01 Aug Worship Bulletin: 8/4/24
Welcome to Worship at the McPherson Church of the Brethren
We invite your active participation in the life of this congregation, as together we continue to grow in grace and seek justice for God’s creation.
Sunday, August 4, 2024 @ 10:15 a.m.
♫Gathering Music | “Simple Gifts” | Hollis E. Roberts
Bryan Hess, violin; Ellen Gilbert, piano
Video Welcome
Sharing Time – Joys and Concerns | Karlene Tyler
♫Centering Music | “This is My Father’s World” | arr. Matt Riley
Bryan Hess, violin; Ellen Gilbert, piano
Unison Opening Prayer | based on Psalm 51:1-17 | posted on the Worship Closet
O God, have mercy on us, we pray.
In your mercy, free us and cleanse us from our bad behaviors.
Wipe away every failing and make us new in your sight.
Restore us, deliver us, and re-create us, O God.
May this be so! AMEN
♫Opening Song | “Awake, Awake, Fling off the Night”
Story for the Children | Lara Schoming
Video Invitation to Give
Give online or send a check made payable to “McPherson Church of the Brethren,” 200 N. Carrie, McPherson, KS 67460
♫Musical Offering | “This is the day the Lord has Made” | arr. Fred Bock
Ellen Gilbert, organ
Scripture Foci | 2 Samuel 11:1-14 and 2 Samuel 11:26 – 12:13a
2 Samuel 11:1-17 | David and Bathsheba
11 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army.
They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing.
The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said,
“She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her.
{When she had been bathing, she had been] purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.)
Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
6 So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David.
7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going.
8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.”
So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him.
9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.
10 David was told, “Uriah did not go home.”
So he asked Uriah,
“Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”
11 Uriah said to David,
“The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country.
How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”
12 Then David said to him,
“Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.”
So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.
13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk.
But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote,
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote,
“Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest.
Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”
16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were.
17 When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.
2 Samuel 11:26-27 & 12:1-13a | Uriah the Hittite, wife of Bathsheba
26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.
27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.
But the thing David had done displeased God.
Nathan Rebukes David
12 God sent Nathan to David. When Nathan came to David, he said,
“There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large
number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought.
He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms.
It was like a daughter to him. 4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one
of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him.
Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan,
“As surely as God lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
7 Then Nathan said to David,
“You are the man! This is what God, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah.
And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.
9 Why did you despise the word of God by doing what is evil in God’s eyes?
You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own.
You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10
Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
11 “This is what God says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you.
Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight.
12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”
13 Then David said to Nathan,
“I have sinned against God.”
Nathan replied,
“God has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.
14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for God, the son born to you will die.”
♫Scripture Song | “Lead Me Lord” | #538
Unison Prayer of Confession | Psalm 51 | A Psalm of David
David’s prayer of confession; given in response to the words of the prophet Nathan
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion
blot out my disobediences. 2 Wash away all my offenses and cleanse me from my bad behavior.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my wrongdoing is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I transgressed and done what is foul in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I am corrupt.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
7 Cleanse me with hўssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my offenses.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that they will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing
of your righteousness. 15 Open my lips, God, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, you O God, will not despise.
♫Scripture Song | “Lead Me Lord” | #538
Message | “the snowball effect” | Kathryn Whitacre
♫Sending Song | “Guide My Feet” | #546
Sending Words
♫Sending Music | “Praise Him! Praise Him!” | arr. Mary McDonald
Ellen Gilbert, organ
Videography and Editing: Eric Goering
Music Coordinator: Ellen Gilbert
Choir Director: Becky Snell
Technical Crew: Eric Goering, Ryan Goering, Shane Kirchner, Steve Lolling & Chris Whitacre
Chancel Decoration Team: Jill Brax, Colleen Gustafson, Michele Johnson, Shane Kirchner & Lara Schoming