Calendar

Order of Worship

Prelude

Six Studies in English Folk-Song, Mvts. 1-3
Ralph Vaughan Williams

*Call to Worship

(The congregation responds aloud with the bold text)

God meets us in our greatest need
And satisfies us with divine presence and provision.

In gratitude, let us worship the Lord our God.

*Hymn #49, “The God of Abraham Praise”

1 The God of Abraham praise,
who reigns enthroned above,
the Ancient of Eternal Days,
the God of love!
The Lord, the great I am,
by earth and heaven confessed,
we bow before your holy name,
forever blest.

2 Your spirit still flows free,
high surging where it will.
In prophet’s word you spoke of old
and you speak still.
Established is your law,
and changeless it shall stand,
deep writ upon the human heart
by your strong hand.

3 Your goodly land we seek,
with peace and plenty blest,
a land of sacred liberty
and Sabbath rest.
There milk and honey flow,
and oil and wine abound,
and trees of life forever grow
with mercy crowned.

4 You have eternal life
implanted in the soul;
your love shall be our strength and stay,
while ages roll.
We praise you, living God!
We praise your holy name:
the first, the last, beyond all thought,
and still the same!

Prayer of Adoration

Call to Confession

Prayer of Confession

God of compassion, we are sick. We have wrestled all night with worry instead of resting in you. We have asserted our own goodness instead of awakening to yours. We have turned away those hungry for your help instead of trusting you and feeding them from the limitless supply of blessings. Forgive us, heal us, and help us to hold on to you. We call upon you, for you will answer us, O God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Silent prayer of confession.

Assurance of pardon

Here is good news!

The God of steadfast love is our refuge and savior. In Christ, we who are broken are healed, forgiven, filled, and made whole.

Thanks be to God!

*Response of Praise: Hymn #582, “Glory to God, Whose Goodness Shines on Me”

1. Glory to God, whose goodness shines on me,
and to the Son, whose grace has pardoned me,
and to the Spirit, whose love has set me free.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. Amen.

2. World without end, without end. Amen.
World without end, without end. Amen.
World without end, without end. Amen.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. Amen.

*Passing of the Peace

Life in Community

Thank you for joining us for worship! Explore the calendar of events and recent announcements to take another step into our life together this week. If you’re joining us for the first time or would like to learn more about Catonsville Presbyterian, you’re welcome to share your email with us. We’ll send some information that will help you get connected.

Children’s Message

Prayer for Illumination

All-knowing God, you have satisfied our hunger at sunset and held us close through nights of wrestling. Now let the day break with your blessing. Awaken and illuminate us by your word that we may behold your likeness. Amen.

Scripture: Genesis 32:3-21

Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have lived with Laban as an alien and stayed until now, and I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves, and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’ ”

The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people who were with him and the flocks and herds and camels into two companies, thinking, “If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company that is left will escape.”

And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children. Yet you have said, ‘I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their number.’ ”

So he spent that night there, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. These he delivered into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me, and put a space between drove and drove.” He instructed the one in the lead, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord Esau, and moreover he is behind us.’ ” He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you meet him, and you shall say, ‘Moreover your servant Jacob is behind us.’ ” For he thought, “I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterwards I shall see his face; perhaps he will accept me.” So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself spent that night in the camp.

Hymn #282 (V.1): “Come Down, O Love Divine,”

1. Come down, O Love Divine;
seek out this soul of mine,
and visit it with your own ardor glowing.
O Comforter, draw near;
within my heart appear,
and kindle it, your holy flame bestowing.

Scripture: Genesis 32:22-32

The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.

Hymn #282 (V.2): “Come Down, O Love Divine,”

2 O let it freely burn,
till earthly passions turn
to dust and ashes in its heat consuming.
And let your glorious light
shine ever on my sight,
and clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

Scripture: Genesis 33:1-17

Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids. He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother.

But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down; Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down; and finally Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company that I met?” Jacob answered, “To find favor with my lord.” But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.” Jacob said, “No, please; if I find favor with you, then accept my present from my hand, for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God, since you have received me with such favor. Please accept my gift that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have everything I want.” So he urged him, and he took it.

Then Esau said, “Let us journey on our way, and I will go alongside you.” But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds, which are nursing, are a care to me, and if they are overdriven for one day, all the flocks will die. Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”

So Esau said, “Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “Why should my lord be so kind to me?” So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. But Jacob journeyed to Succoth and built himself a house and made booths for his cattle; therefore the place is called Succoth.

Hymn #282 (V.3): “Come Down, O Love Divine,”

3 And so the yearning strong,
with which the soul will long,
shall far outpass the power of human telling.
For none can guess God’s grace,
till Love creates a place
wherein the Holy Spirit makes a dwelling

Sermon

“The Magnificent Defeat” Kenneth E. Kovacs

Call to Offering

Give online (opens in new tab)

Offertory

Six Studies in English Folk-Song, Mvts. 4-5
Ralph Vaughan Williams

*Doxology #607, “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow”

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Christ, all people here below;
Praise Holy Spirit evermore;
Praise Triune God, whom we adore. Amen.

*Prayer of Dedication

Loving and generous God, you provide for us and even bless us in more ways than we can number. You continually surprise us by your grace. We give these tithes and offerings to tell of your wondrous and steadfast love so that those who do not yet know you may also come to know your love.

Hymn #797: “We Cannot Measure How You Heal”

1 We cannot measure how you heal
or answer every sufferer’s prayer,
yet we believe your grace responds
where faith and doubt unite to care.
Your hands, though bloodied on the cross,
survive to hold and heal and warn,
to carry all through death to life
and cradle children yet unborn.

2 The pain that will not go away,
the guilt that clings from things long past,
the fear of what the future holds,
are present as if meant to last.
But present too is love which tends
the hurt we never hoped to find,
the private agonies inside,
the memories that haunt the mind.

3 So some have come who need your help
and some have come to make amends,
as hands which shaped and saved the world
are present in the touch of friends.
Lord, let your Spirit meet us here
to mend the body, mind, and soul,
to disentangle peace from pain,
and make your broken people whole.

*Benediction

Postlude

Six Studies in English Folk-Song, Mvt. 6
Ralph Vaughan Williams

Participants

• Keith and Kathy Glennan, Ruling Elders, video production
• Wendy Johnston, Organist and Assistant Director of Music
• Greg Knauf, Director of Music
• Kenneth E. Kovacs, Pastor
• Vickie Lord, Social media support
• Dottie Marshall, Sanctuary set up
• Ann Quinn, clarinet

Sources

• Kimberly Bracken Long, ed., Feasting on the Word: Liturgies for Year A, Vol. 2 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014).
• Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013).
• Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-734388; CCLI Copyright License B 20481088 + Streaming License B 481071