January 19, 2025
PRELUDE “Choose the Right” Henry A. Tuckett arr. Summer Decker Nelson
INTROIT “With Joy, With Praise, With Love, With Peace” Emma Lou Diemer
WELCOME Rev. Mary Shields, PhD
One: This is the day that the Lord has made
All: Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
*CALL TO WORSHIP
One: Our help is in the name of the Lord our God, the Maker of heaven and earth,
All: who comes to our aid in times of need,
One: who gives us the courage to do what we know is right,
All: who invites us to turn away from the influences of the world around us and confess Him alone as Savior and Lord.
One: This is our God!
All: Let’s worship together.
*OPENING PRAYER
God of Miriam and Moses, Shiphrah and Puah, you are our help from age to age. We praise you for working through the most unlikely people to bring life out of death, freedom out of bondage. We praise and adore you for opening up a new future for us when your love and compassion, your mercy and grace became enfleshed in Jesus Christ. He delivered us from the bondage of evil and sin through his death on the cross. The impossible once more became reality when love defeated evil once and for all. We pray that this time of worship will be a true offering of our wonder and praise that you should care for us so deeply and so faithfully. Amen.
*HYMN 23 “God, You Spin the Whirling Planets” PLEADING SAVIOR
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION Mark Phlegar
There are times, O God, when our greatest sin is not what we do but what we fail to do. For those times when we have not spoken up; for those times when we have not acted; for those times when we have not responded: forgive us. Give us courage to name what is wrong when we see it. Give us confidence to do what is hard. Give us grace to reach out when that is frightening or uncomfortable. This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
*ASSURANCE OF PARDON
One: New every morning is God’s love for us, and so we are bold to proclaim the Good News:
All: In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven! Thanks be to God!
*RESPONSE OF PRAISE 583 “Gloria, Gloria” GLORIA (Taize)
*PASSING OF THE PEACE
One: The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,
All: And also with you.
WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD
ANTHEM “We Shall Walk Through the Valley In Peace” William Appling
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
SCRIPTURE Luke 4:14-21 NRSVUE
Then Jesus, in the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding region. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
PSALTER
One: Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!
All: I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my lifelong.
One: Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.
All: When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish.
One: Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God,
All: who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever;
One: who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry.
All: The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
One: The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.
All: The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
One: The Lord will reign forever; your God, O Zion, for all generations.
All: Praise the Lord!
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE Sharon Renkes
SCRIPTURE Exodus 1:8-2:10 NRSVUE
Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians subjected the Israelites to hard servitude and made their lives bitter with hard servitude in mortar and bricks and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and allowed the boys to live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrew] you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”
Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.
The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Holy Wisdom, Holy Word
Thanks be to God
SERMON “Midwives Birthing the Future” Rev. Mary Shields, PhD
WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD
*HYMN 772 “Live Into Hope” TRURO
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH from A Declaration of Faith, 1985
We believe our hope in God gives us courage for the struggle. The people of God have often misused God’s promises as excuses for doing nothing about present evils. But in Christ the new world has already broken in and the old can no longer be tolerated. We know our efforts cannot bring in God’s kingdom.
But hope plunges us into the struggle for victories over evil that are possible now in the world, the church, and our individual lives. Hope gives us courage and energy to contend against all opposition, however invincible it may seem, for the new world and the new humanity that are surely coming. Jesus is Lord! He has been Lord from the beginning. He will be Lord at the end.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
TIME OF OFFERING online giving is available at www. indianolapres.org/give
OFFERTORY “Oh, May My Soul” arr. Martha Sisco
*OFFERTORY RESPOPNSE 710 “We Lift Our Voices” OFFERING
*PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Blessed are you, God of all creation; through your goodness we have these gifts to share. Accept and use our offerings for your glory and for the service of your kingdom. Blessed be God forever. Amen.
*HYMN 301 “Let Us Build a House” TWO OAKS
TIME OF COMMUNITY SHARING
CHARGE & BENEDICTION
CHORAL RESPONSE “We Take the Love of God” Emma Lou Diemer
arr. Terri Hutchings
Acknowledgments: Unless otherwise indicated, all texts and music are printed and broadcast under OneLicense.net license #A-702452