SERVICE FOR THE LORD’S DAY
24th Sunday after Pentecost
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (USA)
November 7, 2021 Ten Thirty in the morning
Minister: The Reverend Aaron Ochart
Liturgist: Lenny Nelson
Please silence all cell phones.
Bold face indicates congregational participation.
* Please stand, in body or spirit
GATHERING
WORDS OF WELCOME
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF NATIVE LANDS
PRELUDE “Celtic Blessing” by Jeff Perks
ADORATION
CALL TO WORSHIP
ONE: Let us call upon the one who knows every thread in the fabric of our lives.
MANY: God of every seam and stitch, gather and mend us.
ONE: Let us call upon the one who embroiders new designs, who weaves new textiles with patience and delight.
MANY: God of every seam and stitch, gather and mend us.
ONE: Let us call upon the one who patches worn places with compassion.
MANY: God of every seam and stitch, gather and mend us.
ONE: We are the tapestry of God, each strand important to the pattern, each frayed end worth the mending, every thread a treasure.
MANY: May we hope in these words, may harmony be our mending.
ONE: Let us worship our God!
HYMN OF THE MONTH “Together We Serve”
- Together we serve, united by love,
inviting God’s World to the glorious feast.
We work and we pray through sorrow and joy,
extending God’s love to the last and the least.
- We seek to become a beacon of hope,
a lamp for the heart and a light for the feet.
We learn, year by year, to let love shine through
until we see Christ in each person we meet.
- We welcome the scarred, the wealthy, the poor,
the busy, the lonely, and all who need care.
We offer a home to those who will come,
our hands quick to help, our hearts ready to dare.
- We gather, by grace, we witness and work,
remembering Jesus, in whom we grow strong.
Together we serve in Spirit and truth,
Remembering love is the strength of our song.
PROCLAMATION
FIRST LESSON John 12:27-36
“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.”
MESSAGE FOR THE CHILDREN
ANTHEM “Softly and Tenderly” Charles McCartha
Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me.
With open arms He is waiting and watching, watching for you and for me.
Come home, come home, you who are weary, come home.
Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling, calling, “O sinner, come home!”
Why should we linger when Jesus is pleading,
pleading for you and for me?
Why turn away when He offers His mercy, mercy for you and for me?
Come home, come home, you who are weary, come home.
Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling, calling, “O sinner, come home!”
O for the wonderful love He has promised, promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned He brings mercy and pardon,
pardon for you and for me.
Come home, come home, you who are weary, come home.
Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling, calling, “O sinner, come home!”
SECOND LESSON 1 Kings 19:1-18
ONE: The Words of God for the People of God
MANY: Thanks be to God
SERMON “What Are You Doing Here?” Rev. Aaron Ochart
RESPONSE
PRAYER OF BLESSING
ONE: O Lord, bless the signs of our heritage we have presented today and bless the people of the clans and families which they signify. May we strive to live up to the very highest ideals they represent.
MANY: Bless us that we may be a blessing, O Lord.
ONE: We thank you, God, for your Word which has ordained a rich heritage of faith and sacrifice from our ancestors: from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to David, so onward to the incarnation of Jesus, to the establishment of his church: our brothers and sisters in Christ everywhere. Never let us forget that a heritage of faith is a joy to be shared.
MANY: Bless us that we may be a blessing, O Lord.
ONE: Thank you, O God, for the blessings of family; the warmth, comfort, and security of family love. Never let us forget that our family love is a gift to be shared with kin and stranger.
MANY: Bless us that we may be a blessing, O Lord.
ONE: We praise you, O God, for those who have lived and died in Christ. We especially those who have died in the last year: Randall Patrick Antill, Dorothy Egan, Alba Hill, James Kennedy III, Julie Laporte, Eloyease Lybrand, The Rev. Michael Benjamin Mann, Bill Memmott, Mildred Miley, Joann Chastain Nunguesser, and Charlotte Diane Parry.
MANY: Bless us that we may be a blessing, O Lord.
ONE: On behalf of all clans, families, and nations, we stand before God in gratitude for our heritage, and we pray God’s blessings on all beloved children in all lands.
MANY: We proclaim that we are united in the covenant of Jesus, the Christ, for there is but one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all. Amen.
*AFFIRMATION OF FAITH Confession of Belhar
We believe that God has entrusted the church with the message of reconciliation in and through Jesus Christ;
that the church is called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, that the church is called blessed because it is a peacemaker, that the church is witness both by word and by deed to the new heaven and the new earth in which righteousness dwells…
that the credibility of this message is seriously affected and its beneficial work obstructed when it is proclaimed in a land which professes to be Christian, but in which the enforced separation of people on a racial basis promotes and perpetuates alienation, hatred and enmity…
Therefore, we reject any doctrine which, in such a situation sanctions in the name of the gospel or of the will of God the forced separation of people on the grounds of race and color and thereby in advance obstructs and weakens the ministry and experience of reconciliation in Christ.
RECEIVING OF TITHES AND OFFERINGS
OFFERTORY
*DOXOLOGY
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures here below;
Praise God above, ye heavenly hosts;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY COMMUNION
The Great Prayer of Thanksgiving
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise…
…Therefore with all creation we sing your praise:
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…
According to Christ’s commandment:
We remember his death, we proclaim his resurrection, we await his coming glory…
The gifts of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
HYMN 563 “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
- Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven ring,
ring with the harmonies of liberty.
Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies;
let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us;
sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
let us march on, till victory is won.
- Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,
felt in the days when hope unborn had died.
Yet, with a steady beat, have not our weary feet
come to the place for which our parents sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered;
we have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
PARTING PRAYER
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of Christ our Lord. Give us grace to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
*CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
*BENEDICTION RESPONSE (#596) “May the Lord, Mighty God”
May the Lord, mighty God, bless and keep you forever;
grant you peace, perfect peace, courage in every endeavor.
Lift up your eyes and see God’s face, full of grace forever.
May the Lord, mighty God, bless and keep you forever.
POSTLUDE “Improvisation on SINE NOMINE”