Sunday, March 17, 2019

Exodus 3-17-2019

Worship on Sunday, March 17 …

As we move forward into our exploration of Wilderness Journeys! we look at the Exodus as an overarching narrative that frames both Hebrew and Christian Testaments. 



╬ Exodus!

 The Wilderness Journey is a primary motif – a meta-narrative – that threads its way through both Testaments.  One of its foundational stories is the Exodus.  God delivers the people from bondage and guides them to a new place of freedom and prosperity.  This age-old tale frames so much of life throughout the spiritual history of humankind and resonates in our own time.  It’s not a single step.  Rather, the passage from slavery to freedom, from darkness to light, from death through re-birth to new life, is a “roundabout way” … a journey through the wilderness in which we experience the transforming work of God.  As we enter into the Season of Lent, we embark on this journey together!

 Below are the Prayer of the Day and Readings.  

 We make our way together, in the presence of God!

 - Pr. Brad Highum
bhighum@abidinglove.org

 PRAYER OF THE DAY ------------------------

 Creating God, lead us out into the wilderness and minister to us there.  Form us and shape us according to your will.  Call forth our true identity and prepare us for the time to come.  Amen.

 READINGS ---------------------------------------

 First Reading:  Exodus 19:1-9
19 On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2 They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. 3 Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: 4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, 6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites."  7 So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 The people all answered as one: "Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do." Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. 9 Then the Lord said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after."

 Psalm Ps 78:12-20,56-58
12 In the sight of their ancestors God worked marvels in the land of Egypt.
13 He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap.
14 In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all night long with a fiery light.
15 He split rocks open in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
16 He made streams come out of the rock, and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
17 Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18 They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
20 Even though he struck the rock so that water gushed out and torrents overflowed, can he also give bread, or provide meat for his people?"
56 They tested the Most High God, and rebelled against him.  They did not observe his decrees.
57 They turned away and were faithless like their ancestors; they twisted like a treacherous bow.
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols.

 Second Reading:  Hebrews 3:7-19
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works 10 for forty years.  Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.' 11 As in my anger I swore, 'They will not enter my rest.'" 12 Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." 16 Now who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? 17 But with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

 Gospel:  Luke 12:22-31
22 He said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you — you of little faith! 29 And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. 30 For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
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