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Bulletin
February 22, 2009
Seventh Sunday after Epiphany
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: Lord I Want to Be a Christian
UMH 402
* Call to Worship (Ruth C. Duck in Touch Holiness p. 41)
L: Let us praise God, who gives living water, through
whom the faithful flourish.
P: Like trees planted by the water, God, are those who
trust in you.
L: Like trees with deep roots are those who place their
faith in you.
P: Like green trees in winter are those who receive their
life from you.
All: We praise you, God, for life that has no end, through
Jesus our risen Christ!
God Calls Us to Share
Preparation for giving
L: We come with joy to meet the Lord because we are
the forgiven and redeemed children of God. We have been
mightily blessed and in turn desire to bless others through our
giving. Enjoy, now, this opportunity to give back to the
Lord what God has graciously given to you.
Offertory
*Doxology UMH 95
*Prayer of Thanksgiving
Loving, living God, ground of our hope and our deliverer,
we are thankful for the ways that you have given yourself to
us; ways that are as different as we are different from one another.
Thank you that you love us with an everlasting love; a love that
does not give up on us even when we give up on ourselves.
Bless now these gifts, tithes and offerings. May they serve
for the advancement of your kingdom in the world. Grant
your grace to those who give that they may know the joy of giving
and the honor of being in ministry with you for the transformation
of the world. Amen.
*Hymn Love Divine, All Love Excelling UMH 384
God Calls Us to Care for Our Neighbors
Affirmation of Faith
We believe in God who created us and loved us into being.
Who continues to create and who seeks relationship with those
he has created. We believe in Jesus, lover of humankind,
who walked the earth that we might know how to live and how to
die and how to be raised to eternal life. We believe in
the Holy Spirit as God's presence which dwells within us-which
grants us wisdom, strength and comfort. We believe that
we are called to an active witness of God's love and transformation
in our lives so that others may see our lives and also be transformed.
Amen.
Prayers of the People
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.
Prayer Response
On Eagle's Wings UMH 143
And God will raise you up on eagle's wings,
bear you on the breath of dawn,
make you to shine like the sun,
and hold you in the palm of God's hand.
God Calls Us to Tell God's Story
*Hymn
O for a Heart to Praise my God UMH 417
Sermon Texts
Luke 13:6-9
L: The Word of God for the People of God
P: Thanks be to God.
Sermon
Where's the Fruit?
*Hymn
I Know Whom I Have Believed
UMH 714
God Calls Us to Go Into the World as the Changed and Redeemed
People of God
*Benediction
*Going forth
To God Be the Glory v.1
UMH 98
Lectionary readings for next week:
Genesis 9:8-17
Psalm 25:1-10
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:9-15
Passages for Lectio Divina:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without
expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great,
and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind
to the ungrateful and wicked. Luke 6:35
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt
to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the
law. Romans 13:8
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