Good Shepherd New York • 9.26.21

[Music] [Music] good morning church and welcome to good shepherd new york my name is david younger i'm one of the pastors here i'm elitist in our call to worship sometimes we wonder how we have gotten through some difficult situations god has been with us lifting and comforting our spirits we struggle and we worry god's loving presence sustains and strengthens us listen for what god's call is to you lord we are listening and seeking your guidance amen come let us worship the lord this morning [Music] [Music] breathe in it's a new day and life is a gift breathe out [Music] it's a new day and life is a gift dancing in the morning all of creation reflecting the cosmic thank you thank you lord thank you thank you lord we say thank you thank you lord we say thank you we say thank you we say thank you we say thank you thank you come on johnny i'm thankful for my family and my home i'm thankful for people who are kind i'm thankful for my friends and family my friends her name aaron isabella and molly [Music] it's a new day life is a gift be free [Music] it's a new day and life is a gift [Music] [Music] thank you lord thank you thank you lord we say thank you thank you lord we say thank you we say thank you we say thank you thank you i'm thankful for my brothers and sisters bye i am thankful for falcons and hugs i'm grateful for my friends my family and the new york giants and football [Music] i'm thankful for [Music] my family and my friend liam oh we say thank you we say thank you thank you lord we say thank you we say thank you thank you [Music] be thou my vision o lord of my [Music] [Music] my be thou my wisdom and thou my true word i ever with thee and thou with me lord thou my great father i thy true son thou in me dwelling and i with the one [Music] which is [Music] thou mine inheritance [Music] now and always [Music] my treasure thou art [Music] first in my heart i king of heaven my treasure [Music] and now a reading from psalm 9 9-20 the lord is a refuge for the oppressed a stronghold in times of trouble those who know your name trust in you for you lord have never forsaken those who seek you sing the praises of the lord enthroned in zion proclaim among the nations what he has done for he who avenges blood remembers he does not ignore the cries of the afflicted lord see how my enemies persecute me have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death that i may declare your praises and the gates of daughter zion and their rejoice in your salvation the nations have fallen into the pit they have dug their feet are caught in the net they have hidden the lord is known by his acts of justice the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands the wicked go down to the realm of the dead all the nations that forget god but god will never forget the needy the hope of the afflicted will never perish arise lord do not let mortals triumph let the nations be judged in your presence strike them with terror lord let the nations know they are only mortal glory to the father the son and the holy spirit as it was in the beginning is now and will be forever [Music] was lost but now i'm found was blind [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] i was blind is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] we have [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] when we first [Music] first [Music] all are welcome at the table of god every man woman and child for christ brings peace to all tearing down every hostile wall so that the many may become one one heart one family one new humanity for god who is love and christ who is all and in all show no partiality and make no distinction so neither race nor class gender nor sexuality politics nor religion personality nor nationality count for us or against us the light of christ enlightens all christ the prisoner and the naked christ the hungry and the sick christ the thirsty and the stranger christ the other may god's spirit hover over our chaos our hatred and our indifference descend in our hearts with love and pleasure blows out into the world to listen and serve and set us a place to forgive and reconcile for all are welcome at the table of god every man woman and child [Music] [Music] is [Music] to care [Music] everything to god in prayer [Music] [Music] needless pain [Music] all because we do not care everything to god in prayer oh what peace [Music] [Music] is [Music] all because we do not care carey i need some help now oh we don't carry everything we should take it to him every day now it would make life a little bit easier if we gave it to god everything everything to god in prayer [Music] join me in this generosity prayer godliness with contentment is great gain we bring nothing into this world and we take nothing out of it we who call jesus lord devote ourselves to resisting greed which plunges the human heart into ruin and pierces it with many griefs we are determined to practice generosity with free hearts fixing our hope on god and not the uncertainty of wealth we desire to be rich in good deeds willing to share all that we have laying up for ourselves treasure that will not decay but will shine in the age to come amen and now we offer grace and peace to one another if you're present with someone offer them grace and peace and if you are alone you're not alone offer grace and peace to someone i text grace and peace [Music] good morning good shepherd welcome to digital church my name is michael redzina one of the pastors here and our gospel reading today is from the gospel according to mark chapter 9 verses 38 through 50. john said to him teacher we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he was not following us but jesus said do not stop him for no one who does a deed of power in my name will soon be able afterward to speak evil of me whoever is not against us is for us for truly i tell you whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of christ will by no means lose the reward but if any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believes in me it would be better for you to have a great millstone hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea this is the gospel of our lord praise to you lord jesus christ well this section of mark's story is often referred to as a kind of catechesis catechesis comes from the greek word which means oral training so jesus is preparing and he is training his disciples at this critical moment in the story a new chapter has begun jesus has been on this circuit traveling around from town to town with his band of disciples with him and he's been on a campaign a campaign of mercy and of compassion of healing and of liberation but now he turns toward jerusalem the holy city the festival season is approaching and he will begin his to make his journey there his fame is at peak level at this moment and as jesus is thinking about his trip to jerusalem with his disciples and the thousands of other pilgrims that will descend upon the city for passover he has an emerging clarity about what awaits him there his persistent conflicts with the local religious and political leaders and those sent from jerusalem back to check on him coupled with his growing popularity he sees this as a form as a recipe for rejection for betrayal and for death he can see it and he has embraced this vision though it's dark and ominous as inevitable as necessary as a kind of fate set ahead of him and the rest of the story and mark he will try to reorient his disciples to this epiphany which he's had this discovery but he doesn't simply want them to understand his fate he wants his disciples to understand and to embrace the way that makes this fate inevitable the disciples are to be revealed are revealed to be more and more out of sync with jesus and this way jesus is both clarifying in this section and he's inviting them now there are moments where is revealed that they are out of sync with this way and i think this gospel story is one of those moments you know my family was from chicago and we were catholic i began my life as a cradle catholic i can remember asking my grandparents what catholic means and they told me in essence well we're the true church are there other churches i asked oh yes they said but we're the true church fast forward to my late elementary years where i attended a southern baptist church here we were told that our baptism in the catholic church was invalid that baptism was for believers and since you can't believe anything as a child we needed to be re-baptized we were told additionally that catholics had it wrong they believed that you had to do good works to be saved and that you had to pray to mary and both of those things were in error to become southern baptist that was to become a true biblical christian and so we did fast forward to my college years where i studied theology from conservative evangelical theologians from the uh reformed presbyterian stream and also the sort of reformed bible bible church types and here i discovered a great intellectual tradition i discovered luther and calvin the great reformed theologians i learned about darby and ryrie the great dispensational theologians and i was introduced to a very intricate system of theology that emphasized how god was in control of everything and even four ordains everything i was told that this was more coherent and a more faithful way to understand the bible than my free will emphasis theology of the southern baptist church and so i brought it in i bought into it and i became a card carrying reformed theology proponent one of our profs was a big house church guy and he basically taught that the church had lost its way that reformed theology is beautiful and it's true but the way we have turned church into a gathering and a building well that fell far short of the early churches i ideal of simple communities formed around meals in homes and so me and my college friends we started a house church and because that was the truth we persisted in it for four years fast forward to my first church job this was probably the very antithesis of organic house church it was a 10 000 member mega church it was southern baptist but it had a pastor who had reformed theology and this i saw as a sort of interesting and intelligible synthesis of my background up to that point i had a hard time with the pragmatism and the business-like atmosphere compared to the organic community of my college years but i found a new way to reach people our ministry was sort of like sugar-free mtv it was highly produced it was attractional it boasted a very large budget but it was also easily accessible it was practical i was after all trained to offer sermons kind of like a coach offers a half-time speech with one simple point and a strong challenge and though i had practical intent tensions with it i was really good at it and i was taught that this is how you reach people what good is it to be right if nobody cares and so i went all in i reached hundreds of high school students through our programs later i started to notice a trend students who had come up with within our ministry they really struggled to stick with the faith when they went to college they tried campus ministries as we suggested but when they became bored because the campus ministries couldn't entertain them the way that we did i began to wonder if it wasn't jesus who the students had been drawn to but rather are entertaining methods around that time the church imploded over this big debate about governance the reformed baptist pastor i told you about well he wanted the church to become more elder led and the many of the power players in the church wanted the church to remain southern baptist in identity with democratic governance the power players didn't like it and so on one sunday the chur at church five or six thousand people showed up to worship god but the next sunday after this business meeting where the church voted down the pastor's proposal the church attendance was cut in half indefinitely right about that time i was asked to plant a church i never heard about church planting but i threw myself into the church planting resources i found out that this was a new way forward for the church that we needed many fresh communities of god smaller communities rather than legacy churches because once churches had life and identity and started to build a legacy they often grew stagnant and failed to connect with new people now while mega churches could grow by largely attracting christians from other churches who couldn't compete with their programming church plants were better at connecting with people with no or other faith backgrounds so i got one off the ground before i moved to texas because that was the emerging true way when i went to texas i started teaching for a 75 year old moderate not southern baptist church in dallas i was asked in the interview if i supported women as pastors and at the time in that moment i simply regurgitated the conservative perspective that i had inherited i communicated my hesitancy my skepticism how i read the bible and yet true to who i was as a person and am today i told them that i was open and that i would genuinely consider the alternative i was told later that if i had not indicated my opening openness by the way that i wouldn't have been hired over those five years at that church i heard the other side of the story theologically and in real life the villains and the heroes that i had grown up with were flipped and reversed i was happy i had finally found the truth i could go on and on about how my move to new york shaped who i am and how i've rethought things the further evolutions i've experienced over the years but the in the end a pattern became very clear humans are prone to divide when we disagree we have this need to draw boundaries around our groups to build walls in order to make ourselves feel safe and right this is the same instinct that we see in our gospel story today among the disciples they have already been debating with each other about individual greatness but here jesus rebukes or and there sorry jesus rebuked their profane aggressive exclusivity their status grabbing instead he invites them to follow him in a holy receptivity the kind of receptivity that can welcome even a little child the antidote to personal status grabbing as a way to meaning and identity according to jesus was to become a servant and to welcome the least in our social orbits but now the disciples are back at it they're disturbed by outsiders who are liberating people these outsiders they say don't follow us they're afraid they're skeptical they're judgmental and they're angry here only now the focus isn't on individual status the focus is on the group the tribe their collective identity and how others are threatening it they see these outsiders as competition and jesus i imagine rolls his eyes once again here we have one of the most pithy comments in jesus body of teaching listen to it here we find the wisdom of the way jesus says quote don't stop him whoever is not against us is for us see jesus reverses their skeptical exclusivity their sort of call out instincts he confronts their need to be centered and to be right and belonging to the right tribe he in effect widens the us you don't see jesus nervous about this someone is out there helping people and the disciples want to stop it because they're interpreting this through the lens of competition that same impulse that wants to become individually great it's the same impulse that fetishizes the opportunity to become collectively great and you can't become a group a great group without clear lines and powerful distinctions but jesus is found here blurring the lines they were so sure that these people were outsiders they were so sure that this was a threat but jesus assures them that they are us jesus isn't naive here about true opposition he's had his fair share up to this point in the story in fact his main message in this section of the story is that the worst is yet to come in terms of opposition but he doesn't create enemies by creating lines and closing doors jesus creates enemies by erasing lines and by opening doors that is the way if that way scares you or if that way threatens you then you may find yourself like the disciples ironically against jesus but not because you're part of the wrong tribe you find yourself against jesus when you are addicted to belonging to an exclusive tribe when you need an exclusive tribe to have identity or to have meaning you only see competition and threat when there's others out there who are succeeding or in this case when people begin to imitate or copy you but jesus doesn't process this through the lens of tribal competition instead he processes it through the lens of holy collaboration in both cases jesus is widening the lens once again from exclusive aggression to wholly inclusive inc receptivity from tribal competition to tribal collaboration as an individual and as a church i invite us this week to reflect on whether the way of the disciples or the way of jesus has captured our imagination of late where do you feel competitive right now where do you feel threatened where do you feel exclusive when do we feel insecure and threatened when do we feel the need to be distinguished as belonging to the right tribe this can be political this can be religious it can be connected to any idea or any identity under the sun it is a human problem what walls would you erect that jesus would tear down what line would you have drawn that jesus would blur i pray that god's spirit stirs us up and our imaginations to see our lives to see our relationships and to see our groups freshly and to begin to follow the way of jesus that feels like good news to the quote unquote outsiders of our lives may god help us look like the way of jesus amen and now having offered a reflection on this gospel i invite us into the apostles creed this is the earliest compression of jesus story that we have and we say it as a gesture of solidarity with those who've gone before us would you join me in this we believe in god the father almighty creator of heaven and earth we believe in jesus christ his only son our lord who is conceived by the power of the holy spirit born of the virgin mary suffered under pontius pilate was crucified died and was buried he descended to the dead on the third day he rose again he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of god he will come again to judge the living and the dead we believe in the holy spirit the holy catholic church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen and now having declared our faith we offer our prayers these are the prayers of the people o lord mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them through jesus christ our lord who lives and reigns with you and the holy spirit one god now and forever amen [Music] so [Music] so [Music] lord in your mercy hear our prayer [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] lord in your mercy hear our prayer [Music] [Music] [Music] lord in your mercy hear our prayer [Music] do [Music] lord in your mercy hear our prayer [Music] oh god you manifest in your servants the signs of your presence send forth upon us the spirit of love that in companionship with one another your abounding grace may increase among us through jesus christ our lord amen [Music] and now that we've prayed our prayers let us confess our sins against god and our neighbor sin is simply falling short of the love we see in jesus christ and so i invite you to consider the week behind you and in an act of holy memory ask god for help to bring to the surface of your mind a memory that matters a moment that you've fallen short of love for god or for neighbor let's take a moment of silence for this reflection and now dear friend know that you're not alone and i ask you to join me in this corporate confession most merciful god we confess that we have sinned against you in thought word and deed by what we've done and by what we've left undone we have not loved you with our whole heart we've not loved our neighbors as ourselves we are truly sorry and we humbly repent for the sake of your son jesus christ have mercy on us and forgive us that we would delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your name amen and now may almighty god have mercy on you and forgive you of all your sins through our lord jesus christ may god strengthen you in all goodness and by the power of the holy spirit keep you in life eternal amen and now this week i'm going to guide us into a slightly different eucharistic liturgy this is uh taken from right to in the book of common prayer and it's one that i've been doing personally lately that i really enjoy and so i invite you to practice it with me this week as an experiment the children outside agree the lord be with you and also with you lift up your hearts we lift them to the lord let us give thanks to the lord our god it is right to give thanks and praise it is right and a good and joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to you god almighty creator of heaven and of earth and therefore we offer our praise to you now joining the voices of angels and archangels and with the company of heaven for whoever seeing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your name friends would you join me in this hymn holy holy holy lord god of power and might heaven and earth are full of your glory hosanna in the highest blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord hosanna in the highest and now holy and gracious god in your infinite love you made us for yourself and when we had fallen into sin and become subject to evil and to death you in your mercy sent jesus christ your only and eternal son to share our human nature to live and die as one of us to reconcile us to you the god and father of all he stretched out his arms upon the cross and offered himself in obedience to your will a perfect sacrifice for the whole world on the night that jesus was handed over to suffering and death our lord jesus took the bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and he gave it to his disciples and he said take and eat this is my body which is given for you do this for the remembrance of me so we welcome you risen christ we thank you for this body broken and given may it grace us who receive it today amen after supper jesus took the cup of wine and when he had given thanks he gave it to them and he said drink this all of you this is the blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins whenever you drink it do this in remembrance of me and therefore friends we proclaim the mystery of faith would you join me in this christ has died christ is risen and christ will come again we celebrate the memorial of our redemption oh god in the sacrifice and praise of thanksgiving we recall the death of jesus the resurrection of jesus and the ascension of jesus and we offer you these gifts we pray that you would sanctify them by your holy spirit to be for your people the body and blood of your son that it would become holy food and drink for new and unending life in him the overlap of heaven and earth in our hearts sanctify us that we may faithfully receive this holy sacrament and serve you in unity in constancy and in peace and at last bring us with all your saints into the joy of your kingdom amen and now we pray as jesus taught us to pray our father who art in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us today our daily bread forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil for the kingdom the power and the glory are yours now and forever amen these are the gifts of god for the people of god take them this morning in remembrance of christ that he died for you and feed on him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving amen at this time you may receive holy communion our practice is to take the bread and dip it in the cup simply say thanks be to god if you're wondering if this meal is for you our practice is an open table where any drawn to the love you see in christ are welcome to come and to receive the bread and the cup let this be a gesture as we say every week of your open heart and your trust in the love that you see there thanks be to god well thank you so much for joining us once again at digital church with good shepherd new york it's really our honor to continue to connect in this way we thank you for even more letters and emails that are coming in every week um sharing how this is impacting your life or touching your life it does mean a lot to us as we put a lot of time and energy into this to keep it going while we're meeting in person i want to share with you a couple of ways that you can connect especially if you're part of our new york community uh there are many opportunities for connection number one we have our groups launching in the fall if you're interested in hosting one of these groups or facilitating one of these groups i'm going to be offering a training in about a week or so and then we'll begin listing these groups on our website and they will officially launch in october let us know if you'd like to facilitate so that we can offer as many groups as possible we have a lot of new faces people who are showing up in our community who are looking to connect and this is a great way to create space for that connection in addition to that we have lots of events coming up you can go to our website you can subscribe to our e-newsletter and you can see things like apple picking or our service day where we will serve the hungry together or even opportunities to help our friends in the south bronx with the house on beekman because of the damage from hurricane ida also you'll find other ways to connect and learn and grow in your faith our pastor of spiritual formation kate gunger is organizing not only adult sunday school and baptism courses but also our wednesday night contemplative gatherings where we learn a contemplative practice we do it together and we debrief it together those are resuming in october and the slate of sunday school classes or baptism classes is available on our website lastplug our kids ministry has finally put out this little uh pamphlet that tells you a little bit about our approach to kids ministry uh things that we offer for the kids it's an introduction to gabriella who is our kids director and also has a really handy schedule of events for our children and last but not least we've got many inquiries about our youth ministry resuming now that the pandemic is lifted and we're excited to be moving forward with those plans very soon we are hoping to hire a couple of people to help give leadership to it and so pray with us as we continue to prepare and relaunch our youth ministry with strength and with excitement and now with that would you receive this benediction church we're so glad that you joined us this morning i'm going to lead us in this benediction if you would receive this prayer go in peace to serve the lord remember the healing love that has taken place in your life be open to all the wonders and opportunities that god puts before you go in peace amen praise god from whom all blessings flow praise god all creatures hear below praise god above ye heavenly host praise father and holy ghost um go in peace [Music] well if you wanna sing out sing out and if you wanna be free be free cause there's a million things to be you know that there are and if you wanna live high live and if you wanna live low live low cause there's a million ways to go you know that there are [Music] you can do what you want the opportunity and if you find a new way well you can do it today you can make it all true or you can make you see how it's easy [Music] [Music] cause there's a million things to do you know that there are you can do what you want the opportunity's on and if you can do it today you can make it all true and you can make it [Music] well if you wanna sing out sing out [Applause] be free cause there's a million things to be you know that there are you know that there are you know that there are [Music] [Music] you

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Length: 54min 1sec (3241 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021