Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Dear Church family,
As we will gather for worship over the phone, I wanted to share with you the order of worship that we will use tomorrow evening. We will start the service at 7:00 p.m. Here is the conference call number:
- Dial-In: +1-712-775-7031
- Enter Access Code: 111-576-270#
- Then, please wait for the host to begin.
You may also click HERE for the Live Stream or the most recent version (whichever is applicable)
Lucenarium: Lighting of the Christ Candle
Leader: Jesus Christ is the light of the world,
All: A light no darkness can extinguish.
Leader: The Lord be with you.
All: And also with you.
Leader: Let us lift up our hearts.
All:We lift them up to the Lord.
Leader: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
All: It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Leader: Blessed are you, Lord our God, the shepherd of Israel,
a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of light by night.
All: In these forty days
you lead us into the desert of repentance,
so that in this pilgrimage of prayer
we might learn to be your people once more.
In fasting and service, you recreate our hearts.
You open our eyes to your presence in the world,
and you free our hands to lead others
to the radiant splendor of your mercy.
Be with us this night, and on our Lenten journey,
for without you we are lost and will perish.
Fill us with your light and truth,
and fit us for everlasting glory.
To you alone be all power and dominion,
forever and ever. Amen.
ORGAN MUSIC FOR QUIET MEDITATION:
“Trio de flûtes” from Magnificat Secondi Toni —Jean-Adam Guilain (ca 1680-ca 1739)
The Lord has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. (Luke 1:54)
SCRIPTURE READING:
Ephesians 5:8-14
5:8 For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light- for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Psalm 63:1-8
Leader: O God, you are my God, I seek you,
my soul thirsts for you;
All: My flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where no water is.
Leader: So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
All: Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
Leader: So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
All: My soul is feasted as with marrow and fat,
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips,
Leader: when I think of you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night.
All: For you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
Leader: My soul clings to you.
All: Your right hand upholds me.
HYMN: Be Still, My Soul UMH #534
1 Be still, my soul: the Lord is on your side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
leave to your God to order and provide;
in every change God faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: your best, your heavenly friend
through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
2 Be still, my soul: your God will undertake
to guide the future, as in ages past.
Your hope, your confidence let nothing shake;
all now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
the Christ who ruled them while he dwelt below.
3 Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
when we shall be forever with the Lord,
when disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past,
all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.
GOSPEL READING:
John 4:4-26
But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’
Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’
ORGAN MUSIC FOR QUIET MEDITATION
“Tierce en taille” from Magnificat Secondi Toni —Jean-Adam Guilain (ca 1680-ca 1739)
For he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant;
surely all generations will call me blessed (Luke 1:48)
PASTOR’S REFLECTION
PASTORAL PRAYER AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
BENEDICTION
RESPONSE TO THE BENEDICTION: Shalom to You UMH #666
Shalom to you now, Shalom, my friends.
May God’s full mercies bless you, my friends.
In all your living and through your loving,
Christ be your shalom, Christ be your shalom.