Prelude
Larissa Sheppard

Call to Worship

Liturgist: Good morning, friends! Of all the places you could be on a Sunday morning, why are you here?
All: We seek the blessing of the Risen One in community.
Liturgist: We gather to celebrate the One who knows our hearts and guides our choices.
All: We gather to witness to the Risen One at work in our community.
Liturgist: The Risen One is at work in us, offering us eternal life.
All: Opening our minds to God’s justice, our hearts to God’s mercy, our world to the place where God is all in all.

We Pray to a Forgiving God

Liturgist:
Christ has promised to be with us, but in many ways, we live as if we have been left all alone, on our own. Now is the time for us to confess how we struggle to stay connected to the full measure of Christ’s joy within us. Please join me in prayer to our forgiving God.

All:
Protector of all, so many of us gather this morning with the weight of the world on our shoulders. We are burdened with our own problems, and with the problems of the world that we just can’t solve. Anxiety and pain separate us from one another and from you.

Remind us that your prayer for us is to become one—to share each other’s hopes and burdens, to create a world where resources are shared so that all have enough for a full human life. Transform our separate lives into one life shared in you.

In the joyful spirit of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

We Remember God’s Steadfast Love

One: Be joyful this day because you are not the burdens you carry! You are the beautiful image God created and is creating you to be!

All: And God is creating a Beloved Community in our midst!

Pastor: Sisters and brothers, enjoy your renewed relationship with God,
open yourselves to holy transformation, and be at peace!

Passing the Peace of Christ

Pastor: God be with you!

All: And also with you!

Pastor: With clean hearts and renewed spirits, let us rejoice as we share the peace of Christ.

Sacred in the Ordinary
“God’s Presence in Everyday Moments”

Pastor: The word of the Lord.
All: Thanks be to God!

Hand Bells Ensemble
“Lord, I Lift Your Name on High”

Scriptural Reflection
“The Other Lord’s Prayer”

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 debts, as we forgive our debtors,
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Piano Instrumental
“What a Friend We Have in Jesus”

Affirmation of Faith

The life, death, resurrection, and promised coming of Jesus Christ has set the pattern for the church’s mission.

Christ’s life among us involves the church in the common life of all humanity. His service to humanity commits the church to work for every form of human well-being.

Christ’s suffering makes the church sensitive to all the sufferings of humankind so that it sees the face of Christ in the faces of human beings in every kind of need.

Christ’s crucifixion discloses to the church God’s judgment on our inhumanity to others and the awful consequences of its own complicity in injustice.

In the power of the risen Christ and the hope of his coming, the church sees the promise of God’s renewal of human life in society and of God’s victory over all wrong.

Hand Bells Ensemble
“Glorify Thy Name”

Postlude
Larissa Sheppard