Uncategorized | Rev. Shane Montoya

Worship At Home

March 15, 2020

(Clicking on the text underlined in blue will take you to Youtube videos. Most are songs, except for the Sermon, Cleaning the Temple)

Pray: God, our Rock, our refuge, our resting place, we come to you. Out of another busy week of work, out of our struggles to be meaningful in our world, out of our desire to meet you and know you as the center of our being, we come to you, O unmovable Rock of our security. Amen.

Sing or Listen: Traditional- This Is My Father’s World

Contemporary: The Heart of Worship

Confess: Our Father, forgive us for thinking small thoughts of you and for ignoring your immensity and greatness. Lord Jesus, forgive us when we forget that you rule the nations and our small lives. Holy Spirit, we offend you in minimizing your power and squandering your gifts. We confess that our blindness to your glory, O triune God, has resulted in shallow confession, tepid conviction, and only mild repentance. Have mercy upon us. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Be: Sit (or stand) in silence for one minute.

Be Assured: While it is true that we have sinned, it is a greater truth that we are forgiven through God’s love in Jesus Christ. To all who humbly seek the mercy of God I say, in Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Read God’s Word:

Psalm 86:8-13 (New Revised Standard Edition)

There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
    nor are there any works like yours.
All the nations you have made shall come
    and bow down before you, O Lord,
    and shall glorify your name.
For you are great and do wondrous things;
    you alone are God.
Teach me your way, O Lord,
    that I may walk in your truth;
    give me an undivided heart to revere your name.
I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
    and I will glorify your name forever.
For great is your steadfast love toward me;
    you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

Mark 11: 11, 15-19 (New Revised Standard Edition)

Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.

Listen to the Sermon: “Cleaning the Temple”

Think or Discuss: What does it mean for something to be clean? What do we need to clean in our hearts? What gets in the way of our relationships with God?

Do: Clean a space or object you would like to use regularly, but don’t use often because it’s dirty or messy.

Pray: Use this time to pray, silently, at first, and then for others who need your prayers.

Finally, pray the Lord’s Prayer. (Our Father…)

Sing or Listen: Traditional- God of Grace and God of Glory

Contemporary: Thank You, My Lord

Bless and Be Blessed: May the God of Peace and the Peace of God be with you always.

After Worship, Our Service begins…

Serve: Check in on your neighbors, particularly any who are elderly or homebound. Is there something you can safely buy or do for them in this time of isolation? Even a conversation through a screen door might be a blessing.

Christ is Risen!

When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality,
then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
-1 Corinthians 15:55-57

“Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!”
-St. John Chrysostom, “Easter Homily”, Circa 400 AD.

Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen indeed!
These words are said at the beginning of every Easter service at Edwards Church. They are known as the Paschal Greeting and are being said all around the world today. In Greece, they say “Christos Anesti, Alithos Anesti”. In Spain and Latin America, ¡Cristo resucitó! ¡En verdad resucitó!, and in Chinese 耶穌復活了，真的他復活了 (Yēsū fùhuó-le, Zhēnde tā fùhuó-le!)

However we say it, this day connects us to the truth of the Good News of Jesus Christ that calls out to us through the ages. It connects us to a group of scared women who were the first witnesses to the resurrection and left the tomb “sore afraid”, and to whom the men in their lives did not listen.

It connects us to those who are hurting and whose hope for healing seems distant; it connects us to those who are struggling and for whom faith is their last garment of protection against the cold, against cynicism, against despair.

That Christ is Risen means our stories are not done, that God still has more in store for us, even when all seems lost. On this April Fool’s Day, if there is a great joke in Christianity, it is that the forces of evil, disconnection, and isolation think that they have won.

But they haven’t, for Christ is Risen,
Christ is Risen, indeed.

Prayer: Oh Risen Christ, Oh Heavenly God! There are days to mourn, there are days to weep, but today is a day when we are reconciled with you and we can celebrate. Even as we encounter the suffering in this world, we do so with the faith that you are with us. Your holy name be praised on this day and evermore, for Christ is Risen!

A Meditation on the Acclamations

One of the traditional acclamations of the Christian faith is that “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”

This paradoxical, messy statement is at odds with the mostly human Jesus that many liberals and progressive Christians know. The Jesus who would vote reliably democratic, welcomes all to his table, and then goes back to heaven, leaving us to govern ourselves and make our own destiny. A Jesus who would never confront us, only confirm and love us, and who never suffered violence or hatred.

That is not the Jesus of the acclamation of faith. That Jesus suffered as a scapegoat to political and institutional violence. He broke through the emotional barriers of the people surrounding him, confronting and often confusing them. He was scrappy, homeless, and was a loud personality. He cajoled, joked, cried. His final words to his followers were to love each other fiercely as he loved them. As he died, his mother and his friends wept around him, bringing their pain, frustration, and sorrow to the foot of the cross where he emptied the last of his ego, his humanity, even his God nature back unto his God.

That could have been the end of the story.

But it wasn’t. It was only the beginning. Jesus’ resurrection, physically and within the hearts and memories of his followers, started something new. Hope would not be in domination, but in community. Trust God before you trust your government or your master. Things will not go well at times; in fact, they might be downright terrible. But in those dark times, the steadfast love of the God of Israel and the God of the people of the new covenant would be with you always, leading you from the exile of loneliness and despair on eagle’s wings.

That could have been the end of the story.

But it’s not. Christ will come again. I do not think it will be in fire and brimstone as described in the book of Revelation. I think it will be something closer to a the way that the mystic Theresa of Avila tells us about Christ in the world today; that Christ has no hands, no feet but ours. I believe that when we as an individual and as communities become the embodiment of the living God, not dead and buried, but alive right here, right now, ever hopeful and faithful for the future, and ever present to our realities on earth, that Christ will have truly come again.