PRELUDE
Morning has broken
https://youtu.be/3Rifby1tVE8
Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing
Praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word
Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dew fall on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where His feet pass
Mine is the sunlight
Mine is the morning
Born of the One Light Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day
Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing
Praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word
GREETING
“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” Amen.
(Hymns for the Family of God, 454, refrain)
CALL TO WORSHIP (Psalm 100)
L: Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands! Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
P: Know that the Lord is God! It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people,
and the sheep of his pasture.
L: Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him, bless his name!
All: For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
HYMN
Jesus calls us o'er the tumult
https://youtu.be/GdGe-spEHJ4
1. Jesus calls us o'er the tumult
of our life's wild restless sea;
day by day his voice still calls us
saying, 'Christian, follow me.'
2. As of old Saint Andrew heard it
by the Galilean lake,
turned from home and work and kindred,
leaving all for Jesus' sake.
3. Jesus calls us from the worship
of the vain world's golden store,
from each idol that would keep us,
saying, 'Christian, love me more.'
4. In our joys and in our sorrows,
days of toil and hours of ease,
Jesus calls, in cares and pleasures,
'Christian, love me more than these.'
5. Jesus calls us: by your mercies,
Saviour, may we hear your call,
give our hearts in glad obedience,
serve and love you best of all.
INVOCATION
Leading and Shepherding God: thank you for the peace you bring as we gather to praise and thank you this day. Be present in our worship, and fill our hearts with the desire to trust and obey you in all that we think, say, and do. In the name of the Christ, we pray, Amen.
FIRST SCRIPTURE LESSON
Matthew 9:35 – 10:8: “Commissioning and instruction of the Twelve”
GLORIA PATRI
https://youtu.be/QUBxpypSblw
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be; world without end. Amen, Amen!
PASTORAL PRAYER
O God, who has put an eternal silence at the heart of all our human clamor, and who speaks with eternal wisdom when we are willing to be silent: we praise you for this day and all its special gifts: the singing birds, the flowers at our doorstep, church bells ringing, indeed the joy of simply being alive, especially in these days when so many others are losing their lives. Teach us to hold all of your blessings as sacred treasures never to be taken for granted.
Gracious and Loving Parent: we know that we have all fallen short of your will for us—in the ways we have used others for our own purposes, in the times when we have spoken the hurtful word instead of the healing one, in the moments we have failed to share your love with friends and family members and co-workers and neighbors, and even with one another within this community of your love, but especially with those whose race is different from our own. Forgive us, O Lord, and reach out to reclaim us and lift us up in the very midst of all our falling short; and may your grace enable us to respond to you and to one another with truly amazing gestures of love.
Dear God: in the very midst of all the listening, hearing, and celebrating this time together, enable us to remember others who may not be able to listen, hear, or experience any cause to celebrate this day—the poor and suffering of the world, the sick, the dying, the grieving, those touched by war or terrorism or pandemics of all kinds, but especially, as we’ve been reminded once again and so dramatically of late, the scourge of systemic, institutional racism in our own country. We lay at your feet all those things that tarnish your divine image in us humans, all those things that exist as barriers between ourselves and others, between ourselves and you; and we ask that you might restore us all to the health and wholeness and shalom you intend for your creation.
All this we ask in the name of Jesus the Christ, Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
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 debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power,
and the Glory forever!
Amen!
DOXOLOGY
https://youtu.be/eMnevRoAz74
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Praise God all creatures here below!
Praise God above you heavenly host!
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Amen!
OFFERING PRAYER OF DEDICATION
O God, receive our gifts as but tokens of our response to your call to be your disciples who trust and obey you and serve our neighbors, all in Christ's name, Amen.
HYMN
Trust and obey
https://youtu.be/3GKZcCHYojE
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet.
Or we'll walk by His side in the way.
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
SECOND SCRIPTURE LESSON
Matthew 10: 16-23: “Warning concerning coming persecutions”
SERMON A Nation of Sheep
“Savior, like a shepherd lead us, much we need thy tender care; in thy pleasant pastures feed us, for our use thy folds prepare. Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, thou hast bought us, thine we are.” Amen. (PH, 327, 1)
A Nation of Sheep—that was the title of a best-selling social commentary on the United States a number of years ago. That was a very provocative title for a very provocative book. And in many ways, it seems to me, it is a title which still applies. We remain for the most part a nation of sheep—people who are often without strong, effective, and ethical leadership and/or folks who simply too often just wander around without direction.
Although this is an election year, and although I used to teach political science in my former life, I do not intend this “nation of sheep” designation to be interpreted as some current political commentary. It is, I think, a much broader and deeper statement about the very society and time in which we live. It is a commentary, I think, on our everyday lives as 21st-century Americans.
I hope we would all agree that these are times when leadership itself, of any quality, is difficult to begin with. Every leader in every setting is under constant critical scrutiny. And for our more public leaders, their least flaw is examined and often magnified by the eyes of our various social media. This is also a time of exaggerated personal individualism. We aren’t much open to the leadership of others. We want to left alone and left to our own devices. Isn’t that what freedom and independence are all about? And, after all, aren’t we all “libertarians” at heart? In contrast to our words of greeting and the hymn we have just “sung,” fewer and fewer of us Americans want to “trust and obey” anyone or anything! And increasingly, we are turning inward as a people, focusing on the private and personal dimensions of our lives. We become our own leaders and are less and less open to the leadership or even the companionship of others; although perhaps the isolation thrust upon us by this COVID-19 pandemic has taught us an important life lesson in this regard.
Then too, we Americans have been severely burned around issues of trust and obedience regarding our leaders. Vietnam and Watergate are now a long time ago (even though folks of my age remember them only too well), but they remain vivid elements in our cultural fabric of disappointment. In most of our own memories, we’ve impeached two of our presidents, and another resigned to avoid his inevitable impeachment and conviction. And one of the saddest personal experiences of our time living in Houston was the Enron collapse. Ken Lay, one of the most highly respected citizens of that proud city, and a devout, church-going Christian leader, disappointed us all when he destroyed the lives of thousands for his own selfish profits.
“A Nation of Sheep” disappointed by our failed leaders—perhaps the book title describes us still! Or perhaps we remain what Jesus called “sheep in the midst of wolves.”
Matthew tells us that Jesus looked at the people of his time and saw them as “sheep without a shepherd.” We can almost hear the pain in Jesus’ voice as he saw the crowds of sad, lost people and had compassion for them.
It is significantly more difficult for us here and now to understand what it means to be “a nation of sheep” or “sheep without a shepherd” than it would have been in Jesus’ time and place. Then and there, that would have been a very powerful image or metaphor. After all, his was an agrarian society, in which folks were much more familiar with sheep and their wandering ways than we are.
Any farmer—certainly Jesus himself—knows the need of sheep for a leader, a good leader, a trustworthy leader, a moral leader. And without such a leader, sheep are lost, vulnerable, and in great danger. Matthew goes on to say that Jesus had compassion for that leaderless crowd, “because they were harassed and helpless.”
“Harassed and helpless!” Do those adjectives sound or perhaps feel familiar, especially in these recent days and months? Many of us in this “nation of sheep” feel harassed and helpless. Modern life has a way of harassing us; and it often makes us feel helpless as well. Just think of what we have dealt with of late—first, the pandemic caused by the Corona virus and the shocking number of hospitalizations and deaths, long periods of social isolation, record unemployment, a collapsing economy, and now an official recession, according to the economists. And then there was a second pandemic, one that we folks of “white privilege” have had to deal with only recently, but which has afflicted our fellow-citizens “of color” for generations—systemic, institutional racism that has caused riots in our city streets.
We are all frightened by the growing violence and lack of respect for others in our society. We are shocked indeed by the astounding apathy of both police officers and ordinary citizens who watched seemingly uncaring as George Floyd was murdered by a cop in the streets of Minneapolis. And we are shocked indeed by the violence of police and military forces who sought to break up peaceful protest with rubber bullets and flash grenades filled with either pepper spray or tear gas, depending upon whom we choose to believe. And we are shocked indeed by even more police personnel who threw a peaceful, elderly protestor to the ground and refused to help him as he lay bleeding in a Buffalo city street. And we continue to be shocked by what appears to be the brutality exercised by the very persons called to “serve and protect” us American citizens. What have we come to as a people? We feel lost, intimidated, and threatened by the complex changes in our society. I’ve already quoted many times before my grandmother’s prophecy of well over forty years ago: “We’re going to Hell in a handbasket!” Perhaps, we’ve finally arrived!
And in the light of it all, we often sense that we are turned into sheep, blindly following the troubling trends of society. “Harassed and helpless” indeed!
We “nation of sheep” need a good shepherd, a trustworthy shepherd, a moral shepherd. And just as Jesus offered himself to his own people in his own time, he continues to offer himself to us today. “Follow me!” Jesus said simply to his disciples. And that same invitation comes to us today. We may not be able to follow the Christ in person, but we can certainly follow the way he charted for us; we can follow his Word made available to us in Holy Scripture. All we have to do is ask and then answer that classic question: “What would Jesus have us do in this situation?”
Now surely, folks like us believe in Jesus. We sing the children’s song, “Jesus loves me, this I know.” We look up to Christ in worship and respect. But do we really follow him, do we really do what he would have us do? Using once again those now-familiar words, do we really “trust and obey?”
In these trying times in which we live, perhaps what is called for most in faithful living is obedient following, but not necessarily following political or social or economic leaders like the “governors and kings” Jesus mentions, not following the “wolves” Jesus mentions, but rather following Jesus himself, who is our only true Lord and Master, and his call to “be wise as serpents and innocents as doves.” This call to follow the right leader is absolutely essential to our lives of faith. As our hymn says, “Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet, or we’ll walk by His side in the way; what He says we will do, where He sends we will go; never fear, only trust and obey.” (Hymns for the Family of God, 454, 4)
Really daring words, a really risky calling, but still and especially relevant to us today. Still, we settle too easily for hazy words about love and forgiveness and Jesus, without hearing the call to trust and obedience and following wherever he leads. In these days that challenge the very foundations of our society, we need to turn our faith into work, our words into actions. But all too often, even we good people of faith want the benefits of grace without the costs of commitment. And as a result, we also miss out on the true leadership that Christ can provide for our lives and for our country. We too wind up being “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd,” or even worse, in the tow of false shepherds, or worst of all, “sheep in the midst of wolves.” A Nation of Sheep indeed!
My friends, today we are reminded once again of our commissioning and instruction, our calling as Christ’s own disciples—to be sheep with the best shepherd of all! We are reminded once again that Christ offers himself still as our leader; but that, to acknowledge his leadership and lordship, we followers must follow and must do so obediently, trustingly, and faithfully. A tip of the hat to Jesus is not enough. An occasional remembrance won’t do. A desperate prayer when we are suddenly lost is better than no prayer at all; but it hardly constitutes a life of prayerful discipleship.
To “a nation of sheep,” to a people who are “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd,” like “sheep in the midst of wolves,” Christ still offers himself as a good, trustworthy, and moral leader and shepherd, one who calls us all to “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” But for a gift to be a gift, it not only has to be given, but also received. Will we follow obediently the only right and true shepherd, or will we choose instead to wander aimlessly, lost, confused, even misled?
To end as we began: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” (Hymns for the Family of God, 454, refrain)
“We are thine; do thou befriend us; be the guardian of our way; keep thy flock; from sin defend us; seek us when we go astray, Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, hear thy children when [we] pray.” Amen. (PH, 327, 2)
HYMN
O Jesus, I have promised
https://youtu.be/zpBqddKKziE
O Jesus, I have promised
To serve Thee to the end;
Be Thou forever near me,
My Master and my Friend!
I shall not fear the battle
If Thou art by my side,
Nor wander from the pathway
If Thou wilt be my guide.
Oh, let me feel Thee near me!
The world is ever near;
I see the sights that dazzle,
The tempting sounds I hear;
My foes are ever near me,
Around me and within;
But, Jesus, draw Thou nearer,
And shield my soul from sin.
Oh, let me hear Thee speaking
In accents clear and still,
Above the storms of passion,
The murmurs of self-will!
Oh, speak to re-assure me,
To hasten or control!
Oh, speak, and make me listen,
Thou Guardian of my soul!
O Jesus, Thou hast promised
To all who follow Thee,
That where Thou art in glory
There shall Thy servant be;
And, Jesus, I have promised
To serve Thee to the end;
Oh, give me grace to follow,
My Master and my Friend!
Oh, let me see Thy foot-marks,
And in them plant my own!
My hope to follow duly
Is in Thy strength alone,
Oh, guide me, call me, draw me,
Uphold me to the end!
At last in Heaven receive me,
My Saviour and my Friend!
BENEDICTION
“Early let us seek God’s favor, early let us do God’s will; blessed Lord and only Savior, with his love our bosoms fill.” Amen, (based on PH, 327, 3)
BENEDICTION RESPONSE
GO NOW IN PEACE
Congregation:
https://youtu.be/mefNCtwjp2M
Piano:
https://youtu.be/JLJXpuxDjes
Go now In peace, never be afraid.
God will go with you each hour of every day.
Go now In faith, steadfast strong and true.
Know He will guide you in all you do.
Go now In love, and show you believe.
Reach out to others so all the world can see.
God will be there watching from above.
Go now in peace. in faith and in love.
Amen. Amen. AMEN!
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