1663 Main St W Barnstable, MA 02668
of9ice@9irstcapecod.org
Please note our services are both live streamed and video recorded, your image may be appear online.
Pastor: Rev Dr Derek J Cheek Music Minister: Eric Williams
Of9ice Administrator: Laurie Fogel Sexton: Chuck Fillian
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Welcome
please stand as you are able
P: Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
C: I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”
P: As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.
C: The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
P: The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
C: I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
P: Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my 9lesh also dwells secure.
C: For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
P: You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy;
C: At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (from Ps 16)
Please be seated
Lectio continua—Reader: from Psalm 48
Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Within her citadels God has made himself known as a fortress.
As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God, which God will establish forever. We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple. As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness. Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.
Please be seated after you have lighted a candle(s)
The Prayer
AM: Jesus says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.”
C: Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.
P: If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
C: Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.
P: The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.
C: Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening. (from Rev 3:20-21 & 1Sam 3:9)
We center our hearts and minds on Jesus by pondering “trust”:
from Genesis 26:1-22
Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to the king of the Philistines. And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” So Isaac settled there. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. When he had been there a long time, the king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife. So he called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’” The king said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” So he warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.” And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The LORD blessed him, and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. He had possessions of 9locks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him. (Now the Philistines had stopped and 9illed with earth all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.) And the king said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.” So Isaac departed from there. And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them. But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, the local herdsmen quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also. And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he said, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”
God told Isaac to go to a land he would show him—a land beyond his knowledge & experience. Apparently Isaac would have been inclined to seek refuge in Egypt, and God didn’t want him to go there. He promised to bless and prosper Isaac through this time of famine. God wants to transfer the reality of this promise, originally made to Abraham, to Isaac.
• How do you suppose Isaac felt as God pushed him out of his comfort zone?
• What was at stake in this test of Isaac’s faith?
• Have you ever felt God lead you well outside your comfort zone?
Isaac replayed a trick from his father’s past—passing off his pretty wife as his sister in this land.
• What prompted him to do this?
• How did the local king (Abimelech) discover the truth…what did he do?
• Isaac did what he did for self-preservation. How did his plan potentially affect everyone else?
• Have you ever made a decision without thinking what its impact could be on others?
As Isaac moves on he faces the opposition of the local people—they claim the wells he digs. How does he deal with this?
Would you have a similar attitude?
AM: Lord we lift our hearts to you. May we carry the unity we share into every moment knowing we are one with the risen Christ.
C: Lord, we lift our eyes to you.
AM: As the sun sets, may these moments stay with us, reminding us to look for the beautiful colors of promise in your word.
C: Lord, we lift our prayers to you.
AM: As the chill of evening descends, remind us that you always enfold us; keep us, & work within us.
C: Lord, we lift our voices to you.
AM: Help us to realize afresh what your death and resurrection mean for us: forgiveness, freedom, and the knowledge that we walk with you through this fallen world into eternity.
C: Lord, we lift our hearts to you.
AM: Jesus, you rose from death, defeated darkness, and bathed the world in stunning resurrection light.
C: Lord, we want to share that light with the world. Amen.
We pause to surrender ourselves to God:
AM: The risen Christ meets us at the tomb, and turns our tears to joy.
C: We give you thanks, O God.
AM: Christ comes through our locked doors, and turns our fear to courage.
C: We give you thanks, O God.
We pause to ponder our fears
AM: Christ comes to daily life and work, and turns our failure to new vision.
C: We give you thanks, O God.
AM: Christ breaks the bread, and turns our despair to hope.
C: We give you thanks, O God.
We pause to ponder our failures
AM: If you were not risen, Lord Christ, to whom would we go to discover the radiance of the face of God?
C: We give you thanks, O God.
AM: If you were not risen we would not be here seeking your presence, communion, & new beginnings.
C: We give you thanks, O God.
We pause to ponder Christ’s victory
AM: Give us the energy to follow you right to the end of our earthly lives.
C: Amen. (adapted from Brother Roger of Taize)
~~We observe a few moments of Silence~~
please stand as you are able
P: Christ is risen!
C: He is risen indeed!
P: Let’s celebrate this uncontainable life; let's open our hearts to the joy and wonder of in9inite possibility, of unquenched hope, of eternal resurrection.
C: We raise our voices and our hearts in worship to the God who lives.
Communion Song: repeated
P: Resurrection happened because Christ was
C: His love for the Father, and for humanity, is so strong.
P: Defying death, he refused to release His hold on life and love.
C: So now, we choose to remember so we too can truly live.
Verse
P: At supper on the night before He died Jesus took bread and blessed it. Then He broke it and gave it to His disciples saying: This is my body, broken so that you may know life. Eat it and remember Me.
P: After the meal Jesus took wine and blessed it. Then He gave it to His disciples saying: This is my blood, shed so that you may know life. Drink it and remember Me.
Verse
P: We join our hearts and lift our voices in prayer as Jesus taught us:
C: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as 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.
Verse for distribution
Please form a close circle around the Altar
AM: Filled with life, we now offer ourselves to be life-bringers in the world.
P: Touched by resurrection we pledge to resist death wherever we 9ind it.
C: Filled with hope we embrace the promise of eternity, and the call to make it known at every opportunity. Amen. ~adapted from John van de Laar © 2009 Sacredise
P: God has claimed us for his own.
C: He has brought us out of darkness, and made us light to the world. Amen.