Online Worship for September 26, 2021

Welcome to Church of the Holy Cross’s live streaming worship service for September 26, 2021. Feel free to follow the service text by scrolling down, or you may download and print the service in PDF format below.

Online Worship September 26, 2021
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Pastor

WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD

Welcome                                                                                     Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Prelude: Allegro (Organ Concerto No. 15) — Johann Walther, arr. Kevin Norris                              Kayleen Yuda

Call to Worship: based on James 5:13-20                                 Cindy Debus

Leader: Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.
All: Are any among you sick? They should call for others to pray for them.

Leader: The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up.
All: Anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.

Leader: Therefore we confess our sins to one another and we pray for one another, so that we might be healed.
All: May our prayers in this time be loving, powerful, and effective, sustaining the souls of the world.

Invocation: based on Psalm 124                                                 Cindy Debus

If you had not been with us in our desperation, O God, we do not know what would have happened. We might have been swept away in a flood of suffering, lost in raging waters of grief. You have lifted us, O God, as from a snare or a net. Blessings to you, O God, our help. Blessings to you, O God, who made heaven and Earth. Amen.

Hymn #181: You Are Salt for the Earth, O People                      Eric Anderson
                                                                                                    Doug Albertson
                                                                                                   Movement led by Genie Phillips

Scripture                                                                                    Cindy Debus

Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29
The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites also wept again, and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents. Then the Lord became very angry, and Moses was displeased. So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a sucking child, to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors’? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once—if I have found favor in your sight—and do not let me see my misery.”

 So the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them take their place there with you.

 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord; and he gathered seventy elders of the people, and placed them all around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again.

Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!

Mark 9:38-50
John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someonecasting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

 “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

 “For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.

Story/Sermon: Still the Child                                                     Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Pastoral Prayer                                                                          Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Please join me in 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 and ever. Amen

Instrumental Anthem: Invention 6 BMV 777, J. S. Bach          Mace Peng

Call to Offering:                                                                         Cindy Debus

How can we remove the obstacles from the path of God’s children? How can we ease their journey in the life of the world, of the heart, and of the spirit? We do it with gifts of love and grace, including the gifts we present to the Church of Jesus Christ. Please send your offering through the mail in an envelope to 440 West Lanikaula Street, Hilo, Hawai’i, 96720, or give online at holycrosshilo.com/donate. Let us pray together:

Offertory Prayer:

Your children, O God, are our neighbors, our family, our selves. Bless your children, O God, through these gifts. May we be gathered as one ‘ohana in your sight. Amen.

Vocal Anthem: Cuando el Pobre                                                Eric Anderson
                                                                                                    Doug Albertson
                                                                                                   Movement led by Genie Phillips

Announcements                                                                         Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Benediction                                                                                Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Postlude: A Tune for the Trumpet – J.S. Bach, Arr. P. Paxton — (From 69 Chorale Melodies with Figured Bass)                                          Kayleen Yuda

Permissions:
You Are Salt for the Earth, O People
Text and Music by Mary Haugen
© 1986, GIA Publications, Inc.
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

Allegro (Organ Concerto No. 15)
by Johann Walter, arr. Kevin Norris
Tune: © 1983 Lorenz Publishing Company, a division of The Lorenz Corporation (Admin. by Music Services)
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

A Tune for the Trumpet
by J. S. Bach, arr. David Paxton
Tune: © 1980 Lorenz Publishing Company, a division of The Lorenz Corporation (Admin. by Music Services)
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

Cuando el Pobre
by Miguel Marzano, Jose Antonio Olivar (c) 1971
Streamed by permission CCS License #: 13303

Pastor                                                 Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Moderator                                          Woody Kita
Lay Reader                                         Cindy Debus
Chapel Decorations                           Laura Ota
Choir Accompanist                            Kanako Okita
Choir Director                                   Doug Albertson
Organist                                             Kayleen Yuda
Hand Bell Director                            Anna Kennedy
Childcare Coordinator                      Evonne Shioshita
Movement Leader                              Genie Phillips
Projected Imagery                             Sue Smith
Web Master                                       Ruth Niino-DuPonte  
Videographers                                    Eric Tanouye, Bob Smith

This week at the Church of the Holy Cross

• Bible Study with Pastor Eric: Tuesdays, 3:00 p.m. via Zoom
• Pickleball: Mondays, 12 noon, Tuesdays, 8:30 a.m., Wednesdays, 2:00 p.m., Thursdays, 8:30 a.m., Saturdays 12:00 p.m., Sundays 1:30 p.m. Building of Faith—limited to 10 attendees
• Online Song – Wednesday, 11:00 a.m. online
• Community Concert – 2^nd and 4th Fridays, 6:00 p.m. online