The Gathering
Tolling of the Hour
Welcome and Announcements ** Indicates, please stand.
Whether we are old or young, whether we are first-time or longtime worshipers, whether we come full of doubts or confidence, joy or sorrow, in this place we are all family, because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Welcome to all of you today!
Prelude
Prayer of Invocation
Everlasting God, in whom we live and move and have our being: You have made us for yourself, so that our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Give us purity of heart and strength of purpose, that no selfish passion may hinder us from knowing your will, no weakness keep us from doing it; that in your light we may see light clearly, and in your service find perfect freedom through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
**Responsive Call to Worship Please stand in body or spirit as you are able.
Loving God, we come to you in worship and thanksgiving. You are greater than we can understand;
open our eyes that we may see the wonderful truths you have shown to us in Jesus.
You are more loving than our hearts can respond to;
help us to give ourselves to you in worship so that we learn what you want us to be.
You are wiser than we can know;
still our minds as we worship you so that we can understand the things you are saying to us.
Loving God, in Jesus you chose to come to the world in humility. You chose the path the world saw as foolish. You used what the world considered weak.
We worship and adore you. Amen.
**Opening Hymn O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing #466
Call to Confession and Silent Prayer
When we gather to praise God, we remember that we are people who have preferred our wills to his. Accepting his power to become new persons in Christ, let us confess our sin before God and one another.
Unison Prayer of Confession
Merciful God, in your gracious presence we confess our sin and the sin of this world. Although Christ is among us as our peace, we are a people divided against ourselves as we cling to the values of a broken world. The profit and pleasures we pursue lay waste the land and pollute the seas. The fears and jealousies that we harbor set neighbor against neighbor and nation against nation. We abuse your good gifts of imagination and freedom, of intellect and reason, and turn them into bonds of oppression. Lord, have mercy upon us; heal and forgive us. Set us free to serve you in the world as agents of your reconciling love in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon Ezekiel 36:25-26, NRSV
I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Know that you are forgiven, and be at peace.
** Passing the Peace
The Peace of Christ be with you…
And also with you.
**Gloria Patri #579
Hearing the Word
Prayer of Illumination
Gracious God, we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from your mouth. Make us hungry for this your Word, that it may nourish us today in the ways of eternal life. Through Jesus Christ, the bread of heaven. Amen.
Scripture
Old Testament Reading Psalm 37:1-11
Instrumental Anthem
New Testament Reading Luke 6:27-36
Sermon The Most Difficult Sermon Rev. Morris
**Hymn O for a World #386
**Affirmation of Faith
Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible. All things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
Invitation to Offering
No one gives oneself freely and willingly to God’s service unless, having tasted the Father’s love, that one is drawn in love and worships God in return. Freely we have received; freely we will give.
Offertory
**Doxology #592
**Unison Prayer of Dedication
Generous God, you have given us life, a place to live in, and people to live with. Open our eyes to each other and to all our brothers and sisters, especially the poor, the oppressed, the alienated. Make us humble enough to help and comfort them, so that your love and justice and peace may come to them. We make bold to consecrate ourselves and our gifts to you and to the service of others, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Celebration of the Lord’s Supper
Words of Institution
God meets us in the sacraments, holy acts in which his deeds elicit our response. In the supper our Lord offers the bread and cup to believers to guarantee our share in his death and resurrection, and to unite us to him and to each other. We take this food gladly, announcing as we eat that Jesus is our life and that he shall come again to call us to the Supper of the Lamb. Come to this table: you who have much faith, and you who would like to have more; you who have been to this sacrament often, and you who have not been for a long time; you who have tried to follow Jesus, and you who have failed. Come. It is Christ who invites us to meet him here.
Great Prayer of Thanksgiving and the Lord’s Prayer
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right for us to give thanks and praise.
It is our joy and our peace, at all times and in all places to give thanks to you, holy Father, almighty, everlasting God, through Christ, our Lord.
It is truly right to glorify you, God, and to give you thanks, for you alone are God, living and true, dwelling in light inaccessible from before time and forever. Fountain of all life and source of all goodness, you made all things and fill them with your blessing; you created them to rejoice in the splendor of your radiance. Countless throngs of angels stand before you to serve you night and day, and, beholding the glory of your presence, they offer you unceasing praise. Joining with them, and giving voice to every creature under heaven, we glorify your name and lift our voices in joyful praise:
#562 Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, holy, holy, holy Lord God of power and might, heaven and earth are full, full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest, hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest, hosanna in the highest.
Most righteous God, we remember in this supper the perfect sacrifice offered once on the cross by our Lord Jesus Christ for the sin of the whole world. In the joy of his resurrection and in the expectation of his coming again, we offer ourselves to you as holy and living sacrifices. Together we proclaim the mystery of the faith.
#563 Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
Send your Holy Spirit upon us, we pray, that the bread we break and the cup we bless may be to us the communion of the body and blood of Christ. Grant that, being joined together in him, we may attain to the unity of the faith and grow up in all things into Christ, our Lord. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
#564 Amen, amen, amen. Amen, amen.
Now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we pray: Our Father who art in Heaven…
Preparing the Bread and Cup
We celebrate this feast in obedience to Christ’s example and mandate.
The Lord Jesus, on the night of his arrest, took bread, and after giving thanks to God, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take, eat. This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me.”
Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the saving death of the risen Lord until he comes.
Sharing the Bread and the Cup
Unison Prayer after Communion
Lord, you have put gladness in our hearts; you have satisfied our hunger with good things. In giving all, you have not withheld from us your own dear Son. How can we withhold anything from you, our Lord and our God? Renew us day
by day with the gift of your Spirit, that we may give ourselves completely to your service and walk with joy in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
We Go Out to Serve
**Hymn For the Bread Which You Have Broken #509
**Charge and Blessing
As you have been fed at this table, go to feed the hungry. As you have been set free, go to set free the imprisoned. As you have received, give. As you have heard, proclaim. And the blessing that you have received from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be always with you. Go in peace as the reaffirmed church of Jesus Christ.
We go to be his body in a broken world.
May the grace of God and the love of Christ go with you. Amen.
Postlude