Faithfully Yours Forever

If you have been tracking with the River Run Church of the Nazarene posts, you know we have been sharing Sunday messages or sermons produced by A Sermon for Every Sunday for almost a year and a half.  They believe that many people, worldwide, have limited access to church services right now.  The River Run Church of the Nazarene realizes a number of you may want a more substantial service than we have been offering.  A Sermon for Every Sunday has suggested a format that may serve the church needs for individuals and families that are not able to attend their regular church services. The following is a message from them that includes a suggested format for your Sunday worship time.  This suggested format could be used throughout the pandemic period or beyond.

A Sermon for Every Sunday was not created with a global pandemic in mind, but it could have been. One of our regular viewers pointed out last week that this resource might be the perfect solution for having “church” in this season of social distancing. I’ve been thinking about that ever since, and wondering how you would go about it.
Maybe like this:

1. If you’re at home with your spouse, family, or significant other(s) begin by gathering around the table. If it’s just you maybe you could phone or FaceTime [or Skype] a friend to “join” you for worship.
2. Once you’re in place light a candle to symbolize the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is a good way to signal that you are entering into sacred time, and the place where you were chatting and laughing just a moment ago has become a sacred place.
3. An opening prayer is also a good “marker” between whatever came before and what is about to happen. You could say something like, “Jesus, you promised that wherever two or three are gathered in your name, there you will be also. Here we are. We trust you to be here as well. Amen.”
4. The lectionary is a wonderful way to take Scripture seriously. It’s a plan for reading through most of the Bible in worship over a three year period. You can find the readings for any given Sunday by clicking HERE (hint: click on the link under “Readings for the Coming Week”). You can use those readings at any time during that week.
5. Let someone read the Psalm and spend a few moments in silent meditation, reflecting on the beauty, the power, and the images contained in those words.
6. Let someone read the Old Testament lesson, and if you like, spend a few moments talking about what “strikes” you in the passage.
7. Let someone read the Epistle lesson, and do the same. Talk about words or images that “strike” you in some way.
8. Let someone read the Gospel lesson, and spend most of your time here (just a suggestion). The other lectionary readings are often “keyed” to the Gospel lesson, which is typically the focal passage. Take some time to talk about it. Maybe one of you could read some commentary on the passage beforehand in order to answer some of the questions that come up. You can find commentary on each of the lectionary readings by clicking HERE.
9. Finally, take some time to listen. You can find great sermons for every Sunday of the liturgical year by clicking HERE. These sermons are in video format, which gives you the benefit of seeing as well as hearing some of America’s best preachers. If you are at a table, you can simply open your laptop or prop up your tablet at one end.  If you have just spent twenty minutes discussing the passage you will find that the sermon rings bells it never would if you approached it “cold.”
10. Follow up with comments on what you’ve just heard or applications to your specific context and then enter into a time of prayer, asking for prayer requests from the group and praying for those specifically.
11. Blow out the candle.

Today’s Passage: John 9:1-41

Message [used with permission from A Sermon for Every Sunday]: Seeing and Seen – The Fourth Sunday in Lent [3/22/20] by Rev. Dr. Kristin Adkins Whitesides, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, Winchester, Virginia.
“There’s something holy and important about paying attention to our surroundings and to the people near us,” says Rev. Dr. Kristin Adkins Whitesides. She invites us to journey with the blind man who is healed by Jesus in John 9:1-41. He must figure out what his life would mean now that he was no longer blind. Those around him must also figure out what their lives meant in response to his healing. Who is truly blind?