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2330 South Jefferson Street
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2330 South Jefferson Street
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The Season After Pentecost, also called Ordinary Time, is the period which has 28 Sundays this year. The season begins with Trinity Sunday (the first Sunday after Pentecost) and continues through the day before the first Sunday of Advent. The Sundays of this season are designated as Sundays after Pentecost. FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST JUNE 8, 2008
As
Christ cares, we care…
We care about
all people. ORDER OF WORSHIP-10:30 A.M. + Indicates the people standing ENTRANCE
Prelude
The God of
Abraham Praise
by R. Scarfullery
Children’s
Time
Cheryl Harrison-Davidson SENDING FORTH
+Singing
710
Faith of Our Fathers
St. Catherine
THOSE
SERVING TODAY:
The Altar Flowers Are Given *CHILDREN (AGES 3 through 1st GRADE), may meet the acolyte to recess to Children’s Church. Please ask your child to line up behind the acolyte who will lead all children out together. After the worship service, parents must pick up their child in the Children’s Department; children will not be allowed to leave the room until their parents arrive. WE WELCOME THIS MORNING The Reverend Cheryl Harrison-Davidson, wife of our Senior Pastor, who brings the message. Rev. Bill is preaching for her congregation today, Fairview United Methodist Church. WELCOME TO THE SUMMER! Beginning June 15 you are invited to a less formal summer season for worship. Rev. Bill and our worship leadership will “retire” their robes until the fall.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE TO DISASTER
RELIEF: By your special offering and funds available through our
2007 Advent Offering we have contributed the following through the United
Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR): AVAILABLE IN THE NARTHEX: The May/June Upper Room, large print United Methodist Hymnals, hymnals in brail, individual hearing enhancement equipment, and children’s bulletins (ages 3-12). Please ask an usher to assist you. NEXT WEEK’S SERMON, The Shepherd of Sheep Among Wolves, will be based on Matthew 9:35-10:20. Please read and study the text this week. WELCOME! We're glad to have all who have joined us for this time of worship. Especially to our guests and visitors, we welcome you to South Roanoke and to our fellowship. We invite those who have no church home to make South Roanoke your church and add your witness to ours. YOUTH FOR HIRE: It is time to call the youth for those spring cleaning projects. They will work on weekends through June 30th. Please, call 344-4437, ext. 16 to reserve a time. DING AND DINE: Interested in playing handbells?? Even if you just might be interested, we hope you will join your SRUMC handbell ringers for lunch today, immediately following the worship service. We would love to show you how much fun we have and teach a few of the basics of bells. Our ringers are ready to welcome some new members and help you learn all about bells this summer. We hope to have a full choir ready to ring this fall. VOLUNTEER IN MISSION TEAM TO MISSISSIPPI: For the Hurricane Katrina relief effort we will be sending a group to Mississippi October 18-25 or October 25-November 1. Please contact the church office as soon as possible if you would like to be a part of this mission team, and let us know which week would suit you best. SUMMER SUNDAY SCHOOL will begin June 15. The adult and youth classes will join together for some exciting summer classes. Scott Crawford will present a series concerning Art and Christianity which will continue through July. In August, Marianne Bird will return with a study of John Wesley’s times and sermons. BYRON RAGLAND’S ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBERS: City of Oaks Health and Rehab Center; 3609 Bond Street; Raleigh, NC 27604; (919) 231-8144; cell phone (919) 812-2156. TEACHERS ARE NEEDED for the preschool and elementary Sunday school classes for the summer. If you can help even one Sunday, please call Lee Anne Steffe, 344-4477. SENIOR DINNER will be TONIGHT at 6:30 p.m. for all of our graduating seniors and their families. We will have dinner at the church. Plan to be with us until 8:00 p.m. Congratulations
to our Graduates Our
High School Graduates: FELLOWSHIP ON THE FIFTH: On June 29th we will have our first Fellowship on the Fifth. All Sunday school classes will gather in the fellowship hall at 9:15 for fellowship. WE EXPRESS OUR CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY to Christy Sherman and family in the death of her grandfather, Jack Wilson, of Newport News on May 13th. _______________________ God’s Promises Vacation Bible School at South Roanoke United Methodist Church When: Sunday July 6 – Thursday July 10 5:30 – 8:00 PM What: Study of God’s covenant relationship with his people and how it evolved through the Old Testament and changed in the New Testament as signaled by Jeremiah. Who: Pre K (Age 4 by 09/30/08) through rising 5th Grade Why: Many people who proclaim Jesus as their savior
have memories of Bible School or a camp week that played a significant
role in their faith development. VBS is fun and it How: We’ll need lots of help from Youth, Parents, Grandparents, other adults interested in helping with this awesome ministry. So start praying for SRUMC’s Bible School now and as you feel God calling you to help please consider volunteering. Contact Lee Anne Steffe 540-344-4477 or jsteffe@cox.net ____________________________ SERMON WILL BE POSTED MONDAY, JUNE 9, 2008 |
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July 6,
2008 8th Sunday after Pentecost
Come to Me, “Come to me…come as you are.” This was the invitation Jesus extended that day as he spoke to the crowd, people who were so burdened by life. This is the invitation Jesus extends to you this morning, you with your own burdens, who in your own way are weighed down by life. Jesus says, “Come to me..come as you are” as he invites you to his table today. Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Mt. 11:28-30 Jesus looked out over those gathered before him and saw folks who were weary, carrying heavy burdens, and in desperate need of rest. He looked out and saw the poor, the hungry—these who were left behind when the world’s provisions were passed around; those who were sorrowful and in mourning over the loss of a loved one, over the brokenness of life, the fallenness of God’s creation; the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart who want desperately to follow God and would welcome the kingdom of God with open arms. And what does he say about these? Of the poor he says the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. Of the hungry he says they will be satisfied. Those who mourn will be comforted. The merciful will receive mercy. The meek will inherit the earth. The pure in heart will see God. Jesus called them blessed. “Come to me” he says, “come as you are you poor, hungry, sorrowing, meek people;” because in that day as in ours if you were sick, poor, hungry, meek, that was a sure sign that you were not blessed. In our culture blessed are the rich, the healthy, the comfortable, the proud. In that day if you were sick, in many cases you were also considered unclean requiring length ritual cleansing before you could come to God. In that day the poor and hungry more often than not were considered to be so because of their sin. And everybody knows the meek don’t inherit the earth, they are the victims. If you don’t look out for yourself nobody will look out for you. But Jesus called them all “blessed.” Not only that, but he hung around with them, spent his time among them, as Matthew tells the story—the sick, diseased, those in pain, possessed by demons, suffering from epilepsy, paralysis, leprosy, blindness. You heard him say what others were saying about him: …John (the Baptist) came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man cam eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Matthew 11:18-19a He showed no favor to rich or poor, of high or low status. At a time when the religious leaders and the culture declared them unclean and unfit Jesus declared them all “blessed”. The religious leaders weren’t pleased with that at all. Jesus was telling people to come to God just like they were, that God loved them. Jesus called them blessed and loved by God. “You’re not unclean, you are blessed. You’re not unfit, you are loved. Come here to me, come as you are.” And when the religious leaders pressed the point with him later in the Gospel of Matthew, you know what Jesus says to them? Tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you! Mt. 21:31 “They believed, they received and you didn’t,” Jesus says. “You try to keep the gate locked and closely guarded, only letting in those with gate passes which you issue while God opens it wide and invites them in love.” You remember the story he tells in Matthew of the wedding banquet. The host invites the folks and they don’t come. So he invites everybody: the poor, nobodies, outcast instead. The Apostle Paul knows this well. After a career of persecuting Christians Paul is called and named by Christ himself to serve him—a sinner received love and is forgiven. I am so grateful to Paul for sharing with me and you his own struggles of faith as read from his letter to the church at Rome this morning. Jesus indeed spent much time with sinners and he loved them, even sinners like Paul, and you, and me. I don’t understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…I can will what is right but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Romans 7:15, 18b-19 You know what that’s like, don’t you? Little wonder then that Paul goes on to cry
Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Jesus says, “Come to me…come as you are.” What about you? You know today you don’t have religious leaders or rabbis or priests who declare you unclean, who refuse you entrance into the presence of God. But you don’t need them to do that because you are very good at declaring yourself unclean, considering yourself unfit for the kingdom of heaven, too burdened down by life to be worthy. Perhaps you made a mistake in life and suffer for it the rest of your life, not because God won’t forgive you—you know God is ready and willing, indeed, has already. You just won’t forgive yourself. Jesus says to you, “Come to me…come as you are.” Perhaps life is so different for you now. By reason of illness, injury, or age you just can’t do thing you used to be able to do. You don’t need anybody to declare you unfit for life because you tell yourself every day “I am just not whole.” Jesus says to you, “Come to me…come as you are.” Like so many in the crowd that day you are so beaten down and defeated life that you’re just wore down completely. You are so good at declaring yourself unclean and unfit and not whole that you throw up your hands in the face of life and declare, “I can’t do this anymore.” Jesus says to you, “Come to me…come as you are.” How do you come to him? This morning it’s as easy as coming to dinner. You can come to his table with confidence because he sat at yours. He came to your table a long time ago. He ate with you, walked with you, suffered with you, even died for you. It is your risen Lord who is your host for dinner. He says, “Come. Come into my house. Here you have a role to play that fits you just right. Let others take care of everything else. I have a yoke of service for you, just for you. There is a vital service I need you to take up, one right now for which you are uniquely qualified, just like you are.” At his table Jesus prays for you as he prayed for them I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. Matthew 11:25-26 Little children—we lowly and unconfident followers who have no claim on God at all except by God’s grace. Come to dinner. Jesus has already come to you. He has welcomed you to his table that you might welcome little ones to ours. So come to the table this day. Be fed, forgiven, nourished, empowered, equipped, and sent forth to serve then rise and go to others—the poor, the hungry, people who are sorrowful and in mourning, the sick, the lonely, the desperate, the lost— and invite them as you Lord has invited you. “Come to me…Come as you are. William G. Davidson
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