These worship elements are an early draft being shared as a preview for the upcoming service. The final version used in worship may be adapted or revised. Pastors and worship leaders are welcome to use and adapt these for your own context.
Welcome
Welcome to worship at McPherson First United Methodist Church. Whether you have been here a long time or you are brand new this morning, in person or online, you belong here.
Today we meet a foreign general named Naaman, a man with everything except the one thing he needed, who was healed in a river he thought was beneath him. The promise we lean on is presence, simply showing up and being counted among this body.
If you’re looking for your next step, visit mcphersonfirst.org/next or open the Church Center app.
(8:30 only, transition to the Call to Worship) I invite you to join in our responsive call to worship as you see the words on display.
Call to Worship (8:30 only)
Leader: God’s mercy reaches past every border we draw.
People: Wash us, and make us whole.
Leader: An enemy general found healing in Israel’s river.
People: No one is outside the reach of God’s grace.
Leader: The door is wider than we expected.
People: We come to be washed and welcomed.
Leader: Come and worship the God who heals and receives.
People: We gather with everyone God has gathered.
Welcome Your Neighbor
Naaman heard about God from a captured girl who had every reason to stay quiet. That is witness at its smallest and strongest, one person telling another what they know.
Somebody needs to hear what you heard this morning. Who is it?
Online this morning? Greet the people in your house, or send the greeting to someone who needs one. Please stand, welcome your neighbor, and then remain standing as we join together in song.
Opening Prayer
We’ve sung our welcome to God and to each other. Now settle your heart and pray with me, using the words on screen.
All: God who heals from the outside in, you welcome people we would have turned away. Wash off our certainty about who belongs. Open our hands, our doors, and our hearts, and surprise us with your mercy today. Amen.
Third Grade Bible Recognition (10:15 only)
(The third graders who received Bibles earlier this fall come forward with their families and their Sunday school teacher.)
Third graders, come on up, and bring your Bibles if you have them. Families, come with them.
(pause while they gather)
On October 4 these four got Bibles of their own, right here. Since then they’ve spent Sunday mornings with their teacher and a parent or another adult they trust, learning to find their way around that book. Thank you to their teacher, and thank you, families.
Third graders, now that you can find your way around, here’s what to read next: the Gospel of Mark. It’s the second book of the New Testament and the shortest of the four stories of Jesus, just 16 chapters. Many scholars think it was the first one written down.
Mark tells the story in a hurry. There’s no Christmas story. It starts with Jesus as a grown man, and from there he never stops moving: he heals people, calms a storm, feeds a hungry crowd, and the book ends with women finding his tomb empty. Read a chapter a day and you’ll finish in a little over two weeks.
When you finish, come tell me, and I’ll have a king size candy bar waiting for you.
That goes for everyone here, too. If you’d like to read Mark, at any age, the same deal stands. Finish it, come find me, and there’s a candy bar with your name on it.
Will you pray with me for them?
God who speaks, thank you for these four, for their curiosity, and for every page they’ve turned this fall. Thank you for their teacher, for these families, and for a church that keeps the promises it made at their baptism. Bless these children as they keep reading. Open the story of Jesus to them, and to everyone here who opens Mark alongside them. Your Spirit is already at work in them, so help them notice it, and grow them into people who live what they read. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Third graders, head to Sunday School now with the other elementary students. Church, send them off with a round of applause.
Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 5:1-15a (CEB)
(Read by a lay reader. The reader introduces themselves and offers one brief sentence of personal connection to the congregation before reading.)
Today we hear from Second Kings, which follows the prophet Elisha through a divided kingdom surrounded by stronger neighbors. Aram, to the north, is one of those neighbors and one of Israel’s enemies. Our reading follows the commander of Aram’s army.
Notice who speaks up first, and how little standing that person has in the room.
Hear now Second Kings, chapter 5, verses 1 through 15.
Naaman, a general for the king of Aram, was a great man and highly regarded by his master, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. This man was a mighty warrior, but he had a skin disease. Now Aramean raiding parties had gone out and captured a young girl from the land of Israel. She served Naaman’s wife.
She said to her mistress, “I wish that my master could come before the prophet who lives in Samaria. He would cure him of his skin disease.” So Naaman went and told his master what the young girl from the land of Israel had said.
Then Aram’s king said, “Go ahead. I will send a letter to Israel’s king.”
So Naaman left. He took along ten kikkars of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. He brought the letter to Israel’s king. It read, “Along with this letter I’m sending you my servant Naaman so you can cure him of his skin disease.”
When the king of Israel read the letter, he ripped his clothes. He said, “What? Am I God to hand out death and life? But this king writes me, asking me to cure someone of his skin disease! You must realize that he wants to start a fight with me.”
When Elisha the man of God heard that Israel’s king had ripped his clothes, he sent word to the king: “Why did you rip your clothes? Let the man come to me. Then he’ll know that there’s a prophet in Israel.”
Naaman arrived with his horses and chariots. He stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent out a messenger who said, “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored and become clean.”
But Naaman went away in anger. He said, “I thought for sure that he’d come out, stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the bad spot, and cure the skin disease. Aren’t the rivers in Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all Israel’s waters? Couldn’t I wash in them and get clean?” So he turned away and proceeded to leave in anger.
Naaman’s servants came up to him and spoke to him: “Our father, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? All he said to you was, ‘Wash and become clean.’” So Naaman went down and bathed in the Jordan seven times, just as the man of God had said. His skin was restored like that of a young boy, and he became clean.
He returned to the man of God with all his attendants. He came and stood before Elisha, saying, “Now I know for certain that there’s no God anywhere on earth except in Israel.”
Leader: This is the Word of God for the people of God.
People: Thanks be to God!
Pastoral and Lord’s Prayer
We’re about to pray together. Whether you’re here or joining online, God hears every prayer, spoken aloud or held quietly in your heart. I’ll leave a couple of moments of silence along the way, so use them however you need, to listen, to pray, or simply to rest in God’s presence.
Prayers is one of the promises we make here. To share a prayer request, use the Church Center app anytime, or fill out a prayer request card from the pew back and drop it in the offering plate.
Will you pray with me?
God who sends healing through unlikely people, we come this morning grateful to be included.
(pause)
We praise you for a mercy that does not check credentials. You healed a foreign soldier because a captive girl spoke up. You have never asked us to earn our way to you.
We confess that we draw lines you have already erased. We decide quietly who belongs here and who does not. We want grace to be wide for us and narrow for people we do not understand. Like Naaman, we would rather do something difficult than something simple you have actually asked of us.
Hear the names we hold before you now in silence, the people we have quietly written off. Wash our eyes until we see them as you do.
(pause)
We pray for everyone who is new to this congregation, that they would find real friendship here and not only a seat. We pray for anyone who walked into this room feeling like an outsider. We pray for the sick, especially those waiting on results or facing a long recovery. We pray for our community, for those newly elected and all who serve in public office, and for a world that keeps building walls you keep walking through.
We give you thanks for everyone who spoke up for us when saying nothing would have been easier.
We pray in Jesus’ name, joining our voices in the prayer he taught us:
All: 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 trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
Invitation to Give and Check-In
Naaman arrived with silver, gold, and ten changes of clothing, ready to buy what could only be received. What we have was given before it was earned, and our gifts answer that.
Thank you to those who give month after month without being asked. You make it possible to say yes when someone walks in needing something. If this is your first time giving, thank you.
You can give through the offering plate, online at mcphersonfirst.org/give, or through the Church Center app, the easiest way to give from your phone.
As the offering is received, check in through the Church Center app or by signing the attendance pad next to the center aisle and passing it down the row. Checking in is how we practice presence, showing up and being counted among the body of Christ.
Ushers, please come forward to receive this morning’s offering.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
We’ve given our gifts. Now we’re sent to practice service, carrying the welcome outward to people still standing at the door. Will you pray with me?
Generous God, thank you for these gifts and for everyone who found their way here. Use us to widen the door. Amen.
Will you please stand as we sing together?
Benediction
Go now, washed and welcomed. Love boldly, serve joyfully, lead courageously.
God receives you, Christ heals you, the Spirit sends you out. And all God’s people said, Amen.