“Zion Signal” – a call to the faithful wherever they are scattered.

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Order of Worship

“Let all things be done decently and in order.”
– 1 Corinthians 14:40

Welcome & Call to Worship

Psalm 67 

May the Nations Know God's Salvation

1 
May God be gracious to us and bless us
    and make his face to shine upon us, Selah

2 
that your way may be known upon earth,
    your saving power among all nations.

3 
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
    let all the peoples praise you.

4 
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
    for you judge the peoples with equity
    and guide the nations upon earth. Selah

5 
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
    let all the peoples praise you.

6 
The earth has yielded its increase;
    God, our God, has blessed us.

7 
May God continue to bless us;
    let all the ends of the earth revere him.

Scripture Reading

  • James 2:18-26 

    Faith without Works Is Dead

    18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from works, and I by my works will show you faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. 20 Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is worthless? 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and by works faith was brought to completion. 23 Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.

  • Joshua 2:1-7 

    Welcoming Strangers

    1 Then Joshua son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and spent the night there. 

    2 The king of Jericho was told, “Some Israelites have come here tonight to search out the land.” 

    3 Then the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out the whole land.” 

    4 But the woman took the two men and hid them. Then she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from. 

    5 And when it was time to close the gate at dark, the men went out. Where the men went I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you can overtake them.” 

    6 She had, however, brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax that she had laid out on the roof. 

    7 So the men pursued them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. As soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

Prayer of the People

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Prayer of the People ~

Responsive prayer and intercession for our community, nation, and world.

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried.
The third day He rose from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Church Universal,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.

Amen.

Sunday Study
ANOTHER WAY
ANOTHER WAY

Preamble:

There are moments when a door closes behind you before you fully understand what you have chosen.

Joshua says, “As soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.”

I have been thinking about gates this week after moving through Southeast Alaska, Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau, places where mountains press against the water and the road sometimes simply ends. You do not always get where you are going by continuing straight. Sometimes you have to cross.

That image stayed with me because we return home to a world full of argument. Politics sharpens. Nations divide. People explain what everyone else must change. Yet the prophetic question is more demanding: 

What in me must change?

That question is waiting inside Rahab’s house.

Jericho still stands. The king still has power. Israel has not crossed over. Rahab does not know how the story ends, but she knows enough to decide where she will stand within it.

And that matters on this Sunday, because when the sun goes down, the Jewish world enters Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Yom Kippur asks us to become quiet enough to hear what accusation usually drowns out: confession. Not what they did. Not what the other side did. Not even what the person who wounded us did. The question bends inward: What have I done, what have I left undone, and am I prepared to return?

The Hebrew word is תְּשׁוּבָה — teshuvah: return. Not sorrow as performance, not guilt as theater, but a turning of the life.

Rahab cannot change yesterday. She cannot control Jericho, Israel, the king, or tomorrow. But she possesses one sacred piece of territory: the next thing she does.

Perhaps that is where repentance always begins.

James remembers her not because she had the best theology, but because she welcomed the messengers and sent them out another way.

Another way.

Southeast reminded me that sometimes the old road simply cannot take you where you need to go. The mountain blocks it. The water interrupts it. The map reaches its limit.

And sometimes faith begins with the humility to admit:

I cannot get there from here by remaining who I have been.

The world will continue arguing about who must change.

Yom Kippur asks the harder question:

What road must change beneath my own feet?

Because when living faith enters the house, something must leave by another road.

Read more →

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Benediction

May the God who called Abraham forward,
who brought Israel through the sea,
who found faith inside the walls of Jericho,
and who received Rahab when she chose another way,
give us courage to return.

May our prayers become practice.
May our confession become repair.
May our belief grow hands and feet.
And when the old road opens before us again,
may the Holy One give us enough faith,
enough courage, and enough grace
to go home another way.

Amen.

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