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Worship Order for
Sunday
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Call to
Worship
(a paraphrase of Romans 5:12-19)
Sisters and brothers, here's how God has saved us.
"Sin entered the world through one man, Adam, long before the
Law ever existed. That's why everyone, even from Adam to Moses,
before the Law existed, died -- because sin produces death, and
everyone has sinned, because Adam's sin has infected us all.
But now God, by a free gift of grace, has used this same process
-- of one person's action being able to infect all the rest --
to save us.
That one person is Jesus Christ.
In Adam's sin, death was able to conquer the whole human race.
In Christ's righteousness, God has lavished on us the free gift
of grace so that we can all conquer sin and death.
In Adam's disobedience, we all became sinners.
In Christ's obedience, we can all be made righteous."
from
Worship Planning
Helps for the First Sunday in Lent -3/10/2008
©2008, The General Board of
Discipleship of The United Methodist Church,
PO Box 340003, Nashville TN 37203-0003.
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Opening
Prayer
Most holy God,
most faithful Friend, look with compassion upon each member of
this congregation as they come before you now. Override our
ignorance, undercut our arrogance, scatter our indifference, and
infiltrate our thoughts and feelings with your own Spirit.
Please set us free from anything that might demean or diffuse
this hour of worship. Enable us to put down our roots into the
immovable ground of your eternal goodness. Through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen!
by Bruce D. Prewer,
Resources: Based on the Revised Common Lectionary.
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Responsive Prayer of Confession
Gracious and merciful God, we confess to
you our reluctance to enter the wilderness places where we are
confronted with our true selves - where we are tempted to put
wordly values before our desire for you. When our hunger for
power and wealth is greater than our hunger for seeking and
doing your will:
Forgive us, O God, and increase our trust in you.
When we are tempted to use the gifts you give us to benefit
ourselves at the expense of serving others:
Forgive us, O God, and increase our trust in you.
When we are tempted to use sensational means to increase
people’s faith, rather than being guided by the humility of
Christ:
Forgive us, O God, and increase our trust in you.
When we are tempted to use bribery to influence and control
people:
Forgive us, O God, and increase our trust in you.
When we are tempted to manipulate you, O God, to satisfy our own
needs:
Forgive us, O God, and increase our trust in you.
(A time of silence for personal confession)
Merciful God, save us from the time of trial and deliver us from
evil. Forgive us our sins and fill us with the joy and peace of
your salvation. So strengthen us with your Spirit during this
Lenten season that we put our whole trust in you as confidently
as Jesus did. This we pray in his name. Amen
by Moira B Laidlaw,
Liturgies Online
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Testimony
David Sack will share of God's faithfulness through his illness,
surgery, and recovery several years ago. The song,
"You
are my Hiding Place," based upon
Psalm 32:7 - "You are a hiding place for me; you
preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of
deliverance," became especially meaningful to him at that
time.
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Pastoral Prayer
usually written closer to the time (if not at the
moment), tho' perhaps it will be something like:
Lord, it seems as though Lent came too early this year. We
wanted more time to recover from the activity and anxiety of
Christmas, yet here we are: the first Sunday in Lent. Our hearts
need cleansing, Lord. Our spirits need restoration and healing.
During this season of Lent you send us on a journey to the cross
with Jesus, and beyond the cross to the resurrection. We would
just rather skip to the happiness of Easter and enjoy the
flowers and all the trimmings, but you insist on the journey. We
cannot truly understand the power of the resurrection until we
have been to the cross. Today we travel to the cross where Jesus
encounters Satan who flashes before him visions of power,
wealth, and individual security. How shall we respond to those
same temptations when they are presented so seductively to us?
Help us, O Lord. Guide and restore us. Give us courage and
strength as we journey to you. AMEN.
from Worship
Connection, written by the
Rev. Nancy Townley, Abingdon author.
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Tercentennial Minute
“Christopher
Sauer prints his first book”
In
1725 the German born
Christopher Sauer (1695-1758) became an
immigrant to the New World. Though he came as a tailor he soon
learned the skills of a clock and watch maker, joiner,
bookbinder, pharmacist, surgeon, and botanist. Eventually he
became a printer, teaching himself the skills of bookbinding,
editing, along with the drawing of lead and wire. He made all
his own printing tools, ink, and even operated his own paper
mill.
Soon after his arrival he wrote back
to friends in Germany about the many wonders and opportunities
in the new world, and especially the freedom from European ways:
“Now we are here in a well-blessed land. There are neither
guilds nor burdens from the authorities.” Indeed, things are
going so good he notes “My wife is getting very fat….”
In February of 1739 he printed his
first book, a hymnal for the Ephrata Community. His newspaper
was very popular and brought him into direct and successful
competition with Benjamin Franklin. He became the first to print
a Bible in America in a European language. His German bibles
are still famous. He printed materials in English as well, and
did work for people of all religious backgrounds.
Though he was not Brethren he
maintained friendly relations with them. His son Christopher
Sauer II would be baptized Brethren.
However at first Sauer found the
Brethren less than friendly. He wrote: “The Brethren have
erected a fence around themselves; they admit and expel, and are
jealous and quarrelsome with others.”
Sauer’s comment reminds us that we may see ourselves one way,
and strangers may see us in quite a different
light!
And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for February 10,
2008.
by Frank Ramirez, pastor of the Everett, PA
Church of the Brethren
posted by permission
The Everett church
graciously makes available these weekly vignettes from Brethren
history
to all who are interested during this
300th
anniversary year of our denomination.
Frank will be the guest preacher for our Homecoming on October
26, 2008
(this is our congregation's 100th anniversary year)
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Returning
our Tithes and Offerings
Have we, today, “erected a fence
around (our)selves”? Are we “jealous and quarrelsome with
others”? Do we “see ourselves one way, and strangers see us in a
different light”? Now that the season of Lent is upon us, these
questions - connected to Christopher Sauer’s comments about the
early Brethren – are appropriate to ask. As you return your
offering just now, reflect upon them. Before doing so, however,
please pray with me.
Gracious God, open our eyes that we may see
ourselves and the world around us in the light of
your glory. Open our hearts to human need and the
strangers who surround us waiting to become
neighbors. Open our hands to your work here and
elsewhere. In your name we pray. Amen.
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Benediction
Go out into the world in the righteousness of
Christ.
Do not hide your sin,
but trust in God who gives mercy and love.
Do not be afraid to face the wilderness,
but do not compromise with evil.
And may God be your shelter to save you from ruin.
May Christ be your teacher and show you the path to walk.
And may the Spirit encircle you with songs of freedom.
by Nathan Nettleton ©2002
LaughingBird.net
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(para traducir a español, presione la bandera de España)
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