Worship Preview 7.12.26 “The Heart of the Matter: a Doxology”

FIRST UNITED METHODIST

SATURDAY! GOSPEL CONCERT – ERNIE COUCH & REVIVAL – Saturday, July 11^th at 6pm. EC&R is returning to Fort Scott to share their faith and music. You won’t want to miss this dynamic trio. Freewill offering will be collected for the band. Bring a friend or neighbor and enjoy a wonderful evening of Gospel music and Good News in our beautiful, historic Sanctuary. You are invited!

AGING FORWARD JULY 17 - 1-4pm Aging Forward is a speakers series aimed at retired adults (but open to anyone interested) to promote lifelong learning and fellowship.  On July 17, we will hear from Patty Smilie’s son Ethan will share his research into the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder of Little House on the Prairie fame! After that, staff from Presbyterian Manors of America will share information on “right sizing.” It’s sure to be an informative and enjoyable afternoon. Bring a friend at join us at 1pm in Fellowship Hall!

FEEDING FAMILIES IN HIS NAME: Wednesday, July 15 - A free, no obligation meal is served “to-go” style from underneath our portico from 5:15pm to 6:15pm each Wednesday, prepared each week by our members as well as several area churches and community groups. We aim to provide 400 meals per week. 

WORSHIP THIS SUNDAY: 10:30am. “The Heart of the Matter: a Doxology”  Rev. Christopherpreaching. Scriptures: John 16:1-33, 1 Chronicles 16:1-15

I recently took some vacation time to see my grandson who just turned 8 months old. He is learning and growing so quickly. To hold him as he laughs or sleeps is heaven. To watch his face crumble into tears breaks my heart – even as I know whatever it is making him sad is probably easily fixed. A clean diaper, feeding, or just a change of how we’re sitting usually fixes things right up. He doesn’t know anything about war, violence, racism. Everything is a wonder to behold, a new experience to explore. We have some favorite toys and favorite books already – you can tell because his face lights up in recognition. He is learning patterns, finding comfort, and expanding his horizons. It was a glorious few days.

And I’m finding myself hit all the harder by the weight of the troubles of the world having come back from that brief hiatus. The violence, greed, and suffering of the world are weighing heavily on me. One of the ways I am dealing with that is by focusing on the opportunity I have Sunday to share the Lord’s Supper – Holy Communion, or the Eucharist. All who come will be offered the body and blood of our savior through ritual that connects us through the ages. A visible and outward sign of the grace that surrounds each of us. Gathering at Christ’s table anchors me, it revives me, it encourages me, and it challenges me. Of course, we usually do on the first Sunday of each month. In the early Methodist movement, Wesley advocated frequent communion – even multiple times per week, but for practical reasons in the America, communion often became a quarterly event. A liturgical renewal a few decades ago brought us to the current norm in United Methodist churches of the “first Sunday.” Other traditions celebrate weekly… or almost never. Sunday we’ll explore how and why we do what we do a bit – through this lens of communion and through an exploration of the Doxology of the Lord’s Prayer. “ForThine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, forever. Amen.” The familiar words that Protestants end the Lord’s Prayer with and that are used in other liturgical ways by Roman Catholics and Orthodox faithful. It is not found in the words Jesus gives his disciples in Luke at all, and is only included a few later translations of Matthew, but the words of the doxology are ancient. The first time they are directly appended to the Lord’s prayer appears to be in a writing called the Didache from the 1^st Century, an early treatise for instruction of the faithful and organization of the church. It appears as a margin note in some copies of scripture, then becomes a part of the liturgy during the Protestant Reformation with influence by Luther and his followers and English ritual, formally being added under Queen Elizabeth 1. There is a bit of irony in a movement that often distrusted Catholic reliance on “tradition” and advocated for a return to Scripture having added a traditional doxology not found in most manuscripts. We make choices, we usually have good reasons, we become set in our ways, and we often don’t realize it. One of the things I personally like about saying the doxology is that it returns our focus to the heart of the matter - God’s kingdom, power, and glory. God’s will, and our part in it. Our charge to respond and participate - not control or define. To help us explore this, we’ll hear passages from John 16 about the Spirit and further teaching and a passage from the book 1^st Chronicles, where ritual and liturgy are being developed. We are not the first to question, to seek both answers and comfort in ritual, or to find ourselves challenge by those same rituals. 

If the world has you down. If you can’t make sense of what is happening. If you need a shot of hope – and if you’d like to see a different way emerge, we’d love to have you join in worship. We don’t have all the answers. We aren’t perfect and we won’t dictate your choices. But together we keep finding that God makes a way – and that all our stories matter. So, come just as you are – with your doubts and questions, with your laments and fears, and with your deepest hopes and joys. Whether you are a longtime member, have never been to church at all, or find yourself needing a change - together we will find our paths and share our journeys. Thanks be to God!