July 8, 2007

14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Preparation for Worship

So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. 

Galatians 6:9

Paul’s gospel is not only a negative word that proclaims the demolition of our old world of religion, value, and morality. The gospel also proclaims that God is making all things new…The breaking in of God’s redemptive power has triggered costly conflict with the powers that have a vested interest in the old order. The calling of the church is to bear witness steadfastly to the coming new order of God’s justice. The new creation is not, however, merely a dream or a vision; it takes on a empirical reality in the community of God’s people, whose life together already testifies to the reconciling power of the gospel.

Richard B. Hays

Today is the fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, the longest portion of the church year. There is nothing ordinary about Ordinary Time as the term comes from the word “ordinal” which means to tell the rank (First, Second, Third, etc.) During the summer season we have switched the sanctuary around with the pulpit in the middle of the chancel area and the Lord’s Table in front of the pulpit. This change allows us to realize the centrality of the Word read and proclaimed in our worship. The Baptismal font, Lord’s Table, Pulpit, and Cross in the sanctuary all align in the middle of our sanctuary.

     We continue exploring Paul’s letter to the small community of disciples in Galatia as the central text for our worship. The church in Galatia, comprised of gentile converts to the Christian movement, was being taught by Jewish Christians they must follow Jewish customs and rituals including circumcision and dietary restrictions. Paul argues instead that God has created something entirely new in Jesus Christ. This new creation means grace and not law is at the heart of the spiritual life. The new creation also results in a new kind of community where categories of race, gender, and ethnicity take on a different meaning. The passage we focus on this morning has Paul ending his letter with a declaration of how circumcision is not the point but instead how the new creation is everything. And paradoxically this new creation is born from the seeds of the cross.

     The liturgy focuses on the relationship between the cross and the new creation.  The call to worship is taken directly from Galatians 6 and holds up how the law of Christ is fulfilled when we carry each others burdens. The opening hymn reminds us to lift high the cross and proclaim the love of Christ. The prayer of confession highlights how despite this new creation, we still carry within us seeds of destruction. In our final hymn we sing of how “Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, By the cross are sanctified; Peace is there that knows no measure, Joys through all time abide.”