A Promise, A Promise Fulfilled

Sunday, June 25, 2023
10:30 AM 11:30 AM 10:30 11:30

Union Presbyterian Church 200 E Main St Endicott, NY, 13760 United States (map)

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We meet Abraham and Sarah again. Many years have passed, but still no sign of a child of their own. Then, one warm day, three strangers arrive. They are served with lavish hospitality, and have some surprising things to say to the couple.

Join us this morning in our beautiful sanctuary, or right here, online, for the livestream. The worship service video is available here or on Youtube, following the service.

Ordinary Time: A Promise Fulfilled 

Psalm 100; Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7

Union Presbyterian Church 

June 25, 2023 

Sharing the Light of Christ, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow 

Liturgist: Claire Bombard Preacher: Rev. Pat Raube  

Announcements Claire Bombard  

Prelude Chris Bartlette 

“Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown,” Larry Shackley

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.     

Welcome Rev. Pat Raube 

Call to Worship (responsive) Claire Bombard 

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands!

Serve the Lord with gladness!

Come into God’s presence with a song!

Know that the Lord is God,

our maker to whom we belong!

We are God’s people. Let us praise the Lord!

Hymn #16 W & R “The God of Abraham Praise” (Public Domain)

The God of Abraham praise,
Who reigns enthroned above;
The ancient of eternal days,
The God of love!
The Lord, the great I Am,
By earth and heaven confessed,
We bow before your holy name,
Forever blest.

Your Spirit still flows free,
High surging where it will;
In prophet's word you spoke
Of old and you speak still.
Established is your law,
And changeless it shall stand,
Deep writ upon the human heart,
On sea or land.

You have eternal life
Implanted in the soul;
Your love shall be our strength and stay,
While ages roll.
We praise you, living God!
We praise your holy name;
Who was, and is, and is to be,
Fore'er the same!

Call to New Life Claire Bombard 

Prayer for Wholeness and Peace  

God of the wide, wide welcome, we know that we are your children: all creation gives testimony to the love you have poured out upon us. And yet, we can find it difficult to open our hearts to others. We can dwell on the ways in which our lives are not what we expected, not what we had hoped for. We turn away from your love and your people, stuck in our discontent. Show us your ways, O God. Remind us of the welcome you have extended to us. Heal our hearts and open our eyes to your love at work in our midst, and help us to be a part of it. We pray in the name of your child and our brother, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Words of Assurance   

The Lord is kind and merciful; 

Slow to anger and filled with steadfast love. 

In the name of our brother, our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, 

We are forgiven. We are free. Alleluia! Amen. 

Sharing of the Peace

May the peace of God be with you.  

And also with you. 

Let us share a sign of God’s peace with one another. 

Scripture Psalm 100 (responsive)

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands!

Serve the Lord with gladness;

Come into God’s presence with a song!

Know that the Lord is God,

our maker to whom we belong;

we are God’s people, and the sheep of God’s pasture.

Enter the gates of the Lord with thanksgiving,

and the courts with praise;

give thanks, and bless God’s holy name.

Good indeed is the Lord:

God’s steadfast love is everlasting,

whose faithfulness endures from age to age.

Time for Young Disciples Rev. Pat Raube

Music: “Will You Let Me Be Your Servant,” Richard Gillard

Used by permission, CCLI License #CSPL068847

Scripture Genesis 18:1-15

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I be fruitful?” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

Response Holy Wisdom, Holy Word 

Thanks be to God! 

Sermon “A Promise Fulfilled”

Scripture Genesis 21:1-7

The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Affirmation of Faith from “A Brief Statement of Faith” of the PCUSA 

We trust in Jesus Christ, fully human, fully God. Jesus proclaimed the reign of God: preaching good news to the poor and release to the captives, teaching by word and deed and blessing the children; healing the sick and binding up the brokenhearted; eating with outcasts, forgiving sinners, and calling all to repent and believe the gospel.

We trust in God, whom Jesus called Abba, Father. In sovereign love God created the world good and makes everyone equally in God’s image, male and female, of every race and people, to live as one community… Loving us still, God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant. Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child, like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home, God is faithful still.

We trust in God the Holy Spirit, everywhere the giver and renewer of life. The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith, sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor, and binds us together with all believers in the one body of Christ, the Church.

With believers in every time and place, we rejoice that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hymn #391 W & R “Will You Let Me Be Your Servant,” Richard Gillard

Used by permission, CCLI License #CSPL068847

Will you let me be your servant,

Let me be as Christ to you?

Pray that I might have the grace to

Let you be my servant too.

We are pilgrims on a journey,

Here together on the road;

We are here to help each other

Walk the mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ-light for you,

In the nighttime of your fear;

I will hold my hand out to you,

Speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping,

When you laugh I’ll laugh with you;

I will share your joy and sorrow

Till we’ve seen this journey through.

When we sing to God and heaven,

We shall find such harmony,

Born of all we’ve known together

Of Christ’s love and agony.

Prayers of the People   

The Lord’s Prayer    

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.  

Prayer Response   #475 W & R       “Eternal Spirit of the Living Christ,” Frank von Christierson  

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.      

Come with the vision and the strength I need 

To serve my God, and all humanity; 

Fulfillment of my life in love outpoured— 

My life in you, O Christ, your love in me. 

Call for Offering Rev. Pat Raube 

Doxology      “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow,” Brian Wren   

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.     

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;  

Praise God, all creatures high and low.  

Praise God, in Jesus fully known:  

Creator, Word, and Spirit one.  

Prayer of Dedication   

Hymn   #717 W & R “Go Now In Peace,” Brian Wren   

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.     

Go now in peace; though friends must part,
Your presence lives in every heart.
Your gifts to us no words can tell:
Go now in peace, in Christ go well.

Go now in hope, and hopeful stay,
Though shadowed valleys hide your way;
Through good and evil, joy and pain,
With God, in Spirit, you remain.

Go now in faith, through time and chance,
Until we join the wedding dance
As partners of the Three-in-One,
Where all is ended and begun.

Benediction  

Postlude Chris Bartlette

“Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” Joel Raney

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.     

Where an * is indicated, please rise in body and/or in spirit.     

“W & R” ~ the red Worship and Rejoice hymnal.    

“PH” ~ the blue Presbyterian Hymnal 

The Prayer of Dedication was adapted from one by Teri McDowell Ott, provided for free distribution by the Presbyterian Outlook.