Prophetic Call to National Repentance

Morning Service

San Francisco Theological Seminary

Tuesday, October 17th, 2006

Montgomery Chapel

Opening Sentences

               In a globalized world where all of our actions impact people far from ourselves we must listen to the prophetic call for national repentance. Our faith cannot be divorced 

               from our political life. Hear the Word of the Lord through her servant Hosea, “This is  God's Message to Hosea son of Beeri. It came to him during the royal reigns of Judah's kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. This was also the time that Jeroboam son of Joash was king over Israel. This Whole Country Has Become a Whorehouse”

                                                                                                                                          (Hosea 1)

*Call to Worship               

               Help, God—the bottom has fallen out of my life! 

               Master, hear our cry for help! 

               Listen hard! Open your ears!

               Listen to our cries for mercy. 

               If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, 

               who would stand a chance? 

               As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, 

               and that's why we’re here to worship you. 

               Pray to God—make your lives a prayer

               and wait for what he'll say and do. 

               Our lives are on the line before God, our Lord, 

               waiting and watching till morning, 

               O Israel, wait and watch for God— 

               with God's arrival comes love, 

               with God's arrival comes generous redemption.

               No doubt about it—God will redeem Israel,

               buy back Israel from captivity to sin.

               Let us worship Israel’s redeemer!

                                                             (based on Psalm 130)

*Hymn VU 271                                    There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy 

Hearing the Word

Attention all Israelites! God's Message!

God indicts the whole population: "No one is faithful. No one loves.

No one knows the first thing about God.

All this cussing and lying and killing, theft and loose sex,

sheer anarchy, one murder after another!

(Hosea 4)

               Reading

                                                             Lord Have Mercy (Kyrie Eleison)

               And because of all this, the very land itself weeps and everything 

               in it is grief-stricken—animals in the fields and birds on the wing, 

               even the fish in the sea are listless, lifeless. 

                                                                     (Hosea 4)

               Reading 

               Lord Have Mercy (Kyrie Eleison)

Ephraim tells lies right and left. Not a word of Israel can be trusted.
Judah, meanwhile, is no better, addicted to cheap gods.

Ephraim, obsessed with god-fantasies, chases ghosts and phantoms.
He tells lies nonstop, soul-destroying lies.

(Hosea 11-12)

Reading

        Lord Have Mercy (Kyrie Eleison)

The businessmen engage in wholesale fraud.

They love to rip people off! Ephraim boasted, "Look, I'm rich!

I've made it big! And look how well I've covered my tracks:

not a hint of fraud, not a sign of sin!"

(Hosea 12)

Reading

        Lord Have Mercy (Kyrie Eleison)

O Israel, come back! Return to your God! You're down but you're not out. Prepare your confession and come back to God.

Pray to God, "Take away our sin, accept our confession.

Receive as restitution our repentant prayers.

Assyria won't save us; horses won't get us where we want to go.

We'll never again say 'our god' to something we've made or made up.

You're our last hope. Is it not true that in you the orphan finds mercy?"

(Hosea 14)

*Hymn VU 700 God of Freedom, God of Justice

*Benediction

Hear God’s promise to her people Israel: I will heal their waywardness. I will love them lavishly. My anger is played out. I will make a fresh start with Israel. (Hosea 14)

May God have mercy on us all. Amen

Participants in Worship

Rev. Dr. Charles Marks, Chaplain

Rev. Stephanie Croom, Musician

Mr. Nicholas Valadez, Liturgist

Mr. John Scott, Reader

Ms. Cynthia Harris, Reader

Mr. Nicholas Kolivas, Reader

Ms. Erin Musolf, Reader

Mr. Aric Clark, Chaplain’s Assistant

Resources:

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

News article about school shootings: Copyright 2006 by WKRN Nashville Tennessee

Open letter to Senate about global warming: http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/scientists-letter-on-climate-change.html

Quote of President George W. Bush: Presidential speech at Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington D.C., February 26^th, 2003

Quote about Enron: An open letter dated October 7^th 2002 from Senators Joseph Lieberman and Fred Thompson to Harvey L. Pitt, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.