Welcome/Call to Worship
Good morning! I’m Pastor Ashley Dargai To those here in the chapel and those joining us online: we are so glad you’re here!
This morning, we will sing songs of worship, pray together, hear from scripture and one another, as we move toward the pinnacle of our service: the table of our Lord, where we will take the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of our most Gracious Host, Jesus. The purpose of our time together each Sunday is to bring our hearts closer to the heart of God, so I invite you to participate in as much or as little in our prepared liturgy as your spirit is willing.
We welcome all sounds and smells from the youngest to the oldest among us. For our young ones, there is a coloring page and crayons for children to participate in worship as well as a designated area with toys in the back for families of little ones who need to move around and play to worship God. We believe that every age offers a unique perspective of the image of God, and we know that the energy and spirit of children can be different than adults and we consider that reality a gift.
There are visitor cards in the pew in front of you—if you arrived during the pandemic or later, of if you have moved and have not updated your info with the church, please fill it out and drop it in the offering plate when it goes by later in worship.
A couple of announcements before we begin:
Sunday School offerings
Our Cabinet Retreat was rescheduled to January 29, from 9-12 on Zoom.
On February 6th, we will have Community Care Sunday. One of the unseen ministries of Azle Christian Church is caring for the transient neighbors who knock on our door. One simple way to care for them is through small care packages that contain toiletries and snacks. On Community Care Sunday, we will assemble these care packs immediately following service to be available for distribution as needed. We invite you to bring travel size toiletries in the coming weeks leading up to that Sunday. A collection point will be set-up by the sanctuary.
To keep up with all the life we live together here at Azle Christian Church, make sure you follow us on Facebook and subscribe to our weekly e-blast and monthly newsletter. To sign up for the eblast and newsletter, go to our website, azlechristianchurch.org, and subscribe. There is also a live calendar on our website where you can see what we have going on each month. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok, both at @azlechristianchurch.
We continue our Epiphany series today: Holy, Wholly, Holey, as we return home to Nazareth with Jesus for a trip to the synagogue.
Let’s pray to turn our hearts toward God for this hour.
Spirit of truth, open to us the scriptures, speaking your holy word through song, through the bread and cup, and through offering ourselves, and meet us here today in the living Christ. Amen.
Litany of Faith
One: The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple;
All: The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes;
One: The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever;
All: The ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
One: More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.
All: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
(Psalm 19:7-10, 14)
Pastoral Prayer
The Lord be with you.
We hold in prayer Eugene Wadsworth and his family as he was put on hospice this past week.
Join me in prayer.
(From Calling on God)
Wonderful Architect of culture and community,
Holy Lover of life,
We’ve come from near and far to share with those we love this special hour with you.
We marvel at your wisdom:
The way your commandments
Enlighten the eyes of the faithful;
The way you help us make the holy day a day of celebration;
The way you call us to the joyful task
Of being one particular part of your vast creation.
We marvel at how you mold each one of us
Into a unique part of your body,
And how each part has its own important role to play
In our life together.
Holy Creator of all that we cannot imagine,
We offer now our prayers of praise and thanks,
Our prayers of wonder and hope,
For all that you are doing in these days
To nourish a hopeful future for our world.
We lift them in our hearts,
And share them together in this sacred space.
O Giver of perfect law that promises to revive the soul,
Maker of those true and righteous words,
We pray that you will fill us with that Holy Spirit,
For we gather as one tiny part of the body of the risen Christ,
A beacon of the hope and light and love we claim
For this day and the days to come.
We ask it in the name of our brother and redeemer Jesus, who taught to pray…
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, the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.
Children’s Moment
In today’s story, Jesus returns home to his synagogue and reads a scripture for everyone. We don’t know if it was his favorite, but his life definitely reflects what the verses say: captives free, people healed, good news for the poor! And then he says, “Today, this is true!”
What if we thought about scripture as “today! This is true!” Sometimes it’s hard for us to think about the future because it’s so big and unknown! And sometimes we have things from the past that are hard. But we can think about today! What we’re going to eat, what we’re going to play, if we’re gonna take a nap after church. And we can also think about what God is saying to and through us today!
Let’s pray:
God, may your word come alive in us anew every day. Amen.
Sermon
Luke 4:14-21
14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16 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, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 “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 let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 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. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
I have a hunger for history lessons about Azle Christian Church. When COVID first came into our collective consciousness, I immediately thought, “Hey, wait a second…this won’t be the first pandemic this church has weathered. They were kicking during the Flu Pandemic of 1918.” I have yet to find any stories or records on what the church did during that time, but for whatever reason, just knowing this was not the church’s first pandemic brought me comfort.
Right now on TikTok, we’re doing a series of videos from Scottie, our unofficial church historian, where she tells all sorts of stories of life at ACC. How this church came to be, their hand in the first library in Azle, how we shared ministers with the Methodist church for awhile, how women were running the church long before a woman pastored here for the first time.
Anytime one of you has the story behind a tree or a table or the chapel, I eat it up, savoring every bite, dreaming of its taste for days afterward. You all give voice to the stories that these walls would tell if they could.
I think I love these stories so much because there’s a rootedness to them. It helps for my short life to find something to hold onto. Fun fact, not one member of this church today was alive when the church began. Some are related to founding members, but the fact remains that this dynamic entity known as Azle Christian Church has been around longer than anyone living on this earth. ACC turns 139 years old this year. Isn’t that something? Compared to some churches in the Northeast and especially in Europe and Africa, it’s a young church, I know. But still! There is a beautiful history whose ivy-like arms run down the generations saying, “Here is a place for you. What new life will you sprout up today?”
If the walls could talk here, in this sanctuary, in the chapel, what might they say? What have they borne witness to? Do you think they have opinions about church music? Do you think they appreciate the candle-lighting on Christmas Eve or do they look warily upon all that fire? How many sermons have they listened to? How many times have they heard, “This is my body, given for you. This is my blood, a sign of the new covenant. Do this in remembrance of me.” How many people have leaned on them for support as they listened to a friend pour their heart out? Do you think they beam with pride when we hang greens and banners on them for Advent? Do they feel bare when they’re stripped down for Lent? What scriptures do these walls know by heart?
I wonder if the synagogue walls where Jesus read this scripture had stories like ours. Did those walls have memories of little boys running before service to get one more mad dash in before the readings began? Did they lean in a little closer as the prayers started, hoping to catch a little holy brilliance? How many times had they heard this scripture from Isaiah before? Was it like new every time? Did they know that this particular day when Jesus read it would be distinct?
This is a classic story of hometown boy grows up and makes his family proud. Jesus had been teaching and healing and had come home to visit. I’m sure all the men whose sons grew up with Jesus were excited to see him. His family members probably had big silly grins on their faces having Jesus home.
On this day, he got up to read a scroll, leaning over a table to open it up completely and read an old passage, probably familiar to all:
“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 let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
We know that this would become the basis of his ministry—his mission statement, if you will. He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and said, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
This not the end of the story, but it’s where we end it today.
I wonder if these old words rolled off his tongue in the way half-memorized passages do. Did the assembly who had heard of his wonder-working power hear this text and think, “Yes, that is exactly what you’re doing, Jesus! Do it here now, too!”
Jesus’ ministry, what would decades later become known as Christianity, was an outgrowth of his devotion to Judaism. Everything he did was in the bosom of Judaism, and we see that here in the text he read. Isaiah is a convoluted book that details all the angst of what would become of Israel in the midst of Assyrian invasion and exile. In the face of inescapable terror and existential doom, the prophet Isaiah and his students penned these words.
And instead of writing a shiny new mission statement with trendy language or flashy buzzwords, setting himself apart from the ancient tradition of his upbringing, Jesus made the old words of tradition his own. The Word became flesh and made his home among us, or as The Message translation says: The Word moved into the neighborhood. He does not produce a new garment, but makes a stitch into a well-worn, intricate tapestry of faith.
Scholars are mixed on whether or not this really happened—is it Jesus shaping his mission or is the church through Luke writing their history retroactively? Either way, it is important for us to see how we owe our lives, our very faith to people of Jewish faith. It’s essential for us, especially in the hate-filled violent times we live in where synagogues are targets, to see that ours is not a triumphalist faith, a better, more sophisticated, more grace-filled version meant to replace or subvert Judaism, but rather a cousin who wears the hand-me-downs and has great familial affection for Judaism, for we all love the same God, we all have a shared commitment to grace and mercy, justice and scripture.
For those of us who are Christians, we see in this story Jesus, the logos, the logic of God, embracing these words as if to say, “The Word lives here and now. Today. And it is organic and fresh. It breathes and moves in revolutionary ways. The Word of God is neither dead nor dull—it is alive!”
When I was an English teacher, I taught Macbeth each year. It’s a dark, dark play full of anguish and violence. Like many of Shakespeare’s tragedies, the main character slowly goes mad. He ahas assassinated the good King Duncan in an effort to claim the throne, but what he does not anticipate is the prophecies the three witches have put on Macbeth’s life. This is where “double, double, toil and trouble” comes from. They have prophesied that Macbeth will himself be killed. Amidst the closing in of his fate and the guilt he carries for murdering his friends, he starts to lose his grip on reality.
Near the end of the play, Macbeth delivers a haunting monologue about the meaning of life. He says,
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
In the face of his guilt and suffering, Macbeth concludes that life is futile. It has no point. Tomorrow keeps coming, creeping in until the end of time. And the past, all our yesterdays, have just made a way for more fools to come down this pointless path. To Macbeth, life is just a shadow. It’s just a brief performance that ends too soon. It’s a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, but ultimately signifying nothing.
Of course, Macbeth has committed heinous crimes in this play. Murder, treason. He has brought most of this suffering on himself and on Scotland. He is not to be emulated or admired. That is clear from the very beginning.
But I was amazed at how refreshing this monologue was to some of my students. They would write whole essays about it, wondering if Macbeth was right. If the past is guilt-ridden and horrifying, and the future is frightening and bleak, what else is there? Where could they look? If all the world’s a stage as the Bard himself said, then does anything we do matter? Teenagers asked these questions.
I thank you for indulging this former English teacher on a trip down Shakespeare lane. Probably won’t be our last jaunt down here together. But I bring Macbeth up because this obsession with time and what it means has been around for a very long time. Today, the climate crisis is here, and it wasn’t a thing when Shakespeare walked the earth. But he had other worries. High mortality rates. Polluted water. The plague shut down his show for two seasons. Sounds familiar.
And I appreciate this interrogation of what we’re supposed to do with our lives when the past feels intangible and the future is out of reach.
These questions feel timeless even though this Scottish play has been performed many, many times over the centuries. We watched the newest version made for screen last night with Denzel Washington. It had the feel of an ancient Greek tragedy. My favorite version is still Patrick Stewart’s performance, which is set in an 1980s-esque autocracy. Alan Cummings has a creepy, tech-infused version. The Royal Shakespeare Company has put this on as a psychological thriller. And even the more classic interpretations of this play have all had their differences, playing on the subtleties of the day, the actors, the stage hands.
There are times when Macbeth’s monologue feels dramatic and hyperbolic. But there are also times that I ask these questions with him. I think of a brief candle being blown out or a shadow walking on a stage. Or a shapeless tomorrow creeping in the door.
The concept of “today” feels difficult some days. Because we hope for the past to return or we hope to return to the past, whichever it is. When things felt simpler and more straightforward. When our loved ones were still with us. When the rifts that are so pronounced now were easier to ignore then.
And tomorrow? Well, it’s unknown and uncertain. Tomorrow has felt like a fool’s errand for literally years now. Waiting for things to get better, to return to “normal,” for “real life” to resume. Someday is a seductive promise, but it’s ultimately a siren song.
In a way, our lives have felt like they’re on hold. Proverbs says that hope deferred makes the heart sick. I wonder if your heart feels sick, too.
But if we’re talking about the way language gives form to our lives, then we should also note that the word “scripture” can also be understood as “script,” a drama of the Word made flesh, words on a page brought to life by what we say and do as a people. Each time these words are read, we get to interpret them for our time today. We are the cast, the crew, the orchestra. This is our setting. How will we bring these words to life today?
Jesus says, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” as if to say, you do not have to defer your commitment to this mission for an easier time. You do not have to wait until things feel right or safe or normal. You do not have to to look back and think, “That version was the best one or the right one. If only we could go back.”
Today, it is fulfilled. Be here now. Here are the lines. This is your scene. Reimagine this drama anew.
If these walls could talk with all their knowledge of the church’s stories, I wonder if they might whisper, “This is it. This is all you have. Today.”
Amen.
Stewardship Moment
There are many ways to support and resource the ministries of Azle Christian Church: Venmo, giving online, or the offering plate. I also invite you to bring nonperishable items for our Little Free Pantry. The collection shelves for the pantry are in the Fellowship Hall right outside the kitchen.
The deacons are going to hand these plates over during our final song, starting at the front row and they just to need make their way to the back where a deacon will collect them. You can drop your offering, an “I gave online card,” or an information card.
Invitation
If you’d like to become a member of this faith community, or if you’d like to become a disciple of Jesus, please talk with me after service or sometime this week.
Benediction:
Please rise in body or spirit for our benediction, the final song, and the Doxology.
Our benediction this morning is our lines from the prophet Isaiah, reimagined by Jesus:
May the Spirit of the Lord rest upon us,
because God has anointed us
to bring good news to the poor.
May we proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
let the oppressed go free,
and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Amen.