. But most of all, help them to remember your final command, to love one another as you have loved them. In Jesus name I pray. Amen
Let us join together and affirm what we believe:
Apostles Creed
Dedication of Offerings/Doxology
* Jesu, Jesu Insert/203
* Benediction/Passing the Peace
Go into this new year with your hand securely in the hand of God. Go into this new year, remembering that Jesus Christ is your savior. Go into this new year, open to the Holy Spirit working in and through you. And may the blessings of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit rest upon you and be with you, each and every day of this year and forevermore.
May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
And also with you
Pastor: Rev. Bobbie Karchner
Ministers: The Congregation
Web Site: http://tricountyministries.weebly.com