Peace and Global Witness Offering

“A Season of Peace” begins September 1 and concludes October 6, World Communion Sunday. The Peace and Global Witness Offering (previously the Peacemaking Offering) will be collected during that time. This year is the 40th anniversary of this offering, which was approved by the 192nd General Assembly in 1980.

Whenever the church gathers for worship, we are assured of Christ’s peace. We celebrate that we are connected, we are loved, and we are not alone. Through participation in the Peace and Global Witness Offering, our congregation is extending Christ’s peace throughout our community and our world. Peace begins with each of us.

Our participation in the Peace and Global Witness Offering provides funds for peacemaking programs locally and in the wider world. Those programs range from working to eliminate all forms of human trafficking to supporting the work of a mission co-worker.

Twenty-five percent of the total St. Mark collects is retained for local use, which goes to the Presbyterian Children’s Home and Services and St. John Episcopal Peace Meal. Use the special envelope in your September packet or simply mark your check for the Peace and Global Witness Offering. Thank you for your generosity.

Peace Offering: PCHAS

 Peace and Global Witness Offering

A gift to the Peace & Global Witness Offering (celebrating its 40th anniversary) enables the church to promote the Peace of Christ by addressing systems of conflict and injustice across the world. Individual congregations retain 25% of this Offering, serving issues within their community. The Presbyterian Mission Agency utilizes their portion of funding to advocate for peace and justice in cultures of violence, including our own, through collaborative projects of education and Christian witness.

Here in St. Louis a portion of St. Mark’s offering goes to Presbyterian Children’s Homes and Services, which offers a continuum of care for youth—transitional living services for youth leaving foster care, mentoring, and intensive in-home care for families in crisis. Annually over 2,000 clients are served. Give generously to assist with this work.

How PCHAS helped…

Most fathers are bound by a commitment to do the best they can for their children. Serving families and fathers, like Samuel, is what Presbyterian Children’s Homes and Services does.

Samuel was thrust back into parenting after his adult daughter and her husband were killed in a car accident. The couple left behind two devastated children. With no other options, Samuel immediately became a father to his orphaned grandsons. He was forced to deal with the trauma of losing a child and raising two young boys simultaneously.

This difficult transition proved to be more than Samuel believed he could handle. He knew he needed help and contacted PCHAS. Samuel focused on learning new parenting skills and developed the tools he needed to help his grandsons heal from their trauma. Today, Samuel and his children are thriving!

St Mark is proud to support PCHAS by sharing a portion of the Peace and Global Witness Offering.

Photo by Andre Ouellet on Unsplash

PEACE AND GLOBAL WITNESS OFFERING

“A Season of Peace” begins September 2/3 and completes October 1, World Communion Sunday. The Peace and Global Witness Offering (previously the Peacemaking Offering) will be collected during that time. The words of Isaiah 55 convey a profound message to us during A Season of Peace: 

For you shall go out in joy, and be led forth in peace.

 Go out in joy. Be led forth in peace. We are in desperate need of joyful and brave people who are willing to ask the hard questions and live the difficult solutions that make peace possible. Through the Peace & Global Witness Offering, we connect with each other, as the Church, together, to confront systems of injustice and promote reconciliation in places around the world and right here at home. As Rev. Brenda Booth reminded us in her sermon on August 20, each of us is part of an answer to the world’s problems. We each play a role. 

Our participation in the Peace and Global Witness Offering provides funds for those programs. St. Mark retains 25% of the total for local use, which has historically gone to the Presbyterian Children’s Home and Services and St. Martin Peace Meal. Use the special envelope in your September packet or simply mark your check for the Peace and Global Witness Offering. Thank you for your generosity.

May Peace Prevail

Before you reach the marketplace called Kilaeua, there is an Episcopal Church which blends the Hawaiian and mainland cultures in its service and in the rich flora around its building. Kathy (first spouse) and our friends Gail and Karen attended there in  2015 and felt the blessing of cultural acceptance in the people and the building. I am still wearing a flowered short-sleeved shirt I bought in their Thrift Shop.

Victoria and I stopped and prayed in the same open sanctuary on Thursday and walked the labyrinth in the back that led to the Peace Pole at its center.

I was most struck by the stained glass window near the front of the sanctuary portraying Christ in the open- handed beckoning gesture to the world, as if in timely supplication to the war-torn continent.  Every Christ portrayal seems to have its own cultural bias, and this one seemed a little East European to me with it fair skin and high forehead.

 

 

 

In contrast, we saw another peacemaker portrayed below with his fellow tribesman: King Kamehameha. This king conquered the warring tribes with steel weapons he purchased from the Europeans.  According to the dedication accompanying the council painting below, King K dedicated his life to bringing peace to the islands by conquest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Could this also be what Vladimir Putin had in mind in uniting the peoples of Eastern Europe, one country at a time? Or does he have more of “Lebensraum” mentality like his predecessor, Adolf Hitler, who was not satisfied with assimilating the German-speaking lands, but advanced eastward and southward into Europe to bring all Aryan peoples together?

Peace in our time is more likely to come from the beckoning Christ than the uncompromising warrior, but, again, Christ said his kingdom was not of this world. Perhaps it is something we find at the end of a labyrinth.

 

Re-printed with permission of the author Bill Tucker who originally published this on his personal blog https://wtucker.edublogs.org/category/spiritual/page/4/

Prince of Peace Isaiah 9:2-6

 

Prince of Peace

Isaiah 9:2-6Modern English Version (MEV)

2 The people who walked in darkness
    have seen a great light;
those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death,
    upon them the light has shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation
    and increased the joy;
they rejoice before You
    according to the joy of harvest
and as men rejoice
    when they divide the spoil.
4 For You have broken the yoke of his burden
    and the bar of his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor
    as in the day of Midian’s defeat.
5 For all the sandals of the tramping warriors
    and all the garments rolled in blood
    shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For unto us a child is born,
    unto us a son is given,
    and the government shall be upon his shoulder.
And his name shall be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 11: 1-10

 

Peaceable Kingdom 

The Branch From Jesse

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
    from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and of might,
    the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—
3 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
    or decide by what he hears with his ears;
4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
    with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
    with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be his belt
    and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling[a] together;
    and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
    and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
9 They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. 

By Edward Hicks - National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., online collection, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=175611

Prayers for Advent-Peace

 

Photos from St. Mark's Live nativity

O God, we wait upon you to lead us from death to life, from falsehood to truth.  Lead us from
despair to hope, from fear to trust.  Lead us from hate to love, from unrest to peace.  Let your promise of peace fill our hearts and the world.  May we live into your expectation that our lives will demonstrate your teachings, from the prophets to the present.  

                                                                                                                         

Living God, forgive us, that in music in the stores and the jingles in the air, we do not hear the songs of angels; that in the hustles and bustle of every day and every one, we do not see the child standing alone in tears, the family struggling for existence, the outcasts pushed further away from hope; that in the excess of the season, we do not find peace, hope, or joy. Pour your mercy upon us, O God, and finish what you have started in us.  As we share in your grace, may we also share in the work of the gospel, begun in the birth of Jesus. Amen

Worship for Dec. 6

December 6, 2020 

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

 10:00 am Virtual Service

ORDER OF WORSHIP

 CENTERING PRAYER

Mighty God, send your Holy Spirit to speak hope, joy, and comfort, that the good news of this age may be proclaimed through your Word and our actions. Amen.

PRELUDE     Watchman Tell Us of the Night     Sobaje 

WELCOME and ANNOUNCEMENTS 

 

ADVENT LIGHTING LITURGY (The Lesh Family)

We light these candles of HOPE and JOY as a sign of the coming light of Christ. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; 

let all creation sing for joy at the coming of the Lord. 

The Lord of hosts is coming to restore us; God’s face will shine, and we will be saved. Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other. Light dawns for the righteous, and joy to the upright in heart. 

Rejoice in the Lord! Give thanks to God’s holy name. 

† HYMN     “Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates”      Hymnal #93

 

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

 

Faithful God, we confess we do not lead holy lives. We suffer from impatience, apathy, and greed; we are not at peace. We repent of these offenses and turn to you in love. Forgive our iniquity, and pardon our sins that we may walk in righteousness to the glory of your name. (Silent Confession)

ASSURANCE OF GRACE 

† SHARING THE PEACE OF CHRIST The peace of Christ be with you. And also with you. 

SCRIPTURE     Isaiah 40:1-11 

SERMON     “Comfort and Joy”      Rev. Dr. Dave Burgess 

 

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH – WCF SC Q1

 

Q. What is our chief end?

A. Our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy God forever.

OFFERING 

SPECIAL MUSIC      Adeste Fidelis/ Holly and the Ivy      Traditional Carols

 John Lesh, Viola 

† THE DOXOLOGY 

SACRAMENT OF THE LORD’S SUPPER 

Invitation to the Table 

Great Prayer of Thanksgiving and the Lord’s Prayer 

Words of Institution 

Sharing of the Bread & Cup 

Prayer after Communion 

† HYMN     “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”      Hymnal #88

 

† CHARGE AND BLESSING 

† BENEDICTION RESPONSE      "Peace On the Earth”      (Sussex Carol) 

POSTLUDE      Verset Temps de Noel      Guittard 

†You are invited to stand, as you are able.