Sermon Tone Analysis

11~/21~/99

ORGAN PRELUDE        ANNOUNCEMENTS       CALL TO WORSHIP                  Sunday School Children

Invitation to the Celebration         As grateful people, welcome to the last worship in Pentecost.

Think about the attitude you came to worship with today.

(Pause.)

Who would be willing to express how you came into the sanctuary?

(we need not rush through worship.)

Let them know, how you came.

It's OK not to be perfect+always in control.

Everyone: Thanks for creating us, Lord.

Your creation of us amazes us.

You acted out of your love in Jesus, and that gives us hope forever.

Thanksgiving means choice; and choice is made freely.

Thanksgiving means life, life pulsating with courage.

Thanksliving means acting out our faith; for our faith is seen in our actions.

We celebrate with thanks.

~*INVOCATION AND LORD'S PRAYER     Christ's spirit has set us free and made us responsible to express thanks, to live thanks.

We express thanks, we live thanks because we know that the past is forgiven, that the future is before us.

Thank you for your invitation to us to love life, and the people who share it with us.

We embrace life in Christ; we live life

~*GLORIA PATRI ~*OPENING HYMN                                  We Gather Together                   # 597

SCRIPTURE READING                          Deuteronomy 8:7-18

8:7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper.

10 You shall eat your fill and bless the LORD your God for the good land that he has given you.

11 Take care that you do not forget the LORD your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today.

12 When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions.

He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16 and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good.

17 Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth."

18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.

RESPONSE                                          Psalms 65:1-13

65:1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; and to you shall vows be performed, 2 O you who answer prayer!

To you all flesh shall come.

3 When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our transgressions.

4 Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to live in your courts.

We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple.

5 By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation; you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.

6 By your strength you established the mountains; you are girded with might.

7 You silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples.

8 Those who live at earth's farthest bounds are awed by your signs; you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.

9 You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it.

10 You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.

11 You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness.

12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, 13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.

OFFERING        What if you lost everything, except your life, for 24 hours?

At the end of the 24 hours, you were able to have returned to you the five most important things.

What would they be?

(One minute of silence; write down your responses.)

Then ask, how many of you included "God" on your list?

(Pause before receiving the offering.)

~*DOXOLOGY

~*PRAYER OF DEDICATION        By your Spirit, Lord, teach us how to use our money, checkbooks, credit cards for the building of your Kingdom, rather than ours.

CHILDREN'S STORY TIME             Edward Spencer was a student at Northwestern University in 1850.

One day, while walking along the shore of one of the Great Lakes, he noticed a boat sinking.

For the next several hours, he swam out to the survivors, bringing them to shore one by one.

He saved seventeen lives.

But the ordeal broke his health.

He could not pursue his intended career.

As an old man, he acknowledged that not one of those people ever thanked him.

Now, that sounds similar to today's Scripture.

I invite you to remain while the drama group enacts this story.

Have ten people carry signs identifying some of today's "lepers."

Suggestions: viral infections, MS, cerebral palsy, AIDS, cancer, deaf, blind, deformed, lame, leper.

Have them dress the part if possible.

As Jesus "heals" them, they throw their signs on the ground, and run out of the sanctuary.

In a while, one returns.

Jesus asks, "Weren't ten healed; where are the other nine?

Isn't anyone going to turn and praise God for what's been done, except this stranger?"

Jesus then touches the person and says, "Go on your way.

Your faith has made you whole."

And the person replies, "Thanks, Jesus."

CHORAL ANTHEM

PRAYER           We have used or heard the phrase, "God, thank you for our many blessings" hundreds of times.

Do we ever consider the impact of our prayer?

1.

If you are the provider, why are so many without even the necessities, while we thank you for our luxuries?

(silence.)

2.

you invite us to use this time to repent, rather than to thank.

Help us think about those things~/that stuff we had to have, which in a short time appeared in our garage sales or garbage bags.

(Pause until the people feel uncomfortable.)

Perhaps our "many blessings" are actually "many cursings."

Because the more we have, the more we want.

Perhaps we are the rich young ruler who chooses to turn away.

We may turn away by saying that we really deserve all that we have.

To turn to you, we will need to give up our self-righteous attitude, which insists that we have all of this stuff, because you, somehow, favors us above all the rest of the creation.

NOT!

If we read the Scriptures carefully, you seems to favor the poor and powerless, those at the bottom of the economic and social ladder.

(Silence) P: Lord, have mercy on us.~/~/M:

Christ, have mercy on us.~/~/P:

I invite us to keep taking a look at ourselves in light of the Gospel.

~/~/M: We seek forgiveness for turning our backs to others, for claiming superiority over others, for living out our God-given freedom without taking responsibility.

~/~/P: We confess to you, Lord, who we are, what we believe, where we go apart from you, and there is no health in us.

~/~/M: By your Spirit, make us thankful people, who live grateful  lives -- with less.

Call to Pardon

     God forgives only those who repent, that is, those who change their attitude and behavior.

How could it be any other way?

So, today, this week, examine your blessings.

Check off which ones may or have become cursings.

Write them down, and make them a part of your daily prayers.

(silence.)

No, Jesus never said that the rich will not enter the Kingdom.

It's more difficult, he said, because we spend more time with our riches, and what they can buy, than with God.

We too easily depend on our riches, whatever form they take, to save us, rather than Christ.