RESOURCES FOR DISABILITY SUNDAY 2016 ------January 31, 2016

Opening Prayer

Almighty God, we give thanks to you for your love towards us. Through your love and mercy, you received the blind, the lame and others with disabilities into the ministries of Jesus Christ. Today your churches continues to use those with a disability as ambassadors proclaiming the “Good News.” We thank you, dear Lord, for this expression of your Church. Amen.

Call To Worship for Disability Sunday

Leader:Oh give thanks unto the Lord for he is good and created the disabled around the world

People: For they are fearfully and wonderfully made

Leader: Oh give thanks unto the Lord for their “gifts and graces”to be used in God’s service

People:For they are fearfully and wonderfully made

Leader: As the body of Christ, let us be intentional with full inclusion of our disabled in the mission and ministries of the church and community

People:For they are fearfully and wonderfully made

Leader: For the challenges they encounter daily, help us...the church to show more hospitality, more love and respect as we help them to feel welcomed as people of God

All: For we are all fearfully and wonderfully made....Psalms 136:1 and 139:14

Prayers of the People

Merciful Lord, who in your works of creation, formed us and knew us before we were born. Fearfully and wonderfully made in the womb of your love, diversity exemplifies the beauty of your image. Help us to embrace our individual uniqueness through our diversity in uniting the community of saints. Amen.

Prayer of Confession

Merciful God, we confess that our love, at times, have been overshadowed by own prejudices and fear of those different from us. We come here today as a people whose works of charity has become as sounding brass and a tinkering symbol. We have failed to be compassionate to the needs of others. Our hearts lack true love. Forgive us for those times of lack of true love to our brothers and sisters. Remind us of our own brokenness that separated us from you. However, you made your heart accessible that we may enter into a right relationship with you. Help us by the Holy Spirit to make our hearts, homes, and places of worship accessible to all. Amen.

Disability Sunday Sermon Possibilities…

Jeremiah 1:4-10

NIV: (5) "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."
(6) Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy."

The Message: 5“Before I shaped you in the womb,
I knew all about you.
Before you saw the light of day,
I had holy plans for you:
A prophet to the nations—
that’s what I had in mind for you.”

6But I said, “Hold it, Master God! Look at me.
I don’t know anything. I’m only a boy!”

Suggested sermon title: Hold it, Master God! Look at me

Everyone who hears the Voice of God calling them into a relationship – which always leads to service – resists with the sentiment of Jeremiah: Hold it, Master God! Look at me…. I am not able to do that! But God is relentless – I made you – I know all about you – I have plans for you… As servants of the Living God, our role is to assist others to accept and live into that relationship, that call that plan regardless or maybe because of our limitations

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

NIV: (12) For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. (13) And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

The Voice: 12For now, we can only see a dim and blurry picture of things, as when we stare into polished metal. I realize that everything I know is only part of the big picture. But one day, when Jesus arrives, we will see clearly, face-to-face. In that day, I will fully know just as I have been wholly known by God. 13But now faith, hope, and love remain; these three virtues must characterize our lives. The greatest of these is love.

The Message: 12We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

Suggested sermon title: Seeing Clearly – Knowing Fully

Since 1 Corinthians 13 is all about love, a companion scripture could be Mark 12:29-31

29“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e]30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[f]31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[g] There is no commandment greater than these.”

When we love the Incarnate God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength we are able then to love ourselves which is a prerequisite for loving our neighbor. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant (5) or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; (6) it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
(7) It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (8) Love never ends….”

Love does not eliminate or prevent our limitations, but endures them and when we love the Incarnate God we are not envious of those whose limitations seem less limiting than our own.

We cannot fully know or clearly see why we have limitations or difficulties but that is not what guides our lives – it is love….

Submissions by Rev. Dr. Janel Starling, Rev. Karen Covey Moore, Rev. Jewett Short, Rev. RuthAnn Simpson, Rev. Dr. Pat Loughlin