Welcome
Below you will find prayers, songs, readings, and a message to help you experience worship. You can light a candle to remind yourself of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Whether you are alone or with others, we hope that you can feel each other’s presence, and the presence of God, as we find creative ways to worship together, even though we are not in the same building. One good thing about virtual worship is that if you really like a song, you can listen to it again! Do what you need to do to worship God wherever you are.
Announcements and Call to Worship
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Our call to worship is from Micah 6:8.
God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Let’s pray: It is good to be together, God, on these screens, with these people, together listening for your voice, united by your Spirit. In this time of worship
tell us about your kingdom of kindness so that we can seek it. Show us your justice.
We want to walk with you, humbly, closely, daily.
Opening Song
Amazing Grace
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Amazing grace! how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved; how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed!
Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come; ’tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promised good to me; his word my hope secures; he will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.
When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.
Prayer of the Day
Let us pray. O God, you direct our lives by your grace, and your words of justice and mercy reshape the world. Mold us into a people who welcome your word and serve one another, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
Reading
Romans 6:12-23 The Message
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12-14 That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!—into God’s way of doing things. Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God.
15-18 So, since we’re out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we’re free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it’s your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you’ve let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you’ve started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!
19 I’m using this freedom language because it’s easy to picture. You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God’s freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?
20-21 As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end.
22-23 But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.
Children’s Moment
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Gospel and Message
Matthew 10:40-42
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[Jesus said:] 40“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
Hymn of the Day
Son of God, Eternal Savior
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Son of God, eternal Savior, source of life and truth and grace, Word made flesh, whose birth among us hallows all our human race, you our head, who, throned in glory, for your own will ever plead: fill us with your love and pity, heal our wrong, and help our need.
As you, Lord, have lived for others, so may we for others live. Freely have your gifts been granted; freely may your servants give. Yours the gold and yours the silver, yours the wealth of land and sea; we but stewards of your bounty held in solemn trust will be.
Come, O Christ, and reign among us, King of love and Prince of peace; hush the storm of strife and passion, bid its cruel discords cease. By your patient years of toiling, by your silent hours of pain, quench our fevered thirst of pleasure, stem our selfish greed of gain.
Son of God, eternal Savior, source of life and truth and grace, Word made flesh, whose birth among us hallows all our human race: by your praying, by your willing that your people should be one, grant, oh, grant our hope’s fruition: here on earth your will be done.
Apostles’ Creed
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With the whole church, let us confess our faith.
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
Prayers
Called into unity with one another and the whole creation, we pray for the church, our nation, and for all who are in need.
God of companionship, encourage our relationships with our siblings in Christ. Bless our conversations. Shape our shared future and give us hearts eager to share your love with others. Lord, hear our prayer.
God of abundance, you make your creation thrive and grow to provide all that we need. Inspire us to care for our environment and be attuned to where the earth is crying out. Lord, hear our prayer.
God of mercy, your grace is poured out for all. Inspire authorities, judges, and politicians to act with compassion. Teach us to overcome fear with hope, meet hate with love, and welcome one another as we would welcome you. Lord, hear our prayer.
God of care, accompany all who are in deepest need. Comfort those who are sick, lonely, or abandoned (especially). Strengthen those who are in prison or awaiting trial. Renew the spirits of all who call upon you. Lord, hear our prayer.
God of community, we give thanks for this congregation. Give us passion to embrace your mission and the vision to recognize where you are leading us. Teach us how to live more faithfully with each other. Lord, hear our prayer.
God of love, you gather in your embrace all who have died. Keep us steadfast in our faith and renew our trust in your promise. Lord, hear our prayer.
Receive these prayers, O God, and those too deep for words; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
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Gathered into one by the Holy Spirit, let us pray as Jesus taught us.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.
Franciscan Sending
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Read this out loud. If you are with other people, take turns reading the parts out loud.
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.
May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
And the Blessing of God, who Creates, Redeems, and Sanctifies, be upon you and all you love and pray for this day, and forevermore. Amen.
Sending Song
The Spirit Sends us Forth to Serve
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The Spirit sends us forth to serve; we go in Jesus’ name to bring glad tidings to the poor, God’s favor to proclaim.
We go to comfort those who mourn and set the burdened free; where hope is dim, to share a dream and help the blind to see.
We go to be the hands of Christ, to scatter joy like seed and, all our days, to cherish life, to do the loving deed.
Then let us go to serve in peace, the gospel to proclaim. God’s Spirit has empowered us; we go in Jesus’ name.
Blessing
Go forth into the world to serve God with gladness; be of good courage; hold fast to that which is good; render to no one evil for evil; strengthen the fainthearted; support the weak; help the afflicted; honor all people; love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God.
Dismissal
Go in peace. Christ is with you. Thanks be to God.
Worship Assistants:
Music: Lori, Ian
Message: Pastor Kristin
Readers: Myra, Dick, Nancy, Mike, Joe, Ben, Leslie
Children’s Moment: Pastor Kristin
From Sundays and Seasons.com. Copyright 2005 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission under Augsburg Fortress Liturgies Annual License #22432. New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, 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. Hymns reprinted with permission. CCLI#116214