NOVEMBER 18TH TO NOVEMBER 24TH
• TOM CLINE WILL HOLD SERVICES TODAY •
Thank you Tom.
TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
COLOR: GREEN
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SCRIPTURE READINGS:
1 SAMUEL 1:4-20
† New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
† Hannah was a great woman. She was mother
of Samuel, one of Israel’s outstanding prophets.
Had it not been for her agony and the adversity
in her life, the birth of her first child would soon
have been forgotten. But her years of agony
and her tears of distress make the birth of her
son Samuel an incident to be remembered.
Hannah was barren woman for many years. Her
husband had two wives. She prays for a child
while the other wife despises her. Hannah's
story and song sets the stage not simply for a
birth, but for the birth of an age of prophets
and kings.
† Though beloved by her husband, Hannah is
taunted by his other wife for her barrenness.
This was the cultural norm. But as we see in
so many narratives involving the God of Israel,
barrenness is no barrier, but often the pathway
to blessing for generations to come.
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4 Every time the day came for Elkanah to offer a
sacrifice, he would give a share of the meat to
his wife Peninnah. He would also give a share to
each of her sons and daughters.
5 But he would give two shares of meat to Hannah.
That's because he loved her. He also gave her
two shares because the Lord had kept her from
having children.
6 Peninnah teased Hannah to make her angry.
She did it because the Lord had kept Hannah
from having children.
7 Peninnah teased Hannah year after year. Every
time Hannah would go up to the house of the
Lord, Elkanah's other wife would tease her. She
would keep doing it until Hannah cried and
wouldn't eat.
8 Her husband Elkanah would speak to her. He
would say, "Hannah, why are you crying? Why
don't you eat? Why are you so angry and
unhappy? Don't I mean more to you than ten
sons?"
9 One time when they had finished eating and
drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. The priest
Eli was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the
Lord's house.
10 Hannah was very bitter. She sobbed and
sobbed.
11 She made a promise to him. She said, "Lord,
you rule over all. Please see how I'm suffering!
Show concern for me! Don't forget about me!
Please give me a son! If you do, I'll give him
back to you. Then he will serve you all the days
of his life. He'll never use a razor on his head.
He'll never cut his hair."
12 As Hannah kept on praying to the Lord, Eli
watched her lips.
moving. But she wasn't making a sound.
Eli thought Hannah was drunk.
14 He said to her, "How long will you keep on
getting drunk? Get rid of your wine."
15 "That's not true, sir," Hannah replied. "I'm a
woman who is deeply troubled. I haven't been
drinking wine or beer. I was telling the Lord all
of my troubles.
16 Don't think of me as an evil woman. I've been
praying here because I'm very sad.
My pain is so great."
17 Eli answered, "Go in peace. May the God of
Israel give you what you have asked him for."
18 She said, "May you be pleased with me."
Then she left and had something to eat. Her
face wasn't sad anymore.
19 Early the next morning Elkanah and his
family got up. They worshiped the Lord. Then
they went back to their home in Ramah.
Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah. And the
Lord showed concern for her.
20 After some time, Hannah became pregnant.
She had a baby boy. She said, "I asked the Lord
for him." So she named him Samuel.
1 SAMUEL 2:1-10 OR PSALM 113
† New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
This is the Song of Hannah using the tune
of Morning Song —
1 Then Hannah prayed. She said,
"The Lord has filled my heart with joy.
I can laugh at my enemies.
I'm so glad he saved me.
2 "There isn't anyone holy like the Lord.
There isn't anyone except him.
There isn't any Rock like our God.
3 "Don't keep talking so proudly.
Don't let your mouth say such proud things.
The Lord is a God who knows everything.
He judges everything people do.
4 "The bows of great heroes are broken.
But those who trip and fall are made
strong.
5 Those who used to be full have to work for
food.
But those who used to be hungry aren't
hungry anymore.
The woman who couldn't have children has
seven of them now.
But the woman who has had many
children is sad because hers have died.
6 "The Lord causes people to die. He also
gives people life.
He brings people down to the grave. He
also brings people up.
7 The Lord makes people poor. He also
makes people rich.
He brings people down. He also lifts
people up.
8 He raises poor people up from the trash pile.
He lifts needy people out of the ashes.
He lets them sit with princes.
He gives them places of honor.
"The foundations of the earth belong to the
Lord.
On them he has set the world.
9 He guards the paths of those who are faithful
to him.
But evil people will lie silent in their dark
graves.
"People don't win just because they are strong.
10 Those who oppose the Lord will be totally
destroyed.
He will thunder against them from heaven.
He will judge the earth from one end to the
other.
"He will give power to his king.
He will give honor to his anointed one."
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PSALM 113 (UMH 834)
† New King James Version
THE MAJESTY AND CONDESCENSION OF GOD
1 Praise the LORD!
Praise, O servants of the LORD,
Praise the name of the LORD!
2 Blessed be the name of the LORD
From this time forth and forevermore!
3 From the rising of the sun to its going down
The LORD’s name is to be praised.
4 The LORD is high above all nations,
His glory above the heavens.
5 Who is like the LORD our God,
Who dwells on high,
6 Who humbles Himself to behold
The things that are in the heavens
and in the earth?
7 He raises the poor out of the dust,
And lifts the needy out of the ash heap,
8 That He may seat him with princes—
With the princes of His people.
9 He grants the barren woman a home,
Like a joyful mother of children.
Praise the LORD!
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HEBREWS 10:11-14 (15-18) 19-25
† New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
Christ's self-offering in obedience to God
throughout his life in the face of suffering and
death enables us to appear before God without
shame. It also emboldens us to offer ourselves
as witnesses to God's salvation through love
and good deeds now and until the end of an age.
Christ's finished work is the end of all further
sacrifices for sin. By doing the will of God
throughout his life and in his death, Christ has
become the high priest of a new covenant
between God and humanity in which God
"breaks the power of cancelled sin and sets the
prisoner free," making us worthy to appear
before God boldly.
11 Day after day every priest stands and does his
special duties. He offers the same sacrifices
again and again. But they can never take away
sins.
12 Jesus our priest offered one sacrifice for sins
for all time. Then he sat down at the right hand
of God.
13 Since that time, he waits for his enemies to be
put under his control.
14 By that one sacrifice he has made perfect
forever those who are being made holy.
15 The Holy Spirit also gives witness to us about
this. First he says,
16 "This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts.
I will write my laws on their minds."
—(Jeremiah 31:33)
17 Then he adds,
"I will not remember their sins anymore.
I will not remember the evil things they have
done." —(Jeremiah 31:34)
18 Where those have been forgiven, there is no
longer any offering for sin.
A WARNING TO REMAIN FAITHFUL
19 Brothers and sisters, we are not afraid to enter
the Most Holy Room. We enter boldly because of
the blood of Jesus.
20 His way is new because he lives. It has been
opened for us through the curtain. I'm talking
about his body.
21 We also have a great priest over the house
of God.
22 So let us come near to God with an honest and
true heart. Let us come near with a faith that is
sure and strong. Our hearts have been sprinkled.
Our minds have been cleansed from a sense of
guilt. Our bodies have been washed with pure
water.
23 Let us hold firmly to the hope we claim to have.
The One who promised is faithful.
24 Let us consider how we can stir up one another
to love. Let us help one another to do good works.
25 Let us not give up meeting together. Some are
in the habit of doing this. Instead, let us cheer each
other up with words of hope. Let us do it all the
more as you see the day coming when Christ will
return.
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MARK 13:1-8
† New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
The disciples express their awe at the size of the
renovated temple campus. Jesus declares it will
all be destroyed, but that his disciples should
live fearlessly and ignore all claimants to the
messiahship during those days.
Nothing that seems established will finally stand.
Not the temple (verse 2), nor nations (verses 7-8),
nor the land (verse 8) nor the sky (verse 8) can
be considered stable. Everything is or will be
shaken. And the shaking itself, Jesus warns, is
just birth pangs (verse 8), and just the beginning
of those at that.
SIGNS OF THE END
1 Jesus was leaving the temple. One of his
disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher! What
huge stones! What wonderful buildings!"
asked. "Not one stone here will be left on top
of another. Every stone will be thrown down."
3 Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives,
Andrew asked him a question in private.
happen? And what will be the sign that they are
all about to come true?"
5 Jesus said to them, "Keep watch! Be careful
that no one fools you.
6 Many will come in my name. They will claim,
'I am he.' They will fool many people.
7 "You will hear about wars. You will also hear
people talking about future wars. Don't be
alarmed. Those things must happen. But the
end still isn't here.
8 Nation will fight against nation. Kingdom will
fight against kingdom. There will be earthquakes
in many places. People will go hungry. All of
those things are the beginning of birth pains.
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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21ST
DORCAS - RUTH CIRCLE MEETS IN ADAIR
AT 1:30 P.M.
ESTHER CIRCLE WILL MEET AT 7 P.M.
WITH HOSTESS, LOLA PETERSON.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22ND —
THANKSGIVING DAY.
OFFICE WILL BE CLOSED.
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• In September 1620, a small ship called the
Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102
passengers —
a new home where could freely practice their faith
and others who were lured by the promise of
prosperity and land ownership in the New World.
days, they dropped the ship's anchor near the tip
of Cape Cod, far north of their planned, intended
destination at the mouth of the Hudson River.
In one months time, the Mayflower crossed
Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they
are now commonly known, began the work of
establishing a village at Plymouth.
• Pilgrims and Puritans who emigrated from
England in the 1620s and 1630s carried along
an old tradition of Days of Fasting and Days of
Thanksgiving.
The 1621 Plymouth thanksgiving and feast was
prompted by a good harvest. Our holiday stems
from that feast held in the autumn of 1621 by
Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians.
• In later years, religious Thanksgiving services
were declared by civil leaders such as Governor
Bradford who planned a thanksgiving celebration
in 1623. This harvest festival did not become a
regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.
Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly
by church leaders in New England up until 1682.
During the revolutionary period, political prestige
and influence affected the issuance of emerging
Thanksgiving proclamations. Various singular
proclamations were made by royal governors,
John Hancock, General George Washington, and
the Continental Congress, each giving thanks to
God for events favorable to the colonies cause
of independence. President George Washington
proclaimed the first nation-wide thanksgiving
celebration in America to be marked November
26, 1789, "as a day of thanksgiving and prayer
observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts
the many and significant favors of Almighty God".
(Spain insists Thanksgiving was first celebrated
by a group of Spanish explorers in Texas, on
September 8, 1565.) It still seems our own
American holiday's true origin was that New
England Calvinist Thanksgiving at Plymouth.
• In 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, President
Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a regular national
Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.
Thanksgiving Day, is currently celebrated on the
fourth Thursday in November by federal
legislation enacted in 1941.
—Scholastic, Wikipedia, and History.com
LETTER FROM A PILGRIM —
Dearest Aunt Constance,
Pray forgive me for being so long between letters.
After the great sickness it seemed that there was
little good to write about. By the time spring
arrived, nearly half of our number had died. Twas
truly a mournful time. Since then we have all
continued to build houses and we have planted
our gardens and many acres of our English corn.
In time, I think we may come to prosper here. We
have even begun to grow a curious corn that we
call Indian Corn or Turkey Wheat.
How we learned to grow this Indian corn is most
unexpected. Last spring a tall Indian walked into
our town, causing great alarm. To our complete
astonishment, he spoke in our tongue, saying
“Welcome Englishmen.” He told us his name was
Samoset and that he had learned English from
fishermen to the north of here.
Samoset returned the next day with Tisquantum,
whose English was as fine as yours and mine.
Tisquantum told us how his people used to live
where we now live, but that a few years before we
arrived a plague had come and wiped out the
entire town. He has been a great blessing to us,
showing us how to grow Indian Corn in mounds.
He even told us to put herring fish in the ground
to make the corn grow better. It works as well as
using manure and our harvest was quite fine.
Tisquantum also showed us how to fish and the
best places to hunt. I fear that we would not have
survived here were it not for help of the Indian
Tisquantum, and many others.
To celebrate our first harvest our Governor,
Master Bradford, called for a celebration. Four
men went hunting wild fowl and brought back
enough geese, ducks and other birds to last
nearly a week!
practiced shooting their muskets. The Indians
came amongst us as well, among them was
their greatest King Massasoit and more than 90
other men! I was most frightened at first, but
they stayed for three days and we entertained
and feasted with them. And they went out and
brought us back five deer. While they were here
I even saw some of their children! One boy, my
father says he thinks the heard his name is
Po-met-a-comet, threw a ball to me. Of course
he could not speak English and I could not
speak the Indian tongue.
And now we have a new ship in the harbor! It is
wonderful that we have new folk to settle here,
but I fear our harvest, which seems plentiful
enough, will not be enough for all of us and the
newcomers. Father says that we will fill this new
ship full of timber and furs and send it back to
England. Perhaps on the next ship they will send
over cows!
Dearest Aunt Constance, I truly hope that you
will come to join us one day in New Plimoth.
I pray that soon we will be a thriving town.
Your loving niece,
Lizzy
— Scholastic
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD —
OFFICE WILL BE CLOSED TODAY.
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FUTURE FOCUS —
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25TH —
Hanging of the Greens after services.
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Potluck Dinner in Casey U.M.C. after services.
This will be provided by all of Adair's & Casey's
Women's Circles.
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Christmas Malls will be open December 8th and
December 15th≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
God Bless and Keep You,
Pastor Melodee
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