Sunday, July 25, 2021 - Trial - Error & Better Living: in our responsibilities
Theme: Trial - Error & Better Living: in our responsibilities
Hymn (In Person Only)
Welcome
Prayer for God’s Presence
2 Samuel 11:1-5 Common English Bible Translation
In the spring, when kings go off to war, David sent Joab, along with his servants and all the Israelites, and they destroyed the Ammonites, attacking the city of Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening, David got up from his couch and was pacing back and forth on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone and inquired about the woman. The report came back: “Isn’t this Eliam’s daughter Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messengers to take her. When she came to him, he had sex with her. (Now she had been purifying herself after her monthly period.) Then she returned home. The woman conceived and sent word to David. “I’m pregnant,” she said. (Question: Have your wants ever clouded your judgment?)
2 Samuel 11:6-11
Then David sent a message to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked about the welfare of Joab and the army and how the battle was going. Then David told Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. However, Uriah slept at the palace entrance with all his master’s servants. He didn’t go down to his own house,” so David asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just returned from a journey? Why didn’t you go home?” “The chest and Israel and Judah are all living in tents,” Uriah told David. “And my master Joab and my master’s troops are camping in the open field. How could I go home and eat, drink, and have sex with my wife? I swear on your very life, I will not do that!” (Question: How are your actions and values related?)
2 Samuel 11:12-18
Then David told Uriah, “Stay here one more day. Tomorrow I’ll send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day. The next day David called for him, and he ate and drank, and David got him drunk. In the evening Uriah went out to sleep in the same place, alongside his master’s servants, but he did not go down to his own home. The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. He wrote in the letter, “Place Uriah at the front of the fiercest battle, and then pull back from him so that he will be struck down and die.” So as Joab was attacking the city, he put Uriah in the place where he knew there were strong warriors. When the city’s soldiers came out and attacked Joab, some of the people from David’s army fell. Uriah the Hittite was also killed. Joab sent a complete report of the battle to David. (Question: How do you make things right when mistakes have been made?)
2 Samuel 11:19-24
“When you have finished reporting all the news of the battle to the king,” Joab instructed the messenger, “if the king gets angry and asks you, ‘Why did you go so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Jerubbaal’s son Abimelech? Didn’t a woman throw an upper millstone on top of him from the wall so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go so close to the wall?’ then say: ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too.’” So the messenger set off, and when he arrived he reported to David everything Joab sent him to say. “The men overpowered us,” the messenger told David. “They came out against us in the open field, but he fought against them up to the entrance of the city gate. Archers shot down on your servants from the wall. Some of the king’s servants died. And your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too.” (Question: What are the messages you are surrounded by in your life?)
2 Samuel 11:25-27
David said to the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t be upset about this because the sword is that way: taking the life of this person or that person. Continue attacking the city and destroy it!’ Encourage Joab!” When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she mourned for her husband. After the time of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her back to his house. She became his wife and bore him a son. But what David had done was evil in the Lord’s eyes. (Question: How do you move forward when things have fallen apart?)
Offering Ourselves to God
During this time let us quietly reflect upon an excerpt from the Brief Statement of Faith.
We trust in God, whom Jesus called Abba, Father. In sovereign love God created the world good and makes everyone equally in God’s image, male and female, of every race and people, to live as one community. But we rebel against God; we hid from our Creator. Ignoring God’s commandments we violate the image of God in others, and ourselves, accept lies as truth, exploit neighbor and nature, and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care. We deserve God’s condemnation. Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation. In everlasting love, the God of Abraham and Sarah chose a covenant people to bless all families of the earth. Hearing their cry, God delivered the children of Israel from the house of bondage. Loving us still, God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant. Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child, like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home, God is still faithful still.
Hymn (In Person Only)
Prayers of the People and 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 sins, as we forgive those who sin 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
Closing Hymn (In Person Only)
Sermon Series July 4th – August 1st
Theme: Trial – Error & Better Living
August 1st – in our realities
New Sermon Series August 22nd – September 12th
Theme: The Habits of Jesus