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 Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church 

A warm welcome to each worshipper today. We celebrate you and offer you our friendship and love. We are a congregation of people who seek to grow spiritually, to become more like Christ in His compassion and acceptance of everyone while growing more aware of what it really means to be Christians today. 

 
As a Reconciling Congregation, EPUMC affirms the sacred worth of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities and welcomes them into full participation in the fellowship, membership, ministries, and leadership of the congregation. 

  

  

  

943 Palmer Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12309 / 518-374-4306 epumc943@gmail.com / www.easternparkway.org 

 
 
 
 

Order of Worship 

June 12, 2022 

10:00 a.m. 

*You are invited to rise in body or spirit. 

  

Prelude  

 
Greeting and Announcements 

 
Mission Statement: 

We are a faith community striving to be, to nurture, and to send forth disciples of Jesus Christ. 

  

Call to Worship:  

To you, O people, Wisdom calls. 

She calls out to each of us, beckoning us: 

to experience peace in Christ, 

to discover the truth of life, 

to know true love as it is poured into our hearts. 

Wisdom calls. 

As we gather this day, let us answer her call 

as we celebrate faith in the One who leads us into life. 

Jamie D. Greening 

 

*Hymn               For the Beauty of the Earth                  #92, v 1-4  

              

Prayer of Confession: 

God of infinite mercy, when we neglect the humbleness of knowing our place in this world, forgive us; when we trade your peace and calls for unity for conflict and violence, forgive us; when we forsake our good character, to join those who scoff at your ways, forgive us; when we ignore your truth, and turn away from your wisdom, forgive us. Forgive us and heal us, Lord, that we may abide in your grace and your love forever. Amen. 

  

Assurance: 

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God fills our souls with grace and wisdom. It is from this grace that we have hope. It is from this wisdom that we know God’s love. It is from the living God that we find life and forgiveness. 

 
Scripture Reading           Romans 5: 1-5 

Results of Justification 

5 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access[b] to this grace in which we stand, and we[c] boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we[d] also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 

  

Sermon                                  Results 

 

Second, this sermon is brought to you, in part, by a typo. 

As I was editing the bulletin, I accidentally left a G off of the title of the last hymn, and when I spotted it, what I read was “Come, Thou Almighty Kin”. In reference to the Divine. 

Just let that sink in for a minute. That filled me with joy to read. What a different image that is for God. And there’s nothing at all wrong with the words as printed in our corrected bulletin, “king” is an image for God we know and love, one of a Creator who is in charge of everything, who reigns over all, to whom we all answer. If God is the King, then it means that no other person or institution is...and I’ll say more about that later. 

But, “Come, Thou Almighty Kin.” God is our powerful family, who we are inviting into this space. We share DNA with the Divine. We are made of the same celestial majesty, the same star stuff. When God made people God looked at the Divine self and made us in that image. We all reflect that Divine Image. And if that’s what we all come from, then it’s something we are all capable of restoring in ourselves if we pay a little more attention to our actions. 

That’s also where Paul directs our attention in the short passage I picked for this morning’s scripture reading. This reading comes from Paul’s letter to the community he established in Rome, the most powerful city of his day. It’s the longest of all the letters we still have of Paul’s, and Paul lays out so much of his straight-up theology in Romans that some preachers nickname Romans “The Gospel According to Paul.” It’s an excellent place to turn to for advice. In these five verses, Paul suggests that what sets us all apart as people who love Jesus and claim the title of “Christian” is something other than what many of us are inclined to think, especially in these modern times. Paul suggests what makes you a Christian isn’t your body in a pew on Sunday, nor your dollars in the offering plate, nor whomever you vote for, nor your churchy friends, nor your beliefs about Jesus, nor even your love. Paul suggests that what sets us apart as the living Jesus Movement is whether what we do in the name of God has any results. Or, as John Wesley would have said, do we bear fruit? 

Though this isn’t something we talk about all the time at church, this idea that good, fruitful results should come from your faith also isn’t a foreign one to Christian people. About a decade ago, I listened to one of my friends preach in Rochester, and he started his sermon with this joke: 

Once upon a time, a Christian minister passed away from this life to life eternal after many years of loyal service to his church. He found himself in heaven. But, he was up in the balcony of heaven. A neighbor of his, a taxi driver, passed around the same time the preacher did, and the preacher saw him in a box seat, in a place of honor, right next to Jesus himself. 

Feeling slighted, the preacher found St. Peter right away, and demanded an explanation. Why did he get stuck in the cheap seats in heaven? Surely his faith was far, far greater than that of the taxi driver who never even went to church. St. Peter was happy to answer the preacher’s question: 

“Bro, up here we go by results. When you preached, people slept. When he drove, people prayed.” 

It’s a joke, and no, I don’t really believe there’s good and bad seats in heaven. Jesus taught us that whatever we forgive on earth is forgiven in heaven, whatever we retain on earth is retained in heaven. In other words, we’ve done what we’ve done, our actions have consequences that ripple out for a long time, and whoever we decide to be in this life, Jesus will show us in a mirror someday in heaven. Will we like what we see? 

Much more importantly, if affliction leads to endurance, and endurance leads to character, and character leads to hope, and hope leads to love, just like Paul told his church in Rome, then what afflictions are we bearing, and helping one another bear, in this world that are producing love? 

And by our faithful action, are we welcoming our Almighty Kin into this space? Are we making one another feel like kin to the Divine? Are we making seats at the dinner table for everyone? 

I’m spending most of this weekend taking a close look at these questions of inclusion, taking stock of where I am, and thinking about what kind of Church I’d like my kids to grow up in. Then I hope to teach some of y’all about that Church. 

Yesterday I attended a gathering at the Burnt Hills UMC, where my friends Doug and Holly are the pastors, and on July 1 my friend Amy will be stepping into the pulpit. My friend JJ, a 25 year old seminary graduate headed on for doctoral studies, was the keynote speaker. The topic of our gathering was “The Church of Tomorrow, Today”. We were talking about this odd moment in history that the UMC occupies right now, and how we can adapt, change, and accommodate to welcome in those who have never felt like the kin of God in our churches. The most obvious sin of exclusion we focused on this weekend was homophobia and transphobia. Our dear JJ has grown up in the UMC, in this conference, and I’ve watched him grow into his calling. But those in authority at this time will not ordain him, nor will they marry him to the person he loves, because he’s gay. We mourn this injustice, and rather than passively deal with it, we actively confront what got us to this place and how we get out of it. 

What got the Church to this point of exclusion is a very painful reality that a lot of our congregations are only starting to face, because it’s very uncomfortable for the majority culture in most of our churches. Jesus, our Savior, reached out his hands as far as he could to find all the people who’d been left our of the synagogues of his day—the sick, the poor, the women, the widows, the children, the tax collectors, the sex workers, the disabled, and the neuroatypical. The earliest generations of communities that sprang up from his influence met in the homes of believers, were run by women, and welcomed everyone in as neighbors.  

But then Christianity grew, and transformed from a revolutionary movement to the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire. The house churches closed and the stone cathedrals opened. Then women were told to get in the back, cover their heads, and stop talking. Those who had the most power in society assumed control of the Church, and thus the Church, like life, became centered around wealthy white people. This disenfranchised people one by one—the poor, the people of color, the women, the disabled, the immigrant, children, the queer or trans...so many of the people Jesus died to bring out of the margins in the first place. 

I know that’s very hard to hear, and a total bummer on a Sunday morning. But I promise there’s hope. JJ posed a question yesterday. One I invite you to think about this week, and one that I have an answer for. Fill in the blank: I want to serve a Church that___. 

Maybe you’re 100% content with the Church exactly as it is, but knowing your hearts, I’m guessing a lot of you are aching like I am to see a Church that bears far more fruits of love, that makes all people feel like the kin of God and not just rich, white, cishetero, neurotypical, able-bodied men.  

Here’s my answer for you, one that hits my heart very deep: I want to serve a Church that sincerely welcomes my oldest child, Daniel, in his autistic glory. I wish I could say that every church I’ve served has been able to do this, but sadly that just isn’t true. We’ve had some very hard experiences trying to incorporate Daniel into Mommy’s ministry, including yesterday at Burnt Hills. I want to visit any congregation anywhere and know that no one will be hostile toward him without having to ask the pastor some hard questions first, which is what I have to do now to protect him. No “politely” pointing to the door when he starts stimming, no shushing when he starts scripting his favorite vacuum commercial, no expectations that he will stay quiet and motionless when his wiring makes him loud and proud. I want him to be his spinny, flappy, bouncy, skippy, giggly self.  

I want that for all of you. I want you to be so yourselves here that other people come here inspired to be themselves, too. I want us to afflict ourselves with the hard truths of an unjust Church in an unjust world so that all the people we’ve left out don’t have to suffer alone anymore. I want us to endure until we truly welcome all. I want us to have the character of an inclusive Christ. I want us to inspire hope for the Kingdom of God on earth, and I want us to radiate the love that comes from being the family of God. 

Come, thou Almighty Kin. 

Amen. 

 
 

*Hymn                         Come, O Holy Spirit                          #2124 

 
 

Offering 

Offertory  

 

*Doxology                                                                                                     #94 

*Prayer of dedication             

  

Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer 

 

Holy and Gracious God 
We give you thanks for the gift of life 
for the gift of your Son 
for the gift of the Holy Spirit 
 
Lead us through the trials 
the suffering and sorrow 
the challenges and struggles 
the tired times and dark places 
 
Be with those who weep 
or cannot sleep 
who have no peace 
who seek release 
 
Lead us 
with grace 
with love 
with peace 
 
Fill us 
with hope 
with patience 
with stamina 
 
Transform us 
in your image 
in your Son 
in your Name 
 
Transform us 
to grow 
to understand 
to see 
 
Transform us 
that we 
can be 
made whole 
 
And in wholeness 
may we 
be 
the hands and heart of Christ. 
 
Amen. 

— written by Terri (2009) and posted on the RevGalBlogPals website.   

Our Father, Mother, Creator God, 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 trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen. 

 

*Hymn                   Come, Thou Almighty King             #61, v 1, 3, 4 

 
Benediction 

 
Postlude  

 
 

Staff 

Natalie Bowerman Pastor 

Betsy Lehmann Music Director 

Joe White Custodian 

Cassandra Brown Nursery Attendant