​Sunday Worship, September 27, 2020
Greeting                   Psalm 32:11
“Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones;
And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.”          
           
Opening Prayer     
Creator God, you are righteous and merciful; your works are mighty.  As we gather for worship, clear our minds of distractions.  May our thoughts be centered on you. May your word be etched on our hearts; so that our lives may testify to our Savior Jesus Christ. In His name.  Amen.
 
Call to Worship                              Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
    incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable;
    I will utter dark sayings from of old,
things that we have heard and known,
    that our ancestors have told us.
We will not hide them from their children;
    we will tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
    and the wonders that he has done.
In the sight of their ancestors he worked marvels
    in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
    and made the waters stand like a heap.
In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
    and all night long with a fiery light.
He split rocks open in the wilderness,
    and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
He made streams come out of the rock,
    and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
 
Scripture                  Exodus 17:1-7 .            
Morning Message             A Lasting Legacy        
Key Point: Where God leads, God will provide.
Questions:  How does the world see us, and what will we be remembered for?
Is the Lord among us, or not? (Verse 7)
In Exodus 17:1-7, the issue is water: “The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink” (verse 1).
The first thing to note is that they began this journey under God’s leadership (“as the Lord commanded”).  We can assume this refers to the pillar of cloud and fire which guided the Israelites on the various legs of their journey thus far.  God’s very presence was with them, leading them, not only in the form of verbal promises, but visually and tangibly.
In addition to God’s visual presence, the Israelites also had the daily reminder of God’s caring provision in the form of manna, which arrived wherever they were, six days a week.  Signs of divine activity were everywhere.
And yet, with dry, thirsty mouths, the Israelites lash out against Moses: “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” (verse 3).
The decision to blame Moses points to the central problem in this story.  Israel had still not learned a crucial lesson: where God leads, God provides.
God had secured victory over the Egyptians.  He had enriched Israel with the wealth of their former captors.  He made a dry path through the Red Sea  And God provided regular supplies on their journey through the desert. (Manna, quail, water, protection, his presence 24/7)
If the wilderness stories teach us anything, it is that God provides in every situation.
And still, the Israelites quarrel, complain, and accuse Moses, their divinely appointed leader, for their current situation.
Not once does anyone offer a solution or idea.  No one suggests they pray for mercy from the God who had been with them all along.  In fact, in accusing Moses, they were, in a sense, acting like God wasn’t even there.  Instead of crying out for mercy to God, they questioned his existence, “Is the Lord among us, or not?’
How quickly we, as humans, forget what God has already done.  How sad, that although God did miraculously provide water that day, the Israelites are remembered NOT for their celebration of the miracle, but for their complaining and quarreling.
That would become their legacy.  The naming of this place as Massah (testing) and Meribah (quarreling) would be forever reminders of their lack of faith.
So, the Lord answers by giving them a sign (Moses’ staff), saying, “Yes, I am with
you in this place, too.”
Since the Israelites seemed to be suffering from selective memory, God gave them a visible sign of his power and might, of what he had already done on their behalf.
Verse 5 & 6, “The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.  I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.”
In response to Israel’s arguing and complaining, God doesn’t just send rain, He stages a dramatic miracle using Moses’ staff. 
The inclusion of Moses’ staff is a significant detail.
The story begins in Exodus 4, when God turns this ordinary shepherd’s staff into a sign of his divine power by transforming it into a snake.  The staff was designed to convince the Israelites that the God of their ancestors had heard their cries and had sent a deliverer.   But it also did something for Moses, who had expressed concern that nobody would believe his story.  God’s promise was attached to this concrete thing—this “sacrament”, this reminder of God’s grace—that gave confidence in God to both Moses and the Israelites.
Even more significantly, however, is the fact that Moses’ staff was used in Exodus 7 to turn the life-giving Nile into a deadly river of blood.   According to Ex. 7:21, the bloodied Nile produced such a horrendous odor that “the Egyptians could not drink its water”.
In Exodus 17, the Israelites needed a similar miracle, but in reverse.   Under pressure to satisfy Israel’s thirst, Moses is told to “strike the rock” at Horeb in the same way that he struck the Nile.   Water came forth and the people were able to drink.
The crisis is averted by divine generosity.  God’s love prevails despite the people’s lack of faith.  Because where God leads, he will provide.
Today, this story is a timely reminder, especially for congregations experiencing disruption, transition, or adversity.   Which is all churches to some degree, thanks to COVID-19.  Because this story has the ability to make us look at ourselves as a church, and reveal how we, too, often struggle to believe that where God leads, God provides.
Like the Israelites, the Church, too, often forgets that God has been there all along.
That God has always provided a way through difficult times, that He most certainly is among, and ahead of, and behind, His children.  God’s people too often fail to remember all that God has already done and begin to quarrel and accuse, instead of seeking God’s face.  We forget the “shepherd staffs” in our own lives and church history.
And unfortunately, many local churches throughout history are remembered for their infighting and divisions.  Sadly, these become their lasting legacy.  These are the things they are most remembered for.  Sadly, every community has its own churches that are modern-day Massahs and Meribahs.
What will we be remembered for?
Bethel Church, let’s be remembered as people who loved God with all our hearts, minds, and strength.  Let’s be remembered as people who loved our neighbors as we love ourselves.  Let’s be remembered as people who rejoiced in all things, people who found the good in difficult situations.
Let’s be thought of as people who refused to quarrel and make accusations against leadership and each other; and instead sought solutions and new ways of doing things.  People who chose to trust God and did not dwell on what has been taken away, who did not forever mourn what can no longer be done.
Let’s be a church who rejoices in what we have been given and embrace these things, using what we’ve been given for God’s glory.
Bethel United Methodist Church: In the Bible the place called Bethel is mentioned 70 times, all in the Old Testament.  Bethel was a place where God could be encountered.  A place where people worshipped and offered sacrifice to the Lord.  A place of promise and hope and transformation.
Let’s move forward into the future not only as people who attend a church named Bethel, but as true Bethel people.
Church, may we be people who seek God every day, and because we seek him, encounter Him daily.  May we be people who worship him in every area of our lives, in our very living and breathing and doing.  May we be generous people who give of ourselves fully and sacrificially, to God, to each other, to our neighbors and community.  May we be seen as God’s people who always trust Him to provide our every need.
In the original Hebrew, Bethel means “house of God.”  A house of God is an earthly, physical place that is seen as the dwelling place of God.  As earth-bound humans, we often need something solid and physical to remind us of God’s presence.
Let’s also remember that in Scripture, Bethel was a place of new beginnings, a starting point really.
So as true Bethel people, may our legacy also be that we are a church who knows that God cannot really be contained in a physical building or location.  That God truly is among us wherever we are.  That He is with us whatever way we gather to worship.  And that where God leads, he most certainly will provide.   Amen.
 
Pastoral Prayer
Merciful God, like the Israelites in the wilderness,
we too have known Your love, and experienced Your care and provision.
You invite us to extend that love to the world around us--
to care for others as deeply as we care for ourselves.
And so we bring the needs of our world before You now.
We pray for the many who do not have enough: enough food to eat, or shelter to keep warm; enough employment, or money to pay their bills; enough medicine or medical care.
We also pray for those who have more than enough, but who still struggle to find meaning and purpose in life; who indulge in dangerous, addictive things to dull their pain or loneliness.
We pray for your blessing and healing on those mentioned here today.  And in these next few silent moments we pray for those on our hearts.  (Silent prayer)
God, your grace reaches out to all of us.
You call us to live as citizens of heaven, working together with one heart and mind.
Strengthen us to live in a manner worthy of the Good News we have received,
offering our lives in service of Your kingdom, where the last are first, and the first are last, and there is grace enough for all.
Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, Amen.

~ Christine Longhurst, re:Worship
 
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 trespasses, as we forgive those that 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.
 
Benediction                         based on Numbers 6:24-26
The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Amen.
Go in peace!
             

Sunday Worship, September 13, 2020
Greeting                      taken from The Song of Miriam & Moses in Exodus 15
“Who is like you, O Lord, majestic in holiness and awesome in splendor?
We will sing to the Lord, for God has triumphed gloriously.”
                                   
Opening Prayer                                 
Almighty God, you are merciful and kind.  You are a God of justice and love.  As we receive your Word today, may it in echo in our hearts and minds, may we be reminded of it often; so that we are strengthened and encouraged to live lives that reflect your love for us.  In Christ’s name.  Amen.
 
Moment of Silence                welcoming Christ into our midst
 
Call to Worship                                  from Exodus 15
O Lord, majestic in holiness, who is like you?
In the greatness of your majesty
you overthrew your adversaries.
O Lord, awesome in splendor, who is like you?
Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power,
shattered the enemy.
O Lord, worker of wonders, who is like you?
Sing to the Lord, my strength and my might,
you are my salvation!            
 
Scripture                     Exodus 14:19-31 (NIV)
This is the Word of God for the People of God.
Thanks be to God. Amen.       
                       
Morning Message                      If God is For Us, Who Can Be Against Us?
As with any miracle story, there is a tendency to want to explain it.  In part, maybe we’re hoping that it might become more understandable if we can grasp something about how it might have happened.  
“The crossing of the Red Sea on dry land” story is one such miracle.  It has been analyzed and poured over for hundreds of years.  Everyone wants to make it logical, to make it fit more easily into the world they already know.
The wind blew from the east, the Bible says.  Some say this means that the Israelites crossed where the sea was the shallowest.  Or that they did not cross the main body of water, but probably a smaller branch of the Red Sea.  Either way, they must have crossed where the water was shallow enough to wade through.  Right?

Well, here’s the thing: The Bible clearly states that the Israelites crossed on dry land.  Verse 21, “The Lord opened up a path through the water with a strong east wind……...turning the seabed into dry land.”  Also, keep in mind that the water was deep enough to cover the chariots.  That there was enough water, when God let it all loose, to destroy an entire Egyptian army, one of the superpowers of the day.

Another argument against what we read here in Exodus has long been that it never even happened.  Because no evidence of this miracle has been found in Egyptian historical records.  But what has also been discovered about the Egyptians is that it was a common practice of the Pharaohs to NOT record their defeats.  That they went as far as to take existing records and delete names of traitors and political adversaries.  Any Pharaoh would have been especially anxious not to record that his great army had just been destroyed chasing a band of runaway slaves.

There’s one more problem with trying to make a miracle like this logical: We miss the miraculous, and thus we miss the main point, the key point that perhaps helps us understand how this applies to our own lives.  And that is that here we have God’s chosen people with no apparent way of escape.
No OBVIOUS way of escape, we should say, because with God NOTHING is impossible, and the Bible says God opened up a DRY path across the sea.
Yes, sometimes we find ourselves caught in a problem and can see no way out.
But we are not to panic, because God can open up a way.  At the very core of this miracle is that these people, on their own, were sunk (literally), but with the help of God, freedom was a possibility.
Luke 1:37, “For no word from God will ever fail.”
Jeremiah 32:27, “I am the LORD, the God of all humankind.  Is anything too hard for me?”

I believe there are two important lessons to be learned here, two pieces of good news to be had: First, that God is with us when we face insurmountable barriers, and second, that Moses stretched out his hand.
First, God is with us when we face insurmountable barriers to hope, or the daily impossibilities of living in this world.  Our text begins in verse 19 with the angel, which looked like a pillar of cloud, and moves from the front of the pack to the back.   Verse 20 says that it was to provide a buffer between the Israelites and the pursing Egyptians.   

I believe that, of course, but my own personal experience with God is that maybe, too, the angel was there to push.  Sometimes leading doesn’t achieve the desired results.  Sometimes you’ve got to get behind and push.  I don’t know which is worse, an army running after you or an angelic tornado pushing at your back.  No wonder verse 31 tells us that when all this is said and done that day, the people feared the Lord.

The point is that either/or, regardless of why, God is with us when we face insurmountable barriers.  God is with us when we can feel that hand pushing at our back, and when we can’t.  God is with us when it seems that every step is through deep and clinging mud, or when are able we dance across on dry ground.

Second lesson, second only to the power and presence of God, in the midst of this journey through the wilderness: Moses stretched out his hand.
I bet some of you are thinking, so what?  But hear it again: in verse 21, “Then Moses stretched out his hand.”  Moses stretched out his hand, even with an angelic tornado, even with walls of water on either side, even with a dry seabed under the feet.  God commanded it in verse 16, “Tell the people to get moving. Pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea.”

Moses listened to God, because effort was required.  Moses had to stretch out his hands.  And the people had to get moving.  Obviously, God could have picked them all up and swooped them across the sea without parting the waters in the first place. But God rarely says, “Sit back, I’ve got this.  You don’t have to do a thing. “  It takes effort and thus, faith on the part of God’s people, too.

Go back to the beginning of this story: Moses on the mountain talking to a bush that burned, and he hears a voice saying, “I will save my people. You go.”  I’ll save/you go: God works through the effort of God’s people.
The question you have to ask yourself is what are you willing to stretch out so that God can work with you and through you?  Stretch out your hand, sure, but stretch out your resources?  Stretch out your security?  Stretch out your worldview, your belief that only people who look like you and sound like you and believe like you can be followers of God?  

What are you willing to stretch out so that God can bless your effort with transformation?  A transformation that just might be your own instead of those other people you may think need transformed.
I wonder if Moses knew what was going to happen when he stretched out his hand. It’s hard to tell; the text isn’t clear. But he did it.  And God made a way where there was no way.  Because Moses trusted enough to stretch out.  The result was no doubt more than he had ever imagined, which is often what happens when we stretch out, when we take a risk for God.
We might even become conquerors.  Romans 8:37 says, “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” 

In the book of Revelation, in the Letters to the Seven Churches, each one ends with a specific phrase: “to everyone who conquers…”  Maybe here we can understand better what conquering means.  In those letters, the conqueror isn’t the one who vanquishes the foe, whoever the foe might be.  But rather the one who holds on to faith to the end; the one who holds on to faith through trial.  The one who holds on to faith through suffering; and the one who holds on to faith until the light begins to shine once more.  It isn’t about who is defeated, it’s about the one who endures.
Will we find ourselves in seemingly impossible situations?  Will we, at times, find ourselves searching for a viable way out?  Yes, most certainly this side of glory. Struggling in this life cannot be denied.  That there will be suffering is also a hard truth.

But humility in the face of victory is something worth cultivating in the real world in which we live.  Such humility embraces the truth that we are all still wandering through the wilderness.
So, yes, as we walk this journey together, we will run into impossible situations.  We will come to an insurmountable impasse from time to time.  And, we will have to work together, to do our part, to stretch out our hands, using the wisdom and gifts God has given each of us to get over, to get through, or to get past them all.

But we can, and we should, indeed we must, ask for God to go with us; to push us from behind if he has to.

That is our focus here: a recognition that in the difficult times, and in the comfortable ones, God is with us.  God goes before and God follows behind.
So, like the people of God on the shores of the Red Sea, let’s rejoice that God is with us.  That when there seemed to be no way, God makes a way.  When there seems to be no hope, God is our hope.

Let’s rejoice that God continues to be our hope, the hope we live out in our own moving forward, even when lying down and giving up seems like the logical thing to do.
​
Because with God nothing is impossible.
And if God is for us, no one can stand against us.
 
Prayer of Confession             Book of Worship 485
O God, source of all that makes life possible,
            Giver of all that makes life good
We gather to give you our thanks,
            Yet we confess that we have often failed to live our thankfulness.
What we have we take for granted,
            And we grumble about what we lack.
We have squandered your bounty,
            With little more thought of those who will come after us.
We are more troubled by the few who have more
            Than by the many who have less.
Forgive us, O God.
In this hour of worship, accept our thanksgiving;
            And teach us to make gratitude and sharing our way of life;
Through the grace of Jesus Christ.  Amen.
 
Silent confession
 
Words of Assurance               Book of Worship 478b
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
            Endlessly patient, loving, and true,
            Showing mercy to thousands,
            Forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and granting pardon.  Amen.
 
Pastoral Prayer
Loving God, you are a mighty God of promise and hope.  You part troubled waters so that we, your children, can cross safely to dry land and abundant life.  You made the way for salvation through Jesus Christ, and promised we would never be alone.
Forgive us for the times when we take our eyes off You and slip into unbelief, and strengthen us to keep our eyes fixed on Christ and the truth of Your Word.
In thankfulness we lift up our praises to you this day.  For our daily needs, we give you thanks.  For the love of family and friends, we give you thanks,
For a supportive church family, we give you thanks.
For your providence even in the most difficult times, we give you thanks.
And for our salvation in Christ, and a life worth the living, we give you all thanks, honor, and praise.
Your Word reminds us to bring our requests boldly to your throne, Gracious God.  Today, we place those mentioned by name in your strong and loving hands, and ask for your healing and blessing on them.  For them, and for all who are in sick and in pain, for those who mourn the loss of loved ones, and for those who fear tomorrow, we pray for your peace and comfort.
Help us find peace and comfort, too.  May we find rest in You and trust all the issues of our lives into Your hands, in Jesus’ name we pray. 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 trespasses, as we forgive those that 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.
 
Benediction                based on Numbers 6:24-26
From UM Discipleship website, “Remember, we are in the wilderness. The people standing on the shore, amazed at what God had accomplished, were not done with their journey. They had only just begun. We are on a journey too, making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. And we have only just begun.”
 
The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Amen.
 
Peace be with you.