PRELUDE       Open the Eyes of My Heart       arr. Carol Tornquist

 

REFRAIN: Spirit, open my heart  to the joy and pain of living.
As you love may I love, in receiving and in giving.
Spirit, open my heart.

God, replace my stony heart  with a heart that’s kind and tender.
All my coldness and fear  to your grace I now surrender.

REFRAIN

Write your love upon my heart  as my law, my goal, my story.
In each thought, word, and deed, may my living bring you glory.

REFRAIN

May I weep with those who weep; share the joy of sister, brother.
In the welcome of Christ, may we welcome one another.

WORDS OF WELCOME 

ADORATION      

CALL TO WORSHIP Hebrews 13:16

ONE: Do good and share what you have,

MANY: for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. 

                                                   

PRAYER OF THE DAY

O God, author and giver of all good things, plant in our hearts the love of your name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. 

 

HYMN [*Blue #335][GTG#693] Though I May Speak

1 Though I may speak with bravest fire, and have the gift to all inspire,

and have not love, my words are vain, as sounding brass, and hopeless gain.

2 Though I may give all I possess, and striving so my love profess,

but not be given by love within, the profit soon turns strangely thin.

3 Come, Spirit, come, our hearts control; our spirits long to be made whole. Let inward love guide every deed; by this we worship, and are freed.

CALL TO CONFESSION                                                                  

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Merciful God,

you pardon all who truly repent and turn to you. We humbly confess our sins and ask your mercy. We have not loved you with a pure heart, nor have we loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not done justice, loved kindness, or walked humbly with you, our God. Have mercy on us, O God, in your loving kindness. In your great compassion, cleanse us from our sin. Do not cast us away from your presence, or take your Holy Spirit from us. Restore to us the joy of your salvation and sustain us with your bountiful Spirit.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON       

              

GLORIA PATRI [Blue#579[ [GTG581]     

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

THE WORD READ AND PROCLAIMED

1st SCRIPTURE                     Mark 7:1-23

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me;

in vain do they worship me,

teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

Then he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban’ (that is, an offering to God)— then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.”

Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

2nd SCRIPTURE                           James 1:17-27

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing. If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. 

  

ONE: The Word of the Lord

MANY: Thanks be to God

SERMON     “Rules or Rulers?”      CP Ford Dieth

 RESPONSE     

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH         Apostles’ Creed 

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,  and in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.    

 

RECEIVING OF TITHES AND OFFERINGS

OFFERTORY   

             

DOXOLOGY [GTG#606]

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise God, all creatures here below;

Praise God above, ye heavenly host;

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE 

THE LORD’S PRAYER 

HYMN [*Blue #XXX][GTG#295] Go to the World!

Go to the world! Go into all the earth.

 Go preach the cross where Christ renews life’s worth,

 baptizing as the sign of our rebirth.

 Alleluia. Alleluia.

Go to the world! Go into every place.

 Go live the word of God’s redeeming grace.

 Go seek God’s presence in each 

time and space. Alleluia. Alleluia.

Go to the world! Go struggle, bless, and pray;

 the nights of tears give way to joyous day.

 As servant church, you follow 

Christ’s own way. Alleluia. Alleluia.

Go to the world! Go as the ones I send,

 for I am with you till the age shall end, when all the hosts of glory 

cry “Amen!“ Alleluia. Alleluia.

PARTING PRAYER 

Give me, O Lord, a steadfast heart, which no unworthy affection may drag downward; give me an unconquered heart, which no tribulation can wear out; give me an upright heart, which no unworthy purpose may tempt aside. Bestow on me also, O Lord my God, understanding to know you, diligence to seek you, wisdom to find you, and a faithfulness that may finally embrace you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

RESPONSE [*Blue #XXX][GTG#547] Go, My Children, with My Blessing

“Go, my children, with my blessing, never alone.
Waking, sleeping, I am with you, you are my own.

In my love’s baptismal river I have made you mine forever.
Go, my children, with my blessing,
you are my own.”

       

POSTLUDE       Improvisation on WILD MOUNTAIN THYME       

                      

*Note: the hymn lyrics in the bulletin and on the projection screen are from the Glory To God Hymnal (© 2013 Westminster John Knox Press), which we are transitioning to. Words in the “Blue” Presbyterian Hymnal (© 1990) in your pew may differ slightly.

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved. 

STAFF

Church Office: 504.888.1375 Playschool Office: 504.888.1378

Briana Mayfield – Church Office Assistant 

Kelly Cuppett – Music Director

Lauren Crisler  – Playschool Director

Stephanie Galliano – Playschool Admin. Asst.

Deacons

Bill Bottomley 504-885-3850 pslclerk@earthlink.net

Mary Antill 504-247-5720 buzz2moosetaco@gmail.com

Tony Hill 504-214-8095 rolandohill2003@yahoo.com

Laurie Hill 504-344-9079 la.tres@yahoo.com