February 18, 2024

1. What would you say about the difference between change or improving for the sake of perfection, and a more holistic change for the sake of our own needed transformation?

2. What influences try to convince you that you must work to be a kind of “exceptional” defined by society?

The church is always collecting pop tabs for Ronald McDonald House.

Every third Sunday, after the service, CLM Twinkle Gordon will serve communion.

2024 Financial Update (January)
Actual January
Income                   $33,557.30
Expenses                $25,783.60
+/-  Net                    $+7,773.70

Actual Year to Date
Income                   $33,557.30
Expenses                $25,783.60
+/- Net                     $+7,773.70

The core belief of Care and Share Food Bank is that no one should go hungry. Care and Share‘s mission is to provide food, partnering opportunities and education to fight hunger and food insecurity across 31 counties in southern Colorado.

Care and Share was founded by sister Dominique Pisciotta in 1972 as she saw many who struggled with hunger and decided to do something about it. Seven downtown churches supported her efforts.

Care and Share began by distributing food baskets that were put together in volunteers’ basements. It then grew into a dedicated two-car garage on South Wahsatch, evolving into the present day’s large, well-equipped centers in Colorado Springs and Pueblo that provide food to a network of 291 partners. Mobile markets and pantries for those with limited access to grocery stores are available.

Food is donated or received at low-cost from suppliers, community partners, and federal programs. One dollar provides five meals. Last year, 22,600,000 pounds of food were allocated to 256,740 people. Almost 10,000 children took nutritious food home to their families through children’s programs.

Last year St Paul’s generously donated $840 to this remarkable agency. May we prayerfully consider increasing our gifts this year? Since Care and Share is able to purchase food at a greatly reduced cost, financial donations are preferred. You may donate on the church website, use the QR code or write a check to St Paul’s with the memo February Mission: Care and Share .

“The King will reply, ‘I will tell you the truth. Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” Matthew 25:40 NIV

~Missions Committee

Each communion Sunday thereafter we will have a basket for those who feel called to give above and beyond their pledge. This "second-mile" giving will help fund the pastor's discretionary fund, which helps meet community needs as they arise, such as gas, lodging, clothing, etc. Feel free to bring your spare cash and change to help make a change in the lives of those in need.

Prelude
Stephanie Shorden

Welcome
Rev. David Petty

Threshold Moment

Leader: The liturgical season of Lent developed over the centuries as a time of deepened reflection. Originally a period of preparation for baptisms on Easter Eve, it later became a time for all Christians to take stock of their lives and examine how the connection to their faith was progressing–or not–and to recommit to a life of goodness. This year we will indeed open up and take stock. But rather than feel guilty (a popular Lenten pastime) about what we haven’t accomplished in our lives and faith, we will spend some time questioning how our culture’s obsession with achievement and perfection actually keeps us from the true depths of life and faith. This Lent, we’ll take some time to turn ladder-climbing into garden-tending, nurturing our souls and embracing our holy, “good enough,” lives.

Threshold Song
Good Enough
Dominick Nors

What in our lives
do we dream about for tomorrow,
void of sorrow?
Time spent regretting
decisions of our yesterdays,
mistakes we made?
 
Sometimes we get what we get,
life disappoints us and yet,
God is still here and somehow,
this faith is good enough. [repeat]

Calling on God Prayer
CLM Twinkle Gordon

Leader: Let us pray together:

People: Holy One, Our Refuge and Shelter, we call out to you, sometimes in praise, sometimes in distress–as life goes. Whether we perceive it or not, you are there. Open us this day to your presence in the smile of a friend, in the call of a bird–in the simple and good enough moments that fill our days. Amen.

*Opening Hymn
Our Lord, You Were Sent
(To the Tune of "How Firm a Foundation")

Our Lord, you were sent to a place wild and vast
To ponder your mission, to pray and to fast;
Then hungry and weary, you faced night and day
The subtle temptations to turn from God's way.
 
How could it be wrong to want bread on the shelf?
To seek, in one's serving, to first serve one's self?
But by God's own word you remained ever sure:
It's only in God that our lives are secure.
 
How could it be wrong to step out and to dare,
To prove with great drama the depths of God's care?
But you knew God's word, true since all time began:
It's wrong to expect God to work by our plan.
 
How could it be wrong to just once bow the knee,
To shake hands with sin to achieve victory?
Yet you made it clear that no matter the cost:
Your path was obedience, your way was the cross.
 
Our Lord, in your struggle you chose to obey;
God's word filled your heart and you trusted God's way.
Now risen, you save us from sins that destroy;
You give us your Spirit, your peace and your joy.

Honest Questions, Compassionate Response
CLM Twinkle Gordon

Leader: We find ourselves hungry for many things that we believe will bring us satisfaction. In today’s Gospel, the devil lays a bet that Jesus will jump at the chance for glory, fame, and the quick fix. Who wouldn’t? But Jesus keeps up the pithy one-liners long enough that the Tempster just has to slink away. What are the temptations that catch your ear, singing out promises that your life should be more special than it is? What if ordinary life is already holy–as is? Let us take a moment of silent reflection…

Silent Reflection

Leader: Hear this compassionate word from the Letter to the Romans: “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart… Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Know that already, God is offering us freedom from the temptations of the “not enough-ness” of our time, inviting us to love and revere the seeming ordinariness of the day-to-day so that we might recognize its true beauty.

And know, that despite our sometimes faltering steps, in the name of Jesus Christ, you are being forgiven, even now.
 
People: In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven. Glory to God! Amen.

Gospel Reading
Luke 4:1-13
CLM Twinkle Gordon

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

A Word of God that is still speaking,

People: Thanks be to God.

Message
Ordinary Live can be Holy
Rev. David Petty

Prayer of the People
 CLM Twinkle Gordon

(Sung)
Though all along our daily pilgrim race
our treasures small and very few may be,
our souls are blest with God’s unending grace,
and that is enough, enough for me.
Oh, that’s enough for me,
God’s truth has set me free;
the love of Christ has sanctified my soul,
and that is enough for me.

Leader: Our prayer song in this Lent season is written by an evangelist who wrote in the 19th century, Daniel S. Warner. A newspaper publisher and outspoken believer in sanctification (the movement toward perfection), he nonetheless penned this hymn drawing on First Timothy 6, a text that reminds us not to slip from the desire to see one’s family well-fed and clothed to seeing them more well-fed and clothed than others. Embracing a good enough life means also embracing the need for the ordinariness of all lives to be good enough–cared for enough, sheltered and fed enough, loved enough. As long as this is not true in this world, we will pray and work for justice. And so Warner’s first verse is followed by an adapted new second verse turning our attention to the needs of the world.

When food and raiment are not ever sure,
and simple fare is hard to get for some,
we work to share our goods with one and all,
and that is enough, enough for me.
Oh, that’s enough for me,
God’s truth has set me free;
a love like Christ’s is meant for ev’ry soul,
and that is enough for me.
 
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 trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
 
Lead us not
into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the Kingdom,
and the Power
and the Glory forever.
Amen

Invitation to Offering
CLM Twinkle Gordon

Offertory
When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder
Sanctuary Choir

*Doxology
Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow
 
Praise God, from whom
all blessings flow; 
Praise God, all creatures 
here below: Alleluia! Alleluia! 
 
Praise God, the source 
of all our gifts! 
Praise Jesus Christ, 
whose power uplifts! 
 
Praise the Spirit, 
Holy Spirit! 
Alleluia! Alleluia! 
Alleluia!

Prayer of Thanksgiving
Rev. David Petty

Generous God,
in light of your extravagant blessings–
no matter what the state of the world or our imperfect lives–
we offer our gifts and ourselves,
and know that you transform what we plant
into the produce of love.
Amen.

Closing Hymn
Open My eyes, That I May See
UMH #454

1. Open my eyes,
that I may see
glimpses of truth
thou hast for me,
 
place in my hands
the wonderful key
that shall unclasp
and set me free.
 
Refrain
Silently now
I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes, illumine me,
Spirit divine!
 
2. Open my ears,
that I may hear
voices of truth
thou sendest clear;
 
and while the wave-notes
fall on my ear,
everything false
will disappear.
 
Refrain
Silently now
I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my ears, illumine me,
Spirit divine!
 
3. Open my mouth
and let me bear
gladly the warm
truth everywhere;
 
open my heart
and let me prepare
love with thy children
thus to share.
 
Refrain
Silently now
I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my heart, illumine me,
Spirit divine!
 
A Blessing for a Joyfully Mediocre Journey
Rev. David Petty
 
Blessed are you who realize there is simply not enough–time, money, resources.
Blessed are you who are tired of pretending that raw effort is the secret to perfection.
It’s not. And you know that now.
Blessed are you who need a gentle reminder that even now, even today, God is here, and somehow, that is good enough.
 
 
Benediction
 
And now, may the God who loves all of creation, especially the ordinary parts,
and Jesus, our companion along this crooked path called life, and the Holy Spirit, who loves to improvise in surprising ways, go with you, dwell among you, and give you joy. Amen.

(Sung)
People: God is still here and somehow, this faith is good enough.
 
Postlude
Stephanie Shorden