Bazaar United Methodist Church

Bazaar, Kansas

Gathering of God's People

Announcements

Joys and Concerns

Greeting one another in Christian Love

God Calls Us

Prelude and Lighting of the Altar Candles

Greeting:

L: May the love of our Lord Jesus Christ fill your hearts and minds

P: May Christ's love fill your heart and mind as well.

Hymns of Praise and Worship: God of Love and God of Power UMH 578

* Call to Worship (Book of Worship 425)

L: Jesus said: "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink."

P: Let us act justly.

L: "I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing."

P: Let us love tenderly.

L: "I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me."

P: Let us walk humbly with our God.

L: May we see Christ in one another,

P: that we may be healers and peacemakers in Christ's name.

God Calls Us to Share

Preparation for giving (Feeding Sheep by Ann Weems)

L: He said, "Feed my sheep." There were no conditions: Least of all, Feed my sheep if they deserve it. Feed my sheep if you feel like it. Feed my sheep if you have any leftovers. Feed my sheep if the mood strikes you. if the economy's OK. . .if you're not too busy. . .No conditions. . .just, "Feed my sheep." Could it be that God's Kingdom will come when each lamb is fed? We who have agreed to keep covenant are called to feed sheep even when it means the grazing will be done on our own front lawns.

Offertory

*Doxology UMH 95

*Prayer of Thanksgiving

In love you have given us work for lives, food for our bodies, families and friends to love and sustain us, O God. In love you have provided for our needs and, in this country, we have more than we need and much that we want. Grant us grateful hearts and hands willing to give and to serve in your name. Bless these gifts. May they be used to further your kingdom on the earth. May each one who gives and each one who receives be blessed beyond measure through your grace. Amen.

God Calls Us to Care for Our Neighbors

*Hymn Lord, You Give the Great Commission UMH 584

Unison Prayer For Courage to Do Justice UMH 456

Prayers of the People

Prayer Response Something Beautiful UMH 394

Something beautiful, something good;
all my confusion he understood;
all I had to offer him was brokenness and strife,
but he made something beautiful of my life.

God Calls Us to Tell God's Story

Sermon Text Isaiah 1:10-20 James 1:27

L: The Word of God for the People of God

P: Thanks be to God.

Sermon - Seek Justice

*Hymn Here I Am, Lord UMH 593

Holy Communion

Prayer of Confession (Ann Weems in Searching for Shalom)

God of Covenant, forgive our turning away. Forgive us for putting you on hold during the week while we busily live our lives without you. Forgive us for trying to make you a Sunday God instead of the God of our lives.

We confess that even though we don't have time for you, we have time for more work and more recreation and more projects for our homes. We confess that when we have a problem, we call out your name, but we expect an instant, magical solution. We confess we make little effort to live our faith daily. We confess the arrogance of attempting to feed your sheep when we do not turn to you for nourishment. Help us, Holy One, to remember that we need your bread before we can feed the hungry and your living water before we can offer a cup of cold water in your name.

Please, God of the Covenant, forgive our turning away and have mercy upon us in our returning. We pray in the name of Jesus who is forgiveness and promise. Amen.

Words of Assurance

L: This is the message we have heard from God and proclaim to you, that God is light and in God there is no darkness at all. If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus the Son cleanses us from all sin. May Almighty God, who caused light to shine out of darkness, shine in our hearts, cleansing us from all our sins, and restoring us to the light of the knowledge of God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Great Thanksgiving UMH 15

Lord's Prayer:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Sharing the bread and wine

Prayer after receiving

God Calls Us to Go Into the World as the Changed and Redeemed People of God

*Benediction

Lectionary readings for next week:

Isaiah 40:21-31

Psalm 147:1-11, 20

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Mark 1:29-39

Passages for Lectio Divina:

Stop doing wrong, learn to do right!
Seek justice, encourage the oppressed.

Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

Isaiah 1:16d-17

Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has showed you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:7-8

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:
to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27 NIV