Sermon Tone Analysis

*Theme             *Jesus reprimanded the religious leaders of his day for reveling in the symbols of status and the trappings of their office.

He reminds us that true greatness is found in service.

Prelude

Welcome

Call to Worship

Leader: O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; God’s steadfast love endures forever.

\\ \\ People: Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those he redeemed and gathered.

\\ \\ Leader: Let us give thanks for God’s steadfast love, for God’s wonderful works to humankind.

\\ \\ People: God satisfies the thirsty, and fills the hungry with good things.

God turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground.

\\ \\ Leader: God turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water.

\\ \\ People: Let us worship God! \\ —Based on Psalm 107.

\\ ~*Hymn of Praise                       # 285               Redeemed, How I Love to Proclaim It

Invocation        (the Lord’s Prayer) God of our history, we know that we stand on the shoulders of so many giants in the faith—Moses, Miriam, Joshua, Deborah, Mary, Paul, and countless others throughout time.

We are here because of their faithfulness to you, and your faithfulness to them, which is beyond measure and beyond our imagining.

God of our future, we know that others will stand on our shoulders.

In your faithfulness speak to us, that we might be equipped for ministry and mission in the world, in Jesus’ name.

Gloria Patri

Just for Kids     Skits

Our  Offering to God

Doxology

Prayer of Dedication                 Creating God, you have set us in the midst of abundance.

Redeeming God, you have brought us from death to life.

Sustaining God, you are our faithful companion on life’s journey.

Grant us one thing more, we pray: give us hearts that break for earth’s sorrow and are as generous with others as you have been with us.

For Christ’s sake we pray, Amen.

Scripture Reading                     1 Thessalonians 2:7b–9, 13* *

First Thessalonians may be the New Testament’s oldest document.

Paul exhibits extraordinary tenderness toward the Thessalonians, and reminds them of how much he cares for them.

*  *

~*Hymn of Prayer                      # 286               At Calvary

Pastoral Prayer                         Blessing and honor and glory and power are yours, O God.

In love you created the human race and called Israel to be your people.

You summoned Abraham and Sarah to follow you and through their descendants all the peoples of the earth are blessed.

You brought Israel through the wilderness and established them in a land flowing with milk and honey.

Through prophets you spoke your word of grace and judgment.

And in the fullness of time you came among us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.

You call disciples in every age to follow his example of humility and service.

Raise up faithful leaders to embrace the way of the cross, to stand with the weak and oppose the proud, to find life in dying to self.

Guide the nations of the world into ways of freedom and give them leaders who will honor human dignity.

May those who suffer in body, mind, and spirit be filled with your abundant life.

And in all things, gracious God, grant that we may raise hearts and voices to you in prayer and praise; through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

~*Hymn of Praise                       # 512           Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service

What a stark contrast Jesus draws for those listening to him when he advises them to “not do as [some] do, for they do not practice what they teach,” but instead live humble lives of service: “The greatest among you will be your servant.”

This hymn, Albert Bayly’s wonderfully poetic text, admonishes us to live the life Jesus talks about here.

Scripture Focus                  Matthew 23:1–12* *1  Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2  “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the Scriptures.

3So practice and obey whatever they say to you, but don’t follow their example.

For they don’t practice what they teach.

4They crush you with impossible religious demands and never lift a finger to help ease the burden.

5  “Everything they do is for show.

On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside,£ and they wear extra long tassels on their robes.

6And how they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the most prominent seats in the synagogue!

7They enjoy the attention they get on the streets, and they enjoy being called ‘rabbi.’£

8Don’t ever let anyone call you ‘rabbi,’ for you have only one teacher, and all of you are on the same level as brothers and sisters.

9And don’t address anyone here on earth as ‘Father,’ for only God in heaven is your spiritual Father.

10And don’t let anyone call you ‘Master,’ for there is only one master, the Messiah.

11 The greatest among you must be a servant.

12But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

* *

Jesus’ criticism is leveled at the Pharisees’ behavior, not their teaching: “observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do.”

Service, not self–aggrandizement, is the path to greatness.

Message                                   What Standard?

We misunderstand Jesus’ condemnation of the religious leaders of his day for their love of titles and status if we do not also hear it as a word of judgment against us.

Before he took the scribes and Pharisees to task, Jesus had already rebuked his own disciples with similar words.

Jesus sets before us the path of  service and humility, the path no one has followed as completely as Christ himself.

In today’s gospel reading Jesus denounces the scribes and Pharisees for reveling in the trappings of status, receiving more honor than others.

The Pharisees’ traditions and their interpretations and applications of the laws had become as important to them as God’s law itself.

Their laws were not all bad—some were beneficial.

Problems arose when the religious leaders (1) held that man-made rules were equal to God’s laws, (2) told the people to obey these rules but did not do so themselves, or (3) obeyed the rules, not to honor God, but to make themselves look good.

Jesus did not condemn what the Pharisees taught but what they /were/—hypocrites.

“They make their phylacteries – These “prayer boxes” were leather boxes containing Scripture verses.

Very religious people wore these boxes on their foreheads and arms in order to obey Deuteronomy 6:8 and Exodus 13:9, 16.

But the prayer boxes had been made extra wide and had become more important for the status they gave than for the truth they contained.

- They make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.

They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi” (Mt 23:6–7).

Jesus again exposed the hypocritical attitudes of the religious leaders.

They knew the Scriptures but did not live by them.

They didn’t care about /being/ holy—just /looking/ holy in order to receive people’s admiration and praise.

Today, like the Pharisees, many people say they know the Bible but do not let it change their lives.

They say they follow Jesus, but they don’t live by his standards of love.

We must make sure that our actions match our beliefs, otherwise people would be right to call us hypocrites.

People desire positions of leadership in business and in the church.

It is dangerous when love for position grows stronger than loyalty to God.

This is what happened to the Pharisees and teachers of religious law.

Jesus is not against all leadership—we need Christian leaders—but against leadership that serves itself rather than others.

Jesus says that signs of status are to be avoided.

“You are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students.

And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father – the one in heaven.

Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah” (vv.

8–10).

All pastors would do well to feel a little uneasy now and then about Jesus’ words in Matthew 23.

Whether they call us reverend or father or pastor or some other title, congregations have a tendency to put clergy on a pedestal.

In the sermon he preached at his installation as Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Frank Griswold said that the more you put on externally, that is, the more trappings of priestly or episcopal offices, the more you are called to take off internally through a greater intimacy with Christ.

However, these are not temptations of clergy only.

Jesus’ words to the scribes and Pharisees echo his words earlier in Matthew.

When the “mother of the sons of Zebedee” asked Jesus if her sons could occupy places of honor in the kingdom, he replied, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.

It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mt 20:25–28).

Jesus challenged society’s norms.

To him, greatness comes from serving—giving of yourself to help God and others.

Service keeps us aware of others’ needs, and it stops us from focusing only on ourselves.

Jesus came as a servant.

Jesus’ point, of course, was not that it is wrong to give honor where honor is due, but that our priorities are wrong.