Morning Worship Text: May 17, 2020
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Before we begin, gather a candle or small light, your Bible, a piece of bread and a cup of juice or water. Place them at the center of a calm area in your home and gather comfortable seating for all who will join you. Place your phone, tablet  or computer where you can see and hear it. You may want to connect a charger, rather than rely on battery. Add a piece of white fabric, a cross or bright spring flowers, like lilies to complete your worship center.


Welcome

Musical Meditation:

Focus
 

Lighting the Christ Candles      We light our candles or lights.

Call to Worship    We read together responsively.
1.  Christ be with you.
2.  And also with you.

1.  God's Spirit calls to our spirits,
2.  inviting us to worship.

1.  God's Spirit calls to our spirits,
2.  luring us by love.

1.  God's Spirit calls to our spirits.
2.  calling us by name, calling us to grow in faith, calling us to be made new.

1 and 2.  Let us worship God.



Invocation    We pray together in unison.

Most Holy God:  We rejoice in our awareness of your presence.  Enter our lives, refreshing and renewing us through the touch of your Holy Spirit.  Grant that we may live with love after the example of Jesus Christ, through whom we pray.  AMEN.

Scripture:

Psalm 66

Praise for God’s Goodness to Israel

To the leader. A Song. A Psalm.

¹ Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
²     sing the glory of his name;
    give to him glorious praise.
³ Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
    Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you.
⁴ All the earth worships you;
    they sing praises to you,
    sing praises to your name.”Selah

⁵ Come and see what God has done:
    he is awesome in his deeds among mortals.
⁶ He turned the sea into dry land;
    they passed through the river on foot.
There we rejoiced in him,
⁷     who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
    let the rebellious not exalt themselves.Selah

⁸ Bless our God, O peoples,
    let the sound of his praise be heard,
⁹ who has kept us among the living,
    and has not let our feet slip.
¹⁰ For you, O God, have tested us;
    you have tried us as silver is tried.
¹¹ You brought us into the net;
    you laid burdens on our backs;
¹² you let people ride over our heads;
    we went through fire and through water;
yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.^[a]

¹³ I will come into your house with burnt offerings;
    I will pay you my vows,
¹⁴ those that my lips uttered
    and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
¹⁵ I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings,
    with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;
I will make an offering of bulls and goats.Selah

¹⁶ Come and hear, all you who fear God,
    and I will tell what he has done for me.
¹⁷ I cried aloud to him,
    and he was extolled with my tongue.
¹⁸ If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
    the Lord would not have listened.
¹⁹ But truly God has listened;
    he has given heed to the words of my prayer.

²⁰ Blessed be God,
    because he has not rejected my prayer
    or removed his steadfast love from me.

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 66:12 Cn Compare Gk Syr Jerome Tg: Heb to a saturation

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the 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.

Sermon 


Invitation to the Table The bread and cup and placed on the table for the Lord’s Supper.
Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home^[b] and ate their food with glad and generous^[c] hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and having the goodwill of all the people

Prayer of Communion Elders this month are  Kathy Sharp and Gwynne Griffith.


Words of Institution We break the bread and lift the cup as the words are spoken.

The Lord's Supper We share in the bread and cup as we hear the music.

Prayer of Thanksgiving "The 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.


Prayers of the People
 O God, help us to know you as the Creative One who joins together the smallest blade of grass and the farthest star, as the Love which is so great that it leans down from heaven to aid us in our every action.
Response:   We are your children:  never forgotten, never deserted, always forgiven, always loved.

O God, help us to know you as the One who was there at our beginning and will be at our ending, the One who calls us now and will continue to call through whatever may happen in our lives.
Response:  We are your children:  never forgotten...

O God, take us by the hand; forgive us when we fail; lift us when we fall; enable us to try again.
Response:  Loving God, like a parent you strengthen us;  faithful Christ walk with us Holy Spirit lead us; for we are your children:  never forgotten, never deserted, always forgiven, always loved.   AMEN

 

Challenge for Discipleship

Blessing     We speak in unison.
All Voices: 
The Light that was in one place and at one time, is now in all places and all times, for God has placed the light in us.  We abide in peace!  Amen.