SEASON OF LENT
SERVICE of WORSHIP
March 5, 2017 10:30 A.M.
Sermon Series: Messages from the Churches of Revelation
broadness of your love for all people. You, who are our rock and our
redeemer, on whom we build our trust, we turn our hearts to you.
In the name of Jesus the Christ, we pray. Amen.
ANTHEM: “Given For You”
J. Martin & D. Nolan
WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
CHILDREN’S TIME: Finding What We Are Looking For
PRELUDE
*CALL TO WORSHIP: “As the Deer”
#2025 (STF)
*MEDITATION ON LENT
…As we extinguish this light, we acknowledge the darkness and pain and
injustice born by artificial boundaries and walls.
NEW TESTAMENT LESSONS: 2 Corinthians 6:16-18
Revelation 2:1-7
HYMN: “Spirit”
(REMAIN SEATED AS IN PRAYER)
#319 (P)
GOSPEL MESSAGE: Matthew 18:6-9
(The first candle is extinguished.)
All: Ever Patient God, as we journey through this most holy season of
Lent, give us strength and courage to make the changes that are
needed in our lives. Open our hearts and minds to see beyond our
own selfishness and put our lives in your hands. Amen.
MESSAGE: “Ephesus: A Place of Boundaries”
*COMMUNITY CALL TO CONFESSION
Leader: Jesus said, “One does not live by bread alone.”
PEOPLE: Yet we are unwilling to fast and pray, mistaking dead rocks
for the bread of life.
Leader: Jesus said, “Worship and serve only the Holy One, your God.”
PEOPLE: Yet we are unwilling to surrender to God’s will, mistaking
worldly power for the power of divine love.
Leader: Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself."
PEOPLE: Yet we are unwilling to knock down boundaries, mistaking
walls and fences for being neighborly.
Leader: We, who live in the shelter of the Most High of God ask
humbly;
ALL:
Teach us to trust in you more fully to live into your Kingdom.
LENTEN COMMUNION SETTING (see insert)
*HYMN: “Help Us Accept Each Other”
#358 (P)
COMMUNITY PRAYER (In Unison)
God of stones and water, you make no distinctions between us—
distinctions of ethnicity or race, gender or identity, riches or rags. All
who believe in you will be saved. In you, we find the courage to
break down barriers that separate, rejoicing, instead, in the
SILENT REFLECTION
Listening Focus: What boundaries do I keep between myself and God?
OFFERING OUR GIFTS TO GOD
*DOXOLOGY: “My Gratitude Now Accept, O God”
#2044 (STF)
My gratitude now accept, O God, For tender care that you provide;
For your abundant faithfulness. Endless is your supply.
From all your bounty I give to you; For all the blessings you impart.
Receive this offering I bring. Receive my joyful heart.
*DEDICATION OF OFFERING (In Unison)
Generous God, you shower us with blessings and call us reach across
the divides. Thank you for this opportunity to continue to shine your
light into the world until we model your Kingdom with no boundaries
or walls. We pray to live in the name of your true light, Jesus the
Christ. Amen.
*HYMN: “My Hope Is Built”
#379 (P)
*BLESSING
(over)
*MUSICAL BENEDICTION: “Go Now In Peace”
Go now in Peace, never be afraid.
God will go with you each hour of every day.
Go now in Faith, steadfast, strong and true.
Know He will guide you in all you do.
Go now in Love, and show you believe;
Reach out to others so all the world can see.
God will be there, watching from above.
Go now in Peace, in Faith, and in Love.
Peru Community Church
POSTLUDE
(Note: Call to Confession and Community Prayer, adapted Abingdon Worship Annual, 2016)
…And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go…
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
---Excerpts from "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost
“A Place for You to Encounter God”
10:30am
March 5, 2017