For a video of this service, please click the link below . . .
SUNDAY SERVICE – May 28, A New Church, Common Good
GATHERING MUSIC (Opening Hymn)
Good morning to those present in the sanctuary and those watching online, I am Pastor Mel Nielsen, welcome to Centenary’s worship Service for Sunday, May 28, 2023. On behalf of the whole church, welcome, we are glad you’re here. Happy Pentecost.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
I want to invite everyone to come here for our movie and game night on Saturday, June 3 at 6:00 p.m. The movie is the Disney Classic, Frozen, there will be snacks and games, a dance party and a gift basket raffle for the adults. Kid bring a blanket and pillow.
New Sermon Series begins next week. This Hebrew Bible series will continue throughout the summer. There is a scripture reading list in the Narthex, please pick one up if you want to read ahead.
Next Sunday is the For Heaven’s Sake Breakfast
Please look to the bulletin for announcements.
Memorial Day Presentation – Read Names of Members who have passed.
MEMORIAL DAY PRAYER & OPENING PRAYER
We gather on this somber holiday and remember with sadness those we have loved and lost. At this time Lord, do not allow us to glorify the conflicts and violence that tear our loved ones from us, instead, let us give glory unto you for the love we have and the love we share.
Remind us again to use the freedom that you and our loved ones sacrificed for for the good of all people and all nations. Help us to know that we are one through you. Please continue to bless our nation that stands as a light of freedom in this world. We humbly ask that our worship would unite us.
Let us also recall, Holy God, that today we celebrate the day you poured out your Holy Spirit on Jesus’ disciples as they waited in Jerusalem. You intended to set their hearts and souls aflame with your presence, that they would preach the good news to all nations.
You empowered them to proclaim your grace-filled intentions, now pour out your Spirit upon us as we worship on this Pentecost Sunday. Amen.
SMALL TALK
Today is a special day isn’t it? Today is Pentecost, what makes this day special? Pentecost is often called the birthday of the church. It is the day that Jesus kept the promise to send us a helper called the Holy Spirit.
Jesus knew we could not build a church all alone, so we were given the power to do all things through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has more power than we do. The Spirit is stronger than the Hulk and faster than the Flash. The spirit has been compared to a mighty wind. How can we make a wind? We can flap our hands and we can feel a little breeze on our face.
We can blow out of our mouths, and we can feel a breeze but we can’t see anything. So I brought something to help us see how much Holy Spirit we have inside of us. What if I blew into this balloon? See it is getting bigger, and bigger. Now if I let go. the balloon has power to fly! Wow. God fills us with the mighty wind of the Holy Spirit so we can do amazing things too.
I have brought you each some balloons so you can try this at home, but only with a parent’s help. Pray
OFFERING
JOYS AND CONCERNS
JOYS
It was a joy to have Connie Wieck here last Sunday providing the message for all of you. It was a joy to see my family at our reunion.
Barb Fernandes mentioned the blessing of the Memorial Day Service at the Veteran’s Home in Quincy.
Linda Tribble mentioned the graduation of Maza, who was present in church.
Debbie Earp was thankful for God’s presence win our lives through the Holy Spirit.
Jarice Crenshaw was thankful for God looking after her daughter and granddaughter who got very good grade her first year in school.
CONCERNS
We are still praying for Julie Summers; Bob and Rita Northrop; Junior and Barb Crouse. We are praying for an upcoming medical appointment for Bob Minor and his eyesight challenge. We need to be in prayer for others among us who are facing medical tests or are recovering from procedures and all anywhere in our church family who need healing prayers today.
Mark Stiltz lifted up Grace Oxley who had a mini stroke.
I want to take a minute to lift up all the concerns going on around the world, whether it is nature or political strife or sin, there is much we can lift up to God today.
UNSPOKEN REQUESTS FOR PRAYER
PASTOR PRAYS FOR ALL JOYS – CONCERNS – UNSPOKEN
And know let us conclude our communal prayer time together by repeating together the Words Jesus taught us.
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.
SONG
SCRIPTURE READING
1 Corinthians 12:1-13
Concerning Spiritual Gifts
12 Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. 4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. 12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
SERMON
May 28, 2023 – A New Church, “Church for the Common Good”
When last I left you, I was mentioning how the Apostle Paul was learning how to apply his earthly gifts with a new spiritual focus. Same man, same gifts, different focus and better results. Meaning instead of using his good gifts to produce sour grapes, he is now producing sweet apples.
The same gifts of leadership and boldness, except now there was fruit that was pleasing to God by the blessing of the Holy Spirit. We too have been given the Holy Spirit so we can learn to refocus our gifts into producing good fruit.
Like, Paul, we have many gifts, but how often do we use those gifts for our own purpose. Not necessarily in an evil, selfish way, but just because life has directed us to a certain place where our gifts are more often used for personal gain?
Where in our daily life can our faith grow by refocusing the gifts we use for the self, towards using them for the common good of the church? Verse 7 in Paul’s letter clearly indicates that gifts given through the manifestation of the spirit, are given for the common good.
When we use our gifts in our employment, the government taxes us on what we reap from our God given talents. It is part of our law that some of what we make is returned for the common good of the country. How many of us would give if we were not forced too?
God does not force us through taxation, instead, God invites us to respond with generosity for the gifts of the Spirit we have received. We have received them for the benefit of more than ourselves, but for all.
Everything we have been given is for the benefit of everyone. The church was established in part to be the church for the common good. Common is important to remember here, not common in ordinary, but common in the sense that all gifts come from the same Holy Spirit.
We have all been blessed by the same God. Even those who deny God’s existence are benefitting from the grace which God shares.
How many people do you know who have a special talent, but they will not share it outside of themselves or maybe just a handful of family members. They say things like, “I can’t share this because of fill in the blank.” They are too afraid of public exposure, or they don’t believe they are good enough or maybe just a lack of confidence.
Maybe, here, we have found what Paul’s is thinking in his letter to the church in Corinth. The new Christians there seem to be okay sharing their gifts among their own people, but not so much in the broader church community.
Maybe the problem was how the church went about letting the greater community know they have gifts to share. Maybe there is a marketing problem in Greece. This is still a problem for the modern church, people either do not know the full extent of what the church has to offer of they have zero interest in what the church has to offer.
Another possibility was perhaps the church was seen as somehow superior to all other aspects of living in Corinth at the time. Did these Christians give off an heir of superiority? Maybe people outside the church who simply perceived them as ‘holier than thou’. These are still realities in the modern church today.
Challenges to church ministry is nothing new, and Paul is giving encouragement to the new church in Corinth to press on for the common good. If it isn’t one challenge it will be another, the church must find ways around through or over these obstacles.
There are still challenges for the modern church and the answer to these challenges remains faith in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. What obstacles remain in your life that prevents you from having faith enough to share your gifts?
Maybe the challenge isn’t coming from outside the church, but from within. Paul seems to be speaking to this congregation about working together, bolstering each other and adding gifts together to find a way to help in nurturing the new church.
I remind you that the church was not established for the perfect, there were no perfect congregations and there still aren’t. The church was established for imperfect, flawed and sinful people. The church on earth will never be perfect, but always going on towards perfection.
Then again, we are made perfect in Christ once we accept the Lord, so there is perfection already living inside us. Maybe we should stop focusing on why we can’t share our gifts and take a little risk and step out in faith.
As in the days of that first church, the modern church is filled with people who fall away from time to time, yet strive for better things. This desire should be greater than our temptations and should fill the church with light and hope.
Doesn’t a church filled with light and hope sound amazing to you? Paul seems to be encouraging just that, when
a congregation moves away from differences and joins together in the similarities then the hope of world resides within it. God can accomplish much more through like minded people than among small self involved groups that distance themselves from each other.
God has gifted each member of the body for the purpose of the common good. How is hope of Jesus reveled in through your gifts? Like that church in Corinth, the modern church is still under pressure from paganism, and for those early Christians, that paganism was supported by a lifetime of teaching. Is it any wonder they fell back to the familiar they knew so well?
This is why all gifts should be welcomed, so that all may feel like they belong within the church. There should never be a need to find freedom and acceptance outside of the church.
That church in Corinth struggled against outside pressures by allowing a new kind of freedom to expand from within. Paul hears they are trying to serve two masters in Corinth and he calls them to act not as sin filled individuals, but as a group of like minded people who are filled with the Holy spirit with a willingness to share their gifts and grow as one unit.
Paul goes so far as to applaud their zeal for Jesus. Yet, he must get them focused on the task at hand which is to be for the common good. He is telling them that every manifestation of the Spirit is good for the individual and for the community.
It can be difficult to keep our focus in a world of distractions. I am opening the altar this morning for you to come forward and ask God to take away your distractions. I would like for you to come forward and seek God’s help in focusing on sharing your gifts. On this Pentecost Sunday, come forward for prayer with me on the left side our prayer on your own on the right side.
If your distraction is that you have never given your self fully to Jesus then come forward as well this morning and I will help you get started focusing on what is truly important.
MISSION SONG
FINAL WORD
The tongues of fire demonstrate diversity. Diversity in unity and unity in diversity. At one time Christians believed this so much in this passage of scripture they founded this nation upon these beliefs, that all could have a place at the table. To the Apostle Paul, the whole idea of the multi-talented and diverse Body of Christ was the essence of God.
We celebrate the men and women who died for the blessings we are still enjoying today.
Paul desperately wanted churches to be unified, not in robotic, pre-programmed thought, but more in being present in the grace of moving on to perfection which each other side by side, sharing and caring and nurturing along the way.
We cannot do that by always looking in the rearview mirror, nor can we if we are always looking to the sides and being overly concerned about our neighbors activity, we need to continue moving towards the goal of perfection with our eyes set on Christ through acceptance of every gift that the Holy Spirit has given.
BENEDICTION
Leader: Go forth in peace, The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
CLOSING HYMN