Long Green Valley Church of the Brethren
Long Green & Kanes Rds., near Glen Arm, Md.
March 15, 2015
Worship 10:00 am          Sunday School 11:10am

Fourth Sunday of Lent

  Beginning with Praise (9:50 am)       “Jesus Christ, God’s only Son”        40
  Announcements
  Prelude                                “Jesu, Word of God”                            Mozart

*Call to Worship

*Invocation Litany

*Hymn                         “Lo, a gleam from yonder heaven”                        591

  Torah Time                              Numbers 21:4-9                (from The Message)

  Psalm Time                         Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22                           (insert)

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

   Hymn                                “Healer of our every ill”                                377

  Pastoral Prayer

  Epistle Time                            Ephesians 2:1-10

  Returning our Tithes and Offerings

  Offertory                                       “Adagio”                                   Faulkes
                              (Please sign the attendance pad and pass it on)

  Affirmation of faith                                                                                 712

  Gospel Time                              John 3:14-21

  Message                          “Beyond all the titles”

*Hymn                           “‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus”                           340

*Benediction

*Postlude                                      “Larghetto”                                        Rinck

*Rise in body or in spirit

#'s are from Hymnal: A Worship Book

Worship leaders - see basic guidelines

Call to Worship

God said, “Let there be light,”
     the Light came into the world,
          the world came into being through the Light.
We gather as Children of the Light,
     committed to follow the Light wherever it may lead.

by Eugene F. Roop
Anderson, IN Church of the Brethren
Church of the Brethren Living Word Bulletin
Anchor/Wallace, Sleepy Eye MN 56085,
"The Living Word" Series
    

Invocation Litany

One:  Arise, shine, our Light has come;
                the glory of God shines upon us.

All:  Glorious Light, come into the world’s darkness,
                let your light penetrate the shadow of death.

One:  The Lord is our light and our salvation,
                whom shall we fear?

All:  Come, Lord, into the darkness of our trouble;
                our darkness cannot extinguish your light.

One:  God, you anointed us as a light to the nations,
                into a world where violence pursues victory.

All:  Yet the darkness of violence was swallowed up
                in the Light of Easter.
         That everyone may live together in peace. Amen.

by Eugene F. Roop
Anderson, IN Church of the Brethren
Church of the Brethren Living Word Bulletin
Anchor/Wallace, Sleepy Eye MN 56085,
"The Living Word" Series
    

Torah Time
Numbers 21:4-9
(from The Message)

Invite the children to come and help act out this scripture.
Get a volunteer to be Moses. Give to her/him a staff. Read:

^4-5 The children of Israel set out from Mount Hor along the Red Sea Road, a detour around the land of Edom.

Have Moses lead them about, meandering thru the pews.
At some point read:

The people became irritable and cross as they traveled.

Have them start complaining as they wander.

They spoke out against God and Moses:

Have one of them read this, to which they all agree:

“Why did you drag us out of Egypt to die in this godforsaken country? No decent food; no water—we can’t stomach this stuff any longer.”

Keep them complaining as they wander.

^6-7 So God sent poisonous snakes among the people; they bit them and many in Israel died.

Have them act out being bitten and “dying,”
exaggerating as they do so.

The people came to Moses and said,

Have one of them read this, to which they all agree:

“We sinned when we spoke out against God and you. Pray to God; ask him to take these snakes from us.”

Read:

Moses prayed for the people.

Moses gets down on his/her knees and pretends to pray. Read:

⁸ God said to Moses,

An usher reads from the back:

“Make a snake and put it on a flagpole: Whoever is bitten and looks at it will live.”

Then:

⁹ So Moses made a snake of fiery copper and put it on top of a flagpole.

Have Moses get up an wind a copper-colored “snake”
around the top of her/his staff and hold it up. Then read:

Anyone bitten by a snake who then looked at the copper snake lived.

Have everyone cheer. Then thank the children for helping,
and send them back to their seats.

scripture text is from The Message.
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002.
Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group
     

Psalm Time
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22

One:    O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.

All:      Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those he redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

Left:    Some were sick through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities endured affliction;

Right: they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death.

Left:    Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress;

Right: he sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from destruction.

One:    Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.

All:      And let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices, and tell of his deeds with songs of joy.

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
  

Pastoral Prayer

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

Epistle Time and Returning our Tithes and Offerings

             We’ve made time for Torah and Psalm. It’s now Epistle Time. Let me give you something to chew on as the plates are passed and we return our offerings to the Lord. I’ll be reading from Paul’s letter to church in Ephesus, using that Australian paraphrase we’ve found helpful: Laughing Bird. Listen:

Ephesians 2:1-10

             Chew on that as you respond to the gift of God. Remember, “we are simply what God has made us. We have been created in union with Jesus the Messiah to work for good…”

Ushers?

Affirmation of faith
(The Apostles' Creed)

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
         creator of heaven and earth
I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
         who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
                  born of the Virgin Mary.
                  suffered under Pontius Pilate.
                  was crucified, died, and buried;
         he descended to the dead.
         On the third day, he rose again;
         he ascended into heaven,
         he is seated at the right hand of the Father
                  and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
         the holy catholic* church.
         the communion of saints,
         the forgiveness of sins,
         the resurrection of the body,
         and the life everlasting.

* universal

Hymnal #712, English translation of The Apostle's Creed,
prepared by the English Language Liturgical Consultation ELLC, © 1988
      

Benediction

*Proverbs 3:5-6 rom 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