We encourage you to read and reflect on these scriptures, songs, notes, and prayers as we look forward to our time of worship together this coming Sunday.

Download This Guide (PDF)Download
Download Ekidz Bulletin (PDF)Download

Please print this guide or have it handy in digital format for use during the service.

CALL TO WORSHIP

Please join in on the bolded lines.

We gather a community of faith in God’s beautiful upside-down world.
We gather to celebrate that no darkness can extinguish light,
to remember that love will always be more powerful than death,
and to trust that peace will always be stronger than violence.
We gather, people of faith in the light of God’s world.

We join together, a community of faith, to worship God.

MUSIC: WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCHED THEIR FLOCKS

CCLI #4618854 | Andrew Peterson © 2005
Performed by Emmaus Road Worship Team

CORPORATE PRAYER

Please join in on the bolded lines.

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.
(Source: Book of Common Prayer 2019, Collects of the Christian Year, The Second Sunday of Christmas)

MUSIC: THE EARTH STOOD STILL

Future of Forestry © 2010
Performed by Emmaus Road Worship Team

MUSIC: YOUR PEACE WILL MAKE US ONE

CCLI #7140506 | Audrey Assad and Julia Ward Howe © 2019
Performed by Emmaus Road Worship Team

WORD

Download Sermon Notes (PDF)Download

Her Story: Austin Channing Brown

INTRO
Today, let’s learn about the life and work of Austin Channing Brown. Austin is a Christian black woman who fights for racial justice through activism and education.

Racism is prejudice against a person or group on the basis of their ethnic or racial identity.

You could also say it this way: Racism is the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another. (Source: Webster Dictionary)

What does the Bible say about racism?

THE BIBLE & RACISM
There isn’t a verse that explicitly says you shouldn’t be racist. There is a thread of truth that runs through the scriptures that condemns the principle of racism.

It begins in Genesis 1:27, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

This shows us that all of humanity is stamped with the image of God and therefore has infinite worth. Racism is when we devalue a person based on the color of their skin and fail to see their worth. When we do this, it is sin.

Galatians 3:28 says, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

The Bible declares that Jesus is the world’s Messiah. Christ is ruler over all the nations and the kingdom of Christ has no national boundaries.

This reality is portrayed in Revelation 7:9-10, “I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…

Based on this biblical evidence, there is no room for racism in the life of the Christian. And virtually all Christians agree on this point. But, white Christians have typically had two responses:
1. Create a narrative that racism is a thing of the past. After all, slaves were freed more than 150 years ago, the civil rights movement in American ended 60 years ago and we’ve even had a black president. So, racism is a thing of the past and any cries of racism are just victim mentality.
2. Do your best to be nice to people of color, so that you can rest quietly knowing you are not racist. As long as you are not racist then the whole thing can be pretty much ignored.

There is a third way: Don’t ignore racism or pretend it isn’t real. Instead, choose to listen carefully to the experience of black people (and other minorities) in America and hear their stories.

AUSTIN’S STORY
Austin asked her parents why they gave her a boys name. Austin was her grandmother’s maiden name, but there was more to the story:

“We knew that anyone who saw [your name] before meeting you would assume you are a white man. One day you will have to apply for jobs. We just wanted to make sure you could make it to the interview.”

Austin’s experience at a typical day of work:

-Asked if she needs directions to her office.
-Co-worker asks to touch her hair.
-Work conversation turns into conversation about urban violence.
-Mistaken for another black woman in a different department.

With these stories the two options are again opened up to us: Do we discount them based on the narrative that racism is a thing of the past and say Austin is playing the victim? Do we think to ourselves, “I would never do those things.”

OR, do we choose to listen to the experience of a person who inhabits this world differently than we do. For only when we care and then listen will things change.

As Christians we must know that the scriptures we call Holy show us there is no place for racism in our hearts. Then, we must face the difficult realities surrounding race in our country and seek reconciliation the best we know how.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

TABLE

Prepare the elements of “bread” and “wine” for use as we gather around The Lord’s Table. These can be any items convenient around the home that symbolize these for you. 

CONFESSION OF THE MYSTERY OF FAITH

Christ has died.
Christ is risen. 
Christ will come again.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

As we pray together, we invite you to share your own requests and testimonies with us this week. If you have a request you can share it live in our video stream chat, or you may email us at emmausroadfc@gmail.com

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father in heaven,
        hallowed be your Name,
        your kingdom come,
        your will be done,
        on earth as in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins
        as we forgive those
        who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, 
        and deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom, 
        and the power,
        and the glory for ever and ever.
Amen.

BENEDICTION

You are invited to hold your hands out, palm-up as we receive this benediction.

May the path that Christ walks to bring justice upon the earth,
to bring light to those who sit in darkness,
to bring out those who live in bondage,
to bring new things to all creation:
may this path run through our life.
May we be the road Christ takes.