Here I Stand
Prayer of Preparation
prelude
welcome, announcements, joys and concerns
*Hymn # 3 A Mighty Fortress
*Call to Worship Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord is God! It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Ps. 100:1,3
*Invocation / Lord’s Prayer Almighty God, your are the protector of all who trust in you, without your grace nothing is strong, nothing is holy; increase and multiply upon us your mercy, that by your holy inspiration we may think the things that are right and by your power may perform the same, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. -Prayer by Martin Luther, 1526. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, at it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever.Amen
responsive reading # 587 Divine Providence
*Gloria Patri
Young’s Peoples Moment Have the children stand up and spread out in front of you. Tell them that you are going to lead them in a jumping game. On the count of three have them make a short jump forward ... one, two, three, JUMP! Then have them back up, and tell them that they’ll do it again, but this time with their eyes closed ... one, two, three, JUMP! Have them sit down, and ask them which was harder, jumping with their eyes opened, or closed? Find out what was hard about jumping with eyes closed ... couldn’t see, didn’t know where they were going, etc. Tell them the story of blind Bartimaeus, who found out that Jesus was close by, and so “he sprang up and came to Jesus” (Mark 10:50) ... even though he couldn’t see! Suggest that Bartimaeus jumped toward Jesus because he had faith - he trusted that Jesus would help him and heal him, and he wasn’t disappointed. Let them know that Jesus healed Bartimaeus and gave him his sight, and then Bartimaeus followed Jesus on the way (v. 52). Close by encouraging the children to have faith in Jesus during dark and scary times, and to follow Jesus wherever he leads them.
Call to Prayer The Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations. Ps 100:5
Prayer Hymn # 34 Praise to the Lord, Almighty v.4
Pastoral Prayer Almighty God, you sent Jesus to show us how to live. Grant us the power of your Holy Spirit so that we may follow him in faithfulness all the days of our lives. “...Father most gracious and full of compassion, have mercy upon us in the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And as you blot out our sins and stains, magnify and increase in us day by day the grace of your Holy Spirit: that as we acknowledge our unrighteousness with all our heart, we may be moved by that sorrow which shall bring forth true repentance in us, crushing all our sins and producing in us the fruits of righteousness and innocence which are pleasing to you; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. -Prayer by John Calvin, 1542.
Musical response
Offertory sentence Enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name.
offering Doxology
offertory prayer
Hymn # 359 Take Thou Our Mind, Dear Lord
Scripture Text Mark 10:46-52
Blind Bartimaeus Receives His Sight
46Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 48Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" 49Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." 0Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. 51"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." 52"Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
Sermon Here I Stand
In 1521, a monk named Martin Luther was put on trial by church authorities. He took a bold stand that started the Protestant Reformation, the movement we remember today. If we were put on trial for our faith, where would we stand? Here - or there?
In April of 1521, a monk named Martin Luther was put on trial by the Roman Catholic Church. He had been severely critical of the pope, questioning the validity of some of the sacraments and denouncing church corruption.
An archbishop was given the job of examining Luther, and he asked him, “Martin, how can you assume that you are the only one to understand the sense of Scripture? ... You have no right to call into question the most holy orthodox faith. ... I ask you, Martin -answer candidly without horns - do you or do you not repudiate your books and the errors which they contain?”
Luther replied, “Since, then, Your Majesty and your lordships desire a simply reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.” Luther’s speech was not a defiant, solitary protest, but a calm, reasoned account of why he had written the books piled on the table before him and why he could not recant their content.
“Luther asserted that his conscience was captive to the word of God and that he could not go against conscience. This was not, however, a modern plea for the supremacy of the individual conscience or for religious freedom. Though already excommunicated by Rome, Luther saw himself as a sworn teacher of Scripture who must advocate the right of all Christians to hear and live by the gospel.”
At this trial, Luther was convicted of heresy. Anyone caught following him was to be condemned. But Luther and his followers were not crushed - they went on to lead the Protestant Reformation, the movement we commemorate today. We can be grateful that Luther took a stand for what he believed in and worked tirelessly to bring the word of
God to common people, so that they could develop deeper faith in Jesus Christ.
In his own study and translation of the Bible, he discovered that faith is essential to an everlasting relationship with God. “We are saved by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ,” he proclaimed. Faith is the attitude that enables us to hang on to Christ, according to Luther; it is the way we gain access to the saving grace of God. Faith is best defined as “trust,” he said; it is a willingness to rely on Jesus through all the challenges of life.
Faith is at the heart of today’s Scripture lesson, and it is nothing less than the faith that leads to new life. In the gospel according to Mark, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus is sitting by the road between Jericho and Jerusalem. He hears that Jesus is coming, and cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (10:47).
Bartimaeus believes that Jesus has power to make him whole, and he trusts him to work for good in his life. Jesus stops, and asks him, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man answers, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus restores his sight, and he gives Bartimaeus credit by saying, “Your faith has made you well.” The beggar gets up, and begins his new life not by going home, but by following Jesus on the way to Jerusalem (vv. 51-52).
Faith was the key to Luther.
“With us today are three church members who are going to share their own statements of faith, their own expressions of trust in the Lord, their own stories of how their faith has made them well. Here they stand. They cannot do otherwise.” the first is Rick Maynert with a FAITH STATEMENT BASED ON MARK 10:46-52.
Life is difficult and dangerous, so it is good to have something to hang on to. About a thousand years before the birth of Christ, a woman named Ruth found herself without a husband. Her mother-in-law, Naomi, instructed her to return to her family, but Ruth resisted. “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you!” said Ruth. “Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Ruth decided to hang on to Naomi, and to hang on to Naomi’s God, the God of Israel.
What is it that we hang on to through this difficult and dangerous life? If we follow Ruth, we hold tight to our loved ones and our God. If we follow Luther, we grasp the word of God, in Scripture and in the person of Jesus Christ. Perhaps many of us follow both, saying “Your God shall be my God.” Faith is never a totally private experience, but involves a community of believers, a community that exists in the past and the present.
Merrill Petty FAITH STATEMENTS BASED ON RUTH 1:1-18 --
-- Luther was convicted of heresy, and anyone caught following him was to be condemned. But he and his followers were not crushed - they went on to lead the Protestant Reformation. They were called Protestants not only because they protested problems in the church, but because they took a positive stand for the gospel. The word “protest” comes from the Latin word meaning “testify, declare in public,” so a Protestant is a person who makes a declaration, who takes a stand.
There have always been reasons for Christians to protest, to testify, to take a stand in public. The apostle Paul visited the Thessalonian Christians and then wrote to them that he “had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition” (1 Thessalonians 2:2). Jim Salisbury FAITH STATEMENTS BASED ON 1 THESSALONIANS 2:1-8
Source: Bainton, Roland H. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983, 144.
[“Thank you for your statements of faith. You are truly acting as reformers in our church, inspiring us to develop deeper faith in God and a greater willingness to trust Jesus Christ through all the challenges of life. May your faith continue to make you well, as you follow Jesus on the way.”
“Thank you for showing how your life has been shaped by your devotion to Jesus and to your loved ones. You are hanging on to God and his word, and are bringing us all closer to his kingdom. Your God is our God, and we thank him for his ongoing work in all of our lives.”]
Hymn # 392 Be Thou My Vision
Benediction L: Take heart and have courage. Jesus calls us to get up and go into the world.
P: Our eyes have been opened. We have witnessed God’s marvelous work in the healing faith of our friends.
L: Jesus calls us to go, knowing that our faith continues to make us well.
P: We follow Christ into the world, trusting that his call will be made known.
Animating Illustrations
Sometimes a statement of faith is made with actions, instead of words:
Michael Bogdaffny-Kriegh tells the story, “A while back there was a news item about a number of youths, who in the days following the September 11 attacks, stormed into the restaurant of a man they deemed to be the enemy by proxy because of his Middle Eastern descent. They tore the place apart. The police caught the young men that same evening, but when asked to press charges, the restaurant owner declined. He couldn’t see how it would make things any better. A few hours later, the young men returned, apologized and spent the night helping him to clean up the damage they had done. The owner clearly acted in a way that brought the best out in others.”
-Michael Bogdaffny-Kriegh, “Does our faith stand up?” Web Site of the New York Society for Ethical Culture, December 2001,
In a time of crisis, uncertainly and policy debate, one would think that Christians in the United States would agree: When in doubt, we should support our leader and remain loyal to our nation.
Our leader, of course, is Jesus Christ. Our nation, of course, is the people called church, spread around the globe. Our pledge of allegiance, of course, is one that can be sung from within “every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). Of course?
-Gerald W. Schlabach, “We pledge allegiance,” Sojourners, January-February
2003, 15.
How are most churches doing? Actually, not very well. A survey was taken among active Christians. What they found was startling:
• 70 percent never or rarely encouraged someone to believe in God.
• 45 percent never or rarely talked about their faith.
• 64 percent rarely pray.
• 77 percent rarely read the Bible.
-Statistics reported by Larry Davies in his Sowing Seeds Devotion, March 22, 2001,
When Hurricane Mitch swept over Nicaragua in fall 1998, many villages were wiped out. But the devastation didn’t stop with the passing storm. Several small villages sat at the base of the Volcano Casitas. As the torrential rains fell for 72 hours, the crater of the volcano filled with water. Eventually the side collapsed, sending a massive mudslide down the mountain, wiping out the villages. The devastation was massive. No one knows how many died that day, but of the 100 or so who attended the area’s only church, 16 survived. Those who lived were left homeless, injured and grieving the loss of loved ones ....
Constantine ... was a Christian at the time of the hurricane .... When the mudslide hit, she was swept away. Miraculously, she was able to grab onto a tree and thus avoid being buried and killed. She also reached for and held onto her 8-year-old grandson, saving his life as well.
For the next three days, Constantine and her grandson remained buried in mud up to their shoulders. She watched 30 of her family members be swept away or die while waiting rescue. She even witnessed dogs eating the flesh of some of those who had died.
Did Constantine’s ordeal result in ... loss of faith ... ? No! She passed the time awaiting rescue with her grandson by singing hymns and psalms and making up new choruses. What a privilege to hear her share some of those beautiful songs. Though I don’t know a bit of Spanish, I could sense the true worship of God in her song.
-Lawrence P. Frick, M.D., “Faith to stand the storm,” Physician Magazine, May-
June 2002,
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because I see everything by it.
—C.S. Lewis
About 500 years ago, a Roman Catholic monk was feeling terribly alienated from God. He was being crushed by his sense of sinfulness, and was trying to find something to ease the pressure. He tried to do more and more good works, but discovered that he could never do enough to save himself. He tried confession, and confessed frequently, often daily, and for as long as six hours at a stretch.
The problem was that he could never be sure that he had confessed everything, and often he would remember additional sins as he was walking out of the confessional. When he realized that his entire self - his entire being - was corrupt and in need of forgiveness, he came right up to the edge of despair.
Then this monk opened the Scriptures and experienced a breakthrough. He discovered that the God who judged him and rightfully damned him for his sins was the same God who graciously sent Jesus Christ to save him from his sins. The way to be saved, then, was somehow to GRASP Christ; grasp this one who died on the cross for all humankind. What the monk found was that only One thing was capable of grasping Christ: faith. Faith alone. Or, in the original words of this monk named Martin Luther: sola fide. When Luther the monk went public with this breakthrough, he started the Protestant Reformation. sola fide, faith alone, became the essence of this movement which sought to re-form the Christian church.
—Elesha Coffman, “Christian history
corner: ‘Hier Stehe Ich!’” Christian
History Magazine, April 12, 2002.