Sermon Tone Analysis

Prelude

Welcome

Call to Worship            Leader: Praise the Lord!  Sing to the Lord a new song.

Sing his praises in the assembly of the faithful.

People: Let us praise God’s name with dancing, making melody to God.

Leader: For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; God adorns the humble with victory.

People: Let the faithful exult in glory; let us sing for joy!

Let the high praises of God be in our mouths.

Let us worship God!         — Adapted from Psalm 149.

~*Hymn of Praise                       # 43     Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

Invocation        O loving God, author and shaper of community, you promised that where two or three are gathered, the living Christ would be among them.

Here we are — two, three and many more — families, friends, pilgrims, seekers.

Come among us, Spirit of God.

Knit us together in all our variety.

Speak a bold word to us this day, that we might be moved to respond as your beloved community.

(the Lord’s Prayer) Amen.

\\ Gloria Patri

Kids Time              What Is the Church?

Teach this action rhyme to the children.

Invite the congregation to join you.

This is the church.

(Place outside of hands together, lace fingers, fold hands with palms together with interlaced fingers hiding inside and thumbs side-by-side.)

This is the steeple.

(Keep hands in same position, except raise index fingers to form a point.)

Open the door.

(Open hands with fingers interlaced.)

And see all the people.

(Wiggle interlaced fingers.)

What is a church?

(Accept responses.)

In today's Bible story Jesus taught the disciples about what it means to belong to a church.

Jesus said, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."

Did Jesus talk about a church building?

(No.) How did Jesus describe his church?

(Two or three people meeting together to worship Jesus.)

Whenever and wherever people come together to worship Jesus, that is where the church is.

Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, for church buildings where we can gather to worship you and share your love.

Amen.

Our  Offering to God                Let us bring our offerings to God, trusting that they will be received and celebrated.

Doxology

Prayer of Dedication                            O God of compassion and love, you have entrusted the whole of your creation to our care, but most especially you have made us responsible for one another.

We humbly acknowledge this responsibility.

As we offer material gifts to symbolize our gratitude for the physical world and to continue our good works in it, so too we offer ourselves, gathered in prayer, as a spiritual gift.

We pledge that we will be for each other honest and supportive companions, correcting our faults, forgiving our sins, and healing our world so we may make a more perfect offering to you, our bountiful God, through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Scripture Reading                         Matthew 18:15-20

After the disciples are urged to seek out anyone who strays from the community, Jesus instructs them about what to do with someone who sins against them but remains in the community.

The three steps are intended to show whether the sinner has the proper disposition to belong to the community or not.

~*Hymn of Prayer                      # 204  There’s a Quiet Understanding

Pastoral Prayer     O patient and loving God, we gather as your community to praise you for the gifts you have bestowed upon us and to ask for courage, honesty, and love to face each other when we have been hurt or offended.

We acknowledge that you have placed us in each other's care.

Help us realize that we honor your trust when we are willing to confront the wrong we do, as Ezekiel confronted the wayward shepherds of Israel.

Keep us mindful that love should govern all our actions and judgments, as Paul reminded the Christians in Rome.

We feel the awesome responsibility you have given us to pass binding judgments here on earth.

Help us remember that we are to arrive at these judgments through prayerful consensus, for where two or three of us are gathered together, you are in our midst.

Amen.

Prayer of Confession - Gracious and forgiving God, we come before you as a community of saints and sinners.

Despite the outpouring of your love and your Son's sacrificial death on our behalf, we continue to sin against one another.

Sometimes we misuse our positions of power and authority to take advantage of others as the shepherds of Israel did at the time of Ezekiel.

Forgive us.

Sometimes we forget to love, and try to fulfill your will by demanding conformity and imposing our own preferences on others.

Remind us.

Sometimes we refuse to listen to the honest, caring intervention from members of our faith community who perceive us doing wrong.

Open us.

Sometimes we pass judgment casually and rely on our personal feelings, rather than on prayerful discernment to determine right from wrong.

Teach us.

Renew us during this time of worship and keep us responsible for one another in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen.

~*Hymn of Praise                       # 149   Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me

Scripture Text                   Romans 13:8-14

In this section of Paul's instruction on Christian conduct, he commends love as the fulfillment of all law, Mosaic as well as civil law, which, in the preceding verses, Paul had urged Christians to obey.

This advice is all the more urgent and reasonable since the day of the Lord's return is at hand.

Message               Whatever

*When kids are asked not only to do well, but to do better than anyone else, too many adolescents today are saying, “forget it.”

How can we prevent them, and ourselves, from becoming care-less?*

Laurie’s 16, An ex-cheerleader and honor student.

You wouldn’t expect her to do a stint in a closed psychiatric ward after overdosing on drugs — some of which she couldn’t even remember taking.

\\ When questioned about her behavior, she said, “I don’t know.

I just didn’t care.

I didn’t care about anything or /anybody/.

I didn’t care about my life.

I didn’t care if I — if I died.

I didn’t care if I woke up dead the next morning.

Sometimes I /wanted/ it.

I was just like — you know how you can be alive but not really living?” \\ Terry, 12, summed it up this way after being sent to jail for the first of many times: “I was like, whatever.

Take me to jail.

I don’t give a s~*~*t.”

~/~/  “Whatever!”

\\ Sounds harsh, right?

When we hear this, our reaction might range from mild irritation, to anger or despair.

How do you deal with someone who expresses such utter indifference and disdain?

\\ /Whatever!/

It’s an adolescent mantra that’s bonded to a snarling semantic: “Do what you want, it’s not like you’re going to listen to me anyway, or if you do, what are the chances you’ll understand what I’m saying?

Whatever!” \\ And you ask yourself, “How did this happen?”

\\ It’s easy to blame, the choices are so vast: television, movies, music, schools, friends, marketing and other “cultural” stuff.

\\ But when we do this we’re swimming in a pool of meaningless finger-pointing.

We see the whatever culture as a matrix of bad choices, evil alternatives and disconnections.

We see it as a market-driven culture that is not “living right.”

And if all that is “true,” whom do we have to thank for all of this?  ~/~/~/~/ \\ In his new book, /The Road to Whatever: Middle-Class Culture and the Crisis of Adolescence/, Elliot Currie tells the story of Laurie, Terry and other teens who surprisingly come from middle-class families, and he offers an interesting and powerful argument.

He suggests that we’re all to blame for the “whateverness” and care-lessness of the youth culture.