sermon in song:
“One
Solitary Life” Rev. Robyn
Plocher
He was born in an obscure
village, in a stable and laid to sleep in a manger of hay where the cows and ox
fed. His mother was a young peasant
girl. His birth was noted that night
only by his humble parents and shepherds who had been tending their flocks in a
nearby field. He was just a baby, yet
his birth was so threatening to King Herod that he ordered the execution of all
children under the age of 2 in that little town of Bethlehem. *
HYMN #230 vs 1 & 2: “O Little Town of Bethlehem”
He grew up in
another village called Nazareth. He went to synagogue school. He worked in his father’s carpenter shop
until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an traveling preacher.
He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He
never held an office. He never married and had children. He never went to
college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled more than two
hundred miles from the place He was born. He did none of the things usually associated
with greatness. He had no credentials but Himself.
HYMN #277 vs 1 – 3: “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus”
When he was only 33 the tide of popular opinion turned against
him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His
enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross
between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only
thing he owned, the clothes on his back.
When He was dead he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a
friend.
SOLO:
“Were You There?” Rev. Robyn Plocher
Following his death his disciples hid away, in
fear for their own lives. But then, they
came out of hiding and they began to spread the story that Jesus was raised
from the dead and later that he had ascended to heaven. They proclaimed Jesus as the Christ and
Savior whose victory was not over kings and nations, but over Satan, sin and
death itself. The number of believers
grew. In a mere generation the number of
those willing to suffer persecution and
even die for the sake of their faith in Jesus included those living in
the entire Roman empire and beyond. Today, there are still those willing to
suffer imprisonment, persecution and death rather than forsake the name of
Jesus Christ. His is a kingdom of peace
and justice, of hope for the hopeless and light for those who are trapped in
the darkness of sin and death. May his
kingdom come and may his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
HYMN #308 vs 1: “Thine Be the Glory”
Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and
today He is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind’s
progress. As citizens of his kingdom it
is our joy to serve him. He has shown us
the way, in both word and example: Feed
the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick and
those in prison and welcome the stranger in your midst. We serve him gladly and praise him as king of
our lives for we know that all the armies that have ever marched, all the
navies that have ever sailed, all the parliaments that have ever sat, all the
kings that have ever reigned put together have not affected the life of mankind
on earth as powerfully as this one solitary life.
SPECIAL MUSIC: “Total
Praise” Choir
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