First Presbyterian Church, Tucumcari

The Church With the Holy Spirit Window

May 22, 2016 Trinity Sunday
11:00 a.m.
Rev. Amy Pospichal, Pastor
Prelude
Call to Worship (please see bulletin)
Opening Prayer
It is by your grace, O God,
That we are here today,
worshiping you.
It is your gracious gift of freedom
in Jesus Christ,
that we find renewed purpose.
It is with the comfort and joy
we find in your Holy Spirit,
that energizes us to follow your will.
Today, this Trinity Sunday,
we renew our bonds in you,
Everlasting Lord, that we continue living and serving
as your people. In freedom, joy and gratitude we pray.
Amen.
*Opening Hymn
Call to Confession
We cannot do much apart from God, but in Christ we can become grace-filled
once again. Together and then in silence, let us confess our sins before God
and neighbor. Let us pray.
Prayer of Confession (please see bulletin)
Assurance of Pardon
In the beginning, God planted goodness deep within creationand through
the grace of God, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we are able to
live as the Body of Christ, showing that goodness to the world.
Friends, in the name of the Jesus Christ, you and I are forgiven!
Thanks be to God! Amen!
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Psalm 8:1-9 (please see bulletin)
Pastoral Prayer (based on Psalm 41)

Responsive:
We pray on behalf of the world: Come, Holy Spirit!
O God, our unshakeable foundation,
hear us as we offer our prayers for all who are afflicted.
We pray for those who are poor and in need,
that you would deliver them in the time of trouble
and grant abundant joy.
We pray on behalf of the world: Come, Holy Spirit!
We pray for those who are sick or injured,
and for all who minister to them,
that the blessings of health and wholeness would be made real.
We pray on behalf of the world: Come, Holy Spirit!
We pray for those who are near death,
or who mourn the loss of loved ones today.
Teach us to rightly remember those who have gone ahead of us,
and help us to entrust our lives to you even in death.
We pray on behalf of the world: Come, Holy Spirit!
We pray for those who face hostility, violence,
or broken relationships in their everyday life.
We pray for our enemies, calling upon your steadfast mercy.
We pray on behalf of the world: Come, Holy Spirit!
O Lord, you hold us fast,
and you lift us up forever by the power of your Holy Spirit.
Therefore we pray with boldness,
joining together in the prayer Christ taught, saying:
The Lords Prayer
Offering
Time Out for Teaching: The First Letter of the Alphabet is 'G'
If there were a Presbyterian alphabet, the first letter would be "G." What do
you think that stands for?
Grace.
Grace is freedom. It is forgiveness. It is lightness we discover in receiving of
God's love. It is not obligation or some sort of bondage.
Or is it?
What does grace mean to you?
Paul's letter to the Galatians speaks on the topic of grace, where people were
trying to earn God's favor through returning to the practice of circumcision so
they would feel sure that they belonged to God. Yet, Paul tells them this is
foolish, and unnecessary, for God's love for them is free. Paul says towards
the end of the letter, "You have been freed for freedom," and then proceeds

to provide them with a list of things not to do and the fruit of the Spirit. So
what sort of freedom is this? A freedom to try and be the best we can be,
even though we might and shall make mistakes on the way? I think so. So
consider yourself freed, for a special purpose to live and in your living show
the joy and freedom you have known from God.
Hymn
Prayer for Illumination
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
1Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? 2On the
heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; 3beside the
gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: 4"To
you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.
22The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of
long ago. 23Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the
earth. 24When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no
springs abounding with water. 25Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth-26when he had not yet made earth and
fields, or the world's first bits of soil. 27When he established the heavens, I
was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28when he made
firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, 29when
he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his
command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30then I was
beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before
him always, 31rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human
race.
Romans 5:1-5
1Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have obtained access to this grace
in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
3And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that
suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and
character produces hope, 5and hope does not disappoint us, because God's
love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been
given to us.
John 16:12-15
12 "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will
not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare
to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take

what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this
reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Sermon
Pospichal

Participating in Grace

Rev. Amy

Do you ever wish we could go back to the "good old days?" Those
were the days when people would get together to play bridge, pitch in for a
barn-raising, socialize at committee meetings, families gathering with others
for cookouts. It seemed like being social and knowing your neighbor was an
important value. And people expected each other to be social with one
another, or you might be thought of as a little weird.
Lots of research is being done nowadays to address the shift in our
society which seems to indicate people suffer a sort of social poverty. In
other words, we live in a world where people don't socialize the same as they
used to. To be fair, a lot of "socializing" happens on the internet. But some
would argue that the fabric of our society has changed for the worse. The
Harvard Kennedy School on Civic Engagement (in America) has been
researching this trend for almost 20 years. They have measured that over
20 years (1984-2004), the number of Americans who report feeling socially
isolated has more than doubled from 10% to 25%. This means that while
many advances have been made in technology and communications, one in
every four Americans feels isolated.
From a Christian standpoint, "social capital" is good for us.
Presbyterians and most other denominations confess that fellowship and
connections strengthen us, but without participation, with too much isolation,
it's not much of a church. Our interconnectedness is supposed to be a
reflection of God's kingdom already broken into the world, a reflection of the

community of the Trinity, Three in One, One in Three. So that when we

participate with God's will as community, we make God's work more visible.
Sometimes it feels a little discouraging to realize we are one of the last
of the Rotarians or last of the Sunday School participants, or last of the few
bowling teams we have in town. And it can be a bit scary to wonder what
would happen if just one more person quit. Though we can be confident that
God has a hold on us, it's become increasingly clear that we may never
return to the good old days. And yet, we are called to participate in Gods
world, even if the world as we know it appears to be crumbling. We can look
to our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer for help.
Proverbs champions the presence of God's wisdom everywhere: "Does
not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights,
beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in
front of the town, at the entrance of the portals," and she rejoices in God's
world and the human race. God's wisdom is and always has been
everywhere. Paul's letter to the Romans tells us of the power that grace
gives us to act on our wisdom, in spite of our sufferings, because grace can
lead us to endurance, and that produces character and character produces
hope. God's wisdom and character, are everywhere within our grasp, and all
can work together to give us hope in the face of overwhelming odds.
Paul had plenty of moments in his evangelical career when he faced
overwhelming odds, which could have dashed his hope. We mostly hear of
his successes. But we also hear of his shipwrecks, his falling out with Peter,

his imprisonments. I imagine his letter to the Romans, isn't so much clinical
dissertation of how to live a grace-filled, purpose-driven life, but rather a
testimony to his own experiences in learning endurance from God's grace.
Friends, this life in Christ isn't just about how to keep on going and
survive, but to absorb God's grace to risk trying new things in response to an
ever-changing world. God's grace offers peace with our past mistakes, and
helps us to be at peace with the fact we will make more in the future, so that
in spite of our mistakes we shouldn't be afraid to keep looking for what the
Spirit wants us to do next. "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you
into all the truth," Jesus says, "...for he will declare to you the things that are
to come." That's a promise we can live by.
Ponder (and if you want to, share with the rest of us) where have you
seen people participating with God's grace? (Presbyterian Brotherhood,
Community Health Talks, etc.)
We are charged to keep on participating in God's world, and to be
unafraid to listen for what God wants us to do next. And as we listen, grace,
endurance and hope shall lead us along. We become no longer just
volunteers for a good cause, but reflections of the Trinitarian God at work in
community. Thanks be to God our sacred purpose. May God add wisdom to
my words. Amen.
*Closing Hymn
*Benediction
Announcements:
Session meets on Tuesday night at 5:30PM in the Library.

Amy will be out of town on Sunday