Sunday Worship – February 25, 2018

SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT

THE RINGING OF THE BELL

A LENTEN WELCOME: Reverend Joel Weible, Pastor

PART 1:

CONSIDERING LENT: 2018
- Unlike the Christmas season with all its parties, running around, buying presents, baking cookies, and decorating, the season of Lent is a slower time, a time of reflection, self-examination, and commitment. The traditional forty days of Lent offer people a chance to focus on how to live a more Christian life.
- Use these moments before the ringing of the bell to greet your neighbor and consider:
  How might you live a more Christian life?

“The Walk,” by Ann Weems (from Kneeling in Jerusalem)
- Those of us who walk along this road do so reluctantly. Lent is not our favorite time of
  year.
  We’d rather be more active – planning and scurrying around. All this is too contemplative to suit us. Besides, we don’t know what to do with piousness and prayer.
  Perhaps we’re afraid to have time to think, for thoughts come unbidden. Perhaps we’re
  afraid to face our future knowing our past.
  Give us courage, O God, to your word and to read our living into it. Give us the trust
  to know we’re forgiven, and give us the faith to take up our lives and walk.

Pastor: We have each gone our own way. You have, and you have, and I have, too. We have each chosen, at least once, the path of disobedience. We have each, at least once, sat angry and dissatisfied in the midst of costly and precious gifts.
People: We have each gone our own way. Christ have mercy.
PRELUDE: “Jam, Christe, sol justitae” – arranged by Gerald Near

PART 2:

CALL TO WORSHIP – Christiaan Faul, Director of Youth Ministries
- Leader: We gather this day to worship our God, whose words and ways
  challenge us.
- People: We come to worship our Creator, seeking to have our faith
  challenged into growth.
- Leader: Our faith is rooted in our worship together.
- People: Gathered together we find nourishment for our spirits in this
  growing season of Lent.
- ALL: LET US WORSHIP GOD TOGETHER.
OPENING HYMN NO. 274: “O God of Earth and Space” – LEONI
CALL TO CONFESSION
- Leader: We come before you, O God, in the shadow of the cross, grateful for your great love for us.
- People: As you came to us in Jesus, reveal yourself among us still. Hear our prayer… Merciful God, we confess that we have not been sincere Christians. We claim to follow Jesus but have not taken his path of sacrificial love. We profess to be disciples, but we are not willing to bear the cost of discipleship. We affirm the virtue of self-denial, but we indulge our selfish desires and seek earthly gain. Forgive us, we pray. Free us for sincere repentance through Christ, our Lord. In his name, hear our silent prayers of return … (a time of silence for personal confession)
KYRIE, Hymn No. 574
- Lord, have mercy upon us.
  Christ, have mercy upon us.
  Lord, have mercy upon us.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
- Leader: Our hearts are washed anew in the healing waters of God’s love.
- People: For the steadfast love of God endures forever …
- Leader: Through the Holy Spirit, God nourishes us into life.
- People: For the steadfast love of God endures forever …
- ALL: WHAT WONDROUS LOVE IS THIS?
CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE, HYMN NO. 85
- What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul,
  What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
  What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
  To bear the heavy cross for my soul, for my soul,
  To bear the heavy cross for my soul!

PART 3:

TIME WITH THE YOUNGER DISCIPLES – Shawn Harmon, Student Minister

PART 4:

MUSICAL OFFERING: The Chancel Choir – “When Jesus Wept” – William Billings

PART 5:

SCRIPTURE LESSON: Genesis 6:5-7,8
- The Word of the Lord.
  Thanks be to God.
SERMON: GRIEVED TO THE HEART – Reverend Joel Weible, Pastor
- Download the sermon to play on your own audio device: 022518 SERMON jw

PART 6:

PROCLAMATION HYMN NO. 244: “Let Us with a Gladsome Mind” – MONKLAND
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH: from THE IONA COMMUNITY
- With the whole church … We affirm that we are made in God’s image, befriended by Christ, and empowered by the Spirit.
- With people everywhere … We affirm God’s goodness at the heart of humanity, planted more deeply than all that is wrong.
- With all creation … We affirm and celebrate the miracle and wonder of life and the unfolding purposes of God, forever at work in ourselves and the world. Amen.

PART 7:

TIME OF GIVING THANKS CELEBRATIONS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
- Our 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 debts,
  As we forgive our debtors;
  And lead us not into temptation,
  But deliver us from evil.
  For Thine is the kingdom
  And the power and the glory, forever.
  Amen.

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