March 1, 2009
First Sunday in Lent
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: This Is the Day UMH 657
* Call to Worship (John W. Howell in Touch Holiness p.
57)
L: Welcome, travelers, to the journey of faith.
P: The faith journey is the best route through the land
called life.
L: Then come and continue the quest, acting out your faith
by living life to the fullest.
P: We will let our spirits soar like eagles;
L: taking a deep breath we will stretch ourselves to the
limit like fully inflated balloons, colorful, hopeful, ready
to sail and to soar,
P: and to drink in the world's color, absorbing its light
and texture, inhaling its fragrance, dancing to its music.
L: This is the way we worship God.
God Calls Us to Share
Preparation for giving
L: As a people often fed at the Lord 's Table, as those
who can approach the throne of grace as children of the living
God, let us offer our gifts of thanks to the One who has given
us everything.
Offertory
*Doxology UMH 95
*Prayer of Thanksgiving
Amazing and awesome God, we give you thanks and praise for your
mercy extended to us. We rejoice in your forgiveness and
celebrate your love. We are humbled to think that you would
care about each one of us; that nothing in our lives is too big
or too small to bring to you. Your gifts to us are unbounded.
Give us eyes to see them all. Bless now these gifts and
grant that they may grow your kingdom on the earth and that we
may abound in your love. Amen.
God Calls Us to Care for Our Neighbors
*Hymn For the Beauty of the Earth v. 1, 4, 5, 6
UMH 92
Prayers of the People
Prayer Response The First Song
of Isaiah TFWS 2030
Surely, it is God who saves me;
I will trust in him and not be afraid.
For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense,
And he will be my Savior.
God Calls Us to Tell God's Story
*Hymn
We, Thy People, Praise Thee
UMH 67
Sermon
Happiness is More than a Warm Puppy
*Hymn
Alleluia, Alleluia
UMH 162
Holy Communion
Prayer of Confession (Allen P Happe in Touch Holiness
p 63)
Merciful God, what a gentle and healing balm it is to come to
you with our secret thoughts, our sad discouragements, and our
noblest dreams, and find you here to listen to forgive, and to
renew us! We confess our reluctance to understand your
will and hesitancy to act upon it. We are quick to blame
others and slow to accept responsibility for ourselves.
We wish for signs of your power even while we take for granted
the beauty and love with which you have surrounded us.
We desire some guarantee of your favor and, at the same time,
shudder to think about the suffering of the cross and what it
portends for us and for our world. Submerge us in your
Spirit and grant us faith to perceive good as rising from evil
and to sense your immediate presence within the solitude of endless
space. 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:
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Psalm 22;23-31
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38
Passages for Lectio Divina:
I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy
and to do good while they live. Ecclesiastes 3:12
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to
you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and
do not be afraid. John 14:27
The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things,
but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,
"Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?"
But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:15-16