Order of Worship
Welcome and Community Life
Prelude
Call to Worship
Leader: How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
People: All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
* Opening Hymn God of Love and God of Power UMH #578
Opening Prayer
God of love and life, speak to our hearts this day. Speak words of wisdom and faith.
Open our hearts and minds to perceive your message of love, even when it’s hard to hear.
Strengthen our faith to answer your call, even when we don’t feel confident or capable.
Be our wisdom, our strength, and our love, that we may bring your wisdom, strength, and love to the world. Amen.
Children’s Message Niki Avina
Prayer Hymn Close to Thee, vv. 1-2 UMH 407
Prayers of the People
Prayer Response Hear Us, O God UMH 490
Choral Anthem
Prayer of Illumination
May our lives reflect the challenging messages of scripture.
May love guide our path and may courage light our way.
Amen.
Scripture Reading
Psalm 71:1-6
In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame!
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; Incline your ear to me, and save me!
Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
Upon you I have leaned from my birth; It was you who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you.
John 2:1-11
Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” 23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’ ” 24 And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months and there was a severe famine over all the land, 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many with a skin disease in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Leader: The Word of God
People: Thanks be to God
Sermon “In His Hometown” Pastor Jim
Holy Communion
Confession & Pardon
God, you share with us words of hope, words of Good News. But sometimes, we are unable to hear them because the source is too familiar. You call us to share the Good News with those around us. But sometimes we are unable to share, because the people know us too well. You encourage us to send messengers to other places where they will be heard better. But we can be jealous, wanting the Good News to be for us, not them.
In the multitude of ways, we can and have subverted your message of freedom and healing, in all the ways we have kept the Jubilee year from happening, we have left the path of true wisdom and call upon your Grace to lead us back on track.
Hear the good news:
This is the time of God's favor, God's grace continues to proclaim release to the captives, Good News to the poor and freedom to the oppressed.
We live as loved, forgiven, and free people through the grace of God!
Hallelujah! Amen.
Passing the Peace
The Great Thanksgiving
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth.
You put words into the mouths of your humble servants that the people might know and obey your laws and be faithful to you.
And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. He fulfilled your promises from the scriptures; yet his own people rejected him. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.
On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said:
"Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me."
When the supper was over he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:
"Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith.
Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine.
Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.
By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.
Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Prayer after Communion
Eternal God, we give you thanks for this holy mystery in which you have given yourself to us.
Through this sacrament may we be enriched with faith, hope, and love.
Grant that we may go into the world in the strength of your Spirit, to give ourselves for others, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Offering our Gifts to God
The Doxology
Prayer of Dedication
Compassionate God, who sees beyond our boundaries and loves without limit, we bring these offerings with grateful hearts. Use them to proclaim your good news, heal the broken, and extend your love to all, especially those we struggle to accept. Transform our gifts into a beacon of hope and inclusion that reflects the boundless love of Christ in every corner of our community. In his holy name, we pray. Amen.
* Closing Hymn Here I Am, Lord UMH #593
Breakthrough Prayer
O holy and mighty redeemer, you act powerfully on behalf of your people. Our old ways no longer serve us, and we feel stuck. Breakthrough our complacency and reluctance as you reveal to us the new thing that you are doing with us. Help us to trust you. Equip us as we make our way down unfamiliar paths into the future that you are calling us to journey toward. Relieve our anxieties about our own future so that we may freely bring your loving grace to others.
Dismissal with Blessing