TO OUR GUESTS, we extend a warm welcome. We invite you to participate in signing our Friendship Folder, adding your address and phone number if you'd like to receive our church newsletter or a pastoral call. When we pray the Lord's Prayer at Bethel, we say "sins...sin against us" rather than "debts..." or "trespasses..."; during "a time for sharing" we welcome prayer requests from the congregation. On first Sundays each month, all who put their trust in Christ and who have received baptism in any Christian church are invited to share his sacred meal. We are glad you are with us. Please come again.

The Service For The Lord’s Day
Bethel Presbyterian Church
Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
November 6, 2005

GREETING, WORDS OF WELCOME, RITUAL OF FRIENDSHIP AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Worship the Lord with gladness,

And enter the Lord's presence with songs of joy.

PRELUDE   Jehovah Jireh   Watson

CALL TO WORSHIP

Praise God continually; hear and be glad.

God is with us.

Look to God and be joyful; you are God’s holy ones.

We take refuge in God.

PRAYER OF THE DAY

*HYMN #145   Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart!   Marion

*CALL TO CONFESSION

The proof of God’s amazing love is this: While we were sinners Christ died for us. Because we have faith in him, we dare to approach God with confidence. In faith and penitence, let us confess our sin before God and one another.

*UNISON CONFESSION OF SIN

Loving and Merciful God, we confess that our lives do not measure up. We are so good at putting off until tomorrow what we should do today. Our love for others often fails in times of testing. We confuse happiness with genuine joy. Forgive us for being unkind to one another, for exploiting those we love, for being too busy to be attentive to the needs of others. Forgive us and give us another chance to show your love to one another. In the name of our Christ, we pray. Amen.

*CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE   

*PASSING OF THE PEACE

Since God has forgiven us in Christ, let us forgive one another. The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

And also with you.

SCRIPTURE LESSON   Revelation 7:9-17

SERMON    Whitewashed   Rev. Marc Sherrod, ThD

OFFERATORY MUSIC

OFFERING

*DOXOLOGY Hymn #592

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

PRAYER OF DEDICATION

*HYMN #555   Now Thank We All Our God   Nun Danket Alle Gott

SACRAMENT OF HOLY COMMUNION

GREAT THANKSGIVING

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.

We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is truly right and our greatest joy to give you thanks and praise, O Lord our God, creator and ruler of the universe. We praise you for saints and martyrs, for the faithful in every age who have followed your Son and witnessed to his resurrection. From every race and tongue, from every people and nation, you have gathered them into your kingdom. You have shown them the path of life and filled them with the joy of your presence. How glorious is your heavenly realm where the multitude of your saints rejoice with Christ! Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with angels and archangels, with prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and with all the faithful of every time and place, who forever sing to the glory of your name:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Sent to be our Savior, Jesus took our flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. His words are true. His touch brings healing. To all who follow him, he gives abundant life. Remembering all your mighty and merciful acts, we take this bread and this wine from the gifts you have given us, and celebrate with joy the redemption won for us in Jesus Christ. Accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving as a living and holy offering of ourselves, that our lives may proclaim the One crucified and risen. Praise to you, Lord Jesus:

Dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life. Lord Jesus, come in glory.

Hear us, now, as we give thanks in silence and aloud for those who have inherited the fullness of your promises. Number us among your saints, O God, and join us with the faithful of every age, that strengthened by their witness and supported by their fellowship, we may run with perseverance the race that is set before us, and may with them receive the unfading crown of glory when we stand before your throne of grace. Give us strength to serve you faithfully until the promised day of resurrection, when with the redeemed of all the ages we will feast with you at your table in glory. Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor are yours, almighty God, now and forever. Hear us as we pray, Our Father . . .

THE LORD’S PRAYER

WORDS OF INSTITUTION

SHARING OF THE GIFTS OF BREAD AND CUP

COMMUNION MUSIC Breathe On Me, Breath of God Jackson

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

SERVICE OF DEDICATION FOR BETHEL HISTORICAL MARKERS

*BENEDICTION

*CHARGE AND BLESSING

*CHORAL RESPONSE May the Road Rise to Meet You

*POSTLUDE   The Awakening   Broughton

 *All who are able may stand.

Dedication Service for Historical Markers

Bethel Presbyterian Church and Bethel Cemetery

November 6, 2005

12:00 Noon and 12:30 pm

SCRIPTURE   Genesis 28:10-19   Rev. Marc Sherrod, ThD

REFLECTIONS on the history of Bethel Presbyterian Church and Bethel Cemetery - Mr. Robert Bailey

LITANY OF DEDICATION

Let us praise God for men and women of faith who envisioned a witness in the Reformed/Presbyterian Tradition to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, here in Kingston, Tennessee.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

We remember with gratitude the organization of the Bethel Presbyterian Church on June 6, 1818 under the leadership of Revs. Anderson and Morrison, and the celebration of Holy Communion that day as testimony of God’s faithfulness in the past and plans for the future.

“Where there is no vision, the people will perish” (Proverbs 29:18).

We remember with gratitude the various church buildings utilized as houses of worship by the Bethel congregation -- the Rittenhouse Academy and a brick church building on the hill in the early 19^th century; the original Bethel wood structure building used as a house of worship beginning in 1858; the current Bethel Church moved off the hill and reassembled at its present site in 1883 at the corner of Kentucky and Church Streets. May these markers, dedicated today, remind us that the purpose of church buildings is to serve the proclamation of the gospel of hope and peace, that our confidence and trust is in God and never in what has been made with human hands.

“We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (II Corinthians 5:1)

We remember with gratitude those who have gone before us in the faith, whose resting place is now a site of memory and hope, a touchstone prompting the faithful to glory in our spiritual heritage which promises the coming of a new heaven and a new earth.

“Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

Presbyterian Hill

Taken from A Church Called Bethel by Katy Banker

“Among the many pleasant retreats of which the suburbs of our Town are composed no one is more desirable than Presbyterian Hill; first because it is quite an elevated position, and commands an extensive view of the River and of Town, which from recent valuable improvements now begins to wear quite a respectable and genteel appearance; secondly, it is interesting because it is covered with a dense and beautiful grave of forest timber under the refreshing shade of which repose a large number of those who have laid aside the fashionable attire of life, and are now wrapped in the pale mantles of death. The churchyard is quite a profitable place of each one to spend a portion of his time; otherwise there is danger of forgetting final resting place of all. But whilst casually speaking of the church yard on Presbyterian Hill, there is one item we hope to be excused for noting. Like the wild forest or uncared for common it is exposed to the rambling foot of the Horse, Ox, or any other animal that may chance to pass that way -- this fact, to a considerable extent, detracts from the interest and beauty of that significant grove. A dilapidated churchyard is peculiarly suggestive and at once impresses on our minds the fact that its slumbering inmates do not possess that bright place on the page of the memory of those . . . . . . . (several lines missing). . . . . In passing through the country we frequently see small grave yards genteely inclosed and as neatly dressed as a garden . . . . .”⁵

Two weeks later the editor of the Gazateer, simply signing his article “Humbeldt,” wrote an editorial on the appearance of the town; he commented on the new Courthouse, several homes, the puddles in the streets, the deplorable condition of the half-finished Methodist structure with its rafters rotting in the weather, concluding with the following:

As I am down pretty close to the stem of this leaf; I will only add, that our kind Presbyterian Brethren ought to put their hands deep enough in their pockets to reach a sufficient number of dollars to build them a nice and genteel Church -- though mind! don’t build a stable!! The one they now worship in is thought to be quite dangerous as I am told it has to be propped up with sticks to keep it from falling. We already have a flourishing school, well conducted. Now let us have respectable and spacious churches, and we hope that all will move on right. Be it known that public buildings reflect the character of the place, and measure the liberality and taste of the people.⁶

It appears evident that this editorial spurred some sort of revival among the Bethel congregation, resulting in the erection of the frame building, in the same location in the cemetery in 1858 and the addition of seventeen new members during that year, fourteen of them on August 31. Or it is possible the sudden increase in the communicant roll brought an urge to replace the tottering structure.

⁵ Tennessee Archives Commission, Microfilm of Roane County Newspapers, Roll No. 1, miscellaneous, 1854 -1955.

⁶ Microfilm, Roane County Newspapers, 1854 – 1955.

A Special Thank You

The Liturgist today is Mark Banker.

Ushering today is the Coen family

THIS WEEK'S EVENTS