Worship Order for Sunday

Long Green Valley Church of the Brethren
Long Green & Kanes Rds., near Glen Arm, Md.
March 13, 2011
Worship 10:00 am              Sunday School 11:10am

The First Sunday of Lent 

      Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. (Genesis 3:7)

  Beginning with Praise (9:50 am)              "Wonderful grace of Jesus"              150
  Announcements
  Prelude

  Beginning with a Psalm

*Song of Praise                    "Blessed be your name"

*Call to Confession

*Silent Prayer

*Unison Affirmation of Forgiveness                                           (back of bulletin)

  Gospel Story                           Matthew 4:1-11

  Hymn                        (vs. 2 only) "When peace, like a river"                          336

  Poem                                      Hooked On ‘If”?

  Sharing a joy, a concern, a word of testimony or praise
                                 (please be brief, and aware of God's listening presence)

  Prayer Hymn                 (vs. 3 only) "Great is thy faithfulness"                           327

  Pastoral Prayer

  Returning our Tithes and Offerings

  Offertory              (Please sign the attendance pad and pass it on)

  In the Beginning                      Genesis 2:15 – 3:7

  Message                    "Coming apart at the seams" (mp3)

*Song of Hope                          "Grace like rain"

*Benediction                                                                                               856

*Postlude

*Rise in body or in spirit

#'s are from Hymnal: A Worship Book

Worship leaders - see basic guidelines

Beginning with a Psalm
(Ps.32, Laughing Bird version)

1 - What a blessing it is to be among those you have forgiven, LORD, those whose record of wrongdoing you have wiped clean.

2 - People who are honest about their lives have everything going for them; they never have to cover their tracks or worry that they’ll be in your bad books.

3 - I used to keep my sins to myself, LORD, but they poisoned me from within; wasting my body, tormenting my mind.

1 - Day and night I felt your eyes following me; I lived in fear that you’d see right through me. The joy of living evaporated in the burning heat of my guilt.

2 - Then I decided to come clean with you, LORD, to own up to all I’d done and stop living a lie. I made a full confession to you, LORD, and you gave me a full pardon, forgiving all my sin.

3 - Now, like all your faithful people, LORD, I am always ready to open myself to you in prayer. When trouble breaks its banks, your faithful ones are on safe ground.

1 - You are like a bomb shelter for us, LORD; you protect us from danger. Thanks to you, LORD, we can still laugh; we can dance around singing songs of freedom.

2 - You have given us clear directions; you have pointed out the path we should follow. You have kept a watchful eye on us and made sure we understood.

3 - You have encouraged us to follow willingly, to understand and embrace your ways; not to buck and snort like wild horses, fighting the reins until our strength is broken.

1 - Those who refuse the straight and narrow will suffer for it, over and over; but those who put their trust in you, LORD, will find love and loyalty wherever they go.

2 - You are celebrated by all right-minded people, LORD;

3 - with open hearts we shout for joy;

1 - with clear minds we sing your praises.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
  

Call to Confession

"It has been removed," said the doctor of the splinter that had run into my hand too deep for me to tend. And I thought of sin, what runs too deep for me to fix, requiring the loving, grace-filled intervention of another to bring healing and restoration.

But first, before the physician, there was the need for acknowledgment; there was the work of my words-my confession-from the place where I know my powerlessness.

The psalmist knew what happens when we don't speak the all of it, how something in us dries up. With sin, there is no need to roll in it, nor is shame or guilt of any real help. The psalmist's point is that it is confession that best moves us along into God's healing arms. In speaking the truth, we open ourselves to the possibility of the Grace that is God doing God's restorative work in us… Please pray with me.

Gracious and loving God, you who knew us even in our mother's womb, hear us now - receive us now - as in this moment of silence we offer our prayers of confession.

Silent Prayer

Let’s pray together the “Affirmation of Forgiveness” printed on the back of the bulletin, as well as projected on the screen above.

Unison Affirmation of Forgiveness

Thank you, O God, for your tender mercy and your abiding love. Thank you for surrounding us with forgiveness, and for freeing us so that we might return to you and to the path that is ours to live. Amen.

by Glenn Mitchell (slightly adapted), Spring Mills, Pennsylvania
Church of the Brethren Living Word Bulletin
Anchor/Wallace, Sleepy Eye MN 56085, "The Living Word Series"
  

Gospel Story
Matthew 4:1-11

(6 posters needed, see below for what they each should say)

Pastor:

On this first Sunday of the season of Lent, our worship connects with two very familiar stories about temptation. My sermon later on will focus upon a story from the beginning of the Bible. Right now, however, we turn to the Gospel of Matthew to hear one more time about what happened immediately after Jesus was baptized. We have three readers. One will serve as the narrator. Another will be Satan. The third will be Jesus. Now, I need six volunteers to help them, and I hope most of them will be our children. (Have them come forward)

Child 1, when I point to you, I want you to hold up this sign which says, “Boo!” That will be a signal to the rest of us to boo after Satan speaks. Let’s practice.

Child 2, when I point to you, I want you to hold up this sign which says, “Yeah!” That will be a signal to the rest of us to cheer after Jesus speaks. Let’s practice.

Child 3, 4, 5, & 6, I have signs that read “Temptation,” “Sin,” “Forgiveness,” and “Grace.” Two of you will stand on each side of Satan and hold up your signs, and the other two will stand up on each side of Jesus and hold up your signs. Can you guess which signs go with Satan and which with Jesus? That’s right. Temptation” and “Sin” go with Satan, and “Forgiveness” and “Grace” go with Jesus. Afterward, someone will help you tape your sign up on the wall.

Okay, let’s all get in place. How about if we practice the “boo!” and “Yeah!” one more time? … Those who have ears, let them hear.

1 - Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.   The tempter came and said to him,

2 - If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.   (boo!)

1 - But he answered,

3 - It is written, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”   (Yeah!)

1 - Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him,

2 - If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you,” and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”   (boo!)

1 - Jesus said to him,

3 - Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”   (Yeah!)

1 - Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him,

2 - All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.   (boo!)

1 - Jesus said to him,

3 - “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ ”   (Yeah!)

1 - Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

from The New Revised Standard Version,
copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

from ideas suggested by Carolyn C. Brown in Worshiping with Children.
  

Poem
Hooked On ' If ' ?

The Tempter is an angler
         with a covered hook,
he’ll hang around your little faith
         and quote you the Good Book.
Watch out when he’s as plausible
         as a most wise pontiff,
he’s covering with some bait
         a barbed, and cruel “if.”

If you really are God’s child,
         show me your prayer skill.
If
you have the true faith,
         mountains should move at will.
If
you really are a Christian,
         your love will be aglow.
If
you truly have the Spirit,
         your godliness will show.

Yes, Satan is an angler
         whose “if” is a keen hook,
he tried it on with Jesus
         with a swami look:
“If you really are God’s Son,
         turn these stones into bread.
If you are the Chosen One,
         you’ll jump and not be dead.”

The Tempter is a loser
         whose logic’s out of place;
we do not have to prove a thing,
         our status is by grace.
It’s written, for our freedom,
         that God owns us by name.
Accept you are a child of God
         and spoil the angler’s game!

by Bruce D. Prewer 1993
  

Pastoral Prayer

 

written closer to the time (if not at the moment)

 

Returning our Tithes and Offerings

            As you return your offering, ponder this “bridge” that links the gospel story we heard earlier with the Genesis episode to which we will soon turn our attention. I’ll be reading from “The Message,” a paraphrase rather than a literal translation. Listen.

Romans 5:12-19 from The Message

            With God’s “generous, life-giving gift” of Jesus Christ in mind, let’s respond with our tithes and offerings. Ushers?
 

Benediction
  

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
  When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
  
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
  Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

Hymnal # 856
Colossians 3:1-4, 12-15a
from The New Revised Standard Version,
copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
  

(para traducir a español, presione la bandera de España)

 

Interested in Sunday School?
Below is a growing list of possible sites to visit. As you discover others, please let us know.

International Lesson:
Faith and Life Resources

Mennonite Publishing House

International Lesson:
Mennonite Weekly Review

(scroll down on left to "Sunday School lessons)

International Lesson:
Christian Standard
(one week ahead)

International Lesson:
Living Web Sunday School Project

 
International Lesson:
Adult Bible Studies
from The United Methodist Publishing House
(click "supplemental resources" and "current events supplement" under both the "Student" and "Teacher" sections in the left hand column)
  

While one of our adult classes follows the International lesson above (see also), using
A Guide for Biblical Studies,
published quarterly by our denomination,
another class often uses one of the
Good Ground series.

For children and youth, we use the new
Gather Round curriculum
(developed jointly by the Church of the Brethren and the Mennonite Church)

 

©2010 Peter L. Haynes
(unless otherwise stated, worship resources were written by him)

 

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