St. James Presbyterian Church (USA)
Sunday, September 06, 2026
The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
“Serving the Kingdom of God for One Hundred and Thirty-One Years
in the City of New York."
LEO Design, Ltd.
Order of Service
Prelude RE Oscar Maxwell, III
Psalm of the Day Psalm 149.1–9
*Call to Worship RE Andréa Bradford
One: Sing to the Lord a new song; rejoice in the God who gathers us together.
All: We come as a people called to praise, love, and faithful life together.
One: Wake from sleep, for the day is near and Christ is among us.
All: We come ready to worship, bearing witness to the God who is with us.
Opening Hymn “Praise Ye the Lord, the Almighty” PH 482
Prayer of Adoration RE Andréa Bradford
Covenant-making God, you gather people into community and teach us that none of us belongs only to ourselves. You meet us in praise, in households and neighborhoods, in acts of love, and wherever people seek your presence together. Awaken us to the joy of belonging to you and to one another and receive the praise we offer with grateful hearts.
Musical Response “My Tribute” Andraé Crouch
Call to Confession (Remain Seated) RE Andréa Bradford
Love does no wrong to a neighbor, yet we know how easily fear, pride, resentment, and indifference can wound the life we share. Trusting the God who calls us toward restoration rather than shame, let us tell the truth before God.
Prayer of Confession
Merciful God, we confess that we do not always live as people bound together by your love. We protect ourselves at the expense of our neighbor, speak when listening is needed, remain silent when truth should be spoken, and allow hurt to become distance. Forgive us when pride keeps us from reconciliation and fear keeps us from the difficult work of repair. Awaken us to love that does no harm and form us again as people who seek one another’s good.
Silent Confession
Musical Response “Somebody’s Knockin’” Negro Spiritual
Assurance of Pardon RE Andréa Bradford
Jesus teaches us to seek the one who has been separated and to labor toward restoration. In Christ, grace does not abandon us in our failures; grace comes looking for us, restores us, and calls us again into the life of the community. Friends, in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven and made new. Amen.
Musical Response “Cast Your Cares” Carlton Burgess
Peace of Christ RE Andréa Bradford
Christ promises to be present where people gather in his name, even in the difficult work of listening, truth-telling, and reconciliation. May this peace of Christ meet us there, restore what has been wounded, and teach us again how to live together.
And also, with you.
Prayer of Illumination
Spirit of the living God, awaken us to your Word. Open our ears to hear what love requires, our hearts to recognize one another, and our lives to bear witness to your presence among us. Form us through these scriptures into a people ready to live what you reveal. Amen.
Scripture First Reading Exodus 12.1–14
Second Reading Romans 13.8-14
Gospel Matthew 18.15-20
Let the Children Come “Who Are Your Two or Three?”
Special Music “God Is” Dr. Robert Fryson, Jr.
Sermon “Lintel Labor: Becoming a People” Rev. Dr. Derrick McQueen, Ph. D.
*Congregational Hymn “The Storm Is Passing Over” Charles Albert Tindley
Prayers of and for the People
Offering *Doxology Prayer
*Closing Hymn “I Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody” Alex Bradford
*Benediction
*Musical Amen
Postlude
The End of Worship, the Beginning of Service
A Saying for You ~ “Work is love made visible.”
~Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
Sermon Companion Guide
Lintel Labor: Becoming a People
Scripture Focus: Exodus 12:1–14
Companion Lectionary Texts: Psalm 149:1–9 · Romans 13:8–14 · Matthew 18:15–20
WHY THIS SERMON FOR THIS SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2026Exodus 12 places Israel at a threshold. Households eat in haste, bitter herbs remain on the tongue, blood marks the doorposts and lintel, and a people prepares to pass from bondage toward a freedom they do not yet fully understand. The sermon lingers at that doorway and asks what is being born there.
Before Israel has fully become the covenant people we later recognize, God addresses the whole edah: households learning to belong to one another, share responsibility, carry memory, and act together. Pharaoh has defined them by the labor he can extract; God calls them into peoplehood.
On Labor Day weekend, that biblical passage opens a second question: who gets to tell the story of labor, freedom, and national identity? The sermon remembers how power can preserve a celebration while making the struggle beneath it quieter, and how truthful testimony keeps a people accountable to the history it carries.
LISTENING FOR THE GOOD NEWS· God names a people more fully than empire does; we are never only what systems can extract from us.
· Freedom is not merely leaving bondage. Liberation includes the labor of becoming a people together.
· Memory can be an act of formation: what we remember truthfully shapes what we are able to become.
· Testimony from those who bore the cost can change not only what history includes, but what the whole story means.
IMAGES TO HOLD FROM THE SERMON· Household after household squeezing between blood-marked doorposts and beneath the lintel toward freedom.
· Bitter herbs still sharp on the tongue as a reminder that liberation has labor pains.
· A holiday remaining visible while the conflict and struggle beneath its history become easier to forget.
· A people carrying memory through the doorway rather than cleaning it up before passing through.A CENTRAL CLAIM TO CARRYA nation tells stories about labor in order to say what kind of people it believes itself to be.
The labor of liberation includes telling the fuller truth until the story we inherit becomes large enough for the people who actually lived it.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION· What story about your family, church, community, or nation became more complicated when you heard another person’s testimony?
· Where have you seen labor celebrated while the worker, struggle, or cost behind it remained hidden?
· What truth have you inherited that you now understand differently because someone said, “There is more”?
· What memory do you need to carry forward so that freedom does not become separated from the labor that made it possible?
PRACTICES FOR THE WEEKPractice Remembering: Choose one story you inherited and listen for whose labor, suffering, or testimony may be missing from the telling.
Practice Listening: Receive one person’s account without immediately defending the version of events you already know.
Practice Honoring Labor: Notice one worker whose contribution is easy to overlook and name the dignity of what they make possible.
Practice Truthful Belonging: Ask how a fuller memory might change the way you participate in your family, church, community, or nation.
A PRAYER YOU MAY CARRY
God of liberation and memory, meet us at the thresholds where old stories no longer hold the whole truth. Give us courage to remember what power would make quiet, humility to receive the testimony of others, and grace to carry the fuller story forward. Form us through truth into a people who honor one another’s labor, remember what freedom has cost, and keep becoming together. Amen.
All liturgical materials created by
Rev. Derrick McQueen, Ph.D. 2026 ©
Sunday, September 06, 2026
The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
“Serving the Kingdom of God for One Hundred and Thirty-One Years
in the City of New York."
LEO Design, Ltd.
Order of Service
Prelude RE Oscar Maxwell, III
Psalm of the Day Psalm 149.1–9
*Call to Worship RE Andréa Bradford
One: Sing to the Lord a new song; rejoice in the God who gathers us together.
All: We come as a people called to praise, love, and faithful life together.
One: Wake from sleep, for the day is near and Christ is among us.
All: We come ready to worship, bearing witness to the God who is with us.
Opening Hymn “Praise Ye the Lord, the Almighty” PH 482
Prayer of Adoration RE Andréa Bradford
Covenant-making God, you gather people into community and teach us that none of us belongs only to ourselves. You meet us in praise, in households and neighborhoods, in acts of love, and wherever people seek your presence together. Awaken us to the joy of belonging to you and to one another and receive the praise we offer with grateful hearts.
Musical Response “My Tribute” Andraé Crouch
Call to Confession (Remain Seated) RE Andréa Bradford
Love does no wrong to a neighbor, yet we know how easily fear, pride, resentment, and indifference can wound the life we share. Trusting the God who calls us toward restoration rather than shame, let us tell the truth before God.
Prayer of Confession
Merciful God, we confess that we do not always live as people bound together by your love. We protect ourselves at the expense of our neighbor, speak when listening is needed, remain silent when truth should be spoken, and allow hurt to become distance. Forgive us when pride keeps us from reconciliation and fear keeps us from the difficult work of repair. Awaken us to love that does no harm and form us again as people who seek one another’s good.
Silent Confession
Musical Response “Somebody’s Knockin’” Negro Spiritual
Assurance of Pardon RE Andréa Bradford
Jesus teaches us to seek the one who has been separated and to labor toward restoration. In Christ, grace does not abandon us in our failures; grace comes looking for us, restores us, and calls us again into the life of the community. Friends, in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven and made new. Amen.
Musical Response “Cast Your Cares” Carlton Burgess
Peace of Christ RE Andréa Bradford
Christ promises to be present where people gather in his name, even in the difficult work of listening, truth-telling, and reconciliation. May this peace of Christ meet us there, restore what has been wounded, and teach us again how to live together.
And also, with you.
Prayer of Illumination
Spirit of the living God, awaken us to your Word. Open our ears to hear what love requires, our hearts to recognize one another, and our lives to bear witness to your presence among us. Form us through these scriptures into a people ready to live what you reveal. Amen.
Scripture First Reading Exodus 12.1–14
Second Reading Romans 13.8-14
Gospel Matthew 18.15-20
Let the Children Come “Who Are Your Two or Three?”
Special Music “God Is” Dr. Robert Fryson, Jr.
Sermon “Lintel Labor: Becoming a People” Rev. Dr. Derrick McQueen, Ph. D.
*Congregational Hymn “The Storm Is Passing Over” Charles Albert Tindley
Prayers of and for the People
Offering *Doxology Prayer
*Closing Hymn “I Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody” Alex Bradford
*Benediction
*Musical Amen
Postlude
The End of Worship, the Beginning of Service
A Saying for You ~ “Work is love made visible.”
~Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
Sermon Companion Guide
Lintel Labor: Becoming a People
Scripture Focus: Exodus 12:1–14
Companion Lectionary Texts: Psalm 149:1–9 · Romans 13:8–14 · Matthew 18:15–20
WHY THIS SERMON FOR THIS SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2026Exodus 12 places Israel at a threshold. Households eat in haste, bitter herbs remain on the tongue, blood marks the doorposts and lintel, and a people prepares to pass from bondage toward a freedom they do not yet fully understand. The sermon lingers at that doorway and asks what is being born there.
Before Israel has fully become the covenant people we later recognize, God addresses the whole edah: households learning to belong to one another, share responsibility, carry memory, and act together. Pharaoh has defined them by the labor he can extract; God calls them into peoplehood.
On Labor Day weekend, that biblical passage opens a second question: who gets to tell the story of labor, freedom, and national identity? The sermon remembers how power can preserve a celebration while making the struggle beneath it quieter, and how truthful testimony keeps a people accountable to the history it carries.
LISTENING FOR THE GOOD NEWS· God names a people more fully than empire does; we are never only what systems can extract from us.
· Freedom is not merely leaving bondage. Liberation includes the labor of becoming a people together.
· Memory can be an act of formation: what we remember truthfully shapes what we are able to become.
· Testimony from those who bore the cost can change not only what history includes, but what the whole story means.
IMAGES TO HOLD FROM THE SERMON· Household after household squeezing between blood-marked doorposts and beneath the lintel toward freedom.
· Bitter herbs still sharp on the tongue as a reminder that liberation has labor pains.
· A holiday remaining visible while the conflict and struggle beneath its history become easier to forget.
· A people carrying memory through the doorway rather than cleaning it up before passing through.A CENTRAL CLAIM TO CARRYA nation tells stories about labor in order to say what kind of people it believes itself to be.
The labor of liberation includes telling the fuller truth until the story we inherit becomes large enough for the people who actually lived it.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION· What story about your family, church, community, or nation became more complicated when you heard another person’s testimony?
· Where have you seen labor celebrated while the worker, struggle, or cost behind it remained hidden?
· What truth have you inherited that you now understand differently because someone said, “There is more”?
· What memory do you need to carry forward so that freedom does not become separated from the labor that made it possible?
PRACTICES FOR THE WEEKPractice Remembering: Choose one story you inherited and listen for whose labor, suffering, or testimony may be missing from the telling.
Practice Listening: Receive one person’s account without immediately defending the version of events you already know.
Practice Honoring Labor: Notice one worker whose contribution is easy to overlook and name the dignity of what they make possible.
Practice Truthful Belonging: Ask how a fuller memory might change the way you participate in your family, church, community, or nation.
A PRAYER YOU MAY CARRY
God of liberation and memory, meet us at the thresholds where old stories no longer hold the whole truth. Give us courage to remember what power would make quiet, humility to receive the testimony of others, and grace to carry the fuller story forward. Form us through truth into a people who honor one another’s labor, remember what freedom has cost, and keep becoming together. Amen.
All liturgical materials created by
Rev. Derrick McQueen, Ph.D. 2026 ©
