Long Green Valley Church of the Brethren
Long Green & Kanes Rds., near Glen Arm, Md.
March 22, 2015
Worship 10:00 am          Sunday School 11:10am

Fifth Sunday of Lent

  Beginning with Praise (9:50 am)           “Shema”
  Announcements
  Prelude                                 “Toccata in F Major”                       Buxtehude

*Call to Worship

*Invocation Litany

*Hymn                           “Praise, I will praise you, Lord”                           76

  Scripture                                Jeremiah 31:31-34

  Song                                             “Shema”                                     (insert)

  Scripture                                  Hebrews 5:5-10       (Laughing Bird version)

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

   Hymn                                    “God sent his Son”                                   345

  Pastoral Prayer

  Scripture                                   Psalm 51:1-12                                      818
                                                (first 4 paragraphs)

  Message            “from washing & cleansing to dancing”

  Scripture                                  Psalm 51:15-17                                     818
                                                  (last paragraph)

  Returning our Tithes and Offerings

  Offertory                                    “Moderato”                                     Dubois

*Hymn                       “Marvelous grace of our loving Lord”                    151

*Benediction

*Postlude                                “Allegro Moderato”                          De Monti

*Rise in body or in spirit

#'s are from Hymnal: A Worship Book

Worship leaders - see basic guidelines

Call to Worship

Blessed are those who love the Lord's instruction,
      those who meditate on God's teaching day and night.
They are like a tree planted by streams of water,
      bearing good fruit in its season.

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: Come, Lord Jesus.
               We seek you with heart, mind, and soul.

All:    We treasure your Word in our very being,
               lest our work stray from your Way.

One: Though temptation may lure us off course,
               we hunger and thirst for your guidance.

All:    Your Word is a lamp before our feet,
               a light for our journey.

One: Your presence is found in your guidance,
               as we walk together with you.

All:    Blessed Rabbi and Pastor,
               from whom all blessings flow,
         accept our praise in song, speech, and service. 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
      

Jeremiah 31:31-3

1 - The days are surely coming,

2 - says the Lord,

1 - Yes, the days are surely coming,

2 - when I will make a new covenant

1 - not a contract, but a new covenant

2 - with the house of Israel

1 - and the house of Judah.

2 - It will not be like the covenant

1 - that I made with their ancestors

2 - when I took them by the hand

1 - to bring them out of the land of Egypt—

2 - a covenant that they broke,

1 - though I was their husband,

2 - says the Lord.

1 - But this is the covenant that I will make

2 - with the house of Israel

1 - after those days,

2 - says the Lord:

1 - I will put my law within them,

2 - and I will write it on their hearts;

1 - and I will be their God,

2 - and they shall be my people.

1 - No longer shall they teach one another,

2 - or say to each other,

1 - “Know the Lord,”

2 - for they shall all know me,

1 - from the least of them to the greatest,

2 - says the Lord;

1 - for I will forgive their iniquity,

2 - and remember their sin no more.

adapted 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)

Psalm 51:1-12, 15-17

(first 4 paragraphs before, last paragraph after the sermon)

Have mercy on me, O God,
      according to your steadfast love;
      according to your abundant mercy
            blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
      and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,
      and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
      and done what is evil in your sight,
      so that you are justified in your sentence
      and blameless when you pass judgment.
Indeed, I was born in the midst of iniquity;
      in the midst of sin my mother conceived me.

You desire truth in the inward being;
      therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
      wash me, and I shall be purer than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
      let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
      and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
      and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
      and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
      and sustain in me a willing spirit.

O Lord, open my lips,
      and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you have no delight in sacrifice;
      if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
      a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Hymnal #818
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.
verses 5 & 7 adapted by Eugene F. Roop, copyright©1991
c/o Bethany Theological Seminary,
615 National Rd. W., Richmond, IN 47374-4095. 
   

Returning our Tithes and Offerings

Let us respond to the invitation of God
      to come and reason together,
      to wash our sins in the river of grace,
      and hear the call of the tub and the towel
            to serve and freely share what we have received,
                  in word or deed.

Ushers, would you help us?

Benediction

Go now, to serve Christ and follow him.
Let your old life fall like a grain of wheat into the earth
so that you may bear much fruit
as you allow God to reshape your heart
and live in obedience to the law written within you.

And may God center you in truth and steady your spirit.
May Christ renew your joy and strengthen your will.
And may the Spirit teach you God’s hidden wisdom
       and fill you with songs of rejoicing.

by Nathan Nettleton (©2003)
pastor, South Yarra Community Baptist Church
       (near Melbourne, Australia)
from the Laughing Bird resources