First Presbyterian Church-Edenton
October 26, 2025-20th Sunday after Pentecost
Rev. Clayton Brooks-In Person
Communion Sunday
The Gathering
Tolling of the Hour
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to worship at First Presbyterian Church.
This is the day the Lord has made—let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Whether you come every week or are joining us for the first time,
we gather as one family in Christ, welcomed by God’s grace and peace.
Together, let us open our hearts to the Spirit and worship God with joy.
Announcements
Visitors, please fill out the connection card in the bulletin so we can send you a note.
* Indicates, please stand.
(Listen quietly as we enter into worship with the opening prayer and a prelude)
Opening Prayer
Steadfast God,
when we find ourselves far from home, displaced, disoriented, uncertain,
you remind us that your presence travels with us.
In strange lands and shifting seasons,
teach us to plant gardens of hope,
to build houses of peace,
and to trust the promise that you are not done with us yet.
In the name of Christ, our refuge and redeemer, we pray. Amen.
Prelude
(Please stand in body or spirit for the responsive call to worship)
*Call to Worship
When the world trembles beneath our feet,
God is the steady rhythm still pulsing beneath it all.
When everything familiar feels far away,
God meets us in the in-between planting gardens of hope in the soil of our waiting.
Even in exile, grace builds a home.
Even in change, love holds fast. Come, let us worship the One who makes beauty from our disorientation,
and wholeness from what was once undone.
(Please remain standing for our opening hymn number 65, Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah)
*Hymn Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah GTG#65
(Please be seated)
Call to Confession and Silent Prayers of Confession
There are days when faith feels fragile,
when we long for what used to be
and question whether new life can really grow here.
Confession is where we name that ache.
It’s where we unclench our hands
and make room for grace to meet us again.
Let us come honestly before God, first in silence, and then together using the prayer printed in your bulletin.
Prayer of Confession
God of the long road home, we confess that we resist the places that change us.
We cling to the familiar, even when it no longer gives life.
We grumble in our wilderness, and mistake waiting for abandonment.
Forgive us for doubting the goodness you are still unfolding in the distance.
Forgive us for forgetting that exile can also be holy ground.
Meet us here, O God, in our restlessness, our longing, our half-formed hope and teach our hearts to trust again. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Listen, even now, God is whispering your name.
Even now, love is rewriting the story.
You are not forgotten.
You are not forsaken.
You are being renewed, reshaped, reclaimed—day by day, grace by grace.
In Christ, we are made whole again. Thanks be to God.
Passing of the Peace
Since God has forgiven us in Christ, let us forgive one another. The passing of the peace is a sign of that forgiveness and blessing to each other. Come let us offer a sign of peace to one another.
Then, let us stand together as we sing our congregational response. The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, And also with you.
Congregational Response There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy GTG#435 v.1
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, like the wideness of the sea.
There’s kindness in God’s justice, which is more than liberty.
There is no place where earth’s sorrows are more felt than up in heaven.
There is no place where earth’s failings have such kindly judgment given.
The Word
(You may be seated and join me as I pray)
Prayer of Illumination
God of wandering hearts and steadfast love, as your Word is read and proclaimed,
open our ears to the hope that hums beneath despair. Plant in us a vision for the world you are remaking,
a world where exiles find belonging and weary souls find rest.
Speak to us now, and make your home in us once more. Amen.
Scripture Psalm 46
Word in Music
Scripture Jeremiah 29: 1-14; 31: 31-34
Sermon "Resilience Found in Exile” Rev. Clayton Brooks
*Hymn God is Our Refuge and Our Strength GTG #329
(Let us remain standing as we affirm our faith using the words printed in the bulletin. Together we boldy proclaim.)
Affirmation of Faith 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 Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on 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 Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.
(Please be seated.)
Prayers of the People
There are moments when words feel too small for what we carry—
when the ache of the world, or the longing in our own hearts,
presses heavy and holy in the same breath.
Prayer is where we bring it all—our gratitude and grief,
our questions and quiet hopes—
trusting that God can hold what we cannot.
So we gather the scattered pieces of our hearts
and lift them together before the One
who meets us in exile and calls it beloved ground.
Let us pray.
O God of exiles and dreamers,
you know what it means to live between what was and what will be.
When our hearts ache for what we have lost, remind us of what still remains.
When we are tired of waiting, teach us the holy rhythm of patience.
When the world feels uncertain, plant in us a stubborn hope
that refuses to give up on your goodness.
We pray for those whose homes are far away, for the displaced, the lonely, the weary.
We pray for the ones who rebuild after storms—of wind, or grief, or change.
We pray for communities learning to trust again, and for churches daring to imagine new life
in the ruins of what once was.
Breathe your Spirit upon us, O God, that we may be resilient in love, creative in compassion, and faithful in the work of healing. For yours is the power that turns exile into home, and endings into beginnings. Amen.
The Great Feast
INVITATION TO THE TABLE
Scripture says that people will come from north and south, east and west to sit at God’s Table in the Kingdom of God.
I must confess, there are few images more lovely than that.
But until that beautiful, promised day when all of creation will share a table with Christ, we will keep gathering at this Table.
And at this Table, we will tell the story of God’s love.
And at this Table, we will break ordinary bread and drink from an ordinary cup.
And at this Table, none will be turned away, for Jesus welcomes all.
At this Table we will dream of a better world, where all are fed.
And at this Table, none will leave hungry.
So, come!
Join us in the feast!
Join the world in this feast!
This is Christ’s Table.
Come break bread with us and experience the community God formed us to be.
Jesus Christ, who has sat at our tables, now invites us to be guests at his.
THE GREAT THANKSGIVING AND LORD’S PRAYER
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.
Loving God,
We come to this Table today longing for a new beginning.
In a world that so often feels like it’s ending,
we crave the hope of a new beginning.
We long to heal from the endings and crash landings of our hurting world and start again, rooted in your good news.
So week by week, bit by bit, we return to your Word.
Week by week, bit by bit, we return to each other.
Week by week, and bit by bit, we repeat the truths that we so often need to hear, trusting that by your grace, it is never too late to start again.
So in this spirit of beginnings, we come to your Table.
Once more we ask that you would meet us here.
Pour out your Spirit on this ordinary meal, that in this bread and cup we may glimpse a new day.
May the sight of everyone being welcomed at this Table remind us that all are loved by you.
May the evidence that there is food for all remind us that no one is meant to go hungry.
May the fact that our own sin, shame, and doubt do not keep us from this Table remind us that you welcome and love us as we are.
And may all of these Communion truths serve as building blocks for a new day, for a new beginning.
With hope in our hearts, we pray.
With hope in our hearts, we gather.
With hope in our hearts, we begin again.
Meet us here.
Allow this joyful feast to be the start of something new.
With joy and hope, we weave our voices together
to pray the words your son taught us to pray, saying . . . Our Father…
BREAKING OF THE BREAD AND POURING OF THE CUP
When Jesus was at table with his disciples he took bread, blessed and broke it,
and gave it to them, saying: Take, eat. Whenever you do this, remember me.
In the same way he took and poured the cup, saying: Take and drink.
Whenever you do this, remember me.
Now, whenever we eat and drink at this table,
we celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection until he comes again.
SHARING OF THE BREAD AND OF THE CUP
You may eat the bread as it is given, the congregation will share the cup together with the Pastor when all have been served.
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
Gracious God, you have made us one with all your people in heaven and on earth.
You have fed us with the bread of life, renewed us for your service, and reminded us of your unshakable love.
Send us out now to live your unity— to speak peace, practice grace, and be your church in the world.
Amen.
The Sending
Offering
Even in strange lands,
God calls us to build and to bless, to plant and to give, to tend the ground where our feet are standing.
What we offer today—our gifts, our hearts, our lives—become part of that quiet work of renewal.
Let us give, not from fear or duty, but from trust in the God who is still at work in the middle of everything. Let us give of our tithes and offerings.
*Doxology
Prayer of Dedication
God of beginnings and becoming, take these gifts and weave them into your story.
Use them to mend what is torn, to rebuild what has fallen, to nurture what is just beginning to grow.
May they be signs of our trust that your promises are not finished yet. Amen.
*Hymn The Church’s One Foundation GTG #321
(Let us say together God’s invitation to a life of Christian discipleship)
*Charge and Blessing
Go now, not as those who are lost, but as those who are being led.
We go with hearts open to the unexpected.
Build hope where you are planted.
Dream of what is yet to be.
Trust that the God who began a good work in you will not let you go.
We go in peace, with courage enough for the journey, and grace enough for each new day. Amen.
(Please be seated. Respectful clapping is an appropriate way to end this service of worship)
Postlude