Woship Resources 2008-2009 — Year B: Be a Sanctuary of Christ's Peace

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Sunday, November 22, 2009
Alpha and Omega

Ordinary Time (Proper 29)

Scriptures: II Samuel 23:1–7; Psalm 132:1–18; Revelation 1:4b–8; John 18:33–37; III Nephi 4:48; Doctrine and Covenants 115:1e

Prelude

Welcome and Announcements

Call to Worship: Psalm 132:13–18 and/or III Nephi 4:48

*Hymn: “Great and Marvelous Are Thy Works” HS 48
OR “Mighty God, Transforming God!” NS 38

*Invocation

Disciples’ Generous Response

Each Sunday, as part of the Disciples’ Generous Response, we ask you to integrate the message of “share equally” between Local and World Ministries Mission Tithes. Generosity stories are provided to keep the church in touch with how contributions to Mission Tithes spread the peace of Jesus Christ. Please use the stories, testimonies, and up-to-date contribution information as part of your offertory ministry. Visit www.CofChrist.org/generositystories to print a copy, or contact your pastor, congregational financial officer, or worship coordinator for a copy.

Blessing and Receiving of Mission Tithes

Hymn: “Jesus, Name above All Names” NS 25
OR “Now in This Moment” HS 58

Poem

Silence

If you stand very still in the heart of a wood,

you will hear many wonderful things,

the snap of a twig and the wind in the trees

and the whirr of invisible wings.

If you stand very still in the turmoil of life

and you wait for the voice from within,

you’ll be led down the ways of wisdom and peace,

in a mad world of chaos and din.

If you stand very still and you hold to your faith,

you will get all the help that you ask….

you will draw from the silence the things that you need,

hope and courage, and strength for your task.

—A. J. Corbett

We Open Ourselves to the Spirit see page 27

Prayer for Peace see page 27

Sermon

Based on Revelation 1:4–8

*Hymn: “Praise Ye the Lord” HS 62
OR “Make Me a Servant” NS 35

*Benediction

*Sending Forth: Doctrine and Covenants 115:1e

*Postlude

Sermon Helps

Scriptures: II Samuel 23:1–7; Psalm 132:1–18; Revelation 1:4b–8; John 18:33–37

Exploring the Scriptures

God is and will remain a mystery. That is as it should be. Why would we worship a God small enough for our finite minds to comprehend? On the other hand, how can we be in relationship with a God who is totally unknown? This passage in Revelation makes statements about divinity that can be helpful as our faith seeks understanding.

Twice in this brief passage John of Patmos affirms that God is and was and is to come. God exists throughout time, both in chronos (chronological time) and kyros (spiritual time). Here is a God who has no beginning or end, but is the beginning and end. Alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet, is the start of communication and knowing, while Omega is the final letter that closes off the alphabet. In the same way, God is the beginning of communication, the source of understanding, the origin of knowing—and its end. John is affirming that everything that is begins and ends with God, and nothing is outside the purview and awareness of this divine Mystery.

For those who are facing persecution, pain, and death, the victory of faith lies in affirming that even torture and loss are held within God’s loving hands. That is not to say that God’s intent is to place human beings in peril, but rather God walks with each one through the trials they face. God weeps, agonizes, laughs, and rejoices with us. Nothing and no one is beyond God, or outside of God’s knowledge and province.

This is the heart of the theology of the cross: not that the blood of Christ was some magical fluid that healed or cleansed of its own accord; not that the torture and death of Christ was a form of divine child abuse dictated by a judgmental Father; but rather that in the cross we encounter a God who experiences agony and pain with each one of us. God is truly “with us” (Immanuel) through each tragedy and defeat, each struggle for breath, each draining moment when life slips away. In those moments, God continues to hold us in love, grace, and forgiveness. God transforms our human seconds of chronos time into the eternal divine kyros of eternity. Like John’s affirmation in the last statement of this scripture, God in Christ patiently endures with us.

Central Ideas
  1. Understanding God as beginning and end means affirming God’s presence in each moment of life, in every joy and tragedy.
     
  2. The God of the Cross is one who walks with us, weeps with us, and ultimately rejoices with us through each human experience.

Questions for the Speaker
  1. When have you experienced God in the heart of a new beginning? When have you experienced the Divine Mystery in the midst of an ending?
     
  2. When in your life has chronos time (the chronological time we measure by a clock) suddenly been transformed into kyros time (spiritual and eternal)?
     
  3. How does your congregation affirm the presence of God in all of life?
     
  4. How is the concept of God, as Alpha and Omega, connected to the ongoing work of God in this world that God created, loves, and redeems?

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