Sunday, June 28

GATHERING AS THE PEOPLE OF GOD

"Jesus Loves Me"

Played on the piano by Ayla

Good morning beloved people of God and welcome to online worship! This morning you are welcome to come by Argonne or St. Luke's UMC to receive prayer, Holy Communion, and say good bye to Pastor Adam since today is his final Sunday.

Every hour, on the hour, Pastor Adam will begin a brief worship service of Prayer and Table. After the brief service (less than 10 minutes), you are welcome to spend some time with Pastor Adam and the other folks who have gathered. Please know we will be staying outdoors, maintaining social distance, avoiding physical contact, and wearing masks/face coverings (remember: "My mask protects you, and your mask protects me" ).

Pastor Adam will be at:

Argonne UMC at 8:00, 9:00, and 10:00

St. Luke's at 11:00, 12:00, 1:00, and 2:00.

If you would like to avoid as many people as possible, please come to Argonne at 8:00 or St. Luke's at 2:00.

Announcements

Check out and click on these links below for information and updates on the COVID-19 pandemic:

We are so glad that you are worshiping with us today online. Please stay connected with us during this time of social distancing and staying at home in these ways:

"Follow" this blog through entering your email address on the right-side of the screen.
"Subscribe" to our YouTube channel: CSLA United Methodist Church
"Like" us on Facebook: click here to access our page

Sharing of Joys and Concerns

If you would like a copy of the prayer list or have prayer requests, please email Pastor Adam at pastor.adamwoods@gmail.com. You can also add your pray request in the comment section below. Please be aware that comments posted below are public. Before posting, please consider the privacy of those might not want their name shared publicly on the Internet.

If you would like the latest version of our prayer list for church and community members, please email Pastor Adam using the address above.

On Friday was a Service of Death and Resurrection for our sister in Christ Patricia Joan Kirker. Joan's family prepared a wonderful slide show filled with pictures and memories of Joan.

To view the entire Service of Death and Resurrection (funeral service) please follow the link below to watch the entire Facebook Live video:

Service of Death and Resurrection for Patricia Joan Kirker

Greeting and Offering One Another the Peace of Christ

Offer this greeting to those in your household or call someone up right now (and I mean it, call them right now) and offer these words to them.

Shalom to you now, shalom, my friends.

May God's full mercies bless you my friends.

In all your living and through your loving,

Christ be your shalom, Christ be your shalom.

CCLI#2880227

PROCLAIMING THE WORD OF GOD

Matthew 10:40-42

Dear Beloved People of God,

I have found our scripture lesson today to be a fitting passage to reflect on as I end my time as your pastor. Mind you, this is not a passage I picked. Rather, it is the lectionary reading this week. For the past two Sundays we have been reading the lectionary texts from the end of Matthew chapter 9 and all of Matthew chapter 10. Today we finish this three-week section which I have been referring to as “the missionary discourse.”

40 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
Matthew 10:40-42

For three Sundays we have been overhearing what Jesus has told his disciples about what it means, what it will be like, and what it will lead to for them to be his missionaries, disciples, and, as he says this week, prophets. Over the past two weeks, our dive into the text left us feeling like we were treading water within a sea of harsh warnings and hard realities. Looking back on my two sermons it is clear that Jesus does not want his disciples to mistakenly believe that being his disciple was going to be a life of ease, bliss, and peacefulness. Looking back on the events in our world over the past two weeks reminds me of just how uneasy, how little bliss, and how far-off peace seems to be. It’s almost as if what Jesus says to his disciples he is speaking into our lives today. Imagine that…

Then we come to our very short passage for today. In these verses, Jesus wraps up his second teaching discourse in Matthew. And just as we could see a few themes from the previous verses in Matthew, today we see a very obvious theme emerge: welcome. Above all else, in Matthew’s version of this missionary teaching discourse (see Luke’s version in Luke 10:1-16 and Mark’s version in Mark 6:7-13) the final word, the key point, is welcoming those who Christ sends.

When I arrived in Forest County ten months ago I was a complete stranger to this place. I had been appointed by the Bishop as you pastor months before I actually arrived in Argonne or Crandon, yet nevertheless none of us knew what was in store during my time in ministry with you all. We began as strangers to one another.

What has occurred over these past ten months is a huge amount of pastoral growth for me. I have been welcomed into your homes and your lives as your pastor. I have planned worship services alongside you. I have prepared for funeral services with your families. I have heard stories of the past and your hopes for the future. And, of course, I have learned how to be in ministry with you all through digital means during the largest global pandemic in generations. Simply put, you all have welcomed, embraced, and shaped me as a pastor.

What has also occurred over these past ten months has been an ever-deepening engagement among many of you in your faith and your investment in Argonne and St. Luke’s. Some of you may not know what I am talking about, after all it has been months since the sanctuaries have been full and church life felt “normal.” Nevertheless, I stand by what I say. As I reflect on what has changed among you all over the past 10 months it seems to be best summarized in Matthew 10:40--"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” I see an increasing desire to welcome God into your lives and welcome God’s beloved into your hearts.

I noticed this as the St. Luke’s Beyond Worship Wednesday Bible Study group discussed and debated the proposed Revised Social Principles that would have been considered by the General Conference last month had a global pandemic not occurred. I noticed this in the feedback I received from sermons, especially the series in February when we worked through Matthew 5, “The Sermon on the Mount.” I noticed this during leadership meetings and one-on-one conversations as many of you shared how much you long for the congregations to receive new, young people and families. Finally, I noticed this in the ways that Pastor Francois’s arrival in Forest County was preceded by a complete furnishing of his new home, an eagerness for news on when he will arrive, and a strong desire to know more about him and his family.

As I prepare to leave you all, I want to speak over you and reflect back to you this idea that you are collectively seeking to be welcoming. I say that with gladness and with gratitude for the Holy Spirit’s work in guiding and shaping you all in this way. Friends, I leave you not only with a word of gratefulness for how you welcomed me into your churches and into your lives, but I also leave you with an exhortation for how to continue to live into and live out Jesus’s command to welcome and be welcomed by others.

Remember that welcoming others is not the same thing as being nice to others. Hospitality does not just mean friendliness. Now, by all means, be nice and friendly to strangers who come into your church and into your lives. But the sort of welcome that Jesus has in mind is not about niceties. Rather, he is calling for a sort of hospitality that is very difficult to actually offer without the grace of God.

While we like to overemphasize the generosity of Jesus and the love of God, we often underemphasize the cost involved in actually following the way, the truth, and the life of a crucified Christ and God’s will for justice and reconciliation for all. For example, what the Bible and Jesus actually say about how to manage finances, how to treat the poor and immigrants, and how to understand allegiance to earthly powers and leaders often gets distorted in contemporary Christianity. Instead of letting Scripture call into question the ways we live, the truths we claim, and the lives that we choose, we actually build our Christian faith and identity by picking and choosing vaguely religious song lyrics we have memorized, religiously reading or listening to best-selling authors or preachers we find both entertaining and affirming, and tune out all other voices except political commentators that we already agree with.

Instead of letting Jesus call what we think and do into question, we question the intention and credibility of other siblings in Christ who proclaim the good news about Jesus in a way that calls into question our actions, beliefs, and behaviors. Welcoming Jesus into our lives and our hearts means that we are beginning a life-long journey of unlearning many things instilled in us through culture we subscribe to and learning more than the world can ever teach us on its own.

When Jesus sent out his disciples, he knew that they would often not be welcomed—not because they would be rude, impolite, or simply bad guests. Rather, their rejection by others would be because they would proclaim and do things so radically different than what the people knew, felt comfortable with, and wanted. Likewise, Jesus wasn’t crucified because he was rude or ungrateful. Instead, Christ is crucified because he points out the ways that the world is not what God created it to be. Crucifixion and rejection occur when people are confronted with the truth about how much God loves them yet how little love they have for their neighbors or themselves.

My friends, we often like to place ourselves into this story only as the disciples standing in front of Jesus and being the intended recipients of his teaching. Perhaps it is just as appropriate to see ourselves as those who will either welcome or reject those whom Jesus sends. As disciples of Christ we should understand ourselves as both the ones he sends and the ones who receive those he sends. As members of the Body of Christ we share the good news about the Risen Christ, the grace of God, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Yet we share the Gospel with not just those who have not received it, but with those who are learning more and more what that means for their life and for the world.

My beloved siblings in Christ, I exhort you to welcome those who Christ sends into your midst. I exhort you to welcome Pastor Francois as someone sent by Christ and through the grace of the Holy Spirit is the right pastor, here at the right time, and serving in the right place. I exhort you to welcome others back into the sanctuary for worship over the next few months by wearing a mask, maintaining social distance, and accepting the reality that we have to go about life in different ways to reduce the risk of people getting sick. I exhort you to welcome the voices and stories from our siblings in Christ who are Black and who know first-hand the consequences of racial bias, violence, and oppression. I exhort you to welcome into your heart and mind the experiences and perspectives of fellow United Methodists who have been harmed the most by decades of fighting at the General Conference over the inclusion of LGBTQ individuals. I exhort you to welcome fellow disciples of Christ through these and other ways.

Jesus says at the end of these short verses that those who practice this sort of welcome, that none of them “will lose their reward”. And what reward might that be? As we welcome others, we may well find that we experience new insights and hear new stories of faith that open our eyes anew to God’s faithfulness and love. And this will change us—transform us alongside each other into new creations of God’s kingdom.

That is what happened to me over these past ten months while being in ministry with you all.

And that is the reward Christ promises that we will not lose.

Glory and thanks be to God.

Amen.

RESPONDING TO THE WORD OF GOD

"All Are Welcome"

Prayers of the People

Called into unity with one another and the whole creation, let us pray for our shared world.

God of companionship, encourage our relationships with our siblings in Christ. Bless our conversations. Shape our shared future and give us hearts eager to join in a festal shout of praise. Lord in your mercy...

God of abundance, you make your creation thrive and grow to provide all that we need. Inspire us to care for our environment and be attuned to where the earth is crying out. Lord in your mercy...

God of mercy, your grace is poured out for all. Inspire authorities, judges, and politicians to act with compassion. Teach us to overcome fear with hope, meet hate with love, and welcome one another as we would welcome you. Lord in your mercy...

God of care, accompany all who are in deepest need. Comfort those who are sick, lonely, or abandoned. Strengthen those who are in prison or awaiting trial. Renew the spirits of all who call upon you. Lord in your mercy...

God of community, we give thanks for this congregation. Give us passion to embrace your mission and the vision to recognize where you are leading us. Teach us how to live more faithfully with each other. Lord in your mercy...

God of love, you gather in your embrace all who have died. Keep us steadfast in our faith and renew our trust in your promise. Lord in your mercy...

Receive these prayers, O God, and those too deep for words; through Jesus Christ our Lord who taught his disciples to pray:

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 trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass 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.

Offering

As we begin a time of offering our gifts and ourselves, consider the various organization, missions, and events that you are able to offer you time, talents, and money to during this time. The offering is a key part of worship because it reminds us that the God we have met this morning is a God on the move and a God at work in our world. Here are some links to click on that will direct you to several organizations that have online financial giving opportunities:

If you wish to make a financial offering by writing a check, offerings to both St. Luke's and Argonne should be mailed to the office at St. Luke's (301 South Lake Ave, Crandon, 54520) or dropped in the outdoor mail slot next to the side entrance to St. Luke's.

Gracious and Giving God,

in this time of pandemic and distancing

continue to use us and guide us
to care for your people.

All that we have,

all that we are,

and all that we give are because you have first loved us.

Bless all the work of our hands,

the investments of our time,

and the fruits of our labors,

so that we may embody and extend

your grace, love, and mission to all our neighbors.

In the name of Jesus Christ we offer ourselves and we lift up this prayer.

Amen.

GOING FORTH IN GOD'S MISSION AND LOVE

"Move"

CCLI#2880227

Blessing and Benediction

Go forth into the world to serve God with gladness;

be of good courage;

hold fast to that which is good;

render to no one evil for evil;

strengthen the fainthearted;

support the weak;

help the afflicted;

honor all people;

love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

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Crandon: St. Luke's and Argonne United Methodist Church

Sunday, June 28

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