WIEST MEMORIAL CHURCH Serving Our Community 48 South King Street Schoeneck, Pa 17578 www.wiestchurch.org email: wiestmc@windstream.net

COMMUNITY THANKSGIVING SERVICE November 16, 2017Music Leading Us to Worship

WELCOME It is with joy and thanks that I welcome you to our

Thanksgiving worship service. It is not OUR service, but our

community’s service. We pause to give thanks to our Creator

for the abundant gifts God has given to us as we feast

around the table. As these gifts are blessings to us, help us

to be a blessing to others. Let us begin our worship with

song.

*Worship Music Come Now is the Time

*OPENING HYMN Come, Ye Faithful People Come # 694 (Verses 1, 2 & 4)*CALL TO WORSHIP

Pastor: You are the hope of everyone on earth. Even

those who live at the farthest ends of the earth stand in awe

of your wonders.

People: What mighty praise belongs to You, O God!

Pastor: From where the sun rises to where it sets,

You inspire shouts of joy.

People: What mighty praise belongs to You, O God!

Opening Prayer:Open our hearts to your word and your will this day, O Lord.

As we count our blessings around the table, help us to

remember those who dwell in lands of poverty and war.

Help us find ways to reach out to them in ministries of hope

and peace. This we pray in Jesus’ Name. AMEN!

THE LORD’S LITTLE PEOPLE

A Thanks-Giving Life

Object: a thank-you card

The Point: Thanksgiving Day reminds us to live a

"thanks giving life."

The Lesson:

Good evening, boys and girls. I am thankful that

you chose to come up front with me, and that we can

share this time together. Thank you.

I brought a card with me today. Can you see what

kind of card it is? (Get responses) That's right, a

thank-you card. Giving "thanks" is an important part

of life. It is so important that President Abraham

Lincoln set aside the last Thursday of November for

the nation to stop and give thanks to God for all his

blessings to us. In his Thanksgiving proclamation

President Lincoln invited everyone to give thanks and

praise to our Father in heaven, to God.

We can give thanks to God by thanking others for

the blessings they give us in life. We can tell them or

we can send them a thank-you card. We can also give

thanks to God by telling him in our prayers and in our

worship that we are thankful for the gift of air we

breathe and the food we have to eat and the family

that watches over us and for our friends who bring us

joy and fun. We can thank God our heavenly Father for

Jesus whose love gives us the gift of eternal life.

Jesus told us a story about ten people who were

very sick. In it, Jesus heals all ten of them. Then Jesus

told us that only one of the ten who were healed

returned to thank him. To the one who returned to say

"thank you," Jesus said, "Your faith has made you

well." To tell Jesus "thank you" is to reveal your faith

in him.

Every day look for a reason to give someone a

"thank you." And don't let a day go by that you don't

say, "Thank you, Jesus." May the hand of Jesus rest

upon you to give you his healing grace and saving

love.

Closing Prayer: In thanksgiving let us unite our

lives in prayer. Lord Jesus, our hearts are filled with

thanksgiving. We thank you for forgiveness and hope,

for life and salvation, for all the good things that flow

from your hand. Thank you Jesus for these your

children. Bless them and us. In your holy name,

Jesus, we give thanks and pray. Amen.

SPECIAL MUSIC Chubb Weidler

THE OLD TESTAMENT LESSON Deuteronomy 8: 7-18Deuteronomy 8: 7-18 (NRSV)

7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a

land with flowing streams, with springs and underground

waters welling up in valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and

barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of

olive trees and honey, 9 a land where you may eat bread

without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose

stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper.

10 You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the

good land that he has given you.

11 Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by

failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his

statutes, which I am commanding you today. 12 When you

have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in

them, 13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied,

and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is

multiplied, 14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord

your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of

the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and

terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous[b]

snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint

rock, 16 and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your

ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and

in the end to do you good. 17 Do not say to yourself, “My

power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this

wealth.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who

gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his

covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing

today.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE THE LORD’S PRAYEROur 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 sins, as we forgive

those who sin against us; and lead us not into temptation, but

deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom and the

power and the glory, forever. Amen

SHARING OF OUR TITHES AND OFFERINGS

OFFERTORY INVITATION: Lord, as we have received so much from your bounty, let us

return tokens of these gifts that they may be used to help

others in this broken world. AMEN.

OFFERTORY

*DOXOLOGY #95

*OFFERTORY PRAYERBless these gifts, O God and cause these gifts to work

bringing hope and peace to this world on this day of

Thanksgiving. AMEN.

CHOIR ANTHEM Praise Medley

HYMN OF PREPARATION We Gather Together #131

THE GOSPEL LESSON Luke 17: 11 - 19 (NRSV)

Jesus Cleanses Ten Lepers

11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the

region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a

village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance,

13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on

us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show

yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made

clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed,

turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated

himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a

Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean?

But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them

found to return and give praise to God except this

foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your

way; your faith has made you well.”

THANKSGIVING MESSAGE An Attitude of Gratitude Pastor Lyle

Turn on Recorder

An Attitude of Gratitude

A schoolteacher asked her students to make a list of the

things for which they were thankful. Right at the top of Chad's list

was the word "glasses." Some children resent having to wear

glasses but evidently not Chad! She asked him about it. Why was

he thankful that he wore glasses?

"Well," he said, "my glasses keep the boys from hitting me

and the girls from kissing me."

There is a lesson to be learned from that boy! Even the

things we might consider less than beneficial might be reasons for

thanks.

There will be a lot of cute expressions of thankfulness today.

From open microphones passed around congregations to

personal notes scribbled on slips of paper and collected as

"Thank Offerings," the sublime and the simple will be noted and

nodded in gratitude.

However, there is a deeper matter at stake in our

celebrations today as well. In the most profound sense,

thanksgiving and dependence go hand in hand. My faith in God is

not just some polite thanks for the goodies and trinkets that I think

the Lord has given me. No, it's the other way around. My

thankfulness is the cornerstone of my faith. I'm not thankful just

because I believe God has given me things. Rather, I believe

because it is right to give God thanks even when I can't point to

anything specific and even when the chips are down -- even when

I'm surrounded by trouble.

This is very important for worship leaders to remember,

since many who gather today will be calling to mind friends who

have died in the past year, tragedies that have uprooted families,

and the pinch of lingering recession. A blithe call to thanks for

multiplied visible blessings might miss the need to recognize that

it is not things that produce thankfulness but thankfulness that is

the essential language of faith.

In 1637, Eilenberg, Saxony, was surrounded by the dark

night of the soul. Europe was at war. Eilenberg was tossed back

and forth by the armies. Three times during that year it was

attacked and severely damaged. When the armies left, refugees

poured in by the thousands. Diseases ran rampant. Food was

scarce.

There was only one pastor in the city, a fellow named Martin

Rinkart. His journal for 1637 indicates that he conducted over

4,500 funerals that year and sometimes as many as forty or fifty a

day. Life was a constant death and each morning stank of

disaster.

Somehow, even today, 1637 is important for nearly every

Thanksgiving celebration around the world. For Christians still

sing the song Pastor Rinkart wrote that year. They sing it with

gusto. They sing it with faith. They sing it not because it

catalogues a list of reasons for thanksgiving but because

thankfulness is all that is left when the bottom drops out of the

world.

Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices,

who wondrous things has done, in whom his world rejoices;

who from our mothers' arms has blessed us on our way

with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

Only the grateful believe!

Today's lectionary readings echo that. Moses reminds the

Israelites that God's love is not something they have earned

because of their greatness but it is instead the source of their

identity. And the gospel lesson gives us the familiar story of grace

with limited thankfulness in which Jesus makes certain that we

know the truth of it: only the grateful believe.

Someone asked Dr. Ed Dowey, emeritus professor of

Princeton Seminary, what was the greatest difficulty he had in his

Christian life. He responded, "Let me tell you a story. Suppose I'm

walking down the street today, just minding my own business, and

suppose I meet someone walking toward me, someone I don't

even know. Suppose for some reason, out of the clear blue, she

gives me the gift of a smile. Now my heart is suddenly warmed.

What happens but a smile pops out of my heart and onto my lips

too! That's grace!

"But then suppose that the next day I happen to be out there

walking again and I see the same woman strolling toward me. Do

you know what happens? Before she even catches sight of my

face today, there's a smile on my face! This time, however, in my

heart I'm hoping I can get her to smile at me! That's legalism!"

Professor Dowey's message couches in it the same warning

that Moses issued to Israel before he died. One day you find the

delight of a relationship, even for a brief moment, and it makes

you break out with beauty! That energy causes you to feel strong

and powerful, as if the grace given you actually flowed out of your

own initiatives. For that reason the next day you try to work that

relationship so that it makes you feel good again and it turns you

into someone you really don't want to be.

Israel was not loved by Yahweh because she was worthy of

some great capabilities or power or achievement; instead, she

was made worthy because Yahweh loved her. In telling this,

Moses made clear that only the grateful believe. Once they forgot,

they would lose their faith. Or once they lost their faith, they would

no longer be thankful. It all amounts to the same thing.

Luke tells the story of Jesus’s healing of the ten lepers. On

his way to Jerusalem, he heard their pleas and stopped to heal

them. One of the them, a Samaritan, returned to give him thanks.

So we have both encouragement and a warning that we

need to be grateful.

Today we’re told, “Stop feeling sorry for yourself." And while

it can be hard to avoid self-pity entirely, mentally strong people

choose to exchange self-pity for gratitude. Whether you choose to

write a few sentences in a gratitude journal, or simply take a

moment to silently acknowledge all that you have, giving thanks

can transform your life.

Amy Morin, a psychotherapist, and bestselling author lists

7 scientifically proven benefits:

Gratitude opens the door to more relationships. Not only

does saying “thank you” constitute good manners, but showing

appreciation can help you win new friends, according to a 2014

study published in Emotion. The study found that thanking a new

acquaintance makes them more likely to seek an ongoing

relationship. So whether you thank a stranger for holding the door

or send a thank-you note to that colleague who helped you with a

project, acknowledging other people’s contributions can lead to

new opportunities.

Gratitude improves physical health. Grateful people

experience fewer aches and pains and report feeling healthier

than other people, according to a 2012 study published in

Personality and Individual Differences. Not surprisingly, grateful

people are also more likely to take care of their health. They

exercise more often and are more likely to attend regular check-

ups, which is likely to contribute to further longevity.

Gratitude improves psychological health. Gratitude

reduces a multitude of toxic emotions, from envy and resentment

to frustration and regret. Robert Emmons, a leading gratitude

researcher, has conducted multiple studies on the link between

gratitude and well-being. His research confirms that gratitude

effectively increases happiness and reduces depression.

Gratitude enhances empathy and reduces aggression.

Grateful people are more likely to behave in a prosocial manner,

even when others behave less kindly, according to a 2012 study

by the University of Kentucky. Study participants who ranked

higher on gratitude scales were less likely to retaliate against

others, even when given negative feedback. They experienced

more sensitivity and empathy toward other people and a

decreased desire to seek revenge.

Grateful people sleep better. Writing in a gratitude journal

improves sleep, according to a 2011 study published in Applied

Psychology: Health and Well-Being. Spend just 15 minutes jotting

down a few grateful sentiments before bed, and you may sleep

better and longer.

Gratitude improves self-esteem. A 2014 study published

in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology found that gratitude

increased athletes’ self-esteem, an essential component to

optimal performance. Other studies have shown that gratitude

reduces social comparisons. Rather than becoming resentful

toward people who have more money or better jobs—a major

factor in reduced self-esteem—grateful people are able to

appreciate other people’s accomplishments.

Gratitude increases mental strength. For years, research

has shown gratitude not only reduces stress, but it may also play

a major role in overcoming trauma. A 2006 study published in

Behavior Research and Therapy found that Vietnam War

veterans with higher levels of gratitude experienced lower rates of

post-traumatic stress disorder. A 2003 study published in the

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that gratitude

was a major contributor to resilience following the terrorist attacks

on September 11. Recognizing all that you have to be thankful for

—even during the worst times—fosters resilience.

We see things not as they are, but as we are. As we

approach Thanksgiving and Christmas, let us pause to reflect on

what we are thankful for. Not only is it healthy, but it honors the

God who has equipped us with blessings beyond measure.

AMEN.

Turn off Recorder

*CLOSING HYMN Now Thank We All Our God #102

*THE BLESSING: Having been blessed with so many gifts,

go into the world joyfully serving God by helping others in

need. Go in peace. AMEN.

What’s happening at Wiest?Girl Scouts – 1st & 3rd ThursdaysBible Study – Tuesdays 9 AM November 26 – 1st Sunday in AdventDecember 2 – 9 – 1 Cookie & Sub Sale Santa’s WorkshopDecember 15 – Community Meal 430 – 630 PM

December 17 – Christmas Concert by Brenten McGee – 7PMDecember 24 – Christmas Worship - 9 AM

We welcome you to Wiest Church. We’re happy thatYou chose to worship with us. We invite you to join in the activities of this Christian fellowship. If you are interested in additional information please fill out a yellow “Welcome” slip found in the book racks on each row of seating and place it in the offering plate when it is passed. .Rest Rooms…are on both floors. Facilities on this level are found thru the door at the front of the Worship center, go straight ahead then on your right. Rest roomsare also found downstairs.Nursery and Childcare…little ones are welcomed to Stay in the worship service with parents.

Deuteronomy 10: 19 - You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You have entered as strangers. You leave as friends. Happy Thanksgiving