Only the Beginning
Prayer of Preparation
May the love of God protect you, the grace of Christ walk with you and the power of the Spirit grant you all good gifts for the living of these days.
Prelude
Introit
Welcome, Announcements, Joys and Concerns
*Hymn "We Gather Together" # 540
The Call to Worship
Leader: Now is the time to live: to come to the God who creates us, to sing to the Redeemer who frees us.
People: Now is the time to come alive, to invite the whole world to join in praising God.
Leader: Yes, now is the time to invite the sky to thunder God's word, the earth to rumble in praise.
All: We invite all to celebrate with us, to glorify God's name, to dance with God's spirit, which fills us.
-- Crystal Sygeel-Lystlund, Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, Richmond, VA
*The Invocation Psalm 16:7 -- Let us "bless the Lord who gives us counsel"
The Lord's Prayer (use “sins”) O merciful and loving God, we wait for that day when Christ will return to call the Church home into eternity. Help us to be faithful/ and true servants and stewards until that day comes.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And, forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever. AMEN.
*Gloria Patri
The Young Peoples Moment
Hold up a brick and a Bible, and ask the children to tell you which one will last longer. Point out that they might be tempted to vote for the brick, since it is much harder and tougher-looking than a Bible with flimsy paper pages. But then make the point that the Bible will last much longer, because it is full of words such as the ones Jesus spoke in Jerusalem, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another” (Mark 13:2). Let the children know that the words of Jesus are still strong today after 2,000 years, but the stones and bricks of the buildings in Jerusalem are mostly broken and replaced by other building materials. Encourage the children to put their trust more in the Bible than in a brick, because the Bible contains words that last forever. Pull out a verse such as the advice of Jesus, “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed” (v. 7), and tell them that Jesus will be with them no matter what happens in the world around them. Let them know that these words are as solid today as they were when Jesus spoke them. Close by letting the children know that Jesus is always watching over them loving them, and giving them good advice, so they should vote for the Bible over a brick any day of the week.
Call to Prayer
Look upon sin with compassion, and you shall see mercy. Look upon oppression with compassion, and you shall see justice. Look upon time with love, and you shall enter eternity. Look upon space with love, and you shall enter glory.
Prayer Hymn “Count Your Blessings” v.3 #539
Pastoral Prayer
God of glory, make us deeply sensitive to the shortness of our existence here on earth, and to the fact that we must give an account before you. May this truth not fill our hearts with fear, but with a resolve to use all our strength in service of you. Lord, we have so often shortchanged ourselves and those around us, because we were unwilling to receive Your blessings and share them with others. Too often we have looked at Your blessings as though we felt we deserved to keep them for ourselves and not as though You intended for us to pass them on. Forgive us, Lord. Call us anew to carry Your Good News into the world. Fill our hearts with Your compassion as we reach out to those around us and minister to their needs.
Prayer Response choir
Offertory Sentence (Deu 15:11 NLT) "There will always be some among you who are poor. That is why I am commanding you to share your resources freely with the poor and with others in need."
Offertory “Beautiful Savior” choir
Doxology
The Offertory Prayer
O God, our Lord, we have barely begun to take up the cross of him who had no place to lay his head. Allow these offerings we bring to be a token of our growth toward true discipleship. In Jesus' name , AMEN.
*Hymn: “Years I Spent In Vanity and Pride” #297
Scripture Text Mark 13: 1-8 NLT "As Jesus was leaving the Temple that day, one of his disciples said, "Teacher, look at these tremendous buildings! Look at the massive stones in the walls!" {2} Jesus replied, "These magnificent buildings will be so completely demolished that not one stone will be left on top of another." {3} Later, Jesus sat on the slopes of the Mount of Olives across the valley from the Temple. Peter, James, John, and Andrew came to him privately and asked him, {4} "When will all this take place? And will there be any sign ahead of time to show us when all this will be fulfilled?" {5} Jesus replied, "Don't let anyone mislead you, {6} because many will come in my name, claiming to be the Messiah. They will lead many astray. {7} And wars will break out near and far, but don't panic. Yes, these things must come, but the end won't follow immediately. {8} Nations and kingdoms will proclaim war against each other, and there will be earthquakes in many parts of the world, and famines. But all this will be only the beginning of the horrors to come."
Sermon Only the Beginning The Jews never doubted that they were the chosen people, and they never doubted that one day they would occupy the place in the world which the chosen people deserved. They had long since abandoned the idea that they could ever win that place by human means and they were confident that in the end God would directly intervene and win it for them. The day of God's intervention was thought of as the day of the Lord. / Between the Old and New Testaments there was a time when the Jews knew no freedom. Their hopes and dreams of the day of the Lord became even more vivid during this time and a popular religious literature grew up. Jesus and the Jews were all aware of this literature as well as the many mentions of the day of the Lord in the Old Testament. This popular literature was based on dreams and visions of what would happen when the day of the Lord came and in the terrible time immediately before it. This intertestamental literature was never meant to be taken as maps of the future and timetables of events to come. Jesus was working with the ideas that the people knew, but these things were only pictures, for no person could really tell what would happen when God broke in. Reading God's sign language is never easy.
Barclay says that "Mark 13 is one of the most difficult chapters in the NT for a modern reader to understand. ... From beginning to end, it is thinking in terms of Jewish history and Jewish ideas. All through it Jesus is using categories and pictures which were very familiar to the Jews of his day, but which are unknown to today's readers. Even so, it is not possible to disregard this chapter because it is the source of many ideas about the second coming of Jesus..."
Countless believers have gotten themselves and other people in trouble by claiming to have access to God's appointment calendar. Jesus warned that nobody knows the day or the hour of God's visitation, not even the Son. This means that instead of looking for some calendar or clock in the Bible, we should live and love in a constant state of expectancy. Our focus needs to be on the eternal rather than the temporal.
“God, and God Alone”
The temple plays a significant role in chapters 11-16 of Mark's Gospel . Jesus has made three journeys to the temple and has debated with the temple's teachers over many issues. Through it all we sense the impending demise of the temple as the center of one's relationship to God. / The scribe got it right when he responded to Jesus by saying that love of God and neighbor "... is more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices" (Mark 12:28-34 [v. 33]). Temple practices are not as important as a life of dedication to God and neighbor. / The widow with her penny is also a sign of the need for the temple's demise (Mark 12:38-44). The scribes, Jesus warns, devour widows!
These stories are the immediate introduction to Mark 13. In the first verses of Mark 13 we hear of the coming end of the temple. Jesus comes out of the temple for the last time. His disciples haven't figured out what these journeys of Jesus to the temple are all about. They still stand in awe of the place. "Look, Teacher," they say, "what large stones and what large buildings!" In response to their misplaced wonder Jesus speaks the final word about this religious institution: "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down" (Mark 13:1-2). // The Temple which Herod built was one of the wonders of the world. It was begun in 20-19 BC and in the time of Jesus was not yet completely finished. It was built on the top of Mount Moriah. / Instead of leveling off the top of the mountain, a vast platform was formed by raising up walls of massive masonry strengthened by piers, which distributed the weight of the superstructure. Josephus tells us that some of these stones were forty feet long by twelve feet high by eighteen feet wide.
Of the actual Temple building itself, the holy place, Josephus writes, "Now the outward face of the Temple in its front wanted nothing that was likely to surprise men's minds or their eyes, for it was covered all over with plates of gold of great weight, and, at the first rising of the sun, reflected back a fiery splendor, and made those who forced themselves to look upon it to turn their eyes away, just as they would have done at the sun's own rays." / From a distance the temple appeared "like a mountain covered with snow, for, as to those parts of it which were not gilt, they were exceeding white...Of its stones, some of them were 67.5 feet long, 7.5 feet high, and 9 feet wide. It was all this splendor that so impressed the disciples. The Temple seemed the summit of human art and achievement, and seemed so vast and solid that it would stand forever. But Jesus made the astonishing statement that the day was coming when not one of these stones would stand upon another. /// In actuality the temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. Dating of the writing of Mark presumes that this fact was known by Mark's readers. The destruction of the temple was a genuine religious crisis in Israel. /////
The Parable of the Sower promises that harvest and new birth will spring forth from the work of the Sower. This same kind of hope is present in the teachings of Jesus in chapter 13. There will be great trials and tribulation, but in the end there will be harvest and new birth (Mark 13:24-27). The function of this narrative in Mark's Gospel is to serve as an introduction to the Passion Story. "He who is now reviled, rejected, and condemned is the supernatural Son of man; and the terrible story of his last twenty-four hours has for its other side that eternal weight of glory which was reached and could only be reached through the Lord's death."
The owner of the vineyard will come finally and give the vineyard to others. In this way the stone that the builders rejected will become the cornerstone. The Beloved Son is killed by the wicked tenants. He is rejected. But his rejection by the wicked tenants prepares us for a new day when the rejected stone will be the true cornerstone. Temple stones will not be left standing. The cornerstone, however, will stand firm forever. In this almost coded language we are given to understand that Jesus has come to replace the temple as the focal point of the divine-human relationship. / Our relationship to God is founded in a rejected stone who becomes the cornerstone, yet this relationship is more important than religion. This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Peter, James, John and Andrew inquire about the future. "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?" / "Don't let anyone mislead you", [Jesus was well aware that dissent would occur.
Dissent comes from 5 main causes:
1. dissent comes from constructing doctrine to suit oneself. Wishful thinking does not make it so. One of the commonest ways to arrive in dissent is to mold Christian truth to suit ourselves, what we think does not change the reality of the truth.
2. dissent comes from overstressing one part of the truth. God is love, yet God is justice. Man is free, yet God is in control. Man is a creature of time, yet created for eternity.
3. dissent comes from trying to produce a religion which will suit people, one that is popular and attractive. It is not our job to alter Christianity to suit people, but to alter people to suit Christianity.
4. dissent comes from divorcing oneself from Christian fellowship. the church is the guardian of the truth. If a person finds that his thinking separates him from the fellowship, the chances are that there is something wrong in his thinking.
5. dissent comes from the attempt to be completely intelligible. We need to try to understand our faith, but because we are finite and God is infinite we can never fully understand. A faith that can be neatly stated in a series of logical steps like a geometrical theorem is a contradiction in terms.]
(Mark 13:4). Many of the signs of the end that Jesus speaks of apply most directly to his own end. Again, this chapter serves as a kind of introduction to the Passion.
Jesus warns that they will "hand you over to councils" (13:9); he himself is handed over. He warns that his followers "will be beaten in synagogues"; Jesus must appear before Pilate where he is asked to testify on his own behalf. And "brother will betray brother to death," he tells them; one of his brothers, Judas, betrays him with a kiss (14:10, 43-46) ... The world for which he prepares his followers is precisely the world that has no room for him ... While the harvest lies ahead, what is of immediate concern are all the obstacles to growth.
Jesus states that wars, earthquakes and various other unpleasant experiences are but the beginning of the birth pangs for the world as we know it (vv. 6-8). Yet these words contain hope. The more intense the pain, the nearer the birth of Christ's kingdom. Just when we think that we can take it no longer, Christ will come . All kinds of calamity will assault believers. Yet the metaphor is hopeful. "This is but the beginning of the birth pangs" (Mark 13:8). Birth pangs suggest that the new is on the horizon. There is a purpose in and through the trials of history. There is a purpose and there is a task we can busy ourselves with. "And the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations" (Mark 13:10). Sow the seed! God will give the growth. The end of the matter is in the hand of the Lord of the Harvest!
Hebrews 10:11-25 NLT
"Under the old covenant, the priest stands before the altar day after day, offering sacrifices that can never take away sins. {12} But our High Priest offered himself to God as one sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down at the place of highest honor at God's right hand. {13} There he waits until his enemies are humbled as a footstool under his feet. {14} For by that one offering he perfected forever all those whom he is making holy. {15} And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. First he says, {16} "This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts so they will understand them, and I will write them on their minds so they will obey them." {17} Then he adds, "I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds." {18} Now when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices. {19} And so, dear friends, we can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. {20} This is the new, life-giving way that Christ has opened up for us through the sacred curtain, by means of his death for us. {21} And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God's people, {22} let us go right into the presence of God, with true hearts fully trusting him. For our evil consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. {23} Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. {24} Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. {25} And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near."
Hebrews 10:continues to hammer home that Christ's priestly ministry is superior to that of the Jewish faith. The sacrifices in the temple needed to be repeated daily but Christ's priestly ministry was accomplished once and for all, by his all-sufficient sacrificial death. Because of his sacrifice, we are bold to approach the throne of God. The author reminds the Church of three ways God offers us to draw near to him: (1) faith and worship (v. 22, 25), (2) witness to Jesus (v. 22) and (3) service of one another (v. 24). The awareness of the nearness of Christ's return serves as our source of motivation.
//Lord, we live our lives as though the day of Your return will never come. We often talk about Your return, then live as though we will always have time to change our lives and get ready. Too often our hearts are not focused on eternity but only on the matters in front of us today. Forgive us, Lord, and help us be more responsible. In the merciful name of Jesus. Amen
*Hymn "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" # 28
*Benediction
Go in peace to wait for Christ, living in uncertain times, but with eagerness and hope. Know that you are equipped, not only to survive, but to prosper, giving witness to God’s work in a world where God is often difficult to behold. Look for signs of God’s work, searching for evidence of God’s grace, where others find only despair.
ORGAN POSTLUDE