Hit me up, keep me at your door.
Hit me up, cause' the scent of your shirt on me is
This is Disciples Net. Thank you for joining us here. Join me now in the call to worship.
O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? Those who walk blamelessly
and do what is right and speak truth from their heart. O Lord, we know that our walk is filled
with stumbling. We know that we often fail to do what is right. We know that the truth is
sometimes far from our heart and our mouths. Yet you welcome us to your holy hill anyway.
Thank you for your grace and mercy. Show us how to live rightly in your spirit.
Open our hearts to receive what you have for us in this service of worship.
I want to see you. I want to see you. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord.
Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you. I want to see you.
To see you high and lifted up. Shining in the light of your glory.
Pour out your power and love as we sing, Holy, Holy, Holy.
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart.
I want to see you. I want to see you. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord.
Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you. I want to see you.
To see you high and lifted up. Shining in the light of your glory.
Pour out your power and love as we sing, Holy, Holy, Holy.
Holy, Holy, Holy. Holy, Holy, Holy. I want to see you.
Holy, Holy, Holy. I want to see you.
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you.
Holy, Holy, Holy. I want to see you.
Will you pray with me? Holy God, we come before you confessing that we are a broken people.
You reach out to us and remain ever near, but we fail to recognize you.
You speak your words of abundance and goodness through the words of your prophet.
You show us your face and the beauty that surrounds us.
This day, we ask that you open our hearts so that we may see your face and give you praise in all that we do.
Send us new messengers to witness to the power of your presence in our lives.
Some of us come to you today in times of joy. Some come in sorrow.
Some come in great distress from sickness or natural disasters.
Some come in the very fear of their lives because of the danger of oppressors.
We ask that you enter into the lives of each of us, speaking the word that touches us.
Call the rich and powerful to compassion, mercy, and justice.
Hold the brokenhearted close to you, giving them peace and the knowledge that you will always be there.
Give the sick healing where possible and comfort and rest to carry through their burdens.
For those who encounter disaster or suffer from poverty, touch the hearts of your other children to provide them assistance in their time of distress.
Give hope to those who live in war-toned areas.
We ask also that you plan a desire for peace in the hearts of those who oppress their neighbors.
In all things, we give you thanks for the promises that you have made.
Food for all, your constant presence in our lives, rain and snow, sun and shadow,
seed sprouting and bringing forth abundance, all good things in our lives.
Send us forth now as the messengers, bearing your word to all the people in this world
so that they may see your goodness and worship you in peace and joy.
We ask these things in the name of the one who taught us to pray, our Father, to our Lord in heaven.
Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, honor as it is in heaven.
Give us the day of our daily bread, and ever give it to our guests, as we forgive our guests,
and ever give it to the time of intimidation, but thy children are us from evil.
For by night is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
Oh sisters, let's go down, down to the river to pray.
As I went down to the river to pray, studying about that good old way,
and who shall wear the robe and crown, good Lord, show me the way.
Oh brothers, let's go down, let's go down, come on down.
Come on brothers, let's go down, down to the river to pray.
As I went down to the river to pray, studying about that good old way, and who shall wear
the starry crown, good Lord, show me the way.
Oh fathers, let's go down, let's go down, come on down.
Oh fathers, let's go down, down to the river to pray.
As I went down to the river to pray, studying about that good old way, and who shall wear
the robe and crown, good Lord, show me the way.
Oh mothers, let's go down, come on down, don't you want to go down.
Come on mothers, let's go down, down to the river to pray.
As I went down to the river to pray, studying about that good old way, and who shall wear
the starry crown, good Lord, show me the way.
Oh sinners, let's go down, let's go down, come on down.
Oh sinners, let's go down, down to the river to pray.
As I went down to the river to pray, studying about that good old way, and who shall wear
the starry crown, good Lord, show me the way.
Reading from the Gospel of Mark chapter 7 verses 1 through 8, 14 through 15 and 21 through 23.
Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,
they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without
the Jews and all the Jews do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing
the tradition of the elders.
And they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it, and there are also many
other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.
So the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, why do your disciples not live according to
the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?
Jesus said to them, Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, this
people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
In vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.
You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human traditions.
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, listen to me, all of you, and understand,
there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out
are what defile.
For it is from within, from the human heart that evil intentions come, pornication, theft,
murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, pleasantiousness, envy, slander, pride,
folly, all these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.
May God add His blessings to our reading and our understanding of this word.
Amen.
Have you ever had that odd feeling, realizing that something not only isn't doing what it's
supposed to do, it's actually doing the exact opposite?
It's a strange and frustrating feeling.
It's what Jesus undoubtedly felt when he watched those particular Pharisees go through
their cleaning rituals.
The cleaning rituals were designed to teach a very important lesson, no matter how hard
you try, no matter how much you do, you will never be completely and permanently clean
and right with God.
You have to keep on investing time and effort.
You'll always be falling just a bit short.
You'll never be clean enough, and even then, you'll never be clean for long.
Yet to these particular Pharisees, the ritual had taken on the exact opposite meaning.
They took pride in the special cleaning rituals for their pots and pans and hands and face.
They took pride that they did all that was required, and they looked down on anyone who
didn't.
They took pride in their cleanliness and put down those who didn't live up to their standards.
When it became clear that Jesus wasn't keeping their cleaning rituals, they asked him,
why not?
They expected to shame him.
What they got instead was a lesson in what being clean meant.
It's not what goes into you that defiles you, Jesus says.
It's what comes out of your heart that matters.
Mark comments that by saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.
For the Jew, that was a major change of thinking.
But for us today, we can't get hung up on thinking this is just about washing or eating.
What is it that we do today that accomplishes the exact opposite of what is intended?
What is it that we do today that causes our pride in ourselves to swell at the expense of others?
What is it that we do that puts us on the inside and all those other folks on the outside?
Let me name one example.
One possibility is the words that we use.
We Christians have our own set of words that most of us, especially those of us who grew
up in the church, know and understand, but which can at best be meaningless to people
who are new and at worst, barriers that keep them from feeling like they're a part of
our fellowship.
The words have a purpose.
They are supposed to help us describe what we experience and know as Christians.
They can be helpful when they're used to open up possibilities for people, especially
those who are new to our faith.
They can also be quite harmful when they become barriers, especially when they become tests
to see if these folks really belong.
A while back in the Western world, there were stories and phrases that used to be used to
see if someone had a classical education, whether they had attended the right schools.
In the course of a conversation, someone could make a reference to a character from Greek
mythology, from the poet Homer's books, the Iliad and the Odyssey, and those references
opened doors for people who understood them and closed them for people who didn't.
It's the same way in some churches, with Christian words and phrases.
If a person uses the phrase, born again, we think that they're a certain type of Christian,
and if they use phrases like social justice, we think that they're another sort.
Worse yet, some of us look down on people that we think belong to one or the other group.
Just the way the Pharisees look down on Jesus' disciples, because they didn't wash up in a particular way.
In our passage from James for today, James compares those who hear the word and do something else
to people who look into a mirror and then immediately forget what they saw.
The law is supposed to be a mirror that shows us how much in need of God's mercy we all are.
The law shows us that we can never be clean enough.
As we gaze into the mirror of the law, we see every place where we have failed to do the justice God calls us to do in our daily lives.
We see every time we fail to show the kindness and mercy God pours out on us to those around us.
We see every situation where our pride gets the better of us and we go our own way instead of the way God chose us.
And woe to any of us who looks at the law and justifies himself in his imperfect memory of what he saw,
who uses that law to make herself look better and others worse.
One way to know for sure that you're doing it wrong is when your first impulse is to judge others.
We must take every command, every call of God, and hold it up to our own face
and act on what we see there before we even consider the possibility of measuring another.
So what is it that comes out from my heart and my mind?
For myself, I'd have to say there is a mix.
Some of what comes from within me are the things that I would very much like to see gone for good.
Other times, the image of God within me pours out exactly what I might hope.
As I grow in grace, I see more of the latter. Praise be to God.
Our lifelong task is to hold the mirror of God's perfect law up to ourselves to look carefully
for where there are spots and wrongness and pray and work to remove them from us.
And then think and act from that image of God that grows more pure within us as we do this.
Then, as that image grows ever more pure, what comes out of us,
even in times of stress and trial, will actually work to purify us even more.
For it is what comes out of you that either defiles or purifies.
For the lives may it be the latter. Amen.
Cleanse me, heal me, wash away my sins,
Help me know that you are where all love begins.
Lead me, move me, help me hear your call.
Jesus Christ redeemer, we are all in art now.
Cleanse me, heal me, wash away my sins,
Help me know that you are where all love begins.
Lead me, move me, help me hear your call.
Jesus Christ redeemer, you are all in art now.
Sometimes we're asked at DisciplesNet,
why we have communion and have it every week.
Part of the answer to that is that we have it as part of the tradition of the Disciples of Christ,
seeking to follow in the ways of Christ and serving the world.
And in this way, we're most drawn to remember not just Jesus and the sacrifices of Jesus for us,
but the commandments of Jesus to love one another,
which involves being in community and sharing the table,
sharing communion one with another.
As we come to the table and then go out,
we think that we take a bit of the teachings,
the body of Christ with us into the world,
as is what we're called to do.
But I have to admit it's difficult online
when we can't pass this bread and this cup to you as we'd like.
We've thought in the early days,
since we can't do this, should we forego communion?
But we decided to know that we'll just need to do the best we can.
Because for DisciplesNet, we know that sometimes we're the only church that people can attend.
And we've also heard story upon story of people thanking us for having the communion,
because they were able to worship with the loved one who was dying.
And this was the last communion that they could take.
And they were able to take it as a family.
We don't insist that you have the physical bread and the cup,
because many people aren't able to eat.
We ask that you hold, however, some type of bread and cup in your mind,
if not in your hands.
And remember the Christ as you eat the bread that's broken for you
and the cup of blessing that's poured out for you.
And so as we come to the table now, won't you join me in prayer?
Gracious God, we thank you so much for this special time here.
We ask that you bless each person listening here.
You know their needs to God, and we ask that you hear their prayers.
We ask that you bless whatever bread and cup is before them.
We ask that you bless the bond between any that are listening here in a group
or any that hold their family members dear in their heart,
and perhaps are unable to be close to them physically in this time.
We ask that you bless the bread, bless the cup that's before each now,
physically or in their mind.
And bless us, dear God, to your service. For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.
For it was on that last night that Jesus was eating with his disciples in the upper room
that he took a loaf of bread and he blessed it.
And afterwards he broke it and said to them,
This is my body. It was broken for you to do this in remembrance of me.
And he gave it to them to eat and to share.
And in the same way after they had finished eating, he poured out the cup.
And said to them, This cup is the new covenant of my blood poured out for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
For as often as you eat of the bread and drink of this cup,
you show the Lord's death until he comes again.
We tell the Lord's story until he comes again.
Won't you come now to the table?
The body of Christ broken for you.
The cup of blessing poured out for you.
As soon as I met him, he entered in.
Sit at the feast, dear Lord, break down the prayer.
Every day pointed me farther than peace.
Let the whole bondage with the full release.
Friends, hold up the perfect law of God to examine yourselves.
Study what you see and act to change it.
Purify that image of God in you.
Then God will shine out of you as you live and act in this world.
Then people will see the image of God in you and give God the glory.
Then the world will be changed by you, living as God calls you,
in the way Christ has set before you.
Amen.
Let the whole bondage with the full release.
